May 6, 2008

Hey hey! So, I've decided I won't starve here, lol. Because: 1- they have mcdonalds/wendy's/denny's. (though I hear denny's is gross, and to avoid it) 2- they have Pringles (although in odd flavors, one can never starve when there's Pringles around) and 3- I had forgotten how amazingly wonderful the apple juice is here. Wow, yeah. I'm drinking this stuff all the time, lol. Oh, and I have a new favorite soda, it's just called Melon soda. It's green and rather yummy. But anyway, like, right now..I'm munching on my Pringles (oddly flavored Italian pizza) and sippin my fab able juice (called clear apple). Wonderful life, lol. Anyway, lol. So, my day today started off the same. We met at 9 in the lobby to head for training. Only, no escort this time. We were supposed to escort the 2 new people. Well, one was there. Her name is Yoshi and she's full Japanese but lives in Australia. Blah, I'm auto yuck to anything aussie, but she's nice enough. Well, we wait til 9:30 and then call cuz the other dude cuz he is a no show. We find out that he actually went ahead and was already there, lol. So, we all head off. Yeah, so add another to the "I can speak and read Japanese" pack, lol. Yoshi and Reina get along really well, and chatted it up the whole train ride. The ride was A LOT smoother than yesterday-no getting lost and no weird formations anyone wanted us to stand in on the train, lol. K, anyway, so we get to training and the other dude is from Jamaica. So that's cool. He's lived in Japan for 5 years, so another for the Japanese team, lol. Today's lesson was SO much better than yesterday. We actually learned about teaching. Although it was mostly how to teach elementary kids, I found it very interesting. Lots and lots of info. He showed us a lot of games we can play with the kids and the way we should teach the language. This teacher is from South Africa, and seems so full of energy that it's hard to not catch some of it. We broke for an hour for lunch (I had bought some fresh fruit at am/pm and some apple juice and some odd bread type thing for lunch. Yummy fruit, the apple juice tasted like liquid applesauce, and the bread was kinda sticky...) When we were done with the lesson it was about 5pm so we decided to stop and get some food in Akihabara. We just went someplace easy and it worked the same as the place last night. You pick your food, pay for it and give them a ticket while you sit at a bar type place. Brandon met up with one of his old mission pals and we all ate dinner together. I actually tried some seasoned beef and pork thing. I think the two were mixed, as the meat was in this gravy style stuff with an overeasy egg on the top. It was interesting, but not bad, lol. We left Brandon and his friend and Kevin decided he didn't want to join us for dinner. So that left Jon, Reina, Yoshi, and I. We started to head back to the hotel when Yoshi said she wanted to stop at the big 100 yen shop. I was not really up for it, but I'm super scared of getting lost on the trains so I stick with the group, lol. We got inside and Jon said he really would just rather go back to the hotel for a bit, as we were all up so late last night. Yay, so I left with Jon. It was interesting to talk to him. He's kinda funny. He's pretty hung up on getting married, though. As we were walking to the train we found a small 100 yen shop and he decided he wanted to look at the ties real quick. He picked one out and it was this awful peach color. He held it up and was all proud of himself cuz he thought it brought out the blue in his suit. I looked at it and at first wasn't going to say anything, but he was like "what do you think?" so I actually told him that the orange was no bueno for him. Lol. So he had me help him pick 2 different ties, lol. When we left there he was laughing because we had walked too far for our train and that's why we found the shop, and he said it was inspiration cuz his eternal companion would come talk to him about his tie and it would all be because we were guided there. Lol, yeah, wow. This dude belongs in BYU. It made me laugh. He's interesting to talk to, I think he and I will be good friends. He's always trying to make sure everyone is included and stuff. So yeah, I'm kinda glad he's with us for the 3 months. Well, we got back to the hotel, eventually, as we got kinda turned around and kept finding cool shops to poke into. (also, he actually didn't know where to go but I found a great landmark [thanks dad] so I was able to tell him, lol) When we got back I found that I have a huge flippin blister on my foot. So, I decided I didn't want to go out tonight with them. They're only going to the Ginza and I've been there. It costs like 3 bucks for the train and they didn't leave til about nine. Made for a good excuse, lol. Plus, they were calling Jack and Reina's cousin again. I'm not really up for not understanding the conversation, lol. So, I decided to stay and write this and update my pics on facebook instead. Jon offered to do anything for me if I need and Reina says she has some blister stuff for shoes, so they're nice about it. I might take Reina up on that tomorrow for walking to work. Dumb shoes, lol. So, yeah, I went next door to am/pm-got me a carton of apple juice and some Pringles and relaxed. Nice night. Well, I should go. More training tomorrow, but this time middle school stuff. Also, our teacher (the same guy) is taking us out for curry and yumi? Dunno about that last word. It's like a bread thing I guess. They all raved about how wonderful it is, so we'll see. I'm not big into curry, but I guess it's Indian style at this place. I'll try it. Besides, he's getting the company to subsidize it, so that works. :p