Drunks

When I woke up I looked at my balcony doors and it looked like I had just taken a shower inside my dorm. It was fogged up and looked like rain had hit... Until I walked over and not only was it still raining but it was pouring like mad. Like what I imagine Seattle gets in terms of rainfall. I was warned by the US government's STEP program (if you're traveling outside the country and you're an American citizen, they will notify you in advance of natural disasters, epi/pandemics, national holidays in your home country and visiting country, and etc. Basically if you're American and not in America, sign up for it) about 2 days in advance of a tropical storm hitting our region and what do you know it hit us hard.

As I am typing this it is already Monday 09.16, 9AM and the storm is worse than it was yesterday.

It never rains like this in Utah for such a long duration so it was awesome!

Die mosquitos, die!

Joanna in the rain

We waited till it was just drizzling to go out

Went to our local Santoku market and I bought 20USD worth of groceries to tide me over until Tuesday

Signed up for a point card and like a stupid American I was being difficult
She handed me a sheet and I dont have a phone # or have my address memorized and didn't realize that you dont need either of those. They pretty much just need your name.... for some stores. Which is what threw me off. They seem so much more complicated than our American rewards cards.

After I had set up a Skype with my parents but THEY WERE LAAAAAATE! MOMMY YOU WERE LATE! Yes I am going to tell everyone in the world you were late for this one thing even though I'm always late for everything at home. MURICA! Our Skype was about 2 hrs or something and then she needed to head to bed and I needed to do laundry.

Needed to do laundry really badly
UTE PRIDE LET'S GO U OF U!

The Washer
seems intimidating at first but it's incredibly straight forward. it will give you directions saying to wait until the water is completely filled and then put in soap and clothing but do it in whatever order you want. I was taught growing up to put soap first so its more evenly mixed.

They even move differently here. the machine would shake it around, stop, add more water, and shake it again. My clothes are completely clean though

So because of the rain and for some reason my clothes hanging thing on my balcony doesn't have a wire for me to actually hang clothes off of so I settled on my closet. I think I pulled my clothes out at 4PM and when I went back for bed at 11PM, they were dried. I did turn my AC to 18C though I'm not sure that affected how fast they dried.

Made some more "instant" meals... it's like the only thing I can cook

I ran into Marina (Belarus) in the kitchen and when I met her yesterday (or was it 2 days ago?) I had this feeling like she wanted to get to know me better or talk to me or something. And when I walked in one of the first thing she said to me was "So you like BIGBANG?". I was wearing my BIGBANG concert shirt as a pajama shirt the night I met her. I had to laugh because I have such a good "social sense" I guess but I never believe them and just think I am losing it or being crazy. So I found my first KPOP friend! From Belarus nonetheless hahah. I only really know of the mainstream groups and only truly like and can take a few of them seriously. But I do really like BIGBANG so that's enough for me! Maybe we can go to BIGBANG's concert in Japan in November.

MURICA!

 Lillian (MURICA!, Hawaii), Joanna (Australia), Marina (Belarus), and I sat around and talked about our country's differences and of course the Lilys teamed up and stood proudly for the Red, White, and Blue. There was no competition because how could you possibly beat the world's only remaining Superpower? Everybody wants a taste of us MURICANS! And Joanna kept muttering "Stupid Americans" out of jealousy. However ironically enough Marina told us that America should bring democracy to Belarus next because they are a dictatorship under the same leader for the last 20 years and he just over rides their constitution. If you think about it they are even more "MURICAN" than America because what could be more American than doing whatever you want and telling the Constitution to go screw itself? (And let's be honest here, American politics do not strictly abide by the Constitution) So congratulations Belarus! You have also gained honorary American status because your dictator does whatever he wants without care for others! Come and join the party!

After our chat we went out since Lillian was helping one of our RAs Koutarou get pizza for the party at 7:30PM and Joanna and I needed to buy some things and we wanted to show Marina around because she just got here like 2 days ago.

"Which one do you want?!" cried the Japanese Orangutan as he spoke in tumbleweed.

It says "Ahhhhhhhhhh SPICEY!!"... and that's it. I have no idea what kind of food they sell other than its spicey

I passed this McD so many times and finally was able to get a photo of their Pokemon Tretta toys! I want one but I don't want to go to Japan just to eat McD... I heard it's not actually that different, just more fish items.

 Now we headed back and everyone was just hanging out and chatting. We lined up to hand Koutarou-senpai our 500JPY as contribution to the party and then both RAs and Aya were setting out food.

Anne was the only one that noticed I was taking photos so she's semi-posing in all of them hahah

Left to right
Eda (Denmark), Seishou...? (China), Yannik (some European country... sorry I can't remember!), Lillian (America), Clovis (France)

Anne being an Asian stereotype. GO BACK TO CANADA ANNE! USA! USA!

Finally the pizza was handed out! 5 pizzas per table and they're all different

The final moments before Lillian's sobriety goes out the window 

Tuna pizza!

 So this was the first time I ate, saw, or even heard of Tuna pizza. And all of the Europeans at my table (except for honorary American: Belarus) looked at me and was like what planet do you actually come from!? Then at the other end of the table Lillian and another American (sorry I can't remember your name! but he's from Orange County) and me are like what the hell is tuna pizza!? No one has tuna on their pizza in America. Unless you go to a "specialty" place like California Pizza Kitchen or something like that. Americans love their red meat above all else so that's the main thing on our pizzas besides cheese and pepperoni.

I had the tuna pizza though and it was really good! I wasn't concerned about the taste, I just wasn't sure how the flavours would mix. I like it more than meat pizzas! I think I had 4 or 5 slices of all different pizzas.

Aya's curry... soooo GOOD

 I can't remember if I mentioned it in a later post but me, Lillian, and Joanna went to the convenience store a few days ago and I came back with that super cheesy oily curry dish and Aya was in the lounge cleaning and came by asking if I liked curry. I told her its my favourite food and she said "Oh, maybe I should make curry for the party?" and SHE DID! AHHHH SHES SO NICE! She even asked me "So how do you like my curry?" at the party! Even in her introduction to us she said she wants to be like a mom to everyone in our dorm. We found out she is originally from Kobe and has only been at our dorm for 6 months? I have no idea how the dorm situations are worked out here so it was cool to hear her give like a "formal" introduction.

We played BINGO and like all college students we were indescribably excited about it. BINGO BITCH!

After some frustrating results I finally got a bingo and I didn't realize until later but I got a double bingo!

 The prizes for bingo was a bicycle, 5 hot water pots, a mug, and a few other smaller prizes. I got bingo just in time to get the last hot water pot! It's really cute and even got some green on it :D Good thing I didn't bring one from home! Eda (Denmark) from our table was the first to get bingo and of course she chose the bicycle! Lillian was 3rd to win and she got a pink hot water pot. Later came me and Clovis (France)

Clovis, a Frenchman, drinking Japanese wine that comes from a Tetrapak.

According to Clovis they even screwed up the French spelling of "Delicat"
"Engrish" transcending all borders of the world

Our table had some interesting conversations and of course we always end up at country wars (like America is the best! No Americans are stupid! hahah), stereotypes, and what actually happens in our home countries. So Clovis, from France, was asking me whether high schoolers in America really get shoved into lockers and stuff like that and none of the Americans at the table ever experienced or witnessed that. I have experienced bullying, but only when I moved to Utah. I was never bullied in California (except once because I was in a Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card group.... shut up) but in Utah I got bulled several times. Some guy asked if I would sleep with him (like a joke... as in of course he didn't want to sleep with me), one in middle school stole my hat and made fun of my Asian features. So I don't get into a rant I'll keep it short, bullying is a problem in America but I feel it's worse than getting swirlies or something. Those are truly "bullied", like its the same group or people everyday harassing the other person, not just one random act, really have it bad. It is recurring psychological abuse and has the potential to be much more damaging, especially in the long run, than physical abuse. But yeah, I feel like this probably happens in other countries too? We'd like to all get along, but some just want to watch the world burn.

Then Clovis started comparing America to Breaking Bad and at first I was shocked to hear someone even mention Breaking Bad, let alone from France, and then I was like wait you can't compare the two!! Not everyone is a meth dealer and says "yo and bitch" all the time and not all chemistry teachers are dying of cancer and turn to meth dealing to pay their medical bills. Though I thought it was hilarious that people in France think it's ridiculous that would even happen because the idea of paying like 100,000USD per cancer treatment is absurd whereas it is actually quite plausible in the States. I have heard and known people who lost all their money trying to pay back medical bills for treatment they couldn't afford. And so I proceeded to talk like Jesse for the next 10 minutes and ended my sentences with bitch hahah. However Clovis is only up to season 2 so... his ideas of America are going to get much worse very quickly.

I just figured people would NOT assume that America is just like our television shows but a lot of the Europeans at my table were curious is American high schools were actually like that hahah.

The table in the back on the left side (all the European guys) were wasted

This European dude standing up is exactly what his shirt says. He bought his own drinks to share with everyone after the party's drinks ran out. According to Michael, this guy's goal in Japan is to get piss drunk every day with people.