Our fifth and final entry into the Glass Urchin Two Year Anniversary Week by my awesome, soon-to-be-wed friend Katy!

Katy is really fun and cool and she let me stay over her place in Japan for some days, which was so much fun! I’m envious of her insane talent with music – she casually picked up the accordion while in Japan and the songs she played for us were so beautiful. Thanks Katy!

Yes, true story. Hottest chick ever, nose pickage, public transport.

Sorry to late today guys, we got hacked and I lost my saved file for this…

Yeah so remember when I said there’d be high-speed chases in the beginning of this all? Here ya go! Mike and I chased bunnies on Old Queens all night one time, until they started running into the road whereupon we decided to stop.

The New Brunswick Saga began here.

So everyone in YHM pretty much applied to and got into JET (I didn’t apply). And a couple more friends outside of the guys got in and were whisked away too! I’d had my own fill of Japan in the year of study abroad, but the guys hadn’t and went off to the far corners of Japan to be there again – together (well, not in the same cities/prefectures/areas, but whatever). At first Harrison was put on the waiting list, but he ended up getting in too.

The New Brunswick Saga began here.

If you’re not familiar with JET, it’s a quite popular program that a lot of students studying Japanese go on. But I had had my fill of crazy Japan and I wasn’t prepared to go eking out a living in inaka, so I skipped it. But everyone else I knew went on to return to Japan through JET. (btw – we’re totally in a Rutgers dining hall – you can tell by those misshapen wonky glasses they all use)

The New Brunswick Saga began here.

My dudes, I do not condone the consumption of alcoholic beverages before important written or oral exams – but damn did it help us get through that one class!
Protip: using a juice box of sake does not really make a big difference if your teacher can read Japanese. I recommend at least throwing some iconic juice character on that box.
Protip 2: pair this up with some mint candy or something. Especially if your classroom is small.

The New Brunswick Saga began here.

So you know how, here in America (and probably most parts of the developed world), we have this thing called flirting? In Japan, it just seems like a lot of people don’t do it, especially guys. The ones that do tend to be weirdos (aka chikan, which you have to be on the chui for because they’re everywhere, judging from the amounts of road signs warning innocent girls of the local menaces). Maybe that’s why a lot of boys just sit there, waiting to be flirted with. One good example is that on Valentine’s Day in Japan, girls are expected to get gifts for their guys! And guys are not expected to anything until a month later, on White Day in March! How unfair is that? All I know it I was a boyfriend-less gal in Japan, and I have a bunch of Japanese girlfriends who had the same problem. And I realized it was stupid to wait around for some perfect guy to make the perfect moves, when you can just go out and get em yourself! I know a lot of girls (both Japanese a not) who seem to be okay with this quiet/waiting bit. Moving forward yourself might not work all the time, but there’s no fun in sitting around doing nothing. I guess the feeling of initiative in general was one big thing I learned from Study Abroad. So my advice to you: Go get ‘em girls!

The New Brunswick Saga began here.

So here begins my first continuing story arc! I hope you like it guys!

I think junior and senior year were very important turning points in my life (of course there have been many turning points in my life before and after then, but this is probably the most vivid of turning points in the “current me”). After just coming back from a year in a very foreign land, we began to get reaquianted with school life in order to leave school for good less than one year later. Senior year of college is a huge change in anyone’s life, so I hope you’ll enjoy my rendition of those times.

Yes, he actually said that to me. A lot of people in Japan think odd thoughts about being vegetarian. For example, probably 90% of the “vegetarians” I’ve met in Japan really eat fish as well. I think this is probably the only guy I met who thought that pork was a vegetarian itm though. Oh yes, did I tell you I used to live in Japan? Yes I did! And I got so chubby too! It’s too expensive to eat healthy in Japan.

So this is my first post using my HACKED tablet (ie – i finally updated the drives and unlocked pressure sensitivity). Bear with me as I try to relearn how to use this thingie… It’s very sensitive and the pen jumps all over the screen now compared to the brick of a cursor I used to use. Must get better!!

ps – Hi to all the newcomers coming from the things I passed out at NY ComicCon! Leave a message if you like, and I hope you enjoy your time here!