Gus it is!

Okay, the name for my bike is Gus. Woohoo!

After I went out for the dinner last night, Gus broke down on me.... I had no idea about the bike, so my Swedish nerdy friend Erik took a look at my bike. He said he could fix it if he had his "tools". So hopefully Gus is going to be fixed by today sometimes. Apparently the nut? for the back wheel is really loose so every time I try to paddle, the chain is pushing the back wheel forward and causing a massive friction to actually ride a bike. Or something like that.

Last night, we went out to the bar first time ever in Purdue (well for me anyway). It was quite fun. The atmosphere in the bar was definitely different to the bars in Melbourne. I met heaps of people and they kept on shouting us drinks. The drinks are so much cheaper! I ordered my usual Vodka with OJ but it only costed me $3.75. We had this really sugarly shot. Have no idea what it was called. Red something something... Oh well.

Oh my god, check out the massive Corona bottle!! It is pretty much twice the size of what you can get in Australia! It is really gigantic! I couldnt finish even half of the bottle before getting to the point of if I drink anymore, I would throw up...

I think I saw fair bit of strange "bar tradition" at harry's last night. I dont know I cant quite explain, but if someone drops his/her drink, there is this chanting that we all have to do and stuff like that. It is pretty crazy. Apparently Harry's chocolate shop was actually a chocolate shop back in the day with a hidden bar at the back...

We left the bar at about 12:15, Erik and I dropped Stacey off at her apartment and went pick up his bike and he walked me home... It took about 2 hours. by the time I got back to my apartment, I was pretty much sober but really really tired. Had a very good night I suppose! You know what? I really really felt like maccas last night and we walked passed it on the way to Stacey's. but I resisted my temptation... when I come to think of it, I dont think I have had maccas in US yet... hmmm HOW CRAZY.

Anyway, Brunch time! I'll talk to you guys soon!

Love you heaps and missing you even more!

Kumi

xx

Name my bike

Hey! I finally got a proper time to myself after uni. It is actually really relaxing. Since Monday, after uni I was always doing something and I didnt really have time to relax and stop for a while. it is quite nice to actually have time to write my blog properly :) Last time, I was rushed by Pat.

Yesterday, I went to this Internation Centre and grabbed a free bike. How adoreble is she! she is like an old school bike. If there was a competition on the oldest bike in the campus, I think my bike can win. I was talking to my frined from Indiana about my bike and she told me this tradition that they have going on here. Aparently if you are naming stuff, car or bike or whatever, you have to pick the first letter of the colour of your stuff (in this case its G-reen) and you have to pick a name from the opposite sex (Male). So we were thinking about it and all we could come up with was Greg and George... but my bike doesnt look like Greg or George. We kinda thought about Ginger, but its not really a guy's name is it... so if you could think of something, let me know.

I had 2 music auditions today. One for the Volleyball team and the other for the symphonic band. I got in both! I was so excited. The Symphonic band is the top band interms of the wind symph, and if you couldnt get into the Symphonic band, you are going to be put in the Concert band. There is a time conflict for me for the symphonic band so I knew I had to go to the concert band. After the auditon, the guy was trying to convince me to drop the class with the time conflict so I can get into the symphonic band! isnt that great? they said I had a realy good tone and technique was excellent! I was sooo happy about that :) That's probably thanks to my awesome sax teacher Ms P :D :D

anyway that's all the news for me apart from my crazy assignments due on tomorrow... I shall go check out the laundry now tata!

Ku

First Day "Back" to Uni

Yes. I finally started uni here! woohoo!
Today was a little bit full on. Started at 9:30 in the morning and had 5 hours of lectures till 5:30pm. I had a lecture for every single subject that I am taking this semester.

I thought Monash was hard working university comparing to some of the Japanese university, but you have to come to Purdue to find out what the actual hard working university is like! Every subject has at least 10 Homework assignments to hand in and 10 little quizzes, as well as 3 mid-semester sized exams at night every month kinda thing... Hmmmm it is good that it is going to keep me busy until the end of semester but I might actually be popped by the end... This week, I already have 3 things to be assessed including 2 quizzes and 1 HW assignment.

Tomorrow, I have my first 7:30am class EVER! nope, I am not excited at all.... But I finish at 1:30pm so its a plus, i suppose.

The past weekend has been quite a blast, actually. I met so many exchange students like I am through a picnic that was happened to be held right next to my apartment. I met a couple from Australia, about 4 from Japan and so many from France. One Swedish guy that I met was quite nice too. after the picnic, we went to some guy (that i had never met) for a party. It was quite a blast. His house was quite tiny but there were about 50 people in there... it was really hot inside so we had to spend some of the time outside breathing... It was quite fun! I dont know why I didnt meet these people before...

Sunday, I went on a trip to Lake Michigan. The Lake Michigan was HUGE. it looked like an ocean. There again, I met quite a few nice people too. I really like the girl from Adelaide, Stacey. She is quite funny and really fun to be around :) The bus trip from West Lafayette to Lake Michigan was 3 hours. so we had to spend 6 hours in the bus, but it was kinda good chatting away with some total strangers in the bus :) I love talking random stuff!

Apparently today there was a welcome reception for exchange students... but I had a class right on the reception so I couldnt get a free lunch or meet new people. hmmm I actually havent met American kids apart from a couple I met through the band camp. Oh by the way, I could not get into the Marching band here :( Well I am kinda sad but not really at the same time. I really dont know what to feel about it. It would have been a blast, but by doing 2 hours of practice everyday and Saturday game, I would have no other time to do anything else, you know. I am still going to be playing in some form here. I am having an audition for the concert band and Basketball Band or something to support basketball players. No time for Jazz though, sadly my timetable doesnt let me to any Jazz apart from the top one. well I dont think I am good enough for the BEST Jazz band at Purdue... hmmm no.

Meh, I am kinda neutral at the moment. I cant really say I am the happiest person in the world but I am pretty happy :)
hmmm yeah I probably should go to bed preparing for the class at 7:30 tomorrow :S

Love you heaps
Kumiko

Official Last Day of the Band Camp

Today I had my last day for the AAMB try-out band camp.
Till yesterday, we either did playing rehearsal or marching rehearsal.
But today, it was both! it was so hard! As well as trying to play the un-familiar music, we have to make sure that everyone is in the line for sides and forward/back. It was really hard.

I dont know if I did a very good job of it. But i think the experience I had for the past week has been so tremendous that it does not even matter if I get in or not. Being able to play in the marching band would be so awesome but it is a lot of commitment.
You will have a rehearsal for 2 hours everyday and every Saturday we are playing somewhere.
I am not really sure if i am up for this kind of commitment. Being in US I kinda wanna see and travel around for the weekend and stuff if possible. So either way I win, I think.

If I get in the marching band, it will be a really American experience. and if I didnt get it, It would still be okay, because I can still join Jazz/Concert bands which have less commitment and have a weekend to myself! When I was talking to upperclassmen (3rd/4th year), apparently chem eng here in Purdue keeps you really busy. So it might actually better if I wasnt part of the marching band... not too sure. we have to see.

also, we marched from the drill field to the Elliot Hall of music (massive Robert Blackwood Hall est place to practice/perform music). It took us 30 min! but we did crazy moves and played 3 fight songs. by the end, I was sweating so much! apparently they do that every friday for rehearsal and every saturday pre- football game! That would be awesome awesome fun!

I will find out the result tomorrow morning. But I will have to attend the international student mandatory meeting, so I wont be able to be at the actual meeting. I will find out the result later than everyone else, which could be good :) And I'm finally meeting up with this guy from Adelaide, Daniel! We have been facebooking each other for a while while trying to organize the trip to Purdue. So I'm going to go grab lunch with him and go to Walmart to get a mobile phone so you guys can text me :D

Finally uni is starting up next week! I cannot believe I am looking forward to it so much...
ah yeah, also, I went and bought text books. the text books here are SOOOOOO expensive. I found an eng book I used in heat and mass transfer at Monash here. they were selling it for like $200!! i got it for $100 or something... even considering conversion, it was ridiculous!!!!

Okay, I am stinking hot so I might go have a shower :)

Love you guys heaps!

marching Day 3

Today was so tiring so I shall go to bed...

was under the sun for about 9 hours.
it is band camp dane, I left the home at 8am and didnt come back till 9:30pm...\

good fun. i think I'm gtting used to it a bit by bit. but I still cant march for shit...

Marching Band Camp

Hello again.
Well, I still havent got my internet connection yet in my room. (arrrggghhh!)
First of all, Thank you guys so much for all the lovely emails. You have NO idea how much better that makes me feel :) They were awesome!

Well, I cant remember what I did in LA anymore. But all I can say is "Do not go to LA for more than 2 days" it is seriously seriously boring!
It is not a city that is worth going for like a week. Go to Las Vegas or San Francisco instead! There are much more to see in those 2 places than in LA!

But anyway, after getting to Purdue on Saturday early morning at about 8am. I had to quickly organize my bank (Purdue actaully has its own bank...) and my Student ID. I had to also go to Walmart to get stuff so that I could sleep on that day (as in I had to go get bedlinens and blanket and stuff). Coming back from Walmart, it was so hard! i had laundry basket full of stuff and it was sooo heavy! the walk from the bus stop to my apartment usually takes 15 min but it took me almost 1 hour. I had and still has some cuts and swallen bit across my both arms. It actually looks like I was trying to kill myself so many times or something.

Sunday night, I had an audition for the AAMB (All American Marching Band in Purdue). It was just a playing audition. The student leaders there were the nicese people around. The audition itself was alright. I think I did my best I could being nervous and not getting my music till the 1.5 week before the audition and all. We have to see how I go with it.

This one girl, Vicky, is the girl I met at the AAMB last night. She is actually senior at Purdue and she was born a day after I was. What an coincidence! She is one of the student leaders. and She could possibly be the head of the student leaders. who knows. As I didnt have a proper pair of shoes Vicky was nice enough to drive me to the Walmart at 10pm. We chatted fair bit and she dropped me off. We had an icecream on the way home as well. So last night I was quite happy that I think I found someone that I can properly talk to here in Purdue.

This moring, we started an rehearsal at 8:30 in the moring. It is going to be like that for the rest of the week I am assuming. I missed about 5 hours of rehearsal becasue i had to go do pre-orientation check in for exchange program, but after coming back to it, there were some intence training that I had to do.

The marching itself is so hard. There are all the movements and callouts that we have. It is so hard to think and do it immidiately after we were told. We were all so uncordinated. But suppose its the first day... No one can expect too much, I suppose. I dont know whether I can actually get into the marching band. but the experience i can get in this week would be something I could never experience in Japan or Australia. So I am thinking it is alright either way :)

The apartment that i am staying is alright. It is quite small considering there are three people living in there. Luckily, one of them hasnt turned up yet so it is wuite roomy here. There is nothing though, like microwave or anything. so I am kinda confused. All that was supplied was bed kitchen fridge desk and some closet. Thats about it. ah of course bathroom as well. very small bathroom though. So you can imagine what I had to buy at walmart on Saturday. EVERYTHING.

My roommate is a little chinese girl, coming from China. She doesnt speak very good english and she seems to be hanging around with her chinese friends a lot... So i dont think I can communicat/socialize with her too much... not really what i was expecting from my room mates but oh well!

That is all i can think of for now.
I am doing better than the last time i wrote my blog. Thanks to you guys :)

Love you heaps

Kumiko

Hello from Purdue

Hi. I finally got to Purdue University. This is a gigantic university. even though I live within the campus, I think it might be further away from where I used to live from Monash... To get to the centre of the campus, it is taking me 15-20min. I just wanted to tell you that I might be coming back to Melbourne in 6 months instead of a year. I'll see how I go with all the Purdue stuff but i am considering it. Once I get my internet connection settled down in my room, I will try to update photos and blog in details. With Love. Kumi

First a few day in LA

Yay! I'm finally in US of A!
Okay I will try to track my memory down to when I left Japan.

I was dropped off at the airport about 4 hours prior to departure with my mom thanks to my brother having to go to a class at 1pm. (the flight was at 3pm)
So I was just chatting with my mom until about 12pm when 2 of my good friends Momo and Haruka came to see me off. We went for my last meal for possibly next 2 years in Japan. We had sushi :D surprise surprise :) I have a habit of staying back at the airport as much as I can in Japan, just because it is really really hard to say good bye... My flight was at 2:55pm (to be precise), I was at the restaurant until 2:35pm. I didnt realise there was a HUGE CUE to actually get into the terminal (carry-on checking). So I panicked a BIG time. I was like "OH MY GOD IM GOING TO MISS THE PLANE!"　 so I asked a lady who was working at the airline I was travelling with if I could skip the whole cue and get inside the terminal. I DID! That was awesome. I skipped about 150 people, saved about 45 minutes wait!

The only sad thing was that I couldnt say proper goodbye to my mom and the girls.... but oh well, if I did, that would have been teary, so better not!

The plan trip was pleasent enough. The plane didnt have a TV infront of you or anything, so I somewhat entertained myself with the Laura's book and DS and everything. There was this guy who sat next to me. He was a creepy creepy guy. He happened to be the same age with me and he was from Vietnum. So he kept on talking to me and asking me what I was doing.... And he goes... "Do you do MSN?" I'm like, now I dont! He was creepy.... Good start to the trip isnt it....

LA airport wasnt as bad as expected. I was out of the airport within 45min of landing. Caught the shuttle bus alright, and gave the driver my first tip! (yes.. that might have been your $1 dane..) Got to the hostel. It is on a really really awesome location. It is at Hollywood. Right along the Hollywood Boulvard. During the Oscar, the road infront is closed off completely for the red carpet! How awesome is that! It is close to everything like, the Disney theatre (its called something else) Chinese theatre, Egyptian Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Roosvelt Hotel, and Hollywood&Highland etc etc...

The hollywood itself is quite boring though. Too many people and too many people randomly coming talk to you try to sell stuff to you. I think seeing it once would be enough for this place. Just can say that I've seen it. I was jetlagged yesterday, walking along the hollywood, I think seen everything that needs to be seen in about 4 hours of walking. Done. Capital record building was pretty cool. I'll put the photos on picasa/facebook later.

Walk of the Fame, I dont know why I was so excited about it to start with now. Its just names of famous people surrounded with starts.... and its on the street.... That's it. Well, I have taken photos of them though if I knew them :P

Last night, even though I was suffering terribly from jetlag, I didnt get home till 1am... An only girl I know in LA is quite a night person, and I needed her to come pick up my sax asap. So she came about 9pm (well there were heaps of troubles involved as well) had something to eat, met up with her frirends for a drink, I was falling a sleep in the car on the way back... I feel really sorry for her that it seems like I used her as a taxi or something....

I slept in till like 10am today. It was such an awesome sleep! Well turns out only 8 hours sleep, but still! I wanted to go to Griffith Observatory today to have a look at entire view of LA and also a planetarium there. I asked the information centre and everything how to get there when it is open and stuff. I went to the station to catch the bus which goes to the observatory. And It turns out The Observatory is under construction and there is no servise available there.. DAMN!
So, instead I went to a little town called Pasadena. It is still along the hill about 15km east of Hollywood. Such a beautiful place. Really nice cafes, not too crowded. It slightly reminded me of melbourne in the sense that they had reasonably old buildings. So awesome. And I went to an art museum to appreciate arts :) I heard there was the "thinking man" sculpture there, so I was looking forward to it. BUT I couldnt find him anywhere... Which was dissappointing...

But anyway, after I came back from Pasadena to Hollywood, I wanted to go to West Hollywood area to see Beverly Centre and farmar's market and everything. But it turns out it was Sunday and everything was closed.... Even in LA... So I went to the wax museum instead...
Hehe, that was quite hilarious. Some of them looked so real, some of them I couldnt find out who they were... But yeah i dont know if It was worth paying $15...

After dinner, I went to see WALL E. A new disney film at the disney theatre. It was cute, and it was worth it for me because there were like little shows of all the old disney characters just before the movie. But I dont know if its worth seeing just the movie.... But it was an awesome way to spend a night :)

oh my god, I was just asked to come to the Dodgers game tomorrow night! aparently its against Philadelphia. The couple that I'm sharing the room with is aparently going and I was having a chat with them and was invited! woohoo! How awesome is that :D :D

Tomorrow, I'm goign to the downtown LA to see all the stuff like little tokyo and thares and markts and everything :)

Also FYI (esp ravi, i dont know if he is reading this), yess all the food here are so fatty, but my appatite has gone down so much in 2 days. I have only eaten yoghrut and drunk about 3 fruit juices :P healthy Kumi :) :)

Good night :D

Kumi

The Last day In Japan

Past week, pretty much has been just packing up my stuff to leave the country.
Caught up with a few friends here and there. But nothing too spectacular really.

I had my last dinner with my mom tonight, we had a sushi :P hehe yeah what would you expect.
My main backpack only weighs like 17kg. I have a laptop and a sax.
I have another parcel to be sent to Indiana when I get there, which weighs about 5kg.
I am really light weighed for the whole trip.

I am leaving Japan tomorrow at 2:55pm Jap time, which is 3:55pm Aus time?
I will get to LA on 9am on the same day. the flight is 10 hours long.
My head hurts too much, you figure out the time difference.

I will suffer from my first serious jetlag in my life! travelling from Tokyo to Melb back and forth doesnt really give me a jet lag because the time difference is like 1 or 2 hours.
So I'm not planning on doing too much on the day I get there. I'm just going to rest and go for a walk or something so I will feel relatively tired for the night.

Expect an exciting blog or two during the time in LA... if I can get an internet connection :P
Or, I will update everything once I get to Purdue, which will be August 16th (US time), which would be about Aug 17th sometime for you guys.

Woohoo!!
Hollywood! Walk of Fame! Santa Monica! Venice! Westwood! Paris Hilton!
Get excited for a Kumi :P

Love you heaps

Kumi xx

Biggest Firework festival in Japan

The firework festival with the largest amount of fireworks fired in Japan was on today. Lucnkily my house is about 10min walk, and As my house is 3 stories high, if you go up to the roof, you can really easily see the fireworks, very awesomely.

Knowing it is in Japan and Japanese people love going to places which is crowded, I didnt particularly wanna go to the actual place to see the fireworks because it is going to be disgustingly crowded. But, I didnt want to see the fireworks fron my roof just with my mom, so I asked momo to come. (Some of you might know her because she came over to visit me in 1st year and stayed in Bernadette's for a week.)

This event is one of the things that i have been missing heaps in Japan. The awesome fireworks and to wear a traditional summer kimono, which is actually called yukata. My mom got it made while I was in Australia still so that I could wear it anytime when I come back.

Momo came over a bit earlier than the actual start of the hanabi. We were playing wii when it started firing fireworks. We bulted to our roof to enjoy the japanese summer.

The Hanabi lasted for an hour and it was awesome. It is so different from what I saw in Australia. Very different, and very traditional Japanes-like. Well it might be just the atomosphere that makes it Japanese but i think it would be different experience if that was done in Australia. This has to be in Japan. If anyone is coming to visit Japan, you should come and see the fireworks. This is just too awesome.

I'll update more photos on picasa/facebook.

Kumi

high school, Jazz, melbourne and aquarium

hehe yeah, sarah! i think you jinxed it :P i was actually lazy for about 3 days not posting anything. But it has actually been the most condensed three days that I have experienced since I came back. I actually hadn't seen my mom for 3 days or didnt come back till 12 every night.

29th, I caught up with my friends from high school. They e the bunch that i used to catch up every x'mas eve, when the others are actually spending time with

lovers. We used to call it a "lonely-party". Just because we didnt have any boyfriends or I had mine in Australia.....

I catch up with them everytime I go back to Japan. They dont bore me at all. we always have something to chat/laugh/tease about each other. I dont think I will get bored of them ever.

In Japan, my year level is the final year of uni. They are in the process of finding jobs, a very big deal for them. Out of us, actually only one is doing 4th year and the others are doing 3rd year including myself. So we were really keen on listening to her successful-but-still-very-stressful year so far. She has already found a job so she can relax and have a few drinks with us.

31st in the morning. I met up with a friend from junior high school. He is a very talented musician. He is fantastic at piano and can play guitar/base and so on. As I am planning to go for a Jazz audition over in US. So I have asked him to help me play impriov with him. He hired an studio and we just blasted for about3 hours. We went out for lunch afterwards and caught up with 1.5 year worth of goss. hehe hilarious!

At night, I caught up with the guys from St leonards!

Oh god, It was a hilarious night, I couldnt stop laughing. As yuri was bringing her boyfriend from England, our conversation was a mixture of Jap and English. Jack must have been so confused! hehe like Pat was when he was over!

Mio left St leonard's when She was in year 11. So I only know her for about 6 months. But she is probably the most hilarious Jap girl that I ever met in Melbourne. We get along so well. We went to Shinjuku, which is a place with a HUGE night life. We had a dinner there, expecting its going to be really expensive. But it turned put about $50 for 4 of us... We wer eso surprised! but not that we werent full or anything, so I let it go. I had to go home early because I had not seen my mom for ages. and she was getting cranky about it.

Today, I went to an aquarium with one of my friends from high school. It was supposed to be the biggest aquarium in Tokyo. So i was expecting it would take like 2 hours to go through the fish tanks. BUT, the aquarium had 4 roller-coaster-est rides and dolphin/sea lion show pooly things. So the aquarium itself was quite huge, but the actual fish tanks area was quite tiny. I was expecting to sit in the aquarium and be overwhelmed with the size of the fishes and chill for about 3 hours. but that didnt happen.

We went to the dolphin show, and saw some people splashed big time in the front row. That was quite cool. It was like 5 dolphins and 1 skinny whale (still huge). Of course, the whale couldnt jump as high, so he was in charge of splashing people. It was quire funny.

After that, I came back home, and spent time with my family.

Finally i received my music from Purdue.

I played them tonight and they arent too bad.

it is really easy, so I have no time actually to memorize them and concentrate of other things such as Jazz stuff. That is a relief..

anyway Im going to go watch some movies

Missing you heaps

Kumiko