December 17. 2004 03:52

Finally, an entry

Damn. It's been ages since I've taken care of anything other than schoolwork and everything is starting to get to an alarming level now. Both my mailboxes have been full for several weeks but I couldn't find the time to empty them until now. Christmas is almost here and I still have those web projects to finish. I haven't even written here for several days now, even though there have been a lot of things to write about. But the happy thing is that I finished the wagashi manga last weeks Wednesday and I have the last page of the children's manga soaking there next to me ^_^

I can't believe we only have one or two days of school left! (I'm actually not sure of the exact amount, but one or two ;P) I didn't even realize it was the last week until some of the teachers pointed out that there's no class next week. Where did all the time go?? Nobody asked me if I was ready for the school to end! :P

I'm probably gonna be all alone for the christmas holiday... Dion is going to see some relatives in Tokyo for the holidays and I never see any of the other exchange students anyway. The good thing is I can probably relax and do some things I've been wanting to do but haven't had the time to, and that my friends in Finland also have a vacation so I'll probably have more chances to talk with them online ^_^ My sister (did I tell this already?) sent me a stream from her webcam and it was so great! Just seeing her there was so much fun ^_^ And I get to send those long emails or letters I've been planning to write them now that I actually have the time to write them. I also sent most of my christmas post cards a couple of days ago, but I bet they won't be arriving on time.

We went to see Howl's Moving Castle, the newest Miyazaki film with Dion on Wednesday. (No spoilers ahead.) It was unbelievable great to get to a movie theathre again! Even holding the ticket filled me with joy. I love going to the movies! Howl's Moving Castle was good, even though the plot, being presented to us completely in Japanese, was a bit fuzzy... Even with the two of us combined, we weren't able to figure out the details ^_^;; We got the big picture, though. Apparently it's very different from the original novel, which it is based on. (They changed the whole bad guy and everything. Anyway, seeing the movie made me want to read the novel.) It's probably because of the general problem in squeezing a book into a movie, but somehow, at least to me, it felt like the movie was running a bit too fast at some points... Or, rather, that the characters didn't get as much time to develop as I would've wanted. Most of all Howl, I would've really wanted to see him more. Howl is so cool! One of my favourite anime men at the moment ^_^ But unfortunately the story concentrates more on Sophie than Howl, so we didn't get to peek into the world of his mind so much, even though the curse on him is the "heart" of the story. Or maybe it was just me not understanding all the nuances, so I didn't get all the character development he went through ^_^

It's such a shame that Dion is going away for the holidays. Just when I was starting to enjoy spending time with him. He is, after all, kinda like the only friend I have here ^_^; (And I just got to the "good friends" level, too, meaning more than just someone you talk to at lunch.) I wouldn't really want to go through the bother of making the other echange students my friends :P They feel a bit different from me, kinda like the the out-going types at high school I never got too friendly with. When I came here I wanted to befriend them, but now I don't want to go through the trouble anymore... I'm missing the type of friends I have at home more. (Dion, too, is closer to that.) If Heidi was here I'd probably be spending christmas with her, but she's back in Finland and doesn't come here until I've already left.

Slowly, christmassy things are gathering around me even though there's still no snow or anything like that. I got christmas cards from home, from my sister, Frigga and both my grandparents. They made me so happy! ^___^ It's so great to come home and find letters waiting for me every other day! Frigga even sent me some candies with her card, they were so good. And Mum's family sent me a real Finnish cookie! (And a small branch of a christmas tree, though it was all dry when it got here.) I made more cookies myself, this time succeeding a lot better than last, but there's no way they could've beaten that one, real, Finnish cookie! ^__^

My christmas cookies, or peppercakes (or gingerbread without ginger...), certainly turned out more like they should be when I made them today again. (Well, the dough yesterday, the baking today.) We had a christmas party at English class, so I made some cookies for that. I got up at 6 this morning to bake them because I was so late with the dough :P I put twice the amount of spice I had the last time and used less flour. Last time I didn't count and put in more than the recipe said, so there was too much... This time there was too little, though I followed the recipe, but it was much better this way. There was still no ginger and the dough tastes annoyingly like honey because of the honey syrup, but the resulted peppercakes were pretty close to what they should be like. I gave some to Matt-sensei and my Japanese tutor, too, and Dion tasted one as well. Both Dion and my English class like them so I'm very happy ^_^ I still have half of the dough left, so I'll get to make more this weekend. I thought I'd give a bag to the teacher from the children's manga class, along with one of the soaps I brought from Finland for souvenirs, because she's been helping me out so much. And maybe I'll take some to the International Office.

What then, what have I been thinking of writing about the past few days? I can't remember too well, there's been too much. Maybe I'll let this be for a while and come back later if I remeber better then.

Oh! About waking up at six in the morning to bake cookies... Most people probably think I'm crazy ^_^ (In fact I was glad we happened to talk about it with Dion, because I knew he'd be so shocked *grin*) But in fact, it was so great. There was a remarkable difference in the "christmassy feeling" when I woke up when it was still dark. It's unbelievable how much a thing like that can do ^_^ And when I spent the next couple of hours surrounded by the smell of baking peppercakes and there was the christmas party in class today, plus all the christmas cards I've been getting, it made this day feel like christmas is really here ^_^ Aa, I so love it! I can only repeat those words again and again, there's no other way I can describe it ^_^

By the way, I was surprised to hear that Tom, the boy from my English class, is a devoted christian. (Mizue, the girl, doesn't follow any religion, but has some christian and new buddshist people in her family. Also our teacher likes buddhism, but doesn't count himself as a follower of any religion. Mizue likes animism the best, but doesn't really follow anything. For the record, I don't count myself a follower of anything either, even though I'm still christian on paper. "Collecting the best of all religions", like our teacher said.) I also learned that christmas in Japan is a celebration of couples. Children get presents from their parents, but otherwise only lovers give each other presents at christmas. And they also have a big dinner and spend a lot of money on it all, so there's a lot of pressure both on the monetary side and because people don't want to be alone on christmas. Somehow reminds me of Valentine's Day in the USA...

Waai! Waai! Dekita! The children's manga is finished! ^____^ I'm so relieved. With that done, my schoolwork for this year is finished! (Okay, if we don't count the reports that are due in January :P) I really like the image in the last frame, I put extra work in it after I noticed how pretty I can make the girl's skin ^_^ The linework, too, was surprisingly good for me. Ah, now I can relax and do something fun tomorrow ^__^ (In fact Dion just sent me a message that they're planning on going to some temple tomorrow with Richard, so I'm gonna join them, and then maybe get some kind of a small party going on in the evening to celebrate finishing. Even if it's just by myself ^_^)

I was supposed to say a few more things about going to the movies and I'm too lazy to find the right spot in the text, so I'll just write it here :P The theater we went to was really different from what the theaters are in Finland. (Well, we have big and new theaters, mostly, at least in Turku, so they're pretty nice...) The seats were arranged more like they usually are in a real theatre: they had three sections and they were kinda in a half-circle, not all the seats in a straight line like I'm used to. Also, like many other countries, they had no numbered seats. In Finland the seats are always numbered, except for maybe some few screenings of non-popular movies that start at one in the afternoon. Howl's Moving Castle was of course really popular, so when we arrived to the theatre there was already a looong line of people waiting and we got seats in the second row from the front. (We also got tickets only for the last show of the day, at 21, the previous two were sold out.)

Another peculiar thing about Japanese movies is that there was a regional news flash before the movie started. Heh ^_^ It was kinda interesting. And, then there were trailers! That was the second best part of the whole thing! I've always loved trailers, but this time it was even more fun because there were some anime movie trailers and there happened to be two trailers I was especially interested in. There was the trailer for Star Wars Episode 3, which I had completely forgotten about. Yeah yeah, the prequels aren't as good as the original three, but I'm really interested in how they're connecting the two storylines. I'm really interested about how Anakin became Darth Vader (or the details of it), and what happened to Amidala and the kids. So, in spite of it all, I'm looking forward to seeing that movie.

The second trailer catch made me do internal flips of joy: it was for the new Inu-Yasha movie. I so have to see it! It comes out on the 22nd or so. Next Wednesday I'll be going downtown to see if I can get a ticket ^_^ (Though I have no idea how popular it is here, so whether I have a chance or not, I'll see.) It's so cool to be able to see it when it's just come out! I'm silly, but I'm more excited about seeing it than Howl ^_^ (Of course, it's mostly fangirl excitement... And that's always so much stronger than the excitement for a normal, good movie, like Howl.) Of course, understanding the plot will be a challenge again, but who cares, it's Inu-Yasha in the movies!

I'm also looking forward to finding out if I can see the Final Fantasy movie, Advent Children, here. Droolworthy much! :D It's so pretty my heart aches whenever I see a trailer. And my schoolmates will be so jealous! :P But actually, I don't know the release date, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to see it at all. I hope I will, though. And then there's the problem that I still haven't finished FFVII, so I don't even know the plot of that, and Advent Children relies on that plot quite a lot... But who cares, it's just too pretty ^__^ (I saw a commercial DVD being played at one of the anime stores at Marutamachi, by the way, and it had long clips of the movie in it... Aah, I want to see it!)

Now I better get that cake that's waiting for me downstairs and then get to bed, or I won't be getting up for any temple tomorrow. It's way too late to be up again, but all for the sake of finishing the children's manga, I can bear this one more badly slept night ^__^