Tag: Love

What Video Game Character Are You? I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.I am a Gauntlet Adventurer.

I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning – especially when there’s a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can’t find the exit. I need food badly.
(If you were not a Gauntlet Adventurer you would be a Defender-ship.)

What Video Game Character Are You?

sam jpeg
You are Sam the Eagle. You are patriotic and devoted. And extremely anal.

HOBBIES:
Patriotism, Being appalled at what everyone else is doing.
FAVORITE MUSIC:
The National Anthem of America
FAVORITE MOVIE:
“An American In….America”
LAST BOOK READ:
“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, Eagles are from America”
QUOTE:
“Please stop that now! It’s un-American!”
What Muppet are you?
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I’ve been back in the States for a few days now and I’ve been meaning to1 write a little something reflecting back on the trip; however with jet lag and what not2, I’ve been a bit too tired to write anything up. Since I received a friendly reminder about it from AWelkin; I figure I better hurry up and write something. First off, let’s get the gushy fan-boyishness out of the way. Going to Japan was an amazing experience and something that I am very glad that I had the opportunity to do. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are some of the impressions that I’m left with from my visit to Japan.
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Another day of raising from bed far too damn early; only to hop on trains and run like the wind to make all our train/plane connections. *sigh* The day started off poorly as one of the students spent the night in S-sensai’s room and another had the key to her room with him at the station. But after that got storted out, things went relatively smoothly until Narita. Then there were massive lines to get through security and customs and somehow AWelkin, Bryon & 2 of the other students didn’t see us waiting for them after customs so we were running behind when we finally decided to hurry up through immigration and to meet them at the boarding gate. Though we did see them as we waited to get through immigration, confirmed that all students were accounted for and made our flight to O’Hare without a problem. Our next problem was that 3 students went missing and nearly missed the flight from O’Hare to Cedar Rapids. Since that was the last flight of the night to CR; AWelkin (doing that responsible teacher thing) was planning on staying behind to find them but they showed up pretty much as the boarding was finishing up. So we all got home safely; Ariesna and I ate out with AWelkin and Bryon that night and my lovely finance ever so patiently listened to all of us bitch our anger and frustration out about the trip. *sigh* I’m too damn lucky for words to have a fiance like her.

Then we went home and I gave Ariesna all the souvenirs that I’d gotten for her on the trip and off to bed I went.

Today we went to Kyoto. We’d been warned that it was one of the hottest places in Japan, but I hadn’t paid too much attention to the warnings thinking that I wouldn’t really notice the difference after the heat I’d already been dealing with. Boy was I ever wrong! It was the single most brutal day of heat and misery that I’ve ever experienced. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been wearing shorts, but AWelkin had mentioned prior to the trip that it was one of the more conservative areas of Japan and we shouldn’t wear shorts there because it’s just not done1. I have to say that if I’d known in advance how brutal the heat would be there; I would have ignored that cultural advice and worn shorts. It was horrific and it make matters worse, the main temple we’d come to see was more than just a little ways from the train station and all the walking was uphill. Before we got there though, we rode the local bus system which wasn’t too bad, except when it got crowded2. Once the bus desposited us at the base of the hill to the temple; we started the climb, ignoring all the shops on the way up. When we finally made it to the top of the hill; we found we had to go up a set of steep stairs to get to the actual temple area. I think we’d already visited another temple that day (I’ll have to go through all the tickets and scraps I saved from the trip to double-check) and so AWelkin allowed those students who wanted to; to rest at the base of the temples. Only about 5 of us (3, if you didn’t count AWelkin & Bryon) actually went in. It was the most beautiful temple we’d seen yet and had a view of the valley area below which rivalled (but didn’t quite beat) the view of the ocean at the one previous temple. Again, words fail me here so I’ll have to hurry up and see about posting some pictures.
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Again I woke up before our alarm phone1 went off. I got up, dressed and enjoyed a breakfast of mizo soup and rice cakes with some strong Japanese coffee. I love the soup, the rice is okay but I’ve gotten used to it.
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