Hajimemashite, Tokyo!

Tokyo was the final stop on my mini tour of Asia with Haruka, and what a much needed pre-uni break it was! I hadn't realised how much I'd done in both Hong Kong and Seoul until I finally got a chance to chill out at Haruka's house. Although I've met her mum before, this was my first chance to meet her entire family which I was super excited about! Her brother actually lives about 5 minutes away from my accommodation when I'm in Kyoto, so it's nice to know I have someone there incase I need it.

On the evening we arrived, after a traumatic bus ride from the airport (note to self: don't drink coffee, milk, orange juice, water AND tea all before getting on a two hour bus with no toilet), I was treated to what Haruka's dad called a traditional Japanese bbq. I have to say, rice on a bbq was a new one to me! After that I was surprised with a birthday cake, since turning 20 is a big deal in Japan as you're finally deemed an adult. However my highlight had to be meeting Mimi, my favourite little pug. She developed a liking for chewing the plushy toy key rings on my backpack and stealing my socks, but you can't hold a grudge against a pug that lets you hold her like a baby.

The next day we went to Shin Yurigoaka station, the train station Haruka lives near to. It baffled me when I had only known her a few months and she announced she was having a day out at the train station, but now it made more sense. There's a lot of stores, even some cute ones like Kiddyland (the best place on earth for the likes of me, who are too old to really like animated characters but do anyway) so I did treat myself to some Gudetama socks. Great first purchase in Japan, Caitlin...

After practicing my Katakana reading practice in the Mister Donut, we headed to Uobei sushi for dinner with Haruka's mum. This was pretty cool, because you use tablets to order your food, which then gets delivered to your table by a conveyor belt, by a racing car, space shuttle and a shinkansen (bullet train).

Shibuya and Harajuku were on the cards for our next day, and if I'm honest, it wasn't at all what I expected. You get the perception that Tokyo is full of crazy fashion everywhere, especially in Harajuku, when in fact I barely saw that many. Haruka took me to Shibuya crossing first, and I really want to go back there during the rain to try and get some cool pictures of the umbrellas from above. Afterwards, we went to an ichiran restaurant, a ramen place where you order your food from a vending machine, get a ticket to select your ingredient preferences and sit in a booth made for one. You don't even see the people serving you, as they are hiding by a curtain. That was a strange experience, but oh my god, hands down the best ramen I've ever had! 

When we headed to Harajuku, I bullied Haruka into taking purikura with me, those typical photo booths where they make you look super kawaii and Japanese. It was hilarious, because they made my eyes look even bigger and I resembled an alien, and it was more worrying how Haruka actually suited the plastic surgery like things it did to us!

I was shocked that across the road from Harajuku station is Meiji Shrine, which you would have no idea was there. It's so peaceful and is such a contrast to the busy streets that it was probably my favourite "hidden" place I've found in Tokyo so far. Harajuku is famous for its crepes, so of course that had to be eaten before heading home too.

The next few days were more relaxed with me getting myself prepared for Kyoto. We headed to Yokohama in the afternoon just in time to see the ferris wheel lighting up. Yet again, we ended up at another romantic date spot so I think Haruka is trying to suggest something subconsciously... That was a food filled day, with Haruka's mum giving me my first yakisoba, then we got okonomiyaki and monja when we headed to Yokohama. It was a cool experience being able to cook the food in front of us, and it was amazing. Okonomiyaki is sort of a noodle omelette pancake with yummy goodness, and monja looks so wrong but tastes so right and I can't even explain it. You just eat it with tiny little metal spatulas which is a selling point in itself.

Over the next two days Haruka and I went to Shibuya again to smash karaoke which was the funniest experience I've had in a long time. Weird seeing people going into the booths alone though, who obviously take themselves way too seriously! Once Jane arrived we went into Tokyo again to the skytree, although the weather was too cloudy to see the top and we didn't go up. For my last evening, the Hattori's took us for sukiyaki, which was similar to hotpot and was an all you could eat meat place.

I'm still getting used to how most things I expect to be savoury in Japan are sweet, but now I've got myself prepared for my time in Kyoto!

I probably won't blog as much since wifi is harder to get ahold of, plus I'll have classes to attend, but hang on for the next update of my uni experience! 

The study abroad experience may have ended, but that doesn't mean it's not still with me!

In light of my impending travels, I figured I would make amends to my shocking blogging towards the last month of my semester at CSU so I am fully up to date. My trusty camera broke on the train back from San Francisco, so although there's not as many pictures, it's been fun-filled to say the least.

The last month was easily one of the best I had out there, as it was a time when we all grew closer since we knew our time left together was limited. I've mentioned "Team Commonwealth" before now, and a bunch of us from that group really bonded, As a result, we narrowed it down and began referring to ourselves as DELTA SIGMA WINE, or just Delta Sigs for short. This new 'fratority' consisted of myself, Leif, Caragh, Jack, Leni, Chrissie, Megan, Jonny, Robbie, Phil, Katy and Carly. We even took it upon ourselves to get some letters made, and we actually did convince a few Americans it was an International Sorority/Fraternity since there were that many of us with matching hoodies.
I couldn't make it to our original initiation ceremony (candle-lit and super inappropriate I might add), so mine was scheduled to be on the first night of our Winter Park ski-trip. We took the entire thing super serious, and there were "going to be punishments" if we wore our hoodies before that night...

The ski trip was an experience in itself. Day 1 started off with me, Caragh and Megan taking a lesson which seemed to go quite well. I definitely peaked too early, with my first wipe out happening when I was heading towards a ledge by a ski lift, then later in the day I got to the end of a run an had to get rescued by Leif after becoming entangled in a safety net.
Day 2 was even better. I got cocky and did my first huge flip early in the day that resulted me in smacking my head, both skis coming off and my goggles shifting to enclose my nose. At least when I fall, I fall. To top it all off, I managed to take a wrong turn and lose everyone, ended up at a dead end and my only option was to get a ski lift up another 2,000 feet. I wasn't amused since I had to make it to the bottom alone, while getting over taken by 4 year olds and almost having a mental breakdown. Never have I been so happy to see Leif's hat flapping in the breeze and getting myself onto flat ground. I mean I'm happy I went. but let's just say I would have happily had the entire weekend getting drunk in a hot tub and having a rowdy night in the hotel room like we did the night before.

The last few weeks were pretty hectic with finals coming up, but the entirety of Delta Sig spent so much time together revising, making forts and final visits to Sundance and various other food joints. That just made leaving this mad bunch so much harder, because we actually felt like a little family. We even took Christmas pictures because we're just that weird.
I couldn't have been happier to have gained such good friends, in Leif and Caragh especially. Having them back at Keele this semester helped so much with the "re-intergration" into life back at home. Even though the 12 of us have been split up for the past few months, worldwide skype dates are always on the cards, no matter how hard it is to organize. I'm so excited that during my trip this summer, I get to reunite with Chrissie, Leni and Katy when I go to Australia, and once I'm back home for third year, then entire English division of Delta Sig will be back on home soil ready for a tour of hometowns and unis. So with that, I think this proves that it didn't matter who I met or when I did, but the fact we all managed to find people equally as weird as ourselves during our time at CSU, and that made the entire experience all the more amazing. Watch out world, you never know where Delta Sig will make an appearance next!

Californiaaaaa

This post has taken me FOREVER to get round to finishing, so although it's a little late, please forgive this poor student with tons of work and appreciate the effort I went to to get this done :)

Last week was Thanksgiving break, and boy it was needed. I honestly don't think without it I'd have been able to cope with the last three weeks of school in the run up to Christmas.
A few weeks back Caragh and I had a little discussion of what our plans would be, so after a lot of pondering we decided we were going to get the Amtrak California Zephyr from Denver to San Francisco.  It was a little bitter sweet actually. My initial idea was to go to on Washington D.C. and for Aisling to fly over from back home and join me. Due to our change in plans, it wouldn't really have been worth it for her to spend all that money to just come for a few days. However, I've always wanted to go to San Francisco and it was one of the only cities I haven't been to yet that I really wanted to go during Thanksgiving. So although Ash's visit didn't work out, it's not that long until I'm back home anyway.

The first day of Thanksgiving break was actually Caragh's birthday, so we decided to spend the day exploring Denver before we got the train on Sunday. We visited a (very tiny) German market, and did the typical tourist thing of getting pictures at the mile high sign on the Capitol building. Maybe it was the time of year, but I actually wasn't too impressed with the amount of things to do in Denver. It's definitely one of those cities that the bar scene helps a lot. I also have a bad impression on the place since it was there I realized that my trusty Pooh Bear was still sat on my bed at CSU and wouldn't be making the trip to San Francisco with me.
Our day perked up when we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, one of the only birthday requests Caragh had from day one of the trip planning. The portions were huge, so we got garlic bread and split garlic noodles... failing to remember we were going to be spending 32 hours on a train and would probably be stinking the place out with garlic. Oh well. Disaster struck when it came to cheesecake ordering time, as after a 5 minute long decision making process, Caragh's choice of lemon meringue was sold out. Back to the drawing board she went, while in the meantime I was secretly plotting with our waiter for a little birthday surprise. The great combination of my accent and Caragh's impending approach led to him thinking her name was "mcaragh", thank god he checked with me on that one afterwards! After finally joining me in a piece of key lime cheesecake, I was rewarded with a look of death as hers was brought by singing waiters complete with a candle. What can I say, I had to embarrass her in some way!

The train journey really dragged since there was a rock slide in Rocky Mountain National Park, so we had to detour through before Wyoming before making it to Salt Lake City. It was a very welcomed change of scenery when we woke up to desert in Nevada, however that got boring quickly too, so it was exciting to near the end of our trip. It was a shame that because of our delay we didn't get to see San Francisco for the first time in the daylight, but both Caragh and I have never been so excited to see city lights for a long time! We spent our first evening at Pier 39 and instantly fell in love with the place.

The next day we did so much! We got up bright and early to try and get Alcatraz tickets, but it turned out people had been queuing since 4:45am and there were none left. Off we went on a little adventure walking the streets of San Fran... you know it's too early when even Chinatown isn't open. That first day we walked to Union Square, Chinatown, back to the Pier 39 in the day and were at the Golden Gate Bridge by noon. The views were so amazing when we walked a long it, and you really noticed what a strange city San Francisco actually looks like. It's strange to have such skyscrapers mixing in with what looks similar to a Greek town with houses perched on hill sides.
Afterwards we went to Lombard Street, the "crookedest street" which my roomie Liv had recommended to me. We were definitely grateful for the Colorado altitude when we got there, talk about steep hills! It was a shame because of the plants all the pictures I took you couldn't actually see how crazy Lombard Street was, but I'm sure you get the idea. We went to Fisherman's Wharf in the afternoon and headed back a little early since we were walked out and had a busy day ahead.
We decided if we were getting up early for Alcatraz tickets, we were getting up early. Major props to Caragh for going along with me on that one since she knew Alcatraz was a bucket list thing for me. So there we were, first in the line at 4:30am. I'm pretty sure she'll back me up when I say I had a cheesy grin on my face all morning during the tour and I'm soooooo glad I finally got to go! We did more walking around Chinatown (it was actually open) and I got my fix off my all time favourite spicy eggplant :D Sadly, the place with the best egg tarts in the city was shut due to vacation, very inconsiderate, but we visited the shop where fortune cookies where actually invented, hidden away in a back alley and smelling glorious.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and since we'd done pretty much all the tourist traps, we decided to take a day to relax. We headed to Golden Gate Park with the intention of spending the day looking around, however that changed when we realized not only how big the place was, but how badly signposted things were inside. Instead we headed for the beach and had a makeshift picnic while watching those Cali waves. Needless to say, typical clumsy me got caught in one of said waves, so while we waited for my jean to dry, we got to watch the sunset.

 Friday we did some Black Friday shopping upon the realization we were heading back soon, needed one last final break from work and hunting for something hilarious to buy Leif as a present. All in all, I loved San Francisco more than I thought I would and had the best first Thanksgiving I could have asked for. Also, after 10 full days Caragh and I didn't murder each other which is always a bonus.

Orientation: Day 1

Today was officially my first day as a student at CSU :D It was scattered with numerous presentations about the usual starting uni stuff, but also a lot of crazy cool things too!
During our official welcome, we had to learn the "CSU Fight Song". We've been told we'll have to learn it before the football game, but fist pumping and shouting was so awkward since we definitely don't have the team spirit yet. I'm sure that'll soon change though, plus we got our Forever Green shirt which has the lyrics on the back, no excuses now!

I also went on a little wander around campus during a quick break in the schedule. The campus is on such a bigger scale than Keele, so here's just one picture I took of the Student Recreation Centre. Nice picture, but I didn't realize at the time I was on a designated bike path and was risking death while doing so. I'll have to take a picture of the bike signs on the floor too, they have rams riding the bike :)

For dinner, we got  invited back to a host family who had prepared to take me & nine other students back to their home. The others were from Australia, India, Japan, China and Vietnam so we had a lot of fun. Mijka, the wife who was from Slovakia, made us a huge feast and afterwards we played games like Twister with her three children, as two of the internationals had never seen it before!

After I got back to my dorm, I spotted my first signs of civilisation and made my move. Turns out I met two RA's, with one, Evan, being the RA for  my floor. We ended up speaking for hours and here I am, planning to have gone to bed much earlier but making the most of meeting as many people as I can. It's nice knowing I'm not alone on my floor tonight too :)
On that note I'm off to bed, I have another jam-packed day tomorrow! However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Thank god I got in the lift with Carl (the RA from 7th who I met yesterday), the lift doors jammed and we were stuck for 10 minutes before we got out. Next time, I'll take the stairs.