tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057463919828084412012-01-30T03:43:08.733-06:00"It's because I'm a foreigner, isn't it?"Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-41183877215292968352007-07-18T08:24:00.000-06:002007-07-18T08:36:11.726-06:00

Browser fails. Typing this the second time...actually, changed my mind. Once was enough. Stupid blogger... this is why I'm making my OWN program to handle this: that way, the only one I can blame is myself :)17 days left. It's coming quickly.I'll see you guys all in a couple weeks!

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-81617114874011730272007-07-11T08:20:00.000-06:002007-07-11T08:24:13.418-06:00

Hey guys - I've been back from Osaka for a day. The Aquarium I hit on Monday was absolutely awesome. It had better have been though - admission was 2000 yen ($18). I had a fun trip. I'd write more, but I'm within both memorizing a speech for later this week, and working on a presentation for class tomorrow. As Laura pointed out in her comment on the last post, there are new pictures up. Go

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-79631430600305470752007-07-07T07:38:00.000-06:002007-07-07T09:06:16.391-06:00

Hey everyone - made it safely to Osaka this morning at 7AM (for those not paying attention, it's currently ~11:00PM).What a day! Hopped on the night bus at 9:00 the previous night. The bus was amazingly comfortable - I had leg room and everything(which is a surprise, considering my legs are a good 5 inches more than the regular here). I even managed to get some sleep on the bus - it was a good

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-40016253134876242882007-06-27T08:10:00.000-06:002007-06-27T08:35:22.151-06:00

Hey everyone. Sorry for not being here for quite a while. However, there's a lot to catch up on, and even more that might be coming. Anyway, here's the last couple weeks in a nutshell:16th - 17th: Kyushoren(Whose kanji, my mistake, should be 九唱蓮). Bunny ears. A seriously twisted version of Alice in Wonderland. Rapid-fire choir songs. Two Six-hour bus rides with the most fun group this

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-41111030302911127912007-06-15T00:34:00.000-06:002007-06-15T01:11:42.519-06:00

久しぶり. It's been a while.Well then, everyone, what's been going on at home? It's been a while since I've posted anything that really has any weight.First off, Happy birthday everyone. Seems that more birthdays happen at the beginning of June than the entire rest of the year. So: Happy birthday:Mom, Melissa Schultz (1st)Alice/Emily Schmidt, Sean Wilfong (3rd)Scott Jacobs (6th)Aaron Allison (

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-48219684655404042852007-06-05T01:14:00.000-06:002007-06-05T01:16:47.442-06:00

Sorry for the shortness. New pictures are up on Flickr - I'd had them for a while, but I forgot to put them up. That's it, really - concert on Saturday and Sunday, trip to Kagoshima next weekend, and working on papers. Woo-hoo.Talk to you guys later.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-31481251281454652172007-05-27T08:44:00.000-06:002007-05-27T09:33:54.583-06:00

Well, after Friday's little mental breakdown (which is exactly what it turned out to be: overreacting solely because of culture shock - I feel much better now), I took Saturday to go out and explore the city. Partly because I needed something to do on a Saturday. Partly because I didn't want to stay in my room all day, and partly because, frankly, I wanted to go.That being said, most of my

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-17046692489663077042007-05-25T07:43:00.000-06:002007-05-25T07:44:54.423-06:00

Culture shock is a bitch. No other way to describe it. It hits at just the wrong time, in just the wrong place, throws all of your plans to crap, and leaves you feeling helpless and alone.It hit me tonight as choir practice ran. Unfortunately for me, it came in small waves. The first wave hit when we were in sectional (side note: because of the practice methods they apply, the first hour is

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-57533956572074154082007-05-21T21:58:00.000-06:002007-05-21T22:30:17.323-06:00

Sorry about not posting for a while. As things have gone, life has been pretty normal around here. Normal, that is, for being in a country where you can only read and understand about 10% of what there is to actually take in.Let's see... I left off on 7 May. Today's the 22nd. What's happened since then?The triplets had their birthday on the 16th. That was a bit interesting. As the '

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-9727217824675660152007-05-06T21:47:00.000-06:002007-05-07T04:12:49.018-06:00

Well, I was going to start off by saying I left it alone for a half-week extra because no one asked anything, but, lo and behold, come the finishing of last weekend, there were more questions than I expected. So it turned out to be a good thing for me to leave the extra time.So, here we go.---Even though you have only been gone for about a month, what is the most you miss about Illinois and Iowa

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-1004267268218911882007-04-24T20:14:00.000-06:002007-04-24T20:37:02.007-06:00

Ok, so since I can't really think of anything to write about recently (the unzen trip was fun, but also a bit boring. We sat in a tub. :P) I've decided to try to make this a little more interactive. I'll give you guys until this time next week to come up with some questions for me, and then next week, I will post some answers. It can be questions about pretty much anything: school life, class

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-34853985432683714432007-04-19T20:43:00.000-06:002007-04-19T20:46:56.401-06:00

Because people have been complaining... More pictures are up at flickr. I hadn't had much time to upload everything, so I finally had some time today (around Friday, 11AM) to get everything I had up. Now there's pictures of people, too. We have our trip to Unzen, a traditional japanese onsen (hot spring resort) on Saturday, so hopefully I'll get some good stories to tell from that as well.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-4605629490499085132007-04-16T23:02:00.000-06:002007-04-16T23:20:07.890-06:00

Well. Another week goes by, and I'm posting again. Time moves a bit faster than you'd think, especially without an internet connection. I'm changing that though - because I live in my own apartment, I'm going to try to have DSL wired to that room. The rates are fairly cheap - around $40 a month for (pause for effect) 50 MBPS down/15MBPS up! That's possibly overkill. :) That being said -

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-33408924003703491452007-04-09T21:48:00.000-06:002007-04-09T22:08:36.947-06:00

Hey everyone.Well, the first day of classes has officially started. Unlike the US, there's a week of classes that meets before your register, so you can try them out and see what you think of them. I sat in on Japanese Culture at 9 this morning. The class seems like it'll be a lot of fun, but there wasn't really much structure to it (ie, for a compulsory note-taker like myself, wasted laptop

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-21217733846494380702007-04-03T23:27:00.000-06:002007-04-03T23:50:52.746-06:00

So, apparently I wasn't able to keep my T/Th/weekend schedule. I currently have no internet connection at my homestay (pending, but I'd pay for it myself), and wireless @ school doesn't come up until the 16th. I'm currently typing this in one of the schools computer labs (on a qwerty keyboard - go fig...) and so I didn't have much time to get anything fired out. The past weekend was good - an

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-63528152366925567882007-03-29T08:13:00.000-06:002007-03-29T08:16:16.640-06:00

Ok everyone, I'm sure you've wanted to hear from me. I did a little writing along the way, and so now I present to you - Trip: a tale of my travels.I love air travel. However...Heh... interesting start to the morning. Made it to the airport on time, and had an emotional goodbye to my family. I met a nurse on her way to New Orleans as my first seat partner. We took off about 10 minutes later

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-18318370292858019182007-03-27T15:00:00.000-06:002007-03-27T14:09:45.374-06:00

Hey everyone. I'm here, about 15 hours away from leaving the airport in Moline, and heading off. It's crazy! I'm gonna change a couple things on here, in hopes that more people from around the globe might take part in what is going on here. That includes a recent linkup to Technorati, a huge social networking site. I'll also try to start posting more regularly. I'm looking at a Tuesday/

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-70092803204473307412007-03-17T21:41:00.000-06:002007-03-17T22:44:17.068-06:00

Hey everyone. Just figure I'd let you know what's been going on lately.I headed up to Dubuque on Monday for a concert. I've waited almost 12 years to see Rockapella live, and I finally had the option to. I had work off on Monday and Tuesday, so I made a nice stay out of the trip too. The concert was amazing - all of them were wonderful musicians, and most of them were genuinely interested in

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-87944311571288802622007-03-08T08:01:00.000-06:002007-03-08T09:14:09.550-06:00

Well, yesterday was quite the experience. I had to say goodbye to one of my closest and dearest friends - my laptop. It stuck by me for a long time, and it did a wonderful job in all it did. I had gone to turn it on Sunday night to play a game of the Battle for Wesnoth(a turn-based strategy game, quite fun), and as the laptop powered on, I noticed something odd... The screen would not turn on.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-58588930270139897682007-03-02T08:31:00.000-06:002007-03-02T09:17:00.173-06:00

Hey everyone. Sorry to get this out so late, but we were out of power since Saturday night, until Tuesday. Wednesday and today I have work, but since I woke up early enough, I figured I might as well write.Monday was my Chicago trip. We had quite a blast - I didn't know that it was the first time my mom was in downtown Chicago to enjoy herself in it. The ordeal at the consulate took an

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-28610196748805810962007-02-24T17:19:00.000-06:002007-02-24T17:49:41.351-06:00

It's just that kind of day today - yuck and blah. Anyone living in the midwest, you know exactly what I'm talking about; it's not rain, and it ain't snow... we're getting ICE CHUNKS. Absolutely disgusting. I Headed home from work early today, because business was slow (hmm... not many people want to come out and eat when the chance that they wreck along the way is about 50/50...) and that I'm

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-37137154414962210632007-02-16T23:26:00.000-06:002007-02-17T00:09:35.475-06:00

Sorry about cutting off so abruptly and staying quiet for the past week point five - it's been busy.Since I last spoke on here, I've gone through quite a bit of stuff for my trip. My certificate of eligibility came in from NUFS, and so I'm going to head up to the Consulate in Chicago on the 26th of Feb., and take care of that. On Monday, I went in to Gulliver's Travel, and picked up my plane

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-56232434218218446992007-02-06T12:46:00.000-06:002007-02-06T20:45:12.353-06:00

Sorry about not posting for a while... things have been a bit busy, and I haven't touched my computer in days - which is quite the feat.I went up to Dubuque on last Wednesday/Thursday to take care of some business, and also to get my tuition reimbursment check. The check was nice... I'm expecting people to be asking for "borrowing money." Sorry, guys - all of that goes to my trip. On the

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-77221480510469746802007-01-31T08:15:00.000-06:002007-01-31T08:34:49.460-06:00

Well, as of monday morning, at 10:45, I will start working as a cashier/line server at golden corral! Yesterday went amazingly well. I went through 2 chapters in one of my Japanese language books(the furthest I've done in one day), I found my missing checkbook and sound card for my laptop(it's about the size of a credit card - easy to misplace). On top of that, to make everything more

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-122881271904849592007-01-29T17:19:00.000-06:002007-01-29T17:29:52.951-06:00

Went for a job interview today - it was at the Golden Corral restaurant. We went to eat there Friday night, and they were overwhelmingly understaffed. It looked like they would take help from anyone, even if they were only going to be here a short while.DING DING DING!!!I'm waiting for a reply from them, to see if they will have me. I'm hoping that this one works out, because it looks like a

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-23145949438186764462007-01-26T08:42:00.000-06:002007-01-26T09:31:23.889-06:00

The past 2 days have been quite good. A little bit more happened for my trip, and some stuff also happened that might help me land a good job after graduating.I use a wonderful little OS. It's not what most people use, but it gives you the power to define how you want to control your computer. I, of course, am referring to GNU/Linux. Now, the idea behind this is that people come together to

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-89744881925050699672007-01-19T20:06:00.000-06:002007-01-19T21:28:59.503-06:00

Welcome again.Due to a large benefit from my mom, I've (as of 7:16PM today) ordered a digital camera to take along with me on my trip. I've also got a lead on a couple of possible jobs, including one at a cookie factory. Hopefully, it'll be a good lead, and I'll have somewhere to work for the next two months. Here's hoping.Still waiting on the Cert. of Eligibility. It should be here in 1-2

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-34352133301840997052007-01-16T21:39:00.000-06:002007-01-16T21:56:22.561-06:00

Ok, so I got ahold of the Consulate today. While talking to the man in charge of visas, I found out that I need to wait a bit longer, so that the Institute in Nagasaki can send a Certificate of Eligibility to UW-P, which in turn will send it to me. I then need to make a photocopy of it, and send (or more likely, take) both copies, my passport, a completed application form, and other various

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-10109975255773722682007-01-07T09:52:00.000-06:002007-01-07T09:57:31.590-06:00

Hello again.Well, I've looked at all of the paperwork that I've gotten back from UW-P, and I have quite a bit to do. In the next week, I'll be going back up to Clarke to check on the classes I'm taking, get to Walgreens to take a couple more passport-type photos, and then call and eventually head to the Japanese Consulate in Chicago to fill out information to request a Japanese student visa.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-505746391982808441.post-80983581602529877642007-01-05T15:41:00.000-06:002007-01-05T15:56:35.625-06:00

Hello, one and all, and welcome to my world. Come, as I set the stage for a marvelous event in my life - a once-in-a-lifetime chance - to go to Japan on a study abroad trip. I am planning on keeping this blog to let everyone know about my situation, how things were arranged, and (hopefully) how much fun I will be having. Currently, I'm writing this from my cushy seat in front of the home

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16417587856312303317noreply@blogger.com0