I don't know how to prepare for my Japanese oral exam. I'll be able to pull it off but I shóuld practice some conversations so I won't enter a "nervewracking-state-of-feeling-unprepared" next Friday. I'm repeating "default sentences" in my head all day, but it feels useless if I don't somehow say it out loud to someone.

失礼ですが、お名前は。
会社はどちらですか。
毎日何時に起きますか。
先週の土曜日何をしましたか。
銀行は５時に休みます。
来年日本へ帰ります。<= lol yeah I wish

Man, I'll be glad when I'm back in class.

Edit:



I have my own laptop now, which will stay in Maastricht during schoolperiods. And I have to admit, Microsoft sort of redeemed themselves with Windows 7. I got 7 instead of XP because the shop owner assured me it's working perfectly so far and he's quite impressed. In 2011 Microsoft will stop supporting XP, so starting with 7 now will spare me the trouble of upgrading later. Our home desktop and my dad's laptop still run XP though.. it'll be hard saying goodbye to that. XD

(look at that stunning wallpaper made my the lovely anei_no_tsuki!)

---

As the main character Nemuri Kyoshiro of the 'Nemuri Kyoshiro' series GACKT will appear in various media. The stage production written by Koyama Kundo is the first in line of the 'NEMURI×GACKT PROJECT'. After the theater version of 'Nemuri Kyoshiro', the combined character 'NEMURI×GACKT' will be featured in manga, anime, video-games and film.

http://musicjapanplus.jp/news/?action=detail&news_id=3417

. . .

*freezes, crumbles and becomes dust*

So I lost the studio to someone else because I'm still stuck to my current contract. It's ok.. I'll try again in february, when the university is taking in new people and they're in need of rooms again. Then I can end my contract and move into a studio, I'm sure there'll be lots of nice things available.

Today's exam went well. I was done in less than 45 minutes, which gave me the feeling I went through it too quickly as usual, even though I know it'll be fine. *shrugs*

I still have 20 more pages to go in my history book though. Fortunately a classmate passed around a very useful summary of the book which she found on the net.
Friday's exam covers everything from hunter/gatherer Japan up to Edo. I'll manage. Somehow. +__+


You know what? This wins bronze, silver and gold in the olympics for most stunning Gackt single covers.


(click for the full thing)

He's sitting on a throne with fabulous hair and there are like.. candles and sparkles and snowflakes floating around... XD And guess what, the moooooon is back.

Oh, and his face resembles a lightbulb again.

Name: Tim
Gender: Male




Time to get out of here. Now if only that studio guy would reply to my email... =/

So yesterday was my first exam (Dutch) and it went ok, I guess... With Dutch, you just never know. It's a fucked up language. :P

Friday I have another exam (Japanese: listening), and then my autumn break starts. The week after that I have 3 more exams (Japanese: writing and reading, Japanese: speaking, and last but not least Japanese history), and then another week off, because my class doesn't have any exams scheduled for that week.

4 weeks of lazyness, yay. Well, I figured it might be a good opportunity to start looking for a bigger room, preferably a studio with my own kitchen and bathroom. I found one on Kamernet last night and sent an e-mail.. I hope it's still available; it's situated on my current cycling route to school and very close to a line 9 busstop. And the most amazing thing is that it's more than twice as big as my current room, but €110 monthly rent cheaper. Yup, now I'm sure my current room is a ripoff. I need to find something else as soon as possible now that I have time to move.

I'm looking forward to this weekend; I'm seeing my dear friends es_chan, littleflapper and joostmusic again! That's going to be epic as usual~
And the 31st I'm going to see the Michael Jackson film with anei_no_tsuki, who I haven't seen in a while either~ <3

I'll definitely meet up with my classmates during autumn break as well, since they all live in the vicinity of Eindhoven. (THOSE ARE MY TRIBE OF PEOPLE YOU KNOW XDDDD)

Ah, it's been ages since I've felt genuinely happy! The last months went very well, it's like I forgot what it's like. If only I could see my friends more often.. Damn distances and school!!
I'm so restless, I'd rather go out and do stuff instead of sitting at home, being lazy. Last night I did kanji for 3 fucking hours because I was bored. I can use all kanji for the first semester now. I also finished ICT. If only my pageturning in my history book went that fast. I'm still behind on it because it was delivered a month late. >_>
I've also been exchanging e-mails in Japanese with Kana-sensei, which is very good practice! She and Aoi won't have classes with us anymore after the exams though.. they'll be switching with the exchange students who are in charge of other classes now. I don't see the use of that, honestly.. I think it's important to develop a bond with your teachers, it's no use if they dissapear again after each semester.

I want to go shopping. I need a new coat. :|

New icon to celebrate I will have leftover money this month since I'll be mostly home the coming three weeks.


Exam went.. um well it passed in a blur as usual and it left me feeling "meh". XD

Teacher gave me and my partner a 7 out of 10 and I suppose I should be happy with that, considering we made some stupid mistakes while figuring out our file cards which made US point out mistakes that we had to correct in our conversation (which was going through a weekly schedule for a Japanese businessman together).

"Emmy, Wednesday is pronounced as Wennsday, but I'm sure you know that."

Me: "Yes, of course. Sorry."

No, I did NOT know that. I have made that mistake since elimentary and no one ever corrected me because I had far from capable instructors. But YOU, Dear Sir who speaks perfect British, don't know it's OOsaka, not oSAAKA. Or MIyazawa, instead of MiyaZAwa.

"Emmy, you're a real businesswoman; you skipped the smalltalk."

Me: "I guess I was busy then."

No, I just don't do small talk on the phone. Ridiculous; they subtract points if you get to business after the "how are you" exchange. I thought that was more than enough, but if you want to discuss the weather and get a high phone bill, be my guest. XD

We were marked seperately, but both of us scoring 7 was a bit unfair.. I had to correct my partner many times because she gave me the wrong info (which I had to react on) and some of her sentences were a complete mess.

Meh, I'm satisfied with my 7 even though it's the lowest mark I ever scored on this subject. *lol* It's not going to appear anywhere; this oral examination, the letter we wrote 2 weeks ago AND attending all classes this semester merely contributed to a 0,5 point bonus to the mark we receive after the exam in January. No harm done.

*sigh* Putting myself under so much pressure is a habit that stuck after secundary school. I was the best at English in my class (on the whole, the level at my school was way below avarage) and cursed myself when I ended up with a 9,4 at the end of my fifth year, which then appears as a 9 on your diploma; 9,5 and higher appears as a 10. At my current school I believe they have the same rounding system. If I'm able to score a 9 on my test in January, thanks to the 0,5 bonus I'll be able to restore my dignity. *slaps self*

But that's not gonna happen, I have to accept I'm simply not good enough to score a 9 for English on this level.. and this guy strikes me as a teacher who simply doesn't hand out marks above 8. I've had a few of those.

Why are English teachers always such haughty pricks who think their subject is the best and most important? XD

Anyway, yesterday's workshop was calligraphy!! I'll definitely take it as a subject in Japan. I want to get better at it. Like Gackt.. Although unintelligible, his handwriting is like art. XD

For anyone interested, here is my first try at "Ai":

It's freezing -2 outside. ;___;

I'm in bed in a new vest (pity I don't have my camera here, I got some new clothes at the New Yorker and it's EPIC XD Remember the Drapery!Gackt at the Korean Dears event??) with my laptop on my lap (aahh warmth <3) but my feet are SO DAMN COLD. I want wool socks or something. It's getting better though, slowly. I should fix some tea but I'm too lazy to get up. XD;;

Man it's October and I'm already complaining. I have a feeling it's gonna be a cold winter after such a nice summer. Bleh. Why can't it be 20-22 C all year long?

I'm nervous for my English oral examination on Friday. It's a formal conversation on the phone and I will have partner. We get 10 minutes to prepare ourselves. I know I can do this, I just get so nervous for things like this, I'm not at my best under pressure. Writing in English is so natural for me, but speaking.. bleh. It's so alien, and I don't enjoy it.
It's weird, I'm not nervous for Japanese at all, which will be interpreting between two teachers.

I should just tell myself English will be a piece of cake as well, then everything will be fine.. I hope. ^^;;

ああ！　
最後に出来た！！

私は今PCで日本語で書きますよ！！

これはムリだと思いました！！　
やっぱりスゴ～イね！ホオッホッホッホオ！

Omg. I just came home from some shopping so I have something to eat tomorrow morning, and I already heard voices when climbing the stairs so I muted my iPod, expecting some housemates that I could greet. What I saw however was unexpected though.

There's a bunch of men cooking in the kitchen. Like, really cooking. It smells deliciously. O___o

Hiding my surprise I went "He..lloo..." and sneaked into my room, closing the door as quickly as possible. No doubt they're university students. I suspect Yorim (the blond guy that lives on the first floor) is having a party, they were talking about champaign just now. But it's all men, at least a dozen! Some of them even wore suits.

Srsly.. what is this place?? O_o;;

I hope they're not going to take too long or be noisy.. ^^;;

---

In other news, today's Japan Workshop was epic. XD They warned us beforehand not to wear heels because we were going to be doing some sports activities. Now I'm glad I always wear flats to school; they put us through hell.

They mixed the classes in evenly numbered groups because our class (A-B) is larger than the other classes. This sucked; we already knew we were going to be ropepulling, and we have a lot of guys in our class. And we so desperately wanted to win for once this week! Unfortunately our class was torn apart, and most of our male forces ended up in another group. XDDD

First was a Japanese warming up with horribly camp background music. We lolled hard. XDD

Then we were split in smaller groups of 4 or 5 people. I was with Tascha, Dennis and two girls from other classes I didn't know. Kouhei-sensei came over to bind our legs together with rope that nearly cut through my leg. And he tied it way too tightly. +__+
Then we had to do a centipede race. Yup. XD We failed hard because the girls I didn't know were smaller than us and thus had shorter legs; plus they complained way too much about the rope hurting. -____-;;

Last was.. the tug of war/rope pulling. XD We were reunited with our original group and we were immediately facing the other group I mentioned earlier. It was crowded around the rope and I didn't have a lot of space to properly place my feet, but after a short struggle we lost anyway. XD The tug with the other losers was great though; we pulled them over the line quickly and then they let go of the rope; we all fell on our asses. XDDD So we ended up third.

But next week we definitely want to win, with the whole class. XD

I wonder if people will ever stop doubting if I'm old enough when buying a ticket for 16+ movies at the cinema. When I went to Inglorious Basterds with es_chan this woman at the counter went "hmm.. are you sixteen..?" and on several occasions I had to show my ID. It didn't happen in Maastricht though; I guess they don't care. %D

Ahwell. I don't feel like an adult, so I don't have to look like one. If I still look younger than I actually am when I'm 50, I bet I'll be grateful. XDDD

EMI (1-恵美, 2-絵美): Japanese name meaning 1) "beautiful blessing" or 2) "beautiful picture."

Ohh, can I write this instead of エミ? XD *gets shot*

MI (美): Japanese name meaning "beauty."
MEGUMI (恵): Japanese name meaning "blessing."


( Omgkitties )

My day started out shitty (tired as hell, cold), my afternoon was even shittier (damn crowded trains and buses, got my period), but now I'm at home and I can finally relax. :)

There was also a package waiting for me:



These are Darts refre and sixgem replicas very skillfully made by kurenai_kimitsu. Same beads in the same size, only way cheaper. XD Sorry Gackt, I can't spend ¥20.000 on your bling. ^^;;

Ohh, and Tokyo losing the run for the 2016 Olympics is a pity but sort of expected.. my bets are on Rio now.

And LOL at Balkenende planning to haul ass to Bruxxelles. Clean up the mess you made before you leave, jerk.

My cold is getting worse again, and I'm so sick of it. In my room I'm considerably fine, but at school or outside I cough all the time, and I'm in cold sweat by the time I reach the busstop. The random headaches aren't really helping either; I feel like shit. It's like everyone is sick at the moment, I can really feel it around me. I wash my hands eighty times a day and take vitamin supplements as if it's candy, but it's just not helping, and it's pissing me off.

I should probably get more rest and avoid going out in the early morning or late evening when it's cold. Hell, I'm so cold; my hands, feet, limbs..

To be honest I've never felt this physically weak in my entire life, while mentally I feel like I'm capable of anything.

I need some drastic changes in my eating patterns as well, because instead of losing weight, I'm gaining weight, and my lack of good nutrition is definitely what's affecting my health right now. I stood on the scales at home yesterday morning and when I saw that 67 I got so angry. The previous day all I had was a few sandwiches with peanut butter and some wok chicken and noodles for dinner. How do other people stay so slim? What is their secret? Why do I have to move mountains in order to go back to my 60 kg and get rid of my chubbyness?

I also need a bigger table in this room. I'm avoiding homework because I have no space to sit and do it properly.

*sigh*

And still through all this, I go to school like a good girl and have so much fun there. This morning I wasn't feeling so well either, but when class I forgot about all my worries. While for years I thought I'd never have fun going to school.

I miss my friends very badly as well. I've never asked for a hug but if I could ask someone right now, I would. And then I'd probably start wailing like a baby. ^^;;


Well then, I'm off to bed. I have an English business letter writing test tomorrow. D:

Off to see Inglorious Basterds again with classmates, I'll be on later tonight.

According to www.checkjekamer.nl I'm paying too much monthly rent for my room. I did their test, and with the 114 points my room scored the maximum I should be paying is €203. That's a little bizarre isn't it? I know I don't have to clean anything around here (that possibility wasn't mentioned in the test) but still... =/

The website says that students are the only demographic group in the Netherlands that pay most of their monthly income just for a roof above their head; €300 on avarage.

"Do yuu like visual kei?! I am NUMBAA OOONE! I am NUMBAA OOONE!" - LOL!Miyavi

"YOU WANT ME TO FUCK YOU RIGHT?!" - LOL!Miyavi


Um, no. :P But Meevs, you're beautiful. Even though the teenage brats that call themselves your fans piss me off. :P

*hereby not implying that the majority of the Gackt fandom is any better, since they're supposed to be adults*

But hey, I had a good time even though the day didn't quite go as planned. +___+ Due to the inability to ever depend on the Dutch railways me, Iris and some other girls arrived at Tivoli Oudegracht (after going to Tivoli De Helling and finding out that wasn't the right place) wayy late in the afternoon. Esther had been waiting for us in line the entire afternoon, I feel so guilty about that. And in the end I was able to spend very little time with her. U___U

After a long wait in a horribly humid hall they started letting groups of people in, and we sat down on the venue floor, which was only a little bit bigger than last year's P60 in Amstelveen. Tivoli Oudegracht website states its capacity at 1000, but I doubt there were that many people inside. That's 1/8 of the crowd in the Makuhari Messe; NO WAY. XD

Anyway, wow, the Myv fangirls were ON EDGE. :P Any sign of movement on stage spurred them into action; they stood up and rushed toward the stage. Resulting in still another hour of waiting while standing squashed between people. Egh.

When the show finally started I knew I should've headed up to the balcony when I still had the chance. People behind me thought it was fun to start pushing and pulling in order to get closer to the stage, and the amount of cameras and cellphones in front of my face had me boiling in no time. Seriously, what the fuck is up with that? I hope they search bags and take out cameras and phones next time, Miyavi clearly isn't happy about it either. So after grabbing some closeup views of Miyavi I gave up my spot and searched for Esther and Marieke, but couldn't find them. D: So I settled for a spot to the side, outside the real crowd. I am just NOT made for places like that, I need my own chair, my personal space and most of all my bag with some water. And Gackt. :P

Not that the music was bad, no no. I liked it much more than the Kabuki boyz hiphop shite from last year. XD Does anyone know if this Samurai black stuff is compiled somewhere, like an album? I'd like to listen to the studio version of some of the songs. ^^

Yeah the music was good, but.. man, the fans. :P I guess you can't really do anything about them. They have zero respect, look horrible, and the majority is way too young to know how to enjoy a live. Plus, I've rarely seen such a dead crowd. One moment that stuck to me was when Miyavi blacked out/fainted for a moment and had to be dragged offstage. I wasn't fazed, but when I looked around all I saw was confused faces; they went silent and WAITED. Ok, wtf, I was apalled. xD I said to some guy to me left; "Um, this is the moment where YOU guys put in some effort and scream this guy's name." I heard some chanting here and there but it didn't last long. Man, what shitty fans. Sorry, it's not my place to get emotional over, but I really didn't like it. =/

We didn't get an encore; serves them right. So I went outside, relocated my friends and we settled to get out of there, haha. But then I had to say goodbye because I had to catch a train homeward; that was so hard. I badly wanted to stay and have a drink (because I'd already decided on not going to school the day after) but when I got back to the railway station my train departed just when I arrived on the platform, having been slowed down on the escalator by a bunch of old people who wouldn't let me pass. So I had to wait for half an hour and then at 23:38 I had the very last Intercity to Eindhoven. My parents had to drive to Eindhoven because the buses don't ride after eleven, and we were home at 01:00. My parents immediately forbid me from going to a concert on Sunday evening again and went to bed because they had to get up early for work. Can't say I blame them, really.

**edit** LOL: