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Since I’m a bit stressed over putting the finishing touches to my final portfolio for my poetry class, I’m having a change of plans and share one of the poems I wrote for my class. Normally, I avoid scarring people with my poetry but I’ll do it just this once since I don’t have the time to write a good post on gratitude, family or Thanksgiving. This one was inspired by my recent dream about my grandfather. It’s not based on an actual event either and I know the ending sounds a little weird but that’s the best I can do when I’m short onRead More →

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This semester is going to be an interesting one. Probably going to be a stressful one too since it’s been a while since I’ve made “art.” For a few weeks now, I’ve been planning on taking a beginning painting class. In fact, I was all signed up and ready to go. I mean, how hard can it be to take a painting class, right? Then, I started thinking about whether or not it was a good decision to take the class. I have been debating between this class and a senior level class called “Art Seminar” all summer long. Both are classes I need toRead More →

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In: Updates

Ah, I am now officially on summer break!  Took my only final today and turned in the paper that I spent pretty much the entire weekend working on. My brain is fried. No, it hurts because I spent the last 48 hours thinking, analyzing and pretty much absorbed in writing a paper on Oedipus.  I am sooo over him now.  My own fault, really, since I procrastinated on writing the paper.  But hey, I wrote a 16 page paper when the minimum requirement was only 4 pages!  Talk about being an overachiever! More importantly I’m done for now!  But first I’m going to rest upRead More →

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In: Japan

Today is tanabata in Japan. I posted about it last year when E and I ventured out to celebrate it at the local temple.  You can read about that adventure here. This year, because of the heat, humidity and the strange weather pattern (ok, mostly because of the heat and humidity), we didn’t go out for tanabata. However, the nursery that E attends did celebrate it and they even made something with the kids to bring home 🙂 So behold, E’s first art project from “school”… Ok, technically the green tree branch is a fake plastic one that’s most likely store bought…  There’s 4 paperRead More →

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In: Japan, Random

Ok, I admit, I’m copping out on this post. I didn’t really want to resort to this tactic since I have so many things I wanted to write about this weekend….but then I got tonsillitis last Thursday and then I lost my resolve…. It’s really hard to have a strong resolve to blog or do anything when you’re sick and all you want to do is stay in bed and sleep the sickness away. So just to tie you over and not look like I missed more than 3 days of blogging in a row, here’s something interesting that I saw on my mandatory fieldRead More →

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In: Geekiness

I have Indian art history on the brain.  (And I mean India Indian, not Native American Indian) I have an art history exam tomorrow on all the Indian art history I’ve learned in the past week and a half.  I can’t believe I spent most of my day reviewing and studying Buddhist and Hindu art.  I feel like my brain will explode… Since I am unable to think of anything else other than art history right now, I will cheat and put up a cute picture of E in her new toy, the medium sized Ikea bucket. Isn’t she so adorable?  I can’t believe howRead More →

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Sorry for the lack of interesting updates…exams are coming up already and I’ve been busy preparing for them in addition to everything else on my plate. To make up for it and in preparation for my exam in this class, I will tell you about the book The Epic of Gilgamesh. Oh yay! I can imagine everyone screaming for joy now. This is the translated version we had to read. In fact, we only had to read only one section of this book, the one with the “standard” version of the epic. So what is The Epic of Gilgamesh? Here’s the academic description… It’s aRead More →

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In: Japan, Life

Surprisingly enough, this happens to me quite frequently… Japanese student (JS): Hi, I’m Mayuki. Me: Hi, I’m Jennifer. JS: So where are you from? Me: California. JS: But where are you from originally? Me: California. JS: Oh… *looks disappointed* (awkward silence) Me: Oh, but my parents are from Hong Kong! JS: *face brightens up again*  Wow, so can you speak Chinese? Me: Yes!  In fact, I’m fluent in Chinese. JS: Oh really?  That’s amazing! It’s interesting to note that most of the time it’s the Japanese people (mostly students) I meet who seem more interested that my parents are from Hong Kong than the factRead More →