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Coming home was a really surreal experience. I have to pack and leave to go back to Japan tomorrow, so today's technically my last full day here. Naturally, I slept through most of it already. Recap of the time I've been home: December 20th: The plane trip from hell, part 2! Part 1 clearly being the plane trip to GET to Japan in the first place. Tip to all you people like me who have never done any extensive flying in your life: don't pick Japan or Australia as your first excursion out of the US. It will put a bad taste in your mouth about traveling in general. My only consolation is that now if I ever decide to finally go to Europe, the plane ride's going to be a cinch by comparison. But anyway. The day started with me checking out of my room in Japan at 10:45am. Then I sat around in the lobby until the 11:30 bus to Hirakata Station came. Got off the bus at the station and walked down the street with my two stupidly heavy and packed to bursting carry-on bags. (The day before this, I gave my actual luggage to my new roommate, so I didn't have any checked bags). Got to the limousine bus stop at about noon, and had to sit and wait for another hour out in the cold for the bus to show up. Luckily it's not nearly as cold there as it is here, and I was in the midday sun, so it wasn't that bad. A bunch of other Gaidai students started showing up in taxis (more expensive, thus why I didn't take one) and then some old guy came over and tagged all our luggage. Then the bus came. We packed up and headed to the airport. An hour and a half later, they dropped us off at KIX, and we got in line for the United check-in desk, which wasn't open yet. They opened, we checked in, and then we went through security and tried to find someplace to eat, since most of us hadn't eaten all day. We found someplace to eat lunch - I had "taco rice" which is basically taco salad except it uses rice in place of the tortilla chips. They hid a sunny-side-up egg in my food somewhere, which was annoying. Then we sat and talked for a while (we had 4 hours to kill), then wandered down to the ice cream place, but I had barely eaten lunch and my stomach was all out of whack from nerves, so I didn't eat anything there. Talked some more. Finally headed for the gate at about 45 minutes before boarding. The sound system at our gate suuuuucked. So we had to read the screen to figure out what was going on. Then nobody had been on the kind of flight where they board in zones rather than seat numbers, so we all got confused about who was boarding when. Eventually figured it out; got on the plane. I had a window seat, which was fine. Except my huge fucking backpack barely fit under the seat in front of me, so I basically had no leg room... again. Nine hour flight... developed a headache... watched "Hairspray" twice in a row... looked out the window, but it was cloudy and we were at 37,000 feet, so I didn't see Hawaii when we flew over it. Tried to sleep some with only about an hour's success. Woke up with a stiff neck. And the headache. Took 2 Advil. Tried to sleep some more with no luck. Ate the in-flight meals, talked a bit with the guys in the seats next to mine, got up twice during the flight to stretch my legs. Plane eventually landed. San Fransisco International Airport. AKA: How many more useless hallways could we possibly install in this building? Seriously. It's just full of empty hallways connecting gate areas. We had been stuck at our gate for a while, so I was low on time. Went through US Customs. Then security again. Then went to check my flight on the boards... it's not listed. Why isn't it listed? So I go to the information counter and this cranky old guy looks it up and he says, "Did you check the boards?" after I just got through telling him that yes, I did, and it's not on there. "Well if it's not listed I can't help you. Why don't you go wait by gates 70-72?" Thanks. Asshat. I wasn't keen on taking his advice, and I remembered that someone near the baggage claim had said something about United's gates usually being in the 80s range, so I headed down another Useless Hallway and was about dead by the time I got there. Then an announcement informed me that my flight was going to be at gate 80, which I was standing right next to. Halle-fucking-lujah. Sat down. Whipped out American cell phone that hasn't seen use in 4 months. Call Mom. Bawl eyes out. Feel like shit. Someone puts pile of napkins in my lap. It turns out to be one of the stewards on the plane I'm about to get on. Nice guy. "Good man," comments someone sitting near me. Thank steward profusely. Hang up with Mom. Call Snare. Talk to her until they start boarding my flight. Got on the plane. Had bulkhead seat by the window. LEG ROOM, THANK GOD. Five hour flight. Watched "Ratatouille". Talked to the guy from New Zealand next to me. (There's another flight you don't want to make before you're an experienced traveler.) Saw a lot of cool stuff out the window. California's landscape is freaking weird. Pretty sure I saw Nevada. Then the next time I looked an hour or so later we were over these huge stretches of snow, with big patches of light scattered around in it. Not sure what state that was. Got to JFK about 10:30pm. Found my parents. Was kind of shocked by their appearances because I hadn't seen them in four months. Went to car. Drove home to CT; arrived at about midnight. TOOK A SHOWER because I was fucking disgusting. Lysol'd my shoes. Ate grilled cheese sandwich that my mother made for me. Went to bed. December 21st: Slept. Enjoyed the peace and quiet of having my own goddamn room again. After this year I am never sharing a room with someone ever again. Sans hotels and the like, obviously. December 22nd: Went to the mall with my sister to do last minute Christmas shopping for my parents. Mostly needed to buy my dad a present for his birthday, since it was the next day. That night was the party at Megan's house. It ended up being me, Megan, Taylor, Jenny, Peter, KTP, and Dan. Everyone else was either at work or completely MIA. 'Cept Nikki, who was clearly in Sweden. Lots of snacking and video gaming was had, and it was good, and I felt very happy because god I fucking miss you guys when I'm gone away at school. T__T Which reminds me: ConnectiCon 2008 - WHO IS GOING?! December 23rd: Dad's birthday. I was not the only one that bought him a shirt from JCPenney. But I AM the only one who bought him the right size. >.> Aunt Sue (who hosts our Christmas Eve party every year, which is about the only time I see Dad's side of the family) called and invited him over for cake, because she's been trying for several years now to re-produce the cherry-nut cake that his mother used to make for him for his birthday, since she never left any of her recipes behind. We decided to all go, and my aunt almost had a simultaneous heart attack/aneurysm when she saw me walk in. In case I hadn't mentioned this before, Mom decided to keep it a secret from all my relatives outside my immediate family that I was going to be home for Christmas. Great Aunt Helen bawled her eyes out. Uncle Phil just goes, "I knew it." So we had cake. And it was very good cake. Flavored with bourbon, apparently. And we talked for several hours and then went home. December 24th: Christmas Eve. Mostly uneventful during the day. Around 6:30pm we headed for Aunt Sue's house again, and this time got to give my cousin Rebecca a heart attack. Had Aunt Sue's ziti, which is freaking godly, and then sat around down in their basement like usual. Got to play with Rebecca's friend Kim's baby, Payton. CUTE. Ended up being kind of uneventful due to the fact that Rebecca left all her board games in Pennsylvania, and we didn't have the TV on like we usually do, so no Christmas movies. Eventually ended up playing Apples-to-Apples, which JP had in his car. (It's more fun when I play it with the Blob, though, because the sense of humor is completely different.) Got home, BED. December 25th: Chriiiiiistmas. Got a good haul. Got a silver PSP and "Daxter" (bundle set), "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" on DVD, a new calendar, lots of candy, a stupid alarm clock that is my mother's idea of a joke (it runs around your room smacking into things and making an ungodly racket), a secondary set of cheap-o "Narnia" books that I was told I am to leave in Japan when I come back (I already own the boxset), two t-shirts from my sister, 3 YGO mangas, 2 Gentlemen's Alliance Cross mangas, 1 each xxxHolic and Tsubasa mangas, and a novel: "A Game of Thrones". From Snare, I got three bags of gourmet popcorn and a $10 Gaia Cash Card. Also a very vocal Christmas card. XD Mom made an apple crisp while the rest of us got dressed, and we headed over to Auntie's condo (Mom's side of the family). My mom made me stay in the van until they'd already gone inside, and then I was supposed to come in. So I did, and my grandmother started sobbing, and Auntie was just kind of in shock. Dinner was godly. Wish I'd eaten more of it, but my aunt had a looooot of snacks out prior to eating it. Her friends Pat and Barbara came over, too. Then we sat around talking for a bit, and then Dad wasn't feeling well, and neither was I, and neither was my sister, so we went home where we could relax. December 26th-30th: I'm sure there was stuff that happened on these days, but I've been writing for a long time and I can't remember in detail what I did on which day, so... mostly was just a bum. Saw "The Golden Compass" and "Enchanted" at some point in there, bought "Cooking Mama 2" and "FFXII: Revenant Wings" for the DS and the first season box set of Avatar while I was out. December 31st: New Year's Eve(ning) was spent with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Phil and my parents and (Great) Aunt(ie) Helen. We ate out at an Italian place that had kind of crappy service (not enough people staffing too many diners) but really good food. Then we went back to Aunt Sue's house to play games and watch the ball drop. We played an improvised version of Trivial Pursuit, in which she just asked the question on the card and then everyone answered, and whoever answered right supposedly got a point, but we didn't actually keep score. Dick Clark is not doing so well. @__@ It's almost painful to watch. Auntie Helen was making fun of him, because she says, "I had a stroke but I don't talk like that!" It was kind of headdesk-inducing. Ball dropped, phone rang off the hook for several minutes while Aunt Sue's kids, friends, and other family called. I called Snare but had to cut her off unfortunately because I had to make a mad grab for the land-line when Rebecca called because nobody else was close enough. Stayed there until 2am, went home and to bed. January 1st-3rd: More of that kind of limbo-y lazing around. January 4th: Had dinner at Red Robin with Clammy, Danielle, Deanna, and Deanna's (boy)friend, Jeff. They told the wait staff that it was my birthday, so I got a free ice cream and got sung at. XD; We sat around at the mall for about half an hour and then sat in Deanna's car for another hour or so while Danielle drew inappropriate pictures (and Quail Man) on the fogged-up windows. Then Danielle and Clam took a bunch of pictures, and then since we couldn't figure out what to do, we just went home. XD; Sister was not happy when I came home. Not even going to go there, just suffice it to say that she pretty much ruined my evening with her bitching and I went to bed so pissed off that it carried on over to ruin my mood on Saturday as well. January 5th: Woke up pissy because of my altercation with Rachel. Got dressed to go see "Sweeney Todd" with Auntie. She talked through the movie, which was less than awesome. The movie itself was good, although the bodies hitting the floor of the bakehouse kind of squicked me. Broken-bone noises, for the fail. @__@ Went out to lunch; think she was kind of mad at me for being in such a shite mood, but what was I supposed to do about it? When you're not in a good mood, you're not in a good mood. Seeing a macabre movie didn't cheer me up, that's for sure. And her patronizing the waitress wasn't cheering me up, either. >__< Got home, spent most of the evening talking to Nicole and Snare and playing Ragnarok, which I re-downloaded out of boredom. I play Hero RO now, rather than Ethereal, since the latter seems to have died. Found a song called "Motteke! Serafuku!" which makes me die laughing. It's the opening theme for some anime called "Lucky Star". I would be insanely impressed with anyone (including myself) who could sing that song at karaoke. January 6th: Aaaand that gets us up to today. Which I mostly slept through. I'm cold, I'm getting all nerved-up about my trip, and I'm really not looking much forward to going back. The only things I'm really looking forward to right now are: Speaking of Melissa, you can all blame her for this entry - she said she wanted something to read. :PPP Melissa, if you are reading this, where does Takarazuka fit into our spring break plans? Also, we need to figure out who our fourth person for our North apartment is gonna be. T__T I'm not sure how to approach Cait about it, since I haven't talked to her in so long. "Hey, Cait, we never talk. Want to live with me next semester?" XD Geh. Complications. Laurel never responded to the email that I sent in response to her email. That's just bitchy. All right, entry = over, turning heat on = very yes. I would use the electric blanket that Snare gave me except that my mother, in her infinite wisdom, has buried it somewhere in the spare bedroom where all the Christmas decorations currently are. You can barely open the door, never mind find anything. BLEAH I HATE PACKING I DUN WANNA I DUN WANNA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ; . ; Fear it:
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