The weekend was rough. I'm sure you can tell how much fun I had from the absense of posts.
The first psych lab report took so much time! I couldn't find any good literature that would've gone well with the data, so I was both tired and depressed.
Now that I've done one lab report, I'm more prepared for the second one due on 10/13.

I have a midterm for a course on Development of Spoken Language in 2 hours.

The Hokkaido earthquake hit the front page of the Dailly Illini today. I didn't know about the earthquake until I read the paper around noon.
I was relieved to learn that only about 20 people got injured.

Ah I got so soaked on the way home...
My friday night is relaxing.

The orange insects are actually beetles called Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB).
MALB is beneficial in terms of pest control, but there has been too many this year and become an ecological disaster.
They smell (yellow-orange body fluid from blood), bite and fly. yuck.

I was up again until 3am last night. I figured out stats and got results for data.
Some conditions went as I predicted, but some didn't. I still need to reason why it didn't follow predictions. Anyway, I was glad to have statistical data by last night to work on a paper. Hurrah Excel!
I can't imagine doing stats without Excel. How did people do when there wasn't any spreadsheets?

As soon as I stepped into my room, I passed out on my bed last night.
I was sooo tired from thinking about stats too much and spending lots of time in the lab.

This morning I made rice balls with Jordan and Mike for our rice ball sale.
I had the best breakfast of the semester today!
Freshly-made warm rice and furikake. Hmmm~ it was so yummy.

Lady Bugs: the color of lady bugs is light orange here!!! Why??? What has happened to them?

It's been really nice fall weather. I like this season the most.

Another hectic day. I worked on a psych paper until 3 last night, and missed a class at 8 am this morning. The prof. told me it wasn't a big deal that I missed it as long as I've read assigned readings. phew.

I have paper dues every day...

A teacher of my junior high created ML for us, the 24th students!!!
I'm so happy about it because I have lost so many contacts with friends for the past 3 years.
If you went to Takakura Junior High and don't know the mailing address for ML, let me know.

Eric and I got a free large Bianca Mocha Ultimo at Espresso Royale last night for the 10 stamps he had collected.
It was a bit bitter than regular mocha and tasted just fine.
Mocha is yum. :)

Ways to a successful college life:

1) find favorite bathrooms in several campus buildings
2) make friends with dormmates
3) do not take classes more than 18 hrs per semester
4) get as many freebies as possible

Photos of my house added.

Dai is in Illinois for the weekend.
He really missed Urbana-Champaign and flew from Tokyo for only 3 days!

He was feeling so nostalgic and moved by seeing the campus, esp. reconstructed Green St. and 6th St. for the first time after 3 years. :)

Fighting Illini vs. UCLA: I don't think Illini will beat UCLA.

FEMALE HOUSEMATES WANTED!
If you are interested in sharing a 6-bedroom house with friendly, international-minded girls, please contact me ASAP.
The lease renewal date is approacing, so I want to have at least one more person.

The large, clean, bug-free house is conveniently located one block east of Lincoln on Illinois. It comes furnished with air-conditioning, free parking spots and more. Belive me, the house is really comfy. That's why I'm trying to hold it for next year.
Please please please spread the words for me.

It's chilly all of sudden!

I suck so bad at listening comprehension. It's not a big deal because I always do poorly on the first chapter quiz, anyway. My only hope Fei goes to bed earlier than I do, and I can never catch her to practice Chinese... *sigh*

I love this beautiful fall weather. Too bad fall lasts for only about a week in Illinois...

I always get so busy Monday through Wednesday 4pm.
It was a hellish night yesterday... I had to finish two writing assignments. Mind you, it's not because of procrastination. I really have lots of things to read and write this semester. *sigh* I cannot even take 10 mins to update this journal for the first 3 days of the week.

I booked flights for the winter break. Since airfares become cheaper from Dec. 29, I decided to leave here for Japan on 12/29 and come back here on 1/15.
It seems short, but my friends are busy with their part-time jobs until New Year and don't have time to hang out with me. So I'm hoping that two weeks will be just enough of Japan. I want to occupy the house by myself for a while and relax before going home this winter.

I went to Aroma Cafe with Natalie.
I liked that coffee shop.

Miki got married with her junior high sweetheart!!!
I wish her a happy marriage!

There wasn't anything exciting this weekend except for the house-warming party, but I studied and still had a good time.

The Anthropology reading note assignment is getting easier for me to write as I write more.

I just found out that my phonetics professor has an excellent educational and teaching background!!! I need to get to know her.

Today's event:

House-warming party at my house. It's gonna be a big mess...

Am I too time-constrained and do I get obnoxious???
I get disgusted by myself one in a while.
When I have classes and a project, a long to-do list is always on my mind and keeps me working hard. While it usually works effectively to get things done, it bothers me so much when I have someone to entertain.
Studying is part of my life and deeply embedded in my daily life.
My angel mind asks me to relax and take time for a guest, but my strict evil mind
tells me to finish part of assignments.
Although I did my best to kill the evil side of my mental operator this time, I am not so sure how well I treated my guest.
It's mostly because of my packed schedule, so I don't blame on my personality too much, though.
Maki told me she truly enjoyed herself here. I really hope so.

September 11th and Moon Festival.

Finally I had a very relaxing day. I woke up late in the morning, had lunch and studied at Espresso Royale before class.

* I added the official website of my junior high in Kobe to the link list.
Can you find me on photo albums? :)

Wednesday:
It's 3:30am. I'm pulling an all-nighter to send Maki to Bluebird at Terminal at 5am.
I have a class from 8am and won't be able to come home until 8ishpm because of a lab meeting. It's gonna be a long day. *sigh*

Here I am at home. I am so sleep-deprived and exhausted now.
Good nite.

Tuesday:
We went to a vet med tour. Maki looked really happy to see labs and clinics. The grad students who gave us a tour were very nice. I really appreciated them. I also thank you, Julie, for setting us up for a tour!
Luckily, the tiny vet med bookstore was open tonight. Maki bought a scrub with U of I Vet Med logo. :)
Because of my packed schedule and anthro assignment, I couldn't take her to exciting night spots like a dance club or bar... That's the only thing I regret.
I tried to sacrifice my study as much as possible for her, though.

Monday:
Although Maki had another chance to sit in a lecture of Japanese Culture, she slept over...
I had to leave home at 7:30am and didnt want to wake her up so early, but I should've waked her up...
In the evening, I took her to Market Place and Borders.

Sunday:
I initially planned to drive to St. Louis for Maki, but I was too tired and too academically pressured to spend another day to please her.
I started working on an assignment around 8:30ish am and went to check her out around noon. She was still asleep... So I guess it was okay for her not to go to St. Louis...
We went grocery shopping to Wal-Mart where she bought souveniors for her friends, e.g. snacks, cute (rather childish to me...) body wash, tooth paste, etc.
After Wal-Mart, we stopped by Best Buy, and went to taste Jarling's ice cream. Guess what I had!? They offer a seasonal special, pumpkin pie! yeay! I've waited for it since last January when one of my lab mates mentioned the seasonal pumpkin pie custard. yum yum. :D
Next we toured the South part of campus where vet med and dairy cattle research unit are. There were so many cows!!! I never went there before until today. She was so excited to see all those cattles in the University property. :)
I could've done something more fun, but I couldnt sacrifice my study any longer, so we went to the Union to study. My biopsych textbook in my bookshelf interested her, so she did some reading as well.
I still feel bad about not having taken her to St. Louis, but I hope she had a good day in town.

Saturday:
I am exhausted!!! We left Chambana at 7:10 by Amtrak and left Chicago at 8pm. Because of the early train, I barely slept in order to make it to the station on time. I was so sleepy and wanted to jump on the train as soon as possible; however, the train that was scheduled at 6:10 delayed for an hour... *a big sigh* The chairs at the station are so uncomfortable! They have to replace them. They are leaning downward, so my body slides down...
Anyway, we got to Chicago when the city started to wake up.
We walked to places you can name. For dinner we had a stuffed pizza at giordano's.

Friday:
It was a very busy day. I worked from 8am and had class until 4pm. I wanted Maki to sit in a lecture of EALC 150 Japanese Culture, but I took her to the lecture hall at a wrong time... and she had to listened to a lecture of Chem 224. I felt so bad...
In the evening, old friends gathered and had a fun dinner at Dos Reals!
The girls were Amauri, Karen, Karuna, Meghan, Becky, Fei, Julie, Anita, Cecile, Lale, Maki and me.
This English-speaking crowd must have been overwhelming for Maki, but I hope it was a good opportunity for her to meet my good friends.

Thursday:
A friend of mine, Maki, flew in here from Japan. I was so excited to see her for the first time in 5 (?) years. She successfully transfered flights at San Francisco and moved terminals at O'Hare to catch a shuttle bus to Champaign. Although that made me very happy, clouds started covering the sunny sky after a while. At 6pm when I was in a meeting with my prof., my cell ringed... I knew it was Maki, so I answered the phone. She missed the bus... dah... Since I didnt want her to miss the next bus by sitting at the wrong spot, I decided to drive to O'Hare to pick her up as she prefered so. When I made a call to a shuttle company to cancel her reservation (conversation held in English), my prof. got what had happened and sympathized with me. The meeting was rescheduled then...
Eric kindly came along with me and we picked her up. It was a long day, but I felt better than making her wait for another bus.

American Jewish Culture at 8am is inappropriately crowded for the early class time.
It's full even though the class requires students to get up early and finish fair amount of books and articles!!!

This year's Labor Day Weekend was rainy.
Hime visited our house!!! Julie and I gave her a ride to Bloomington, IN and came back at 1:30ish am last night. Julie didn't let me drive her car, so I just sat next to her for the whole 6-hr drive.
Hime's apartment was spacious and neat!!!
It was hard to see the front because of hard rain, but Julie safely drove home. :)

As usual, I studied at Esoresso Royale. Why the heck do I have stuff to study at the beginning of the semester??? Well, I always studied on Sundays even during the summer break just because I liked going to coffeehouse and reading articles. Yesterday I studied Chinese and read some assignments. I wanted to get out of there around 1ish, but I wound up staying there until 3ish because of rain.