wale of a tale

You know you love the title of this post. Laugh with me.

So. Cardiff. Is pretty great. Once you get over the cold and the rain and the wet, I mean. 

To be honest, I am over it. Mostly. Ish. Sometimes. Most time, except for when I am wet and cold.

Also: HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Today, we are celebrating by trekking to Costco, a very American venture I do believe. 

More pictures will happen. Sometimes.

Ireland: Land of the Random Castle

So, as you can see, Ireland is pretty supremely beautiful. There's a lot of green, for sure. Which, when you're native Arizonians like Miles and I, is something you never quite get over or stop commenting on,  no matter how many times your poor companion has already heard some version of, "I mean, look! It's just so green."

Seriously, though. It's so green.

There are also a lot of castles. So many that huge, towering castles that are hundreds of years old and  built out of stone merit little more than a flippant, "Oh, there's another castle. No big deal."

Well. That's not quite true. Miles and I still gawped and gazed and squealed every time the bus passed ruins of any sort. Look at the old rocks! AHH!

I've told some of you already, but I'm going to say it again, because it is a Very True Statement.

Ireland = New Zealand + random castles.

Also, Ireland in its so-called summer is colder than New Zealand in the winter. I feel like my London jaunt of 2010 lied to me: I don't remember Dublin being this cold. (Because it wasn't. Heat waves, my friends, why have you forsaken me?) Here. Have a picture of Miles and I freezing to death on a beach. The One Inch Beach, to be specific. See below for visual evidence of our suffering. We are freezing to death, obviously. If you are reading this from Arizona, take a minute to luxuriate in the heat.

Favorite sights and adventures etc?

1. Killarney National Park: Very very pretty park. Lots of green. Minimal rain. We saw wild deer! And climbed up castle walls like the ninja we are! And we saved money by walking instead of taking a horse carriage! 

2. The Assorted Castles/Abbeys/Big Old Stone Buildings: What can I saw? We enjoyed them! Luckily, there were plenty to see. A particular favorite was the Kylemore Abbey, as seen below. The lake just made it extra fairy-tail-y.

3. Our questionable bus driver: We did a tour in order to see the sights around the country. It was pretty great, actually, and we recommend it. However, out bus driver and tour guide made everything much funnier. He was full of Irish history and wisdom. Most of it, however, was almost definitely not entirely factual. I fear my understanding of Irish history is skewed.

4. The Guinness Storehouse: Because Miles made the I-just-drank-that-why?-what-is-wrong-with-humanity? face after sipping at his complimentary pint. It was funny. See?

5. My future place of study: Fancy-schmancy. 

This post comes to you from Cardiff, Wales, following an overnight ferry-train adventure. Pray for my sleep, and eagerly await the next installment - Wales, Manning's (& co.). and the Quest for Camelot. 

Have some more pictures:

Wales

Hello from Cardiff! We are here.

It took many hours of travel, and our own bodies rebelled, but we are victorious.

How did we get here? Well, first we took a ferry. That started last night at about 7:00PM. Then we waiting in a train station four about four hours, so we could catch a 4AM train to our current location. That's right: four hours. We spent midnight to 4AM in a train station, freezing to death and trying not to go comatose. Five largely sleepless hours on a train and BOOM! Cardiff. Then BOOM! Five hours of waiting before we could check into our hotel. And BOOM! Freezing cold rain and wind.

Yes, the process was about as painful as it sounds.

But it's also very exciting, because we now have Clare, Eden, and Jessica.

If all goes according to plan, and my brain doesn't completely shut down for ever and ever, there will be review post for Ireland popping up soon. Today. Maybe.

I am so tired that my eyeballs are sort of not opening all the way and my thoughts are running away faster than I can follow. Time to shower, then figure out luggage, then eat free pizza, then sleep, sleep, sleep, gotta check work email, grades need to get higher, Paris hostels are stupid expensive, need to figure out rest of trip, gotta know when staying where, gonna have to sneak like a ninja, like a castle ninja, Trinity isn't a Catholic university?

Is this real life?

Oh hey freezing wind and ancient castles. It's been too long.

(Miles & Marie = alive.)

Coming soon...

Love Letter to Japan

Dear Japan,

I am leaving tomorrow. アメリカへかえる。It has been a fabulous three and a half months, and I want to thank you for that. Actually – it’s more than that. I want to tell you how much I love you.

Because I do love you.

A lot.

A lot a lot.

The extent to which I adore you is ridiculous, and totally at odds with the short time I have known you. But you are amazing, and beautiful, and let me count the ways:

1. Your food is delicious. So good. These have probably been the best-fed months of my life. I don’t even really like US sushi, but Japanese sushi? Yes, please. Udon, tempura, nabe, onigiri, tempanyaki, sopa – so good. Back in the states, I watched this movie called, “The Ramen Girl.” I thought it was silly, because ramen was so not as good as they made it out to be. Only, it is. I just never knew it.
2. TIU. Favorite university in the world. And JSP is particularly fabulous. Can we talk about Japanese class for a second? Might be my most favorite class ever. Two students, three hours a day, four days a week. I would have to work not to learn. And my teachers were so amazing, so helpful, so great and kind and accepting of George and my propensity to burst into giggles for five minutes straight. More laughing than I have ever done in a class, without a doubt. Amazing. And the teachers – again – were nothing short of miracle-working saints. The elective classes, too, were great. Even when they were hard and confusing and made my brain recoil in shock – loved it.
3. Your public transportation system is great. I love the convenience of getting everywhere. I mean, it’s expensive and my number one expenditure, but – it’s great. I also love how I can get everywhere without a car. I love walking down your streets, mom and pop stores and yummy food everywhere. Crowded and tiny and so narrow that I would be terrified to drive on them but – but beautiful. (I am even over the staring my walking down said streets attract.)
4. TOKYO. Man, what a great city. I am so happy to know it, even if I’ve only scratched the surface. So big, so bright, so crowded. But so clean, so full, so fun, so everything. With parks and buildings and little shops and monster department stores and when I come back to you, I’ll be spending a lot of time there.
5. You are so clean. I love it. In the little towns and the big cities – you keep it next to Godliness.
6. You are also very weird, sometimes. Very. Very strange. But it is ok – it is part of your charm and I love that every now and then, you throw and some crazy something that has me doing a double take and laughing eyebrow raise.
7. Thanks to you, I met a fabulous group of people. JSP, for big fat instance, is the best study abroad group in the history of the world. We are different, we like different things, we are not the same – but do we all get along? Wonderfully. I had people to explore Tokyo with, to study with, to talk with, to jokingly cuss at, to hug, to laugh at: the list goes on.I also am deeply in love with my Japanese friends and Japanese in general. Japan, my love, you have managed to produce some of the very nicest people I have ever met. Touché. Where else do people you have met once get you presents because you’re leaving, or be your paparazzi and buy you dinner when you go on paper-making adventures? I have never been to a politer country, and when I get back to American and the grocery store clerks don’t smile and thank my repeatedly, I will remember you fondly. Finally, my host family. Oh, Japan, they were great. Sometimes, I look at my life and think to myself, “Well, dang. I am pretty positive I have done nothing worthy enough to deserve all this.” Because I have a host mom who makes me three meals a day, who hovers around my when I look tired, who lets me sit at her kitchen table and study like a mad men, who sprays me with perfume before I walk out the door and throws extra layers of clothing on me because, “Ma-ree-chan! It’s cold!” And I have host siblings who watch weird Japanese TV that are more like YouTube marathons than anything else and are hosted by cross dressers with me; who grab my fingers and say, “Ichi! Ni! San!” before jumping so I can fling them up.

Really, Japan. For your people: that is why I love you best.

-

And that’s not even it all. There are a thousand other reasons, little things that I cannot even think to name, but that I will miss when I go home. I am excited to be going home, thrilled to be heading back to where the people I love best are, but I guarantee you that I will cry like and akachan when I get on that plane tomorrow.

I thought you would be Pokémon and ninjas and MXC, but you were so much more.

So, once again, Japan: I love you.

This is not goodbye.

This is until next time.

hearts,

Marie

update

Roppongi, Tokyo all lit up.

At least I am freezing to death surrounded by beauty.

The host family and I take a picture after the Nihongo Happyoukai - a performance put on by the foreign exchange students to showcase out (theoretically) improved Japanese.

This was my Halloween costume. I bought it for approximately $3.50USD. It is one of the best investments I ever ever made.

___________________________________

I have gotten really horrible about updating this.

It is just very, very, very difficult to keep up with everything that has been going on! Every single day is a new series of adventures, and recording these adventures on a consistent basis would take away from adventuring time. Seeing as I am in my final month (WHAT?), I have been trying my very hardest to do/see as much as possible.

I have been doing pretty well.

Since I have last checked in, some new experiences include:

sleeping/lounging/eating/studying sprawled out on the floor, because the floor is where the heat it; writing and memorizing the script for Little Red Riding hood in Japanese; performing, with two friends, that same story - in Japanese; watching my classmates flex their acting muscles quite impressively as they performed their own Nihongo skits; going to beautiful, elegant museums in Tokyo; walking through streets that reek of class and money in (what I assume) are some of the richest neighborhoods in Tokyo; getting to see real, live, red/orange/yellow/green fall in all its glory; exploring the city and enjoying every minute, despite the bone-chilling rain; falling asleep on a stranger on the train and not realizing it until I was poked awake because he had to get off; acquiring a mastery of the train system that allows me to decide on a general direction or specific location I want to go and actually get there; meeting my family's foreign exchange student to-be; walking around Ueno Park and Ueno Zoo by myself and being able to take in the awesome all around (pygmy hippo! I WANT ONE); going to a Neko Cafe and playing with some of the cutest cats in the history of the world; somersaulting down a hill; seeing a light display that rivals in Zoo Lights; having long, gossipy conversations with the host mother; going to a salsa club in Roppongi and having the awesome Emily lead me through the steps in a semi-competent manner.