no big deal, just the cutest thing of all time

seems like i'm getting back into the swing of updating this beezy! or maybe since the weather is heating up like whoa, everyone is getting crazy again and i have more to write about. at any rate, i wanna tell you a story.

the lady that always gives me discounts on snacks works in a little room stocked with pastries, juice, etc., across and down the hallway from the staff room. her daughter (or granddaughter..?) is the adorable little girl in the checked dress in the picture with me that periodically flashes on the right section of my blog.

anyways, we always say hello and attempt to chat for a little when i buy something, but communication is a bit difficult. like i mentioned, last time she showed me a little english book that belonged to rin, her daughter/granddaughter/mystery child, that she borrowed and was studying.

a little while ago, inagaki-san (i learned her name today!) said hello during cleaning time, and in japanese asked me to teach her english this afternoon. i excitedly said yes, especially cause i have nothing to do today (currently sitting in an empty staffroom while all the legit teachers are in a meeting).

so i decided that i'd teach her greetings. i bowed upon entering the snack shack, and must have looked utterly frightening because i was carrying a truckload of english/japanese books, pen and paper, and a whip. jokes.

but her eyes widened when she saw the materials, so i put them down and didn't really use them (other than my dictionary). i taught her good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight, which took a good 15 minutes (understandably! i used to get my japanese greetings way mixed up). then we chatted about our names and where i'm from, and when all was exhausted i complimented her and prepped to leave. but before i went, she insisted i take a drink...FO FRIZZLE.

my favorite snack shack drink is the elephant milk tea box. it's big, sweet, cold, and delicious. especially on a scorcher like today! so, thanking her profusely, i got the goods and bowed my way outta there like a boss.


and now i'm sipping my milk tea and feeling very proud of myself. kind of like a child that gets complimented on her amazing bellyflop abilities.

milky, tea-y,
riri

foot in mouth disease

that's a tasteless joke, folks, since miyazaki has had a problem with foot AND mouth disease for the past year.

but my foot is wedged nicely into my own cake-hole. i spoke far too soon with last night's post, saying that my towel was "never to be seen again."

in my heart of hearts, i was hoping that japan would come through yet again. and it did.

people here are super responsible with lost items they find. they try their darnedest to return things to their rightful owners, and they don't believe in "finders keepers."

lucky for me! this morning, i was a little early getting ready for school, so i decided to go on a reconnaissance mish for my towel. oh, happy day! it was carefully folded and hanging on the fence surrounding our apartment complex. nihon, arigato!!

chuffed,
riri

things that happened today

morning
- woke up drenched in sweat in my sweltering bedroom
- walked into my bathroom to see that a not-so-fine layer of black mold had appeared, literally, overnight, all over the walls, mirror, and shelf, due to trapped moisture
- avoided stepping on at least eight crabs on my walk to school
- arrived at school perspiring an embarrassing amount
- observed a trainee english teacher's lesson. in said lesson, as an activity, students had to describe something to each other. one of the topics was me. winning remarks:
"gold hair!"
"brown hair!"
"blonde hair!"
"she is a woman!"
"she speaks english well." (awww, thanks!! LOL)
"SMILE!"

late morning
- went to buy an apricot ku-ki from the super-nice lady who works in our little snack shack. she always gives me discounts for no reason, and i try hard to speak to her in japanese, and generally fail. today she showed me a little book of english phrases, and told me she was trying to learn. i left smiling so hard that the back of my skull hurt.
- was walking to class with a group of girls, and spectacularly tripped on the stairs, but didn't fall. the girls were very sweet and didn't laugh, but gasped in horror for me. aww.
- administered yet another round of speaking tests for the first years. as part of their oral communication term grade, we decided to make them actually, you know, get tested on their speaking skills! some of the kids obviously prepped really well. others, not so much. today's highlight: a girl becoming so frustrated that she began stomping her feet like a toddler and screaming, "YAAABBBBEEE!!!" which roughly translates to "TERRIBLE/OH CRAP." and the kids who said they ate hamburgers for breakfast also made me smile. with their lies. oh yes oh yes, and lastly, the girl who said, "for breakfast i ate br..br..bre..brea..rice."

afternoon
- usual lunch of pb sando and fruit. was good-naturedly mocked by other teachers for eating pb yet again. they think it's a riot that i eat it every day! welcome to america, suckas. sidenote: i have never seen another teacher eat fruit in the staff room, ever. and teachers think it's amazing that i eat apples off the core, not sliced.
- observed the other english trainee teacher, in one of my fave classes. the kids are total cheeksters. "miss moe," the teach, asked "MOON IS MINE" boy, aka conrad (english name) to read. he said "NO WAY" with a goofy little smile, haha! then later he said "miss moe is dream girl." CUTE!
- stayed late to debrief about the trainee teachers' lessons. was trying to find the other english teachers when a rando teacher that never talks to me invited me to come drink coffee in the library in very rapid japanese. i was so confuzzled that i agreed, then wondered what i had just done. he led me into a little side-room in the library, where two female teachers were grading things. they fussed over me and scurried around making me coffee and putting sweets in front of me while i feebly tried to protest in japanese and turned bright red.
- a student came in to talk to the teachers, and i went to clean my cup. i accidentally used the sink-cleaning sponge instead of the cup-cleaning sponge, and i think the student saw, and it caused me lots of anxiety.

evening
- left school. group of girls walked past, and i said "seee youuuu" to them. as i walked away, one yelled, "RIRI RIRI!" i turned, and she blew me a kiss.
- came home. thought about how this time next year, i'll have to make a goodbye speech to the school. got teary-eyed!

night
- killed a spider, a fruit fly, an unidentifiable, and a mosquito in my apartment. unhappy.
- looked out the window and realized that i had left my laundry hanging. then realized that one of my towels had blown away, never to be seen again.

reeling,
lilly

i ♥ NZ

heyo! we're back down south of the equator, my readership! last time i blogged about mashuu's and my trip, i left you salivating for more in melbourne, on the way to auckland. hold onto your hats...we're in kiwiland!

i didn't quite know what to expect in new zealand, other than hilarious accents that swap the "eh" sound for "ee" and the "ih" sound for "uh." sex is the number before 7, and six is intercourse, and if you're hungry, you should eat some chups, not chips. i also knew that sheep outnumber people about 10:1 in NZ, and that pretty much was the extint (hehe) of my knowledge.

mattsy and i flew into auckland late on wednesday, april 27. we caught a shuttle bus that took us right to our hotel/mini apt in the heart of auckland city. the place was bomb, especially compared to the craphole we'd stayed in at melbourne. there was a kitchen (complete with toaster, micro, DISHWASHER, everything!), complimentary breakfasts with gallons of juice, a huge bathroom, balcony, the works! and it was hardly more expensive than our places in australia! just goes to show.

anyways, we checked in and passed out. the next morning, we were due to meet matt's university friend timmy, who now lives in auckland with his wife. timmy met us at our hotel, and we walked through the semi-busy downtown streets, until we got to his workplace.

first impressions of the city: cozier and much more manageable than sydney or melbourne (aka less crowded and smaller!). clean, cute, some old pretty buildings and quite a bit of shopping.

we got to timmy's workplace, in which there is a lovely thai restaurant where he often lunches. btw, timmy was hilarious and really nice. he's from northern ireland, too, and seeing matthew with his own kind was a fascinating treat. so, with those two yammering away in their brogue, we headed up the to the restaurant for lunch. so. good. i hadn't had good thai food in forever, and my pad thai was succulent. after lunch, timmy showed us his workplace a law office.

men pretending to be at work.

we then decided to meander over to the auckland museum! we tramped through rainsoaked grass, until at last we reached the humongous building. there was way too much to see in an afternoon, but we managed to squeak in some exhibits about NZ history, natural history, maori artwork, etc!

sweet maori carvings

sweet vaguely racist wwII poster

dinosore

and as we left, some lady made us take a survey and we got free blueberry chocolate. yeah, whatchoo know bout me? well, i guess the lady now knows everything.

luckily, timmy was sympathetic to our travelers' fatigue, so after a few hours at the museum (and talking our ears off about NZ, he's quite the leprechaun with the pot o'knowledge), he dropped us back at our hotel, where we freshened up for dinner.

we joined timmy and his scottish wife mari down by the auckland harbor, where there are lots of semi-fancy, delicious-looking eateries and swanky bars. they had eaten one of them before, and had befriended the very friendly polish girl and russian girl who worked there. the polish girl ran out shrieking hello, and invited us in. she was so cute and out of control that we had to oblige.

and we weren't sorry! dinner was so. good. i got sumptuous pasta, matt got a steak, and there was much chit-chat and good times all around. we even took a pic with our new international friends, who were hilarious.

awww, new friends!

naturally, kibs and i were pooped, so after dinner we trekked back to the hotel and conked. the next day was going to be a big day, indeed!

it was matthew's life-long (aka two-month long) dream to ride a segway, and luckily for him, auckland offered a scenic segway tour! i was very skeptical, especially since it cost a pretty penny. however, after we snarfed down our free brek, we excitedly took the ferry from auckland harbor to devonport harbor, where the tour would begin. i had pictured a whole slew of fools on the tour, but it ended up being only matt, me, and our lovely, rather mom-ish guide, pauline.

pauline was really friendly and kind, and after she collected our scrilla, she led us to the dock, where our segways awaited. i thought they'd be a snap to ride. WRANG.

pauline said we had to learn the basics before she'd take us on the open road. i was first. at a snail's pace, i nervously circled some cones while matt laughed at me. then we switched. finally, after about 30 minutes of pre-teaching, we hit the mean streets of devonport. and by mean, i mean very quaint, quiet, and pretty. i guess devonport is where the richie aucklanders live.

matt tests fate; almost dies

i show off my superb photography skills

as we rolled around, pauline gave us some devonport history and pointed out general hoo-ha. it was a gorgeous day, and we enjoyed taking in views of the sparkling auckland harbor.

the happy segwayers

having problems; story of my segway life

terrorizing the neighborhood

i think matt had a bit of a crush on "big pauline," as he called her. i didn't mind.

rangitoto island; purty

mattsy kibbuh; nerdy

beach

diiiviinnpooort

just one of the lovely views of auckland!

as our two-hour tour came to a close, pauline led us to a large, empty park, where we could free-wheel to our heart's desires. mattsy tore up the grass with his hot-rodding, and i tentatively tried to keep up. all in all, though, it was way fun!

a bit sadly, we returned our segways to the harbor, thanked dear pauline (did matthew shed a tear? i won't tell!), and headed back to auckland for some scran (aka food. i learned that word from the geordie shore, don't tell me it's not educational). we ended up getting an inordinate amount of cheap food at wendy's. 'twas good.

and the feeding frenzy did not stop. that night, we had a dinna date with some kiwi JET alums (from matt's year) and a current south african JET friend, lisa, who was also vacaying in NZ. we all met up at a belgian place, and after a small I.D. kerfuffle (they said i had to present my passport, because apparently i don't look 18, story of my life), we got some fine belgian beers and shot the breeze.

still full of wendy's, matt and i split a meatloaf plate, which was awesome, and relished the luxury of having a thoroughly non-japanese meal in a non-japanese place with english-speaking friends. it's a rarity!

yay!

the next morning, we were picked up by deborah and lisa, and taken to the "polynesian markets." auckland of course has a huge polynesian population, and it was cool to see another part of town. the market reminded me a lot of the mexican markets by usc--bootleg stuff, random stuff, great food, lots of families. we bought plastic bags filled with polynesian donuts, which were extremely greasy and heavy and quite good, then meandered around. matt and i also ended up splitting a really good wurst, cause we're obesities.

after the market, we went back into the heart of auckland, and up onto a spot that overlooked the city (viewing spots are plentiful). there was also a huge crater with a random cross (x?) at the bottom.

SEE?

and, joyously, that night we were invited to deborah's house for a bonafide polynesian bash. a ton of people showed up, including some really lovely members of her family. so we all got drunk, made lots of hilarious and fun friends, impressed everyone with our irish & american accents, and had a fantastic time!

it made such a difference actually meeting up with people we knew, rather than navigating solo (granted, they were matt's friends and not mine, but i mooched and absorbed them like some amiga-amoeba). everyone was so gracious about showing us around, telling us fun facts, and showing us a bang-up time.

sunday was our last day, so barbara picked us up in the morning and took us on an obligatory mini-wine tasting. we hit up a few places, sampled their fares, and largely pretended we were going to buy (but then mattsy bit the bullet and bought me a bottle of champers, and himself some port). slightly toasted, we also stopped by a bee farm, and sampled their sweet, sweet honey. no pics. the bees grossed me out. but i'll gladly eat their barf!

lastly, under rainy skies, we stopped by a beautiful black sand beach.


and ventured into a huge cave, which had tons of carvings...some of which were from the 30's!


a little sadly, that afternoon we bid barbara goodbye, packed up our stuff, and prepared for our last auckland feast. we met back up with timmy and mari, and also with another married couple that matt knew from uni. we went back to the place with the spunky polish/russian contingent, and had another superb sup.

the satiated sehx

stuffed full of fun, food, and friendship (cheesy, but for alliterative sake), mattsy and i headed for the auckland airport...where we attempted to sleep for about 5 hours, until our early morning flight back to sydney. tata, auckland!

(hey, new zealand...don't tell anyone i told you this, but i think you're nicer than australia)

chupped,
lullay

n-e-s-t-l-e-s

nestle's makes the veerryy best! SOOORRRRRYYY! (click to watch)

oh, it's been two weeks, has it? n-e-s-t-l-e-s. i will update about auckland later this week, but for now please let me recant a hilarious conversation between my office friend, imamura-san, and me during friday's thunderstorm.

N.B. - it's rainy season up in this beezy. aka, it NEVER. STOPS. RAINING. this is probably week three. no sun in sight. i don't mind that much, other than the fact that my legs are beginning to atrophy due to lack of use, and that on friday, when deafening thunder pealed, i almost soiled my professional pants.

i ambled down to the vending machines to buy some cocoa, came back to my desk, and guzzled. a few minutes later, imamura-san came into the office and said hello. i'll call her ayako (her first name) for the recanting:

ayako: oyaho gozaimasu! (good morning)
me: oyaho! chotto matte (wait a minute)
*i fumble on my computer until i get to googletranslate*
me, on google translate: did you see hear the thunder?
ayako: hai! alksjdfljskdjlk
me: huh?
ayako, pointing at her stomach: alskdjflkajslfk
me: onaka ga sukimashita ka? (are you hungry?)
ayako: no no!

so i busted out my dictionary, and looked up the two words she kept saying in japanese--they turned out to be "navel" and "hide." i didn't understand at all, and then she said the word for "tradition." i still didn't understand, and when i said so, she said she didn't understand, either.

so then i said the following glorious falsity, in really bootleg japanese: "america no bunka de, ame no toki, itsumo watashi-tachi wa cocoa nomimasu" (in america's culture, rain time, we always drink cocoa)
ayako: heeee?
*i point at my empty cocoa cup in my trash can and she proceeds to crack up and back away*

so after she left, i googled "japan storm bellybutton," and found out that according to japanese folklore, little creatures come out during rainstorms and hide in people's bellybuttons. hence, when it rains, parents caution their children, "hide your bellybutton!!" LOLZ

anyways, that's all for now. keep your eyes peeled for the auckland updates this week. peace out, homefries.

thundering,
riri

melbournians vs. sydney-siders

g'day! please orient yourself back into the southern hemisphere, where we last left off in sydney, with a homeless man screaming at matthew to marry me. well, we got the heck outta dodge, and flew even further south that night, to melbourne.

our flight got in at around midnight, and we bused it into the rather empty city. we walked for about 20 minutes through the dark, quiet streets to our hotel, the formule 1. the place had looked very basic, but clean and nice, on the website. when we got there, we were met with a dismal scene. the elevators stank of puke. the receptionist was behind what appeared to be bulletproof glass.

and our room was squalid! there was nothing save some beat-up furniture, a small tv, two tiny bars of soap, and towels. the shower was separated from the room by a curtain. we could only laugh! and spend almost no time there for the next three days.

the next day, with damp hair (no blow-dryer!), we headed out to see melbourne in the sunshine. it was actually anzac day, a holiday remembering wwI veterans, so there were lots of people off from work and milling around town.

i don't know if i can really say what my impression of melbourne was. most of the time, i get strong senses of whether or not i like a place, and i jump to conclusions quickly. but melbourne just seemed disjointed and all over the place, like it didn't have a solid identity, and i couldn't figure out how i felt about it. but anyways, here are some of the sights!

flinders street train station. HUGE.church, the name of which i forget!

a sculpture called "the public purse" i kinda wanted to sit on it, but i was afraid of getting in trouble :(

one thing i liked was that there were lots of very old shopping arcades, many of which had beautiful decorations. here's the floor of one from the 19th century!

matt and i walked all around, popping into most of the little alleyways that were crammed with restaurants, people, and shops. here was a quiet one, where i drooled over pastries in the window like some child in a charles dickens story

golliwog dolls, which are super controversial (racist) in the uk, but apparently A-OK in the merry old land of oz!

sweet museum; ozzies

we had heard that there was some sweet graffiti to be seen, so with my face buried in our guide book, i led us into some artsy-fartsy side streets.

we got sidelined by some older australian folks in the alley, who kindly offered to take our picture. they then grilled us about our itinerary, trash-talked sydney, and coerced us into telling them that melbourne was, like, the greatest city in the world. they were pleased with our suck-up skills, then bid us bon voyage.

shameless hipsters

one thing that was truly great about the city was its catering to tourists. there was a free tourist info stand in town, resplendent with maps, pamphlets, paraphernalia. the dude there helped us find the FREE tourist bus, which we took into the northern part of the city--aka home of little italy!

i snoozed on the bus. i was le tired

anyways, after we hopped off da bus, i wanted real italian food more than i've ever wanted anything in ma life. so after scoping out the many restaurants on lygon street, the historically italian slice o' melbourne, we decided on a woodfire pizza-oven place called cafe trevi. the weather was glorious, so we sat outside.

AND, corkage was only $5, so we hit up a "bottle-o" (liquor store) for cheap wine, and drank while we waited for our luscious pizza and pasta.
wuts dis, no mayo on the pizza? i must not be in japan anymore (thank goodness)!

ravenous, we wolfed down our dinners in true matt & lilly fashion, meaning that both of us were so hungry that we didn't speak for the first half of the meal, lest we slow down our feeding frenzy. eventually we came up for air and chatted pleasantly.

matt had never had gelato before (SCANDAL), so after our meal i treated him to a cone at a gelateria down the road. i had hazelnut, aka NUTELLA FLAVOR, and it was flipping yum. plus, as a cute touch, all these young boys were hanging around and speaking italian. cute!

the next day, i dragged matt to the museum to see an exhibit on the "art of disney." we had seen posters outside the day before, and i thought it looked really cool! and i knew that matt would secretly love it.

there was a student discount, and we decided to be fake-outs and give them our japanese foreign resident cards, since they're totally in japanese and no one would be the wiser. hilariously, it worked, and we got reduced tix!

the exhibit was really amazing, all about the evolution of the animation of disney movies, and complete with clips from the films, original drawings, history, everything! mattsy even admitted to liking it.

after, we were on a museum high, so we decided to hit up yet another--i think it was the modern museum? anyways, we had heard on the free bus that they had a real section of the rainforest in it, so we wanted to see.

its dis

once we got there, we realized that tix were expensive, but FREE for students. so i put on my best smile and we fooled the girl into thinking we were studying at a japanese university. CRIMINAL!

we didn't have a lot of time at the museum, but we did manage to see the rainforest and some aboriginal art, which was very cool.

deep in the heart of the forest?

after the museum, we braved the hard-knock streets of melbourne to get to the famed cricket stadium, where the game of aussie football was being held that affo. the joint held like 100,000 peeps!

we didn't know what the rules would be, exactly, since its diff from both american and brit footie. it ended up being super easy to follow and was tres exciting!

after the game, we were both so hungry that we didn't know what to do with ourselves. we ended up going to an amazing greek (fave!) restaurant called "stalactites." we got some pita and dips, then wolfed down our souvlaki like pros. it was mattsy's first greek din! and it brought back many happy memories for me...of greece circa 2005, of the annual south bay greek fest, of papadakis...nostalgia!

we tried also to get a "ghost nighttime tour" of the old jail in melbourne, where prisoners had been executed (um, fun? obvio it was all matt's idea), but it was closed. so, full to bursting with roasted greek meats, we hit it early!

the next day, we got up early to do what matt was (i think) looking forward to most. the "neighbours" tour!

for those of you who don't know (i assume everyone), "neighbours" is an australian soap which is wildly popular in the uk, and has been for about 2 decades. the whole shebang is filmed in melbourne, and matt shelled out some serious dough to get us onto the tour!

we took a ton of photos at different sets, on the bus, etc., but since most of ya don't know what it is, i'll refrain from posting all but a few. happily, though, i really enjoyed the tour!

ramsay street, where it all happens! it's a real place, real peeps live there!

the bus. i was the only american, typical.

during every tour, the bus gets to meet a former cast member. our bus was crammed with awk people, so matt was the only one who asked questions of "stingray," the former cast member's character name. i would've asked something, too, but i'm an ignorant murican who doesn't watch the show (as was pointed out to the entire group, thanks kibs!)

anywho, the tour ended in the early afternoon, and we bunny-hopped over to the melbourne zoo, the third oldest in the world! this is what i had been looking forward to. lions and tigers and bears, oh my! plus a butterfly house, elemaphants, girafamalaffs, kangamaroos...and wombats! who knew wombats were SO cute?!

but the best, THE BEST--koalas. UP CLOSE WITH ADORABLE STANK!

look..just LOOK at that puddum!! KAWAAAAIIIIII

grumble grumble grumble, i have important things to do because i'm a BIG FAT BEAR

i have a giraffe hat

CRIKEY! LOOK AT THE HAIR ON THAT PLAID BEAST!

wooing the emus

i effing loved the zoo. i hadn't been to one in about 10 years, and i cooed at all the animals. it was an explosively joyous end to our stint in melly-burn.

we ended up having to head to the airport that evening, as we were about to embark on the new zealand leg of the trip. so, we relievedly bid our crap hotel "BAI" and crammed onto a very full bus to get to the airport.

next, you wonder? no big deal, just meeting up with HORDES of friends in new zealand, amazing dinners, segway tours, and much, much more! until we meet again, my fine-feathered friends!

peachy keen,
lileen