Japan

So it's official, Ryan and I have applied to go on an exchange to Japan next year. Of course, we've only completed the first step; the initial part of the application (and probably the easiest step) - but the point is that we've done it and we're on our way to Japan next year! :D

Our first choice was Kansai University located on Osaka. It has some really cool sounding courses and we both approve of the location. Here's a link to their website (it's in English, don't worry!) http://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/English/about_ku/index.html So keep your fingers crossed we get our first choice! Our other choices were Doshisha University in Kyoto http://cjlc.doshisha.ac.jp/ryugaku/english/about/index.html and Osaka University http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en

But we'll just see what happens, won't we.

Just keep your fingers crossed for us!

Ryan and I are also going to apply to do a programme called boobooski in Japan over the Summer (summer here, winter in Japan). It's basically just a working programme in Japan in which you work at a ski resort. Here's a link: http://www.boobooski.com/contactus.html

So yeah, big times for us!

Other than that, uni has once again started (yipee...) so I forsee a whole lot of study in our future. A whole lot of study and probably not much sleep... Good times ahead.

Trips and holidays ending

As of today, the holidays are officially over. Shock, horror!

The holidays comprised of... nothing much! Just as they should. Plenty of good reading for me and video game playing for the ryan-ator. Basically, much relaxation.

But near the very end of the holidays, we got our stuff together and actually did something! We took another bus trip. This time to Island Bay (at dad's suggestion again). It was a lovely day, albeit a bit cold (the wind made my face melt).

We took a nice (cold) walk and had a nice coffee.





It was much fun and good to get out of our routine and do a bit of travelling (within a reasonable budget.

In other news, uni today! Ryan and I headed up early to get our textbooks. Well, textbooks in Ryan's case. Lets just say that combined, we spent just over $300. By myself, I just had to fork out around $40. Leaving the rest to Ryan... Yup, this semester is a cheap one for me! :D

Other things...

Good skies in wellington as of late!

The process of painting

I don't know why, but the thought of starting a painting has always been really intimidating for me. Perhaps it's because I usually don't start with a clear image of how it's going to turn out. I always end up putting off painting just because I don't want to start. When you're painting for someone else, however, you have to bite the bullet sooner or later.

I don't know what was so hard about starting this painting either - Claire did all the hard work for me when she told me exactly what she wanted me to paint. All I needed to do was paint it! In the end, it came out quite differently than I was expecting it to in terms of style and whatnot, but I was happy with the final product.

Biting the bullet:

Getting more confident:

Starting on words:

Finished!

I really like painting :)

Family, fun, food

The title says it all: Three words that sum up my weekend.

First of all, happy birthday mother dearest (a week late). Not that I forgot her birthday, this weekend was just a gathering of the Folster tribe to honour her. And oh, what a glorious time was had.

First of all: CLAIRE HAS NO BRACES!!
ProofLots of fun in the kitchen. Dad isn't so tall anymore ;D (as long as mum and I stay out of the picture...)


Erin: "Alice, show me your intense cooking face!"

Making choux (?) pastry.

It was a good time.

Over

Finally, it's all over. No more essays, no more tests... At least not for a whole month or so.

The weekend was fabulous - had a great time with mum and Claire doing many a crafty thing (and a bit of shopping too). Thanks for your time mum and Claire! :D Sorry Ryan and I don't have anything exciting to offer like board games (or pictionary ;D ), hopefully company was sufficient. I had a really great time.

Ryan and I have spent the last few days just relaxing.

And it feels good.

Thus not much to say really, but I thought I'd post a few meals we've had that I had stored on my camera. No recipes though - they needed some fine tuning before unleashing on the world.

First, open burgers with crispy onions and cheesy meat patty



Second, mushrooms stuffed with cottage cheese, spinach and bacon, served with fried polenta squares and chunky tomato sauce.

Happy holidays (well, for me anyway ;D )!

Drawing

It seems there has been a post explosion over the last few days! Lucky you.

That's mainly because I've actually been doing things! *SHOCK, HORROR*

Thing 1: Adventuring (as seen in last post)
Thing 2: Cooking/ baking (as seen in another post)
Thing 3...?

DRAWING.

And lucky you (again) you get to see thing 3. AKA, my most recent masterpiece.

Please enjoy, it took many thoroughly enjoyable hours.

Here's me with my masterpiece:


And here is a closeup of the picture itself:


-Erin.

PS. For the record, there is a thing 4. That is playing Lord of the Rings flute music. Or I should say, exhausting my lungs with my flute. It's so enjoyable I don't want to stop; I usually keep playing until I can't play any more (until I feel like I'm about to faint). The songs I'm currently working on are: In dreams, concerning hobbits, Rohan, Evenstar and Into the west.

PPS. I went on a walk this morning and Phil Goff walked past. I was surprised to say the least.

Adventure

Erin and Ryan's adventure. Version: Lyall Bay


After constant study, Ryan and I were in dire need of some kind of adventure. Apart from food shopping and for uni, we had hardly left the apartment for 2 weeks. And finally, we got the opportunity to do so (Ryan says: I love you [to me] :) ). We decided to go on a journey to Lyall Bay. (Why Lyall bay? Mainly because dad always says "You should go to Lyall Bay!")

We took the bus nice and early yesterday morning.


It was an overcast day, but not too bad. We took a walk along the beach and then went in search of a cafe. After finding two busy and noisy ones, we found an appropriate one and feasted on hot coffee and morning tea.


It was a good adventure. :)

FInished

Finished. Assignments are finally finished.

Sweet sweet relief.

The last two weeks have involved nothing much other than writing, researching and reading. My brain is about ready to burst. The sad thing is that now that I'm all done and having a break (totally deserve it) my brain is just screaming at me to do some more study. All I can say is, no brain. Shut up. I am not an absorbent sponge for knowledge like you. I need a break. And boy do I! Ryan too.

Assignment 1: International relations. 2,500 words. Worth 40%
Assignment 2: Linguistics. 2,000 words + interview. Worth 40%
Assignment 3: Japanese. 1,200 characters. Worth 10%

That's nearly a third of my entire grade this semester within a week.

Makes me sick to think about it.

As such, I would like to formally apologise for not blogging... ever. Whenever I have a spare moment, I'm either reading, cooking or sleeping. Usually sleeping!

But no more!!

They are all done now. All that's left this semester is 3 tests in the last week.

This weekend, Ryan and I are going to go to Lyall Bay, like dad is always suggesting. And on Saturday, I'm going to meet the girl I interviewed for my linguistics assignment for coffee.

Needless to say, It should be the best weekend we've had in... Quite some time :)

- ERIN

April

It has become April.

It's good to see that you've started a blog dad! Really good to read about what's going on at home, but I'm not going to lie, i kind of just skip the sports sections... Sorry :P But your blog seems so much more exciting than mine! I have nothing exciting to talk about apart from university and assignments and tests which is not very exciting at all to be honest.

This week Ryan and I had a ridiculous Japanese test on Monday which we studied for ALL weekend. We've also been working on a drama script for Japanese. Quite often in Japanese, our Japanese teacher tells us about PhD students (because she is one herself) who require test subjects who are studying Japanese. Last year Ryan and I participated in her research, as well as another person's. Both of which just involved little tests. Today we did another for another PhD student, in which we had to do little drama skits in Japanese. They were impromptu and just on topics she picked out for us. It was a good way to practice Japanese, but Ryan spoke a lot more than I did - the situation made me a little nervous and in such situations, I find it hard to formulate sentences in English let along Japanese! Nevertheless, it was really good practice for speaking.

That's probably the most exciting thing we've done lately! Ryan has been sick for the last few days and I've been working hard to look after him. But he's feeling better this afternoon, so that's good :) Hopefully I don't get sick too!

It's getting cold in Wellington. Really cold. Even inside is cold, we might have to whip out the heater soon! :o Holidays are creeping up soon as well, but although I'm looking forward to the break from lectures, I am not looking forward to writing two 2,000 word essays worth 40 per cent each AND a book/article/ thing review in Japanese. But I am looking forward to going back to Palmy for Easter (and the holiday house, too?)

Hope everyone is OK at home :)
love erin

Life

Life is finally starting to pick up pace again. But when I say pick up pace, I actually mean do a billion assignment and tests in a really short space of time. It's pretty dumb, I'm not going to lie. This week Ryan and I had a linguistics test on Monday worth 2o percent of the total grade. The test was on first language acquisition, so basically questions about aspects of children's use of language and the way they learn language. This also includes child-directed speech as it is an important aspect of the process of learning a first language. It was a very fascinating topic, minus the syntax lectures, which are always a little dull, but Ryan and I are both looking forward to moving onto second language acquisition.

Tomorrow, we've got a translation assignment due for Japanese which basically involved translating a documentary script. The documentary is about the population of brown bears living in the Shiretoko Peninsula in Northern Japan. Apparently there are quite a few bears in certain places in Hokkaido and they can be quite dangerous, too! Anyway, that assignment is finished. It wasn't too tough but there were a few sentences which I struggled with, as well as a few nuances of the Japanese language which I am still unsure of how to translate. In addition to this, it's hard to know exactly what level of translation our Japanese lecturer is after, so I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope I've done the right thing.

The assignment I'm working on at the moment is for International Relations and it's about cultural traditions and how they've shaped the structure of state power. I'm feeling confident so far. All my research is done and I've started writing so now I've just got to put my head down and work hard.

Wish me luck!

So that's due next week. Afterwards, I have a Japanese test, Linguistics assignment and Japanese Drama test to worry about. Then 'holidays' in which I'll probably just be doing assignments. Good times.

In other news, Ryan and I are currently seriously considering the idea of going to Japan next year as exchange students (to Japan, of course). We've got a university that we'd like to go to (Kansai University in Osaka) and talked to a student who went on an exchange last year about life and also about how she funded the exchange. There are quite a few scholarships available, however there is no guarantee we will be able to get them. But we'd still really like to go. At the moment, it is incredibly difficult to be motivated for Japanese as Ryan and I have reached the so-called 'intermediate plateau' in which it feels like we aren't progressing at all. It's very awkward, and I feel certain that the only way to become fluent is through complete immersion. Thoughts? We can talk this weekend!

Looking forward to being home :)

Love Erin

Earthquake in Japan

Wow. The recent earthquake in Japan has been absolutely devastating, hasn't it? It has been absolutely horrible to watch about the destruction on the news, especially since Japan holds a special place in my heart. For all those wondering, Shoko, Chie and their family's both OK. Gifu is a fair distance away from the epicentre, and because it isn't a coastal prefecture, they didn't have the worry of any tsunamis. Chie told me that all the trains were stopped in Tokyo. Japan's train system is amazing and always on time, so this is HUGE.

Actually, my Japanese tutor this year is from Sendai, which is were most of the destruction was to the best of my knowledge. But our teachers e-mailed us to let us know that her family is OK which is a relief.

Earthquakes everywhere. Makes the one in Christchurch seem a little more insignificant :/

Poor Japan.

In other news though, the 10 of March marked the English release of the newest POKEMON NINTENDO DS GAMES. Black and white. I couldn't resist. I ordered them off MightyApe for Ryan and I, only to cause huge trouble with delivery. They were to arrive Friday. Courier NZ tracking told me when they had left, arrived in Wellington.... DELIVERED. I was excited. So so excited. Down to the mailbox, nothing. We waited a little, just in case. Nothing. Checked again... Nothing. We even asked the receptionist numerous times. NOTHING. By this time I was a wreck. Waiting with anticipation for the whole week and NOTHING. Arrrg. Called the Courier they said, "Well it's been delivered, have you checked it's there?" ONLY A THOUSAND TIMES O_O They took our details and got back to us. Apparently the Quest (hotel part of apartment) Is notorious for not giving people their parcels (so, slack in other words). Ryan went down. And they had it all along...

Oh well. It's a great, amazing, fantastic game. I probably won't do anything else for the rest of my life... xD

Erin

Apologies

I apologise immensely for my lack of post-age.

I doubt anyone actually looks at this any more because I never post!

But now that we've got the internet up and running, I can post whenever I want and I can even upload photos! Hurrah!


So, what's been up lately, you may ask?

Well, not much to be honest. The last two weeks of the holidays pretty much consisted of relaxing at home. Watching anime, cooking, baking, reading, walking etc. etc. Not to mention sorting stuff out like organisation of the apartment and setting up the internet and whatnot.

Ryan and I took our thermos out a few times and had coffee in various locations. Our favourite was the waterfront and below are two pictures of our adventures.



But now that university has started, both of us are trying to concentrate on study so such events don't happen as often anymore.

But that's OK. :)

Speaking of Uni, it is going very well. Nothing exciting to report, in fact nothing much exciting to report in general. I have tuesday's off and friday's are very cruisey with only one class but the other days are pretty full-on. Other than that though, my classes are generally enjoyable and I already have a few assignments to worry about at the back of my mind.

Well, until next time when I have something actually interesting to write about!

:)

Post

I do apologise - I have been meaning to update my blog. In fact, I've tried a few times and I get as far as uploading photos and then it fails on me. The new internet should be here in about a week and so until then, there will be no photos or detailed posts most likely. For that, I apologise.

Nothing much has been happening in Wellington for me. Just relaxing before uni starts again on Monday (!).

So until I get actual internet, I just thought I'd let everyone know that while I'd like to post some photos of cooking and just of life, but alas, for another week you will just have to keep guessing.

Love Erin