The store is closed! We started cleaning up the store from yesterday, but there are so many things we have to pack and ship to other stores. Because the store is big, it's not easy to do. I think I was counting hangers and long steel sticks (hang hangers) and packing them. I hope we can clean up most of things by tomorrow, so I get to have couple days before I leave Japan!!

I am finally leaving Japan tomorrow. Before I came back to Japan, I was really sad because I didn't wanna come back to Japan at all. So, I thought staying Japan for three months would be like forever. However, three months were really fast!! I made really good friends through working at Murasaki Sports. Now, I feel I don't wanna go back to Chicago because of them. They set up a little farewell party for me tonight! I had a really good time, but also I was really sad. I never thought I would be able to make someone I can call "best friend" in three months, so it was really cool. I wish I could do more things with them because now they have lots of free time. I think I am gonna miss my new friends so much!!

I am baaaaack!! After the looooong trip, I finally came back to Chicago! It is really nice to be back here. Before I left Japan, my friends came to the station to say good bye to me. Also, they even gave me farewell gifts!! I was super touched by that! I felt so sad and didn't wanna come back here, but once I got to the States, I was sooooo happy. Matt picked me up at the airport, and we stopped by Public I to see Melissa! It was so nice to see these two guys again!! We went out to get Mexican foods after she got off work. I had been craving Mexican foods so bad because I couldn't find any Mexican foods in Japan!! I really miss all my friends in Japan, but I am really happy to be back here!!

I am having pretty bad jetlag since I came back here. Usually, I am pretty good at getting over with jetlag, but this time is kinda different. I think that's because I had a job in Japan and I had to wake up 7:30am every day.

Today, I went to the downtown because I knew if I didn't go out, I would fall asleep in the afternoon!! I was gonna check all stores there, but it started raining pretty hard, so I just went to record store and came back!! I was so mad when I got off L because it stopped raining! Life is so hard!

I like Target. But, I do not like Target I go to here. Today, I had to go to Target to pick up some stuff. So, I went there around 1pm. I wasn't expecting to see lots of people there, but, indeed, there were so many people!!! For some reasons, there were lots of latino people with children!! That means, madness!!! The thing I hate the most in the store is people standing in the middle of aisle which happened alot today at Target. I thought I was gonna go crazy!!! I think I am gonna go to different Target from the next time!

I haven't been updating my blog lately, so here is what happened in the past couple days.

"International Orientation at Loyola"
I went to the international orientation last Thursday. I thought it was mandatory, but actually it wasn't... The orientation was from 9am, so I went to the gym around 6am, came back and then, went to Lakeshore campus. The orientation was super ultra boring. I think it was for students who study in the states for the first time. Since I have been hanging around here for a while, it was totally wasting my time. I even didn't try to talk to anyone because I was tired, sleepy, grumpy, and anti-social!! I took off during the break because couldn't stand staying there anymore!

"Priyada's Moving"
Priyada and her boyfriend, Josh, moved in together on Friday. Priyada has been living in Chicago, but Josh was moving from Bloomington, Indiana (yes he was IU student!). So, of course, I helped them moving. There were some happy helpers for them, so it wasn't bad at all to help their moving. After we emptied the moving truck, we took a break with some alcohol! Then, couple hours later, we were too drunk to drive home, so we just stayed their new apartment! I have no idea when I passed out, when I realized I was sleeping on the couch and two other guys were sleeping on the floor! We went to Ihop to have lovely breakfast/lunch. I ordered pancake and French fries, but when I was eating my basket of fries, chicken fingers suddenly appeared from the bottom of basket!! As a vegetarian, I was very offended by that!! We cruised several stores after we ate to check A/C because they don't have one yet and their room was super hot. They didn't get A/C, but it was fun to check stores out!

"Boy's night"
After I finally got back from Priyada's (it was 5pm in the evening!) yesterday, Matt and I went out to get some dinner. We went to Thai restaurant on Broadway. It was good, but the restaurant was pretty hot, so we just packed up our foods and came back to my place and starting playing video games. Because he is good at 2D fighting games (capcom games) and I am good at 3D fighting games, it was hard for us to play together. But, we had lots of fun! I really think we should have video game night every weekend!

Last night, I had a dinner at Priyada's house. I was gonna leave there after I ate, but I ended up with leaving their house around 3am!! I drove up there, but I left my car and asked Fernando to give me a ride. I wasn’t drunk at all, but I knew I wouldn't be able to find parking spot because it was pretty late. Of course, I had to pick my car up today. Fortunately, Priyada's house is really close to train station, so it wasn't that bad at all. Since I came back to her house, we went to Thai restaurant for the lunch. We also went to some kinda restaurant which has tons of kind of tapioca shakes. I got banana tapioca freeze which was super ultra good. I couldn't believe I had never been there before!

It was progressively hot day today. It was already hot in the morning and got hotter in the afternoon. Although I was pissed off by today's weather, I was happy until this afternoon. After I came back from the gym, I got phone call from Executive Education office at Loyola regarding the part time position I applied. The lady I talked to seemed to be interested in me, and she told me she will give me call back for the face-to-face interview. I really need a part time job on campus because my loan won't last that long. So, I was pretty happy with the phone call. However, the tragic happened just after I went to Bestbuy to return the hub. When I was driving back to my sweet home, I noticed that the battery light kept turning on. Also, the air condition wasn't working at all. I was so pissed off because it was 96 outside, and I was driving without a/c. I thought maybe the battery is discharged, so I took my car to Toyota. The Toyota guy told me it will cost $96 to check the battery. $96 isn't cheap, but it isn't that bad, so I told him to go ahead and fix my lovely gummpy. I left gummpy there because it was already 3pm and I was thinking to pick him up tomorrow morning. But but, he called me on my cell phone saying some kinda belt has been broken and that's why gummpy wasn't doing well. Also, he told me it will cost $196 to fix it. $196! That's a lot! But, you know I love gummpy, so I told him to go ahead and fix him. But but but, an half hour after his phone call, he called me again to tell me it will cost $250!! $250!!! Dude! I can buy Nintendo Game Cube and two games!! But, you know, I love my gummpy, so I told him to go ahead to make him happy. Well, I wasn't happy at all. I think it sucks! I think all money I made over this summer is gone now!!

I went to Radiohead concert last night. The show was so good. Kid A is still the one of the best albums I have, so I was so happy that they played "Everything in its right place" in the last. The trip to Alpine Vallery was super awful, but I had a really good time in the concert, so everything was cool!

I have been trying to clean up my room since I woke up today, but for some reasons, I cannot clean my room. My school starts from tomorrow, so I really want to clean my room, so I can make fresh and clean start! Oh well, I am gonna keep trying!

I am finally student again! Today was my first day of the school. I was really excited to go back to the school because I like being student! When I went to the first class, someone called my name. I wasn't sure who it was, but it was Sarah! Sarah and I used to work at Dr. Hetrick's lab when we were undergraduate. I knew she is going to be in the same program, but I didn't recoganize her because she got haircut and has short hair now! It was really nice to see someone I know from the college. As I expected, there were only two guys in the first class (including me!). I hope I will be able to talk to those girls because I am a shy guy you know!

I have classes only two days a week, Monday and Wednesday (both 1:30pm to 8:30pm...ugh). So, I have tons of free time during the week. Well, I thought I have until today. I had counseling skill class from 6pm tonight, and the instructor just gave us full lecture in the first day of class, and also, of course, homework too. The homework is to have a 10 minutes interview with in-class partner and transcribe whole conversation. He requires us to record entire interview and turn in with transcription. Well, since I do not have fucking voice recorder, I guess I gotta buy one!! Actually, I was thinking to buy one, so that's alright. One thing I don't like about my program is there are more students than I expected. I thought it would be 15 ~ 20 students in my program, but actually there are 30 ~ 40 people in the program. Of course, some people are part time and some people are in the different counseling program. But, since we have to take pretty much same classes in the first year, every class I went were all packed like a mug!! I am not really used to have a class in small super packed room because I had never had that kinda experience at IU. Also, some people don't seem to be so intelligent....because they were asking stupid questions over and over which made me so frustrated! Just shut up and listen to the instructor!! Oh well, I guess I had too much expectation about being grad student...