This is my friend, Eva, and her boyfriend, Ian. They're so cute together. They were living in Japan together and then they came back and spent the summer in Vermont and then took a trip cross country to move into their new place in Oregan. How cool! I wish that I could do that. See you soon guys! 

Long Time, No Hear

Well, I've been gone for a while now. My computer crashed back in May and I had to get a new laptop. It was fate that I got a new one because I would've never been able to get a new one at any other time on my crappy budget.

Since my last entry, I left Women for Women International (www.womenforwomen.org ), but I remain a donor. I am now sponsoring a sister in Rwanda and her name is Vestine Mukangwije. I wrote my first letter to her and I hope that she gets it soon. I will sponsor her for one year, where she will take job skills training classes and learn about her rights as a woman and a citizen. After one year, she'll graduate and hopefully start her own income-generating enterprise. I'm so excited about being her sister. She had 9 kids, but one of them is not alive. I hope that she'll feel comfortable enough to tell me more about this in her letter.

As for the women of Women for Women Int'l, they're still my friends. I really loved my time working there and I still keep in contact with many of the women there. Now I work at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington as a program assistant. This is where the State Dept. trains it's diplomats/foreign service officers. It's a great environment to work in, but I know that I won't be there forever. #1, because I'm a contractor and #2, because I am looking for a government job. I have my plans though. It's the perfect place for me to transition. I hope to spend this Fall applying to grads schools that offer MFAs in Creative Writing and possibly taking the Foreign Service Exam. So far, I've made some great contacts at this place and I know that I'll have some great recommendations.

Writing. Yes, everyone's been asking me about this. I had planned to take at least two weeks off between jobs, but FSI came and I got offered the job the same day that I interviewed, so I couldn't turn it down. So now, my dream of having a chunk of time dedicated to writing is gone now, BUT it's no matter, I'm trying to make more time to write everyday. Since I last wrote, I took a class on screenplay writing and I've made very small progress on writing my screenplay, "Brenda." I keep in contact with my instructor, Daniel Christian. He says that if you can make it to page two, then you'll stick to it. So, I've made it to page 3 and realized that I needed some writing software. The formatting for a screenplay is TOO difficult to worry about throughout the writing of 90-120 pages. So, I bought "Writer's Dreamkit." The cool thing about this software is that it was only $40 after a discount and I can use it to write a screenplay, a novel OR short stories. I'm excited about writing right now. Because my Microsoft Word docs weren't salvaged from my last computer (because I was an idiot and I didn't back up my files), I am now having to retype all of the stories into this computer. This is good because now it's like I'm looking at The Adventures of Bianca Sukiyama with a fresh perspective, so look for more on that later... My biggest concern is creating a portfolio of work for my application to the schools for MFA in Creative Writing programs. Wish me luck!

Oh, there's so much to catch up on. Next, I'll write more about my plans to return to the Dominican Republic (by popular demand according to my friend and journalist, William Estevez, and Chicha and Manolo, my adopted parents from back there). I'll also write about my friend, Sachi Imai, and her visit to the States AND hopefully, if I make it to Tennessee this weekend, I'll have some pictures from that.

Europe 2006

This is what I had been saving up my vacation days for, what I had attempted to do while living in Japan (but thought it too expensive) and had saved up my money for: The Big Trip to Europe. It all started when I met Marita, from Amsterdam, while on vacation in Thailand last year. We had both promised that we'd visit each other, so I guess I was first (Marita will come to the U.S. in Nov.). I didn't want to plan too early in advance, because I've found that when you freestyle your trip a little bit, then you're not stuck with one plan, but you can do a little extra. Anyways, Mel and I flew on Iceland Air and the tickets were a great price. Of course, this meant that we had a layover in Rekjavik, Iceland, but the food was great and so was the service.

Amsterdam
Marita came to pick us up from the airport after a night of partying in celebration of Queen's Day in Amsterdam. We were wondering why there were orange decorations and such around the city.

I found Amsterdam to be quite a good city to start out with because just about everyone spoke English. I was really concerned about running into situations where I was really hungry and couldn't even order food in the local language (like in China). One observation that I made about Amsterdam was the fact that it was SO diverse. Don't get me wrong, America is diverse, but this was diversity on a different level. People from all different races and cultures hanging out with each other. I experience that in my own life, but it was nice to see that in Europe as well. Well, there are tons of stories for Amsterdam, but I'll just let you see the pictures and read the captions.

Marita, Mel and I on a bridge (crossing over into the Red Light district) over a canal. 

Cheeseland -- Marita telling Melissa about all the varieties of cheese that is available in Amsterdam. Mel was really excited about the cheese w/ cumin in it. I was impressed that there was an entirely section of the famous grocery store, Albert Heijn, dedicated to cheese. I LOVE it!

Madame Tussauds

This famous wax museum was so much fun.

I LOVE Prince. Can't you tell?  

Me and Bob Marley are just "Jammin'." 

"Skinny" Oprah interviewing me. 

Rijksmuseum

This was a cute statue of cupid. I think that this one was the copy and the one in the Louvre was the original. I had also seen the copy of "The Kiss" by Rodin in St. Petersburg's Hermitage museum 6 years ago. I assume this is common among famous museums.

Grazyna and Stefan - we met Grazyna when she offered to take our picture while standing in line at the Rijksmuseum. Later, we met Stefan when he came to join us at this Thai restaurant, called "Bird." 

Mel and Grazyna on the canal cruise boat.  

Mel and I on a canal cruise in Amsterdam. 

This strictly-beer shop had imported beer from all across Europe.  

Look at all that beer. 

This is the famous flower market in Amsterdam. This particular stand had the aroma of all kinds of beautiful flowers. I bought some tulip bulbs from here.  

Umm...uh... I don't think that this pic needs much of a description, but the small print reads: Includes: Cannibus seeds, compost, user manual with growing instructions. 

Brussels

I absolutely LOVED this city. It was clean, the layout of the city was totally walkable and it felt so quaint. It was unfortunate that we only stayed for 1 night. We stayed in an amazing hostel that was right in the center of everything. I am definitely adding this city to the list of places to go back to.

Atonium - I think that from the tour I heard that this giant model of an atom was built for the World Fair, but don't take my word for it.

Windmills - On the way to Brussels from Amsterdam. 

The European Union headquarters are in Brussels, this is apart of it.