Sachi Imai is my friend from Japan whom I met at a body building competition through mutual friends. Yes, we have a friend named Fiona who is a competitive female body builder. Anyways, that was two years ago and we're still great friends. I haven't been back to Japan in a year, so I was SO happy that she would come back to visit and bring my beloved little Kotono aka "BooBoo" with her. Little BooBoo is bilingual in English and Japanese. She also just happens to be cute as a button.
Well, anyways, Sachi and BooBoo came here on September 5th and stayed for week. They flew back to Japan on September 11th. Chotto Kowai! They made it back safely. Sachi's friend, Rui, also came on September 5th, but she left a few days earlier to visit some other cities.
I had a BBQ in their honor on Sunday, September 10th and quite a few people showed up with their own special dishes. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, because I was busy trying to start the fire on the grill.
The weekend before they left, my friend, Michelle Oney, from high school came up to visit me and also to meet Sachi. It was great. They all got along so well.
Enjoy the pictures!
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Sunday, September 17, 2006
Tennessee
Yet again, my family took a caravan of 6 cars (including mine) to the Knoxville area of Tennessee for a family vacation. I have always been in school or out of the country when they've gone there. It's quite beautiful and there seems to be SO much to do! I can't believe how much stuff there is to see and do there. The shopping was a amazing!
Below are some pictures of my sister-in-law and my nephews as we took a roadtrip from southern Virginia (where I picked her and my nephews up). We went through these mountains and stopped at this overlook called "Lover's Leap" along the way. I can't remember if we were in North Carolina, Virginia or Tennessee, but it certainly was beautiful. There was this nice couple that were so nice to take pictures of us. We also drove through this Country Fair in this town in southern Virginia. We totally sat in traffic along the rows and rows of stands selling anything from teriyaki chicken to funnel cake. It was kinda cool because the traffic was going so slow that I got out of the car and bought some food along the way. The journey took 10 hours for me total, because I was coming from Washington, DC. NEVER AGAIN! All for my nephews though.
Below are some pictures of my sister-in-law and my nephews as we took a roadtrip from southern Virginia (where I picked her and my nephews up). We went through these mountains and stopped at this overlook called "Lover's Leap" along the way. I can't remember if we were in North Carolina, Virginia or Tennessee, but it certainly was beautiful. There was this nice couple that were so nice to take pictures of us. We also drove through this Country Fair in this town in southern Virginia. We totally sat in traffic along the rows and rows of stands selling anything from teriyaki chicken to funnel cake. It was kinda cool because the traffic was going so slow that I got out of the car and bought some food along the way. The journey took 10 hours for me total, because I was coming from Washington, DC. NEVER AGAIN! All for my nephews though.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
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.
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.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
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.
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.
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