明けましておめでとうございます HAPPY NEW YEAR!

今年もよろしくお願いします！

今年の（いや厳密には去年の）冬の最大イベントは、人生初スキーでした☆大学から上京するまでずーっと、日本でもアメリカでも南に住んでたのでウィンタースポーツと縁がなくて。大学の友達に「スキー行ったことない」って言う度に「えー、うそぉ！？なんでぇー！？」と言われまくり、↑こう弁解しつつも内心「うるせーよ」と思ってたけど。。もうそんなことしなくていいもんね♪♪

楽しかったです☆　が、もういいわ、って感じです 笑　言い過ぎか。とりあえず、今季はもういいや。すっごく楽しくはあったんだけど、妹と議論した結果、やっぱり九州乙女・夏生まれ・夏好きには「寒い」。「滑るのが楽しい」よりも「寒い寒い寒い！」もっと滑れたらそうでもないのかなぁとも思ったけど、やっぱりリフト乗ってる間（あと待ってる間も！）は動けずかなり寒いわけで。とか言ってる割には、横を颯爽と滑るスノボを憧れのまなざしで追ったのでした。よし、じゃ来年はスノボでっ　笑

I hope we'll keep in touch this year, too!!

The best part of this winter break was skiing... first time ever in my life!!! Untill I moved to Tokyo for university, I had always lived in the southern cities, both in Japan and in the US, and had no chance of encountering winter sports. Whenever I tell my friends at school (in university) that I had never gone skiing, they all go, "What, really?? Why not??" and I'd always told my excuse, explaining my former residents in the south, but seeing the words, "shut up," appearing in my head. BUT not anymore!!!

It was EXCITING!!! Only, I won't crave for the secound chance... ok, I mean, I won't crave for the secound chance this winter ;P It really was fun, but for my sister and I, who were brought up in the south, born in summer and who love summer... we concluded, "skiing is COLD, period." I thought over it might have been more fun if I were better at it, but still, getting on that ski lift (and waiting in the line, too!) almost made me a smowman!! But I still remember how cool the snowboarders looked when they passed by me sliding elegantly :D ...ok, I'll snowboard next winter lol  

雑誌の有効活用 effective use of magazines

昔は毎月雑誌（ファッション誌）を買っていたこともありました。けどやめました。気付いたんです。。もったいなーい！！だって１冊￥500以上、２ヶ月で￥1000＋α！！！月２冊以上買ってたこともあったな！なのに雑誌ってすぐ捨てちゃうものなんだよね。そのお金、絶対もっと有用な物に使えたはず！あと、私が求めてる情報は、実は買う雑誌の30％以下。まず、アメリカの雑誌ほどじゃないけど広告が多い。それに、私が参考にしたいのは服飾品やインテリア、料理やコスメくらい。でも、女性誌には風水とか占い（信じないどころか嫌悪）、芸能関連（あんま興味がない）、「こういう女の子がカワイイ☆」「人気者になるには★」みたいな特集（ためになるのかしら。。いやするべき！？）、赤の他人の恋愛話（聞いたってねぇ 笑）等がとーっっても多い！！「自分に合う雑誌じゃないのかなぁ」と思って他のを見てみても、服の系統が違うだけで後は同じような感じ。う～ん。。

と思って、毎月購読するのはやめました。けど、だからと言って全く買わなくなったわけではありません！今は３～４ヶ月に１、２冊くらい。ちらっと見て雰囲気が気に入った時だったり、衝動買いだったり、まぁ色々だけど…。でも、いつも買うのは共通して寂しい時 笑　特に、一人で飛行機に乗る時なんかは必ず買ってるかも。だって、飛行機は待ち時間も乗ってる間も飛行場までの行き来も。。一人は暇すぎる！！あとは、なんとなく一人で馬場歩きしててふらっと寄ったコンビニで買ったり。そして昨日も、家に帰ったら鍵がかかってて閉め出されたので、近くのスーパーで雑誌を買って、これまた近くの公園で読んだのでした。寒かったー 笑

あともう一つ！読み終わった雑誌をそのまま捨てちゃうのもやめました。私は自分で色々作るのが好きなので、いつか参考になるかもしれない「これ可愛い！」と思ったのを切抜いといて、でっかいノートにコラージュします。まぁ確かに流行り廃りはあるけど、そんなに流行りものに目が行く方ではないので気にしなーい。コラージュって、配置とか色・形のバランスとかがけっこう難しくてね。。楽しいし、けっこう勉強にもなってるのかもしれません 笑

I used to buy one magazine (women's) per month, but not now. I realized... what a waste of money it was!!! A magazine costs more than $5.00 or so, which makes it more than $10.00 in 2 months!!! Surely, I should use the money to something more worth spending, after all, magazines are something that's not kept for long! And the other thing is magazine pages consist of too many ads! (American magazines are cheeper, but they're almost all ads :O) The information I need is about fashion, interior, cooking/baking, or cosmetics... but most of the pages are filled with fortune telling (I hate them, they're rediculus), gossips about celebreties (not so interested), "how to be a cute girl" or "girls like this are popular" kind of lesson-type stuff (are those any use to anyone?? okay, should I act as it ways?), or talks of love affairs of somebody I don't know (I'd rather listen to my friends' stories ;P)!!! I wondered maybe I should look for magazines different from what I'd usually been buying, but no, that wasn't the problem because just the types of fashion varies from magazine to magazine, and the other useless information (for me) is all alike. Hmmm....

So I stopped bying magazines, month after month. But I still buy them... about once of twice in every three or four months. Perhaps when I happened to find one with a cute cover picture or had a impulse to buy one. Reasons vary, but one thing is always common... that is, whenever I'm feeling lonely lol Especially,I definitely buy one everytime I have to get on a plane by myself!! Taking a flight is so boring... commuting to the airport, waiting at the airport, and while flying!! I sometimes buy it on my way home from school, if I was walking by myself. And yesterday, too, I had to buy one becuase I was locked out when I got home; I went to the nearest grocery store, grabbed the magazine, and read it in the nearest park from my house :P oh, yeah, it was cold!!

But I don't just read and throw them away anymore! Because I like making stuff by myself, I cut out and keep pictures of whatever I found pretty, thinkng of making something similar, and keep a notebook of fashion collage!! It's actually fun but difficult... concidering balance or shapes and putting them in the right places... You shold try it, too!!

はぁ。 sigh---

今日は学部のSILS主催のTOEICを受けて来ました。。タイトルから分かるように、撃沈↓↓アメリカから帰国してすぐ、数週間内に受けたのとは違い過ぎる手応え…。やっぱり５ヶ月のブランクは長かったのかなぁ。問題はリスニングでした。前回も「早い！」とは思ったものの、「先に問題読んでみよう」「今度は後に読んでみよう」「集中できるかもしれないから目をつぶって聞いてみよう」とか色々試す余裕があったのですが、今日は全く。聞き取れなくて、焦って焦って、そのまま次の問題まで聞いていなかった、なんてことが何回も。ちょうどテストの前に同じ大学に留学していた子に会って、前回の自分のスコアが彼より５点（おそらく１問分！）低いことが発覚！！だから、悔しい～絶対越してやる～、って挑んだのにぃ。。よーし、勉強してリベンジしてやるー！

I took a TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) today, and as you can tell from the title... it was terrible :< I did take one before, right after I came back from the States, but, oh, what had happened to me in the past 5 months? The hard ones are the listening part. Last time, I did feel they spoke too fast, but I guess I was calm enough to try many ways to answer, like "let's read questions first and listen," "let's listen first and then read and answer," or "let's try and close my eyes and listen, and see if I can concentrate better,"... But today, I was so surprised at how I couldn't comprehend that I missed two or three questions in a row, panicked, for a few times. Just before I took the test, I talked to a guy who had studied at the same college in the States and found out that he beat me by 5 points (which is probably one question) on the TOEIC score! So I said to myself, "I'm so jealous! I'll beat him this time!" and took the test, but it didn't turn out well at all!!! Ok, I'm gonna study, and revenge that TOEIC test!!!  

歯医者大好き♪ i love that dentist!!

昨日は初バイトの日でもあったけど、でもやっぱりそれよりももっと特筆すべきことがっ！！！（やっぱり今日も長い）

私はけっこう前から額関節（顎）が悪くて、そのために歯の矯正もしたんだけど、結局顎の症状は変わらず…なので、この夏休みから大学病院に通ってました。まぁ顎自体はずーっと今の状態で変わってないし、生活にあんまり支障はないからここではどうでもいいです 笑　で、担当だったS先生は優しくて、医者なのにエラそうでもなくて、まぁちょっと頼りなさそうで大丈夫かよ、って思うこともあったけど、普通に好きでした。でも…昨日「あのーほんと申し訳ないんだけど、今度入院患者の方を診る事になったので、担当できなくなるんだぁ。。ごめんねー」って言われました。内心「はぁ！？怒」と思いつつ「えー医者とか変わったらまた面倒くさそうやな。。っちゅーかそんなんいいんかなぁ…」と不安になったのですが、「で、次回から担当を引き継いでもらうK先生です。」って紹介された人が、実はそうとうかっこよかったです 笑　「あ、この人診察中にもおった人！！口開けちょん時は気まずいけん先生の顔とか見れんかったけど（毎回４人の先生がつく 汗）、シルエット的にかっこよさそうな人がおるな～っち思っちょった人やん！えーうそーやったぁ☆」

なので、それから話を聞いたり次の診察の予約を決めたりする間、「この人かっこいー☆」と思って凝視してたら、必要以上の笑顔をこらえるのに必死でした 笑 だから次回から歯医者楽しみです～♪♪幸か不幸か、妹（高２）も全く同じ症状で同じように通ってます。しかも昨日は私の後に診察 笑　だったので、バイト後意気込んで「なぁ、先生変わったやろ！？そーとーかっこいいよなー☆やったなぁ♪♪」と話しかけたら、そこまででもない、と言われました 笑　ちょっとかっこいいなぁとは思ったけど、そうとうではないよ、って言われました。いーもん。一人で喜んでやるっ！！

Yesterday was my first day at work but that’s not what I wanna talk about!! (It's loooong again)

I had a problem with my jaw joint for long, and had worn braces, too, but that didn’t help much. So from this summer, I started going to see a doctor at a university hospital. My condition of jaw has been the same and it doesn’t bother me at all so forget about that for now. The thing is, my doctor, Dr. S was a really nice guy, he wasn’t too proud of himself, which is rare for doctors, and I thought he was ok. But yesterday, he said, “Um… I’m really sorry, but I’ll be transferred to examine hospitalized patients… and can’t be in your charge anymore.” I was like, “WHAT!? You irresponsible bra…  but does that happen often? Am I gonna be ok…?” and I was worried inside, when he said, “And this is Dr. K, and he’ll be taking care of you instead of me.” The truth was, he was so handsome!!! :D I thought, “Oh--- I kinda remember seeing him in the corner of my eye  when I was being examined (every time there are 4 doctors on me :P ) and thought he could be handsome!! Yay, it was you!”   

So after that, when I was talking to him deciding when to come next and all that, I had a really hard time trying to keep me from smiling too much, staring at him, thinking, “He is sooooo handsome!!” ;P So I just can’t wait to go see that dentist again! Luckily or unluckily, my sister (17) has the exact same problem with her jaw joint and has been seeing the doctor at the same hospital. Actually, she turned out to be the very next patient after me lol  After I come home from work, I was so excited to talk to her about it and asked, “hey, our doctor in charge changed, right?? Did you see him??? Don't you think he’s soooo handsome!?” But she just said she didn’t think he looked THAT good… she said he was ok. Darn… but that’s ok, I’m still looking forward to seeing him :P