A surprise trip to New York and back to our regularly schedule programming!

Pictures left to right: Pizza, Jenna and Becky...I mean Darth and Storm Trooper, blue cat (Ashley) person and...the girl in the pearl necklace (Rachel), a lone peach, me and my new kittens who are tentatively Sherlock/Sirius and Watson/Dorien

And now we are entirely caught up! Over winter break I ventured back to New York. I did not tell anyone, however, that I would be returning except for my mother and Rachel and so I spent the first few days surprising those close to me such as my father (whose mouth fell open and dropped all his bags on the floor), Madi (who started to yell at me to leave because she thought I was a ghost), Josephine (who let off a high pitched squeal and then proceeded to yell at me for being so sneaky), and my cousin Sierra (who grabbed me and proceeded to stroke my hair as though I’d been rescued from a burning building)! It was wonderful fun and a fantastic nineteen days in which I saw as many people as possible, went to the movies a few times, did a ton of shopping, and generally enjoying New York.

I got the chance to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie (three times…) as well as Avatar in 3D. I didn’t get a chance to see The Young Victoria, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, or The Princess and the Frog, but those I can watch on DVD. I also picked up Chaplin and the first season of Fringe on DVD, which I’ll take my time to enjoy on off days here in Kyoto.

The day after I returned to Kyoto, school began, and so I spent a jetlagged two days of class. Last night was Julia C’s birthday party and so we went to the new TGI Fridays on Kiyamachi (a truly Japanese experience…really) before heading to our favorite bar Milan’s, where he surprised her with a cake and a bottle of rum. It was wonderful, the amount of people who showed up to celebrate her birthday!

As I left my cell phone in New York—it is now en route to Kyoto, though won’t be here till Tuesday due to the holiday on Monday—I suspect that this weekend will be rather quiet. I spent today cleaning, writing, and reading, as well as spending some quality time with my host mother putting the kotatsu (heated table) together and eating Reece’s after dinner.

On Tuesday, school will be in full swing, but this semester I have three afternoons free a week, so I suspect more trips will be made to Kyoto shrines and Osaka in the coming months in my spare time. I have five months left in Kyoto and have no intention of slowing down! I want to see and do as much as I can!