"Forget the year party"

THE Japs have a tradition of having forget-the-year parties during the year end, to mark that the year has come to an end, that it's time to reminisce about the good times and forget the bad things in that year. My circle had it as well, and it was a lot of fun. An all-you-can-eat-and-drink yakiniku (bbq)! So here are some photos of the Jap version of bbq......in a restaurant mind you, not outside!!!

ps. This should have been posted before the Christmas one.....but too lazy to change so....hehe

last post of the year?

Oh well...Christmas came and left....so did my 21st. Can't believe that I'm officially legal in every (i think) single country in the world! WOW!

Didn't go to church on Christmas Day *gasps*. Kinda overslept...hehe... I had planned a Christmas cum birthday bash for that night in the dorm, and the turnout was great, almost 20 people! It's a small lounge next to my room, so if more than 10, it's already a nice cosy place. I managed to decorated that place with my pareo cloths (those things are just wonders!!) and lots of candles and yellow light. nice setting don'T u think?

In a nutshell, it was great fun, a good balance between foreigners and Japanese, good food (it was potluck) and great music (by me, of course ^_~) Here are some photos...not all of them are well taken as the lighting wasn't that good, and the flash kinda spoilt the ambience, but just for a feel on how I spent Christmas this year. For a first time in J-land, it has been a great one ^_^

Happy Christmas!

Dearest Everyone!

Happy Christmas! The year end is finally here! For all those who are back home, have all the fun on behalf of me too, ok? Your thoughts shall keep me warm in this cold country... ^_~

A big thank you to everyone who has made my life worth living, you all know who you are, thank you for being such wonderful friends. Love ya all to death!!As this year ends and a new year approaches, come what may people, I will be here still for all of you!!!

Have a great Christmas, may God give you a double triple x100 doses of blessings!!

love, joycie

Be-earliered Christmas Party in the dorm

hmmm
more photos!!
actually, the christmas pary was on the same day as the dance party. the dance party was in the afternoon while the other one was of cos, at night.

photos were actually taken after it was over, just to let u all see some of the folks that i hang out with.

dance party

alright...some waltz...cha cha cha...move right, take a step back...!!

my circle's annual dance party.... oh, did i mention that I'm doing ballroom dancing? ^_^ here are some photos from the party on the 11th last week.

i've no idea how the photos order's going to be. just a brief explaination.
1. Klara, Kirsty and me
2. Photo of the four pairs for the christmas waltz presentation
3. us on the train, exhausted.......

"Sugar Daddy? I'm a sugar man." - Nikhil

cold cold cold

well, even if i don't write, i could at least upload some photos.... thinks me ^_^
here, here; well said!! LOL

so here are some....from my hike up to Mt.Takao 3 weeks ago.... nice big group of foreigners.... the essense of globalisation...

halloween....

A pumpkin from me to you!!!

.......

Couldn't really figure out a topic, but they insist that I put one, so..... :) It's November already! ENd of the year! Yikes!! Right now I'm more worried on surviving the next few days, weeks, months to even care which year I'm living in...boo...

Sometimes I don't know what to write. Probably a brain defect on my part. I never say anything intelligent anymore, can't spell for me life, and really, I've no idea what I'm thinking about as I write this. OH well, one of those "moments".

Each time I hear Alanis's That I would Be Good, I wonder if I'll ever be that. Inner demons are scary monsters that pry on your sanity. I would give anything to not succumb, or maybe not. Temptations are awfully tempting, wish I didn't make so many promises to not give in...gah.

What's wrong with me?
I wish i knew. Someone answered nicely that there's nothing wrong with me, it's the whole world that's screwed up....hmm...thought to ponder. Maybe I shld do a huge survey and incoporate it as one of the many "social studies" material. Kill two birds with one stone, yeah!

If u stayed with me till the end of this, thank you for ur time, hope it wasn't a waste. Great stuff :-)

a passing note

OH gosh, before I knew it, it's been 2 weeks since I last wrote. Can't believe it. Time sure flies, too much for my liking...psh!

Quick update: life's a bitch. But then again, what's new about it eh. Some ppl has ben asking me about my MSN "coffee and cigarettes" line, so I'll answer them now. NO, am not smoking, although sometimes I do wish that I could just do that. Now I know why ppl says that stress makes a person want to smoke more. But no worries, I am not going to be doing that, so you can all breathe. As for coffee, can't drink that, and no change it that, so that's that. The line came from a movie "Coffee and Cigarettes". It's a rather interesting film, you might wanna give it a short. But be warned that it's a rather long black-and-white thing, you might get bored off your pants halfway through....

Major books atm? "Le Suicide:Etude de Sociologie" by Emile Durkheim. Ppl over here have been giving me rather strange looks when they see me reading this book. No, am not a suicide fanatic(might have suicide tendencies...?!), it's actually my textbook. It's a classic sociology book, thus it's a must for socio majors to read it...yeah..ok..whatever. Not progressing much, but have to admit, it's one rather interesting book. Try it when you're bored, if not, stay clear away fr it...

Oh well, back to class...Spanish class was canceled, that's why I've got time to write. Hitting French next....brr...

cheers folks!
Have a great week, wherever you are!!

*closer*

THAT should be the film of the week.... Just finished watching Closer, the film with Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and etc. It's quite good actually, definitely a discussion film. Well, I personally like it, so there... it's my recommendation for the week.

Putting that aside... my week, has been hell. What a mess. Ever since returning here, I find one obstacle after another, one letdown after another. Seriously, if I'm asked to name the worst period of my life, I would say that NOW's a good answer. Other than my complusory classes being set at the same time, (I ended up "discussing" with the admin to change my schedule which resulted to nothing, so guess I'll have to hang out there more...grrr) I've also got a killer timetable to compliment it. And on top of that, my personal life ain't that great either, and my eating and sleeping habits have also jumped off the roof. I feel like I'm waging war with myself and my life... How typically normal.... Welcome to my life... any takers?!

So, what are my options? No idea. Study harder? Sure, to my grave. Yeah, life's a bitch but than again, life has always been one. IF you're wondering how I became so pessimistic and dark, well, welcome to the new side of me, sorry it took me so long to show ya all...psh...

So, it's all good, or it's all going to be good?! We shall see...


--Try lying for a change; it's the currency of the world.--
Jude Law in Closer

Europe Photos

Finally got the Europe photos up!!!! IT's in my Yahoo photos thingy. Access is by email invite only, so you've gotta drop me a note if you want to view it.

cheers!

joycie

Photo.

Just realised that I've never shown you guys any pictures of Marc. So here. Us at St.Peter's Square, in front of the Basilica.

back to school

ever get sick of that phrase? after all these years, we still at the education sector.

Well, classes officially starts today... boo! This sem is going to be tough I believe, let's see how well I'll survive it. If I do horribly, then I'm going to suck the next to years too, since I can't handle the prologue, don't think I'll be able to handle the real thing!! *shvers*

yeah, yeah, that was my inner fear talking, sigh. Had to release it somehow before it ate me alive...scary thought...

Well, time for me to start revising my thai and italian... 3 straight periods of languages... i must be mad! but then again, when am i never not? ~_^

weekend in Paris

There's this book written by a Sophie something English woman titled "Weekend In Paris". The excitement of partying on a boat, meeting a guy and so on just seems rather possible and far fetch at the same time. Somehow, I did wonder if my first weekend would be like that, but then again, reality bites. boo

But, that aside, I did spend a rather nice weekend. Sightseeing included Le Jardin de Tuileries (Garden of Tuileries), le tour Eiffel, Arc de Triompe and Champs-Elysees. Well, they were all on the same 5km long street! It starts from the Lourve, but that's for today, one whole glorious day in the Lourve. Yippie!

Went to the movies too. Man, so much cheaper than Japan, but can't beat home though. Well, can't complain too much either, although I do wish that they would stop the free-seating nonsense.

Did I ever mention that french food is fabolous but they serve in too large a portion? I know it should be "do as the Romans do", but heck, I just can't stomach that much of good food!! "Lucky" Julien ends up eating for me, guess the way through a guy's heart is his stomach?! *lool Lucky me...!

Oh well oh well, time to get moving on. Will never get to the Lourve if I seat here writing all day, now would I? :p

oh yeah!

did i mention that i went to Geneva as well? oh, it was so sudden. We were on our way to Annecy, and the highway takes us past Geneva, and Julien's dad just went: "oh, why not go to Geneva as well?" and voila... i was there for probably like 30mins.... just to take the picture of the symbol of Geneva, the "jar d'or".... madness!!

still ALIVEEEEEEEE

Yo people! By now I think some of you would have
1.recieved my long email
2.slaved through my long email
2.thrashed my long email

well, either way, i won't get mad, so no worries =) i just hate you from a distance, it's ALL good folks!

YEs, Europe is fabulous, France is great, Italy was even better. And no, no one is supposed to repeat what I just said.

Can't believe that it's already my 4th week here. Time flies so fast that I don't want it to fly more!!! urgh...! Miss you all loads, wish all of us were here together instead of just me you know. Screw the language, we'll be fine regardless.

ANyway, it's my last week in Lyon, will be heading off to Paris on Friday. More visiting around... =) can't wait...

Until then, I'll leave you guys with some photos... or it just one?!

don't be a hypocrite in front of me!!

I've never beeeeeen so pissed off.... as far as I can remember. On monday, I gave a presentation on fansubbing, it works, legality etc.(for all those who dunno, i think i wrote about it a couple of months back...go check).

Now, during the Q&A, I was seriously bullied.. boo! Instead of asking me questions about fansubbing, I was bombarded with questions about how to stop people from downloading those fansub episodes. I kept on repeating that no law will be able to successfully stop people from doing so, that it all depends on the individual. But no, bloody classmates, 2 actually, insistently argued back on how it's useless, but yet proceed to give me suggestions on how to stop them. ARGH... I was so ticked off! Best part? They admitted downloading those things also. If I had a clearer head then, I would have said: IF you really want to stop people from ripping of the internet, why don'T you be the example? ARGH...WASTED.

Note to all: Fansub is considered illegal, hence on general, only unlicensed anime will be fansubbed. A licensed anime is defined as having its distribution rights bought by a foreign company, in most cases, an American company, since the US is considered to hold the biggest market. The purpose of fansubbing is to allow anyone to have access to subtittled animes currently shown or only available in Japan. Thus once some company outside of Japan buys its rights and distribute it, fansubbers usually stop fansubbing that particular anime.

Lesson of the day:
1.don't contradict yourself
2.don't be a hypocrite in front of me.
3.don't tell me what to do if you don'T do it yourself.

If you can't comply with these, then piss off.
If you didn'T get what I was on about, it's fine. Just that t's already wed but I'm still pissed. Had to release it somewhere....

what's on my head

after spending about an hour thinking on what to write concerning japanese immigration and identity, i'm really getting stuck, not to mention pissed. who would have thought that some japanese youths still believes in the pure blood thing?! come to think of it, i think somewhere else too was very much into all this pure blood shit. Must be that Draco Malfoy influence...humph!

apart from that, moving on to something less serious...

looks like the bd thingy shld be either on the 5th or 6th Aug. You guys need to let me know which date is better. We suggest potluck, and venue could either be my place, or Su's. Juni's another option too, but need to check with her. Yeah, you may crash the night. Oh yes, I need to know how many ppl can come, cos i would love to get everyone something, so either you let your presense known, or recieve no present! it's your choice....muahahahahahhahaa

i'll be back in 5 weeks! Cheers!!!!!!!!

birthday bash!

Yo people!! Since we all turn 21 (ohmigosh, legally adult in every single country in the world.....) this year, regardless of the month, I think we should all celebrate in together in one big bash in august, when we all come back. What do you all think? Since it's a very special occasion, we shouldn'T miss the chance to celebrate it together. the probable dates are between august 3rd-10th. Please let me know what you think, and which day is good for you asap.......... you can leave it in the comment section and let me know.

well, stil more than a month away....but... hehe.... kinda getting excited about it, now that I know that YeanYik and Lifan will be back too! Plus Su and Cindy and WeiMing and me, GREAT!!!!!!

cheers!

I scared myself

Yesterday has been an eventful day. It started out as any other normal day, classes in the morning, then lunch with Mei Yen, a CCC staff, and then we went to the gym together. Other than the rain because of typhoon #4, it was as normal as any other day.

So what happened? There I was, working out happily in the gym when my stomach started to ache (period pain). So i went to the bathroom to compose myself and when I got out, took one look at the mirror, took one more step, and passed out. Thank GOd that it was in the locker room, and a lady caught me before i hit my head on the floor. Thank God too that i met another friend by accident there, if not for her painkillers, I would have gone to the hospital!

Few things that I learnt from this: God is amazing! He provided me with friends that just happened to be there, and even sent me home. Wow. The other thing is that there's only one body, one JOyce, so if I don'T start being careful, I'll be.....(touch wood)

OH yeah, FYI, i'm fine now. Don'T end up like me people!! ^_^