They'll call it chance, or luck, or call it Fate

Last weekend was fun! Leslie, Anna, Lilith and I went to Disney Sea to celebrate Leslie's birthday. Japan is the only place that has a Disney Sea park, so it was cool to get the chance to go to a Disney Park that I hadn't experienced yet. The park was divided into a number of worlds that included Disney worlds, like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, as well as real life places like 1920s New York and renaissance Italy. I think one of the coolest things about the park was the giant volcano in the middle, which actually erupted fire every so often. We didn't get to go on all of the rides, but we did go on some fun ones like Journey to the Center of the Earth (which was inside the volcano) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'd definitely like to go back again when the weather's nicer to check out some of the rides we missed.

This week I finished up teaching my last classes of the semester at work. There's still about a month of school left for the kids, but after finals I pretty much don't have much to do until the new school year actually starts. Finals start this week, so by the end of the week I'll have all of the grading to do. It's kind of a pain, but at least it's something to do as opposed to having nothing constructive to do (which is going to happen a lot over the next month or so).

I went to Kuki yesterday to meet up with Elly and a couple of the other Saitama JETs to celebrate Elly's birthday. We went to a show at Kuki's tiny planetarium and hung out and Elly's place. Her husband cooked dinner for us and Elly had made a delicious vanilla orange fondant cake for dessert. It was nice to see some of the other JETs. I don't live close to many of them, so I don't often hang out with them. I couldn't help feeling slightly out of place in the group though, just because it's clear that they all hang out with each other more than I do. Not that it matters that much though. I have my own friends group that I always hang out with and I'm quite comfortable with. I wouldn't change that.

I opted to stay home today to save a bit of money and take the opportunity to relax a bit. I've got a bunch of stuff to do coming up over these next two weeks, most notably the five concerts that I'll be going to! That'll be a new record for me (for most concerts in the shortest period of time). It starts on Tuesday night when I'm going to go see Buck-Tick with Aki. Then, this next weekend I'll be seeing exist+trace and Mejibray. April's even going to the exist+trace show, too! The weekend after that I'll be seeing my bbs Miyavi and GazettE again. I'm quite excited about all of it! I just want it to come faster! My next entries are probably mostly going to be concert reports, so be on the lookout for that.

Went and saw The Princess and the Frog last night because it's playing at the IMU this weekend. It's a super cute movie! I think it's the best Disney movie that there's been in a while (excluding Pixar movies). The last time I liked a Disney movie this much was when I saw Lilo and Stitch. I liked Tiana's character a lot. I feel like she's a more realistic Disney heroine because she wasn't born a princess and had to go through a lot of hard work to get her happy ending. I also liked that Naveen had a personality, unlike half of the past Disney princes. So, overall this movie made me glee~.

Now, I get to use the rest of my weekend to finish my Gender Studies midterm. Yay. This thing frustrates me so much. And it's not even just the length of it that frustrates me. There's been so much confusion about the first essay question that our professor has had to send us no less than three different e-mails explaining it. Professor, should that not tell you that it's a shitty question?

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2010 will be a good year.

Got back from Disney yesterday. It was a nice time, though it was unfortunately unseasonably cold much of the time we were there and I was quite jetlagged. On Monday, I got to meet up with immelmanturn. We had fun globe-hopping and running amok at Epcot. She filled me in on upcoming group cosplay plans, which I am very excited about. I also saw Illuminations at Epcot with my family that night. The fireworks were great though it was quite cold for Florida weather. My favorite part of the show was when they set part of the lake on fire. Tuesday, my brother's marching band was in one of the parades at the Magic Kingdom, so we spent the day there. Seeing the castle lit up at night was super pretty. I also rode Dumbo with Dad for old times sake. My parents were going to let me go out for drinks with them that night, but I was so tired that I was asleep by probably around 7 PM. Wednesday, we split the day between Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. I think my favorite ride was the Rock n' Rollercoaster. On Thursday morning we went to Downtown Disney, then we flew home later in the afternoon. I got home just in time to go to the New Year's Eve party at Jessie's house, which was nice, if not slightly uneventful. (We did have some fun playing games and relating them to Lady Gaga though.)

I'm a little saddened by my time at Disney. I hate to admit it, but for me a lot of the magic was gone. The last time I was there was when I was eight, so I had a very different perspective on everything coming back thirteen years later. There was still some stuff at Disney that I really enjoyed, but a lot of it seemed little kiddish, or a bit too cheesy for my tastes. I guess I've just grown up. I like to think that no one is too old for Disney, but I think that you definitely get the most enjoyment out of it when you're a child. I don't think the jetlag and the constant Chrismas music (even though Christmas was over) helped the situation either. The only thing that did was make me somewhat grumpy.

Feeling a little better today. I finally had a decent night's sleep, for the first time since getting back from Japan. This is the first time that I haven't woken up, for an hour, in the middle of the night. I'm hoping my internal clock is finally re-adjusting itself. I then started off the day right by playing some of my new copy of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. I've already been making woobly faces at the Axel & Roxas interactions. I can't wait to play more of it! I also added some more fabulous to my life by going out and picking up copies of Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster and Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment. The CDs had been on my Christmas list, but as I found out today, my mother had refused to by them because she didn't approve of them. What am I, five years old? Whatever. I bought them with the Target giftcard my parents gave me anyways. I've enjoyed dancing all around my room to the fun music this afternoon~.
 
I found out thatimmelmanturn is currently at Disney too! I'll hopefully be able to meet up with her at some point while I'm there, as I haven't seen her since the end of last school year. I'm leaving for Disney tomorrow and I'll be back the 31st. I expect to find the internet still in one piece when I get back! See ya!