SO MUCH GYOZA

First things first.

I got these three carrots for 98 yen.  98 YEN!  THEY ARE HUGE.

This is directly outside of my dorm.  MOMIJI ARE OFFICIALLY THE PRETTIEST FLOWERS.  AND BY "FLOWERS" I MEAN "LEAVES."

Also, since Julia asked so nicely, this is the reason my classmates steal my notebook:

Yeah.

(Part of the reason I draw so much on my notes is that if I'm not writing SOMETHING I tend to stop paying attention to the lecture, which is not a good thing to do.  Plus, I tend to remember notes when there are pictures on the page better than when there aren't.)

Also, it's time for Super Awkward Cautionary Tales!

About a week ago, as I was leaving penmanship class, one of the women gave me this little heating pad thing, because it was really cold. It looks a lot like a cloth bag full of poppy seeds...?  Apparently they're very popular in Japan, because you can put them in your pockets and they are WARM THINGS. Yes.  They are super nice and I was super grateful.
Anyway, the next morning I stumbled out of bed half asleep and the warm thing WASN'T WARM ANY MORE.  So, being half asleep, I thought, "Hrrrm, maybe it's like those things in the US where you put them in the microwave and that's how you warm them up?"
Long story short, if you microwave them they, uh, explodeandburstintoflames.  Yeah.
Sae stared at me a while and then got one of her little heating pad things and made me read the instructions.

Anyway!

Yesterday I had penmanship class, and I worked on this:

(Bottom character on the right makes me wince.)

For the record, the right radical in 部 is SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE with a brush.

Also, Nakano-san says I'm doing really well, and then she does this to my paper:

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

Also, I have had the stroke order of 女 wrong for ALMOST FIVE YEARS.  I die of shame.

...yeah, still needs more work.

Also, after class Nakano-san decided to cook lunch for Shigehara-san (the only other class attendant that day) and I, and DANG, it was delicious.  Also, both of them made fun of me endlessly for not slurping my noodles.  MY SHAME IS UNBEARABLE.  Even when I try really, really hard, I can't get my noodles to make reasonable slurpy noises.

ANYWAY, last night JoJo-san invited all of us from Japanese class over to her house for an INSANELY INTENSE dinner party.  Seriously, she made SO MUCH FOOD.  SO MUCH REALLY GOOD FOOD.*

Om nom nom.

Our lovely hostess.

Our sensei making gyoza.

MORE FOOD.

Finished gyoza!

EVEN MORE FOOD.

Me: You look like you're going to fight someone.
O-san: I'm going to punch someone.
With a gyoza.
It's dangerous.

It then turned into a gyoza-making party.

I NOW KNOW HOW TO MAKE GYOZA.

Also, I dunno what was going on here.

The best part of a gyoza-making party is EATING GYOZA.

Did I mention there were a lot of gyoza?

This was delicious, whatever it was.

So everyone ate themselves into a stupor and sort of lay on the floor and talked about Reality and Marriage and Boyfriends and Why You Can Speak Kansai-ben Without Being from Kansai and Why People in Kyoto Are Friendlier Than People in Nagoya.  Also, JoJo-san said we could come over to eat any time and Ton-chan immediately asked, "What about tomorrow?"

Anyway, we have decided to have another dinner party, but this time the rest of us will cook Japanese food for JoJo-san.  (Well, originally it was going to be the Japanese students cooking Japanese food and me cooking American food, but then I pointed out that I'm better at Japanese food than American food...)

And now I am going to go work on essays.  Good night!

OH WAIT. I forgot to mention.  I got my friendship essay back (the one where I wrote about Shannon and Mary and Josh**) and there were only THREE CORRECTIONS. It was epic.  THE END.

*And then she apologized for how much it cost.  It was 900 yen a person.  NINE HUNDRED YEN.  We rounded up and made it 1,000 yen apiece, 'cause DANG.

**Oh, yeah, Josh, I wrote an essay partially about you.  Ahahahahahaha.