あした。。。

わたしはうちにかえります。

My side has been killing me every time that I walk for more than 5-10 minutes.

I am certain that this is another cyst, and the pain comes in waves, which is not good.

If I go too long without resting it will get really bad, I have already had three major episodes today, and missed going to Studio Ghibli because of it!  *shakes fist at ovarian cyst*

Hey, that rhymed.

Soooo yeah.

4:00 pm leaving, probably get back to my home around 10 ish.

Los padres gonna pick me  up.

Everything happens for a reason, and I have no regrets.

I have thoroughly (well.....for the most part) enjoyed the part of the trip I have been on.

I bought the most adorable apron in the world (pretty much)....but sadly didn't get to go to anywhere that had the items I needed desperately for souvenirs.  There wasn't enough time to go back to Akihabara....I apologize in advance for this.

I will be home soon, which is amazing.

I'll come back some day.....but definitely with a loved one and in the country, NOT in the city.

私は....

病院ではないよ！

I'm free!

I woke up at about 1:00 in the morning with a very familiar, horrible pain in my left side....

I had this same pain about 4 or 5 years ago and it was an ovarian cyst that took two days to rupture....two days of me lying in my grandmother's guest bed, tossing and turning, with constant pain and frequent intervals of throwing up.

The pain woke me up and I went to the bathroom to get out of my room full of girls.  When the pain didn't go away I decided to get some water to see if that would help, I didn't take anymore Ibuprofen because I had already taken some around 10-11 before I went to bed.

After I got some water I called my mom because I knew that something wasn't right, I sat out on the balcony for a while trying to find a position that the pain wasn't so bad, but unfortunately, there isn't one.

My mom ended up calling my teacher for me and he met me to find a hospital, which took way longer than previously expected.

Thankfully there were some girls out advertising for a bar that late and they helped us, comforted me, and called a hospital all at the same time.

An ambulance came to pick us up and we sat inside for 15 minutes before we 

actually left for the hospital, which I thought was kind of weird, because MOST of 

the time when you call an ambulance, it's kind of....I dunno.....an EMERGENCY?

But all of the nurses and doctors were incredibly nice and attentive.  They 

hooked me up to an IV and took some blood to run tests.

Thankfully nothing was wrong, and they couldn't really do anything else for me, but I am 90% sure that the IV was what kept me from really just dying of pain.

We got back around 3:15 after a very long and intense taxi ride back to the hostel.

It was a pretty expensive night.

I got to bed at 3:30 and woke up at 7 to get ready for the day's events.

We went to two temples today that were absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and to make it better it was drizzling all day (which normally I would hate) but it made everything really green and lush, which was awesome.

At the first temple the pain came back and I had to sit down during half of our temple.

Before that I had bought some strawberry candy to keep my blood sugar reliable....thankfully there was enough for me to constantly much on all day.

After that, the pain didn't really come back.  I hope it's gone for good...but I learned my lesson about plane food, so I'll just be taking some Gatorade and something bready.......and delicious.

Tonight I'm not sure if there are any amazing plans, but I plan on getting to bed early so that I can be rested for....

STUDIO GHIBLI FTW.

That's right, yo.

Gonna get my nerdiness on.

I MISS HOME GUYZ.

I"LL BE BACK AS SOON AS I CAN!

No pictures yet....

(loaded that is....)

Butttt........

The last three days have been absolutely hellish.

I am dead tired, and ready to come home....

But hopefully by the time that I get settled into my host family home and start school at Otemon things will pick up and my routine will make the days go by more quickly.

The plane flight to NY wasn't so bad,

but the flight from NY to Tokyo?

SUCKKKEEEEDDDDD.

I had window seat on the other side of two japanese women that were able to sleep about 80% of the trip.

Which means I couldn't really get up when my body was all....

"HEY LET'S GET MOTION SICKNESS FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER EATING YOUR MEAL KTHNX"

Yup.

I threw up......6 times.

It took three doggy bags, and because I couldn't get up for the rest of the trip, I had to grip my bags of vomitous disgustingness for the remainder of the trip.

The first night that we were here it was about 8 when we got to the hostel so I walked around outside like a total gaijin talking to my mom on the phone.

Today (8th) we went to Meiji shrine, Harajuku (where I got a totally cute skirt and necklace), Shibuya (which was too expensive to buy anything), Ikebukuro (Incredibly busy), and I went with three of the girls in our group to @Home Maid Cafe!

Our waitress was so adorable and charming.

We were some of the only girls as clientele in the whole cafe, the others were either college age guys, and older working class businessmen.

Pretty sketchy, but I guess that's why they are so popular.

Harajuku was awesome, and if I go back I will be poor.

I am pretty much done with trains though, this might be the last time that I come here.

To the city at least....it's just way too busy for me.

I am ready to be away from Tokyo for a while.

But alas....it's only day 3 of our travels.

Somebody bring me home u____u;;

Here goes nuffin.

Here it goes......

Soooooooo here is the end result of my horrendous experience of packing for a 5 week trip across the world.

My mom and I left promptly at 3 after saying goodbye to my dad and getting the old 
"Call me if you have any, and I mean ANY problems, and I'll be over there as soon as the next plane can take me.  I mean it"
lecture.


It's the Larry Singletary version of Taken waiting to happen,
but thankfully I don't think I have anything to worry about.


My legs might be short, 
but they're strong.


Also, they're longer than the average Japanese male's.
(not true.)
But I'm pretty sure I could do some damage


Anyways,


My mom drove for about an hour and a half to Striplings....
we stopped to get some Stripling's Beef Jerky "for my homestay family."


Oh, don't worry.  We got them some too.

But we needed a lunch/dinner snack.


Mmmmmmm

It was raining like we were riding through the middle of a hurricane.

And it kept getting worse.

This does not make for fun car ride to ATL.

And as it got worse, my mom started freaking out about not being able to see.


I kept telling her to pull over but she ended up stopping for about 10 minutes off of an exit.


We got back on the road and it was progressively worse.


I forced her to pull over and I drove for about 15 minutes and we FINALLY got out of the rain.


With our two stops we made it to Atlanta in 4 hours, which is pretty amazing.  There was SO much traffic, but we found our way to the hotel without any problems.

I get to tote all of this around Japan!!! HOW ESSITING!

Our city view was pretty awesome,

TWO QUEEN BEDS YO!

And a huge TV.....

We ordered some derricious chinese

...and as usual it was way too much food.

We polished off the night by running through various parts of:

The Chronicles of Riddick,

Men In Black II

Talldega Nights

and

Juno.

A banner night for AWFUL movies apparently.....

if it weren't for the fact that I get complimentary internet and my own bed this hotel would have run me off with its cable selection alone.

A beautiful sunset made a pretty dreary day better....

I'm still not completely sure that I'm ready for this

but here 'goes.

3:00 AM wakeup call....
Airport ETA = 4:15


Very unscheduled updates to follow.....

leaving in 4 days???

Well, three actually.

Going to the ATL on Saturday at some point, crashing in a hotel, then waking up before people in Japan even eat DINNER to make it to the airport by 4:30.........holy crap.

I am so nervous, scared even.

I think I have forgotten every bit of Japanese that I previously learned....

I am going to be doing a LOT of studying on the planes....

and a lot of sleeping too, haha.

A good rotation of alternating studying with sleep will put me somewhere between mostly dead and barely literate....but I think I'll get by.

We went to Target the other day to make our HUGE purchase for everything that I'll need....which turned out to be a whole lot more crap than I thought....but I got the KTOOTEST luggage evah.

I am going to try to pack light light light light light.

So's I can bring back a butt-load of souvenirs for everybodeh!

I need to make a list....

and I'm afraid that this rather extensive list of people's gifts will require me digging into my house fund.....

Oh well.  It will be totally worth it.

It's been raining off and on all week....it's very depressing.  I would like just one, perfectly sunny day before I go, it's going to be rainy season over while we are in Japan.

I still haven't heard from my host family yet.....I am thinking now that they probably don't have internet connection, haha.

It's alright, I am actually looking forward to being forced to do without electronics for a while.

(She said referring to her trip to the electronics capital of the world).

I am excited......but also already missing home.

It does me good to get away every now and then, not only for the break, but also to make me really realize how important home is and all of the people that I love and know.

It won't hit me until I leave New York.

I have attempted making my first homemade lasagna (the recipe my mom uses) tonight and and incredibly hopeful that nothing catches on fire.

It looks good....

and it has three kinds of cheese, which is an automatic "amazing."