U I vethed na I onnad.

I am on Eastern Standard Time again. It's very exciting. I have absolutely no idea what my schedule is like with the exception of three days' worth - all sometime next week.

Also? I woke at 4:30 yesterday morning to make it on time, and my poor roommate had to be dragged with me to drive me to the station at 5:30. It was super fun. 8Db I'm going to pass out now.

Well this is a late report, but.

22nd, left work early (after having spoken with Kyoto-sensei on Monday), ran for my apartment, grabbed my stuff, ran for the 14:00 bus to get to the station at 14:20, got my tickets, got on the 14:43. Got to Takasaki in time for the 15:13 Shinkansen to Tokyo. Got to Tokyo at about 16:15, which gave me enough time to catch the 16:33 express to Narita, which got me to the airport at 17:30.

Luckily nobody travels at 17:30 on a Tuesday night and I had done online check-in. All I had to do was print the ticket and head on through security and immigration, scarf down dinner, and wait around a bit to board. The plane took off pretty much on time and because of tail winds instead of landing in Hawaii at 7:30, we landed closer to 6:30. Good stuff.

I got the shuttle to the hotel (round-trip ticket so I didn't have to worry about getting back), and arrived about 8. Mom met me in front. We immediately went shopping at the Ala Malona shopping center - basically to celebrate Chanukah without the religious trappings. Neither of us have lighted the candles this year, in part for mourning and in part (in my case) because I don't have a menorah in which to light them. Haul: two shirts, a pair of jeans, three pairs of shoes, and a new watch (every last item was on sale). We returned and went to the beach to watch the sunset. Dinner was at a Thai place one of mom's friends had recommended.

Wednesday we woke up late (about 9:00). We got a late breakfast, and by the time we were out it was nearly 12. We decided to see America's only palace (the Iolani Palace), and we had one hell of a wait for the bus. It was a fairly long ride into Honolulu to get to the palace, but well worth the visit. After the sugar plantation owners overthrew the Queen and ignored President Cleavland's order to reinstate her, the Americans promptly auctioned every single piece of luxury in the building. The organization that now runs the tours is still trying to get it all back. The building is beautiful, quite small as palaces go, and I hope they're having success.

Thursday we went on a circle tour of the island, guided by a driver who literally did not once stop talking. Even when we were all getting off the bus, he was talking. When we got onto the bus, he was talking. Every minute the bus was moving, he was talking. We saw many beautiful lookouts, and a pod of about four humpback whales swimming by one of the beaches. We also went to the Dole plantation (which is moving to Maui because they can't keep up with their expenses.)

Today has been a very lazy day of walking, lunch, sitting by the poolside, and now heading down to see my last Hawaiian sunset. Tomorrow I leave around 12:00 for Japan again.

Quite a trip, no? :D

I have returned, spending nearly the entire day flying. 5:15 wake up - not so awesome. Olympic airlines is also not so great an airline; very bad service. It didn't help that for nearly all of the time before take off and after landing the two morons in front of us were chattering as loudly as they could be - I could hear every single word of their conversation and it was not intellectually stimulating. Twenty minutes spent trying to figure out how their tickets were labeled A and C and yet they were sitting together (easy answer - there isn't a B seat, the little sign overhead said so). There were other inane topics, but I've forgotten them for the most part.

With the bad stuff out of the way: It was an amazing trip. Athens is amazing for having all of the antiquity that it does. The waters surrounding the islands are a beautiful and gorgeous blue, and so delightful to swim in. Dana and I spent nearly every night walking through the Old City (built up over a million years, it seems, there is Byzantine all the way up through Ottoman influence) and having our dinner at various establishments throughout. The scenery was beautiful, the skies were clear, the sun was brilliant (and intent to burn, but the olive oil sunscreen we bought worked amazingly well). It was also fantastic to spend so much time with Dana after the one or two lunches here and there that we'd had to cobble together during college. I would do it again in a heartbeat - I really want to see the other islands now.

After two days of relentless sightseeing in Athens (Acropolis, theatre of Dionysos, Hadrian's Library, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Gate, Roman Market, and Ancient Agora) Dana and I are safely in Rhodes. Today we flew, landed in Rhodes, got to our hotel, went to the Old City, had dinner, and are now in a cafe for free internet and crepes. Tomorrow we will do nothing and it will be wonderful.

Very often these days I wonder what I have going for myself, and very often I can't come up with much. But that is neither here nor there.

The point is, today a large bee flew into my room and landed on my radiator cover. MOST UNPLEASANT. I certainly did not shriek and calmly remove myself from the room, not at all. Rather, I whimpered pathetically and fled to the bathroom. The thing is dead now - I think it was dying when it flew in - and the body has been disposed of and now I can breathe again.

I had my teeth cleaned this morning, but in light of the bee I went downstairs and treated myself to a large milkshake. Ugh. Bees.

Let's see, what else is there?

I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my friend yesterday. For such a long movie, surprisingly little happened in it. I think in part there was a lot of issue with pacing - when a scene would end and another start, I nearly always wasn't paying attention to it because I was busy wondering "Wait, did that scene just end? But when?" Thus when something important happened, it didn't seem terribly important.

And... I'm leaving for Greece in two days and have yet to pack for it. I should probably get on that.

So, I can FINALLY has ticket home.

It only took two Skype calls and a wait of three hours in between them to get it done, too. *rolls eyes* Apparently my e-mail with my credit card details reached them on a Sunday, and they're closed. But here's the thing: Even if my e-mail reached their office on a Sunday when they're closed, they're open Monday and I didn't get a reply from them regarding it until this morning - which means they sent that Tuesday night. So, uh, days aren't much matching up there. Like at all. *sigh*

But.

My flight is not the 15th, but the 16th - which is a Saturday. Despite this, I told my boss (who came by today to get a copy of my toryokusho and passport for my re-entry permit) that my flight is Friday. I'm taking Friday as a mental health day and using it to "pack" (I in fact don't need to pack as I still have half a wardrobe back home) and get my apartment cleaned so I don't come back to swarms of bugs in a week. Also, I'm tentatively going to be gone until the 22nd. I haven't bought a ticket back from New York yet, but the 22nd is my official 'return' day.

Scenario: The plane you are on is landing. The stewardess makes her landing announcements and asks you put your trays up, turn off your electronics, and put your seats in the upright position. What do you do?

A) Do as she asks.
B) Do mostly everything but try to eke out a few more moments with your iPod.
C) Kneel on your still-reclined seat, belt unbuckled, laptop sitting on tray and still playing a movie, and talk to the person behind you.

The answer according to the two girls sitting next to me, was C. Apparently they needed personally engraved invitations - the stewardess had to come three times to get them to put their seats upright while we were taking off, as well. I wanted to choke them.

However, with that tale told, I have returned in triumph to New York. My flights were on time and my bags came with them.

My iPod has been repaired. I have Saku Sho again T^Tb

I'm working on all those Christmas cards now. I had to wait for today to get my calligraphy pens. Hopefully I'll send them all out tomorrow.

The Messiah sing-in is next week. I'm excited for it.

On the off that anyone's interested, I've finally gotten around to putting my pictures from Barcelona up. They're here, some with commentary, I think. Then again, the commentary might only be on my facebook account. They're not particularly artistic, either, just some snaps to remember a holiday by - which I'm vaguely ashamed of, as Barcelona screams to have artistic photos taken. Oh dear.

My ceiling appears to have developed a leak in the last three days, due to the amount of rain. My transition to a true Bohemia is nearly complete. It matters little, however, as tomorrow I'll be off to meet my parents in Barcelona. They've promised to do something about the leak as soon as it gets a bit dryer. Anyway. Barcelona. I'll be meeting my parents there tomorrow morning, and I'll not be taking my laptop with me. I'm sure we'll find an internet cafe somewhere, so chances of me updating are high, but if you don't hear from me until the 18th, that's why.

Hope everyone's well!

Wanna hear something sick? After going to sleep at approximately 11 or 12 on December 28, I awoke the next day. At four PM. On December 29. God, now it's going to be even harder time getting a normal sleeping schedule going. I haven't slept that long since I was getting over jet lag from China. I suppose in some ways it's for the good of my trip. Cardiff is just the littlest bit boring, being dotted with shopping arcades but not much else. There is the Cardiff Castle, but it closed at four, so of course we missed it. We'll have to go tomorrow.

Also, the keyboards at the hostel are god-awful to type on. And we had the scariest time at a Subway I will ever have, with a woman behind the register who was more like the Soup Nazi than anything else.