Friday, December 30
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Being nice isn't too bad
 [journal] When I was younger I used to hate small talk. I thought it was an utter waste of time to talk to a stranger that you knew you would never see again. Wasted breath or something like that. But now I feel that they don't have to be in your future life to be good to someone. You can be good to them now and the present should be enough. Actually, being nice to someone you'll never see again (rather than a close friend) has this strangely satisfying feeling. Today I was at TD bank exchanging my money into Yen. I got to the counter and a young gentleman of 23-years started chatting with me when I asked him to exchange my money into Yen. I shot the crap with him for awhile talking about traveling, Japan, threw in some men jokes and it was nice. After 5 minutes of transactions (I had to cash cheques and deposit money also) and chit-chat he asked me if I could wait because they were out of traveller's checks and he had to draft more. So I waited and waited and finally after like 20 minutes he came out. Now here I could have been angry or, like most Canadians, make an indirectly passive complaint " Wow, that was a little longer than I expected" followed by nervous chuckle -- but I didn't. Instead, when he apolygized for the wait I said, "It wasn't a problem, and I'm sure you went as fast as you could." He seemed happy with my remark and we chit-chatted again, forgetting the incident, while he finished up. When he gave me my traveller's checks, he told me he waived the commission fee ($5) and then gave me 2 business cards (he's apparently a manager there) and said to talk to him if I ever need anything with TD. I wished him a happy new year and wished him well on a trip he was about to make and he did the same on my move to Japan. |
Thursday, December 29
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Sleepover
[journal] The sleep over party was indeed fun. We were together for so long it felt like we spent a week together at a cottage. With the amount of food Gina made we could have eaten for a week. My favourite parts:1. The "fuck u, u fuck" drinking game. 2. When we were talking about dinosaurs and Gina started talking about Raptorsaurus Rexes and then I said, Gina is just making up dinosaurs by adding "Rex" to anything. Then Joseph and I started saying a whole bunch of things: "Yah, like the Siamese Cat Rex." "What about the Human Being Rex?" "Elephant Rex." Each Rex statement was followed by howls of laughter. 3. Seeing Ann Marie lose every time in the drinking game. 4. The food (it was so yummy and the mashed potatoes #1). 5. Joseph catching Gina and Karen peeing with his new camera in movie mode. 6. Buying DVDs at best buy for so cheap. 7. Watching the movie "Walk the Line" with everyone. 8. The fireplace. Okay so it seems like I had a lot of favourite parts, but the sleepover was a great success.
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Wednesday, December 28
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Merry (belated) Christmas
 [journal]
Merry Christmas. This year was fun.
We celebrated Christmas with our respective families, then the next day, Gina invited us over for a get-together Christmas dinner/sleepover. It was the funnest (word?) dinner party I've been to. We drank lots, ate even more and played lots of games. We slept, ate more, went to see "Walk the Line" came back, ate, played more games. It was as though we'd all been transported into a chalet somewhere and we were stranded, except this place had lots of things to do, plus we were allowed to leave- if we were so inclined to. Dinner was amazing, and Gina was so cute, she had post-its on the mounds of aluminum foil with baking times and when to put them into the oven. She baked shortbread cookies with little red and green sprinkles on them. She planned everything so amazingly and there wasn't the slightest hitch during the two days we all spent together.
I'm not religious, but I still think Christmas is cool since it's so universal to celebration. I think Christmas is still a time of hanging out with family and friends. Getting plastered is all right too. Eating lots, that's normal around this time of year, and giving to others. So Although I'm not a Christian, I still think Christmas is cool.
Highlights those nights/days:
- "never have I ever"
- Keith as MacGyver, Matlock, and Master Log Turner.
- Keith coming SO out
- Anne Marie's snake dance
- everyone having their own conversations to everyone else at the same time at dinner
Highlights in pictures:
- Joe in the corner of one stuffing his face.
- Joseph's bread question-mark.
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...a time to celebrate...
[journal]
We've recently had two celebrations (on the same day actually) at Sassoons here. For two and a half years my good friend Matthew has slaved away as an apprentice, and December 14th was the set date for his final cutting test. He cut all his test models, each one becoming progressively later for the next so by the time he cut his last few models, he was already about an hour and a half late. (He cut 6 models that day.) An apprentice finally graduating to stylist is an inspiring sight to us apprentices since it makes us feel just a little better in between those shampoos, sweeping hair and being on the lower rung of the hierarchy.
My beloved colour technician Juli is leaving us here. Juli's the one who's always been doing my colour, and she is nothing but amazing. Sad she's leaving us here, but on the other hand, she's going to bigger and better things. She's moving to the Los Angeles Academy where she will be teaching VS staff. So no more clients. Another thing to look forward to. I'm really proud to be working in a salon where so many people are unbelivably talented and there's a lot of creativity going around.
In any case, after you've graduated into either stylist or colour tech, you normally have a creative show. This is Juli's creative show.
Ok, actually this is Gina and Kim. They are probably my two favorite gals at the salon.
Ok, now these are from her "Punk is not Dead" show. It was pretty amazing, and these pics just don't do the hair justice.
Celebration for Matthew/Juli. As the night wore on, less pictures were taken as the ability to hold the camera still was becoming scarce. I'd say Melissa (pictured left) lost her ability to keep both eyes open simultaneously that night. Matthew was delirious from lack of food that day. All he'd had were a few bites of apple, a slice of my porkchop lunch, and a juice.
C'est Earl and Lorraine. She's our Creative Director and Earl is probably the most similar in attitude to me most days. We have this look. It's a mix of apathy, tiredness and aggrevation all in a smile.
Lorraine and Nhi, who is assistant Art Director. She cuts my hair, and she's brilliant.
C'est Carri who gradauted about 8 months ago.
I get the impression that we like to have parties, since I've already gone to four goodbye parties/outtings for Juli...
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Thursday, December 22
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Tokyo
[journal]I received an email from NOVA and found out I will be living at a city 22 Km from Tokyo. At first I was a little disappointed that I wasn't IN Tokyo, but then I thought of the benefits, namely, cheaper and quieter. I also found out I will live with two NOVA veteran's (of 3 years standing) who came from Australia. My detective skills have convinced me that they are close friends because they are both from Australia, both have the same first name, Andrew, and both arrived on the exact same day. I researched that it will take me about 25 minutes to get from my fair city (population 125,000) to metropolis Tokyo and after talking to Brian, I felt really good. When he visited Japan, in order to lower costs, he stayed at a place a little bit outside of Tokyo, and it took him 40 minutes to get there. The only problem I see so far is that the transit system doesn't run all night and if I were to have a late night out (all-you-can-drink Karoke anyone?), I won't have a way to get home. Anyways, I did some misc. research on Japan and found a few things of interest: Japan is very homogeneous, with around 98% of the population ethnically Japanese.Karen told me I have an remarkably eerie twin in Toronto. Fat chance of that in Japan -- although I may see a Japanese me. The largest minority are Koreans, around 1 million strong and many brought to Japan by force during World War II, who until very recently were not allowed to adopt Japanese citizenship — even in the third generation — unless they also gave up their Korean name.
Wow, I thought the Koreans hated the Japanese, but apparently the feeling is mutual, or do they just treat everyone like this? which would be fair, I guess -- but mean. One customs issue that trips up some unwary travellers is that some over-the-counter medications, notably pseudoephedrine (Actifed, Sudafed, Vicks inhalers) and codeine (some cough medications) are prohibited in Japan. Some prescription medicines are also banned, even if you have a prescription.If you refer back to one of my posts, my family prepared a drug package for me that consisted almost entirely of every stated item above. I would have just added to their stash. By far the best option for visitors who plan to do a lot of travelling is the Japan Rail Pass [2] (http://www.japanrailpass.net), which allows unlimited travel on almost all JR trains, including the Shinkansen, for a fixed period of 7, 14 or 21 days. Whereas a single round trip from Tokyo to Kyoto costs almost ¥30,000, the 7-day Rail Pass is ¥28,300. The 14-day/21-day pass is ¥45,100/55,100. This can only be purchased outside of Japan from specific vendors — at the time of purchase, you will need to have your passport with you, and know the date upon which you will want the Rail Pass to start. Upon purchase, you are given a Exchange Order, which can be exchanged at most larger JR stations in Japan, including all of the stations nearest to airports, for the Rail Pass itself.
This should information is for all the people who promised to visit me. You got even more incentive now. =]
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