Episode 11: In Which Jessica Has a Cultural Experience and Discovers a Reason to Actually Run

Hello again everyone! This weekend was a fun one! Hooray for superbowl weekend!!! But I'm only on Friday so let me start there.

This week, after school was FINALLY out (the week was so long!) I went home and chilled for about an hour with every intention of doing homework but never actually doing it. Instead I waited impatiently for the time to come for me and Rebekah to go to the play we were going to that night.

To pass the time, we went to sit in the hot tub for a while and talked about how we used to watch Fantasia as children and we liked to pretend we were the horses, and Night on the Bald Mountain scared us.

I actually like Night on the Bald Mountain now, in fact I'm listening to it. Ok that's a lie, I'm listening to Japanese music (of course right?) But if I had that Mp3 I would listen to it!

So finally the time came and we headed out the door and up to campus for our play. We went to see "A Thousand Paper Cranes". It's the story of Sadako, a Japanese girl born during WWII who contracts Lukemia due to radiation from the bomb. To get better she starts folding 1000 paper cranes, after which she will be granted one wish. However, and I'm spoiling the ending, she only ever reached 644 cranes before she died. Her classmates finished the rest and now, in the Hiroshima peace park, it is a statue of Sadako, holding a crane in her hand, which stands as a memorial for peace.

Every year thousands of kids and probably adults, send cranes to the memorial with wishes for world peace on their wings. For more information, try this link: http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/shimin/heiwa/crane.html

Anyhow, so now that I ruined the play for you, I must say the play wasn't that exciting. It was a play for children so we didn't expect it to be AMAZING but it was a little bit hard to follow. I was very impressed with their attention to detail and pronunciation though so kudos to them.

After the show we folded paper cranes to put in a box outside the theater so they could send them to the peace park in Hiroshima. I even wrote a message on them in Japanese. ^_^ And Rebekah did too! I wrote it down first and then she copies it. There are our cranes, all being peacful like, with a copy of the program in the back. I draw attention to the program because we thought it was funny how the program was a like a micro example of BYU. At the front of the program was an add for engagement rings, and as you can see, there is one on the back too. Here at BYU everything begins and ends with marriage =P

Anyhow, back to our cranes. I wrote "Mina san naka yoku nareru youni" which basically means, So that everyone can get along well.

After the play, Rebekah's brother picked us up and we went to Applebees where I ate a delicious salad with apples and pineapples and chicken and almonds and mandarin oranges and oriental dressing. SO good. And of course I got a virgin pina colada!

When we came home, we went over to Kaylynne's apartment to play DDR but we ended up talking for hours instead and then FINALLY played DDR...but it was like midnight so we only did one song before the people downstairs started knocking on the floor and we had to stop. =P

After that, we didn't know what to do so me and Kaylynne went to Denny's for milkshakes and fries. Why? because we can and because it was open at 1am. =P (not much is open past midnight here in Provo...its maybe the only bummer. The whole place shuts down at like 11. It's weird. Is that Provo or financial crisis? I don't know and don't care, Denny's is still here for me!

So that was pretty much Friday. Saturday I slept in til noon, didn't do homework, at delcious potato soup made by Rebekah and Jayna, and went to the cupcake cafe! The cupcake cafe was a stop on the way home from the grocery store. Rebekah and I had to get hamburger for break the fast the next day. After the cupcake cafe, we headed back out into the cold to walk to the dollar movies (which are really 2 dollar movies) to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We were too late for Planet 51...bummer, cuz the movie we saw numbed my mind it was so lame. Rebekah and Jayna liked it, but I couldn't get into it. It was really episodic and the characters were extremely flat. I found out why I didn't like it at the end, it was based on a Roald Dahl book. I'm not a fan of his, though I did like Matilda and Willy Wonka...that was a Tim Burton film though so I would hardly count it. (wait...so was James and the Giant Peach...)

Anyhow, yeah, I don't recommend the movie but it was nice to get out and do something.

When we came home, Kelli and Candace had just started "Julie and Julia" so we sat down to watch it. I actually liked it, but no one else seemed to like it, and I admit it was very long and in retrospect, it was very slow and rather predictable...but I still liked it. I say if you like food its worth seeing at least once. Plus it was about blogging, and I like blogging! Can you tell?

On sunday, I slept in again and then went to church. We had a rather amusing lesson on dating in Relief Society. I tolerate those better than I did in Young Women's. =P

Then it was home and off to Break the Fast. It was tacos but everyone brought meat and I think 1 person brought lettuce...and there was no cheese. But there were no bake cookies so I was happy! And afterwards I went over to Emily's Superbowl party because Rebekah had gone to her family's for the superbowl and I had nothing to do. I got there about midway through the 3rd quarter.

It was a rather exciting game, but the colts totally choked in the last quarter. I was cheering for the Saints so it didn't really matter to me that they choked, but it was sad to see. I was actually cheering for the Saints because I didn't think they could win. I was wrong. They deserved to win though, they had an AMAZING defense and MAN, that last interception was AMAZING!

People ask me what my favorite commercial was but I didn't much pay attention to the commercials. I am maybe one of the few people in the world that watched the Superbowl for the game? But there was a hilarious commercial for Doritos with a Dorito Samurai...that was pretty hilarious, so I guess that's my favorite =P

Anyhow, after the game I started to walk home. It was 7:50 and it's about a 20 minute walk home. I was sad because we had missed the exciting conclusion of Emma on PBS because of the superbowl, but I could watch it online later. However, halfway home, I realized that PBS Materpiece Theatre starts at 8, not 7 and I could still make it home!(that's me walking fast right there--->) And so...I started to walk really fast. Then, at 8:06pm, I sprinted the remaining 1/4 mile to my apartment and made it home at about 8:09.

As I started to run, one of my Japanese pop songs came up on my Mp3 player and I had the strange feeling like I was in one on my dramas. It was super nerdy but it was fun. Then ironically, as I had never really listened to the words of the song, I noticed it was saying "run! run!" and it made me laugh even more...or I would have laughed had I not been panting cuz I DON'T RUN! But for Jane Austen, I will. haha!

I made it home and burst into the apartment panting...but Kelli and Candace were watching Remember the Titans! Not that I don't love that movie, I do, but I needed a TV, so I left the apartment and ran over to Kaylynne's. Her roommate answered the door and said Kaylynne was home but previously she had been sleeping so I didn't want to wake her and just asked if I could use the TV. She kinda looked at me weird but said ok. So I sat myself in front of the TV and watched the exciting conclusion of Emma. Rebekah came over shortly after, and then Kaylynne figured out that we were over and came out to join us. (she had been awake the whole time anyhow haha)

After Emma, "Lost in Austen" came on so we skipped ward prayer and watched it...but it was lame and angered us so we don't think we'll watch it again. Jane married Mr. Collins!!! EWWWWWWWWW!

That was pretty much my weekend. Super fun! I think I'm ready to take on the week! nope, that's a lie...but if I face the week, I'll be rewarded with seeing my Elders again because they come home next week!!! I'm SO STOKED! Seriously, this has been the longest 6 months of my life!