We had Tacos at the Kaikan

Hello again. This will probably be my last article until I move into my new apartment (which means until the beginning of October I think). A while back, my father sentme 2 packages of Taco Bell Dinner tacos from America. I requested them because the tacos here in Japan are a bit different (I don't like them as much). Some of my friends have never had tacos, so I thought I had to help them. Paul (my friend from Equador) and I made the tacos last Monday. It was pretty fun. You can see a friend of mine from Palestine eating one of the tacos. Finally, I got to eat something that was American style once again (I know that tacos are from Mexico). I think the meat that we used was imported from Indonesia. Which is a little strange I thought because I thought that a lot of people in Indonesia were Hindu. And I am sure that in that religion cows are sacred (infact, they are worshiped). I think it is a little ironic in a way. Anyways, I think the tacos were good and my friends said they liked them too. It was pretty fun. I've posted more photos of the trip to Shirakawa. It's faster on my lab computer so I decided to post them there. I have been doing experiments in the lab for the last few days so I have not had that much time. My language exchange friend is away in New York right now, so I cannot do that this week. However, I'm meeting with another friend to help her with English and I usually learn some Japanese when I do that (even though her English is better than my Japanese). Almost everyone's English here is better than my Japanese. I think it is because they study English for many years in school. In other contries, where the official language is not Enlgish, they study English a lot. They say that it is because if you know English you can go anywhere in the world. I guess I have to agree because they would know more about it than I would.

By the way, do you remember when I wrote that my Japanese friends don`t like Dr. Pepper, well that is still true, but I found out that they do like RC cola. I brought one for them to the lab today and they said that it was good. So, no DP but RC and CC is OK.

Next week there is a drinking party in my lab. After what happend on the lab trip (if you read the article you know) I am skeptical about attending. Maybe I will pretend to drink. Now that I have been here a while I can say that there are good things about Japan that I like, but there are things about America that I miss. Since I grew up there I will never really be completely able to adjust to life here without feeling a little out of place. But there are things about Japan that I really like too. Some days it's not that great (and I HATE paper work, somebody should take care of that for me) for various reasons (and I can't even speak that well yet). When I return to America for a visit I will have to get my friends gifts from America it is a custom here. I am still trying to decide what, since cowboy hats would be to expensive to get all of them. While I thinking of that, 2 of my friends birthdays are coming up and I don't know what to get either of them (kind of a problem). I have a ton of formalities to go through once again. Paper work for a seminar, paper work for the apartment contract, paper work for scholarship purposes, etc... But right now I have to go help one of my friends with English (I say have to, but actually its fun talking with her and I usually learn something). Hope that you enjoy the pictures, I only posted them because I think they are funny! If you knew my Palastinian friend you would think it was funny too. Here is, as always the quote of the day:
It is by Sir Isaac Newton. It is one of his more famous quotes
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the searshore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
All though perhaps the smartest guy the ever to have walked the face of the planet, he was kind of a jerk and by the amount of lead they found in his hair (which means he tasted a lot of lead as a scientist) he was probably insane. I should explain that in his younger years, Newton experimented in chemistry. Back in that day to find out the type of metals the chemists were using, they would taste them. This is why he had some much lead in his system.

That's all for a while.
See ya'll around.