DitaChic

My tree is gone~!!! It's so empty and so sad!! They took it away and now it's gone. We said our goodbyes to our tree last night and thanked the tree for how much we enjoyed it. It was a beautiful tree and gave us so much joy.

I have almost a week with my boyfriend until he leaves for Holland. From Holland he goes to Dubai without seeing me. I am going to Thailand next Thursday. I am kind of excited to go and spend some time with my parents and being pampered in Thailand.

My mom is so kind, she wrote me an email telling me she bought me a jacket so I can wear it in Tokyo in Febuary. Even last year, she sent me two jackets while I lived in Chicago. I have to say her taste is pretty good because all the jackets she has got for me are very cute. I don't know if my mom actually likes to buy or just finds a reason like "me" so she can buy. Which ever one it is it works for me. That's the way my mother shows love and care.

I am so glad that tomorrow is garbage day.

I didn't even count how many people came to my house for Xmas but we had good food. We didn't have lots of different things to eat but we had lots and lots of mussels! My boyfriend made sauces for bread such as cocktail sauce, garlic butter and mustard sauce which was so popular! We also had some rib eye with saute mushrooms that was gone as soon as I put in on the table. It was so good.

The good part of having a party at your house is that you can get smashed. I ate a lot, I drank a lot and I stayed up till late. I woke up and started to clean my kitchen. I had huge amounts of shells to throw away and many many bottles to take out. Now Xmas has gone and left. I had a good time looking forward to it. I just wish my boyfriend wasn't so worn out because he has been working so hard till this day.

Now it's over, this weekend is New Years. Not really sure if I want New Years at my house anymore after all that mess. It wasn't messy just lots of labor because I have no dish washer. If it was a potluck maybe.

Soon it's going to be January and I am going taking off to Thailand on the 1/12th for a month. Promised my parents that I will be there for Chinese New years. My family has not been together in one place for more than 2 years.

Remember how I shopped online last week??? It's time for them to be showing up at my door~!! Not everything have arrived yet but little by little it's arriving. It's like Xmas~! IT IS XMAS. Well, I have a huge present from my boyfriend by the Xmas tree and I know what it is. Kind of boring if I know what it is but really greatful that he bought it for me. I ran around buying gifts for my boyfriend yesterday. He has three presents so far. I decided to take Lara's advice on buying little presents instead of one big one. I think he's pretty excited.

My boyfriend has been working for 17days straight. He said that he can not promise anything but he is only really scheduled to work until 5ish today so we can go have dinner and possibly catch a movie. I miss spending time with him. I never thought I would miss it this much.

It's a rainy day on a Saturday in San Francisco and when it rains in San Francisco, people really don't do much. I don't have my car so I get to enjoy being inside. I think I am going to catch up on my magazine reading and watch some tv.

Actually I stayed home yesterday too. Still, I managed to get somethings done. 1)reserved my ticket for thailand 2)bought some books to take with me to thailand on amazon 3)bought a camera case for my boyfriend's camera 4)bought a subscription to US magazine 5)kept on surfing the net to see what else I can buy for myself

It was so cute to watch Ruby be excited when Paul came home last night. Paul gave her attention and she looked happy. It's been cold lately, she likes to sit in front of the heater in the bathroom.

I can't even remember the last time I had a Xmas tree. I am estimating it was when I was about 10 years old I had a plastic Xmas tree. My parents where barely home for Xmas and I was always traveling. I never liked Xmas, I hated Xmas for the longest time. I used to travel on Xmas eve to Asia and arrive by Xmas day this way I would not have to deal with this entire holiday.

Now that I have a wonderful person to be with for Xmas the holidays seems a little more fun to look forward to. He bought me my first real Xmas tree and we decorated it. It's a beautiful tree and we are both very proud of it.

It's Lisa's 27th Birthday!

Alyssa and I went to Ikea and found things to paint. I gave her a mirror and painted it. Originally, I wanted to paint "Who is the most beautiful girl in the world" just how Alyssa says to Lisa's dog Ruby. While I was painting the first "the" my mind was somewhere else and it turned it to "this". I thought I totally screwed up and thinking I suck at painting but I can't paint it over again when I spent the whole day staining this piece of wood. I turned it into "Who is THIS beautiful Lady?" which turned out better than what I planned.

I hope everytime Lisa looks into it she will feel postive about herself!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

When Alyssa and I spend the day together, we are constantly eating and just spending lots of money. Since right now I am cleaning my house I see that I have lots of things that I don't need and I finally have the guts to throw things away instead of keeping stuff on the side thinking I will need it later.

As much as I want to shop I can't. I shouldn't until I figure out what I am going to do with the clothes I already have. I clean and clean different part of my house everyday. It just seems like it's endless and I have accumlated so much junk.

It's definetly holiday season in America. Every store I go, I can not ignore the fact that it's Christmas. I always hated Christmas. There were times that I would spend this time flying over the international date line to make this holiday go faster.

The past two thanksgiving I have been lucky enough to spend it with my boyfriend. He cooked a three course meal for us and our guests. He always cooks when we are home together. I just have to clean. We even have our own marinated olives right now. I love my boyfriend for having a great interest in food. On the other hand, I just get fat.

Well, all I am trying to say is that I am thankful for my boyfriend this year. Since I don't have family he get's all the love I can give.

Vacation is finally over and I need to start getting things done! My boyfriend is at work and I have the whole day to myself now! It was nice that I got to go to Holland an all but I think I need some time to myself now.

When I was in Holland everywhere I went I saw this one coffee machine that caught my eye. It's called the Senseo coffee maker. It makes single serving coffee and it even has some froth on it too! I don't drink much coffee but I found this coffee pretty good and I kept on talking to my boyfriend who is a big coffee drinker if we can buy one when we got back to the US.

Senseo Coffee

Yesterday when we got home we tried to keep ourselves awake so we decided to go hang out at Costco. Now that finally we are here for a while we can buy things in bluks. While browsing we found the Senseo machine and found it cheaper than Europe so immediatly threw it in the basket! Coffee is so easy with this machine! My boyfriend can even make his own coffee!

We saw really cute espresso cups in Amsterdam but we didn't buy it thinking that we won't have an immediate need for them. We regret not buying it but hopefully I can find something similar to that in San Francisco or else I will have to beg one of my boyfriend's family to send it to me by christmas! ( I am pretty sure that there are some cute homeware store in San Francisco but I can't think of it)

Sorry if my pictures are not showing up in my previous entry! I will definetly post pics when I get back.

I actually really like it here! The lifestyle is different from consumerer country America but people here are very minimal but they enjoy life from what they have. Fridge is small, kitchen is small but it has the necessities and I think it looks nice. The supermarket has everything in single serving portions and they have packages of already cut up vegetables for your stir fry or your soup! Wish they had that in America! In some ways it reminds me of Japan where they sell everything prepacked almost ready to serve. Stores are always doing some discount to get more people to buy and for someone like me it's great! Speaking from Miss World bargain hunter it gets one thumb up.

People are very nice and they speak decent English. I always catch someone staring at me because there not many Asians here in this village. The family is very nice to me and all their friends are all stopping by to meet me. I can almost say I have met half the village now. Hahaha! Supposely I am the talk of the town because the father knows lots of people here and he talks a lot. I would guess I am known as the "The sons girlfriend who is Japanese from America". Rumors have made it everywhere that the restraunt we went last weekend with the family, the girl who knew the father was looking for an engagement ring on my finger!

I am in Holland!!!!

Today I am in Utrecht where my boyfriend's brother lives. This is the city where Miffy was born! I think it's the brothers friend who knows Dick Bruna and maybe I can meet him!! That would be so cool but I am going to hope for it.

I went out last night with my boyfriend's brothers friends and I was drunk! Europeans drink a lot!! They were all very nice and all talked to me in English. Everyone is very nice here and they really do all speak English!

The food is great here in Holland! I am getting fat!

I am leaving for Holland today. The past holloween weekend I thought I was running around. I had an awesome time with the girls going out. My boyfriend arrived from Chicago and spent few amazing days with him. Girls and Paul met up for the Castro Party. I took Paul on his first trip to Target. He told me that the past few days, he has more of San Francisco than the 6 months he lived here a year ago. We hope that everything is going to work out so we can settle in San Francisco for a little while and nest this home.

I am really looking forward to going to Holland and enjoy my vacation with him but at the same time I am looking forward to coming back here and settling into a routine for a little while.

Okay, I am back with the internet. I finally managed to move my computer from my living room to my extra bedroom that I have converted into a office.

I had some trouble with my DSL line for two days! I called yesterday with the problem and they even sent out a technician to fix the outside wiring. he didn't tell me what he was wrong with it and went on his business. After he said he fixed it, the modem lights were not working so I called them this morning twice. First time it randomly hung up while I was talking to the support guy. The second time, this other guy he simply asked me if I have tried connecting the phone cord directly to the phone jack without the filter. Miracle happened!! It's working now! I can not believe the two other guys I talked to before never said this to me! Now, I wonder what was the problem with the outside line?? What did that guy who came yesterday fix?

After figuring out the fact that filter was bad, they connected me to help me connect my computer wireless. All in all my call this morning took about 30 min to fix my internet connection. Finally with internet I can move on with my life.

I hate coming home from Asia. I am awake at the weirdest hours.

So far, I managed to clean my kitchen at 2am till 5:30 am.

After I had dinner with my grandmother I met Lara at Sega. There were lots of Arabic people sitting around us and one of them offered us a bite of their sweets that they eat while they are fasting. Lara and I talked to them a little bit and thought that there was so many more cultures that we have no idea of.

I saw her a lot at Sega and had a really good time. I really hope that Lara will come visit SF in mid December.

Today is my last full day in Tokyo.

Last night Mai, Gelin and I met up and went for drinks and then Karaoke. I have no clue where they get their energy from but they are hilarious. They said the karaoke box is too small so they couldn't move to much. They are so funny. When I am with them I can never stop laughing and they keep on laughing because they make fun of my laugh.

I did pretty ate everything I wanted to eat in Tokyo and ready to go back to SF for a while now.

I was meeting up with people from college and I decided to join Mai in Omotesandou. I saw Mika Tamura and Emmie Osawa! Then I bumped into Gareth and Sei and they told me it was Willie's birthday. I didn't plan to meet all these people but they were all there. Unexpectedly it was fun.

$ more days including today. I am going home.

I went to food fair today! I haven't been to food fair in so long. I just prefer crowded places so I was kind of irriatable. I also get irratated when it's too hot for me and can't get my way. I just got so sick of people and before the whole thing was over I went over to Lara's house and watched her make cup cakes.