Yes, I'm from Wisconsin

I love Japanese food. In fact, I am often surprised to learn that most foreigners don't immediatly love everything they are given.

Load my plate with it all... seaweed, fish (raw or cooked), okonomiyaki, gyoza, ramen, nabe, katsudon, temakisushi, udon...
But I have to admit, when Natusmi suggested we eat at our nearby OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE I was immediatly filled with delight at the thought of eating steak. So here is my wonderful entry dedicated to my steak.

Is this really sad that I took pictures of my steak? Ha ha! Look at it! Isn't it beautiful?

I haven't used a steak knife for so long, how do you use it again?

YATTA! (meaning, "yipee skipee") Natsumi is so pretty.

Natsumi and Mary fight with their knives... "kyotsukute abunai yo!"

Wooo... the first bite. Mary laughed at me when I asked, "Can you take a picture of me with my steak?" Can you blame me? Come on, it had been a long time and it was sooo good.
The lemons were pretty sour. After we took this picture Mary quickly snapped the one below. Natsumi isn't too keen on the sour taste and I love the picture cause we're both laughing so hard.

After we ate dinner we met up with Mitsuru and Nagisa and spontaneously went to karaoke until 5AM. Mary and I dazzled them with "Be Our Guest" and lots of other cheesy songs. I also burned out my voice doing my best imitation of Green Day with "Minority". I love karaoke because the students are so calm as they are singing but Mary and I were dancing around the room and laughing and standing on the couches. We're a wild pair.

P.S. I was talking to Rochelle and after sharing with her some of my cultural blunders I thought I would write them down. But also, share with you all.

Last Tuesday my neighbor bumped into me and she knows almost no english. I mean like NONE. But she invited me over for coffee. She is precious and so I decided that it would be a good opportunity for me to chill with her and become friends. Well, there are WAY too many cultural blunders from this one afternoon to share but one of my most humilating is the fact that the little I know of Japanese I can't seem to remember when I need it the most. When you enter someones home there is a proper way to "greet" the host and for the life of me I could not remember the phrase, which is "ijamashimasu". Instead the only thing I could think of and kept for some reason repeating was, "irashaimasen" which is, "welcome to my store!" So here I am, a stupid foreigner going through her house, entering each room saying, "Welcome to my store" instead of the proper Japanese greeting.

Why do I share? In hopes that you can laugh and enjoy my life as much as I am. Also, to remind you all that life happens and you just smile and praise God for the opportunities and experiences you are given.

Thanks Rocket for laughing at me and with me. :)