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Amsterdam, Paris, London

  • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 9:48 AM
 

<input ... >

Hey guys EF has some spots on their Amsterdam, Paris, and London - 10 days (2008) trip that leaves August 5th.

These friendly neighbors bring it all to the table. Begin in Amsterdam, whose romantic canals and lax attitude bring you to a new place. Then it’s on to <input ... > glittering Paris—admire its art, marvel at its monuments, and discover the meaning of chic in its countless shops and boutiques. Finally it's off to London, where there is no end to the action, from the corner pub to late-night clubs to the vivid postcard sights. 

You'll Visit:  
-Bussels
-Amsterdam
-Paris
-London

The Trip Includes:

  • Round-trip airfare
  • Hotels
  • Transfers
  • Welcome drink
  • Welcome dinner
  • Breakfasts daily
  • Walking tours
  • Guided sightseeing tours
  • Entrances to select tractions

    You'll see:
  • Anne Frank's House
  • Louvre Museum
  • Notre Dame
  • Seine cruise
  • Eiffel Tower

    It starts out at $1695 (changes a bit according to which airport you're departing from), BUT anyone who signs up for August 5th saves $200 ($150 sale price + $50 CM Code: HASSON1950). If you go ahead and get a quote on the tour yourself, you'll see the full price, but the discount is taken off manually by EF once the tour is booked. 
  • Jul. 5th, 2008

    • 12:33 AM
    When I first saw PGSM, back in 2004, the shitennou made me want to vid their antics to a certain Queen song. Years later, I made an attempt at it. On showing it to a friend, I made mention of the fact I had very little Nephrite love in it, and she lamented that no-one loves PGSM!Nephrite.

    I refuted that. Clearly, Ami does. Here is the proof:



    Warnings: Windows Movie Maker. Idiot working said idiot programme. EIGHTIES MUSIC. But hey, you know, they need the love. :D

    ...if you're interested, PrincesShitennou of the Universe is here. It's slightly glitchy, but hey, it took me HOW long to even get that far? :D

    studying methods / stragedies

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 9:22 PM
    Hey there,

    it’s me again. Maybe some of you remember my last few entries some time ago.
    Ever since then I started to study Japanese every single day nonstop with no exception at all, although it’s really hard as I have a full-time job. (As you might know I work as English teacher in Japan)

    Anyway I’m only progressing very slowly because I don’t have as much time as I want to have. I have several questions for you guys and I hope you can help me a little bit.

    First of all is there anyone here in this community that has / had to stuy while having a full-time job. How was/ is it going? Any hints for “timeboxing” / “timemanagement”.
    I don’t have to use the subway, bus or anything to go to work, so no time to study there.

    I’ll tell you what I’m doing right now and you tell me what you think about it. If that’s a good stragedy, if I should skip one thing or another and rather stick to some other method etc.

    Right now after getting up, I eat breakfast and then usually start to study right away. My working hours are from 2pm-10pm, so I only have time BEFORE I go to work.
    What I do then is working with a textbook that I’ve brought from Germany and which I used when I was still in university. It’s very basic stuff, but I want to get down the basics properly before I go on (and start to prepare for 2kyu) – that goes especially for grammar!
    So I’m reading the current lesson’s text. Add the new vocab to my flashcard program (currently using Anki and I love it). Sometimes I add whole sentences, especially when I wanna memorize the use of particles, but most of the time it’s only isolated words. Then I work on the grammar, add the grammar to my flashcard program as well with everything there is to know and sample sentences. Then I get my “Basic Japanese Grammar dictionary”, look up the grammar and add more information to the flashcards. After that I do the exercises in my textbook. For this I write everything down in my notebook, so I have writing practice, too. I realized that it boosted my writing skills quite a bit. Now I actually wanna study how to write Kanji as well (so far I only can write some basic ones, whereas I can read over 350 by now).
    I also have bought the Rabbit thingie kanji flashcards for JLPT4 and 3. I’m reviewing these and after that adding them to my flashcard program. Actually I use 2 different sets for this:
    One set only for the kanji where I write down the meaning, stroke number, radical, kun and onyomi.
    Second set has quite a few different compounds with that kanji in it.
    So I have one pile with kanji only and one pile with vocab/compounds. I’m going to make sets for each JLPT level this way. (which will take forever, but oh well …)
    Then whenever I pick up words at work, by watching a drama/movie I add it to a “random” flashcard set which is for vocabs I just picked up by chance.

    Whenever I have some free time at work, I start Anki and study vocab and kanji or do some of the exercises in my textbook.
    From time to time I exchange e-mails with Japanese native speakers or use mixi.
    When I come home from work I usually watch Japanese stuff (anime/jdrama/variety shows), but usually with subs only!
    When I go to bed I usually review 5 kanjis and then read some doujinshi.

    That’s about it. What do you think?

    There is no language school in my village, but a volunteer service. You can get your own Japanese teacher there and practice with him/her. I don’t think that will help me much at my current level though. Maybe once I got my basics down.

    As for studying kanji. It’s really hard to remember the ones with a lot of strokes. At some point they all look similar to me (not the JLPT3 and 4 ones, but when I study vocab, I try to memorize the kanji as well …). Do you have any hints or tricks to study them? I know about Heisig of course ….. or using radicals, but any specific method that helps/helped you is interesting for me right now!

    For vocab I’ve read about people who never ever study isolated words, but only whole sentences instead. And not even how to translate those sentences, but just looking at them and maybe study how to write the sentence. I don’t know about that.
    Today I found a pretty useful book at work. It’s for Japanese elementary school kids (and young middle schoolers) that want to study English, but the words and especially the sample sentences are very good and daily life style. My textbooks uses a lot of words I’ll never use anyway (economic related stuff etc.)
    So I’m going to work with this book for a while, add the vocab and sample sentences to my flashcard program and study these. I especially like that they write down the particle that is usually used with the verbs etc. And with this I can be sure that it’s CORRECT Japanese! (For anybody that is curious: it’s an Eiken 英検test book).

    Up till now I really had problems memorizing a lot of vocab. Some words sound soooo similar and are sooo different from any European language (I have the feeling that every second word ends with “shou/jou” GAH!). So maybe studying isolated words is not the right way after all?
    I mean … most of the vocab I know now, I didn’t study, but just KNOW because I’ve heard them 100 times thanks to watching anime, jdramas for over 10 years now.

    Once I’m through with my current textbooks and the basics, which will get me past 3kyu level, I’m not sure how to go on from there. Are there any advanced textbooks that might work well while preparing for 2kyu?

    Generally I’m not a very patient person and to think that I actually was interested in learning Japanese since 1998 and started to study seriously in 2002 (but with tooooooons of breaks in between because of graduation projects, exams etc.), I’m still at the lowest beginner level. I want to be able to at least read and understand quite a lot of my manga or things like that. I know, I know, … but I guess you know what I want to say.

    Anyway that was long. I’m sorry and I’m thankful for any tiny kind of help you can offer me!

    よろしくお願いします!♪

    Your methods / stragedies

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 9:16 PM
    Hey there,

    it’s me again. Maybe some of you remember my last few entries some time ago.
    Ever since then I started to study Japanese every single day nonstop with no exception at all, although it’s really hard as I have a full-time job. (As you might know I work as English teacher in Japan)

    Anyway I’m only progressing very slowly because I don’t have as much time as I want to have. I have several questions for you guys and I hope you can help me a little bit.

    First of all is there anyone here in this community that has / had to stuy while having a full-time job. How was/ is it going? Any hints for “timeboxing” / “timemanagement”.
    I don’t have to use the subway, bus or anything to go to work, so no time to study there.

    I’ll tell you what I’m doing right now and you tell me what you think about it. If that’s a good stragedy, if I should skip one thing or another and rather stick to some other method etc.

    Right now after getting up, I eat breakfast and then usually start to study right away. My working hours are from 2pm-10pm, so I only have time BEFORE I go to work.
    What I do then is working with a textbook that I’ve brought from Germany and which I used when I was still in university. It’s very basic stuff, but I want to get down the basics properly before I go on (and start to prepare for 2kyu) – that goes especially for grammar!
    So I’m reading the current lesson’s text. Add the new vocab to my flashcard program (currently using Anki and I love it). Sometimes I add whole sentences, especially when I wanna memorize the use of particles, but most of the time it’s only isolated words. Then I work on the grammar, add the grammar to my flashcard program as well with everything there is to know and sample sentences. Then I get my “Basic Japanese Grammar dictionary”, look up the grammar and add more information to the flashcards. After that I do the exercises in my textbook. For this I write everything down in my notebook, so I have writing practice, too. I realized that it boosted my writing skills quite a bit. Now I actually wanna study how to write Kanji as well (so far I only can write some basic ones, whereas I can read over 350 by now).
    I also have bought the Rabbit thingie kanji flashcards for JLPT4 and 3. I’m reviewing these and after that adding them to my flashcard program. Actually I use 2 different sets for this:
    One set only for the kanji where I write down the meaning, stroke number, radical, kun and onyomi.
    Second set has quite a few different compounds with that kanji in it.
    So I have one pile with kanji only and one pile with vocab/compounds. I’m going to make sets for each JLPT level this way. (which will take forever, but oh well …)
    Then whenever I pick up words at work, by watching a drama/movie I add it to a “random” flashcard set which is for vocabs I just picked up by chance.

    Whenever I have some free time at work, I start Anki and study vocab and kanji or do some of the exercises in my textbook.
    From time to time I exchange e-mails with Japanese native speakers or use mixi.
    When I come home from work I usually watch Japanese stuff (anime/jdrama/variety shows), but usually with subs only!
    When I go to bed I usually review 5 kanjis and then read some doujinshi.

    That’s about it. What do you think?

    There is no language school in my village, but a volunteer service. You can get your own Japanese teacher there and practice with him/her. I don’t think that will help me much at my current level though. Maybe once I got my basics down.

    As for studying kanji. It’s really hard to remember the ones with a lot of strokes. At some point they all look similar to me (not the JLPT3 and 4 ones, but when I study vocab, I try to memorize the kanji as well …). Do you have any hints or tricks to study them? I know about Heisig of course ….. or using radicals, but any specific method that helps/helped you is interesting for me right now!

    For vocab I’ve read about people who never ever study isolated words, but only whole sentences instead. And not even how to translate those sentences, but just looking at them and maybe study how to write the sentence. I don’t know about that.
    Today I found a pretty useful book at work. It’s for Japanese elementary school kids (and young middle schoolers) that want to study English, but the words and especially the sample sentences are very good and daily life style. My textbooks uses a lot of words I’ll never use anyway (economic related stuff etc.)
    So I’m going to work with this book for a while, add the vocab and sample sentences to my flashcard program and study these. I especially like that they write down the particle that is usually used with the verbs etc. And with this I can be sure that it’s CORRECT Japanese! (For anybody that is curious: it’s an Eiken 英検test book).

    Up till now I really had problems memorizing a lot of vocab. Some words sound soooo similar and are sooo different from any European language (I have the feeling that every second word ends with “shou/jou” GAH!). So maybe studying isolated words is not the right way after all?
    I mean … most of the vocab I know now, I didn’t study, but just KNOW because I’ve heard them 100 times thanks to watching anime, jdramas for over 10 years now.

    Once I’m through with my current textbooks and the basics, which will get me past 3kyu level, I’m not sure how to go on from there. Are there any advanced textbooks that might work well while preparing for 2kyu?

    Generally I’m not a very patient person and to think that I actually was interested in learning Japanese since 1998 and started to study seriously in 2002 (but with tooooooons of breaks in between because of graduation projects, exams etc.), I’m still at the lowest beginner level. I want to be able to at least read and understand quite a lot of my manga or things like that. I know, I know, … but I guess you know what I want to say.

    Anyway that was long. I’m sorry and I’m thankful for any tiny kind of help you can offer me!

    よろしくお願いします!♪
    To all of you who're fit in Japanese... ニコニコ

    My friend spent some time in Spain the summer last year, and met a Japanese guy there... She told him I was studying Japanese, so when she wanted to send me a card, he scribbled a bit on it.

    ... Well. I failed in reading whatever he wrote XD I thought to recognize one or... two kanjis, maybe, lol, and a couple of his kana... Well okay... I can make out 見 中 上げます 暑い[mayyyybe? xD] and 気を付けて下さい

    I just found the scan again and thought I should post it xD


    [fake cut] Just click on the picture to see it larger in case it's not huge enough already~

    Thank you all <3

    Meatballs and tamagoyaki with spinach

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 9:54 AM
    Bento just for AP today. Rice mixed with salmon furikake, meatballs, tamagoyaki with spinach, and edamame. This one is lacking in red, I wish I've got a couple of strawberries in there. But we're going away for the weekend and I was trying not to buy any more fresh food yesterday.

    080704

    I had a handful of spinach leaves left in the salad drawer so I threw it into the tamagoyaki. Just make it as you normally would, pour the beaten egg into the pan, scatter in the spinach leaves and scramble the mixture slightly. Allow to set and roll as normal. Spinach leaves cook/wilt very quickly so the residual heat from the tamogoyaki roll will cook it easily.

    this guy is way too fun to draw

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 2:39 AM


    Right now I have him pegged down as Victor, but I'm not sure about it...what do name do you think he looks like?

    Tags:

    Nasi Lemak

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 2:02 PM
    Photobucket
    I was so hungry the other night, told myself must eat Nasi Lemak. So here it is . . .

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    Tags:

    Veal Marsala Bento

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 7:18 PM
    This was bento from Monday.  I am so behind in my posts.  Went to Assaggio's restaurant the night before and got a great veal marsala.  I hardly ever order veal.
     
    Salad with lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, bell peppers in one box.  Veal marsala and linguine in the other.

    Tags:

    Shopping

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 1:48 PM
     

    My shopping diary♪
    I bought new fashion item
    The Brand name is Brilliant♪This is my favorite fashon brand
    The shop seller is really cute and kind 
    I often go to the Brilliant shop^^



    This is Prideglide white clothe!
    Pink ribon is really cute!

    i can't go to shopping Because I have to wait untill next payday coming..
    NO money~~~(´;ω;`)(´;ω;`)(´;ω;`)
    I wish i have a more money..

    Now I am writing graduation thesis
    I decided to write about LOVE.+.(♥´ω`♥)゜+.゜
    so i am reading William Blake poem 

      

    this is my favorite Girl Mitatan!!!!
    She is so cute isn't she(center of picture)??

    and Today is the day...!!
    Maou On air!!!!!
    Maou is japanese TV drama program
    My love ohnokun is appear on the drama
    He is leading actor


    Ohno-kun is arashi'm member capten
    Arashi is japanese very very famous Singer!!
    He is cute & cool!!I am very looking forward pm10:00 coming!!!

    first post

    • Jul. 4th, 2008 at 12:00 AM
    1. Name: Michelle
    2. Age: 20
    3. Height: 5'7"
    4. Weight: 167
    5. Type of ED: n/a
    6. Diet pills you take/have taken: none...looking for something to help!
    7. How long you've been anorexic, bulimic, etc.: n/a
    8. Post a few (or one) picture of yourself (optional): no picture right now...next time!


    so yeah, i've always been a little bit over weight. for the past two years i've become REALLY into fitness but i haven't seen many results because i eat like craaazyyy. i might have an overeating disorder, i guess.

    anyway, i'm getting desperate and i want to find a good diet pill. one that works fast.
    i was looking into rapidslim sx. it's cheap and has good reviews.

    any tips? recommendations?

    thanks,
    michelle

    Jul. 3rd, 2008

    • 10:19 PM
    I've learned to fill in the gaps.



    Bacon Ranch Dressing
    Cottage Cheese (I swear people, every.  day.)
    Grape Tomatoes
    Leftover Okonomiyaki
    Cheese Curds (they're better than they sound; like very mild cheddar, from a local dairy farm)
    Melon Jello

    1 and a half bentos

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 PM

    Orange chicken stir fry, fruit salad, wheat thins and flower cheese, and a salad )

    2 sentence help?

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 7:27 PM
    Can anyone help with the following? I'm doing some press release work for a film, but I'm having trouble with the bolded sentence.

    ===
    OLの泉は、恋人ヒロミと同棲している。ヒロミは病気を理由に仕事もせず、ヒモ生活。ある日、泉は会社をリストラされる…。ヒロミにそれを言いだせないまま、新しい仕事を探そうと躍起になるがうまくいかない。そんな苦労も知らず、「高級メロンが食べたい」と言うヒロミのために、泉はメロンを手に入れようと奔走するヒロミは病気が治っても仮病を使い、働こうとしない。そして泉は過労の末、ヒロミの病が移って倒れてしまう…。健気な泉と奔放なヒロミの切なく甘いラブストーリー。

    Izumi is an office lady who lives with her boyfriend, Hiromi. Hiromi has an illness that prevents him from finding a job. One day, Izumi's company undergoes a restructuring. Without telling Hiromi, Izumi begins to hunt for a new job, with little success. Without knowing the troubles placed on Izumi, Hiromi says that he wants to eat a high grade type of melon. For Hiromi's sake, Izumi runs about trying to procure this melon. [insert untranslated sentence]This is the sweet love story of a brave Izumi and the kind Hiromi.
    ===


    I think it's something along the lines of... Hiromi is feigning his illness because it got better, and should work, but doesn't... and in the end his illness gets worse and makes him collapse? Is that right? It seems weird to me.

    Well... this entire movie seems weird to me. Melons? :/

    Yes we go to Roppongi Street!

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 8:18 PM
    Roppongi Street, the UKs first parapara clubnight now has an official site.

    www.roppongistreet.com

    Lots will be added to it in the future including a forum. Hopefully it can become the home for UK paralists as well as giving all the latest news on Roppongi Street.

    And just a quick reminder that Roppongi Street is this Saturday. We have paralists from all over Europe attending as well as our very special guests SCP and legendary eurobeat singer Domino.

    Hope to see lots of you there!

    Yes we go to Roppongi Street!

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 8:12 PM
    Roppongi Street, the UKs first parapara clubnight now has an official site.

    www.roppongistreet.com

    Lots will be added to it in the future including a forum. Hopefully it can become the home for UK paralists as well as giving all the latest news on Roppongi Street.

    And just a quick reminder that Roppongi Street is this Saturday. We have paralists from all over Europe attending as well as our very special guests SCP and legendary eurobeat singer Domino.

    Hope to see lots of you there!

    My first bento lunch!

    • Jul. 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 PM
    Bento Lunch

    + a fruit salad )

    Me and my boyfriend are going to the beach tomorrow and this will be our lunch :-)

    Jul. 3rd, 2008

    • 11:36 AM


    A friend of mine has been putting manjuu (steamed bun with various fillings) in her obento, and she always makes really cute faces for them so I decided to try that out. I cannot believe she does that every day...they're more difficult than I thought they'd be! They're cute, though! :D



    manjuutachi )