The Long Awaited Gathering

10 of us from the 11th Batch got to meet up in Kansai International Centre (where i previously stayed/had fun/tried to study for 7mths). For me it was a trip that i was looking forward too.. and even though most of us didn't manage to leave the international centre to head towards the city (an hr or so trainride away) and roam around, i think we managed to have fun together. here are some of the highlights

1) Meeting Yamakumi-san at Itami airport!
she had an unagi don set and i had what i thought looked like sukiyaki but wasn't?!?! a tad disappointed but i'm always making silly mistakes like that.. so. well. moments of idiocy prove that i'm still me i guess!

what was slightly horrific about Itami Airport was that we were chased out of the restaurant at 8.30pm. and singaporeans... which restaurant closes at 8.30pm?!? apparently it's because itami airport is a domestic airport - and apparently domestic flights don't come in late at night. so by 8.30pm the place was a ghost town. nothing. we wanted to go for a drink at starbucks but we were told they were closing. the airport staff also keep the vending machines REALLY WELL HIDDEN cause we had to wander around for about 10mins looking for a vending machines and ended up having to ask the Starbucks staff for directions to the nearest vending machine, which turned out to be sooo far away, we gave up.

2) Meeting The Junior. L.E.O.N
He's also from MOE but he's had 7yrs of teaching experience! that's 3 more years than me ok. don't ask me how he survived AND ENJOYED it for so long ... he’s Brainy and Serious about education (he had 2 boxes of books brought in from Singapore, and brought a big stack of educational journals to japan!) He is also the first educator I know who subscribes to educational journals. WOW. A big contrast me to because when I left college, I made sure to throw away all unnecessary material haha. He is also, like Jason, a bit Tech Geek. No. VERY TECH GEEK. But in this modern world, tech geeks are all the rage with women right? I’ve been hearing rumours that he’s sizzling hot with the gals. Haahahah!!
i put 2 photos of him cause he looks abit gay in the first photo and i dont' want to make it seem like he is (are you, leon?!?!) haha! So I think the 2nd photo is more like him. By the way, it's my fault he looks weird, cause i told him "let's make stupid faces!!!!" and he humored me.




) Reunion for the GEMS!!!!!
gift nearly didn't make it, thank goodness for mimi who convinced gift that in spite of all the crap gift is going thru in school, she should try to get her ass down to kansai for sanity's sake. :) by the way, we arranged ourselves in the order that spells GEMS... Gift Eyo Mimi Steph... took some brain power ok. cause we did it the opposite way at first. love u guys!!!!!!


4) Karaoke
Kansai International Centre has upgraded the karaoke room. It now has a flat (and enooorrrmous) screen tv, touch screen remote control song input device, and new songs!!! Like WAT?!?! We missed it by a matter of months!?!?! So sad la.
Anyway some of the guys hammed it up for the camera…
And we had anti-stress-scream-meaninglessly-into-the-mike sessions AFTER the juniors left haha !!!


I think mimi, gift, yk, erwin and nano really enjoyed the karaoke-ing.




U know nano has a special talent for singing tunelessly and stiffly. Its very cute when he sings.




5) Raz and my knee guard
finally got a chance to tell raziah that i was angry with her for throwing away my knee guard instead of returning it and saying thanks! she's a sweetie la... love raziah (in a strange way!)... hehe!


6) the Yakiniku Party at Furuya Sensei's house!!!!!!!

All of us were invited to furuya sensei's house for a yakiniku party! basically a bbq! we were supposed to meet at the lobby at 9.30am before heading off to furuya sensei's house to help with the preparations. but true to form, only 3 of us were punctual (eyo, erwin and me) so we arrived in 2 batches! yk was sooo drunk the night before he didn't even make it at all!

Evidence that we helped out and didnt'only eat! (though i must say that eating took up a large portion of our time... haha



US!!!


Ueda sensei (hunk), Furuya sensei (chick)


This is Hayashida sensei who is really prim and proper, AND a sweetie! she is the teacher i will never be able to become....


Nano would have missed his flight back to kyuushu if furuya sensei hadn't so kindly loaded him (and the rest of us) into her enormous car! one of the last pics taken outside of kansai centre.




Other Misc Things we did:
-- Starbucks Outing: the only shopping place i visited was Rinku Premium Outlet. None of us, except for Nawawi, made it into osaka city!


-- having an informal unplanned gathering with the juniors in the karaoke room. the guy from the Philippines is a muuuuch better singer than erwin!


--

here ends my very very brief stay at the centre. this is erwin's and my last walk together before his wifey comes to join him in tokyo!!! hahaha!!! he was so sweet because he told me to pass him my luggage, and when i declined at first, he told me...'you're going to have to carry it yourself the rest of the way'... so i let him. if he wasn't married, he'd have a harem of AYF gals ....