Saturday, June 22, 2013

A Big Boy

25
♪Happy birthday to you cha cha cha
Happy birthday to you ♪ cha cha cha
Happy birthday ♪ Happy birthday
♪ Happy Birthday Toooooo ... Garfy ♪
 *ヾ(○´∀`)(○´∀`○)(´∀`○)ノ *

Look! How adult looking he became!

We had his birthday dinner at Kennedy Elementary School (McMenamins) The elementary school got closed down & McMenamins turned it into a hotel. such a creative idea!! (*´・ω・)´-ω-)
Interesting, interesting, ... creepy ?
Don't make a fun of them. They are watching YOU!


What was his birthday present from me? hehe it's a secret. I would like to come up with a great answer to it, but... hmmm... I was super busy because of moving and stuff. Soooo.. I am giving him late birthday presents next weekend. (I am such a bad girlfriend (;^;) ) sorry!

(This photo by Ryan)

Happy Birthday, Garfy!
:)

Monday, June 17, 2013

Vivian interviews Yumi

Hellooo, amigos :)
My first interviewee is "Yumi"
We met each other in Business Communication class this term. Yumi came up to me and asked me "are you Japanese?" She turned out to be a super sweet girl & a very hard worker!! Yumi is an exchange student from Saitama, Japan & has been in the US for a year. Sadly, this was her last term & she went back home yesterday. I thought it'd be wonderful to interview her about her international life in the US before she goes home.

Tips to improve English skill ?
・Practice pronouncing vocabularies in the shower
・Steal words from movies and use them in her real life
She learned how to use "you know" from watching movies ╰(*´︶`*)╯

 Advice for my readers from Yumi

"The best way to learn another language is
make as many local friends as possible"


Difficult words to pronounce ?
Cool, Letter, Croissant, Sure

We both love Croissants and have difficulty of pronouncing it. Think about it. You are super hungry and find a delicious & just baked croissant in front of you. Smells wonderful. Looks delicious. BUT you can't pronounce it! How can you order it!? How sad (:^:) Well... so we say "can I get that? oh yes, that one!" ha


Cultural differences she found ?
Students in the US can eat food during the class.
Students in the US can freely say their opinions and ask questions to their professors.

In her university in Japan, students can bring non-alcohol beverages to their class, but they can't eat food during the class. & Students have to sit, take notes, and listen. So that, nobody asks questions; moreover, nobody tells his/her opinions to professors. (it's kinda taboo / rude to do at schools.)
Doesn't it sound pretty different? She surely found interesting cultural differences (^^)
 Her cultural shocks ?
Teriyaki sauce is not actually a Teriyaki sause.
Mayonnaise is really huge!
Sushi in the US is super oily.

 Weird questions that people have asked her ?
Are there still Samurai / Ninja?
What is Geisha?
I've got asked about Samurai too. There are no Samurai in Japan (sorry to break your dream), although I wish there were still Samurai in Japan. That'd be sooo cool. These questions always make me laugh so hard (*^-^*)


Yumi's fashion check!
Earrings - Old Navy
A shirt - Old Navy
A short pants - Forever 21
Black high heels - a shoe store in woodburn mall


She told me a lot about her wonderful friends in America & her interesting American life! I'm glad that she was my first interviewee because I had such an awesome time with her! Thank Yumi a bunch for sharing with me and my readers!

If you have any questions that you want me to ask international students,
leave a comment below!
(please don't forget the respect. we feel similar, we think similar, we act similar. We are all humans)

:)

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Today is the day!!

Hola, amigos ╰(*´︶`*)╯

Today was the day!!
what day?
It's Friday, Friday ♪

Today was the day!!
what day?
It's on of the biggest days of my life☆

Today was the day!!
what day?
I'm finally moving out! I'm moving into the cutest apartment around here!

Sorry that I couldn't update posts this week. I was crazy busy from final exams and moving out!

Garfy.
I bet you guys have been like .. "huh? who is Garfy?" Well, I have really never talked about him, right? Long story short, our relationship has been a huge secret. I couldn't really talk about him until TODAY! He is such a kind, intelligent, brilliant, and perfect person (unlike me) who has been bringing sooooo much happiness into my life. He is my new roomie. Yes, we are moving in together. TADAAAA Some people are surprised to know about this & who he is. Are you surprised? (-u-)♪ I didn't tell him about this blog at all, so he might be surprised as well.

About a month ago, Garfy gave me an idea to move in together.
This picture is my favorite scene from The Vow. Gosh! I wished so much to be asked to move in with my future boyfriend like this scene when I watched it. Well, he eats blueberries, but of course, this didn't happen to me (T^T) I don't think he watched it, so I shouldn't really complain about it.
(this pic is from here) 
Why are we only expecting guys to be so creative and romantic? Why can't we be romantic since we learn a lot of tips from romantic movies? Stop complaining! Go girly!! bahaha So, I bought a vegetarian cookbook for him. I wrote on the book "can we cook these together? will you move in with me? yes or no" and gave it to him. I know it's super cheesy, but I love cheesy, really cheesy (*>U<*) He gave the book back. I found a circle on the Yes.

To be honest, I was really scared to live with him. I almost said NO to him. Why? 
  1. Cohabitation has never worked out with me
  2. A psychological research shows that couples who live together before their marriage, they are more likely to divorce / break up. 
  3. I don't really have any confidence of myself to be a good roommate of his.
We have had a lot of communication before we decided to move in together. I am still scared but suuuper exited about this. More like... I am very excited to see how our future will be like (^^)(^^)  
I hope things will go wonderful with us like they have always been! I love you, Garfy!


This is one of the few pictures that we both look OK. haha
Our kindest friend took this picture for us
☆Thanks☆

:)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Top 10 favorites from my closet

I've seen some bloggers who have shared their top 10 favorites from their closet. What a great idea (*´▽`*)!! This would be very fun to do on Smile With Vivian. It was a little challenge to pick only 10 from my closet. Howeveeeer, since my maxi dresses are too long to hang up, I couldn't take pics of them (;_;) sad.. I'm going to introduce you.. my top 8 favorites from my closet.
Rules are very simple!
no accessories, no shoes, no me
Just favorite dresses
(You already saw some of them on my blog)
Talk about where you got them, why you like them, memories of you wearing them

  •  Left : Forever 21 Chiffon Dress ♪  - My favorite color & material for clothes (chiffon & dark blue). I wore it for my favorite day of the year = Christmas day!!
  • Middle : T.J.Maxx Summer Dress ♪ - Polka dots & laces are my favorite! A gift by one of my professors☆ just realized that I put my pics with this dress on my blog too much! ha
  • Right : Chiffon Dress from Japan ♪ - Chiffon & dark blue again! I wore it to Idaho... it somehow got ripped a bit, but I fixed it. That's how much I really love this dress. 

From the left..
  • Black party dress from local shop ♪- this is my motivation of controlling my weight.
  • Kohl's Peplum top ♪- the back is the cutest part which I will show you when I wear it :) hehe Peplum style helps my stomach to hide really well. aannd I love that!! (^^)
  • White lace top from friend♪- I like the combination of white stuff & jeans so much. girly + lace makes perfection.
  • Polka dots & Red vintage style top from Japan ♪- I just love it! I love that every button is different. It's very cute and very unique.
  • Forever 21 Striped dress ♪- I love the ribbon on the back which you can kind of see.
Instead of the 2 maxi dresses, I decided to introduce a little bit of my socks obsession ( *´v`*) tadaaa!! "2 adorable pairs of socks"
  • Left : Bear in the honey + base from Japan ♪ - look at the ears! toe socks! Oh gosh.. the cutest socks I've ever seen!
  • Right : Santa socks from Walgreen ♪ - super random to meet this socks at Walgreen! Christmas stuff makes me nuts! Extremely cute!!
8 clothes & 2 socks add up to 10 favorites (●´ω`●) yay!!
Hope you enjoyed the sneak peak of my closet!

hugs :)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Why United States?

"Why did you choose to come to the US?"
I get this kind of questions all the time. I am sure other international students do too.
Everybody has different reasons to pick a country for his / her study abroad experience.

This is mine.



1. Interested in other languages
When I was about 5 years old, I saw two guys communicating with Japanese sign language. I couldn't stop looking at them. I thought "I have no idea what they are doing with hands, but they are communicating with silence. I know foreigners say 'bajsigdteiugruih' and they can communicate with whatever it is. If I master another language, 'bajsigdteiugruih' could make sense to me? I wanna talk with them..." I stared at the guys too long, and one of the guys flipped me off. As a 5 years-old girl, I didn't know what it meant. BUT I knew it was something bad sign because it hurt my heart so deeply. I know what it means now, and I still remember how painful it was in my heart. haha

2. Wanted to overcome English
Although I have been always interested in languages, it was a different story when it came to a subject. I almost failed high school because of English. I didn't understand WHY I had to study English for others (yes, the best excuse to avoid studying another language). After actually meeting people from all over the world, I changed my thought. I want to make international friends. I want to learn about them, their countries, their cultures, and their religions. I was frustrated that I couldn't talk with them well!!

3. Needed a change in my life
I was a hater once. I hated Japan. I hated my family's problems. I hated myself being a hater. I hated I couldn't do anything by myself because I was a spoiled child. I really thought I had to learn how to live by my own. I needed a change in my life.

4. No school for me in England
I am not gonna hide. I was originally planning to go to my dream country, England, to study. THEN, I found out that my GPA from my high school was waaay too low for universities in England. My adviser told me that there were many school for me in the US. I was like... "America?" (=゚ω゚)ノ


It was a time for me. High School Graduation.
I was 120% sure that "if I missed this change, I would never be able to go anywhere for a long time".


Then, I made an action.
I talked with my adviser secretly and got almost all the paper works done. After everything is almost done, I talked with my mother. She said NO. We had such a real and deep conversation for the first time in our life. I also talked with my father. He said YES. He promised to support me. After all, my mother finally said YES at almost the same time as my father said yes. I really thank my parents to be very supportive and to give me this opportunity. I couldn't go anywhere to study without my family.


My new life started.

Myself, My life, My friends... and many more
Everything changed.

How has my life changed? Well, it's another story (^^)
:)