Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Spring is HERE!

I have been having such relaxed days since Spring break started :) I guess I had been stressed out with my final exams and projects, so I have been having a little weird health condition now. Luckily, I didn't plan any trips during the break, so I get to relax as much as I can. Because I have so much time now, I was reading my latest blog posts and noticed that I don't have pictures of me whereas other bloggers post their selfies and their own pictures on every single posts. (I feel awkward taking 'selfies'..) So, I met up with my bestfriend/"sister" and took some photos under the beautiful cherry blossom trees! Oregon is still cold. It was very windy, cold, and rainy, so it wasn't the best day to take pictures outside. Oh well, this is Oregon :D
My favorite part of this dress is the baby pink bow. This dress actually didn't come with the pretty bow. One of my mom's hair accessories was getting old, so we just got the bow part from the accessory and sawed it on this dress. Now, it looks very adorable and Springy! I think it's very important to look good from the front and the back as well. You got an old hair accessory and a very simple dress? Well, make it cuter in your own way!
I had a pair of shoes that goes perfect with this outfit. However, since my toe was hurting a bit, I had to wear very comfortable ones which also have bows.

 Dress & Hair accessory - from Japan
Gray tights - H&M
Shoes - Arizona Jean at JCPenny
Hope you enjoyed my fashion post too!
Talk to you soon
smile
:)

Monday, March 17, 2014

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day
To
You
Are you wearing green?
It's one of the big celebrations for people in the United States. People drink green colored beers, green colored mixed drinks, green colored soft drinks... eat green colored foods, green colored sweets... decorate their house, shops, and other places with green. YOU MUST WEAR GREEN. If you don't, people will pinch you. Yea, I actually got pinched two years ago for not wearing green... :'(
St. Patrick's day is an Irish holiday. I heard that People in US celebrate this holiday a lot bigger than people in Ireland do. I need to go to Ireland to find out if it's true or not. Well, if you are from Ireland or have been to Ireland, please let me know what you do on St. Patrick's day in the comment! :)

Since I have the last final exam in the veeeeery early morning tomorrow, I stayed home and studied for it.
Around the final week, it's especially stressful for international students. It's because if you fail, you go back to your country. Bye bye! So, this is me during the dead week. My professors kindly decided to move the final exams which happen during the final week to the dead week (a week early). Unfortunately, all the exams were on the same day, so I was studying so hard like I had never studied last Wednesday.
I was so sad and stressed out, so I posted this picture on facebook. (hahaha) and said that...
"Why??? ...4 final papers + 1 final exam + 1 quiz + 1 huge homework + more more final stuff for tomorrow! Still, I don't want to study. I wanna skip tomorrow!"
This picture was from today when we went out for a bit. Yup, we wore GREEN!

I was wearing
sun-glass - H&M
greenish blueish dress - Forever 21 (h81)
cardigan - Japan
dark green scarf - a local store in Bend, Oregon
hear accessory - Disney

How was your St. Patrick's Day?
Hope yours were amazing!

Talk to you later
smile
:)

Saturday, March 8, 2014

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day!
To all of my beautiful readers
(source
I was volunteering today for a Fair Trade store and celebrating International women's day. I didn't know that international women's day was even existed until 2 years ago. How unfortunate is that? right?
I found a flier from Because I am a Girl . ca and thought it's very worth sharing with you.

Because I am a girl

Because I am a girl
I watch my brothers go to school while I stay home
Because I am a girl
I eat if there's food left over when everyone is done
Because I am a girl
I am the poorest of the poor

And yet...

Because I am a girl
I will share what I know
Because I am a girl
I am the heart of my community
Because I am a girl
I will pull my family out of poverty if you give me the chance
Because I am a girl
I will take what you invest in me and uplift everyone around me
Because I am a girl
I can change the world

This picture is me 3 years ago. I didn't have any other photos of me wearing traditional formal Japanese dress, so ... it's old, but there you go! I'm celebrating "international women's day" with you :D hehe

How was your international women's day?


Talk to you later!
smile for gorgeous & strong women in the world
:)

My very 1st writing

When I just came to America, I didn't have any knowledge about computers. So, of course, I didn't know that Microsoft word existed. I had to type up and save the assignment as email drafts until I met Microsoft word. Whenever I received writing assignments, it was just so inconvenient. Well, this means that I still do have the very first drafts from 10/6/2009. It was from my first term at my college in the United States = the beginning of my international life.
My first essay assignment was to write a letter to my landlord. I am sure there were some scenarios to it, but I, unfortunately, don't remember. Before I came to the US, English was my least least least favorite subject. I almost failed all the English classes in my high school. I couldn't communicate well with people who didn't speak Japanese (of course). My first host family in Australia must have had a hard time hosting me for 14 days. Thank you very much to my Australian host family and sister (I don't think they are reading my blog though). Well, it is just another story of my international life.

Anyway, 
let me share my first writing assignments with you all!

Dear landload.
Hello. This is Vivian. I have stay this accommo

Landload... ... oh landload, it's unfinished.


Dear landload.
Hello. This is Vivian. I have stay this accommodation with my family for several weeks.
Inhabitants who live in here are so kind include you, even though we are from different country and can't speak Eenglish well. We are happy to feel that we can use to stay here step by step.
We feel comfortable without one thing.
It is air-conditioners. I  am wondering that air-conditioners are broken by some thing. It is comming soon on winter.
Would you mind fixing or checking these air-conditioner before starting on winter.
Regard,
Vivi

Obviously, I couldn't speak Eenglish well. Although my family & I felt so comfortable without one thing, I am asking "landload" to fix that. noooo!! Someone! Stop meee!!

I just remember that the assignment was too hard for me. Especially, it's because I had never asked anyone for a help. It's really not my thing to ask someone for a help. So, I basically didn't know how to ask others to do something for me to begin with. Plus, I had to write the assignments in English. Yes, it took forever to complete it... I couldn't ask for a help from the ESL teacher or friends. Even if I did, I'm sure I couldn't explain this simple reason of why I can't do the assignment well.


Seriously,
international students & people who learn different languages..
Don't give up!

It feels so weird that I can see all of the mistakes now although I did't see anything then. I used to have a lot more confidence, so I am sure I thought this assignment was perfect at the time. (-_-)


It's kinda funny for me to look back my international life. 
Maybe, I should share other drafts as well on my blog.
Until then,
Smile
:)

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

University of Oregon

It's kind of fun to visit a school which you DON'T go to. Don't you think so?
Well, it is for me. Especially, when I am in a different country like right now, it's kind of fun... more like interesting. The atmosphere is different. The fashion of students are different. The buildings are different. To me, it's like "visiting a place." Of course, it's not so fun when I go to my school even though I am in a different country; US. The purpose of coming to the school is different. I heard that the buildings of "University of Oregon (U of O)" are pretty. So, I went to check it out!
This "Women's Memorial Hall" is my favorite building at UofO.
I pretended to be a sophisticated person. But it didn't turn out right (-_-).. hahaha
My super honest personality is showing you all that "pretending" doesn't quite work right with me. *sigh*  
The last two pictures are the lights at one of the stairs to go to the second floor at one of the library. The lights are for us to see the steps. The size is probably about 10cm x 10cm. Yes, it's not that big at all. Not many people seem to notice that the lights have so much detailed decoration. Oh gosh.. WHY?

Although my elementary school was 139 years old when I graduated, but it didn't have any detailed decorations like that. My junior high school & high school were relatively new (20 years old), so it wasn't as cool as I hoped. haha It was a fun day visiting a different school! Not only buildings were interesting, but I also saw a lot of hippies, international students, and people with green and yellow colors. My school has a lot less of these. I also have visited to UCLA in California, but U of O definitely has a different style in comparison to UCLA. I hope I can visit other universities as well while I am in the US!!

I assume that my dear readers have been in a school once, please share your thoughts about your schools.
What was your school like?
Was it old or new? Was it pretty?
I am so excited to read that.

Talk to you later
smile!
:)