owari (fin)

Fall semester is over.

I went back to Aurora on Thursday and Friday to hang out with my parents. I played Soul Calibur pretty much the whole time. It was enjoyable. My mother experienced carpal tunnel symptoms. That was not the enjoyable part.

When I picked up lunch at Chipotle on Friday, I saw Jared Hughes, but I didn't recognize him until after I had left. It was really eerie. The whole experience was eerie. I don't belong there anymore. I don't know if I ever really "belonged" in the first place, but at least I felt comfortable there.

My affection for Aurora has been a bit dulled by time. I now feel like I belong more in Boulder than I do in Aurora. It's kind of bothersome. I don't see myself as being someone who would particularly like Boulder. But at the same time, I'm familiar with it. It's a nice college town. I know where everything is, it's not too busy (especially in the summer), and there are lots of nice little shops and restaurants that are fun to go to. I know where the grocery stores are, the Jiffy Lube, the two bank branches, the various fast food places, the cheap gas stations, my friend's houses, school. I know the bus routes. I know my way around the engineering center. I know enough of Norlin to be able to find books by obscure Japanese authors in English OR Japanese. I know how to drive to Golden, to Aurora, to Denver, or just to Flatirons. I know where to buy flavored oils to make hard candy.

Oh well. That's ok. Boulder doesn't have videogames. I'm pretty bored. I guess I could play with my nintendog. I got a DS for Christmas. It's so sweet of my parents. I'm not worried about playing it all the time and not getting my homework done. I'm pretty happy about my grades this semester:

ETH	1 credit hour	A
Japanese	5 credit hours	A
Japanese Lit	3 credit hours	A
Computer Science	4 credit hours	A
Math	3 credit hours	A-

I don't think I've done this well since middle school. Or something. I'm proud of myself. It's nice that I did actually work hard, I got good grades, and I didn't even kill myself. It kind of proves to me that I do best when I'm so busy I don't know what to do with myself. Of course, it helped that two of those (ETH and Computer Science) were reaaaaaally easy.

But back to the DS. So far I have two games, Nintendogs (it came with the DS) and Electroplankton (a Japanese game that my dad bought for me). I was really excited about both of them at first, but now it's a bit disappointing... The electroplankton game, though cool, doesn't actually have any Japanese in it (one of the reasons I was excited), and it also doesn't seem to have any sort of scoring system or goal. It's cool, but I can only do so much. I think I'll not play it until the plane ride to California, because that way I'll have more fun fiddling with it. I guess I just don't "get it." The nintendogs, though cute, is annoying because it uses voice commands that do NOT seem to work. It's really frustrating to keep saying "sit". I figured out how to make my dog come without relying on just saying her name, though, because if you tap on the screen with your stylus it seems to get their attention. I'm most looking forward to playing games with my mom. I think, of all the things to do with the DS, that will be the most fun. I can't wait to use the little chat program, and to figure out how to play nintendogs and electroplankton with her.

I feel bad though. I don't want to seem ungrateful. The games are still cool, but they're just not quite what I was expecting. The coolest part of the electroplankton game is the instruction booklet that came with. Personally, I think that alone makes the gift. It's entirely in Japanese, and it's so fun to try and puzzle out what it says. Maybe once I read the whole thing I'll figure out the game itself more, and it'll be more fun to play.

I want to throw a partyish thing up in Boulder, and invite people from high school, but I'm still unsure. I've never thrown a party before, and I'm kind of afraid that some of my friends will hate each other, or something, and ruin the whole thing somehow. Well, anyway, to those of you that still read this, what do you think? I was thinking a January 1st party, where we do something lame like watch movies, or bake, or something. My only suggestion so far is a "Back to the Future" marathon. I was also thinking we could go to the Video Station and have a "find the cheesiest movie" competition.

Well, I'm heading back to Aurora probably tomorrow, and I'm leaving for California on Saturday, so for those who can, we should hang out.