things i’ve been doing lately:

- maid cafe - pretty awesome. i went with some other interns in my department and their mentors to akihabara, and while we were there, we visited a maid cafe. there was a long line (maybe 20-30 minutes?) and the food was pretty expensive and pretty average, in addition to an entrance fee of 700 yen per person. but it was soooooo cute (if you’re into those kind of cute things, like cute japanese girls dressed as maids serving you food). i don’t have pictures of the inside of the cafe, but i did take pictures of the outside (like a can of maid butter inside the souvenir store).

- kansai trip - most of the MIT interns in japan went to kyoto/nara this weekend (just got back!), which began with a crazy night bus that left at 11 pm and arrived at 6 am. i couldn’t sleep, mostly because of some sort of ear pressure misregulation, and as a result, a significant part of the trip was spent with me napping or almost accidentally passing out. the scenery was amazing, though; i took a ton of pictures of famous shrines and temples in kyoto until my battery died. the weather was amazingly humid - my hair evolved from normal to afro throughout the day, both days.

- training - last week, i started biking to work, which is about 7.5 miles each way. after the first day, my quads were burning, and the past couple of days, i’ve been waking up with calf cramps at 6 am, but it’s pretty good training. i’ve also been practicing forms in lab, to the point that the main topics of conversation involving me are tkd and my commute to work (gossip travels at approximately c at work). speaking of tkd, i’m going to a dojang next weekend! :D it’s a kids class, but i’m expecting something like a bunch of teenage black belts who can totally kick my butt, so i’m pretty excited :)

time for sleep; waking up for work tomorrow is going to suck.