HEART STATION

When I was turning 8, I really wanted to have a cat, since I have always loved how they are. My sister decided it’d be a good gift, and my father is a real animal lover, so he was really into it. It was a weekend and we went to a pet store that now is not there anymore, called “Animal.” When the lady escorted us to the display of persian kittens, she took out a tiny, grey one called “Thundercat,” and happily went on and on about how cute he was, but I looked at this tiny furry, champagne-toned cat at the corner of the display, she was also looking at me, all relaxed and elegant (She’s the sophisticated kind), and I was sold, she was the cat I wanted, no matter how excellent all the others were. I loved that one. We brought her home, and even though my mother freaked out, she ended up loving her anyway. We went to a Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood with her, and my mother kept saying how she didn’t want her to go to the bathroom there at the restaurant. I don’t know how she recieved the message, but when we got home, we saw that actually she had, only she did it on her tail… It does sound gross, but it didn’t even look like it, it took a while to notice, but we washed her up.

Then came the joy of birth, four times. The first time she had kittens was in 2004, when I was coming back from a birthday party and entered the kitchen. Her serene expression and her tiny little paws slowly carressing the floor with her nail. But then again, not all kittens survive and this was pretty much a bomb, whenever one of them died. The other three times were also blessings, but they didn’t catch us by surprise like the first birth. We followed every step of her kitten’s lives, we fed them when they didn’t find where to find food and took care of them all the time. It was the first thing we did when got home from school.

After we got Prince, our male cat, we decided to marry both of them, and her fourth and last litter of kittens were the outcome of this “marriage.” This was around 2005 and we still have the certificate. Then we spayed her and she got a lot more caring and docile, if that was possible. Everytime the window was opened, she’d jump and stay with us or walk around the house. Everybody loved her and out of the 3 cats, everyone’s favorite for being so cute and the most social.

Today, after my sister and I came out of the car, we heard cries from our neighbor, Emellyn, telling us not to get in the house. She was crying and told us to follow her. When we got where she wanted us to be, we saw Xuxa lying on the floor, dead. Her tiny mouth was opened and some blood was inside, her eyes were wide open and her position was still sophisticated, just like how she always had been. My sister and I broke into tears and so did our neighbors. My mother was crying from the phone and Xuxa was sent to the vet to analyze her death. Because of her red mouth, the veterinary believes she suffered of some impact on her nose because it’s a very sensitive area, and it killed her. I can’t even think straight, she meant so much to me, any thought of her makes me cry and writing this post was one of the hardest experiences because of so many tears and memories of our past together. I never thought she’d die so young (4 years old) and so suddenly. I’ll never forget her, my little baby.

There has been some time that I’ve been wanting to watch the first episode of the ‘dorama’ (Japanese drama, or soap opera) Last Friends and it took me a while just to find a download with hardsubs (Subtitles that come already placed throughout the episode), but I have, and I already watched it. This first experience with Japanese drama was very interesting and I love how even though it’s foreign, I can still sense similarities between this series and other American ones, and that’s great, because it makes the series much easier to relate to. But even though it’s similar to American series, I love the Japanese setting, everything is so beautiful even when it’s not meant to… Maybe that’s just me, but I love everything about it.

Until the first half of the episode, it’s like an introduction to the lives of the characters. There are five characters, and I’ll talk about each of them from what we see in the first episode:

• Aida Michiru: Michiru is a cute, innocent and adorable girl who is the main character of the series. The story follows how she returns to Tokyo and is in the process of getting used to it again. She moves in with her boyfriend, Sosuke, and meets her old high school friend, Ruka, and they begin hanging out again. Through Ruka, Michiru finds other great friends.
• Kishimoto Ruka: Ruka is not an ordinary girl because she hates men for treating her always for her gender and not for who she is. She’s a skilled motocrosser and has feeling towards Michiru. She also has a very boyish look to her.
• Mizushima Takeru: So far, there’s not much information on him, but his best friend, Eri, believes he’s gay because she’s never seen him with a girl and he’s a makeup artist. Besides that, we learn that he gets very pushy when he’s drunk, apparently.
• Takigawa Eri: We also can’t get much information about Eri from the first episode, but she’s very happy and loves to have fun. She’s also quite loud, but cute too.
• Oikawa Sosuke: He’s Michiru’s abusive boyfriend. In the beginning of the episode, he’s very sweet to her, but after she’s moved in, he believes the text messages she recieves from Ruka are a man’s, and hits her. He’s very controlling and closed-minded, Michiru can barely explain what’s going on before he beats her.

[Undetailed Spoilers] The rest of the episode is more of the series’ conflict. We learn more about the characters and then Michiru is trying to prove to Sosuke that Ruka is a girl, so she goes back to her house and looks for her high school yearbook. Sosuke calls her and makes her come home even though she didn’t find he yearbook. When she gets there, he beats her up very, very much and throws her on the lamp she bought for him when she moved in. She leaves and calls Ruka, but she doesn’t answer her cellphone. Later, Ruka finds her and brings her home where her roommate, Eri is found with her friend, Takeru. They have a great time together and go to sleep. That morning, something special happens, and I’ll leave it for you to watch it.

In my opinion, I really loved the series, and I’m certainly downloading the second episode with the hardsubs. My first experience with a ‘dorama’ was a great one! And Utada Hikaru’s Prisoner Of Love song is the theme song for the series, and in the four times it is played through the episode, it’s perfect timing, you feel the character’s emotions through the song and the soundtrack and the series itself are amazing. I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch it, but take notice that the content is very mature and you have to have certain maturity to watch the series.

Episode 1 (Torrent Download)

About 6 hours ago, I have written a letter to Baby C’s mother, Tina, (But so they have nicknames that rhyme, it’s Baby T!) because Baby C’s visting her for a week for a very annoying reason. I don’t know if I’m the one to talk about it, so I’m leaving the link to her blog. I really like her mother, even though I’ve never met her (yet!), so I’m writing this post especially for her!

We haven’t had much contact other than Baby C talking about her and the reading of her fabulous comments at Baby C’s blog, but I know her enough to know how special and amazing she is. She’s also very funny and sweet. She’s the best Baby C-teaser in the world and whenever Baby C writes about her, I always smile and feel the urge to comment about how much her mother is awesome (I think I’m runing out of adjectives… But it’s not because she isn’t great, it’s my fault for my narrow range of vocabulary words). Whenever Baby C talks about her I smile for so long that my head begins to hurt a little and I always end in an “aw,” and I want everyone to show their support for her, since she’ll be the victorious one against this problem, and your support will be greatly appreciated! Be it in the form of prayers or beautiful comments, I’m sure she’ll love it, and so will I! because she means a lot to so many people!

Even though my post may be short, I believe she deserves millions of posts about her radiance! But I’ll leave a video for her by Kylie Minogue, who has been through almost what Baby T is going through. She’s absolutely brilliant and so is Baby T! So we’re all wishing you well, Baby T, and there’s nothing to worry about! Even though we (Students from EAC) might be distant, we’ll always be by your side!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow:

When everything is coming to an end, I always take time to reflect on it even if it’s painful. In this case, spring brake wasn’t that bad, I feel like I wasted some of it, but it was nice wasting part of it in the comfort of my couch while I watch television and go on the internet at the same time. This went on in the beginning of spring break, until I focused on Baby C’s birthday present for this tuesday. It’s a fantastic present (At least for me), and its the first time I make an absolutely complete birthday pack for anyone! I’m so proud of myself, but she said she wanted something that reminded her of us, and the present I’m giving her reminds her of the class in a whole, not me, only, and being egocentric as I am, I have to give her a present reminding her of me! So I went to the website of a store close to my house, Japan Society [Website in Portuguese] and buy her something from there. I have an idea of what I want to buy and it’s going to be awsome! (By the way, did anyone else notice how excellently perfect Ayumi Hamasaki’s “alterna” song is? The one that plays when you enter Japan Society’s website?)

But enough of that, I’m very upset that school begins on tuesday already, but I have everything ready for tuesday and I can spend tomorrow doing whatever I want! And that’s always great. I’m buying Baby C’s gift tomorrow and I’m very eager to do that. It’s weird how I don’t want school to begin and still want to go to school and give her the gifts for the wonderful day that tuesday will be for being her birthday date!

For two weeks now, my ex-babysitter, who took care of me since I was about two years old until I was about five or six, has been helping my mother out with house work because she had been dismissed from her earlier job because the kids were old enough to take care of themselves. The  babysitter agency set her up with a to-be-mommy whose baby is due this year and she’ll begin in September when the baby turns 3 months old. Well, for now, she’s been earning some money here with us, and I love spending time with her because she’s so creative and fun. But now I have a very weighted consience.

She has always been a very happy and bubbly person, of course, everyone has their ups and downs, but she always manages to lift the heavy atmosphere of our house and cheer us all up. I believe my sister doesn’t like that that much and acts all spoiled and immature whenever she’s near, sometimes resulting in a fight that Regina, (The babysitter’s name) has to take and not say anything. Regina has a very dark sense of humor too, and Aydee, (My sister) being immature and literal as she is, always takes it seriously and tells my mother everything Regina is joking about as if it were for real.

My mother didn’t like it one bit, so yesterday, she told Regina not to return anymore, and Regina got very upset. We didn’t believe her when she told us, but I still asked the cause, (Just to be sure) and if it was because of Aydee, (Which it was) and she said “No, it’s just because I have some work to do and I’m visiting the kids I used to take care of.” It was pretty heartbreaking, even though I didn’t believe her. When it was time to say goodbye to her, I didn’t even make a big deal and was with my laptop when she kissed my forehead to say goodbye. Now that I see that it was true, I feel really bad for not giving her a proper goodbye, at least. I made my mother feel guilty and call her, and all my mother told me that she answered was “I understand.”

 Today our class went to a shopping mall near school to visit a museum where everything is pitch black and you go through different settings (Such as a forest and the city and it ended at a bar), while you’re holding a metal rod to help you out and your sense of touch. The people guiding the groups have visual deficiency. The point of the trip wasn’t to spend one hour being blind, since it’d be completely offensive to gain money on the deficiency of others. The objective is to remove every prejudice we might have of others when we look at them. That’s why it’s called the “Museum Of Blind Communication.” I think that’s pretty neat.

Another thing added to the experience is that we were recorded by a television channel because it’s such a new thing here in Brazil. Before we actually got into the museum, we heard the instructions of the monitors and we played a few games. Little by little, groups of eight students were going in, until Bo, Giovanna, Marina, Eduardo, Thais, Cassandra, Laura and I were left. In my opinion, this group couldn’t be better. After having loads of fun with each other, it was time go in.

We couldn’t bring anything that glowed or sparkled or anything like that, so I had to leave my glasses at the little cubbies at the entrance. Our group also wanted to adventure a little more and took off our shoes to go barefoot. It was a lot more fun going barefoot. We got to feel the grass of the forest and the concrete of the streets and it was a very singular experience. Our guide was very fun and it was weird to notice how the most minimum things impressed us so much. Even touching water from an artificial waterfall impressed us.

The bar part was pretty much normal. We talked a little about what the experience was to us and purchased some junk food using only coins (The clerk was also blind). When we left, the light didn’t have as much of an impact as I expected, but we left (I earned a headache for staying in that pitch black darkness for so long [I'm serious, if you passed your hand in front of your face, you wouldn't see it]), and we went straight to McDonald’s and ate there. When we returned, we were so tired that I don’t know how we went through the day.

To shake off my tiredness, I decided to take a shower and rest, and so I did. I feel pretty restored, the tiredness is still there, but nothing that a long nap won’t solve.

This picture has been taken in front of the exibition, it’s a picture of the group that was going into the exbition first.