HEART STATION

May and June… the months where every student dreams about the upcoming vacations. Until you get to 8th grade. To 8th graders, May and June mean incessant studying for your first final exams and you don’t know what to expect, so it only gets worse. There are only 2 more weeks until we have our final exams and only this week and the next to study. I’m only concerned about Portuguese and Mathematics material because they’re the kind of subjects that you go “what?! when did we learn this?!” when we review… Besides, I used to be good in both, but now I don’t know what happened this year that I just can’t pick up on things. This is pretty bad because of the fact that it’s the base for the beginning of high school, and if you have no base, you can’t build anything knowledge through the coming years, and that’ll lead to lots of humiliation in the classroom if they ask random questions to me that I won’t know how to answer.

From now on, I am to get really stressed and I think I’ll have to put piano to the side now because I’ll need all the time I can get to study. This weekend I plan to have no entertainment at all, only studying my English and Portuguese material. I hope I do just fine and that my hard work is worth it!

Never has a series been so syncronized with its own soundtrack! (At least from the ones I’ve watched) Everything is so in touch with the music in the series to the moment’s emotion that it increases the feeling they’re trying to expose to us. I love this about the series and everything else about it. Since my last review, there is one more main character named Tomohiko Ogura.

• Tomohiko Ogura: Ogura got into the series because he works with Eri in the airport. He told Eri about how his wife is living with another man in their house and he was kicked out. He is very shy and timid, but pretty controllable just like Michiru. He ends up living with Ruka, Takeru and Eri because of that and steals a plasma television from his house as a house-warming gift!

[Spoilers] Through the first five episodes, we get more and more interested in the cliffhangers, the relationships and in the strong personalities of the characters and the conflicts they’re involved in. Although, in the beginning we see this very close bond of love and friendship between Ruka and Michiru, it seems like lately, Ruka doesn’t like the fact that Michiru is so controllable by Sosuke (Michiru’s abusive boyfriend) and through the 4th and 5th episodes, I feel like she ‘gave up’ on Michiru. Although Michiru may seem weak and controllable in the beginning, in the 5th episode, it’s interesting to notice how she finally rejects Sosuke after being hit so many times. Michiru gets a key to live with Ruka, Takeru and Eri. It didn’t last long because later, Michiru fights with Ruka because Ruka wants to keep her away from Sosuke because of all the harm he caused, but since Michiru breaks up with him, Sosuke gets depressed (More than he already is) and mysterious and draws Michiru back when he calls her and says he’ll kill himself. Michiru fights with Ruka and goes back to Sosuke. That’s where the 5th episode leaves off.

[Spoilers] About the characters, we learn that they all have their problems and weaknesses, but when they’re together, it’s like nothing matters anymore. It’s a really heart-warming series and every one of the characters has a very strong personality, be it in a positive or a negative way. We learn that Takeru is afraid of relationships because of something in his past. Ruka searches for help because she believes she has a ‘gender identity disorder.’ Michiru is back with Sosuke. Ogura is back to his house with his wife (Nobody really knows what happened), and Eri is unhappy because of everything going on around her.

I can’t stop checking back on Kioku’s website to see if the next episode is already hardsubbed (With subtitles already on the video) because the series is becoming so different from its origins and the mystery, love and warmth involved is captivating! I love the series and can’t stop watching it and Kioku does an amazing job translating from Japanese to English with clear subtitles.

Episode 1 (Torrent Download)
Episode 2 (Torrent Download)
Episode 3 (Torrent Download)
Episode 4 (Torrent Download)
Episode 5 (Torrent Download)

Soon enough, Kuu will be releasing her new single, MOON, and I couldn’t be more excited. From the previews, I can expect an 8-tracked single that’ll blow my mind. The songs all sound magnificent and I’m not just saying this because I love Koda Kumi.

Speaking of great singles, Prisoner of Love, Utada Hikaru’s lastest single, was released today, and Prisoner of Love is already a marvelous track on its own, but the version that come along with it in the single are to make it perfect. I’m going to download it as soon as it’s available and enjoy it whenever I can. I bet this single is going to have great sales because of its popularity between the fans of the dorama Last Friends.

But now, coming back to MOON, to be released on June 11th, 2008. The single will feature American singer Fergie in a collaboration with Kumi for the the song That Ain’t Cool. Moon Crying is the only track from the single that has been released now and it’s an amazing ballad, one of the best I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

For the first two songs to ever be uploaded in This blog, I’d like to upload Moon Crying, by Koda Kumi in the name of my wonderful friend, Sofy! I don’t know the lyrics, but I like the mood that the song transmits… So I’m dedicating it to her, since I just heard that she won’t be studying in EAC anymore with Cary and I.

Moon Crying - 倖田來未

As the second song of my first uploaded set, I chose the lovely new ballad by Utada Hikaru, Prisoner Of Love, but this time, to celebrate her perfect new release, I decided to upload the new version of the song only available with the single, Prisoner Of Love -Quiet Version-. It’s an amazing ballad with the perfect blend of instruments like piano and violin with backing vocals and the wonderful vocal range of Hikki! I hope you like this song as well because I love it as well!

Prisoner Of Love -Quiet Version- - 宇多田ヒカル

Every year in the month of May our school prepares a food festival at school called ‘International Day.’ The festival consists of food everywhere, game booths brought by a certain grade of students and lots of hanging out with your classmates and your family. I just came back from this year’s ‘International Day’ and it was a very pleasent festival! Better than any other that I attended so far.

You see, the main purpose of the party is to get money for your class and advertise your booth to get lots of hits. It was so much fun working with the kids that I actually took 2 shifts (Of one hour each) at the booth, helping my classmates out when others weren’t helping.

Other than all the friendship and helping out, I couldn’t seem to stop visiting the marvelous and wonderful Korean booth. It seemed to be the booth with the most food being sold because the food was running out 1 hour before the party ended and it was DELICIOUS. For every plate you ordered, you could have either some meat to follow or a pair of rice cakes and you also got free korean tea. All this with chop sticks! The noodles were incredible and so were the Korean rolls. The rice cakes I got were the best food I have ever eaten. The dough was made out of rice (Of course) and they were circular. They were also pink. Inside you could taste a very sweet and delicious essence. With noodles they rocked! The tea created the feeling that we were actually in Korea, having a meal with friends. The friendly Korean women (Mothers of students at EAC [My school]) who were serving us all had on traditional Korean dresses and so did the men. The booth was the beautifullest one and the one that was the most delicious. Too bad the rice cakes ended so fast.

There were many funny moments throughout the afternoon and Pamela returned from the United States today from the Intel Isef fair and came to the festival to check out how everything was going. It was a very deliciously fun day.

Like I’ve mentioned before, I decided to take piano lessons and today was my very first lesson in 8 years! I have a great teacher who’s very sweet and gentle with everything. The only thing I’m concerned with is the fact that she likes setting up meetings between her students and when skill and ability is in question, I wouldn’t like to be the newbie and get everything wrong while everyone else is going super well and looking at me like I’m some intruder wannabe in their territory. But I’m a fast learner, like my teacher said and my previous years playing favored me and I’m really passionate about the piano! I can’t wait for the weekend to come so I can wake up in the morning, go down to the piano area and practice to perfection! For the first time I’m playing the right instrument. I didn’t have enough maturity before, but now I know how much I want to play the piano, the sound is really music, unlike my past attempt with the guitar (Which I quit because I felt it was a burden and I wasn’t feeling connected with what I did).

It’s like a school lesson when I’m learning with her, she likes giving tests, according to her, and she likes to gather my friends and family around when I’m taking them so everyone can be a part of my learning and that’s great because not only is it including them, but it also breaks me from my shell and allows my shyness to not get in the way of my duties. But this class was very positive and I’m going to study a lot and maybe look for some other music to play in the piano. I’m so eager for that!

Today was the day that Xuxa was burried, 2 days after her death. It was far more difficult seeing all that dirt being thrown over her coffin than actually seeing her lying dead on my nieghbor’s garden. We got to the cemetery and asked the lady there where Xuxa was. She pointed out the way and we got to a room where a white dog was enveloped with a red blanket on top of a table, but Xuxa isn’t white, so it couldn’t have been her. My mother looked at the wooden box beside the dog and when she peeked into it, all of us began to sob and cry. There she was, with lots of flowers lying on top of her. We looked at her, my mother pet her head for the last time and with that last image of her, we sealed the coffin. We went outside to look where she’d be burried. Following the indications of the lady, we awaited, looking at the deep whole where our beloved cat would remain from now on.

We talked for a while, crying and sobbing, until the man came out with her coffin. I looked at it and squeaked, then the tears wouldn’t stop coming, I think I was never that sad in my whole life, I have never cried that much ever. The man placed her inside the whole and began bringing the dirt to fill the whole. It was a painful process for me. So painful that I wouldn’t stop crying loudly all the time. Just the thought of only having that depressing grave to look at whenever I thought about her was a nightmare. No more of her sexyness when she was laying down on the floor all elegant. No more listening to her nails scratching the carboard beds we put out for her to sleep in, no more of her entering the house quickly after we open the door so she can go down to the room where her last litter of kittens was born. No more unity between she and her daughter, Pakita. No more dressing her up in adorable outfits. No more Xuxa, the wonderful cat that won’t ever be replaced.

I took notice of all of that during the whole burrying. It was only then that it actually striked me that she’s really dead and that this is it. When I found her for the first time, it took me about 2 minutes to start crying because I was in shock, it was so sudden, and to think that if she wasn’t at the wrong place at the wrong time, she would still be here, wonderful and fantastic as she had always been. I’ll never forget her adorable habits and how special she is. She shouldn’t have gone away this way, I’ll miss her forever.

Thank you everyone for all the support and wonderful comments for my previous post… I really needed all the support and I feel much better, and good enough to write more posts for y’all! Thank you once again!

For two days now I have wanted to watch KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2007 ~Black Cherry~ SPECIAL FINAL in TOKYO DOME, but because the download was very hard to acquire, I only got to watch it yesterday. The hard work was worth it. This concert is one of the best I’ve ever watched because it’s so different. It’s kind of a play involving pirates, the ocean and mermaids. The part after the second video interlude kind of drops the story and it’s pretty much a normal concert. The whole stage and audience had an undersea vibe, (Since the stage was in the shape of a pirate ship and the audience was waving blue glowing shells throughout the concert) and it was something truely amazing.

The concert begins with a video interlude of Koda Kumi as a mermaid and lying (Apparently dead or sleeping) on some sort of a pedestal. Then a terribly ugly witch comes in and removes this key she was wearing as a necklace and throws it onto the floor. A pirate that walks in with the witch takes the key that fell onto the floor for himself. The witch then takes out these fire swords and stabs the pedestal that Koda Kumi is on three times. Koda Kumi opens her eyes and when the witch is about to kill her with the fiery blade, Everything disappears in a white flash and mermaid Kuu is still on the pedestal, but she’s waking up. Her hands move on the screen and the attention is turned to the stage, where an aquarium is placed. The music plays and bubbles cover the water. Just when the bubbles are over, there is Kuu, swimming. She jumps out of the aquarium and starts to sing. It’s a great start for a great concert.

The rest is the real concert and two more interlude videos. Kuu really shows her vocal range and many other abilities through out the concert, like pouring drinks, doing cartwheels and of course, her great dancing abilities. I really liked the song choice, but the ‘rock’ part of the concert was my least favorite part, since it was too noisy and loud. The last part of the concert was a great one, ending with a crying Kuu singing ‘walk’ and the mermaid part was adorable, the songs were chosen very well, with R&B and pop vibes while the costumes were very rich and beautiful.

Overall, the concert was great and one of the best I’ve ever watched. I’d rate it a 10/10, in the beginning, I was a little concerned about the song selection on some parts, but it’s something you grow into to feel the sould of the songs, and the performances make up for everything! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys lots of special effects, pop and R&B!

As a glimpse of the DVD, here is my favorite part: Kuu Mermaid part:

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: