wow........does this thing ever know how to get on my last nerve....I just spent the entire day working on this and posting everything because I had so many pics, and it's still not right...I will go back and try and edit this the best that I can, but my other text is all at the bottom, while all my pics are up here, and spread way way out inbetween the middle part here.....If that doesn't look bad enough, I have no idea what's up with the deal with the spacing on here...everything seems to jump to a different area once I finally post it on here, and nothing looks the same on how I had it....I don't know if it's this website, because there were a few problems that came up on it when I was trying to do this, or just me trying to get used to this computer ....either way, whatever it is, these things only happen to me, or it sure seems like they do.....I guess that I just won't be able to add as many pics as I would like to, because this always seems to happen, and I can't stand going back and trying to fix this thing once I am done with it.....I'd like to move on to other things than correcting this thing day and night!!!!!!!! I'm sorry this may look so confusing now, I will go back when I can stand to work on this again and do my best to make it look normal and not so weird on here....maybe if I continue adding things on here everyday this week, and typing up something, soon all this will begin to fill up some, and I won't have to sit here hours and hours trying to fix this thing...I will see what I can do but the planes and jets here messed me up I don't know how many times, and everything was just frozen up, so I think that had something to do with it, and I just wanted to get this on here finally after I did it about 4 times and it still didn't come out right......I think that I will just keep on posting here everyday for the rest of this week until this thing is finally filled up inbetween all that awful space....It will be a lot easier than for me to try and sit here for another entire day, so I will try and find more things to put on here and hopefully it will all come together by the end of this week or I guess by the end of this month....lol...I will just have to keep on putting my own date cause that will confuse even me....okay I will let u all go now so u can get back to whatever it was you were doing before dropping in here....I absolutely LOVE these pictures!!! I expect to get more sometime, so I will put those on here too, so I will be able to keep them altogether and it won't be so confusing as what is what here.....again, everyone take care, and I look forward to talking to everyone on here soon!!!! miss u all!!!!!! don't be a stranger and drop in to me here anytime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, 26th November 2008

hi there again everyone, for the 2nd day in a row here.....I was trying to correct this thing last night, and all it did was double everything and make it even longer....I think whenever my patience comes back I will be able to deal with it again....I'm still not exactly used to this new computer, and it sometimes does faster than I expect it to, or it stalls because of connection here and messes me up completely....So I will eventually get this one to look like the rest of mine do on here, it just may take me awhile is all....Well aside from all that, I went to Thanksgiving social here today.......a day early, but they have been having those things all month long here, but that is the only one I"ve really cared to go to, considering how I don't like them very much, and don't really like being around such shallow and narrow-minded people who only seem to know one single boring lifestyle (this one!!!!!) and just seem to be stuck on one country ( this one too) and also stand around trying to prove to each other which state is better than the other where each one is from...So I reaaallyyy don't want to be apart of that so-called "brag fest" and tend to stay clear of it since I don't like the attitude much, or always trying to prove who or what is better in life...I know not everyone here understands this, so I just mostly keep my opinions to myself and just tell them to my friends who I know won't have a problem with whatever it is I say.....hmmm I guess that I got through this function allright, except when I had some kind of gravy flung on me from some jerk local here, then all them and their little group they were with of other Japanese stood there and laughed about it, and said some kinds of things in Japanese I had no idea what they were saying....that just plain made me mad beyond belief, and it really took all I had not to snap back and possibly fling something back at them much worse.......Yes, if I did get brave enough, I would definately do something like that to show them how it feels, then mutter stuff utterly embarrassing to have everyone then stare at them...I would if I wasn't around this little robotic group that does everything that the next one does, and where everyone wants to be exactly alike, and if I wasn't on a military base....just out anywhere else, where no one knows anyone, no one talks to anyone really, and you just pass each other, then will never ever see each other again ever, yes, I could do something shocking then and get away with it, and then just leave not having to worry about it...but here, not a chance, and I know better anyways....just something like that made me really mad when Thanksgiving isn't even their holiday...That is an AMERICAN tradition...not a Japanese one....I know anyone can celebrate it , but they come there, and had their disgusting sushi stuff, and speaking Japanese left and right....nothing wrong with that I know, I just think they really don't get or know the meaning of this holiday from their arrogant behavior I've seen.....I'm missing huge huge get-together back in the states with my family back home, and also one in Georgia, which I would have loved to have gone to just to get together with ones who I'm familiar with, and can talk about things that I can't really with anyone else like here cause they have no idea what things are like or how they've been before....pretty unfair I think, but I've gotten used to not having a normal holiday like the rest of America since moving overseas...This and any other American holiday is just another "normal day" to any other country...Not any kind of decorations, programs on tv, shopping, nothing, it's just passed over like any other unsignificant day of the year....pretty sad I think, but we don't recognize their holidays either, or muchless even celebrate them back home....hmmm so guess I will go ahead and end this now, since I've been on here awhile working on this before messing up on it again....I guess I have too much on my mind because I never do things like this ever, and can't stand messing things up that others will see on here.....I just won't post so many pics next time is all, somehow that always seems to throw me off somehow on here....I will get it down before the end of this year, or sometime the start of the new year....Okay, hope that you all are doing well, I will be back tomorrow and let you all know how my Thanksgiving went over here.... miss you all...hope you are having a fabulous time.....look so forward to talking to all of you on here soon when you get the time....take care and enjoy everything that you do!!!! =)

Thursday, 27th November 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone....I hope you are all having a wonderful day....it's night here and I'm just getting my Thanksgiving wishes out to everyone, or I"m trying to at least.....I just went ahead and put greeting on here for everyone to see who stops by here, whether they celebrate this holiday or not.....this day is just about over with, and the Thanksgiving parade in New York won't come on here until 10pm here tonight...how messed up is that....but right now in the states it's only 3am in some parts, so not much I can do about the time differences around the world...it's just frustrating having everything backwards, or compltely opposite from how it was before....I thought I would get on here once again and try my best to work on filling this up, which will probably take this entire next month to do so, but that doesn't bother me really cause I can talk forever about anything on here.....hmmm well, I posted several cute animated pics on here, but it was really getting to me and annoying me like crazy not having the constant movement whenever I found them, then my total obsession with a need for everything to glitter and sparkle or I just plain don't want it, they seem to be at a stand still for that as well...they will do it on here, but won't whenever I upload them and I spent over 4 hours last night taking them off and putting the same things back on, and still it wouldn't do a thing but just show stars around on them....I can't understand why it worked with my lily pictures a few more down from those, so perhaps it's the website they come from....I hope they tend to brighten up things a little bit more, and now that I found a new thing to play around with on here, I'm always going to be doing that now!!!! hmm well, Thanksgiving is just about over with for us here...it was just dark and cloudy out there the whole day raining on and off, and it started picking up raining again now....It will be like this until after the new year when spring finally comes around again....I don't really mind it, and it feels so much better than constant heat day after day here...finally I can enjoy myself again whenever I step outside and not have to worry about sweating non-stop and feeling so gross and slimy for the entire day.....Our Thanksgiving went pretty good here, we just went to a dinner they held here at one of the clubs...it was pretty exclusive with about 6-7 ft rotating ice sculpture and fall decorations a little bit lower from it....it was really really nice, but I forgot my camera both of these days, so I got no pictures of course...I think I will hold off on pictures for awhile after all the ones I put on here....I was more excited about having pics from Sri Lanka and being able to put them on here for everyone else to see as well, I didn't even think what it would do, or how it would turn out....wow I will never do that again....just a few next time, then I will keep adding ones after that, but not over 30 something pics lol.....this has to be my longest one on here yet, but it will all come together and look normal hopefully by the end, or before the end of next month, and I realllllyyyyyy cannot wait to see that happen!!!!!!!! I got 2 more folders of pics I got sent on here in my email from Sri Lanka so I will put those on here sometime...lol.....I was so glad to get these I couldn't stop looking at them for like 2 days I think, and I still do on here, whenever I have to pull this up to work on it now......I'm not sure what the others ones are yet, I'm just saving them for now, so I guess you all will be just as surprised as I'll be whenever I do finally see them....lol hmm......not a very good day for some I would imagine....I was barely awake this morning, and turned on my tv and news blared out that there had been another blast over in India today....I just caught some of it, cause it was just a small part of it, but I really don't like hearing things like that no matter where they happen at.....These seem to be getting more and more lately....I heard one go off when I still lived back in the states...it was over 10 years ago, but it sounded like a big boom of thunder when it went off, and no one really knew what was going on at all...then we found out there had been a bombing in our downtown area, so that explained the noise...I'd never heard anything like that, so I really didn't know what to think of it at first....pretty sickening once it all finally sinks in on what actually happened, and everyone was just in shock for awhile....We have a memorial built downtown now.....I've visited there a few times, and they keep on adding more and more, and it looks better everytime I go there....They made part of it look like Venice, Italy where I visited before moving here, they put in water canal there with bridges going over up above, and restaurants and shopping areas on either side...Also a huge, huge movie theatre there with like 30 something screens there....then I had to move and leave all that behind....it was really nice, and then also had the memorial itself with 168 chairs for all who died in the bombing that day, and reflection pool...they only left part of the fence up and people still come by there and put things on it and around it.....I will post the webpage for that a little later on here once I get this organized the way I finally want it again, and looking normal again on here...but until then I will keep obsessing about it until that happens trying to think up things to put on here, or certain animated pics to post just to take everyone's mind off how badly I messed this up this time...lol that really won't happen again, I was just so excited about putting all those pics on here from Sri Lanka, then certain ones of mine, not that boring fall festival thing, I could careless about that lol....the others I added, and the ones of the habu sake that I actually got away with taking just going into the shop that sells that stuff and taking as many as I wanted without someone coming over there and butting in wanting to know what I was doing and why this and why that....I'm glad I got them when I did, because there are so many people here, and there are a lot that come there where I went to take pics of the habu sake, and I know they absolutely would not go away if they saw me doing that and would just stand there and stand there watching what I was doing, and I really can't stand that....So I'm glad I got everything on here, and that everyone is getting to see them as well....I hope you enjoy all of them on here...sorry that some of them got doubled on here, I didn't realize that until after they were all on here, and I had just spent the whole entire day on this thing, that I simply didn't want to mess with it anymore cause I was so tired and frustrated enough.....I'll just come and put animated pics on here to say hi, and come and type some here everyday for I don't know how long until this thing is finally filled up...lol....it will probably take the next month, maybe into the New Year perhaps, but I will be on here more often most definately cause I can't stop obsessing over this thing until I finally get it right....As much as I keep coming on here to look how much farther that I have to go, it seems that I've hardly made a dent in this thing at all......hmm, well earlier I had others asking me what exactly what Thanksgiving was exactly...I explained it the best way that I could, but I still don't think they fully understood everything since it's not their holiday and ones who don't celebrate this, aren't familiar with it really....I"ll look online to see what I can find and post something about Thanksgiving on here to explain it better to those who don't really know about it much, so I really hope that helps you all out...=) take care and I'll see you all again tomorrow..... sorry for the wrong date on my Thanksgiving greetings!!!! I will do another one later tonight!!!! I never know what date that thing is goign to put on there!!!
http://www.history.com/minisites/thanksgiving

http://www.danielnpaul.com/TheRealThanksgiving.html (this one was so long I just put the link so you all could look at it if you want, but I hope these help you out on understanding this American holiday more!!!!

The Real Story Of Thanksgiving by Susan Bates

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.
The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.
But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.
In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.
Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.
Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.
The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.
This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

Sunday 30th November 2008

hi again friends, it's me once again...hope you all aren't getting sick of me by now on here....I was so busy most of the weekend that I didn't really have much time at all to sit down on here and write anything, but I guess as you can see, I had plenty of fun with all my little glitter pictures etc. that I picked out to put on here.... lol .....I hope that everyone had a fabulous weekend, and that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and the days after it, for those of us out here who celebrate this holiday...it was fun while it lasted, but as always, I think it went too fast, and Christmas was pushed and shoved again too fast and too soon as it always is...can't really do anything about that much, but they start that about July and it just never seems to end really....I'm just reallllly glad not to be in the states at this time, with all the chaotic mess I heard going on with people forcing their way on top of each other to do their Christmas shopping, tearing the doors off of their hinges, trampeling workers to death, shooting others in stores to get some item first, and just aren't satisfied at all unless they're fighting....(wow, can anyone out there say "pathetic?!!!) I would never go through any of that, or even want to...that doesn't go on over here, because Japan doesn't recognize Christmas in the same sense as most of the world who celebrates it does....They are a Buddist colony over here, or nothing at all really...they mostly focus on their familes not so much religion etc or certain holidays....I'm pretty much glad when all this is completely over with, because everyone just seems to see how much they can get for themselves is all...Thanksgiving here was fine. I guess everyone made the best out of it being here and away from everything they are usually familiar with as well....It came and went just as fast as any other holiday, I'm guessing they couldn't wait to get it out of the way to hurry up and move on with Christmas...it wasn't even over with, and people were already putting up Chistmas decorations and lights here...wow that is fast....I'll take pictures of some of this stuff they have around here at night when everything is lit up, and I can put them on here sometime.....not sure when it will be though...perhaps whenever I get this back under control and where it's not quite as confusing...but just thought it would be nice to show others how Americans decorate for Christmas, and how some just go completely out of control just because it's the biggest holiday of the year....it will be fun to laugh at some of this stuff they put up, it can get so ridiculous...not sure what some of them are trying to prove or who they are trying to compete against, but I guess they haven't figured it out yet that honestly, no one really cares what they put up or don't put up....hmmm I went to this really (bad) comedy show here the other night over the weekend...it was so bad that we ended up leaving early cause the guy they called in here to the club it was at thought that by being funny was making those spitting noises really loud in the microphone, or making dog noises and trying to make fun of certain stereo-types of people....that really is not humor to me and just plain makes me mad...i didn't say a thing but just got up and left...it was an adults only event, but no one really talks to anyone else they don't know here...I"ve never met such stuck up people in my entire life...they pretty much stay with their own little group and that is it....forget new people or anyone else who doesn't have a clue as to what is going on in this lifestyle.....so I really just don't worry about it anymore....I guess I made up for it by catching that one show on tv here when I got back home finally...something called "Parental Control" where parents go on tv and they don't like their son or daughter's boyfriend or girlfriend and try and find a date for them on national tv by sending them out with different people they choose for them....Wow, I caught it at a weird time....some girl's boyfriend the parents were trying to get rid of went around wearing one of those viking hat things with horns on the sides and kept claiming he was a knight, and talking like one....I have never in my life seen anyone who acts that way ever....If someone would make him mad, he would tell them that they "disrespected the knights code of ethics" or something stupid like that, and "that they had to polish his horns to make up for it..." I had no idea anyone would even have the guts to go around acting like that in public....much less on national tv....maybe it was all a joke, I think most of that stuff is, but it's enough to make you laugh so hard it's just so ridiculous that it will make your eyes water.....It didnt' matter what her parents did, because she still went back to this wanna be viking guy, and he put some kind of crown thing on her too, and wow she actually sat there and went along with all that....they should bring stuff like that over here, people would be laughing for the rest of this year and into next if we were to see something like that live...not listening to someone who is trying to make it out here make a series of noises in a microphone and say every vulgarity they can think of trying to get a laugh or two out of people just to make themselves feel better.....guess everyone is different when it comes to having a sense of humor....I couldn't wait to tell that on here, and to anyone else I talked with, but figured this would be the fastest way to get it out until I did get to talk to most anyways.....I hope they get laughed at all over the world since that is from the states and it's shown over here....of course I watch stuff like that just to make sarcastic comments about it and laugh at it then tell everyone else.....so much for going to anymore comedy shows here, unless it is something pretty well known, or they have been here before for something....hmmm what else...oh I finally had my photo shoot today as well....so I'm hoping these pics I got for Christmas will turn out well enough that I can put them on here, if not, as I usually never like my pics I don't care what they look like, I'll just do them again at Easter perhaps.....but I won't seen these until just a few days before Christmas, so I"m not even sure myself what they will look like yet....I"m not really sure exactly if this thing is filling up and getting shorter, or just getting longer and longer...I can't seem to tell much difference....guess I will go ahead and post this and have a look at it and also put some glitter pics up for everyone to enjoy....hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed their time off....take care and enjoy the week ahead of u...take care and talk with u all soon!!!!!

***I found this on a website that is against war and fighting, and thought I would add it on here....****

Do's
There are many other gestures you can make for reducing tension between the two countries /communities.
The first effort should be to see within yourself whether you have any innate bias/hatred for the people of the other country/ community, and try to reduce it by asking yourself why do you have such tendencies?
Have discussions and debates between friends and family members on issues of communalism and faith, and instead of letting people shrug off these issues with inborn biases, try to change their minds towards fair judgements about everything including history, religion etc.
Make greeting cards, desktop themes and posters etc. containing messages of peace, friendship and disarmament etc. and send them to friends and people from your neighbouring country with messages of love.
We (at this website) would also welcome such materials as greeting cards, posters and other graphics that carry messages of peace. All the messages and materials recieved will be put up on this website along with your name for free use by visitors.

Don'ts
While you are in cyberspace (or in the real world) please take a vow that you will not take part in the following activities :
Creating or running webites that carry material that could hurt any individual, community or religious group.
Posting hateful messages against persons of a particular community or nationality in message-boards, chat-rooms or other interactive platforms.
Sending chain-letters or e-mails that instigate/hurt the feelings of a particular community.
Unnecessarily boasting or flaunting the nationalism/patriotism for your country at the cost of hurting someone else.
Asking/challanging someone to prove his/her patriotism for the country by making any kind of demands, or blackmailing.
Suppressing someone's right to know or the right to express on the internet (or otherwise), such as blocking someone's access to a particular website, or blocking / tapping someone's e-mails.
Any other activity based on religious/political bias that could lead to an unpleasant/uncomfortable situation for someone.

*****I hope this helps everyone and is somewhat of a comfort to what all is going on in the world around us that we can do nothing about....*****

http://www.angelfire.com/sd/urdumedia/peace.html

Monday, 1st December 2008

I just want to see if this is going to stay beside the pics like this whenever I type, or if this is going to keep moving up, and making this thing longer!!!! I really don't know how much longer this is going to take me to fill this up, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere really on here, and I"ve been working on this one page for the past week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe it is just me, but there seems to be more spaces, and wider spaces, and this doesn't seem to be filling up at all, and the last thing that I want to do is delete everything that I put on here!!!! I am so sorry about this confusing mess!!! I will never do this again!!! This is what happens when I get pics from another country and my obsession about showing the on here!!!! I'm just experimenting with this right now, and want to see if it stays like I put it on here, then I will be able to sleep at night and not keep worrying about this thing...so guess I will try this now and see how it looks!!!! oh and happy December everyone!!!! Christmas is only a few weeks away now!!!!!!!! (yes, it worked!!!) hmm okay, so now that I have stopped wondering and worrying about that, I will probably be on this page for the rest of the year, but I will still keep on posting things on here and saying "hi" and "goodnight" and things like that!!!! have a good night/day!!!!!

Tuesday, 2nd December 2008

Happy Holidays friends, how is everyone??? wow only just a few more weeks and it will be Christmas...so who all is ready for it, and who isn't??? I'm ready for it and how, cause then it will be New Years, and this year will be over with and then just next year I have to be here, then the year after we'll be planning and preparing the whole entire year to move somewhere else so I can hardly wait....won't find that out until it's like only 2 weeks away from leaving here, but just the process of getting everything ready to move again is enough excitement for me.....So anyways, hope everyone is looking forward to it and are excited about the holidays in their own ways...no one will ever understand mine I don't think....I'm sorry about my posting again up there for my graphics...I worked for like the past 5 hours on that thing, and I can't understand why it keeps doing that....I'm just now getting used to this computer, which I"ve barely only had a little over a week now, but I'm still not used to these nutty things that it does to annoy me....I will try my best to go back and fix that, when I can, but I am so tired now from trying to figure it out, and it's nearly after 1 in the morning here and of course I'm still up fooling around on the computer....I did that kind of stuff back and forth with my friends when sending actual "mail" (not email ....mail that you put a stamp on.... lol ) was how we talked back and forth, only all those graphics etc were on paper stationery or greeting cards, and then just stuck in an envelope...now things like that are all on here....so of course I can't pass them up and play around with them as much as I can....so I think I need to take a break from here for awhile and recollect my thoughts and I will come back and try and figure things out on here when some time has passed...I hope that everyone is doing well where ever you are in the world, and staying safe....have a good week and I can't wait to talk to you all again soon....good night from japan!!!!! =) xxxxx

2nd December 2008

Good day everyone and hello again...hope you all are doing great, even though it is still in the middle of the night for some....I'm at cyber cafe now, and just wanted to say hi to everyone while I'm here for awhile....I will work on my last posting with all that artwork etc later tonight before midnight so the date will still be from yesterday...I just did not want to do anymore last night or early this morning with this, and then trying to add music to my other one since I got instructions on how to finally.....hmm wish me luck on that one......well I am really wanting my radio stations back home now cause this one completely embarrassed the life out of me about 2 weeks ago...I'm just starting to remember it fully now since I tried so hard to forget it....but it's finally at the point where I'm starting to think it's funny and don't mind telling others about it.....hmm what was it...oh okay, I'm one to call up and bug radio dj's, or just ask them off the wall questions like what they would put on a sandwich after midnight, or if they were digging a hole in the ground how deep would they make it... to get a crazy answer out of them, and to get them to talking to me...lol...I did it all the time back home on mine cause they could take a joke and so could I....here I did it, and they take everything so serious it takes the fun out of it....I called to do that, and wasn't paying much attention, since I was working on artwork and looking down, and put it on speaker phone, and it was just ringing and ringing and ringing anyways.....then I get someone all of a sudden, and it took me so much by surprise I started with the stammering and stuttering, the "uhh, yeah, umm umm yah, uhh.." before I could get my thoughts straight and think of what to say....I muttered something out, and I kept trying not to laugh but it was easy to hear it in my voice, and also since this guy kept cracking jokes at the same time....I got off as fast as I had been put on, and wow wouldn't you know it, he goes and puts the whole entire thing on the air next for everyone to hear......Last time I call them up here....guess they got a kick out of how I'm one of those people who stammer and stutter around when caught off -guard not-knowing what to say....and really I don't want to hear my own voice played back coming out over the tv, radio, anything.....It seems funny now, but I really can't stand things happening like that esp. to me...I'm where I don't care now, so I can make fun of it along with anyone else I tell, so it doesn't bother me, and I'm so glad that no one out there could see me....okay guess I"ll go now, I'm just trying to think of things to put on here is all, I really don't know what else to talk about but stuff that happens to me, most of the time even though I don't want it to....but there's plenty more where that came from....that's nothing really....and don't worry cause this kind of stuff only happens to me, I"ve never heard of it happening to anyone else I know..hmm it's already the 2nd day of December here, time is going by so so fast.....only 23 more days until Christmas with Hanukkah being just a few days before that....okay my friends, guess that I will take off now and I"ll see you all again later on here....I hope everyone is doing great and/or sleeping well, take care and I look forward to talking with you all again soon!!! Happy Holidays!!!!! 0<[=)

Thursday, 4th December 2008

Happy Holidays friends, hope you all are doing spectacular....I'm sorry for getting off track here the last few days on here....everything over here just seems to fly by faster and faster everyday that I am here.....I really don't care for this unbelievably ridiculous time difference

over here, but not much I can do about that just like anyone else here isn't able to either....It is really early morning back in the states and the day there is just barely starting, and here it's already night again and pitch black dark outside....so time seems to slips away much much faster to me here than it did there.....Anyways, I also got wrapped up in my music on here working on it etc, and then listening to it non-stop etc...etc, and then my movie which was a real eye-opener....When we first got here, I got sucked in to sitting in this all day new-comers class thing here which I very clearly cared nothing about....I really didn't want to be here to begin with, I wanted to go and talk with my friends, and just forget everything here...not sit in some class and listen on how great people thought it was living here and how there is just "so much to do and see over here...." I of course sat drawing around on this literature stuff they had given out, and writing my name about 25 different ways and whatever else I could think up...It was all a bunch of talk, getting familiar with this place, the living conditions, the local culture, the language, to learn it while we were here, then it took a completely different approach from all that, and they actually got my attention from wondering what colored pen of mine I was going to draw around with next.....They brought in the Military Police and the Japanese Police, and showed a fiim to everyone in the entire room there....Others who had also come here before, had gotten into some kind of trouble and without question gotten put in the Japanese jail here...they really wouldn't say what they did, or show their faces on this film they were showing to everyone, but they told us that most of them were in there for drugs, or the drinking and driving incidents....We got several testimonies about what it was like to be in there, how no one spoke any English etc, and that the U.S. Military or American Embassy couldn't do a thing, because you were under the laws of whatever country you were in....It was very very light I thought, it wasn't emphasized on enough, to get other people's attention really for them to take it serious...I never do anything, so none of that worried me really, about me getting into some situation like that and ending up in a jail....I just thought that it was scary and never had been exposed or told any of those things, since they didn't tell us things like that over in Italy....but as I found out of course, their laws over here are way way stricter than anywhere else really....Never had I know that there was a movie made about this....Americans getting thrown into a jail in a foreign country.....That is enough to scare anyone out there who sees it, and I think that they would also agree on that if they also happened to see it as well...It was called "BrokeDown Palace,"and it's about 2 girls just graduating from high school, and planning to go on a trip together before they go to separate colleges....First they say they want to go to Hawaii, then hear something about Thailand, and decide to lie to their parents and let them believe they are still going to Hawaii when in reality, they are going to Thailand together....they get to there finally, and stay in a really bad hotel with cock roaches etc. running everywhere, and get out for awhile seeing the city of Bankok....They come upon this really really nice fancy hotel there, and decide to sneak in, and sit by the pool and order drinks...when they are asked about if they are staying there, they get nervous, and kind of start arguing back....from out of nowhere, a guy steps in to rescue them in this awkward moment.....They of course become starry eyed over him, but there are two of them, and only one of him....He gets with one of them, and the other one is left out....you can sense the slight jealousy between them, but it really doesn't focus much on that.....It leads up to him extending an invitation to them for them to come with him to Hong Kong, for them to meet him there.....how he would get their plane tickets and everything and they could all have a good time in Hong Kong together....sounds like an easy offer to anyone, and like it would be a good time....who wouldn't just like to get on a plane with a ticket that someone else bought for them????? I would of course, not even thinking twice about it....but that's just me, I'm willing to go anywhere, anytime not even questioning anything about it.....It picks up with them getting ready to leave, and handing their bags etc. to the cab driver there, and then going to the airport....when they are about to go through security, they are suddenly surrounded by Thai Police surrounding them and yelling at them in Thai, and jerking their belongings from them....when they open one of their bags, it is has several cans in it with the lids like what tea leaves come in, and they open that it turned out to be drugs......they get jerked away and thrown into a police van, and brought to a jail there somewhere in Bangkok......no one speaks English there really, and others there do and say things deliberately to get them into trouble, or tell them things are okay to do, where they get themselves into trouble....they get jerked around, yelled at, knocked down, kicked, hit with sticks, and thrown down in underground cells with cock roaches and rats with a dirt floor and water dripping all over the place.....It never made it clear throughout the entire movie who put that stuff in there, whether it was the guy they met, and he was trying to get back at the one who he didn't get with, and smarted off to him, or if it had been the cab driver they so nonchalantely just handed their bags over to, without watching what was going on after he had them...It shows what the conditions are like in a foreign jail, which are extremely filthy, and what Americans would have to go through if they were to be put in there......They spent the entire time trying to prove their innnocence, and trying to tell the authorities about this guy, but he was obviously under a fake name, since no one could find him, or the name they kept giving them.....We of course don't see him the rest of the time....it shows the struggles they go through, and how their friendship is tested, and their frustrations with the situation, with each other, the "what-if's" if they hadn't lied in the first place, then they wouldn't be there then....they wouldn't have met that guy, and wouldn't have been wanting to go to Hong Kong....It's a sad situation to see friends go through when they were only looking for a good time to spend with each other, and someone ends up spoiling their fun, ruining it for both of them, and getting them into all kinds of legal trouble while they are free to still do whatever they want.....they keep having court hearing after court hearing, and keep getting turned down, and finally, the one who's idea was to go to Thailand in the first place, steps up to the judge, and admits that she did the whole thing....to let her friend go, that she would serve both her time and her friend's....when asked why she did that, she just told her friend, "let's just say that it's true, even if it's not, and leave it at that..." WOW, what some friends will do for each other, when they see the other one suffering....so the "good" one gets out, while the other one agrees to remain in that place....I have never seen anything so powerful, and that can scare the life out of anyone on what goes on in those places....I couldn't wait to come and tell my friends on here, because I know most of us are overseas, and tend to travel either a lot, or ever so often.....That just made me more aware, esp. being over here in Southeast Asia, and that took place over in Thailand, and I am in Japan.....It wasn't a true story, but it very well could be.....What a frightening, frightening thought just thinking of that, or how that really does exsist, but Americans or anyone else really don't hear about it ever.....You are completely stripped of anything and everything, no personal possensions of your own, and you sleep on the dirt ground with other all around you, and rats and mice running everywhere all over....you don't have your own bed, and are forced to do work all day long, while other torment you in another language, when they know very well you have no idea what they are saying......I think if they showed something like that in these newcomers briefings here, it would most definately get people's attention, and they would take it more seriously than what they do now, because someone here is always getting in trouble getting arrested for something, or attempting suicide....I think if they saw something like that, even a small part of it, they would be willing to take up hobbies that they never even really cared about before.....It really really wakes you up and makes you see things how they are in other countries if you go there to live for awhile, or are just visiting is all for vacation.....Just everyone be careful out there because even though others may seem "nice" doesn't mean that they always are deep down....they will do anything to mess you up, so that they can gloat about it, and brag about how they got away with doing that to someone else....I hope that everyone is doing well and staying safe where ever you are in the world....take care and I'll talk with you all tomorrow......have a good rest of your day and good night to everyone else....I'll post my graphics soon!!!!! hope to talk with you all soon on here...bye for now....xxxx
Friday 5th December 2008

Good Morning everyone, and welcome FINALLY to my pics of Sri Lanka!!! I'm still so sorrry I messed this up like I did, I had no idea that it was going to do this, honestly, and I was soooo tired of doing it over and over, that I finally just left it....I am trying to make this work out the best way that I know how, cause all that empty space irritates me more than anything else on here, and that is all that I see when I go to look at this....I'm trying to come on here and add things, anything whenever I possibly can to help fill this up, and so I can get back to normal hopefully at the start at the new year...but this will just be something to look back on and laugh at, but it sure doesn't seem to be that way now....I have A LOT more pics of Sri Lanka, ones that I haven't even seen myself because there are just so many....I will probably spend the next year trying to put them on here little by little, or just a few at a time with the others I add on here, but I will get them all on here to share with everyone else to enjoy as well....I just won't put on 30 at a time the next time I do it, cause I don't want to go through this again!!!!! I'm finally beginning to realize that this does get longer and longer as I type, and it's not making much of a difference on how much I do, because it just keeps on jumping further and further down.....When I finally get this finished, this page at least, there will definately be some kind of celebration.....I've got a lot to get get done today, so I guess I should get started soon....I just wanted to get on here first and satisfy my obsessive need to talk.....I hope everyone is having a good night's sleep, or getting ready to, and for everyone else, I hope you all have an incredible day where ever you are!!! know that you are thought of and I will be back on here soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! take care everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday 6th December 2008

hey there my friends how is everyone doing??? I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and having a good time...I just wanted to say hi to you all from marines base I am at now...we came here for dinner, and they have computer out front, and of course I couldn't keep off of it...lol... and I just think it's fun saying hi to everyone on here in different places that I"m around here... This has got to be one of my favorites if not my most favorite of the Sri Lanka pics that I was sent...I've never really been around waterfalls really, and haven't seen them too much, just Niagara Falls in Canada, and Hawaii is all...here, I don't even want to think about after what you have to go through just to see one even smaller than this one..... Sorry I didn't write anymore yesterday, I had a lot going on, and was so tired by the end of the day....I try and get on here as much as I can now to fill this up, so I guess I will be typing by a new pic every time I have a new entry...thanks so much to everyone stopping by here and visiting my page...I enjoy so much keeping in touch with everyone this way, and everyone can get to know me more on a personal level since being on here is limited sometimes to just sit and talk....Also, thanks soooo soooo much to the ones on here who have agreed to write letters with me...this thrills me to pieces like you wouldn't believe......I still enjoy doing this, but it is soo soo hard to find anyone these days who wants to sit down and write a letter, since everything is email and texting now....I'm so excited I can't wait to see how all your handwriting looks!!!!! It has finally turned chilly and rainy here, and I'm just so happy considering that awful and unbearable hot summer we had for about the last 6 months.....I don't mind it being this way at all, and don't even mind it if I happen to go out, and get completely drenched in the rain if it happens to start doing that......too bad this only lasts a few months then it is hot all over again... I really really miss being around all 4 seasons.....Well, I guess I'd better wrap this up....I hope everyone is having a good time and enjoying their weekend.....take care and I can't wait to talk to you all again on here!!!!!!

Sunday, 7th December 2008 hey there all, how is everything?? I hope that

everyone is enjoying their weekend and doing

what they like doing the most.....this is my first time on here all day long, and it's only about 2 hours now until midnight, so I'm so sorry I wasn't able to be on here today very much to talk to anyone who wanted to talk with me....It was pretty busy, and time just seems to fly by here, I don't even know how to explain it anymore....I went to the Japanese mall here both days...I still don't like it as the ones back home, but at least it's something....I will always miss the one back home I went to all the time.....(insert link here later....) today, they had the Japanese performing arts school out there on the stage performing dances in traditional costumes with music.....of course I didn't know what any of it was about, or what they were saying etc....but it was so much fun to watch and to see something like that....they tend to have things more and more like that as it nears the holidays, and I always enjoy seeing things like that....I didn't have my camera with me, so I missed getting pics of any of this....I'll get an extra digital camera for Christmas so I won't keep running into this problem and always keep it with me no matter where I'm at.... Now if I can just decide on a color, I think all will be right with the world again.......hmmm I think when I was trying to get on here and add more, I accidentely deleted one of these pics on here...the one that was supposed to be above this one....I don't even remember what it was now, but I hope all the ones I will add soon will make up for that one....It would take me forever to go back and try and find it and I don't even want to think about trying to get it back on here....I think the year will run out before I get any more pics on here really....I have so many stored on here, and then others are always coming in, or I'm always finding something to take pics of, I don't ever have to worry about running out is all.....It just will take forever to get them on here, but I really hope everyone enjoys seeing them, because I enjoy sharing them!!!!!! I think that this will turn out better than I expected it would, which is great, I just don't like the fact that it is taking me so long to do this....but I've been having fun with it, and the rest of my friends seem to be okay with it too....so I guess I didn't mess it up too bad, or I'm fixing it okay for everyone else to enjoy.....I hope everyone is doing great and are enjoying your weekend and getting ready for the holidays...only 2 more weeks!!! wow can u all believe it???? I"m sooo sooo excited this year is almost over with....I can hardly wait....I hope this next year flies by like mad, and also the year after that, then we get the heck off this island for good....then I never wanna see another island again ever....they are okay to go to for vacations, but I would never tell anyone to come and live on one....it's fun at first, then just gets boring with everything being the same all the time, and you can't really go anywhere unless you fly there... so take care everyone and I look forward to talking to you all again when you have time to sit and have a chat with me....I hope everyone has an amazing week!!!!!! have a good day, and good night!!!! see you all soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, 8th December 2008 hi everyone out there....I"m so happy to be here again to talk to all of you at once...I know it's so hard to meet up on here all the time, even for a little bit for a chat,, but I hope once things get back in order for everyone after the holidays, then we can talk more on here....but I still enjoy keeping in contact on here as much as I can with everyone....

I hope everyone is having a good start to a new week....We just have next week, and then it's already Christmas....Wow, where did this year go to?? It doesn't really matter to me, because I just remember suffering an awful lot from the heat, and being miserable from it so much enough to send me to the ice skating rink here...and I'm not even that big on ice skating and still went to go do that just to be able to remember what it was like to be cold again.....wow it felt soooooo goood after being in 100 degree heat day after day here......I"ve just been working on things for my friends for Christmas, and some haven't even gotten here yet, that I am still waiting on, so I guess some will be getting this stuff after new years since everything takes forever to get to this place, and I"m the only one doing this...but I still hope it's enjoyed either way no matter when it finally gets to where it's supposed to be going....I am looking forward to seeing how this is going to look once I finally get to the bottom of this page....I just did not want to leave all this space, and go on and post more pictures while this was just sitting here all blank....So perhaps by next month since everytime I come on here now, I'm by a new picture of Sri Lanka....hmm we had a holiday carnival here over the weekend in another one of their famous parking lots and empty fields....It was also contest of people who made life size greeting cards painting wood and they choose a winner then....Some are really beautiful, and they hook up lights that flash on and off to them and everything, but what they do it on is so heavy I don't see how they can move it around very much....I will get pictures of them sometime at night here before they take them down...they also had performers and one booth after another of things I really didn't pay much attention to...oh, and also the Christmas tree lighting here on the roof...which really wasn't a Christmas tree, but several strands of lights going up and it made the shape of a tree as they met at the top....I'm trying to do this as much as I can, I'm not sure what exactly to talk about all the time....hmm I heard about another crazy dating story on here a few days ago...some couple gets in some kind of a fight sitting in the car while they are eating, and the girl throws her drink at her boyfriend, and he smashed his hamburger in her face...lol I really don't know where these people are, or who acts like that...I think the dating ones are a lot funnier than any family ones they put on here or on tv.....I guess these people don't care if they have half the world laughing at them.....I just know not to do anything crazy where someone out there would end up putting me on the internet somehow cause every little thing ends up on here....lol......I guess that's entertainment for the rest of us...just as long as it's not me I don't care what they keep putting on here.... okay, guess I will say good night for now and I'll see everyone again tomorrow...take care and look forward to hearing from any of u all soon!!!
Wednesday 10th December 2008 hey there everyone how is your day/week going

so far??? I hope everyone out there is doing great and enjoying every minute of life.... This is another one of my favorite pics from Sri Lanka, it's a lake there, I was told, in the evening there, and so so beautiful I think.....Sure wish we had places like this that wasn't on a resort where you can't go to them unless you stay there....here everything is so junky and polluted, there's nothing like this anywhere...People find out about a place and they of course are right there with their families of 16-20 people and 6 different animals...mostly dogs I should say...yes it does exsist in this lifestyle......can't wait to go to a place like this sometime where it's not like that.....the only time that is possible is when it's off-season, and not everyone is trying to all go and stay at the same place.... I'm really not so sure as to what to say on here, since not very much happens here day to day, or not very much changes....I think that I will be at least another month on this page since it's going so slow, and doesn't seem to be filing up very fast no matter how much I am on here, or how much I rattle on about absolutely nothing at times....I have more pics to put on here from Sri Lanka, and also so gorgeous ones my other friend sent me from Yemen....so many thanks for that!!!!! wow, what a beautiful country u live in!!!!!! I can't wait to share all those on here, then I will have all of mine from few months back, and then all the ones from the holidays....so I hope that I'm keeping everyone entertained enough on here....thanks to everyone for sending me such nice pictures and greetings etc... on here...wow it helps brighten up my day and cheer me up so much here....I feel so honored that u call me your friend, and I can call you mine!!!! Sorry that one posting I did a few days ago with my pics turned out weird....I couldn't get that thing right, and was sick of doing it over, I just left it....the one with the cartoon angel pics.....I didn't expect it to turn out so long and spread out again, but I kept doing it over and over and finally just left it...but always wanna say good night to everyone since it's night here when I finally sign off....not sure if I should start with good mornings yet or not...since it will be turned around.....maybe I will just to have it on here, and since others can see it when it is morning finally where they are.....hope u all are doing great, and having an incredible holiday season.....can't wait to talk with u all again on here sometime when u get the chance to drop by and talk with me....guess I will end this now, and I'll see u all again soon...bye bye for now... =)
Friday 12th December 2008 happy holidays everybody....only 2 more weeks to go....Is everyone out there surviving this craziness???? We don't get it so much over here out in town, because Christmas isn't a main holiday here like it is back in America or in Europe....that only goes on mostly on base, so we still get the raw end of the deal with everyone being so pushy and shoving anytime I want to go and do anything here....honestly, I don't get that excited about this stuff here, it's all the same, and pretty boring....maybe they jazzed it up some from the year before, or added a few more video games to some new system that has come out, but really, nothing to go and practically break your neck over to get to....

hmm....I'm just happy to have my friends all that other is just details.....anyways....I"m slowly moving down this page and it's going along nicely.....I still drop in everyday to tell everyone good morning and good night etc and have a good weekend even though I still come on here to satisfy my obsessive need to talk to anyone who wants to listen to me......I just do that so I won't have to be typing in 2 different places on here, and so everyone won't think I've completely abandoned this whenever they first stop by and see the date was nearly over a month ago if this was was the first one they saw.....So anything would help I thought, even if it's those graphics to liven things up a bit....hope everyone is enjoyin them, I sure do have so much fun finding them and arranging them all on here....so glad that the rest of the world has taken a liking to stickers on here......I had nearly every one of those now they are just all scanned in on here and put on different websites.....funny how my one interest I got insulted for doing when I was growing up, now the entire world can't get enough of it on here.....hmmm guess it's a lot more fun then they imagined.....Well, this is a pic of inside one of the temples in Sri Lanka....this shows up a lot better than some of the cathedrals that I went to in Italy, everything was so dark inside, because they went back to the 12th or 13th century, a few even to the 1st century B.C., and so of course there was no electricity in there, and it was always so cold and drafty....none of the pictures ever showed up, no matter what I did, so I never got any of the insides of them really, just the outsides, and what was around them.....This is really nice one, and I wouldn't mind going to since I have a friend there, and I wouldn't have to worry about finding my own way around, and constantly worrying about directions etc.....But I wouldn't mind going anywhere really.....hmmm here is blog from another one of my friends over in Indonesia I met on here....http://www.multiberlianutama.co.cc/ one blog leads to the next one, and there are 11 total....The first one I thought was really really breath-taking, and the picture really adds to it....I will put it on here again on the first page so others can see it right away, I just thought I would share it on here for others to see as well....I hope everyone is doing well, and looking forward to the weekend.....enjoy whatever it is you do, and don't forget to drop by and talk with me on here when u have a chance....I know everyone out there is busy with their things, and the last thing I would wanna do is bother people to death on here...lol....miss u all and I can't wait to talk with u all again on here sometime....hope u are having a nice holiday season....take care everyone....
Wednesday 17th December 2008 Okay Okay, I'm here now, you all can stop

holdin' your breath .....hi my friends great to be back.....wow, what a week I am having....how is enjoying the holiday season where they are at???? It's not so much emphasized on here, just a few decorations, then they of course are everywhere on base.....I'm thrilled beyond words right now I can hardly contain myself really....I figured out how to pick up my radio station from back home over here in Japan....The one that I had on every single morning back home before my feet ever even hit the floor there to get outta bed....I am finally getting here after being without for 3 years in Italy and I might as well say 2 years over here.....It's so nice to hear something familiar, and hear others talk the same way that I do with an accent I am told by others....and to hear commercials over and over about the same things even though I care nothing about that stuff or can go to anything that they have going on.....it's just a great feeling, and I finally don't have to be stuck solely with this sorry excuse one they have here all the time, where anyone and everyone gets offended like crazy if they tend to joke around a bit...what a bunch of dull boring souls they must be always wanting to be serious all the time every minute of life....well they can do whatever they want, I'm thrilled now so they can't steal my thunder.....i'll put it on here, so if anyone else visiting wants to drop by and have a listen, feel free to, and I hope u all enjoy....there's also another one, but i have to look it up first to get it right, and I'm not even sure if I can get it....guess this time I just got lucky....It's so hot here still, only less than a week until Christmas, and they are having heavy ice storms back home and it's freezing....Oh how I would LOVE to be in that right now....I'd get out and slip and slide all over the place....how much fun would that be after being at this place where not one soul here knows how to have any fun it seems like....It's about 80 something degrees here every single day now....If I am never in warm weather again, or ever see another palm tree again in my life, it definately won't be too soon....I guess you just have to be an island person, or someone who craves warm weather year round, even around Christmas. But I was around snow up to the waistline for the past few years around this time whenever the holidays drew near...The sunshine was no where around anywhere...If it wasn't in Italy, it was another place nearby like that....so it's just a bit hard to get adjusted to .....Guess I will never get over being homesick it doesn't matter where I"m at, but so glad I have my friends to always go to....It definately helps being here where everything is always so confusing and unfamiliar. Happy Holidays everyone...I hope you are having a splendid and blessed week...thanks so much for being my friends....talk to you all soon!!! take care!!!! *http://www.thetwister.com/cc-common/ondemand/player2.html?program=vod&track_id=20890* ***I'm just so happy that I found my radio station again, and I can listen to it half way around the world, I just want to tell it to everyone I know!!!! this is just a gift u can't wrap up!!!! there is another I had, but this was my fave...I miss the friendliness from everyone, and just knowing what it actually was....here they have concerts everynight on the street corner....IN JAPANESE.....big wow I can't even understand that stuff...I have no idea what they're saying, so means nothing.....hope u all can pick this up from where everyone is at, and enjoy!!! I don't expect everyone to like it, and that's okay, but just sharing a piece of home with everyone is all....It's just a lot of fun I think, wow I can't believe I got my music back being here....I'm soooo thrilled to death and happy!!!!! okay i'll stop talking now....see u all soonnnnnnnn***********xxxxxxxx
Friday, 19th December 2008

do not order from this company!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.bestbuy.com/Give me few days, and then hopefully, by Christmas, then I think

that I should have gotten over my shock what they have done to me, maybe I will come back and tell everyone who comes here!! but right now, I don't even want to think about it!!!!! hope u all are doing great and we can have a chat soon....take care and happy holidays everyone.....
Monday 22, December 2008 Happy Hanukkah Merry Christmas good morning you all what's going on....Well, I think I've finally gotten back to my normal self to finally talk sensibly on here again, without saying things that would just bring everyone down or whatever, cause that's the last thing I would ever want to do!!!! I've missed being on here, so I'm so happy to be back now. Well, the one thing that I was hoping to get for Christmas finally after months of waiting, has been lost. I felt sick whenever I first found this out, and couldn't speak, realize what was going on really, and why on earth do these things always have to happen to me, or others with the same name as me.(hope u all had the laugh of a lifetime from the cake. I printed that off and stuck it on my refrigerator here... sorry I just gotta have that first laugh in the morning, and that does it hands down.) hmm well they lost or claimed that they lost my laptop in the mail. Yah, my pretty stylish, pink laptop with the cam and

everything else, the one that they were sold out of since last year and part of this year...the ones at bestbuy.com(don't even think of ordering from these people!!!!!) claims up and down that it has been lost. I was offered a refund for this, or they were asking for another address to send it to, but I surely don't want to bother anyone else with that and having to send it to me all over again....Those things weigh a ton, I don't even want to think how much postage would be for one of those things. So I am back right where I started, and I won't have my laptop by Christmas like I had hoped for. It got snatched somewhere between the states and coming to this place. I do not trust these people over here at all, and I don't doubt for a minute that someone who works for UPS grabbed it up when no one else was around since my statement for tracking hadn't been updated since October 28th and I had ordered on 26th. See how incredibly awful these people are over here?????????????????? So I'm broadcasting everything that they did to me to everyone I possibly know, and don't know, or haven't even met yet. Maybe by the beginning of the new year sometime I will finally have it, but wow that just has never ever happened to me before ever. What rotten people I'm forced to be around. They don't even celebrate this holiday, but they go around stealing other people's Christmas gifts, and still smiling to your face whenever they see you. Do not trust them in any way, wow, I had trouble whenever I first got here, but this tops it off most definately. So I hope everyone else has incredible holidays, and don't worry okay because this kind of stuff only happens to me....I'm living proof of it....Anyways, I hope everyone had a great weekend and got through it allright. Last weekend before Christmas. It's finally turned somewhat cold here, not cold cold, but cold compared to what it usually is here. I love it when it's like this, the sun isn't anywhere around, and I can actually enjoy stepping out without sweating half to death out there...I miss snow and ice so badly. That's all that they are having back home and all over the states now...I haven't seen that for 2 years now, from back in Italy and other places around there I somehow ended up around Christmas and had snow taller than the cars there. loved it..... here...still green grass all over the place....well hope these next 2 years then fly by faster than I can blink, cause I definately won't miss it here. and hope that I end up in a much better place after here where I can be with my friends and also a place that sees all 4 seasons, not just 2. Wow, I've been listening to my radio station on here non-stop, it seems like we are still in the same town and everything. It's nice to be able to hear things that are going on back home and finally hear music that I"m used to and not be forced to solely depend on this one and only radio station here in English. http://www.wave89.org/ or http://www.todaysbesthits.com/ that's just everything, but I want to hear normal conversations and normal joking around and normal talking......I guess it's different for everyone....I made it through breakfast both mornings in public here without missing my chair and ending up on the floor and to cover up for it, act like I was looking for something.... yes I have done that more than once. But here's a tip, don't put those rolling chairs at tables esp with people like me who won't stop talking and don't pay much attention when going to sit down because I'm not used to one of those rolling chairs. I just had a whole table of boring golfers staring at me, not even cracking a smile, and giving me eyerolls, while I went the other way laughing. I do stuff like that all the time still, just whenever I was back in the states with my friends, we would be falling all over each other laughing like crazy about whatever it was. Here everyone is so dead serious, I am so tempted to ask them if they haven't invested in a funeral parlour, or at least thought about it, because they surely have the personality for it. So as you all can see, I'm back, I really am trying my hardest not to let that get me in a bad mood, cause I honestly don't like myself like that!!!!! I"m talking about my laptop again by the way!!) I will just have to order again from the company itself, not from some store, that I just recently heard is possibly going out of business. I didn't know that because I have been overseas for the past 5 years. Okay whatever, I have no idea what is going on in states half the time, but there's nothing I can do about others miserable attitudes. So I will try my best to enjoy the Christmas season the best way that I can, even without my main gift, and just slowly make it into the new year. Time seems to go fast over here, but really the hours drag esp since I'm so anxious to leave big time now after they have pulled that one on me. Well, my radio station on here never fails to put me in a better mood no matter what. I heard a song few days ago whenever I found all this out about my laptop, and just me having to put up with living over here cause it definately has it moments being here... "It won't be like this for long!!!!!" They are really incredibly awesome back home, I miss the friendliness and everything. Here everyone is from all over, and there are so many different diverse personalities, and always trying to compete with each other about what place is better in the world. I try my best to get a touch of winter here by going ice skating a few times, just to remember what it's like to be in a cold environment, and well to just have fun of course. Still, I would love to be rolling down a hill in the snow with my friends than just thinking about it, but maybe soon . I hope everyone enjoys their holiday season, Hanukkah/ Christmas and gets to spend time with family and friends. Come join me for Christmas cookies if you are anywhere nearby... talk to you all soon, have a great week!!!!!
Tuesday 23rd, December 2008 Happy Holidays wow tomorrow is already Christmas Eve. I

hope everyone has a great Christmas whatever you do on this holiday, and get your Christmas wishes.... I don't expect to have much of Christmas, but I'm still glad to have my friends regardless. =) Yep, I'm still bummed big time about what they put me through with
my laptop, but there is absolutely NOTHING that I can do about it. My hands are tied completely on that, I trusted them with it through the mail, and of course you know how it is with the mail. That just has never happened to me before ever. This is a first, but I've beend telling so many what they have done to me, I've lost count now... So I hope they are satisfied with what kind of reputation they are setting themselves for. I've almost gotten through all the dreaded Christmas parties here for another year... I mostly have to go just to make an appearance, even though I'm really not in the mood for that stuff now, but I just bite my lip and force a smile and somehow painfully get through it. A certain one I went to last week at one of my friends houses here, reaaallllllly started testing my patience since they kept letting their dogs run all over the place while this Christmas party they were hosting at their house was going on. Okay, anyone who knows me at all, knows that I'm not fond of dogs esp. big ones all over the place. I kept getting that "they wouldn't bite," " or they're friendly"or "they just want to be petted and played with they won't hurt me" blah blah blah.... yah whatever okay fine....I'm not around dogs here EVER....I have cats and always plan to keep it that way....Fine if others have dogs, and are used to having them around, but I don't like them jumping all over me, trying to lick on me, and just won't get away from me...I don't want them around me end of story. I know there's people out there who don't particularly like cats either, and I could very well say the exact same things, but I don't. I have to keep in mind, that I'm dealing with others who are as much as 10-12 years younger than I am, and find this type of thing hard to understand. I don't know, it seems to be that way with everyone here. They get to this place, and think that they automatically just HAVE to like this food over here, and get the biggest dog possible to outdo the next person. Wow, talk about a lack of a sense of security trying to get others just to like them, not to mention giving up their identity... just because we are placed here for a short period of time doesn't mean we have to like every little thing... Others who come to the states surely don't. Back to the dog thing though, I think the next time someone smarts off to me about it telling me to "oh get used to it" or "they won't hurt you" or "oh they're really friendly", I think by the way that I'm feeling now, I'm finally going to just say, " well how about I throw about a dozen snakes around your neck both live and dead ones huh??? but oh uh, don't worry okay, cause they won't hurt you!!!!!!" Let's just see what kind of responce I get then!!!!! Maybe then they will understand and actually know the meaning of respecting someone else who doesn't like the same things as they do. Not very many people I know are crazy about snakes, I"m definataly not, so maybe then I will get my point across about my irritation with dogs jumping all over me whenever I go to enjoy a party not to see how many times their dog can roll over or whatever. Just another week or so of this stuff then I'm free and I don't have to do it for another year. This is about the only place I can go to let this stuff out on cause I definately can't do it here where I'm at. It would most likely end up on the webpage we have for this place and in the chat room, and then of course I'm the bad one. We all know how that one goes. You disagree with others, and esp. if they happen to be younger than you, wow you better watch out, cause they throw a fit then. I honestly have no patience at all for people who act that way, and all they want to do is argue, or find different things to bring up to argue about. So I don't worry about what I say on here, because no one here comes to my homepage here, and none of my family comes to this either, so I can say whatever I want, and not have to worry about it. Well anywayssss, guess I will go ahead and end this since I rambled on again here about nothing really... but nothing here is really going on much or changing.... We don't get snow here, they don't celebrate Christmas over here, not like the rest of the world really, so I just really have my friends to go to....so consider yourselves lucky....=) I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve tomorrow and the anticipation is building up for everyone else like it is kind of sort of for me....despite them either losing or more like stealing my laptop somewhere along the way of being delivered to me here....>=p I"ll talk to you all tomorrow come join me and listen to christmas music on my radio station back home if you can get it where you're at!!!! http://www.thetwister.com/ on upper left side go to LISTEN LIVE and click on that and in few seconds, it will connect for you.=) Happy Holidays everyone!!!! miss you all hope we can talk soon take care!!!! xxxxxxxxx

Thursday 25th December 2008 Merry Christmas!!!! I am so excited to be here again to meet everyone on here on again!!! hope you all are doing great....Christmas is just about over with

here now....I can't believe it flew by so fast...I really don't know what to do anymore since I'm on my own now over here, and none of my family is around, and everyone here either hates everyone else around here, or they just stay with their little groups and that's pretty much it... I don't care what they do, and I don't sit around worrying about it, so it's mostly just another one of those "layin' around days." So it's great to be able to talk to my friends on here who are also just about in the same situation as me!!! Great to spend part of my Christmas with you all!!!!!! Well I may have got my laptop stolen somewhere in the mail coming to me over here, but it wasn't the end of the world. I will get one sometime next year whenever it will finally finally get here...sorry but I just don't believe that they could lose a laptop, those things are huge huge...so I hope whoever did that is out there where ever they are enjoying MY Christmas present. I won some drawing that I just put my name in here about 10 times just fooling around with it. I never win anything ever...and I did that...I did not expect that at all so it was a huge surprise...It was really for one of those enormous Christmas stockings that had all kinds of stuff in it....I won 2nd prize which turned out to be some board games and candies...I tried last year to win one of those giant Christmas stockings...they had someone who was Japanese make the sign for it and sent people into dying hysterics over it....."Win a Giant Christmas "Stalking!!!!" I noticed it right away, but I didn't say a single thing, because I thought for just once they should get embarrassed, and not always think that they are right about every little thing on earth.... I just had to see how that went...I helped my friends back in Italy all the time with English stuff, spelling, certain words, speaking, getting sentences correct, asking or writing something, etc...etc.... but last year was my first full year here, and Japanese were not exactly nice to me, and I definataly didn't like their sorry attitude towards me, then talking nasty things about me with me standing right there, but it was all in Japanese...I may not fluently know Japanese, but I know what my name sounds like, cause it's the same in any language, no matter which one it is, and I would hear my name like 5 differnt times, then they all would start laughing.... I had NO IDEA what was so funny, or what they were joking around about me about... But I can tell you I was fuming inside over it.... So... I saw one of them write it like that and didn't say a single word.. nothing.... someone else who goes to enter put a comment right by it, and embarrassed them half to death I know because of their terrible English....."How about win a Giant Christmas "Stocking!!!" not "Stalking" (which sounds creepy by the way!!!) It had me and several more who were American dying laughing forever, and of course I told my friends and we laughed even more about it... hmm and well look at that, I'm still tellin' it... yep payback sure isn't pretty is it????!!!! Well we still think it's funny, I just haven't told anyone on here yet until now.... lol I guess that English spelling is confusing for some since they both sound the same.... I will explain cause that would even confuse me if I didn't know the meaning of each one.... Okay, "stocking" means like the stockings at Christmas you hang up and get small gifts in them.... lol "stalking" is following someone where ever they go, watching them all the time, just completely obsessed with them trying to get them to like you back, when really they don't, but you still keep following them around and watching what they do, where they go....etc...etc... lol that's what made it so so funny.....I hope I'm not making anyone choke laughing so hard because I know I just about did when that happened..... I seem to just go around looking for stuff like that to make fun of.... hmm I have to tell this story I heard from my radio station on here earlier so I won't forget it, and just to have it on here....They were talking about Faith Hilll and Tim McGraw, both married and huge, huge music stars out in Nashville, Tennessee..I think they may have played a song of theirs before or something before talking about them, and was just saying things like wondering what their Christmases were like, they must be HUGE...and that every year one of Santa's reindeer drops a silver bell out on their front lawn, and now they have a whole collection of silver bells....well, this was coming from a radio dj.... they can't go without making fun of anything....he said something like "yeah I used to have deer come into my yard all the time back when I lived in Texas, but they sure didn't leave little silver bells...." lol they put those out there for their kids to find and just for fun, that really isn't from a reindeer, but it's just for fun really...I've heard that before, but never heard anyone joke around about it like that..... yes we all act the same and have the same sense of humor, it's too funny, I never hear that over here....so you all can see why I'm so thrilled to death to be able to pick up my radio station from back home.... hope you all can hear it sometime....they are playing awesome Christmas music now...I hope you all can hear some of it before Christmas is over with this year.... Well, I guess that I will end this, I think I've rambled on enough telling one story after another, and I could come up with plenty more I'm sure, but I don't want to drag it out for anyone and cause boredom.....hope you all enjoy coming to visit my blog on here, and that you find it entertaining and uplifting!!!!!!! Merry Christmas everyone and thank you all so sooo much for being my friends on here....I didn't know anyone whenever I moved here, and now I know so many I don't even know what to say sometimes..... Enjoy your Christmas Day and all the small moments that happen...I hope to talk with you all soon!!! take care and happy holidays!!!!!!!!! xxxxxx

Sunday 28th December 2008
Vous etes mon soleil mes amies!!!!!!!(You are my sunshine my friends!!!!!!!!) I happened to stumble across this website on here just messing around looking stuff up on the net etc, and it bothered me so much, that I couldn't even finish reading this....http://www.peta.org.uk/ATw2000/murderking.html I have both of these books that came out and the documentary that also came out a few years ago....It really made me sick just reading it and I had to put it away, and I never really finished either one of them....This was only one page, and I barely got down to the 3rd one on here....Just thought I would share it on here, maybe others can stand to actually get through it, but I sure couldn't....I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas weekend, and relaxing time and are now getting ready for New Year's 2009.... I can't wait.....I got through the final and last Christmas party for the rest of my time here...I am officially done until I have to move again.....I honestly couldn't take it just sitting there 5-6 hours at a table with people I don't even know, talking military things and giving each other secret looks that only they know what they mean. I wasn't sure if it was about me, or something else, but still I had it, and so that is it for me....I was seriously bored outta my mind, and had no idea what I was supposed to do at one of these things, and decided I was sick of pretending so no more of that for me I don't care what they have going on..... Maybe it's fun to the younger crowd, and with them swiping a can of whipped cream and passing it back and forth squirting it in their mouth before passing it on, (yes this really happened until the thing was emptied so they could get the pressurized air out) but I"m kinda all past that kind of thing now.....I know that's hard for them to understand that, so I wouldn't even try to explain this....I have way better things to do than sit at a table for that many hours in just one evening having to watch that go on, or watch the next silly game they come up with...(getting ones out of the audience of 300-400 people up on the stage, having a race putting Christmas wrapping paper all around them.....(who came up with this???!!!!) and honestly, there is only so many times that you can walk back and forth and go to the bathroom before even that starts getting old.....So I'm so sooo happy all that is over with, and I'm done for good with formal Christmas parties for the rest of the time I am here....I just can't take that kind of stuff anymore!!!!! Christmas was pretty much shot this year, and I really don't even wanna think about it or remember it much....Not since I got my Christmas presents stolen that I was so anxiously waiting for, and also the stuff that I ordered for my friends that wasn't even for me.....Everything gone, I got nothing....I'm not ordering anything else, cause I'm never going through this again...At least not while I"m here......I'm hoping New Year's is way better than what Christmas turned out to be, which it just kind of came and went, but it was so nice to get Christmas wishes from my friends...even the ones who don't even celebrate Christmas wishing me one...I've never had that and just thought it was such a nice gesture...

So thank you all for that!!!! well, I'm going to end this cause it's after 2am here now, and I'm still fooling around here on the net, not even paying attention to the time, but

wanted to put that link on here first cause I knew I would never find it again if I just
passed over it and didn't take a look first....I don't think I can read or look up anymore of that kind of stuff on here, cause it gets to me....but this time my curiousity just got to me and I wanted to take some kind of look even a short one, and that was it for me....so if no one else who drops by here can get through that either, then don't feel bad, because I barely read 2 paragraphs and was done.....okay I have to force myself to stop talking now, or I'm going to end up going to the end of this page.....happy new year everyone stay safe and I hope to talk with you all soon on here sometime....take care miss u all.....good night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxx http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=qWaKvTXefjM&NR=1 Diana DeGarmo- Dream, Dream, Dream w/ Lyrics
Thursday, 1st January 2009

Happy New Year 2009 my friends!!! We made it to another new year!!!! I'm thrilled to pieces cause next year will be my last year on this island and I'll be preparing to move somewhere else....so join me in my countdown!!!! I'm sorry for taking a few days to post again on here, the end of the year and past few days just kind of got away from me....I don't even remember them hardly....I was just so ready for 2008 to be over with since it seemed to keep on dragging and dragging on forever....I hope everyone had a very happy and safe new year's eve...I had an absolute blast, but I always make that a must on new year's eve....throw out the formal parties for me, and sitting at some table for dinner for 5-6 hours just "talking" with people I don't even know really or having to listen to them tell some lame story...then just more sitting.....I really could careless about that formal stuff I don't care how nice it is or what they have...I went to one of those for new year's eve about 2005 in Budapest, Hungary, and that's exactly what it was for about the first 3-4 hours...I wanted to just about die I was so bored...oh, and also the so-called "entertainment" they had going up on the stage from people who thought they could actually "perform." Not anything else really, just some music after and dancing, but not the whole night, just *sitting*!!!!!!!!! I never want to go through that again, I just can't take those things... So I took a chance here and went to Western World to hear music for the entire night like they play on my radio station back home...(http://www.thetwister.com/cc-common/ondemand/player2.html?world=st!!!!!) and line dancing....oh my gosh, wow that was the most fun I had the whole entire freaking year....Yes resorts were nice, trips around here were nice, getting to sight see was nice, but none of it compares to that!!!! It was so so so SO much fun, and that's how I brought in the new year. I will get pictures next time I go again there, cause I didn't even think of it, and didn't know how it would turn out, but just to show everyone on here who stops by what it looks like since I highly doubt those are a big thing anywhere overseas...It's mostly popular with Americans, and I don't think many else know about it, or are very familiar...just a fun place to go to and forget everything else that is going on in the world, all the fighting and wars, and problems and anything else that is happening...even for a little while.....I want to go every chance I get to now, but I know that can't happen, but I will definately go few times every single month this year, and next year before I leave!!!! I won't forget to sign my name on the wall with everyone else's just to leave my mark!!!! I"m so tired still and so worn out and very sore but it was well worth it......So that's what I did, and completely loved it for once and wasn't bored to death waiting for it to be over and keep wondering what time it was....Throw out that formal stuff for me and give me scuffed up wooden floors and walls with writing on them and I'll be perfectly happy....can't wait to go back and get pictures of the inside of this place and the friends I already made there....I just wanted to see how I was going to like it first and how well I got along with everyone else....It felt soooo good to be around other Americans who were also interested in that, and favor that lifestyle....I didn't see that anywhere in Italy at all, except at the club we had, and that was all heavy stuff constanly.....So I found an outlet here so I won't be going so much out of my mind....I can't wait to hear what everyone else did, but I hope you all had a blast....It's hard to believe it's 2009 already...we've almost reached the end of this decade...I can still remember when it turned 2000....I watched it on celebrations all over the world....several set off 2000 fireworks with the last one being "2000" with the numbers in the sky....Israel released 2000 white doves....I believe few places in the states released 2000 balloons....it's hard to remember all of them, but can't believe that's how fast the last 9 years have flown by.....So I hope this year turns out better than the last....still no laptop or other things that I ordered way back in October and it is now January....I probably never will see them....nothing I can do, but still frustrating just waiting and waiting on the mail....I really miss the days when I actually used to *get* my mail......guess those days are gone for good.....no one writes letters anymore, who wants to mess with mailing whenever you can get some email in one day, and it takes weeks and weeks (months for me!!!!!!!) for anything to get to you....it was fun while it lasted, but I guess nothing lasts forever.....still it was fun to find mail from my friends with my name on it among all that other useless stuff....I'm not sure of New Year's resolutions yet since those only seem to last a week.... I'm glad to still have my friends after all this time....they are the only ones who ever really listened to me, and just listen to me go on and on about how lucky they were to live overseas, how much I wanted to do that, how much I wanted to leave America and just see other places, that wasn't the only country on earth... they just listened to me go on and on about that kind of stuff when I was way younger than I am now, and never said a word about it, or complained for me to stop....and here I am actually living overseas now....I never thought that ever.....so I guess be careful what you wish for, but not too careful if you want it badly enough... Happy New Year 2009 everyone thanks for being my friends it means a great deal to me more than I can put into words.....enjoy your New Years Day and I can't wait to talk to you all again soon on here....take care and best wishes to everyone....xoxoxoxo
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=QKRRC5oC1nQ Diana Degarmo - Reaching For Heaven (Full Song & Lyrics)
Friday 2nd January 2nd, 2009

A happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye . Wish you a Jolly & Bright 2009. Have a blast on the New Year and have a very happy year ahead.............. We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. May this new year adorn your life with many beautiful things and sweet memories to cherish forever. And care of those whom the heart holds close, along with abundant joys and happiness, for you and your family. Wishing you life's best this New Year...

Good Morning...Happy New Year...I hope everyone is recovered or (still recovering from!!!) New Year's Eve...I know I am...owww I am sooo sore and muscles that I wasn't even aware that I even had, are completely killing me....I can hardly move, but I guess 6 hours of jumpin' around and dancing and anything else that goes on will do that to you...maybe in a few weeks it will finally go away cause I'm ready to go back and have more fun.....I just wouldn't be able to do much now, maybe walk back and forth, and that's really not for me!!! it would drive me nuts to see everyone else out there having fun, and I couldn't join in....Anyways...now starts the dreaded tasks of taking down all those Christmas things and packing them up for another year....Now we are in the constant race of holidays back to back for about the next 7 months.... We barely even complete one, and they are already shoving the next one at us...It actually turned cold here now, blowing rain and everything....I couldn't be happier after the what felt like a 200 degree summer we had here....It's not doing that today, the sun is out here...AGAIN....I started new art project last night, I should finish today or tonight...."Let Go, and Go On" I thought that I wouldn't only make this a 2009 resolution, but a permanent one.....=) I will post a pic on here for everyone to see once I finish...I'm always working on something, and have so many pics to put on here, that I haven't even gotten around to the ones from summertime, so I will never run outta ideas of what to put on here, or pics to post etc...etc......just about the same thing with me and my music obsession...I got about 4-5 pages of music to download off of here, but I haven't even started because it's so much, so I never run out of anything....which is a good thing I guess to always have plenty of ideas....I put the new year's song "auld lang syne" on the first page of this....They played that by a full blown orchestra from my radio station back home, while I was on here, and it completely gave me chills it was so beautiful...I never heard it played by an orchestra before, and searched and searched for it, but all I could find were ones that weren't that....It really is a beautiful song, and just makes you stop and think a moment and reflect on everything that has happened in life up until now....I found some really touching ones I will post on here little by little, just different versions..I don't want to drive everyone crazy all in one day with that....but only listen if you want to, just I wanted to have it on here to share and to add to everything else that I have done....Well, I guess that I will take off now, since I've got a few things to take care of first here before heading out....Happy New Year everyone....have a blessed day and know that I am thinking of you all!!! God bless you always!!! I'm so glad you all are my friends!!! take care and stay safe!!! xxxxx
Sunday 4th January 2009 Hey you all what's going on.....I'm sorry I got completed absorbed today on working on a painting of mine, and I finally managed to pull myself away

from it...Well, the first weekend of the new year has come and gone...I hope it was enjoyable and relaxing for everyone since it was a long one...Now I guess it's back to normal lifestyles, normal routines, and just normal everything, since the holidays are over for a little bit...I'm thrilled, because this year will be my last year here during the holidays at all...next year we will be moving right in the middle of them...either Thanksgiving or Christmas, not sure which one...For going to Italy, it was Thanksgiving, and coming to Japan, getting delayed so many times, and having to battle storms along the way, getting stuck in Azores, then the states in Baltimore, Maryland for 3 days before finally being able to fly here...it wasn't until a few days before Christmas when we finally got here....It took a solid week just to get here, and I have never ever, been that confused in my whole entire life ever....I don't know too many others who have gone past the earth's equator, and then being at the very top of the world at the North Pole, and actually feeling that cold....But also a stunning feeling to be able to tell others you come across that you have actually been at the "top of the world"..literally!!!! In a few weeks, I will go to the Cherry Blossom Festival that they have here....I haven't been to this yet, so I"m looking forward to seeing how this is, and exactly what it is....I've been to just about everything else, or heard about it and gone....Lily Festival, Whale Watching, Aquarium, War Museums, Gardens, something else on a boat I can't even remember cause I was seasick yet again on that thing....it all seems to be a blur now, but I have pictures of most of it....Everything goes so fast, so it's hard to remember it all first hand....and I'm still stuck on this page, and these pics from back in November of 2008, cause I couldn't contain my excitement of showing everyone else pics of Sri Lanka....I put them all on here at once and look what happened...Oh well, not too much longer......I just never expected that to happen....But I hope everyone has been enjoying dropping by and visiting my blog, I try and make it as fun and interesting as I know how to...I'm just kind of stuck right now on this page, until it gets filled up, then I can go back to posting normal entires again....but I guess I've finally gotten the hang of how to do this finally....It's actually gotten chilly here...I'm soooo happy to be around kind of cold weather, so I don't have to go to the ice skating rink everytime just to want to be around it.....I hope the new year is treating everyone fairly well so far...we've hardly gotten into it, and there's already fighting that started up again over in Israel at the very end of 2008....I don't like to hear that sort of thing going on anywhere, and I make it a habit not to discuss world issues or politics really on here since I don't want to cause any hurt feelings or say something that I would think would be okay with me, but may not be with someone else....I don't like to see that type of thing going on either, but none of us can do anything about it...we are here just like everyone else is, but not everyone else out there wants to live this way, and it's really sad to have to see that....I got to thinking about something that I was told several years back....my grandparents were in Germany during WWII, and planning to leave there, and put in to move over to America or Australia, and America was the first one that answered back for approval...I couldn't help wondering how much more different things would be if I had somehow ended up in Australia...I thought was kind of humourous, and also a close call in a lot of ways....thanks for all those nice messages everyone sends me on here...they really do mean so much to me....it's such a nice feeling to know I'm being thought of on all corners of the world...the last thing I would want is to be forgotten about!!! but I'm sure no one would want that!!!! okay, well I"m gonna run now since it's well after midnight here now, and I'm still up talking....hope everyone is doing superb and enjoying the new year despite all the problems that are out there...you all take care and I can't wait to talk with you soon on here!!! ciao!!!! xxxxx

Thursday 8th January 2009 It seems like I haven't been on this for about a month, but it's only been 4 days...a new year and I've definately gotten much busier, so I'm not on this as much as I have been before....I will be on here less, but I still will keep this updated and

answer anything you all send to me on here!!! It's fabulous waking up to such nice messages on here...Really, thanks so much for remembering me over here!!!!! hmm... well I hope the new year is going well for everyone, it's starting out much better for me than last year...only one more year left here, and I plan to leave here with a bang I'll be so excited....perhaps a trip to remember my time over on this part of the world since that's my ultimate passion for even being over here to begin with....If I wasn't so obsessed with other countries like I always have been, then I definately wouldn't be living over here, and putting up with all the differences and lifestyle changes that I have had to endure over the last 6 years now....I really miss seeing places like the one in this picture....that looks like Hawaii when I went on the helicopter ride looking down over the main island...here, there is absolutely NOTHING like that....everything is extremely crowded, polluted, and what you think is a mountain in the far distance, is nothing but a mountainous landfill of trash overflowing....how is this place supposed to be "great" exactly??????? hmm the only thing really that keeps me in a good mood is being able to pick up my radio station from back home, listening to all the sarcastic funny things they do, and going into hysterical laughter about it.....They told some story a few days back that like the IRS said that some guy in Florida or somewhere like that, owed them .5 cents over something....he gets notified by letter and said they made a mistake over .1 cent different that they owed him .4 cents, but he had to contact them... they called the IRS number on live radio, and it was a disconnected number and got that tone and the message and everyone started laughing....what else....oh and they were also telling bad Christmas gifts....something how there was some gift pack out there of soap that like Thomas Jefferson and some other Presdents used back when they were alive, and you wouldn't just be using the same soap as the Presidents did years ago, but also go around smelling like them....that would be interesting considering how they made soap back then, and didn't have any type of deodarant.....pretty weird but too funny...I would think that you only would get that or give that to someone you really really don't like, or they don't like you back....still pretty funny I thought....This week has completely gotten away from me, but I hope everyone else has enjoyed it being the first full week of the New Year....I'm so glad the holidays are finally over with...the biggest ones of the year at least...they just seem to make people go completely crazy....so glad to be back to
normality again....honestly, not much is happening here....mostly same ole' stuff, just another

year....I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and enjoys whatever you end up doing!!! We apparently have some big football game coming up back home over the weekend, because I keep hearing about it on here when I connect....I tried to win tickets to go, but I never ever win anything good, nothing like an all-expense paid trip....pretty lousy things mostly but nothing like that....stay safe everyone, and take care, I hope to talk with you all soon!!! miss you all!!!! good night!!!
Sunday 11th January 2009 Ahhh....can't believe the weekend has already flown by and is over with now...it seems like it's been forever since I've been on here.....not much has been happening, not to me at least here...maybe to everyone else but I don't pay much attention anymore.....Well, after a very long wait here for me, I will finally start working

here again....sooo I won't be on here as much as I have been the past year and last few months....wow but I don't regret it... I made so many new friends investing my time on here, when I got kind of burned out from doing all the other stuff that I do, and meeting so many new faces...it's been soooo much fun, and thanks sooo much to you all for keeping me company during this time!!!!!!! It really really meant a lot to me really.....xxxxxxx Once I kind of get back into a schedule again here, I will try for a laptop, or ask for it as a gift, so I won't have that on my head anymore worrying about that thing.....how was I supposed to know the very exact same company that I ordered my laptop from had gone bankrupt or something, and is going outta business???!!!! So, they really didnt' care what was going on, or happening, since they had already been shot down anyways..... I don't know these things, and definately don't hear them really being overseas....Too frustrating and makes me wanna pull my hair out that's how aggravated I still am....but these dumb things only happen to me hands down, nothing else to argue about there....I hope some at least had time to stop by the entry before this one, and play that outrageous video that I happened to find on here.....Sorry, I just had to do that, that's happened to me, and I was so mad, people putting up pictures of moviestars in their country they are from, instead of their own pics, and I really thought that was who I was talking with....I don't know other movie stars outside of Hollywood, that are big in America.....How deceiving is that?????!!!! >=p I would never do that to someone ever, but I couldn 't believe someone actually made a song about it, and decided to make fun of it.....I'll put another one on here, that me and my friends have been laughing about since we were in high school, and everytime I see it, it's like the very first time all over again....just another sarcastic, off-the-wall video for laughs.....You Tube has been junk all night long, and will hardly do anything, because there are too many people on there right now, or the server or something is slow here, have no idea, so I will just have to add it on later....just keep checking back I guess!!!!!!!I will try my best to keep this up working 60 hours a week, even more than a normal regular 40 hour work week, but I expect to be tired a whole lot, so I may just get to post on here a couple times a week or so, instead of every single day, and playing around with all the different pics that I put on here just for fun and stuff like that.....but I will still be around, and answer anything you all send to me!!!!!!! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and is ready to start a new week....it's only the 2nd week of the new year, but it feels like it's much more into the year than just 2 weeks.....This year definataly seems to be going a lot faster than last, I'm soooooooo happy for that......=) It's very chilly here now, the wind mostly, but this is winter for us now.... We get some blowing rain and things like that, but nothing like the rest of the world is having right now...wow, I sure do miss wintertime.....so with my work that I managed to get here, and just coming outta nowhere and dropping into my lap it seems, I think it will go a lot better here than last year, considering it was nothing but problems on top of problems...I don't know what was going on there.....I hope you all are doing great, and everything in your lives is going superbly.....I will be on again here when I get the chance, so don't think that I have forgotten you all!!! take care and have a splendid week!!!!!! =) xxxxx
Thursday 15th January 2009 This is my first time to be able to get on here all week long!!!! I've been trying and trying every single day when I had a chance to get online, and apparently, my own webpage is blocked off from me on government computers, and I can't do a single thing, or add to it, nothing.....I have to wait until I get home, and sometimes, it's so late, and I don't feel like doing a single thing, but crawling into bed and going to sleep....I'm so glad I can finally get on here, at least on my own, cause the computers on base either at cyber cafes, or anywhere else I can use computers at to get online, are nothing but complete and total recycled JUNK that other offices didn't want anylonger and just passed them along to whoever wanted them... these are sooo old the numbers and letters are fading off of some on the keyboards....once I get a laptop over here, whenever that is, I can get online then in the middle of the day again, cause right now it's about to kill me having to wait all the way until evening time......I'm trying my best to keep up on this, but sometimes it just refuses to cooperate with me, and I can't get on here at all!!!!! I've been keeping busy always with something, so there's never a dull moment of course......It has gotten soooooo chilly here, and

none of us here are used to cold cause we haven't been around it.....nothing like snow or anything, but just blowing wind and rain, or just cold wind........I would have started doing this earlier tonight, but I got into watching American Idol, and won't do a thing until I see all of it....If I even missed some of it back in Italy, I'd stay up until 3am to catch the second running of it....something familiar from back home, and just to watch and laugh at, and go and talk about with all my friends then to give us something to talk about.....This obsession of mine won't end until end of May when it's over with completely, then I will be back on here much earlier in the evenings instead of later like I am now.......nothing really is going on with me now...I've just been keeping busy with my own things and working, and I don't want to bore everyone with details of things like that.......I will have 3 day weekend this weekend because of our holiday Monday, so I hope to be on here more than I have been this entire week.....I am just now starting to get my Christmas cards and other things from my friends to me over here, that were mailed to me before Christmas.....(it's close to Valentines???!!) see how messed up everything is over here???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =P can't stand it, b ut have no idea what I could actually do about it.....okay guess I will let you all go for now, and I'll try and be back soon on here again...I think that I am getting closer and closer to the end of all these pics, where I won't have to keep switching back and forth from first page to this one to work on it to fill it up.....hopefully soon, not sure how much longer though.....hope everyone is doing great, and we get a chance to have a chat soon....take care, and I hope your week went well....just one more day then we can all do what we want again...as for me, I'm practically dying to be on here from morning until night, so can't wait!!! take care, can't wait to catch up with everyone soon!!! good night!!!! xxxxx
Saturday 17th January 2009 Good morning....I'm typing this one up at 6am here cause I"m not sure when I will get the chance to work on this again.....I have too much

coming up now or soon, and I'd like to do my own stuff like be on here and sleep before it all gets here and demands my time...pizza parties, movie nights, get togethers.....not sure really it all kind of runs together, and I always have to go to this stuff to keep a friendly appearance...plus my own work keeps me busy, then I have all that to worry about.....I'd much rather just be on here and doing what I want, but I know I'm not able to do that!!!!!!! hmm I will finally get to go to mainland Japan this year....perhaps in summer......it's not even close and I"m already counting, cause I'm always up for some kind of a trip I don't care where it's to....I will still be able to talk with everyone then cause I expect to have my laptop by then considering how my last one coming here got ripped off and they play the game of innocence like they have no idea what happened....hmm everything this last week is pretty much a blur now, because everything went so fast....I can barely remember anything, but trying to fit my time in on trying to be online and it not working, or they just refused to work simply because it was me.....hopefully that will change soon.....hmm I really can't think clearly this early in the morning, but I was dying to get on here as early as I could before I had to start my day again.....I'm much better doing this sort of thing at night where I can just talk and talk, instead of like now just sitting and sitting trying to think of what to put....okay I will stop boring everyone to death and go, and I'll be back in few days when stuff has actually happened since this is 3 day weekend for us here.....hope you all are doing great and we get to chat sometime soon!!! enjoy your weekend!!!!! =)
Monday 19, January 2009 Hey to all my greatest friends on earth...=) I hope everyone had a good weekend...can't believe it's already over with here....today was a holiday for us, so it was nice being able to have an extra day of doing whatever I wanted to .....I'm writing this at night this time, so I hope that I will have better luck this time than last than trying to think of what to say since talking for me on here isn't a problem....Anyways...I'm so excited about this whole year.....I really can't wait...I actually have something to look forward to now, and it's not only leaving this place for good next year, but getting to go to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji later on in the year and getting to take everyone on here with me...I can hardly stand not to be on here a day, muchless for 2 weeks time....So I'm not doing anything else until that trip, or worrying about taking anytime off from work for anything else but that, cause I've been waiting since I got here to go to an even bigger city than this thing that I'm in, one that is known all over the world, and keep me talking for days on end about the smallest cracks in the sidewalks there, and how everything is different and compares back to Italy or back home in the states....It's going to be reeeaallly hard not saying anything at all with the ones I am forced to be around where I work, cause most of them are younger than me, and all they want to do is talk about everyone and everything else....I have already been getting that, and it's about to drive me outta my mind....Everything from"is that your real hair color???" "have you ever thought of chopping your hair off????" if I say "no way" then I get "why not??? it grows back....errrrr noooooo thanks...I really don't want to look like I'm in the Marines for the next 6-8 months maybe to a year however long it does take to grow back....what else....oh why I'm not a coffee drinker....why I don't eat hamburgers, why I don't know certain rap artists or something....I think I finally decided just a few hours ago, to whatever these people say who aren't even considered adults yet, to just agree with whatever it is so they will leave me the heck alone, and I don't have to hear anymore of it, because honestly, it gets totally annoying to me, and even more irritating them finding junk out about me that I don't like, or just don't care for at all, and then make me the butt of their jokes....the coffee thing, not for me, never has been, never will, ones who are will never ever ever understand that ever....they didn't in Italy where we had some coffee place on every single corner of the neighborhoods where I lived and all throughout other neighborhoods....I was always pushed like crazy to "go on and try it" and I would just shove it away, or just walk away....I'd rather have a pop or just plain water than that stuff...I guess I will someday make a believer out of people when I tell them I really hardly like anything...that I can go through the entire alphabet from A-Z and come up with something for each and every letter on junk I absolutely cannot stand......I thought that would go away when I turned from kid to adult, but it only got to be more stuff.....So nothing I can control really...everyone has their own preferences.... hmm, hamburgers....blaahh.....
watch the documentary with me or or on here if you are able to find it, called "Fast Food

Nation", and it will definately make anyone sick to their stomach.....It did to me so much, that
I wasn't even able to sleep at night the first few nights, and I can't even stand to watch it again....This was all the way back in like 2004, and I still can't bring myself to watch it, or even read the book that goes along with that.....I read some of it, and then it got to bothering me so much, I just had to put it up, I couldn't take it anymore.....The book mostly tells how they add flavor to hamburgers and other things, consulting with "flavorologists" for both smell and taste for everything....It goes more in depth and descriptions, and what really is in all that stuff.....The movie/documentary, is more to get everyone's attention since it is just simply something to watch.....the end is the most grotesque part that anyone will ever see in their entire life ever.....They actually take cameras inside an actual slaughter house, and show people how that is all done on the kill floor...they get a nail gun, shoot the cow in the back of the head with that thing, and continue from there.....I don't think I can ever watch that again, even though it's been several years ago, those images are still very well intact in my mind, and I don't think they are going anywhere....I'm around people from all over the world, with millions of different and completely diverse personalities, and the last thing I want to do is start up something to always have awkward feelings everytime we have to be around each other....I have gotten that before being new of course,
and honestly, I don't particulary like it.....So, I try my hardest at all costs, to avoid this kind

of behavior and attitudes towards me....I really don't like the fighting, arguing, or hostile
attitudes towards me, so I think I've found the easiest solution to this, is just agree with whatever it is, and go on, even if it's not that way really...who is going to know, who is going to care???? I will never see any of them again ever after here, and I seriously doubt they are going to remember every single little detail whatever it is that I say....Same thing with the dog issue....wow I've never known people who had more of serious arrogant attitude to anyone who didn't share the same feelings as them about big giant huge dogs...not just one, but try like 3 or 4 in these small nothing government apartments they shove us into.....sometimes I REEEEEEEEAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYY miss our place in Italy, which I found on my own by the way.... that had not only our own yard, but a gate that locked so that no one could go parading through our yard whenever they felt like it with their big dumb dogs and letting them do their business and just keep walking....I just had my yard ornaments, porch swing, small swimming pool, because it was dying hot there too, and that was it....here anyone can just walk through with their big dogs doing whatever they want in the front and the back of us, just because I don't want dogs around me, somehow I am the one with the problem, just like that stupid party I went to over Christmas I think it was.....I came home, and threw everything in the wash, and took the longest shower I think for that entire year after being around a dog...I just am never around them, I"m not used to that, and I definately don't want the big ones around me....don't sit there and try and change my mind!!!!!! Next time I get any invite to anymore things like that, I'm finding out first if they have some sort of dog, and then my decision will be made to somehow come up with something, to be busy with, or gone where I won't have to go just to keep a friendly attitude between me and everyone else, since we are all stuck on this island together!!!!!! hmmmm....oh I got a great video I can put on my first page here, once I finish with this....I can't put it here, cause it will just put it at the top, and mess everything up, so I"ll just do it on the first one.....I really hope everyone gets a laugh outta both of them.....One is just from off the internet....the other one is from the beach squardron party way back last summer.....It happened months ago, but I still laugh about it....guess that's what u get for showing off.....you have to watch it for any of that to make sense but it will be well worth it...... I just hope it cooperates with me whenever I try and put it on here.....okay, well, I guess I"ll finally stop talking now, and let you all get back to what you were doing....I hope everyone has a great week, and I really can't wait to talk to you all again soon!!!! I will try my hardest each and everyday to be on here, so drop by and say hi to me!!!!=) have a fantastic week!!!!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sunday 25th January 2009 Another weekend has flown by and now a new week will be starting up....the very last week of this month which means only 11 more months to this year before the new year 2010 and will be preparing to leave at the end of next year....I'm so excited I just can never stop talking about it...Anyways....I hope everyone had a good week out there, and things around you didn't drive u all too crazy....I get that way sometimes, and just want to get away from everyone and everything and come straight on here to clear my head....I really don't favor the people I have to work with on a military base, I just have never cared for these people ever who act like total spoiled brats if you don't like the exact same thinhgs as they do, or do the same things as them, then somehow you are considered the weird one or whatever...not that I care what others 10-13 years or more younger than I am think of me....hmm lets's see what did I have to put up with this last week....enduring conversations about multiple face piercings, tattoos, going to walk out Gate 2 street here after dinner where there are all kinds of bars and things, and also where there has been shootings, rapes, abductions, and I have no idea what else...and people want to go walking there at night, and I have to take the heat for it cause I don't want to do that sort of thing....guess they aren't worried about ending up dead, or the television station here running missing ads for them with their picture all over the island.....pretty dumb I think, something I wouldn't ever think of doing out in town esp. at night here since stuff happens here all the time, it's just not really talked about much, but I hear about it later on....So againnnnnnnnn I'm on my own, but doesn't matter to me cause I"m used to this so much it doesn't even phase me anymore.....I will move next year, and nothing will matter cause I will be new againnnnnn......but I will be in a new country so that will make all the difference....I won't just be stuck on one little island is all and will get to travel more places than I can here....I will visit mainland Japan later in this year, I'm so excited about that I can't stop talking about it...I don't know if I will get to see Mt. Fuji or not....they said that was an all-day climb, that you have to get up at like 1 or 2am and get there to Mt. Fuji about 3am, and start climbing then, and it's all day climb until about 6pm....I don't do the mountain climbing thing....I don't care what it is or where it is in the world I won't do it....I will look at it fine, fantastic.....but I won't try and prove myself on doing that cause I seriously don't care, and I'm not into that kind of thing, and I really don't see the point of going and climbing some mountain.....They tried to do that to me in Hawaii and I just kind of looked at them like they had a beanstalk growing out of the top of their head...I went there to go to the beaches not climb some mountain when that is not anything in my personality at all, and really don't care....I will get pictures of Mt. Fuji if I happen to see it, but if they make everyone go through all that kind of fuss, then I guess I will just settle for postcards, but I'm not climbing no mountain....=p I think I will just settle for

going to Tokyo, and then Tokyo Disneyland for
a few days....I think it will all go very, very fast considering how it's shorter than a week being there, so at least it will give me something to look forward to this whole time.....I will get to take everyone with me from here, so I won't have to worry about not being able to keep in touch, since I can hardly stand not even being on here for even a day really.....so still trying to figure little things out like that, but I wasn't going to climb any mountain when I found that out, I don't care if the whole country did that, I wasn't going to....I'd rather be going around in Tokyo and seeing things, than trying to force my way up some jagged mountain that wouldn't like me, and I definataly wouldn't like it.....but I think everything will be figured out in several months, I"m just excited to be going finally after getting used to living here for awhile, and feeling comfortable with going around....I was going to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival yesterday, but it was absolutely freezing here, blowing rain, and the wind was so cold feeling....that is our winter here, that's about as cold as it gets here....so I wasn't going to mess with that nasty weather walking in it, trying to look at things with rain and wind all blowing in my face.....and today of course was perfectly sunny and everything....still chilly and things like that, but I said those kinds of things always happen to me...so maybe another time hopefully before that is out of season, and they all turn and look like all the other regular trees......hmmm sure wish that time would fly by so fast over here....I had to leave and go to dinner, and came back, and it's so late here now....

I don't care for this crazy time difference, when everywhere else is several hours behind us....it's difficult to actually sit back and just enjoy yourself without always worrying about the time or how fast it's going and flying by cause soon the day will be over with....I only get few hours in the evenings now to be on here is all....I can never stay off of here ever in the mornings whenever I wake up and come straight to here...anyone should know that if they have talked with me long enough, I"m barely awake and still come on here to mess around even if it's just for few min before I have to leave again....I finally got a chance to sit down and do my posting for this week on here, cause I"m constantly busy all week long, and just come home and shower and then I'm dead asleep not too long after that....if I even make it on here then, it's not for very long.....so I am trying my best!!!! well I guess I will take off now, I hope everyone is doing great out there, and having an excellent time with whatever life brings your way!!!! take care and I look forward to talking with you all soon!!! have a good day/night!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxx c[=)
Sunday 2nd February 2009 whew what a week I have had...this is my first

chance to be able to come on here and work on this all week long...Good morning to u all and hope you all are enjoying your weekend....I couldn't wait to have time off so I could finally get on here and not have to worry about any kind of time limits. Well, we got through the first month of this year, which is now finally over with, and I hope went okay for everyone...I hope now since last month is over with, that also includes the obsessive "mayonnaise fest" is over with too....I have no idea what the deal is with people over on this side of the world dumping mayonnaise on absolutely everything..That doesn't exactly fly well at all with someone like me, who absolutely can hardly stand anything and just keeps having the same things over and over again.....I had to keep sending my lunch back every single day last week because they dumped that disgusting junk all over it, and I wouldn't touch it, would barely even look at it cause it makes my skin crawl, and couldn't figure out for the life of me why everyone over here is so obsessed with that junk....it's nothing but strained out pig snot with diluted rubber cement and white food coloring to cover it all up.....I got worse than that when I got with my friends and we made fun of stuff we couldn't stand since we were always like practically cemented together.....I'm not with my friends anymore since I had to move overseas, but I'm still the same....Anyways, I didn't make it to the Cherry Blossom Festival after all this year....I just started working, then it was blowing wind and rain and just miserable weather to even try to get out there and enjoy something like that, and this weekend I was too exhausted from going going going all week non-stop and barely having a single moment to myself....so next year since it will be my last one here I will go no matter what it's doing, and things won't be quite so confusing, or trying to get used to being on a schedule and always feeling tired etc...etc......hmm...not much has been going on here....everything is a blur from day to day now, since it goes so fast with the time thing over here, and everyone is always going and going non-stop 24 hours, but that's big city life for you..I can't help thinking how it is in Italy now, and who exactly is living in the house that we lived in for 3 whole years....looking back on that, I can't believe how fast that time flew by....I kind of miss the laid back lifestyle and not everyone always being in such a big hurry over every single little thing....I miss going on walks up to the Italian bakery

places on mornings that I could do that actually, taking walk to the park there, or going to their shopping area just to see how it was like compared to places in America....There is nothing like that here, and I dare not say anything negative about this place because some people think this is the only country on earth that exsists, and if anyone thinks any differently than they do, then you are somehow the one with the problem....as if no one can have their own opinions or anything else....they are exactly like this back in the states in small towns in certain states...thinking that is the only place that exsists and matters and nothing else is out there....really can't stand that type of thinking!!!!!!!!!! I went from big big city life to small town that about made me wanted to scream sometimes cause it was so dead boring and absolutely NOTHINGGGGGGGGG was there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't understand how they could live that way I was about to go crazy, not knowing anyone, not having internet, I didn't know my way around at all there cause I was new...so all that stuff was a huge eye-opener to me!!! I think it was the last year we were there, getting ready to move over here to Japan that I was introduced to a movie that scared the life outta me....something called "human trafficking." I had never heard of this type of thing ever, cause you are mostly left to yourself in big city life, and to also find things out for

yourself, no matter what it is really...this was all new to me, but it is mostly known as "modern day slavery." The movie that I saw was back in Italy, in English of course, and was

about 2 girls who were out walking, and someone just approches them and asks them if they would be interested in modeling, and attending a modeling shoot of theirs...of course who could turn this offer down being offered a free ticket into the modeling world, so of course they jumped on it....they go to this, and it was just to get them in a room where they had control over them and couldn't leave....it shows throughout the whole movie what they do to these people once they get ahold of them, and it's all "underground" type work...no one else really knows about it, no one really hears about it, and of course it's never talked about....it showed how many people were being forced to do this, and they had no way of getting out of it, and were passed along to other groups, or forced to other countries, where sometimes they didn't even know where they were at....this was all so scary to me, since it goes on all over the world, all over America, and was probably all around me in Italy in other towns since we had some raunchy places there that I didn't even think of going near.....I know that it goes on over here all over Japan, because there are posters about that around here, but it's just never talked about really, never mentioned, and no one ever brings it up to let others know about it...I never heard of this type of thing ever until I moved overseas, but wow it is really scary when you see it first hand, even if it is in a movie, it really does go on and really does happen....it showed through the whole movie what

they are put through, others they meet who are forced into this, and grow close to, then they are traded for someone else for money, and are ripped apart and are on their own again... of course when they are in this, no one knows where they're at, they're family doesn't know, they have no ways of communication, they have nothing of their own anylonger, they are just jerked around by the people in charge of doing this, and traded for different ones....it finally showed at the end, the police finding the underground passageway, and setting all of these people free, and arresting the ones who were doing this.....so of course you know they can do that in movies, but that's not how it always turns out in real life....I'm pretty sure this is going on right around me here, but of course no one hears about it, and even if they did, they certainly wouldn't say anything....so I have to be even more careful and even more aware than I was back in the states, living over-

seas now, and also since I found out about this...just thought I would put it on here too, incase no one else has heard of it either, because this "modern day slavery" thing was all new to me too here....I'll look for few articles to put on here to describe it more in detail than I know how to...Human trafficking
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Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage), and servitude. The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion.[1] The Council of Europe states that "[p]eople trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion."[2][3] Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction. Threats, violence, and economic leverage such as debt bondage can often make a victim consent to exploitation.
Exploitation includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. For children, exploitation may also include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or for religious cults.[4]
Contents[hide]
1 Overview
2 Extent
3 Causes of trafficking
4 Human trafficking and other vulnerability issues
4.1 Human trafficking and Sexual exploitation
5 Efforts to reduce human trafficking
5.1 Government actions
5.2 International law
5.3 Council of Europe
5.4 United States law
5.5 Non-Governmental Organizations
6 Criticisms
6.1 Lack of accurate data and possible overestimation
6.2 Focus on "sex trafficking"
7 Human trafficking in popular culture
8 See also
9 Notes
10 External links
10.1 Articles and Resources
10.2 Government and international governmental organizations
//

Overview
Human trafficking differs from people smuggling. In the latter, people voluntarily request smuggler's service for fees and there may be no deception involved in the (illegal) agreement. On arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free. On the other hand, the trafficking victim is enslaved, or the terms of their debt bondage are highly exploitative. The trafficker takes away the basic human rights of the victim. [5] [6]
Victims are sometimes tricked and lured by false promises or physically forced.[7] Some traffickers use coercive and manipulative tactics including deception, intimidation, feigned love, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage, other abuse, or even force-feeding with drugs to control their victims.[8] People who are seeking entry to other countries may be picked up by traffickers, and misled into thinking that they will be free after being smuggled across the border. In some cases, they are captured through slave raiding, although this is increasingly rare.
Trafficking is a fairly lucrative industry. In some areas, like Russia, Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Colombia, trafficking is controlled by large criminal organizations. [9] However, the majority of trafficking is done by networks of smaller groups that each specialize in a certain area, like recruitment, transportation, advertising, or retail. This is very profitable because little startup capital is needed, and prosecution is relatively rare.[10]
Trafficked people are usually the most vulnerable and powerless minorities in a region. They often come from the poorer areas where opportunities are limited, they often are ethnic minorities, and they often are displaced persons such as runaways or refugees (though they may come from any social background, class or race).
Women are particularly at risk from sex trafficking. Criminals exploit lack of opportunities, promise good jobs or opportunities for study, and then force the victims to become prostitutes. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is both difficult or dangerous.
Trafficking of children often involves exploitation of the parents' extreme poverty. The latter may sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income or they may be deceived concerning the prospects of training and a better life for their children. In West Africa, trafficked children have often lost one or both parents to the African AIDS crisis.[11]. Thousands of male (and sometimes female) children have also been forced to be child soldiers.
The adoption process, legal and illegal, results in cases of trafficking of babies and pregnant women between the West and the developing world. In David M. Smolin’s papers on child trafficking and adoption scandals between India and the United States,[12][13] he cites there are systemic vulnerabilities in the intercountry adoption system that makes adoption scandals predictable.
Thousands of children from Asia, Africa, and South America are sold into the global sex trade every year. Often they are kidnapped or orphaned, and sometimes they are actually sold by their own families.[14]
Men are also at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work predominantly involving forced labor which globally generates $31bn according to the International Labour Organization [15]. Other forms of trafficking include forced marriage, and domestic servitude.

Extent
Due to the illegal nature of trafficking and differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown. According to United States State Department data, an "estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children [are] trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 70 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrates that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation."[16] However, they go on to say that "the alarming enslavement of people for purposes of labor exploitation, often in their own countries, is a form of human trafficking that can be hard to track from afar." Thus the figures for persons trafficked for labor exploitation are likely to be greatly underestimated.
According to the National Human Rights Center in Berkeley, California, there are currently about 10,000 forced laborers in the U.S., around one-third of of whom are domestic servants and some portion of whom are children. The Associated Press reports, based on interviews in California and in Egypt, that trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer. This custom has led to the spread of trafficking, as well-to-do Africans accustomed to employing children immigrate to the U.S.[17]
Research conducted by University of California at Berkeley on behalf of the anti-trafficking organisation Free the Slaves found that less than half of people in slavery in the United States, about 46%, are forced into prostitution. Domestic servitude claims 27%, agriculture 10%, and other occupations 17%.[18][19]
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the impoverished former Eastern bloc countries such as Albania, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have been identified as major trafficking source countries for women and children.[20][21] Young women and girls are often lured to wealthier countries by the promises of money and work and then reduced to sexual slavery.[22] It is estimated that 2/3 of women trafficked for prostitution worldwide annually come from Eastern Europe, three-quarters have never worked as prostitutes before.[23][24] The major destinations are Western Europe (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Greece), the Middle East (Turkey, Israel, the United Arab Emirates), Asia, Russia and the United States.[25][26] An estimated 500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are working in prostitution in the EU alone.[27]
An estimated 14,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year, although again because trafficking is illegal, accurate statistics are difficult.[28] According to the Massachusetts based Trafficking Victims Outreach and Services Network (project of the nonprofit MataHari: Eye of the Day) in Massachusetts alone, there were 55 documented cases of human trafficking in 2005 and the first half of 2006 in Massachusetts.[29] In 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually and that additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States.[30] In Canada, foreign trafficking for prostitution is estimated to be worth $400 million annually.[31]
In the United Kingdom, the Home Office has stated that 71 women were trafficked into prostitution in 1998. They also suggest that the actual figure could be up to 1,420 women trafficked into the UK during the same period.[32] However, the figures are problematic as the definition used in the UK to identify cases of sex trafficking - derived from the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - does not require that victims have been coerced or misled. Thus, any individual who moves to the UK for the purposes of sex work can be regarded as having been trafficked - even if they did so with their knowledge and consent. The Home Office do not appear to be keeping records of the number of people trafficked into the UK for purposes other than sexual exploitation.
In Russia, many women have been trafficked overseas for the purpose of sexual exploitation, Russian women are in prostitution in over 50 countries.[33][34] Annually, thousands of Russian women end up as prostitutes in Israel, China, Japan or South Korea.[35] Russia is also a significant destination and transit country for persons trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation from regional and neighboring countries into Russia, and on to the Gulf states[36], Europe, Asia, and North America.
In poverty-stricken Moldova, where the unemployment rate for women ranges as high as 68% and one-third of the workforce live and work abroad, experts estimate that since the collapse of the Soviet Union between 200,000 and 400,000 women have been sold into prostitution abroad—perhaps up to 10% of the female population.[37][38] In Ukraine, a survey conducted by the NGO La Strada Ukraine in 2001–2003, based on a sample of 106 women being trafficked out of Ukraine found that 3% were under 18, and the U.S. State Department reported in 2004 that incidents of minors being trafficked was increasing. It is estimated that half a million Ukrainian women were trafficked abroad since 1991 (80% of all unemployed in Ukraine are women).[39][40]
The ILO estimates that 20 percent of the five million illegal immigrants in Russia are victims of forced labor, which is a form of trafficking. However even citizens of Russian Federation have become victims of human trafficking. They are typically kidnapped and sold by police to be used for hard labor, being regularly drugged and chained like dogs to prevent them from escaping. [41] There were reports of trafficking of children and of child sex tourism in Russia. The Government of Russia has made some effort to combat trafficking but has also been criticized for not complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.[42] [43]
In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked women, especially from the Philippines and Thailand. The US State Department has rated Japan as either a ‘Tier 2’ or a ‘Tier 2 Watchlist’ country every year since 2001 in its annual Trafficking in Persons reports. Both these ratings implied that Japan was (to a greater or lesser extent) not fully compliant with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking trade. There are currently an estimated 300,000 women and children involved in the sex trade throughout Southeast Asia.[44] It is common that Thai women are lured to Japan and sold to Yakuza-controlled brothels where they are forced to work off their price.[45][46]By the late 1990s, UNICEF estimated that there are 60,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines, describing Angeles City brothels as "notorious" for offering sex with children. UNICEF estimates many of the 200 brothels in the notorious Angeles City offer children for sex. [47]
Many of the Iraqi women fleeing the Iraq War are turning to prostitution, while others are trafficked abroad, to countries like Syria, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iran.[48] In Syria alone, an estimated 50,000 Iraqi refugee girls and women, many of them widows, are forced into prostitution.[49] Cheap Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists. The clients come from wealthier countries in the Middle East - many are Saudi men.[50] High prices are offered for virgins.[51]
As many as 200,000 Nepali girls, many under 14, have been sold into the sex slavery in India. Nepalese women and girls, especially virgins, are favored in India because of their light skin.[52][53][54]
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[55] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife." In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery of ritual servitude, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[56]
Reporters have witnessed a rapid increase in prostitution in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Kosovo after UN and, in the case of the latter two, NATO peacekeeping forces moved in. Peacekeeping forces have been linked to trafficking and forced prostitution. Proponents of peacekeeping argue that the actions of a few should not incriminate the many participants in the mission, yet NATO and the UN have come under criticism for not taking the issue of forced prostitution linked to peacekeeping missions seriously enough. [57] [58][59][60]
In the western world, Canada in particular has a major problem with modern-day sexual slavery. In a 2006 report the Future Group, a Canadian humanitarian organization dedicated to combatting human trafficking and the child sex trade, ranked eight industrialized nations and gave Canada an F for its "abysmal" record treating victims. The report, titled "Falling Short of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims", concluded that Canada "is an international embarrassment" when it comes to combating this form of slavery.[61]
The report's principal author Benjamin Perrin wrote, "Canada has ignored calls for reform and continues to re-traumatize trafficking victims, with few exceptions, by subjecting them to routine deportation and fails to provide even basic support services."
In the report, the only other country to do poorly was the United Kingdom, which received a D, while the United States received a B+ and Australia, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Italy all received grades of B or B-. The report criticizes former Liberal Party of Canada cabinet ministers Irwin Cotler, Joe Volpe and Pierre Pettigrew for "passing the buck" on the issue.
Commenting on the report, the then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Monte Solberg told Sun Media Corporation, "It's very damning, and if there are obvious legislative or regulatory fixes that need to be done, those have to become priorities, given especially that we're talking about very vulnerable people."[62]

Causes of trafficking
Some causes of trafficking include:
lack of employment opportunities
organized crime and presence of organized criminal gangs
regional imbalances
economic disparities
social discrimination
corruption in government
political instability
armed conflict
uprooting of communities because of mega projects without proper Resttlement and Rehabilitation packages.
Profitability
Growing deprivation and marginalization of the poor
Insufficient penalties against traffickers
Lax law enforcement on global sex tourism industry
Sex trafficking in minors is fueled by demand (ie, profitability) from pedophiles.
According to the UN a major factor that has allowed the growth of sexual trafficking is "Governments and human rights organizations alike have simply judged the woman guilty of prostitution and minimized the trafficker's role."[63]
Driven by demand; demand is high for prostitutes and other forms of labor in host countries; therefore there is a very profitable market available to those who wish to become handlers.[opinion needs balancing]
Trafficking in people has been facilitated by porous borders and advanced communication technologies, it has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. Unlike drugs or arms, people can be "sold" many times. The opening up of Asian markets, porous borders, the end of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia have contributed to this globalization.

Human trafficking and other vulnerability issues
Human trafficking is not a stand alone issue. It is closely related other issues that threaten security well being of the victims. Victims are exposed to continuous threats of physical violence by traffickers to ensure compliance. Many are held in bondage and beaten to suppress resistance. Other threats include absolute poverty due to wage deprivation. They are unprotected by labor laws,long working hours and lack of holiday is common. For example, 15 is the standard working hours per day among Chinese victims in France. In Japan, Thai trafficking victims also complained of breach of work contracts, non-payment of wages, mandatory night work and poor accommodation [65].

Human trafficking and Sexual exploitation
There is no universally accepted definition of trafficking for sexual exploitation. The term encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work with the use of physical coercion, deception and bondage through forced debt. However, the issue becomes contentious when the element of coercion is removed from the definition to incorporate facilitating the willing involvement in prostitution. For example, In the United Kingdom, The Sexual Offences Act, 2003 incorporated trafficking for sexual exploitation but did not require those committing the offence to use coercion, deception or force, so that it also includes any person who enters the UK to carry out sex work with consent as having being trafficked.[64]
As Save the Children have said "The issue gets mired in controversy and confusion when prostitution itself is considered as a violation of the basic human rights of both adult women and minors, and equal to sexual exploitation per se..... trafficking and prostitution become conflated with each other.... On account of the historical conflation of trafficking and prostitution both legally and in popular understanding, an overwhelming degree of effort and interventions of anti-trafficking groups are concentrated on trafficking into prostitution" [65]
Sexual trafficking includes coercing a migrant into a sexual act as a condition of allowing or arranging the migration. Sexual trafficking uses physical coercion, deception and bondage incurred through forced debt. Trafficked women and children, for instance, are often promised work in the domestic or service industry, but instead are usually taken to brothels where their passports and other identification papers are confiscated. They may be beaten or locked up and promised their freedom only after earning – through prostitution – their purchase price, as well as their travel and visa costs [66][67]
The main motive of a woman (in some cases an underage girl) to accept an offer from a trafficker is better financial opportunities for herself or her family. In many cases traffickers initially offer ‘legitimate’ work or the promise of an opportunity to study. The main types of work offered are in the catering and hotel industry, in bars and clubs, modeling contracts, or au pair work. Traffickers sometimes use offers of marriage, threats, intimidation and kidnapping as means of obtaining victims. In the majority of cases, the women end up in prostitution. Also some (migrating) prostitutes become victims of human trafficking. Some women know they will be working as prostitutes, but they have an inaccurate view of the circumstances and the conditions of the work in their country of destination.[68][69]
In Japan the prosperous entertainment market had created huge demand for commercial sexual workers, and such demand is being met by trafficking women and children from the Philippines, Colombia and Thailand. Women are forced into street prostitution, based stripping and live sex acts.[70] However, from information obtained from detainees or deportees from Japan, about 80 percent of the women went there with the intention of working as prostitutes [71]
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in the US and Canada, has also been implicated in the trafficking of underage women across state and international boundaries (US/Canada). In most cases, this is for the continuation of polygamous practices, in the form of plural marriage.[72][73]
Trafficking victims are also exposed to different psychological problems. They suffer social alienation in the host and home countries. Stigmatization, social exclusion and intolerance make reintegration into local communities difficult. The governments offer little assistance and social services to trafficked victims upon their return. As the victims are also pushed into drug trafficking, many of them face criminal sanctions.

Efforts to reduce human trafficking
Governments, international associations, and nongovernmental organizations have all tried to end human trafficking with various degrees of success.

Government actions

A human trafficking awareness poster from the Canadian Department of Justice.
Actions taken to combat human trafficking vary from government to government. Some have introduced legislation specifically aimed at making human trafficking illegal. Governments can also develop systems of co-operation between different nation’s law enforcement agencies and with non-government organisations (NGOs). Many countries though have come under criticism for inaction, or ineffective action. Criticisms include failure of governments in not properly identifying and protecting trafficking victims, that immigration policies might re-victimize trafficking victims, or insufficient action in helping prevent vulnerable people becoming trafficking victims.
A particular criticism has been the reluctance of some countries to tackle trafficking for purposes other than sex. In the United Kingdom, after intense pressure from Human Rights organisations, trafficking for labour exploitation was made illegal in 2004 (trafficking for sexual exploitation being criminalised many years previously). However, the 2004 law has been used very rarely and by mid-2007 there had not been a single conviction under these provisions. [64]
Other actions governments could take is raise awareness. This can take on three forms. Firstly in raising awareness amongst potential victims, in particular in countries where human traffickers are active. Secondly, raising awareness amongst police, social welfare workers and immigration officers. And in countries where prostitution is legal or semi-legal, raising awareness amongst the clients of prostitution, to look out for signs of a human trafficking victim.
Laws against trafficking in the United States exist at the federal and state levels. Over half of the states now criminalize human trafficking though the penalties are not as tough as the federal laws. Related federal and state efforts focus on regulating the tourism industry to prevent the facilitation of sex tourism and regulate international marriage brokers to ensure criminal background checks and information on how to get help are given to the potential bride.
Raising awareness can take on different forms. One method is through the use of awareness films [74] or through posters [75].

International law
In 2000 the United Nations adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, also called the Palermo Convention, and two Palermo protocols there to:
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; and
Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
All of these instruments contain elements of the current international law on trafficking in human beings.

Council of Europe
The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings [76] was adopted by the Council of Europe on 16 May 2005. The aim of the convention is to prevent and combat the trafficking in human beings. The Convention entered into force on 1 February 2008. Of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, so far 21 have signed the convention and 17 have ratified it.[77]

United States law
The United States federal government has taken a firm stance against human trafficking both within its borders and beyond. Domestically, human trafficking is a federal crime under Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his will, whether the compulsion is effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear" (an environment wherein individuals believe they may be harmed by leaving or refusing to work); Section 1581 similarly makes it illegal to force a person to work through "debt servitude." Human trafficking as it relates to involuntary servitude and slavery is prohibited by the 13th Amendment. Federal laws on human trafficking are enforced by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section.
The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 allowed for greater statutory maximum sentences for traffickers, provided resources for protection of and assistance for victims of trafficking and created avenues for interagency cooperation. It also allows many trafficking victims to remain in the United States and apply for permanent residency under a T-1 Visa.[78]. The act also attempted to encourage efforts to prevent human trafficking internationally, by creating annual country reports on trafficking and tying financial non-humanitarian assistance to foreign countries to real efforts in addressing human trafficking.
The United States Department of State has a high-level official charged with combating human trafficking, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ("anti-trafficking czar"). The current director is Mark P. Lagon.[79]
International NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on the United States to improve its measures aimed at reducing trafficking.They recommend that the United States more fully implement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children and for immigration officers to improve their awareness of trafficking and support the victims of trafficking. [80][81]
Several state governments have taken action to address human trafficking in their borders, either through legislation or prevention activities. For example, Florida state law prohibits forced labor, sex trafficking, and document servitude, and provides for mandatory law enforcement trainings and victim services. A 2006 Connecticut law prohibits coerced work and makes trafficking a violation of the Connecticut RICO Act.

Non-Governmental Organizations
Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International and Human Rights Watch have campaigned against human trafficking. Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights organizations have been formed to combat human trafficking. Some of these include:
Somaly Mam Foundation, founded in 2007 at the United Nations with the support of UNICEF, UNIFEM, and IOM, the Somaly Mam Foundation is known for empowering victims of human trafficking to become activists and agents of change. With the leadership of world renowned Cambodian activist, Somaly Mam, the organization has garnered support from influential leaders and celebrities such as Susan Sarandon, Daryl Hannah, Diane von Furstenberg, and Hillary Clinton. The foundation also runs activities to support Rescue and Rehabilitation of victims in Southeast Asia and works to increase global awareness to inspire action.[82]
Polaris Project, founded in 2002, is an international anti-human trafficking organization with offices in Washington DC, New Jersey, Colorado, and Japan. Polaris Project's comprehensive approach includes operating local and national human trafficking hotlines, conducting direct outreach and victim identification, providing social services and housing to victims, advocating for stronger state and national anti-trafficking legislation, and engaging community members in grassroots efforts.[83]
Tiny Stars. Using the Protect Act of 2003, Tiny Stars works closely with Federal Law enforcement agencies to capture American child predators. Founded by Jake Collins in 1997, Tiny Stars focuses on identifying, tracking, and capturing pedophiles who victimize girls between the ages of 8-14 years old. To advance its mission, the organization has developed a network of undercover agents, often former agents of the CIA, FBI, or Navy SEALS.[84]
National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a program funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. The NHTRC operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline 24-hours a day, 365 days a year.[85]

Criticisms

Lack of accurate data and possible overestimation
Estimates of the number of people trafficked for sexual purposes is contentious - problems of definition can be compounded by the willingness of victims to identify as being trafficked.[86]
Distinguishing trafficking from voluntary migration is crucial because the ability of women to purposefully and voluntarily migrate for work should be respected. In a 2003 report the Thai sex worker support organization EMPOWER stated that many anti-trafficking groups fail to see the difference between migrant sex workers and women forced to prostitute themselves against their will. They documented a May 2003 "raid and rescue" operation on a brothel in Chiang Mai that was carried out without the consent of the workers, resulting in numerous human rights violations.[87]
In her 2007 book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, sociologist Laura María Agustín has likewise criticized what she calls the "rescue industry" for viewing most migrant sex workers as victims of trafficking that need to be saved, with the effect of severely restricting international freedom of movement. Agustín does not deny human trafficking or forced prostitution takes place, but rather that the ‘rescue industry’ overestimates figures.
Much criticism of the recent publicity around sex trafficking and the associated demands for legal sanction against prostitutes or their customers, has come from sexual health / AIDS organisations. Their principle concern being that such measures hinder efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani, in her book The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS, examines the phenomenon of sex trafficking and its impact on HIV prevention in detail. She concludes that forced trafficking (as opposed to voluntary involvement in sex work) is wildly over estimated.

Focus on "sex trafficking"
Whilst most mainstream human rights groups acknowledge all forms of trafficking, there is growing criticism of the focus on trafficking for sexual exploitation at the expense of tackling other forms such as domestic or agricultural trafficking. Ambassador Nancy Elly Raphael, the first director of the U.S. Federal Trafficking in Persons Office, resigned over what she saw as misrepresentation of the issue in order to provide support for the anti-prostitution lobby. She says "It was so ideological. Prostitution, that's what was driving the whole program. They kept saying, 'If you didn't have prostitution, you wouldn't have trafficking.' I was happy to leave." [88]
In many countries, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, the overwhelming majority of interventions concentrate on sex trafficking. For example, on 8th July 2008, Fiona Mactaggart MP, a prominent UK government spokesperson on the issue, admitted that the UK government concentrated on disrupting sex trafficking. Quoting from Sigma Huda, UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, she said "For the most part, prostitution as actually practised in the world usually does satisfy the elements of trafficking..." [89]

****http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=qkumRVs4324&feature=related-Human Trafficking

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwaM9lCRrM&feature=related Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking ****** So everyone, please be careful no matter where in the world you are out there!!!!!!! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and we can all catch up with each other soon whenever that happens on here...the last thing that I wanna do is bug people half to death over the internet to talk with me!!! so just whenever you all get time to drop in and say hi to me or whatever else...okay everyone, hope u all have a fantastic week, and I will drop in occasionally to let you all know I"m thinking of you over here, until I can post again on here....take care and Happy February to you all......=)
Tuesday, 17th February 2009

Hello, Hello everyone how has life been for you these last few weeks?? I am so so so sorry I haven't been on here very much to keep this up, but this month has been just flying by for me like crazy, I can't believe that next week is the last week of it, and I've only been on here twice now....I've tried to keep in touch on my other page at the front of this the best I could, but then I didn't expect to come down sick for an entire week here, so I really didn't have much in me to stay on here very long I felt so out of it...So glad that is over with now, but now just back to working constantly, and being completely exhausted all the time now....hmm well I hope that everyone had a Happy Valentines's Day on your corner of the earth and it turned

out well for you all....it came and went so fast here, but I can have fun with any holiday on here getting to play around and decorate this up with all the holiday stuff they have to offer.....I really miss being on here so much that it won't stop bothering me, and I get up earlier and earlier in the mornings just so I can be on here first, before I have to leave, because I can't get on here at all during the day. My very own webpage is blocked from me, even this to work on it some if I got the time. Yahhh, as everyone else can see, I'm finally coming closer and closer to the end of this, so I won't have to keep going back and forth once this is finally filled up and won't annoy me half to death...but I have a better sense of what I am doing now, and everything, so I don't think this will happen again!!!!!! I think and think about what I want to say on here, and have it al in my head, and then whenever I get on here, I go completely blank

as to what on earth to talk about...I think this year I will be the busiest that I have been since the entire time that I have lived over here...When I'm not, and actually on my own time, I want to sleep I just feel so tired from going and going all the time...I skipped out on a Mardi Gras party tonight, because I constantly have parties or other get togethers thrown at me, and I really really just don't care to always be doing something to keep busy....If it's not parties, then when we are free from our work, everyone wants to go to breakfast or lunch, or both, then something again at night, and always always something on the weekends....when exactly are you supposed to get time to yourself??!!! I still have my own things to do, and a house to keep up and just would like to be

on my own for awhile after having to be around people all day long and them wearing on my nerves....and I always don't have to have something to do with others...I think I haven't been through the worst part of it yet, I think this is busy being gone from dark to dark (early morning until early evening) and I hardly get anything done, but in the summer will be a trip everyday, or almost everyday of the week to places I've been to already, since I"ve already seen everything there is to see on this island...so I'm not sure how much I will be around then if I feel this tired like I am now....(i will have to finish this tomorrow!!!!)xxxxx good night!!!!!!

Wednesday 18th, February 2009

hi again everyone...I hope to finish this entry this time and not have to end this one so quickly and take off cause my time is so pressed now as it is....The week is almost over so hang in there everyone....not too much longer until the weekend to give us all a break.....=) I don't even know what on earth I was talking about last time on here, so I"ll have to go back and read and pick up from it so everything will make sense....well, I waited this long to actually get work again, and I guess it doesn't make much sense to others who have never experienced this lifestyle, so it's hard to understand of course....Being with military, they are of course going to treat you like

military, and have you do all what they make them do... I had to do this since I was back in Italy, so it's nothing to me now, and doesn't shock me at all, but at first it was kind of weird and just uncomfortable, since they insist on researching everything about you from where all the places you have lived, your background check, police records, ones who can answer questions about you that weren't related to you at the last place you lived, oh and of course, then you get your hands grabbed one by one, and get each one of your fingers and thumb finger-printed on a finger-print card...as if that doesn't make you nautious enough, or they make you feel like you have done something....I've never done anything, ever, I told them this, and they kept ending up with blank pages over me over everything they tried to dig up or whatever it was they look for on people anymore, I have no idea...I had to go through that twice...once in Italy, then here, and I guess they finally were convinced enough that when I told them I never did anything, they weren't going to question me, since it costs the government money everytime they do one of these things on someone.....I just never had to go through that ever before, and it was sooo sooo uncomfortable, cause you kind of get a taste of what that would be like if you really did do something that was bad or against the law....that is just to give everyone else an idea of what they put us through just being apart of this lifestyle...I've been keeping busy though, and having so so so much fun everyday...I get along so great with my partner, and we come up with all kinds of ideas for different artwork to decorate this and that, and never ever ever stop talking or are always laughing about something...it's even more fun when there are a group of us, and I always seem to encourage it more and more no matter what is going on...can't help myself ...I'm always finding something to make fun of...I did that with my friends when I was back in the states like crazy, here it hasn't been so much until now I guess, so I suppose I'm finally settling in here after 3 years time.. That's about how long it takes to get used to a place where you are actually finally comfortable with it....Of course, I'm one to believe it's absolutely fantastic to find a life of your own and keep it, and not always worry yourself sick with what everyone else in the world around you is doing...that's what everyone I am around seems to do , and I really don't care myself, because I"m so so so tired and exhausted after all day long, I really can't wait to have time to myself and just do what I want to do, whether it be on here or something else....not everyone can understand this though, so I won't even try to explain...hmm things are always going on here in daytime, everyday, everynight, every weekend, every holiday of course, all over this entire island, whether is it out in town, or with other Americans here, but really I don't care anymore...I just don't...I know that's hard to believe for some who thinks everything here is "fun", but the same goes for the ones who won't give it up with the Japanese food even though they had never ever tried it before in their life until they came to this place, and they just "magically" decided to start liking it....A whole group from my work tonight went to some barfbag Japanese place tonight, and I didn't even have to think twice about not wanting to go, because all I would be doing would be sitting and sitting there, and keep looking at my watch wondering when this thing would get over with so I wouldn't have to keep looking at that stuff, or smelling of it...I don't even say anything about not liking that junk anymore, cause I never

hear the end of it....It goes something like this from what I remember from previous conversations....."we're all going to a Japanese restaurant, so come and join us...." me--"oh I don't like Japanese food, I'm not kidding either!!!" "you don't like Japanese food?!! you don't know what you're missin'!!! or that ^&+*%&%&^ is good!!!!" of course I shoot back, "uhhh noooo it's not it's completely gross!!!......and so on and so on....it's a never ever ending argument about it being good and it not being good by my standards....soooo I just dont' say anything anymore cause I don't want to keep hearing that!!!!! well now that I rattled on about that, guess I should go ahead and end this for now since I got another day

ahead of me tomorrow....I hope everyone is doing okay where you are at...I miss being on here sooooooooooooooooooooooo much like I normally was before, and talking to all of you....I try my best to be on here when I can and make time to do what I can when I am actually here now.....I"m glad that I got this much done tonight, even after sitting for 2 hours getting my American Idol fix for this week, and still being able to make time to work on this...=) here is the website if any of you all want to take a look as to what is going on, and don't get it there where you are....we get American tv/cable here where I'm at, but everything is just a day behind than whenever it airs in the states...and of course I can't join in and vote like I did whenever I was back in the states, but anyways.... that's just me....www.idolonfox.com.....hope u all have fun with that!!!=) take care and I hope to talk soon, even if it's just for few minutes!!!! go and reach for a star, because you just might become one!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxx=)
Sunday, 22 February 2009 Hi to everyone out there...wow it's so hard to believe how unbelievably fast this weekend just flew by....I"m so so sorry I have hardly been on here at all this week....I don't even know where the time goes anymore really....It took me

over an hour alone, just to get on here to this page...sometimes I'm not able to get on here at all, so tonight I'm thrilled that wasn't the case. I've almost reached the end of this thing, so I won't have to keep jumping back and forth anymore like I have had to have been doing the past 4 months now..... I'll explain what these pics are since they will make absolutely noooooo sense at all to anyone just stopping by for the first time, or who just happen to come across my page.......hmm this was last fall here, we had an open air carnival, or that's at least what they called it...more like "random lousy parking lot entertainment" if you ask me, because that's all they do....set up a bunch of stuff in a parking lot, and expect everyone else to be thrilled about it...I stopped by this thing just to get pics, and show everyone else what I have to put up with here, and how sometimes it just makes me want to cry it's so overly pathetic what their idea of a "good time" is supposed to be...It's just mostly some rides, food booths, a stage set up with different mediocre entertainers who "think" they are actually entertaining, and then just a bunch of standing around...nothing more really.... we had a few of these in Italy, but wasn't this big, and this one
was considered "big" because there is somehow more going on here....(?????) I"m still trying to figure that one out, esp. since I really don't care anymore what goes on here...I believe this pic was somekind of bungee jumping they brought in here to try out, or just for kicks...I have no idea what the purpose of it was really....there was also a few rides that I don't think I got, cause I just thought it wasn't worth it, and was getting tired of walking around this thing, and I honestly couldn't get excited about it, my state fair back home was way more fun than that.....=) try telling that to others who are stuck on impressing only those around them and deciding not to keep a personality of their own, or their own interests.....Anyways....I guess if this is about the only thing going on, it's fine to go and just kill time, or just go just to go to something, which is what I did....not impressed by it,

but kind of have to go along with this stuff as long as I"m living here, when really it doesn't
really matter...but anyways..So I hope that I gave everyone an idea what this is like...they have this thing every year here, and will have again this year...I think this will be my last one to go to, because next year I'll be moving around that time, or getting ready to, and will be so excited about going to where ever it is going to be, something like this is definately going to be the absolute last thing on my mind...I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend....I was supposed to go to a resort this weekend, but had to change it, cause there was a confusion, but will go next month, so still something to look forward to.....=) can't wait of course..I just loooovvve those places like crazy....it's just a matter of making time for them, and going out to them....this one is on another island somewhere off the coast of this one....so it will be great to get a break from this island for once, even if it does mean going to another one.....I get little time to do what I want, or what I normally end up doing, except on weekends now, maybe some at night, but it's not for very long at all....I managed some artwork, and that's about it, but then I just want to

sleep since I am constantly going anymore now....Still I don't really care about going around with others here, most of them aren't really my type to go around with to even begin with...I don't like going with people, and worrying about them blowing smoke in my face or in my direction the entire time...sorry I just don't see the fun in that...honestly, I don't fit in with these people...never have, and never will, end of story, so there's really no use worrying about it, cause I've been getting along just fine these past few years....=) We just reaaaallly don't have anything in common at all, or anything

to talk about, when it comes right down to it....only this year left, then next year, will be preparing the whole year to move and out process until we find out where they are sending us next....I seriously can't wait as much as I spend time talking about it....just don't like being kept in such great suspense like that, and just waiting and waiting at a place as uninteresting as this one....I still get those people who have just recently moved here, and think this is the greatest place since sliced bread....I get things like the head tilt along with..." oh you don't like it here!!??? why not???!!!" I really don't say anything, I don't want to get into it...I don't want to explain, I don't want to give all kinds of opinions that they are just going to disagree with anyways, and run and tell everyone else, and how evil I am for being here, and not liking it....and don't even get me started on the people and how they are here if your thoughts and ideas are the least bit different from theirs..

That kind of goes along with about the same ones, just because I don't talk endlessly to them about whatever it is that they talk about....they seem to find some sort of joy in publicly tormenting me in front of everyone else...oh and they always make sure there's a huge huge group of people around before they say anything first...just junk like "you are so quiet, you never say anything do u???!!!" I of course shoot back "yah I say plenty, just not to you all... and leave them stammering and stuttering wondering what to say next,which of course they can't think of anything...still I can't stand people who do that just cause I don't say stuff to them every minute of the day...they don't know me at all, they don't even ask me anything,

if they even knew about this page of mine, and how much I rambled on and on about what ever it is that I talk about on here, I think they would be completely lost, and not know what to say to me...if I was to actually show anyone here this...but that is never going to happen....uhhhhh I'm dreading facing another crazy non-stop never-ending week....I enjoy staying on here so so much, and not having to worry about rushing off to anything or going to do something.....by the way, since you have made it down this far, I guess you're wondering what that is with a snake in the jar...That is some type of alcohol that they sell here in Japan, called Habu Saki. "Habu" is the type of snake, and "Saki" is the name of the alcohol....I don't touch that stuff, but just thought I would put it on here so everyone else could see that.....It gives me the creeps just looking at it, esp. since I can't stand snakes to begin with......okay...guess I'll finally take off now....here's to another week hope it goes super fast.....only one more week of this month left!!!! take care everyone!!! miss talking with you all!!!! xxxxx=)
Monday 2nd March 2009 i've finally made it to the bottom of this thing after about 4 months now.... I'm thrilled I won't have to keep jumping back and forth to this once I fill this page up, because it takes me forever to get on here....well this one at least, I"m not sure why, but I

think it may be from all the exsessive pictures....I really am not that crazy abou these pics of a snake in a jar with its mouth open, but I had never seen this sort of thing either until I got here.....I'm not sure if they eat that after they finish the alcohol or throw it out, or put it up on the wall for looks....when u move the jar, the snake inside sloshes around with it, and it just makes my skin crawl watching something like that....but I thought it would be fun to share on here cause it was all new to me too....noooo I don't plan to get one of those things before I leave here for a souvinier incase anyone out there is wondering....me of all people would drop that and it would break and bust all over and I would have a dead snake either on me with a bunch of spilled alcohol and broken glass...yes I would be one to do something like that cause I drop everything, and I'm sure it definately would happen with that because I moved it around to take pics, and I had a problem even touching the outside of that thing....hmm anyways.....lol.....I'm sorry that I"m so busy anymore and my entries on here are more spaced out, and few and far between....I try my hardest to keep up on the first page of this just by saying hi or anything else that I can find to put on here....not much has been going on here really...just work mostly and keeping busy with my own things of course.....hmm I opened the door to my work last week to go in, and there was a bird flying all around and flew right at me....I can't stand anything flying at me or over me....we already have bats here that all come out at night....if u get too close to them where they are, or where they made a nest, they will swoop down almost where u can touch them and screech at you...that happened back in the summer to me...and lucky lucky me is of course coming down sick again....after all what I went through last month at this time....I"m soo excited it's finally March here....just few more months until vacation here....not here on this island finally, but to mainland Japan, because once I leave this place, I don't plan on coming back!!! So!! just trying to visit about everything

that I can while I am here!!!! I will keep in touch with everyone on here while I'm away, but just can't resist talking about it is all!!!! I will continue this tomorrow cause it's nearly 2am here, and I'm still up fooling around on this thing trying to post, or trying to fill this up I should say, and I really am not in the mindset like I usually am to talk on here....so I'll be back tomorrow night...hope u all are doing okay out there!!! miss everyone and again I"m sorry I'm so busy these days, or sometimes just can't be on here for other reasons, etc...etc..and then there's times I have absolutely noooo idea what to say...yes that even happens to me on here, believe it or not....take care....and tomorrow we can celebrate cause I think I will be able to

close this out....=) see u all in 24 hours.....make it fun and worthwhile.... ;)
Monday, 2nd March 2009

I'm here but that's about all I am right now.....I ran outta time again, so I'm not able to work on this, so I"ll try again tomorrow night....I hope everyone of u are doing fine and we can catch up with each other soon!!!!!!! I will be able to start putting my own pics on here again, and going back to how this was before I messed this

up royally....so here's to another exhausting week.....=p I'll be back tomorrow hopefully to finish this up once and for all on this page so I don't have to keep looking at all these snakes....
Friday, 6th March 2009

I never asked to be sent here!!!! hey to my greatest friends on earth...I hope u all are doing fine...I am so sorry I haven't been able to keep up on this much this week...I managed to get on here to be able to say a few things before the entire week would run out altogether....This is about all I can do when I'm not on my own computer....I'm having my lunch and doing my work on here, cause I"m leaving for the entire weekend to a resort that is far away from here, so I won't be back until like Sunday night around midnight....=) how happy am I to be gettin away from this place and such irritating people......=) =) =) =)=)=) I have just completely **HAD IT** with this place and everyone here I can't take it anymore and am about to go outta my mind....I'm not able to wait that long until summer until we go to mainland Japan, big deal on that....I mean where I"m off of this side of the world altogether!!!! I can't take these younger brats like 19-20ish years old that I'm forced to be around...I never asked to be around them or to be friends with people who act so dumb...hmm so okay we are getting into rainy season here as always...this is our winter here for us where it just rains and rains....and lucky me got caught in the heaviest of it all this morning and was completely drenched...that isn't the first time that

has happened to me.....>=(that seems to happen just about every time that it rains here....so not only being wet and miserable and wanting to leave here everytime that thought enters my mind...but I had some smart-mouthed brat about 19-21 or so yell out at me walking by, "so did ya enjoy your walk in the rain??" they waited until they got past me, but I knew that it was meant for me....So I counted it up a few days ago...I only have 20 more months left at this dump with the over-flowing landfills and places with a bunch of broken up rocks and snakes crawling around that they somehow refer to as a "beach." doesn't sound too much like a beach to me....I'm going to what else but another island somewhere around here called "Lei Island..." not sure why that sounds so familair...I think I went there for the Lily Festival last year just to see what the thing was....but anyways, I'm going there just to forget everything here and forget how much I hate my life right now and how much it sucks and how I can't do anything about it until time itself decides to finally hurry it up to do us both a favor......I will get what pics I can, but I have no idea how it's going to be since we've been getting rain non-stop like everyday this week...it quits for awhile, then it starts up again even harder.....anyways...I'm thrilled to be leaving here even if it's just for a few days and hours.....I won't have to be here...I will miss talking to everyone, but I will answer anything on here anyone sends me.....I'm just not an island person, and I seriously don't care anything about this place...Next year I will finally get to leave....finally finally finally permanetely.....don't know where yet this early, but just the thought of it puts me in the best mood ever....wow I've finally reached the bottom of this thing....It took me long enough, cause I had no idea what I was doing, or how it was spacing itself out etc...etc....now I won't have to keep going back and forth and waiting 10-15 min just for this thing to come up

since there is so much on it something keeps making it run slower than usual...hmm not much has been happening with me...just work mostly and me doing my own things....I'm hardly on here very much at all anymore...just early mornings some before I leave, then some at night, and weekends is all....so just thought I would stop by and see what I could get done on here, and let everyone know what is going on with me, so anyone won't think I've stopped coming around completely....Lucky me is sick again...not as bad as last month, but I expect this from now on here from the environment I"m in, and it also just going around....and of course I will get whatever is being passed around no matter how hard I try not to...I'm so happy that I finally reached the end of this thing.....this won't happen anymore....I just get overly happy when I get new pics, or when someone else sends me some of theirs.....look at how many I put on here that aren't even my own!!!!! I find them on here I mean!!!! Okay, I hope everyone is doing great, and things aren't too hectic for anyone....finally it's the weekend so we can forget whatever happened this week and anyone else who was a total pain....I'll talk with u all next week, and this will be back to normal finally!!!!! have a good weekend everyone!!!!! take care!!!!!

November 24th 2008

hey there everyone, how's life treating you these days.... I hope u all are having an amazing week so far....thanks again for stopping by my blog here and I hope that you are enjoying it every week...I'm trying to do my best on keeping up with it, but I've also taken on keeping up with another profile as well...but this is my primary one, so I always make sure that I do this one before any others....I can finally get on here normally and post again, and put up pics for you all to see...I got a new desktop over the weekend, so I am still learning it since everything is new and different...I am kind of sort of getting the hang of it, but it still is taking me awhile on a few things, but it's still enough to be annoying....I'm sure I will have it down by the end of this year, I guess it's just getting familarized with everything etc....I've just been getting ready for the holidays here that are very rapidly approaching...We have our Thanksgiving holiday here in just 2 days....all we do for that mostly is just get together with others here and have dinner and just enjoy ourselves...maybe go on a short trip or something, but really there isn't much to do besides that here....It's definately cooled down a lot here, and it is just either rainy or cloudy now everyday and sometimes it's nice before it starts raining again...I would much rather have it like this than scalding heat day after day like it is here in the summertime.... hmm I got so many new pics I can't even keep up with putting them on here, so I will add more this time than I normally do....I put the "least desired" ones at the very bottom because I didn't want those to be the first thing that people see on here when they drop by here.....Many thanks to my friends over in Sri Lanka for sending me such beautiful and gorgeous pics on here that I decided to put on here and share with everyone else....wow, what gorgeous countries you all live in!!!!! I had never seen any of those either, but I loved how pictureque everything looked there...I can't remember what everything is, but I still enjoy just looking at them...I will try and get more from others on here that I can also put on here in the future cause I'm pretty burned out on this place completely, and just posting things over and over of the Aquarium, Glass Factory, Pineapple Park, Botanical Gardens, and a few other places that really don't come to mind right now....really it's just the same things over and over here is all... I can get others to send me pics from their country so I don't bore people to death with "well I went to the Aquarium again here.....here's more pics of it that I didn't get before...." So I hope you enjoy them, I thought they were absolutely breath-taking and thought it looked like a movie set in some areas.....I hope you all enjoy them as much as I did!!! They are all really spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hmmm...the ones after that are the fall festival that we had here for one day and one day only....in like 4 parking lots I believe....I went at night when it was very dark to avoid constantly being stared at by these people, and where I could easily duck in and out and take pics of what I wanted then get the heck outta there...I really didn't care a thing what they had going on there...just a bunch of food booths set up on one side then game booths, and like a rock climbing wall and bungee jumping on the other side...I have no idea how they consider that a fair...oh, and also a stage where they had people up there performing, and had Japanese drummers at the time that I was there....I made sure that I stayed far far in the back and just held my cam up and took pics that way, so they wouldn't try and pull me up there on a stage to get me to do something with them....they have done that before, pulled someone out of the audience while everyone else yells out stuff they want to see them do up there....I think that I would rather agree to be frozen for an entire year, and then brought back to life, than to go through something like that ever........I believe they have this every year here, because I remember them having it last year.....Our state fair was way better than this thing hands down, but this is all they offer being at this place, so of course everyone goes to it, even though it's not that impressive....the last pics on here are of habu sake...that is somekind of Japanese alcohol here....I had never heard of that ever...our sponsor was showing us around when we first got here, and introduced us to it then....I was still trying to get over feeling sick from the long drawn-out plane ride over here, so I was only half-way paying attention then, but I went back later on to have a much better look then at it....The one I saw was way bigger than these...I guess that other one wasn't selling since it was over $600, so they brought in smaller ones that are just a bit over $200...They put a snake in the jar and fill it up with some kind of alcohol....I'm not sure if they eat that thing after they finish drinking everything in there, or they just keep it....I never knew they did anything like this ever, so it was all new to me too....it pretty much grosses me out cause I think it's pretty sick, and even though I don't like snakes at all, I have no idea how they can stand to do that to an animal....wonder how people would take it if it was them in a jar of alcohol, with their mouth forced to stay open, and shoved up on some shelf....these are kind of hard to see, even though I took so many of them....about 12-15 I think at the time, but some got erased accidentely when uploading them here....with this being new and everything, things definately can get confusing......I can try and get more if I can find the larger ones again somewhere here....it was as big as about 2 pickle jars stacked up on each other.....I wasn't even aware that they had small ones.....this is my 3rd try on attempting to post this since the first two everything froze up on here, and all the pics were too much spaced out on here and it looked so bad....it will take about an hour for me to get everything on here, but I think it will turn out looking great once I finish....so guess that I will go now and I hope to talk with you all soon on here again....take care and enjoy your time in your corner of the world!!! I"m trying my best to here..... =)