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Thursday, February 11, 2010

I'm in Japan

En français
I took the plane from Belfast to London then from London to Roma then from Roma to Tokyo and I arrived yesterday in Japan.
It was a pretty long trip and a bit tiring as well.
When I arrived I discovered my office, my new flat and the area around the university. My flat is so close to my office, that's really amazing, I've never been anywhere where I was so close. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to fine anything that close when Sebastien is going to join me. It's way too small for the two of us. It's also really close to a shopping centre and to the bus/train station.

Here, everything is new to me and I'm struggling a bit to get anything I need.
Hopefully that won't last too long and I'll soon be in a daily routine to be able to get back to normal activities.
I am extremely grateful to Heisig and anki for giving me the knowledge of about 1000 kanjis so far that have proven itself extremely useful.
When I got down from the bus I got a bit lost. I was sleeping all the way, and not really awake when I got down. Hopefully someone told me to take some escalators and there I found some map putting me on my way, all in Japanese of course.
I started to read Harry Potter in Japanese last night. I think I'm going to know all the katakana and review all my hiragana that way in no time. Some kanjis are also writen with furigana so I'll also learn the pronunciation that way. I feel like it's way easier for me to communicate if I write some kanjis than if I speak.
Then I slept all day. I'm a lot jet lagged and feel a bit like an owl. I haven't seen anything by day time yet.
I really need to be able to communicate at least for daily use as soon as possible.
I went to the shop and I couldn't read most of the things written on the products. That's really frustrating. I still managed to go around find and to get what I needed. But then I couldn't understand what people were telling me when I needed to pay. I was probably looking like an idiot.
Hopefully tomorrow someone is going to help me with administrative stuffs so that will soon get better.
When I got myself a camera, I'm thinking about starting a new blog about my life in Japan.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cooking : Surprise "de la mer" and Sweet surprise

En français
Yesterday evening I created this new recipes. It consisted of a sort of bread with stuffing inside.

What you need for 2 persons :

For the bread :
Flour
Water
A bit of oil

For the stuffing of the Surprise "de la mer":
Tomato sliced
Courgette slices
Bechamel with mixed tuna
One slice of smocked salmon
Two crab sticks
For the stuffing of the Sweet surprise:

Strawberry jam
One banana sliced
One clementine

Preparation :

Bread :

-Pour some flour in a bowl and make a hole in the middle.
-Add water progressively while mixing, until you obtain a bowl not too sticky.
-You can add more flour as well if needed, the mix should not stick to your hands.
-Open the ball in two and add some oil mix to make the oil penetrate until you obtain
something smooth.
- Cut into four part and flatten each of them with a rolling-pin
Surprise "de la mer" :

-Take one of the flatten bread.
-Place half of the tomatoes slices in the middle.
-Place half of the courgette slices on the top of the tomatoes.
-Place the salmon on the top.
-Add some of the tuna bechamel on the top.
-Add the pieces of one crab stick.
-Close the bread by bringing the side on the top to form a sort of ball.
-Do the same with one of the other flatten bread.

Sweet surprise :

-Take one of the flatten bread.
-Spread a spoonful of jam on the surface.
-Put half of the banana's slices in the middle.
-Put half of the pieces of the clementine with them.
-Close up to form a ball

Put some oil in a dish and put the balls in it.
Put them in the oven until the bread starts browning.
Serve hot.

JanNoWriMo challenge : "Attic Mirror" part 7

Here is the part 7 of Attic Mirror which allowed me to get to 50000 words and to win the JanNoWriMo contest.
Even if the story is not yet finished, I consider that obtaining the JanNoWriMo winner certificate is already a great achievement.

Stats 6215 words more for a total of 50243 words.
All Novels Draft 




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Forward to part 8
Back to part 1 (beginning)



Friday, January 29, 2010

JanNoWriMo challenge : "Attic Mirror" part 6

I had a kind of a writer block but I think I'm over it now.
I went to Dublin on Tuesday and wrote a lot in the bus. Today I wrote 3000 words and I still have a lot of ideas. I'm still a bit worried of the ending of the story but I guess I just have to let it comes by itself no. Just write one more part at a time until the end and that will do.
I think that not thinking about finishing is helping me a lot.

Stats 8961 words more so that's a total of 44023 words.
Less than 6000 words more to write before the end of JanNoFiMo. One of my friends is wondering how come I didn't finish yet. I'm not going to disappoint her. I'll sure have my 50000 words by the end of the month.
All Novels Draft 





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Back to part 5
Forward to part 7
Back to part 1 (beginning)