I wonder how many other people at the IUC are writing blogs about the year... because I want to read them all.
The other day, I went to do laundry at a laundromat. This was the first time I have gone to a laundromat since I have been here. I have a washing machine in my apartment. No dryer, but that is normal in Japan, and clothes are usually just hung out to dry. Which I am fine with, for the most part, and I actually like the way my clothes smell when they have been left outside to dry.
But sometimes, that's not the way it works. Sometimes, it rains for days, even though it isn't the rainy season, and even though you leave your clothes outside, they don't dry. So you try and just leave them inside to dry, which leaves them smelling very bad and moldy. which means you have to wash them again.
Usually, it is not tedious to do laundry. But sometimes you just want your clothes dry, and shrunk back to their regular size, and ready to wear three hours after you put them in the washing machine.
Well, I had a day like that a couple of weeks ago. So I packed up basically all of my clothes into my laundry basket and one of my suitcases, which is actually a big backpacker's backpack, and cycled precariously down the mountain in hopes of finding a laundromat. After getting some very unhelpful information from two different unhelpful people, I went to a police box to ask for directions, and was kindly pointed in the right direction of one.
This actually isn't an interesting story... I'm not sure why I'm writing about it...
IN A NUTSHELL, I did laundry, and then put it in a dryer, and it was nice.
I wrote down three goals at the end of the last post, and I am happy to report that, while none of them are actually FINISHED, per se, they are all going well. I have gotten almost halfway through SKIP. Actually, I can't get exactly halfway through, because there are 143 chapters. But I am on chapter 71, and I want to get to at least chapter 72, which I think is a very realistic goal.
Grad school applications are also going well. Lots of the application process I have halfway finished, so I just need to completely finish. Ideally, I would like to finish before leaving for Kumamoto, but we'll see if that will happen.
And then, the 'try extra hard in class' thing, also, has been going pretty well, I think. We had a sort of presentation competition thing at school (although it wasn't a competition. I just don't know how else to call it), and I think a did a pretty good job on that. Even though I talked about a subject that probably no one was interested in. But they SHOULD be because Rococo is amazing. Everyone got a kick out of the Spiegelsaal picture from Linderhof castle. I suppose it is a little over-the-top. Gotta love those Bavarians.
In other news, I can't wait to go to Kumamoto. I have so been looking forward to this. I really wish that plans had worked out and that there were other people from my year abroad time that would also be there. I guess I sort of have an unfair advantage, what with already being in the country, though, so I guess I can't be too critical. It's just been so long since I've seen people from then (that's not true... I saw Pippa a couple times when she was here, and I've seen Yudai a couple times, too, and will again this SUNDAY!), but it's different when we aren't all together. But someday we will be again... right?
We've also decided on having Christmas morning pancake breakfast!! It's gonna be really weird not being at home for Christmas for the first time ever, so to make it as unweird as possible, I'm hoping that being surrounded by friends will help. Or all the Americans will just be bummed out and the Japanese won't get why. But they'll try to understand, and will be empathetic, which is really all one can ask.
And we are doing secret santa because we are all to poor to actually get each person presents.
Other than that... I am going to Costco tomorrow! I hope that it is very very American, and I hope that they have cereal, and multi-vitamins. And then after that is a Yo La Tengo concert in Shinagawa!! Tomorrow is going to be a good day.
I hope everyone is doing well. Stay warm.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Changes in Aspect
So today, I hung out with a couple of friends.
One of them I had seen a couple of months ago, when I was in Kumamoto. She had just moved from Kumamoto to Tokyo to find a job (as many, many Japanese newly graduated people do). Aiko was aikawarazu genki (doin' fine as always), which was good.
The OTHER friend, Yoshiko, was a friend who I met when she came with the Kumamoto Kita-High School to Hellgate high school when I was a sophomore. That means that I haven't seen her in...
...
...
SEVEN YEARS!!
Before we met, I had actually not really thought about how long it had been, but of course it came up in conversation (over some delicious Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki in Shibuya), and it's crazy how much time has passed.
The passing of time...
Speaking of which, it was the first time that I spoke to Yoshiko in Japanese. The first (and second) times that I met her- when she was in Montana for those 10 days, and then when I was in Kumamoto for those 10 days- I didn't speak any Japanese. Of course, we tried to use both English and Japanese, because I didn't want to hog all the learning all for myself, but the conversation just sort of... flowed into the direction of Japanese. It didn't feel weird, but it really showed me how much has changed. In these seven years, my life has gone from having this sort of "yeah, Japan is interesting, enough for me to sign up to host this student" to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough for me to save money to see my friends there," to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough to take at college while a senior in High School," to...well, you get the picture. I mean, I'm really pleased with where I am now, but it was really interesting to see just how much has changed.
Speaking of changing, I think it's funny that, in Japanese culture, as far as I can tell it's a GOOD thing to tell someone that they haven't changed at all, after not having seen them for a long time. Aiko said to Yoshiko "you haven't changed at all! You just put on makeup now!" and Yoshiko was happy about that!
"I'm glad!" she said.
I mean, I know that there are differences in the word "change," and that it can be both negative and positive, but I mean come on! Aiko and Yoshiko hadn't seen each other in TWO YEARS. I would think that it would be bad if the other person HADN'T changed a little, at least. Hadn't done anything in those two years to merit some sort of change in their personality, hopefully for the better.
I can't imagine anything worse than imagining myself having spent the last two years, and have nothing different about me to show for it.
But, I suppose that that's a cultural difference. I am glad they didn't tell me I didn't change. I was SUPER lame in high school.
Now I'm just cultivated... or something.
Other than that... Oh! I bought my ticket for Okinawa! I am going to Okinawa with some friends after New Years. We are only gonna go for a few days, but it's gonna be such a blast. More than anything, I want to learn a lot about the Ryukyu, the native Okinawan people. I realize that my friends may not feel the same way. But that's ok! I LOVE going out on my own on trips. I suppose I am like my parents in that respect. I think it's pretty common for all of us to split up on trips. It's actually one of my favorite things to split up, and then meet up the next day, or later in the day and talk about what we did that day. I love it.
I am also so excited for going to Kumamoto, which I will do a couple of days before Christmas, and will stay there until Okinawa, for the winter vacation. I decided to take the night bus, because an airplane ticket would have been around $400, and the bus was less than half of that! Plus I can sleep on buses no problem... I hope.
Now that I have the tickets, and that I know that there is not much time left until the break, I know that I have to try really hard for the rest of the time.
GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATIONS (gotta finish!)
KANJI IN CONTEXT (let's get AT LEAST halfway, Jamie!)
CLASSES (keep doing your best! But MORE MORE MORE MORE!!)
My new motto: Head down, power through.
...I feel like the path between me and the end of quarter is PAVED in candy bars and mikan oranges. And LOTS of tea.
I hope you are all doing well! Stay warm warm warm!!
Jamie
One of them I had seen a couple of months ago, when I was in Kumamoto. She had just moved from Kumamoto to Tokyo to find a job (as many, many Japanese newly graduated people do). Aiko was aikawarazu genki (doin' fine as always), which was good.
The OTHER friend, Yoshiko, was a friend who I met when she came with the Kumamoto Kita-High School to Hellgate high school when I was a sophomore. That means that I haven't seen her in...
...
...
SEVEN YEARS!!
Before we met, I had actually not really thought about how long it had been, but of course it came up in conversation (over some delicious Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki in Shibuya), and it's crazy how much time has passed.
The passing of time...
Speaking of which, it was the first time that I spoke to Yoshiko in Japanese. The first (and second) times that I met her- when she was in Montana for those 10 days, and then when I was in Kumamoto for those 10 days- I didn't speak any Japanese. Of course, we tried to use both English and Japanese, because I didn't want to hog all the learning all for myself, but the conversation just sort of... flowed into the direction of Japanese. It didn't feel weird, but it really showed me how much has changed. In these seven years, my life has gone from having this sort of "yeah, Japan is interesting, enough for me to sign up to host this student" to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough for me to save money to see my friends there," to "yeah, Japan is interesting enough to take at college while a senior in High School," to...well, you get the picture. I mean, I'm really pleased with where I am now, but it was really interesting to see just how much has changed.
Speaking of changing, I think it's funny that, in Japanese culture, as far as I can tell it's a GOOD thing to tell someone that they haven't changed at all, after not having seen them for a long time. Aiko said to Yoshiko "you haven't changed at all! You just put on makeup now!" and Yoshiko was happy about that!
"I'm glad!" she said.
I mean, I know that there are differences in the word "change," and that it can be both negative and positive, but I mean come on! Aiko and Yoshiko hadn't seen each other in TWO YEARS. I would think that it would be bad if the other person HADN'T changed a little, at least. Hadn't done anything in those two years to merit some sort of change in their personality, hopefully for the better.
I can't imagine anything worse than imagining myself having spent the last two years, and have nothing different about me to show for it.
But, I suppose that that's a cultural difference. I am glad they didn't tell me I didn't change. I was SUPER lame in high school.
Now I'm just cultivated... or something.
Other than that... Oh! I bought my ticket for Okinawa! I am going to Okinawa with some friends after New Years. We are only gonna go for a few days, but it's gonna be such a blast. More than anything, I want to learn a lot about the Ryukyu, the native Okinawan people. I realize that my friends may not feel the same way. But that's ok! I LOVE going out on my own on trips. I suppose I am like my parents in that respect. I think it's pretty common for all of us to split up on trips. It's actually one of my favorite things to split up, and then meet up the next day, or later in the day and talk about what we did that day. I love it.
I am also so excited for going to Kumamoto, which I will do a couple of days before Christmas, and will stay there until Okinawa, for the winter vacation. I decided to take the night bus, because an airplane ticket would have been around $400, and the bus was less than half of that! Plus I can sleep on buses no problem... I hope.
Now that I have the tickets, and that I know that there is not much time left until the break, I know that I have to try really hard for the rest of the time.
GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATIONS (gotta finish!)
KANJI IN CONTEXT (let's get AT LEAST halfway, Jamie!)
CLASSES (keep doing your best! But MORE MORE MORE MORE!!)
My new motto: Head down, power through.
...I feel like the path between me and the end of quarter is PAVED in candy bars and mikan oranges. And LOTS of tea.
I hope you are all doing well! Stay warm warm warm!!
Jamie
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