A "really not much of anything" blog entry

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.