Dreaming Away

Yesterday I spent most of the office day dreaming away about my future and clock watching. I did search the entire Internet for a new MySpace profile layout plus inquired about graduate programs at every university in the entire United States. Today my supervisor seems to be equally unbusy. He has two sports equipment magazines and a book on the corner of his desk that he keeps eyeing. I will be happy once school begins. But next weekⅠonly have 3 office days before heading to Tokyo for PA training on Thursday.

I've come up with a new yearlong and post-JET plan. It will most likely change, as all plans do. But it is fun to dream. And in a year it will be fun to look back on this plan and see how much it changed. So here I go:

I predict that this will be my last year on JET. At this point in time the pros do not outweigh the cons. I like Japan and hope to always have contact with this country in some way, but I would largely be staying for the money, and that is not a good enough reason in my opinion. So this year I need to be spending less of my money on clothes I do not need and going to clubs that I do not want to be going to. Call me boring or whatever, but I don't care. If you want to see more of me you will have to come to Kikugawa more often. Consider this an open invitation for anyone reading. This year I would rather save my money on traveling and my graduate school fund, as both are more important than alcohol and clothes.

This fall I will be applying to graduate school at University of Washington, Seattle University, and Indiana University at Bloomington (this is a back-up). I desire to get my Masters degree in Literacy, Language, and Culture so that I can teach ESL (K-12) in American public schools. I have about 4 months to make final decisions about graduate school and submit applications. Moving back to America doesn’t frighten me as much as it has in the past. I am young and very very single. And if I am going to make a move and not get stuck in Indiana forever, I need to do it soon after JET. Graduate school will be a great way for me to experience a totally new area of the country.

I need to study for and pass JLPT 3. This is a good goal and way to occupy my time and mind and keep me from spending money on crap.

I will lose 10lbs.

Within this year my Japan travles will include: Himeji, Nagasaki, Nikko, Nara, Climbing Fuji, Sapporo, Beppu, and Kyoto in the fall and again in the spring with my parents. My international travels will include: America for Christmas, Thailand in the Spring (either March or Golden Week), and China before I head to America for good. If Singapore can fit in there somewhere, great. If not, I won’t be terribly disappointed. China and Thailand are more important to me.

Following my China travels I will head to Indy, get myself together, say my hellos and then my farewells. Assuming I am accepted to one of the Seattle schools (which don't start until mid-end of September), I will road trip it to Seattle with a willing someone. Seattle seems to be the perfect combination of my interests: mountains, ocean, access to outdoor activity, mild weather, diversity, Asians/Japanese people (not to mention great Japanese food!), and coffee.

Then, sadly, I will be a poor graduate student. But after all of this traveling to and from America over the past two years, I will hopefully have accumulated enough frequent flyer miles on United that I can take my dream vacation and backpack around Europe with free air travel.

Let’s see how well this plan works out!