I've been quite busy recently. And when I am home and have nothing to do after a long day, I go to sleep early because...well...I can.
My two speech contest students won first place in their categories in the local contest and are both able to go to the prefectural contest! The winner of that goes to the national contest. It is quite unheard of that two students from the same school both win 1st place, so people have been thanking me for helping them win. I did help quite a bit, but the reason they won is because they have a good teacher and tried very hard. So I get to keep helping until the prefectural contest, which is Thursday.
I haven't bought my plane ticket for Christmas yet. I am still deciding whether I want to come on the 21st or 22nd. I thought maybe I would regret coming home in the summer or because of that not want to come for Christmas. But I am really looking forward to it as I feel confident that it is where I need to be and it will be money well spent.
Sometimes I think I want nothing more than to move back to Indy and spend time with my family and friends following JET. Maybe I wouldn't mind going to school closer to home if I lived on my own or with my little brother in his new house. Things would definitely fit into my budget if I did it that way. Maybe I woudn't mind living away from home forever if I were married now and could create my own family or be close to my husband's family. But now, my family and friends are all I have. Know what I mean? Or does this experience here start my life of living quite far away forever and I will eventually get used to it? Looking at graduate schools recently has put me in a panic. Things will be very expenisve if I go out of state or if I do not re-contract here for a final year. Most public universities offer little to no financial assistance/scholarships for people getting a masters degree. Ah, these are things I have been thinking about recently.
I might have a date soon. I ran into a Japanese guy on the train about 8 weeks ago. He was acting a little strange, the sort of strangeness that made me think he spoke English. It is really difficult to explain what I am talking about. It's in the way a person looks at you, slight manarisms, etc. Anyhow, I was on my way to Laura's and he eventually spoke after I slighly inquired about his English. Turns out he recently returned from a year in LA at a university outside the city. We exchanged phone emails but then I never heard from after that. On Monday I went shopping at Sea Mall after school. I was in the mall and walked by a Japanese guy then realized I might know him so I quickly turned around. Ha, he did the very same thing (how dramatic!). Then we realized who we were and chatted a bit. He hopes to have dinner or lunch sometime in the near future. I don't know how I feel about it, but anyway, I guess I could have a sort of date (or at least a new friend) in the near future.
I bought the new John Mayer cd off of iTunes and have been enjoying it. It is different from his past work in that I feel he is doing more of what he wants and not worrying about what people think. But it's not a complete 180 from his original stuff. And perhaps his change in sound is just an evolution of his personality, a reflection of this time in his life and growing older. I also bought the new Ray LaMontagne cd recently. If the man were not already married, I would definitely want him to be my lover. I like it, but it's interesting. It is less peppy (not that the first one was all that peppy) and more emotive, chill sounding. So I find myself never in the mood to listen to it. But it is not because it is bad. I actually think it is a wonderful project. It's sort of how I feel about the Damien Rice cd. I don't know what kind of mood I need to be in to listen to it.
Speaking of music, the following is a shameless endorsement of Apple products: Before coming to Japan last year I bought an iPod mini (unknowingly a month before the product was discontinued) and protection plan for it. At the end of this past August, it became clear that the battery was dying; it only held charge for about 20 minutes. Through some inquiring I discovered that my protection plan was good in Japan, not just the US. So I filled out a maintanence request online and the very next day someone came and picked up my iPod from the office and shipped it off appropriately for repair. A week later my iPod was returned from service. Only it wasn't my iPod--it was a brand new iPod mini! So all because I had a protection plan, I got a free iPod since my other one was dying. Talk about service. And it didn't cost me a single yen, not even for pickup and delivery charges. I was very impressed by the whole process. Very few companies validate a warrently or service plan outside of the country it was bought except Apple. Good stuff.
Photos of rice harvesting and pear picking will follow soon.
My two speech contest students won first place in their categories in the local contest and are both able to go to the prefectural contest! The winner of that goes to the national contest. It is quite unheard of that two students from the same school both win 1st place, so people have been thanking me for helping them win. I did help quite a bit, but the reason they won is because they have a good teacher and tried very hard. So I get to keep helping until the prefectural contest, which is Thursday.
I haven't bought my plane ticket for Christmas yet. I am still deciding whether I want to come on the 21st or 22nd. I thought maybe I would regret coming home in the summer or because of that not want to come for Christmas. But I am really looking forward to it as I feel confident that it is where I need to be and it will be money well spent.
Sometimes I think I want nothing more than to move back to Indy and spend time with my family and friends following JET. Maybe I wouldn't mind going to school closer to home if I lived on my own or with my little brother in his new house. Things would definitely fit into my budget if I did it that way. Maybe I woudn't mind living away from home forever if I were married now and could create my own family or be close to my husband's family. But now, my family and friends are all I have. Know what I mean? Or does this experience here start my life of living quite far away forever and I will eventually get used to it? Looking at graduate schools recently has put me in a panic. Things will be very expenisve if I go out of state or if I do not re-contract here for a final year. Most public universities offer little to no financial assistance/scholarships for people getting a masters degree. Ah, these are things I have been thinking about recently.
I might have a date soon. I ran into a Japanese guy on the train about 8 weeks ago. He was acting a little strange, the sort of strangeness that made me think he spoke English. It is really difficult to explain what I am talking about. It's in the way a person looks at you, slight manarisms, etc. Anyhow, I was on my way to Laura's and he eventually spoke after I slighly inquired about his English. Turns out he recently returned from a year in LA at a university outside the city. We exchanged phone emails but then I never heard from after that. On Monday I went shopping at Sea Mall after school. I was in the mall and walked by a Japanese guy then realized I might know him so I quickly turned around. Ha, he did the very same thing (how dramatic!). Then we realized who we were and chatted a bit. He hopes to have dinner or lunch sometime in the near future. I don't know how I feel about it, but anyway, I guess I could have a sort of date (or at least a new friend) in the near future.
I bought the new John Mayer cd off of iTunes and have been enjoying it. It is different from his past work in that I feel he is doing more of what he wants and not worrying about what people think. But it's not a complete 180 from his original stuff. And perhaps his change in sound is just an evolution of his personality, a reflection of this time in his life and growing older. I also bought the new Ray LaMontagne cd recently. If the man were not already married, I would definitely want him to be my lover. I like it, but it's interesting. It is less peppy (not that the first one was all that peppy) and more emotive, chill sounding. So I find myself never in the mood to listen to it. But it is not because it is bad. I actually think it is a wonderful project. It's sort of how I feel about the Damien Rice cd. I don't know what kind of mood I need to be in to listen to it.
Speaking of music, the following is a shameless endorsement of Apple products: Before coming to Japan last year I bought an iPod mini (unknowingly a month before the product was discontinued) and protection plan for it. At the end of this past August, it became clear that the battery was dying; it only held charge for about 20 minutes. Through some inquiring I discovered that my protection plan was good in Japan, not just the US. So I filled out a maintanence request online and the very next day someone came and picked up my iPod from the office and shipped it off appropriately for repair. A week later my iPod was returned from service. Only it wasn't my iPod--it was a brand new iPod mini! So all because I had a protection plan, I got a free iPod since my other one was dying. Talk about service. And it didn't cost me a single yen, not even for pickup and delivery charges. I was very impressed by the whole process. Very few companies validate a warrently or service plan outside of the country it was bought except Apple. Good stuff.
Photos of rice harvesting and pear picking will follow soon.
posted by Ang at 11:14 AM
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