Thank you everyone (those who has posted comments here or those who have talked to offline) for your encouraging words! The last few days have been difficult as that the eminant separation from my dearest people has been really hitting home. But the kind, encouraging words like yours help me to keep my positive attitude. I will strive to hold on to that positive attitude to face the awaiting challenges without reservation!
On the news side, my shopping list is slowly being crossed off as I purchase the items I need. This past Friday, I went to Fry's and got 2 webcams, 2 headsets (one for me and one for my family - yay for the world's most money saving invention Skype!), as well as a 1 GB Flash drive (i named it KAMINARI which means lightening in Japanese. get it? Flash drive, my name Hikaru? hahaha) and a wireless network card, handy for making my laptop more portable. I just hope that it will all work for me in Japan because hardware and network issues are NOT my speciality....
Recently, my beloved Canon PowerShot SD200 no longer desires to function for me so rather than get it repaired, I went ahead and upgraded by buying a refurbished Casio EX-S600 super slim card camera - in orange! At 6 mg resolution rather than 3, and even smaller design and a color that i can't mix up with anyone else's camera, i think it will serve my purposes well. You'll be the judge, as you will see the images on this site! It will be delivered tomorrow so i'll do some test pictures then.
Some other things i plan to do to prepare include emailing everyone i know to tell them about this blog, visiting my old high school and seeing my teacher's reactions when the find out what i'm doing, buying a warm winter coat, and having farewell dinners with my friends and family. I know a lot of people, so it's hard to give time to every equally.
Well that's all that's on my mind for now i guess. oh and my mother bought a new Dell desktop with 2 gb of RAM ^_^ it's better than my boyfriends Mac hahaha. anyways i'm off to UPS to go pick it up since i missed the shipment earlier.
So till next time........
(20 days and counting)
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006
boyfriend, family, temple housing, & 28 days and counting
Now we are past the one month mark. Part of me asks "Am I REALLY going to Japan and not coming back for a year???" After all the hard work, is this a reality? I'm excited to go, but it's just so hard to believe that I am actually going...
As my time in America is becoming shorter, i think of meeting or spending time with my friends and family for the last time in a long while. My mother and me took a spontanious vacation to Montery, having a girls time sipping cocktails in the hotel lounge, walking on the beach, building a mermaid with seaweed hair, and going on a shopping spree at the Gilroy outlets. It sort of feels like my birthday, with my mother buying me tons of clothes and not saying "Choose one or the other, but you can't have both."
She is spending so much on me, I wonder if it is too much. I guess I am used to the attitude "If you want it, you have to pay for it." I usually pay for any new clothes I want, my bills like my car insurance and cell phone, or my contacts. But she is buying me a ton of clothes and even paid for my contacts. She even sold her old catering equipment and put the money into my fund for Japan O.O My mother's generiosity and support of my expensive ambitious is amazing. I am very thankful and glad for her.
I also have begun feel the pangs of lovesickness u.u My boyfriend took a trip to New York for the weekend while i went with my mother. I am always leaving for trips for a few days and leaving him behind... I am caught up in my event while he is left sit and think of how soon i will come back. But didn't understand how he felt until now. The moment i come home from my trip i want to go to his house and see him - but he's not there.
Is this the pain of long distance love that i face while in Japan?
*SIGH*...
(>:-<) But I am strong! I can take it! がんばります！
On another note, my International Programs office called me this week to offer me alternate housing in Japan as a sort of scholarship. They wanted to know if i wanted to live in a temple rent-free for my year abroad.
A temple O.O
I would live in a one-room, furnished apartment in a 4 story complex on the grounds of a temple. I would have to cook for myself in a shared kitchen on the 4th floor and the bathroom was shared. I also would have to sweep some of the temple grounds and dust and vaccum a room of the temple.
...would i be Kagome from Inuyasha??
But I also heard that this was really independant living without much interaction from the students or the temple people. I really want to have daily interaction and have to communicate with other Japanese. It is really nessecary for me to improve. Also, I'm hoping for a nice Japanese mother who will cook me delicious Japanese food ^_^ And if you know me and how long it takes me to get around to cleaning my own bathroom (like a week after my mom says "Clean your bathroom!!!" hahah.....) let alone someone else's cleaning...... So i turned the offer down.
It would be nice to know what my housing situation will be (i don't know yet...) but i don't mind.
Well, back to cleaning my room and putting away all my new clothes ^_^ Till, next time....
28 days and counting..........
As my time in America is becoming shorter, i think of meeting or spending time with my friends and family for the last time in a long while. My mother and me took a spontanious vacation to Montery, having a girls time sipping cocktails in the hotel lounge, walking on the beach, building a mermaid with seaweed hair, and going on a shopping spree at the Gilroy outlets. It sort of feels like my birthday, with my mother buying me tons of clothes and not saying "Choose one or the other, but you can't have both."
She is spending so much on me, I wonder if it is too much. I guess I am used to the attitude "If you want it, you have to pay for it." I usually pay for any new clothes I want, my bills like my car insurance and cell phone, or my contacts. But she is buying me a ton of clothes and even paid for my contacts. She even sold her old catering equipment and put the money into my fund for Japan O.O My mother's generiosity and support of my expensive ambitious is amazing. I am very thankful and glad for her.
I also have begun feel the pangs of lovesickness u.u My boyfriend took a trip to New York for the weekend while i went with my mother. I am always leaving for trips for a few days and leaving him behind... I am caught up in my event while he is left sit and think of how soon i will come back. But didn't understand how he felt until now. The moment i come home from my trip i want to go to his house and see him - but he's not there.
Is this the pain of long distance love that i face while in Japan?
*SIGH*...
(>:-<) But I am strong! I can take it! がんばります！
On another note, my International Programs office called me this week to offer me alternate housing in Japan as a sort of scholarship. They wanted to know if i wanted to live in a temple rent-free for my year abroad.
A temple O.O
I would live in a one-room, furnished apartment in a 4 story complex on the grounds of a temple. I would have to cook for myself in a shared kitchen on the 4th floor and the bathroom was shared. I also would have to sweep some of the temple grounds and dust and vaccum a room of the temple.
...would i be Kagome from Inuyasha??
But I also heard that this was really independant living without much interaction from the students or the temple people. I really want to have daily interaction and have to communicate with other Japanese. It is really nessecary for me to improve. Also, I'm hoping for a nice Japanese mother who will cook me delicious Japanese food ^_^ And if you know me and how long it takes me to get around to cleaning my own bathroom (like a week after my mom says "Clean your bathroom!!!" hahah.....) let alone someone else's cleaning...... So i turned the offer down.
It would be nice to know what my housing situation will be (i don't know yet...) but i don't mind.
Well, back to cleaning my room and putting away all my new clothes ^_^ Till, next time....
28 days and counting..........
Friday, August 04, 2006
5 weeks and counting....
...and I think that i have really begun to get into the "mover's mindset".
This is the increasing thoughts such as "Oh i should get rid of some of the stuff i have so that i don't have to store it" or "Oh i'm not going to be able to take this with me, i'm going to have to buy a new one there" or "Oh i might not be able to buy this there, i should stock up now or remember to as a relative to send me more later."
Just this morning as i was arising from the depths of sleepy dreamland to the static, broken chorus of music being blasted from my alarm clock, I found myself thinking, "Oh hey i'm going to have to buy a new clock when i get to Japan, i wonder if it will be able to pick up good radio stations in Japan..."
Yesterday, while drying my hair as I was getting out of the shower, i thought, "I wonder if i should take my hairdryer with me...? Oh no wait, when i took it last year it really didn't work well, it was so weak because of the voltage difference."
I think travelling and especially long term travels begin not when you pack that suitcase and hop on that plane, but when your mindset has changed.
My body may be sitting here at work typing this blog (don't tell them i'm not working ^_^) but my mind is sipping a milk tea and eating a curry pan, walking the streets of Asakusa.
5 weeks.... 5 weeks.......
This is the increasing thoughts such as "Oh i should get rid of some of the stuff i have so that i don't have to store it" or "Oh i'm not going to be able to take this with me, i'm going to have to buy a new one there" or "Oh i might not be able to buy this there, i should stock up now or remember to as a relative to send me more later."
Just this morning as i was arising from the depths of sleepy dreamland to the static, broken chorus of music being blasted from my alarm clock, I found myself thinking, "Oh hey i'm going to have to buy a new clock when i get to Japan, i wonder if it will be able to pick up good radio stations in Japan..."
Yesterday, while drying my hair as I was getting out of the shower, i thought, "I wonder if i should take my hairdryer with me...? Oh no wait, when i took it last year it really didn't work well, it was so weak because of the voltage difference."
I think travelling and especially long term travels begin not when you pack that suitcase and hop on that plane, but when your mindset has changed.
My body may be sitting here at work typing this blog (don't tell them i'm not working ^_^) but my mind is sipping a milk tea and eating a curry pan, walking the streets of Asakusa.
5 weeks.... 5 weeks.......
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