September 29, 2008

You lie!!!!

Airplane blog 2 was waaaaayyyy better than Airplane blog 1.

That is all.

Rain again

It`s been raining a lot here again. There`s another typhoon coming, but who knows whether this one will hit here or not yet. Strangely, I`m not really worried this time, probably because everyone`s not talking about it all of the time the way they were the typhoon before. All I can really tell is that it`s moving a lot faster (what that means strength-wise is beyond me).

Anyway, the sneakers I`ve been wearing to work (I`m slowly, but surely switching up what I wear to work and gradually making it a little more casual), squeak on the ground when they`re wet. It embarrasses me a lot, but I noticed for the first time today that a lot of other people have squeaky shoes in the rain too. Yay!

/pointless blog

Edit- I asked. No one is very worried about the typhoon because I guess this one isn`t very strong. An "ordinary" typhoon they said. It looks like some schools are going to be closed tomorrow, though.

STOP BUYING PILAF

Lately, in the grocery store, I've been spending a lot of time in the frozen foods section. This isn't just because I'm lazy and I haven't cooked many times, but also because food (vegetables especially) go bad very quickly here.

The first time saw a bags of pilaf there, I was tempted to buy one.

A few days later I was back in the frozen food section. I was pretty sure that I brought frozen vegetables that time, so I decided to buy a pilaf bag eat along with the vegetables. So, I bought one. I carried my groceries home, opened the freezer, and found that...

I already had pilaf there.

I didn't buy vegetables before at all, I bought PILAF that time, too.

The two bags of pilaf were actually the exact same kind, too.

So now when I see pilaf in a frozen food section, I have to laugh.

Today, I started working my way through the first bag.

I really need to stop buying pilaf.

September 27, 2008

I almost forgot to give this a title.

Hello dear readers,

thank you for your patience these past few months as I struggled to blog in an uninspired office environment.

I actually haven't been really reading my blogs after posting them, but I assume they weren't very good.

Hopefully my blogs will be returning now to their former... ummm... glory (which was apparently enough to get you to start reading this page to begin with... ;) )

This is a very special blog.

As it is...

THE FIRST BLOG WRITTEN AND POSTED FROM MY APARTMENT HERE IN JAPAN!

Which means I have no excuse not to think out my blogs just a taaad more. (There's a first time for everything).

This is where it gets a little complicated for me because now I have to figure out just what should go on my Japan Life blog and what should go here. My whole life is Japan life right now, isn't it. But at the same time it's ME who's in Japan. The same me who also blogged for many, many years in the US.

Now I remember my original way of thinking.

I don't mean this is in a bad way because I find it to be completely understandable, but I realize that there are people out there who would find my life to be a lot more interesting now that I am in Japan. Although they might have respected or even liked me back in the US, they wouldn't be particularly interested in reading my blogs that are about random things and thoughts.

Are you following? The Japan Life blog is supposed to be for those people so they don't have to comb their way through everything else.

What that means for those of you who do care to read this blog?

It means you have two blog pages to keep track of.

I knew you wouldn't mind. *smile*

Today I was able to talk to my mother via webcam and then later I had a brief conversation with Sam as well. It was really nice to see faces (when they weren't blurred by technical difficulties) and hear voices (when they weren't choppy.) I really enjoyed that.

I wondered though, whether the technical difficulties were due to my internet speed. It certainly seems fast enough to me. Of course, for almost two months now, I've been using slow city computers, so maybe my standards have fallen -a little-.

That just reminded me of something that I thought was funny...

So when my internet came, a guy from a nearby computer lab came over to help me set it up. So, we got it working (it ended up being ME who found the solution to a big problem we had because the expert couldn't figure out the English computer) and he went to this Japanese site where they analyze your broadband connection and say how quick it is.

But do they say just a number? Noooo....

They give the speed and then compare it was something else.

Like:

Your internet connection is running at (insert number). As quickly as a plane.

Isn't that weird?

My internet was inconsistent for some reason and it kept changing. I got other results such as bunny and car. It seems to be same to me, though.

So the computer lab guy left after criticizing how I haven't cleaned my kitchen sink lately and didn't take my excuse of having been sick. (This really did happen...)

My sink IS clean now.

....annnd I just realized I hadn't mentioned being sick here before.

On Tuesday, I guess it was the 16th, my ear started hurting but I was kind of ignoring it in favor of everyday life. As the week progressed, it started hurting more and more and I went to see a doctor about it on Saturday. He put me on medication. I went to see a Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, found out that it wasn't an ear infection like I thought but instead a viral infection in my nose and throat that affected my ear. I got more medication, but this time more on the herbal side.

During this week, my ear stopped hurting, then felt like it was underwater, then felt itchy and just plain weird, and then finally it stopped bothering me altogether.

Anyway, it's all better now and I feel great. I was actually enjoying my first day with my ear feeling normal again when my internet finally arrived here. It was a really great combination of things and it put me in a really great mood.

Switching back to the topic of blogging, (suddenly)

One problem with blogging in the office is that I very frequently felt like I was losing my train of thought. Plus, I usually feel very lethargic in that office because although I am technically working, there's not a terrible lot I can do but pass the time. Having a job like that sounds nice, but I get so restless.

On the other hand, the rest of the job- going to schools, interacting with the students and everything is really great. I am quite convinced that I may have the best job in the world.

Anyway, I feel good writing this blog. Not saying it's good, but it felt like blogging used to be almost two months ago.

Yay! The internet dark ages are OVER!

September 23, 2008

Hi!

Hello neglected blog!

Hopefully people who read this blog do not feel equally neglected.

I hope they feel MORE neglected! Bwahahahahaha!

....

.......

That`s not true.

I can`t write anymore. I just updated my Japan life blog every time I look at something I just wrote, I find a careless typo. I know that I`ve always had those because I can be careless, but now they`re happening a tad too much.

...naturally, I didn`t think of proofread, though.

*sigh* Julia Julia Julia.... *tsk*

If I had home internet, I probably would`ve been at least double the number of posts this month. I am still always thinking of blog posts and, yes, I have thought of some excellent titles of the blog, but I step into the office and they are GONE.

Anyway, as I told just about everybody I`ve talked to since finding out, I might have internet as soon as this weekend.

(three paragraphs of irrelevant blabbing cut)

What the crap am I talking about? (referring to cut paragraphs)

I guess I`m feeling self conscious because I found out about more people reading this blog. I always feel kind of ridiculous asking readers to comment. It`s not that I mind not knowing who reads my blog, but I pause a little when something reminds me of that. Does that make sense?

No, it probably doesn`t.

Anyway, I should be heading off to one of my schools soon. It`s middle school today so who knows what kind of students I am doing to be teaching today. Sometimes, they can be fun, but other times they are sooo painfully shy.

I felt so well rested when I woke up about 3 hours ago. What happened?

Edit- It seems coherent thought isn`t my friend today. A guy in my office was just talking and for a second I thought his voice resembled that of Macy Gray (I don`t even know how to spell her name.)

September 08, 2008

:D

I really like my new template for my Japan life blog. The first one was nice but I tend to look more simplistic looking templates. In addition, there`s the fact that it broke. The day that I finally put up the new template and posted the real first blog (Saturday), I was spending pretty much the whole day in a computer lab type place where a nice man and his son work. I can hang out there as much as I want as long as I politely drink their iced coffee (which I don`t particularly care for) and hold my tongue when they start to try to treat me like a computer dunce (those who know me well probably know just how much restraint that takes for me.) But it`s a good arrangement because they`re nice and it doesn`t cost anything.
Anyway, I was there from around 1 or 2 pm until a little before 8 (although I did leave for a while to grab something for dinner). It was tiring, but nice to take care of things on my own computer. My antivirus program was threatening to expire because I wasn`t updating it or running any checks (I -couldn`t because my laptop has been wtihout internet.) So, I managed to save my antivirus and take care of a few "housekeeping" things on my computer that had been neglected.

I started my second week of teaching today by going to an Elementary school that I hadn`t been to yet. Tomorrow and the next day, I`ll be back at the Middle school I was at last week and then on Friday I return one of my first elementary schools. This one is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, so I hope I can find it easily this time.

According to what the guy at the computer place told me last week, I could possibly be getting my internet in my apartment this week. That, of course, would be awesome. If it happens anyway.

....I wish there was really something different about my two blogs other than the fact that I update one weekly and one randomly. Seriously, that was -not- how I intended it to be. I wanted this blog to be the scattered, random thought one and the other to be more structured. Again, maybe once things get more settled and I can blog on my own terms from my own laptop I`ll be able to do these things how I want to.

I jumped around topics at least 5 (million) times. Oh well. ;)

September 04, 2008

Sigh

Blogging has been very inconvenient these days. I think of things to write about, but when I finally get to internet at work, I just really don`t feel like writing a blog.

It`ll be better when internet is in my apartment.

MUCH better.

So teaching started this week. So far so good. I like actually DOING something for my job and, given that it IS a job, it`s rather fun.

Some classes contain students who don`t seem to want to do anything but stare blankly at me, while most of them have really fun students who interact (although sometimes a tad much.) I don`t have to pay for lunches because I get them for free from the school. Pretty awesome, right?

Not that I am short on money these days at all.

Believe me, my mind is boggled trying to wrap my brain around what I can afford.I`m not saying I`m rich or anything, but it certainly feels like it having a nice phone and a good car and calculating and recalculating over and over to find that- yes, I -can- afford this.

My job is ridiculously great.

I have been driving to all of my schools so far, which makes me worry about gas costs, but I couldn`t possibly be driving as much as I did in the California, so it can`t be that bad.

Still, though, I definitely plan to try to get myself to be able to ride a bicycle again. Somehow I just don`t trust my ability to balance. I`m sure I have one because I`m 5`6 and I wear size 6 1/2 shoes and I haven`t randomly toppled over yet (...for that reason, anyway.)

Today (tomorrow for you folks back home) is my brother`s birthday, so I made my first international call with my cell phone and got a group of Japanese middle school students to sing happy birthday to his answering machine with me. It was great fun.

Today is also Danny`s birthday, but international calls are expensive. So... if you read this Danny- nothing (too) personal!

Although he probably won`t read this anyway.

I guess I`ll call this a blog. :D