Allie's Ramblings

Hello, its been a while!

I have been SO busy with school, which I'm a little sad about because it's my last semester. While all of my friends are still in the same place, I'd like to hang out with them more. I've been making new friends though! I decided to participate in my school's International Fiesta this year, which is a dance competition between all of the international student associations on campus. I'm on the Japanese team and if we win we will have a 3-year winning streak. Pressure's on and the practices are really tough... 3 hours a day every day! I've been extremely sore considering I haven't done any kind of exercise in a long time, haha. So my days generally go like this: Work at 9, class until 3:30 or 5, dance practice, come home, ice my knees and shower, do homework while contemplating how miserable my body feels, go to bed. Fiesta is on February 29, less than two weeks from now, but already I'm losing sleep while getting all nervous about it. I'm sure tons of videos of our performance will be on YouTube, so I'll link them all. :)

In more Japanese news, Molly and I have an interview with the English language school Aeon. We will be going to Chicago to be interviewed in a group first and then individually if they like us. I hope to be placed somewhere near my host family in Tokyo. The interview is from noon until 8pm one day! I don't know about the individual interview. I'm kind of nervous :(  I hope that Molly and I have a chance to be placed in the same office or very close to each other.

And one final funny story: My host mom sent me a package earlier this month and told me that it was a Dentsu calendar that she got at the beginning of the year. It took a while getting to me because she sent it to my parent's house and my mom sent it to me here in Buffalo, but when I finally got it I was excited to look at the calendar. Inside the package was a lovely note from my host mom, some candy, calendar stickers, and these two really weird-looking ceramic cats. Obviously not a calendar. Confused, I e-mailed my host mom and sent her a picture of everything in the package. I was SHOCKED when she wrote back that she had never seen those cats before in her life!! After examining the box, I noticed that the brown tape she used was on one side, but there was clear plastic tape on the other. We figured that customs must have been examining packages and accidentally switched my calendar with these weird cats. So now someone has my calendar, and the cats are sitting on my kitchen table. I will definitely be sending my host mom one for her birthday, haha.

So it's looking more like I may go to Japan for a year after I graduate to teach English in Japan. Molly and I were half-joking about it one day, but I was shocked to hear that she was actually looking into it if I went as well. She wants to teach ESL in the future, so it's a great thing for her to do. I've thought about teaching as well, so it seemed to be a really good idea to both of us. We'll be researching it more come this weekend to see if it's something we really want to commit too. I'm excited, but scared at the same time... Japan for a year. A lot can happen State-side in that time. What will happen with me and Andrew? My grandfather hasn't been doing so well lately; what if something happens to him? Will I be able to find a job after I get back? Lots of things to think about. After looking at some companies and what they offer, I could probably find a better-paying graphic design job with better benefits and I can live at my parents house... but Japan is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I know that if i don't do this after I graduate then I never will.

School has been pretty hectic lately. I came back from Thanksgiving break and realized that there were only two weeks of class left. Next Monday I have an oral exam in Japanese class and Wednesday I have a digital art project and research paper due. My teacher for the New Asian Cinema class (that I have the research paper due in) said that she would give us an extension into the following week if we need it. I might e-mail her and ask for one so that I can do a better job on the project as well.

But Thanksgiving break was good. I really needed a break from school this year. I made a bazillion and a half pumpkin cookies the day before Thanksgiving because I'm stupid and put toomuch shortening in them, so I had to double the whole recipe, haha. My neighbors were happy though, because I gave them some as well as took them to the family Thanksgiving at my aunt's house. My entire family seemed to be cranky as hell on Thanksgiving which was kind of a letdown. Lauren and I went into the city to do some karaoke on Black Friday. Midtown was PACKED and I thought we were gonna die, lol. We had an... off-singing day, to say the least, but it was fun anyway. Saturday I went to Mitsuwa with Yuriko, her housemates Yoshiko and her husband, their two adult children, and the one child's wife and daughter. Lots of Japanese to go around... I was pretty sleepy after having to focus on speaking the whole day. It was a good time, though. We ate ramen and taiyaki and I bought this 3-piece poster of all 1,945 kanji you generally need to read a newspaper. Currently, two sheets of it are by my bed and one is by my computer. I've been looking up the English kanji meaning as well as trying to take in the onyomi and kunyomi of them a little at a time, but it's a bit overwhelming to see them all at once, haha. I hope it helps though, because I suck at kanji like you would not believe.

Right now I'm hanging out in my room between classes. I kind of want to skip my night class, but it's the last class before the final so I guess I should go. Siiigh. We've been doing student presentations and they're really quite boring... except mine was AWESOME, trust me.

I just found a bug bite on my arm that is quite itchy XO;;