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| * It's been awhile since I last did random thinking while being stuck in traffic on the freeway. The thinking process has been taken places during my train ride...which kinda feel different from the thinking I do while driving
*I love learning more bits and pieces of my mom's past at the dining table as we talk to our dad
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| Today has been a week since I came back to the states, thought it would be the right time to give this blog a quick update. Haha...let's hope I will come back next week to write a "WEEK TWO" entry!
Coming back home really reminds me of how comfortable it is to be home. I miss driving (despite the skyrocketing gas prices), miss taking BART and MUNI (despite the fact that they definitely aren't as clean as the subway's and JR's in Japan)..I wonder if I'll be taking AC transit sometimes next week [think I will actually make an effort to do that, haha]. I cant believe that I actually miss the precor when I walked into 24 hour fitness despite the fact that the gym isnt nearly as clean as the ones in Japan. It really is nice to be back seeing all my family and friends. The very first day when I walked back to my room, seeing all the stuffed animals, pictures, decorations I have, my first thought was...."This is home"...It cannot be compared with my empty apartment in Japan. After a week spent with family and friends dim suming @ ranch, eating and shopping @ Berkeley, shopping @ Costco and Trader Joe, going to happy hour @ Chevy's, chilling @ Kell's, clubbing on 80's night, watching Sex And the City..etc, I realize how much I miss this life, which I consider to be my real life as compared to my temporary life in Japan. Seeing all my friends who showed up @ Chevy's yesterday, again the thought of "This is home" came to my mind! For a moment, I actually thought that it might have been a wrong decision for me to extend for a second year~ But I do know that this is the right decision though.
Japan does offer me the opportunity to be involved in stuff that I dont get to do/ or dont have the time to do in the states. I really enjoy playing soccer, touch rugby, and especially enjoy learning Eisa (Okinawan-taiko-dance). Even if the opportunity is there, working a full time job in the states probably wont allow me to do all three at the same time. Taking every opportunity to go travel and studying for the GRE and CSET is definitely gonna be my goal for next year, staying in Japan will definitely give me the time to studying. The only thing I gotta do is to stay focus!! (ganbare Maggie ~~ haha just giving myself a little self-encouragement), Lastly, another year of teaching experience will no doubt give me more ground on teaching and maybe an extra point toward qualification for grad school.
With that said, guess now I should just make sure I get everything I planned on doing done by next week. This is sad that I am already feeling the time pressure. Yet, the garage is a still a mess from my attempt to organize it, still havent done my laundry from a year ago (no worries, they are clean stuffs...but I didnt have time to completely dry and fold them so had to throw them n a basket right before leaving for Japan 10 months ago), then got quite a few errands to run. Of my 7 remaining days, 4 days will be spent in the city...only 3 days left to take care of everything...yikes~
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| Wow...xanga changed a lot since my last entry...It actually took me awhile to find "add weblog" in order to write a new entry. I was gonna go through what I've done since my last entry, but if you got my facebook, you should already be able to see my pics & so forth......too lazy to go over things one by one....not that there are a lot going on..but I feel like for each and every little thing, I would have to explain it and add pics in order for them to make sense...and I am just too lazy to do that...haha!! Anyways...Japan is continuing being great! Having a good life w/ i guess great life/work/exercise balance (Now, i just gotta work on stop binging on all those delicious snacks that they got in Japan sighssss) And I am still missing BOBA...despite the fact I've been eating a lot of other snacks..haha!! Now Planning on a trip to Kyushuu in March-April, a small trip to Shikoku in May, then hopefully be able to go back to the states for 2 wks in June for my dad's bday as well as my friend's wedding! I will officially be out of vacation days @ that time tho, but still will do whatever it takes (unpaid vacation? pre-using my vacation from next year!!!??)....in order to go back!!  And AFTER that, I am OFFICIALLY DONE w/ Japan~ haha, I can't even focus on studying Japanese no more...(being skipping my Japanese book, did the test, and just send in my asnwer that way)...this is partially because I've been told that I will not be allowed to take the translation course cuz my board of education dont have the budget for it. Even if I pay for the course on my own, they dont want me to be out of school for a week during the conference w/ the course!! Part of my motivaiton to get done with my current advanced Japanese book is so that I could take the translation course next year....but since that's not gonna be possible, there really isnt a good reason for me to do well on it...sighs. But anyways...by "done with Japan", I mean after I come back to Japan for my 2nd year, I will start traveling OUTSIDE of Japan....cuz...i m done w/ Japan...done w/ all 4 Islands (except for Okinawa which I will DEFINITELY GO sometimes next year)....yes, cant wait to travel!!! Lastly...just thinking....if i need to pay $20 deductible everytime i go to the doc here like it is in the states, I would've been broke by now! For some reason, guess I've been going to the docs a lot more than when I was in the states....first for my knee after I fell (I probably went for at least 10 times to change my dressing there)...then once for hurting my softbone after snowboarding, and once today for sudden muscle/bone pain....man...i didnt even do anythign to hurt myself......and it turned out all my temperature, xray, blood pressure are normal....could it be the weather that's giving me all these pain....or excess inhalation of CO2 & chemicals from my heater....???? anyways, so then I am supposed to go back to the doc's again tomorrow for follow up~~ lets hope the pain will go away and that i'll be able to sleep tonite!! Man...and I still got soccer practice on Weds and still wish to be able to go snowboarding for the LAST time this season next Monday...so I got 7 days for the pain to gooooooooooooo away far far away from me!! Wish me luck | | |
| I just had the best talk with my dad~. Growing up in a pretty traditional Chinese
household, (or maybe just in my household), we never really talk openly about
each others’ thoughts. love lives,
college major choices, career choices, whatsoever. Maybe with the distance that is separating me
& my family now, (and also with the progress of age) this allow me and my
dad to finally open up our thoughts.
Picking up my headphone and signing on Skype was a scary
process today. I wanted to talk to my
sis or my bro first, unfortunately, they didn’t pick up. So there I am, calling my dad to let him know
that I have decided to stay for another year.
I know it wasn’t a surprise to him, during our last phone conversations,
he had repeatedly reminded me that I shouldn’t re-contract for whatever reason;
and my responses to his comments were always some not-so-smooth changes of
topics. Nonetheless, after explaining my
reasons for my choice, he seems to understand.
He says he can’t really support or oppose our decisions, not mine, not
my sis, not my brothers, but he just wants us to be able to make the right
decision for our own lives, careers, & future. And my last line to my dad was, “Dad, I know
you would like me to come back. I have
thought about this carefully and think that staying here a 2nd year
will benefit me. I promise that there
will not be a 3rd, 4th, or 5th.” Yup, so 2 yrs and I will be back with a focus on my career
(not a JOB), but yes, a career~ Today,
I will be writing down my goals for my rest of stay in Japan! I guess this way it will keep me focus on the
purpose of my stay! And by writing this
blog, I guess this serves as a promise to my dad, myself, and to everyone
reading~ (::nod::nod::) | | |
| I've been wanting to write about this past weekend (mainly because I thought I did a good job coming up with a cool title for this entry....but you prolly think its cheesy..lol)...anyways, can't believe it is almost Thursday already...wow..this week certainly passed by fast. So this weekend, I had lots of fun meeting up with Kiwi's and picking apples. On Friday, a navy ship (my city - Kure - is known for its building of the Yamato battleship during the WWII period, till this day, this city is still known for its navy / Maritime Defense force / and its shipbuilding industry)...so a navy ship from New Zealand came to Kure on Friday. On Saturday, I tagged along with a couple of ALTs from New Zealand to tour this HUGE battleship. It was quite amazing, it reminded me of the "game" battleship...or scenes that I've seen in animation....but in real life size:
 The ship got 7 levels...amazing huh!? and it held 170 crew members! After the tour, I again, tagged along with the Kiwis to Hiroshima~ I've actually havent really had a chance to do any tourisy stuff in Hiroshima yet..so here we are at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park...the building behind us is the site where the A-bomb was dropped: 
On Sunday, my host family and I went apple picking~~ hehe...it was fun, but expensive, though it is free to eat the apple there (just like fruit picking in America)...but w/ apples, you can only eat so much at a time...on avg, the apples are like $1 a piece...it was still fun though...we especially enjoyed our GRILLED apple sandwiching TOASTED marshmallow...this is quite a GREAT combination. With the LACK of graham crackers in Japan...we tried sandwiching marshmallows with different items....Ritz crackers were OK...but Apple slices turned out quite nice...i would say that it is actually comparable with graham crackers too....be sure to give it a try next time you go BBQ~  
Hahah...today, while I was in the shower after running~...i was thinking...as a reward for myself after running the Hiroshima Peace Marathon...I will treat myself to an Onsen (hot spring) or maybe a super spa....on TOP of that..if there is massage available, I will pamper myself with that....along with a BIG BOWL of shaved ice at the end....AHHHH....I certainly do know how to motivate myself.....hehe...Onsen onsen onsen on......and on & on..lol For more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/magli1120 | | |
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