I know it has been awhile since my last blog post. Sorry!
June was a super busy bee month for me because it was the last full month of classes before exams and....that`s right summer break!!
Summer holidays in Japan start on July 20th and go until around the end of August.
So that means that I get to have a nice month long holiday, right!?!?!
WRONG!
I`m stuck at the office all day errday. we are talking 8 hours 5 days a week. 40 hours of nothing.
Yippie!(sarcasm)
So far I have been trying to pass the time by thinking about my future. I am about 90% positive this will be my last year teaching English in Japan and so I want to start thinking/preparing myself for the next step. A lot of this entails of staring into space and hoping that someone/something will whack me in the head resulting in some grand epiphany. Other times I think about how I am totally going to move back to the states and open up the most BA hotdog stand ever (which of course would then franchise across the nation and make me millions all while upping the fat index of the american populous). And the great irony of the thing is that I am a mostly strict vegetarian who hates the meat industry with a passion. So I am currently trying to think up a name for this grand hotdog scheme, ideally one that reflects on my apparent hypocritical stance on meat production/consumption.
Re: my hotdog stand
Think hotdog on a stick, but more AWESOME!
Think hotdog on a stick, but more AWESOME!
My employees will be degraded by wearing ridiculous outfits all for the sake of attracting customers.
Ok, so hotdog stands aside, (staring into space praying for an epiphany sadly is a very true reality) I`m still not really 100% sure what I want to do next year. I`ve started prepping for the GRE (where I have come to realize it probably wouldn`t have been a bad idea to have taken that remedial math class senior year at uni.) but, I`m not sure if I am ready to go back to school and studying and eventually launching into my career (which unfortunately for you will likely not entail a hotdog stand). So, for the moment I`m also still keeping my options and eyes open (staring off blankly into space). And you never know, one year can bring about a lot of changes.
Ok, so all of that aside, I don`t actually have much to type about today (thus the title filler) so I`ll just prattle off a few things and call it a day.
Last week I said goodbye to my best friend while here in Japan, Ciaran. He`s headed back home to Ireland with plans to either head back to Uni to discover the cure to cancer (but really) or maybe come back to Japan. It was really sad for me to see him go because he was one of my closest (foreigner) neighbors and we always enjoyed goofing off together on the weekends. So lately it`s been weird when I go to the market or department (ish) store in his town and I can`t stop by his and have a cup of tea and a laugh.
Changes are weird.
A lot of the other ALTs in our prefecture are also getting ready to leave, and our first group of new ALTs are expected to arrive in about 2 weeks. It`s pretty exciting business aside from saying goodbye to friends.
Earlier this month (July 13th) I had gone to South Korea for one of the long weekends ( a more indepth post will likely be posted later) and it was really nice to be able to `escape` and have a bit of a relaxing vacation. I say a bit of relaxing because I think it is about nearly impossible to have a truly relaxing vacation in any of these large metropolitan areas in Asia as a tourist. They are bursting with people and activity, have some of the most intricate subway/rail lines I`ve seen yet, and of course, in general I can`t speak the language. But more about all of that later.
Ok, so all of that aside, I don`t actually have much to type about today (thus the title filler) so I`ll just prattle off a few things and call it a day.
Last week I said goodbye to my best friend while here in Japan, Ciaran. He`s headed back home to Ireland with plans to either head back to Uni to discover the cure to cancer (but really) or maybe come back to Japan. It was really sad for me to see him go because he was one of my closest (foreigner) neighbors and we always enjoyed goofing off together on the weekends. So lately it`s been weird when I go to the market or department (ish) store in his town and I can`t stop by his and have a cup of tea and a laugh.
Changes are weird.
A lot of the other ALTs in our prefecture are also getting ready to leave, and our first group of new ALTs are expected to arrive in about 2 weeks. It`s pretty exciting business aside from saying goodbye to friends.
Earlier this month (July 13th) I had gone to South Korea for one of the long weekends ( a more indepth post will likely be posted later) and it was really nice to be able to `escape` and have a bit of a relaxing vacation. I say a bit of relaxing because I think it is about nearly impossible to have a truly relaxing vacation in any of these large metropolitan areas in Asia as a tourist. They are bursting with people and activity, have some of the most intricate subway/rail lines I`ve seen yet, and of course, in general I can`t speak the language. But more about all of that later.
It`s that time again!
Right now I am trying to make up my mind if I want to run the Tokyo Marathon again. Registration for the lottery begins August 1. I really enjoyed running it last year (until about the 25km point, then it was all misery and determination) but it took so much training in the freezing dark cold. So, we`ll see.
http://www.tokyo42195.org/2013_en/
(in case you want to register too! Maybe I`ll see you there!)
The point being, at the end of August I`m going home for about a week and it will be nice to be able to relax. I can`t wait until I can sit on the beach with a bowl of fresh fruits and hopefully a margarita and just be (And hopefully leave thoughts about the future and my hotdog stand behind for a few days).
http://www.tokyo42195.org/2013_en/
(in case you want to register too! Maybe I`ll see you there!)
The point being, at the end of August I`m going home for about a week and it will be nice to be able to relax. I can`t wait until I can sit on the beach with a bowl of fresh fruits and hopefully a margarita and just be (And hopefully leave thoughts about the future and my hotdog stand behind for a few days).
And with that I am going back to studying permutations, combinations, memorizing special triangles, and all that other jazz that comes with studying for the GRE (quant section in particular).
Keri
Keri
