It's weird, when I first got back to Japan I felt pretty much on schedule. I got home a few hours early thanks to the lady at the service window in Narita. We were both confused by my itinerary which said I would land in Haneda instead of Narita, so she put me on the first plane out to Itami at 4:20pm instead of having me hang around until after six like the original plan. I got home, cleaned up, watched a little tv and went to sleep. Really, no big deal. But last night I didn't have any urge to sleep at all. I ended up staying up till almost 6 am bouncing back and forth between watching streaming videos on line to trying out the new game I got for Chrishmish.
At first I was worried that staying up all night last night would mean that I would have a hard time sleeping tonight, which is important since school is tomorrow. To my surprise, I'm am dead tired. I've been completely burned out since about 5:00pm. The only reason I'm hanging around to make this post is because I want to get my schedule adjusted as quickly as possible. Luckily I'm in tip top shape, aside from the whole being exhausted thing. It's a real testament to my fortitude seeing as how 90% of the plane was sneezing, coughing, and showing every possible sign of the man bear pig flu.
About half way through my flight I started to get a little sore throat action going on, but that passed as soon as I got out into fresh air. it really boggles my mind how hunds of people can get in a big metal tube and breath the same recycled air for 14+ hours. It's one of the most disgusting feelings I have experienced. It just feels like you're covered in a layer of other people's muggy breath. But I guess that makes the first shower when you get home all the more relaxing.
I caught up with Cho from my class and she says that tomorrow will just be home room. We'll meet up at 10 and finish as soon as the teachers tell us whatever it is they need to tell us. There should be no real lessons or studying until Friday.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Mobile Entry : Nikuman
I had nikuman (θγΎγ) for dinner tonight. It's hella convenient because you just put a little water on it and microwave it. These meat buns are both tasty and cheap, great for students like myself.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Day 280 (Covington, Roanoke, O'Hare, International) Traveling
My sister, Marie, and her bf, Cory, volunteered to drive us out this morning in the frigid cold. I'm not sure about VA but when I landed in O'Hare it was supposed to be 2 degree fahrenheit. I forgot just how cold winter can become. Despite the recent attempted terrorism act on that one plane by that one banker's son, things went pretty normally at Roanoke Airport.
I checked my bag, a TSA guy came and inspected it and put it on the rollers heading for the plane. After that I just had to walk up the steps and go through the typical routine of seperating everything I have into different plastic bins and throwing it through the detector. The people in Roanoke airport were a helluva lot more polite than the TSA people in Dulles.
The only hitch I ran into was not receiving the tickets to Itami. I only received the first ticket for the first hop. When I asked the lady at the United counter in O'hare she said that I was at the right gate and my plane was still on schedule, but she couldn't give me the ticket for Narita until later. Don't ask me why that is, I can't even guess. She had a stack of tickets in front of her and she didn't so much as look at them.
Blogging across fourteen time zones gets confusing because I kind of lost a day, so I'll have to split up my travel experience over two days to get a proper spread. Nothing too exciting to report though.
I checked my bag, a TSA guy came and inspected it and put it on the rollers heading for the plane. After that I just had to walk up the steps and go through the typical routine of seperating everything I have into different plastic bins and throwing it through the detector. The people in Roanoke airport were a helluva lot more polite than the TSA people in Dulles.
The only hitch I ran into was not receiving the tickets to Itami. I only received the first ticket for the first hop. When I asked the lady at the United counter in O'hare she said that I was at the right gate and my plane was still on schedule, but she couldn't give me the ticket for Narita until later. Don't ask me why that is, I can't even guess. She had a stack of tickets in front of her and she didn't so much as look at them.
Blogging across fourteen time zones gets confusing because I kind of lost a day, so I'll have to split up my travel experience over two days to get a proper spread. Nothing too exciting to report though.
Day 279 (Covington, VA) : T minus one day
I'm writing the entry for January 2nd in Concourse 1, Gate C10 of O'Hare on a dying battery. Unlike Dulles this airport has not upgraded the additional power outlets to support mobile PC users such as myself. The other reason I'm doing this update "offline" is because I was hit with my first spam bomb after trying to use the free service offered by Google at Dulles airport.
So as not to cut into today's actual entry I will be sticking to what we did on Saturday, which was a whole lot of nothing. I hung out at the house shooting the breeze with my family until we rode out to catch my plane at 3:00am the next day. What was interesting for me was finding out that both Pizza Hut and Burger King have been running out of supplies for food. On this particular day BK was out of the new funnel cake snack food everyone wanted to try and some component of their swiss cheese melt.
I feel like I was able to get alot of the things I got for Christmas packed, but everything I had pulled out of storage before that ended up left in piles in my room. I can't complain too much since the luggage is already a huge pain to carry. When I left I had the advantage of dragging it through early morning traffic. When I land on Monday at 7:00pm it will be packed on every train until I get back to my apartment. I'll update more then.
I haven't really looked through the pictures yet either some I'm just going to post some of the snow shots and look through the rest after I get back to my own apartment.
So as not to cut into today's actual entry I will be sticking to what we did on Saturday, which was a whole lot of nothing. I hung out at the house shooting the breeze with my family until we rode out to catch my plane at 3:00am the next day. What was interesting for me was finding out that both Pizza Hut and Burger King have been running out of supplies for food. On this particular day BK was out of the new funnel cake snack food everyone wanted to try and some component of their swiss cheese melt.
I feel like I was able to get alot of the things I got for Christmas packed, but everything I had pulled out of storage before that ended up left in piles in my room. I can't complain too much since the luggage is already a huge pain to carry. When I left I had the advantage of dragging it through early morning traffic. When I land on Monday at 7:00pm it will be packed on every train until I get back to my apartment. I'll update more then.
I haven't really looked through the pictures yet either some I'm just going to post some of the snow shots and look through the rest after I get back to my own apartment.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Day 278 (Covington, VA) : SSDY - The New Year edition
These eighteen or so days that I've been working out in the States have been quite productive and good for my finances. I've managed to pass my car over to Justin, canceled the car insurance that I've been paying to keep it garaged for the last two years and change, started an epic battle with Aetna over the insurance policy they've been charging me for since I lived in Cha'ville, and found an unexpected windfall in the form of a life insurance check from my father that I must have over looked since 2002.
I even lucked out finding my expired debit card in time to have it expedited here since the bank had shipped my new card out to the FPO address I had a year ago. That problem is very similar to Aetna's, "We didn't know we couldn't provide you with insurance so we kept charging you for nothing," stance. It boggles my mind that in this day and age companies can say, "But, but, but we didn't know you moved to another country. It's not our responsibility, blah, blah, blah." I think any company that is charging almost $100 a month should have the common courtesy to send out reminders and bi-annual notifications of subscription. Progressive is smart enough to do that. You get reminders that you're six month payment cycle is coming to an end and if you don't verify payments, they stop charging you. Simple, right? Aetna is just a shiesty insurance company that serves as a perfect example of what is wrong with the health system in America. I hope the government just tears it all to the ground and put a completely new system in it's place.
I was finally able to talk to Yuko's sister for the first time since we had lunch way, way back in the day. I think my Japanese still sucks so I can't express myself well but it was good to try. I have only done one page of the twelve or so pages of homework that my teachers assigned for the winter vacation. I thought it was bogus that the teachers handed out so much work knowing half the students would be returning to their home countries for the holidays. I won't really start trying to do it until I get back to Japan on the 3rd, probably the 4th by the time I wake up.
I was planning to attach some of the pictures from my trip to this first entry but it's late here and my brother is still trying to find the pictures between the three cameras that him and his wifey used the last few days.
I even lucked out finding my expired debit card in time to have it expedited here since the bank had shipped my new card out to the FPO address I had a year ago. That problem is very similar to Aetna's, "We didn't know we couldn't provide you with insurance so we kept charging you for nothing," stance. It boggles my mind that in this day and age companies can say, "But, but, but we didn't know you moved to another country. It's not our responsibility, blah, blah, blah." I think any company that is charging almost $100 a month should have the common courtesy to send out reminders and bi-annual notifications of subscription. Progressive is smart enough to do that. You get reminders that you're six month payment cycle is coming to an end and if you don't verify payments, they stop charging you. Simple, right? Aetna is just a shiesty insurance company that serves as a perfect example of what is wrong with the health system in America. I hope the government just tears it all to the ground and put a completely new system in it's place.
I was finally able to talk to Yuko's sister for the first time since we had lunch way, way back in the day. I think my Japanese still sucks so I can't express myself well but it was good to try. I have only done one page of the twelve or so pages of homework that my teachers assigned for the winter vacation. I thought it was bogus that the teachers handed out so much work knowing half the students would be returning to their home countries for the holidays. I won't really start trying to do it until I get back to Japan on the 3rd, probably the 4th by the time I wake up.
I was planning to attach some of the pictures from my trip to this first entry but it's late here and my brother is still trying to find the pictures between the three cameras that him and his wifey used the last few days.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Day 166 (Osaka) : Middle of the pack
It's been forever and two days since my last post but I'm taking some time to update today's post to see if I can't get back to my more productive habits. We're winding down the end of the summer semester with six or seven tests a week and grades flying every which way. I'm missing a few tests but right now my test average is 67.7 an if that seems low, you should consider that I'm in the upper middle range of my class. The last test we got back I only managed a 57, the highest grade was 89, and the lowest was 34. So yep, I'm right in the middle somewhere between the half Japanese guy and the lazy girl that doesn't study or pay attention in class.
Next week we have a final exam and two weeks later we have a placement exam. I don't even understand what the difference is between the two. If we bomb the final exam they will hold us back to "relearn" the material we're weak on, so it's like having two chances to fail and only one chance to pass. Add on to all that poop'lah the fact that my class is spending an our or two each day preparing the drama and you get the perfect formula for mediocrity. I'd do the usual rant about studying this or practicing that, but I'm basically going to do as little as possible to pass until I get a teacher who changes my mind.
A shining example of why I'm so PO'ed with the current teacher is that she finally gave me the term interview after making me wait for her for five days and she just used it against me. I pointed out that she was only give us half the time that other teachers in the week were giving for kanji tests and that with only 7 minutes I wasn't able to finish. In addition the people from Asian countries that have been writing kanji since they were two have an unfair advantage because they write lightning fast and even if I study harder and know more of the answers they come out with the better grade. To show that she took my concerns into consideration she gave us five minutes to finish the test today.
It especially got under my skin because I was confused about the day and was expecting one of the good teachers to come in. I studied all night, woke up at five to put in a few hours before going to school, and crammed out the last thirty minutes or so in the class room. I knew every single answer but I still missed three because I can't read Japanese, comprehend, and write that quickly. Five minutes for 30 questions is great if you're testing the proficiency of an upper level class but at my level it's just singling me out as the one of a handful of students who don't have a back ground in kanji prior to coming to school.
The main reason I started posting is because I realized I can add a "health" tag to my blog to track any illnesses or problems that come along and see how much of the year I'm at 100%. Last night I was really dizzy and I woke up with blood in my ear, so I wanted to make sure that it's not a re-occuring thing since I'm ignoring it for now. It was just a little blood, how bad could it be?
Next week we have a final exam and two weeks later we have a placement exam. I don't even understand what the difference is between the two. If we bomb the final exam they will hold us back to "relearn" the material we're weak on, so it's like having two chances to fail and only one chance to pass. Add on to all that poop'lah the fact that my class is spending an our or two each day preparing the drama and you get the perfect formula for mediocrity. I'd do the usual rant about studying this or practicing that, but I'm basically going to do as little as possible to pass until I get a teacher who changes my mind.
A shining example of why I'm so PO'ed with the current teacher is that she finally gave me the term interview after making me wait for her for five days and she just used it against me. I pointed out that she was only give us half the time that other teachers in the week were giving for kanji tests and that with only 7 minutes I wasn't able to finish. In addition the people from Asian countries that have been writing kanji since they were two have an unfair advantage because they write lightning fast and even if I study harder and know more of the answers they come out with the better grade. To show that she took my concerns into consideration she gave us five minutes to finish the test today.
It especially got under my skin because I was confused about the day and was expecting one of the good teachers to come in. I studied all night, woke up at five to put in a few hours before going to school, and crammed out the last thirty minutes or so in the class room. I knew every single answer but I still missed three because I can't read Japanese, comprehend, and write that quickly. Five minutes for 30 questions is great if you're testing the proficiency of an upper level class but at my level it's just singling me out as the one of a handful of students who don't have a back ground in kanji prior to coming to school.
The main reason I started posting is because I realized I can add a "health" tag to my blog to track any illnesses or problems that come along and see how much of the year I'm at 100%. Last night I was really dizzy and I woke up with blood in my ear, so I wanted to make sure that it's not a re-occuring thing since I'm ignoring it for now. It was just a little blood, how bad could it be?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Day 150(Osaka) : Quick turn around
They actually managed to get all the mock exams graded in one day. I guess that's why the whole office was full of teachers when I went back Monday afternoon to pay tuition. I pulled out a 215/400 which sounds pretty bad but you only need a 60% to pass and at just shy of 54%, that's pretty close. All I have to do is squeeze out an extra 6% in knowledge or educated guesses in December and I'll be straight. We had to play with the rabbit drawings again today and sing the kindergarten song that goes with it. I have to admit that is a pretty big slap in the face but being able to get so close to passing level 2 means something must be working out.
It's not all good news though. The test on Chapter 13 this morning was pretty much garbage. If I got over 70% I would be surprised. The worst part is the last few questions weren't short essay style like previous tests but simple one question, one sentence answer format. Even with that working in my favor I found that I forgot tons of kanji over the summer break and I was struggling to remember words to make anything like a coherent answer. I'm also running on fumes, funds wise. At least until my next GI Bill payment. Paying tuition and rent back to back kills. At least when I come back to Japan in January I can score a legit part time job and get the cash flowing again.
It's not all good news though. The test on Chapter 13 this morning was pretty much garbage. If I got over 70% I would be surprised. The worst part is the last few questions weren't short essay style like previous tests but simple one question, one sentence answer format. Even with that working in my favor I found that I forgot tons of kanji over the summer break and I was struggling to remember words to make anything like a coherent answer. I'm also running on fumes, funds wise. At least until my next GI Bill payment. Paying tuition and rent back to back kills. At least when I come back to Japan in January I can score a legit part time job and get the cash flowing again.
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