I apologize for the amount of updates in this past week. I have a feeling they will slow quite significantly (well.. to at least once a week, haha) as I finally begin a full-time job and try to regulate my schedule to fit this. I'm not entirely certain what will happen from August until the end of December with regards to my employment: for the immediate future I'm working at the temp agency doing.. something. Probably training for a receptionist position at another firm for when a job becomes available. I know my boss is going to take care of me [View Full Entry]

---

---

Gah, Aniki, you got me thinking :P Allow me to borrow your words for a bit? Remember all those times when you were a kid, and you would wonder and plan what you’d do as an adult? All those dreams about being a doctor or an astronaut, about being the first person to visit Jupiter or trying to dig a hole to China with your mates, saying that you’d eat nothing but chocolate cake and candy all day long? Well.. why aren’t we doing those things? What happened to those dreams and ambitions? Where is out creativity and imagination? I feel [View Full Entry]

---

---

The truth of the matter is that I can never move back to North Carolina. It's something I didn't want to realize; part of me had always hoped that I could return to the world I was comfortable and complacent within prior to leaving for Japan, with familiar walls and scenery that used to excite. I thought that maybe I needed my dog to feel at home, or friends close by, my old university right down the road from me. But I realized after being in my father's house for less than an hour that those things couldn't be returned: I [View Full Entry]

---

---

I say “tadaima”. You say “what did you just call me?” Here I am. Doing all that I can. Maybe someone will understand. And that one will hold my hand. Humor me. Back to work. That's a clip from a blog entry of a former Kansai Gaidai exchange student; the rest for those who are interested can be read here, though I highly recommend any of you reading this to take a look. I can't say that I entirely understand his point of view since each of our experiences was [View Full Entry]

---

---

Let's see how far I actually get on this entry before my supervisor returns, haha. Kind of at work for the moment, but I've already accomplished everything there was for me to do today.. and I've still got two and a half hours left. Seriously, I don't think I'm quite cutout for the corporate scene yet, especially not a desk job that is essentially clerical work. I like interacting with people and talking way too much I'm finding out, and for some bizarre reason I actually miss doing retail jobs and restaurant work. But I'm catching snatches of moments where I [View Full Entry]

---

---

"Do what is going to make you happy for the next six months" were the wise words of my senior number one husband. It's nothing long, beautiful and poetic but I never really expect that from Jenny. She's always blunt with me, and tells me straight up what she thinks and how she feels. It's been a long time since the two of us have been able to talk. I remember a lot of days at Gaidai where I'd fall asleep on the tatami mat beside her futon, laying upside down on the couch while she ranted about something ignorant that [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am absolutely exhausted right this moment but with good reason at least; hopefully this entry will make some coherent sense and I apologize if it doesn't. But today has been wonderful in every sense of the word. I had my second Kansai Gaidai reunion with my friends Quill and Aurora. Quill flew in this week to visit her for a few days, and they asked me sometime back if I'd like to go sightseeing around Washington D.C. with them. Of course the natural answer was "yes"! I love them both so much, and it really felt good to feel like [View Full Entry]

---

---

I’ve been doing some reflecting. This time on the day I returned from Japan. Today marks exactly one month since I left my home there in Osaka. The memories that I have in photos, in dreams, in conversations with people I met there are still very close to my heart, and I think about them a lot. Perhaps today’s thoughts were stirred by talking with Nozomi, and posting back and forth the way we used to say “kawaii!” “kawaikunai!” at one another before lapsing into peels of laughter. Perhaps it they were brought up by talking to Felix about how people [View Full Entry]

---

---

I got a job? I got a job! Well, sort of. I signed on with a temporary hiring agency today, that promises they'll be able to find me a job very shortly. The sorts of work they hire out for are fairly basic, mostly clerical, data entry, receptionist sorts of positions. They did promise me a minimum wage as well as possible bonuses from themselves for stellar performance.. They also said that depending on the number of hours I work then I'll be elligible for extra things, like free health insurance and other benefits until I leave the country. And a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tomorrow will be an extremely difficult day. As much as I love revisiting the town I grew up in, it always causes me to become a bit nostalgic over my Grandmother and Grandfather that are since deceased. Really, it’s been quite many years since either of them have been in my life.. My Grandfather passed away when I was only eight, and my Grandmother shortly before I turned fourteen. But even still, their involvement in my life has influenced a lot of who I am now. For many years I always thought about them and missed them, but never really applied [View Full Entry]

---

---