Blogs from Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, North America - page 2

i'm at home in Maryland! which is absolutely wonderful. my mom and step-dad's house is gorgeous and i love it. it is very nice to be back on the east coast... i love wyoming- but maryland is my other world and there are things about it i love coming back to. im sitting in my bed in my old room. much quieter than i was in highschool. only 15 days until i leave for scotland. but i wish there were less! i imagine what it will be like so often that i'd like to just get there and see for myself. about the 'baggage' (which is a funny word to me)- i have 2 bags and i am trying with all my might to pack them with only the things i really will wear. i packed ... read more

This entry is extremely belated and I’ve wanted to post it several times in the past few weeks. But looking at photos that Andrew posted on facebook was all the inspiration I needed to get the words out that I wanted to say.. and really, those words are simply “I’m so lucky”. I have so much to be grateful for this year, and not enough ways to say thank you enough. At this time last year I wasn’t even sure I’d be going to Japan. I couldn’t get the student aid I needed from my university, and I couldn’t find someone who would co-sign on my loan so I could get the money I needed. My first few weeks of December could easily be described as exasperating, stressful, and extremely emotional: I was working three jobs ... read more

A random memory, but it came to me as I was packing my suitcase this morning and looked up to see a caricature of J-rocker I drew about two years ago. For our Japanese classes in university in the first through third year we were required to do skits at the end of each semester to illustrate our grasp of the Japanese language. And for me I always ended up doing the most random and insane things: first semester I was helping my friend who was hungover after drinking too much beer for lunch, second semester Sora and I did a skit on her stealing my J-rock pants, and fourth semester I played the role of a homeless person trying to sell a book with only one poem in it for roughly 100,000 yen. But third ... read more

A random way to start off this entry, but it will break the ice from being so long at bay from posting. I made this entry over at MySpace and LiveJournal this morning, and thought that it could very well work in the Travel Blog as well (since it deals with language, language barriers, accents, etc.). So this is a small lesson in life with regards to words in Southern American English that differ from standard American English. In other words: see how the South bastardizes American English even further. To me the Southern dialect is much more laid back, sloppy, and abrasive than standard American English. It allows for more mistakes with words and often a lack of care as well. I suppose this might be why Southerners have a reputation partly for being hillbillies ... read more

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 though. They're only searching for jobs within a set payscale which is great, as it gives me a method to plan exactly how much income I'll earn in a month. The shift I work is ... read more