Wow, Stupid Me

I’ve had the opportunity to reconnect with an old acquaintance who was away for a while. Last year, I was hesitant to hang around her because I couldn’t understand her motives. I never really talked to her much because I thought she was only concerned with stereotypical bleached-hair sorority girl thoughts.

She was only visiting Eugene for a year, but she came back for a week to tie up some loose ends she left behind. Fortunately for me, we were able to run into each other. Despite being hesitant to talk to her last year, I was excited to see her again. She told me why she had returned after we had talked for a while, which led to one subject, then another, then another… pretty soon, I realized I had a LOT in common with this girl.

I seriously regret not having talked to her last year. I desperately needed someone I could confide in and listen to, but felt like I had no one.

Shameless self promotion

Hey guys,

Just wanted to encourage you to A)visit www.technoratti.com and set up an account, B) Register your blog if your blogservice hasn’t done it already, C)Link your blog back to my blog if you read it frequently enough.

Cheers!

In conjunction with my last post

Every time I get in a studying rut, I read  what this guy has to say. He learned Japanese without taking a course and without being immersed. I used to only read him when I didn’t feel like studying Japanese, but I found out what he has to say is pretty relevant when studying economics, philosophy or any other field of study. It all boils down to “stop being lazy and/or frustrated” but he deals with all the nuances that go along with it.

Rationale: A tribute

I started and posted this earlier, swearing I’d come back to it. Now, I’m at work going over old vocabulary words, but I can’t continue until I finish this. It’s unexplainable, but I have to do this.

In addition to the millions of reasons I have for learning Japanese, I’ve come up with a few more. These are the ones that mean the most to me:

Reading that last letter my aunt sent to me a week before she died. She actually sent me two, one written in English and one in Japanese. From what I can gather, they’re the same content wise. Both encourage me to study and visit her family in addition to reminiscing about all the times she babysat me.

Sitting with my two of my exchange student friends  last year at a restaurant drinking bubble tea and talking about everything and nothing for four hours.

Meeting up with my tennis partner and correcting her paper, her paying me in coffee, Japanese help, or trips to the dining halls.

Marketing myself. People who are bilingual are highly likely to get jobs.

Countless promises to myself, my family, my friends.

Going off the last one, all of my friends from Waseda last year made a conscious effort to speak English every day they studied abroad and communicate using English. If I ever visit, I want to know what their experience was like.

3rd languages are much easier to learn than 2nd languages.

I need to visit a certain Starbucks, order a coffee and be nonchalant about it.

Nekodori-san told me to.

Long story short, I have a million and one reasons to learn. This needs to be updated every time I need prodding to study or inspiration to learn.

Newsletter

I thumbed through the latest preview of our newsletter, and I got to say, it looks amazing.

While reading through it, I learned some things about some of my friends. It’s amazing what people will reveal to a piece of paper to the rest of the world readily but won’t tell you readily without digging a little. What is it about open-ended questions or topics, especially those written, that drag out the confessional in each of us?

Anyway, I’m going to complete my list of people and moments that inspired me to keep studying Japanese. I swear.

It’s been a long day

Funny how some themes/trends in life are seemingly circular. Ideas and beliefs I gave up now have tremendous influence in my daily activities. Optimism gets downtrodden by premature cynicism, only to invite a resurgence in idealism. Maybe I just never before understood why I believed what I did, and by living on the other side, I have an understood reason behind each purpose I undertake. But living on the other side has proven useful as I have separated some chaff from my wheat.

Human Sexuality (ANTH173)

Our human sexuality professor just informed us there will be 69 questions on our final exam.

Yes, 69 questions. Yes, for that reason.

AllLookTheSame

No, I’m not talking about the website.

I feel like almost all of the presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican, are almost all the same. Each quibbles over minor issues, and their overall stances are ambiguous at best, save perhaps the issue of foreign policy.  The economy is the issue I think is the issue where most candidates’ stance is ambiguous at best.

The only two people I’m comfortable supporting are Ron Paul and Barack Obama, and even so, I feel Obama is too similar to the other candidates in that his stances are ambiguous. Obama seems to have the demeanor of someone who will make good decisions in office, but this is only a guess at best.

Hip Hop

I’ve never really been a fan of hip hop… that is, until the middle of last term. Since then, I’ve listened to a few songs I really like and have even downloaded some of them.

This term, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and take a hip-hop class with 5 other co-workers. Today was the first real day of class. I’m not a dancer by any means and I usually don’t like doing it to much, but today, I had an absolute blast. I felt like I was able to keep up with the instructor all the way until the very end.

All in all, it was a good work out, and now I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to look like a complete idiot when  ISA holds its formal dance

Clinton over Obama

Clinton defeated Obama in the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton is the LAST person I’d vote for given any of the candidates running for president. That’s right. I’d take Mike Huckabee over Clinton.  Fortunately, Obama still looks like he’s going strong into Michigan. It’s a good thing too because it’s looking less and less like Paul’s going to get the Republican nomination. He has my support in the primary, but realistically, it looks like Obama is my only choice candidate who can take the White House.