How I Will Miss the Spoiled JET Lifestyle

Back from China less than a week, I will be leaving tomorrow night to vaction in Korea for the weekend with my mom (who comes in this afternoon!!!!). Ah, yes, all the travel can become a bit wearisome, but you know (shifting my monocle up, and sipping my martini), I much prefer to eat Asian fare in its source country, mwahahahaha.
Serioulsy, I'm gonna have some adjusting to do when I get back and am stuck in the swamps of Tallahassee, and consider a "big trip" to be "gator watching in the bayou", but might as well enjoy it while I can.
Will get pics of China up when I get back.

I Got in to American University!!

So now I technically have a choice: Florida State (in Tallahassee) or American (in D.C.). Clearly one would be a lot cooler of a place to live (however, let's not forget that Tallahassee does have manatees) but it looks like American can't offer much funding, whereas if I go to FSU I'd be set financially. Decisions, decisions.
Still am waiting to hear back from the other schools, although even if I do get into Columbia I can't afford it. But there's still BU and U of Hawaii...

Heeding the Call of the Pandas

Taking off for China later this afternoon!! We fly into Beijing and out of Shanghai, and have about 4 days in each place. Look for pictures when I get back!


"It's time, April."

Americana

By Don DeLillo

I'm a big fan of DeLillo's. I loved Mao II and White Noise, which I read in that order. However, although Americana started out well, it dragged on and on and I had to skim the last 20 pages in order to finish. There is no doubt that the writing is strong (gems like, "The women were his wife and sister, Flora and Veejean, and they appeared to be in their mid-sixties, beautiful, smiling and silent, a pair of lace curtains fixed in sunlight", continued to delight), but strong writing with no plot can only keep the reader satisfied so long.
Aside from the prose, I was initially intrigued by the strong resemblance between DeLillo's protagonist, David Bell, and Patrick Bateman, Bret Easton Ellis' protagonist in American Psycho. As Americana came out a decade before American Psycho, it is pretty clear that Ellis borrowed incredibly heavily from this book; I would go so far as to say Ellis ripped DeLillo off. Bateman is just a more psychotic version of Bell, and the book's stories are also very similar: young, beautiful yuppie tries to understand himself by indulging himself and becomes more deranged in the process, and eventually starts to bore the reader because of his unoriginality.
However, another strong point of the book is the "hip" dialogue between the "artists", which in a way reminded me of some of the Plan II banter that occurred late at night after too much drinking: Smart kids who thought they were much smarter would delve into discourses, which were really just a series of nonsequiters that no one was willing to question. However, in both cases, although fun and amusing at first, if they go on too long (as they inevitably do) they become grating.

Changing Face of the Green M&M

At first M&M's had signed Nicole Richie to be the face of the New and Improved Green M&M.



Then, looking for a more full-bodied spokesperson they tapped Pam Anderson.



However, after hearing that I got my green belt, they decided to go with something a little more hard-bodied.



NB: Although I'm sure it's painfully obvious, this wonderfully rendered portrait is a self-portrait, i.e., it's supposed to be me.

Killing Time at Work

Since I no longer have GREs to study for or massive amounts of grad school applications to research, write and rewrite 10 times, I have found myself in a peculiar situation: I have copious quantities of free time but no huge, pressing, time-sensitive projects to work on. And it's not as fun as one might think. I'm starting to realize that I am a very "goal-oriented" person and without some discernable goal to be working towards I can get a very unimpressive amount done. But right now I am letting myself wallow in the inanities of Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson's life while doodling in katakana in the margins of Americana and the New Yorker and listening to Madonna's Hung-up on my new iPod("time ticks by...so slowly") over and over again at work; and I am rationalizing it by telling myself that I will soon enough get bored of this life and move on to bigger and better things. But in the meantime, by brain deserves the rest...
So today while cruising Wikipedia, an easy way to kill an hour of four, I read Philip K. Dick's life story (crazy, drugged-out bugger) and added some books of his I haven't read to my reading list: The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and VALIS.
Catching up on Jon's blog I got to thinking about my food neuroses and how they've gotten better.
Drumroll please...I'm about to delve deeper into the realm of Blogging and confess a heretofore untold secret (though I suspect this is one my close friends have probably already figured out). I used to hoard food, and in particular "special food." By "special food" I mean food that is either: expensive, fattening or in limited supply (or a combination of the three). For example, if given a box of Godiva chocolates as a present often times I would save them so long they would go bad. And I think this is because "special food" poses a dilemma of sorts for me--oftentimes I realize it is too much for me to consume, or I am afraid to consume it all because it is fattening, but yet I am unwilling to share it with anyone else. So rather than say, eat a chocolate or two myself, and give the rest away I will let the box sit there, unopened and collecting dust, and if someone does happen to stumble upon it and ask if she can have some I would very likely lie about having some special occasion I was saving it for. But in reality I would leave it to rot.
Anyways, a good deal of this was happening in Japan because I would get sent food form the States and it took on a very "special" quality because it couldn't be found in Japan. I received biscotti, graham crackers, goldfish, Girl Scout cookies, macaroni and cheese..., and I desperately wanted to eat this food but also couldn't deal with it being gone, or not being able to finish it in time. I would agonize over the tortellini...I could make it tonight, but then I wouldn't have any left and what if there comes a night when I HAVE to have tortellini but I ate it all?! Or the Girl Scout cookies...they looked so good but I couldn't imagine eating them all before they went stale, and I didn't really like the idea of sharing them with people because they were mine, a present if you will.
However, I am pleased to say that I have finally realized food is replaceable and so much better if enjoyed in a timely fashion and with friends (I thank Sarah-Chan, who is always so unstinting with her goodies, for helping me to come to this point. I also thank my mother, who keeps the oatmeal, macaroni and turkey jerky coming in such steady supplies that I don't have to worry about if I'm ever going to see them again). So yeah, I ate some (okay, most) of the biscotti and then shared some with teachers (they all loved it SLK), and I finally let myself use up the Velveeta and salsa to make people queso. And I take a package of oatmeal for breakfast everyday and when I run out I'll find something else to eat.
This is not to say that if you come over and ask to have some of the Crispix I am ostensibly saving to make PuppyChow that I will let you have some, but I probably will, and if you're lucky, I'll even share the PuppyChow that I will then be forced to make with you.

My new camera--The Panasonic Lumix FZ5

Super excited to finally not only have a camera that works, but a real camera that I can control myself (theoretically...)
For those of you who don't know, I got my Canon Elf slightly damp at aqua karaoke and it hasn't been the same since. Not a bad way to go for a camera though, I guess.

In other news I went to karate for the first time in 3 weeks (I had been on hiatus due to interviews and adult English classes) and found out I have a karate test next Tuesday. Super rusty, but I'll gambarimasu, and if I'm lucky, I'll get my green belt.

Aside from that I've been spending a lot of time with my computer at work. I would say we're closer than we have ever been before. In fact, my computer just told me he really likes it when I press the 'V' key followed by the 'A'...VAVAVA...voom. Computers are so weird. But in case you're wondering, the reason I've been keeping myself so busy doing a whole lot of nuthin is it's the end of the school year, so I don't really have m/any classes.
Ah, the life of an ALT. Actually, I've been working on a screen play, which will basically parody my life as an ALT. I wonder if it will be funny to non-JETs.

My Birthday Dinner--Thank you Hiro!!

 
 
 
 

1. Salad
2. Spring roll
3. Fried rice
4. Fried banana with ice cream

Not pictured, delicious cake from Wen 

Masashi and Me Plus Flowers

 
 
  

A day of amazing gifts

The little older gentleman who sits next to me at Koga 3rd (my favorite school) gave me the sweetest gift today. We always greet each other in the morning and exchange a couple of pleasantries, and generally just smile at each other throughout the day, but really that's about it. But then today he gave me a whole bag of beautiful goodies for Girls' Day (Hina Matsuri): tea, sakura mochi, and sweets. All were beautifully wrapped.
Then, on my way out of school to head home for lunch I ran into my favorite student, who graduated yesterday. Two weeks ago he gave me a CD, and I made him a mixCD in return. Then today he totally floored me by giving me an exquisite bouquet of flowers. It is seriously the nicest arrangement I have ever been given. If he wasn't my student I would have kissed him. Instead we took pictures, chatted about his future (he's moving to Tokyo) and exchanged email addresses and awkward hugs.
Wait a sec, since he just graduated he's technically no longer my student...