the office, the british and work

Before, when I was still living with my old roommate, I used to associate The Office with being boring, lazy and not knowing how to clean things properly because she and her boyfriend would rent it and watch it together. However, after finding out that my brother and Jenny love it, my dad started watching the show and I was downstairs listening to them while I did other things. Then the one thing that pulls me into anything more than any other appeared and I began to watch it. Mostly, I watch it wondering how the office romances will turn out, and the little hints that are dropped here and there are fun to look for. When something major happens it's almost shocking just because you're used to such small hints, and when it's not what you wanted, you feel disappointed. It's like real life, but you see the relationship from all angles, or are given tiny hints as to what might be happening. The fun is in keeping you guessing.

The show is also very funny. Not everything in it is funny to me, but I think if you got a LOT of people watching it at once, there would be constant laughing. I like the pranks on Dwight the most but all of the characters have their funny side.

The UK version obviously has a different sort of humor to it, and unfortunately I don't know what in British comedy is supposed to be so funny. Maybe I need to watch more than the first episode of the British version to see, but the first episode was not that funny...

But British people are awesome, in particular the friend from work that my brother and Jenny took me to hang out with yesterday night who just moved back to the UK. Not all of their friends are so easy to talk with, but he was for some reason. And I like hearing him talk with his accent and all ^^ He came back to the house and we all hung out for a while. Oscar couldn't understand the guy when he gave commands in his normal accent but when he modified it to sound as American as he could (which was hilarious XD) Oscar understood. it was cute.

I also worked on Friday, Black Friday. The mall was packed, but the candy store was not that busy, and I was working with three other ladies most of the time, so we weren't overwhelmed when it did get a little busy. I also learned to gift wrap boxes properly, which I was worried about, but wrapping boxes (as opposed to other shapes) is not hard and having the paper pre-cut is nice. Mostly I was tearing plain white paper off already-packed boxes and rewrapping with red and gold Christmas paper to make it look festive, but I did wrap some customers' boxes that day. I feel a lot more comfortable doing the job than I did the previous time I worked, although I can still be awkward talking with customers. The other ladies working there are really nice about helping me when I don't know what to do or can't find something and that helps a lot ^^

I'm going to study for the JLPT again. I'm still pretty worried about vocabulary and kanji. I can read characters and words correctly most of the time, but hell if I know what they mean. If they ask about readings of words, awesome, but if they ask what word means the same as another one I'm sort of screwed. I'm starting to feel better about grammar since getting my awesome book to study from (which I KNOW I will use even after I'm done with the test. it suspiciously looks like my grammar lessons at Nanzan sometimes) and after reading through the chapters carefully, I usually ace the practice exercises. It's the kind of thing where if I get exposed to it and spend a little time with it, I can usually guess correctly at its usage if I see it again, even though I don't know exactly what it means. With any luck, this will all balance out to above 70% average and I will get my certification...

heart mark

men in love are really something.

thank you

Lots of people this year think about what they're thankful for, and I'm no different. add me to the pile. in fact, I'm happy about probably the same thing a lot of other people are. but they don't know the people I know, so it's still special.

I'm not as stubborn or motivated as I used to be, and I'm working on getting that back because I feel like part of me is gone without it. That nagging feeling that says you should get up and do something? That's been gone for so long. I have wasted a lot of time.

I have a big family and I already know that all of us have lots of different interests but I have also learned (especially since coming to live with someone who is not my family, not yet anyway, but knows it well) that all of us have a similar vein. I found that it's much stronger than I thought. They care. a lot. more than their job, in some cases. We're just not that vocal. I take my family saying nothing to mean that they don't really care that much, and that they do things for me or say nice things because they feel like they have to and not necessarily because they want to help me or make me feel good.

In fact, I don't really even believe a whole lot of people when they say nice things, but when they offer criticism, I take it straight to heart. How did I get so messed up? I think I've surrounded myself with the kind of people where a great many of them mean what they say, or they wouldn't say it...and yet I deflect pretty much everything but the criticism they give me.

I'm happy that I have so many people who are willing to support me even if I'm being difficult, or don't completely believe what they say about me. Without them I would be in a cardboard box on the street. I'm glad for the friends I have that don't give up on me when I'm being stupid. There are more people looking out for me and interested in knowing how I'm doing than I thought there were. they are all people that are important to me.

if I can ever return the favor, let me know.

in terms of the holiday feast, I am excited. Jenny is brining the turkey (basically soaking it in a mixture of salt water and spices for a whole day) and making most of the food, and it will be different from my mom's, so I'll get to try some new things! I made a pumpkin pie a couple of hours ago, and squash soup yesterday (it's so thick it turned out more like pudding...), but that will probably be the extent of my cooking because she wants to do it herself. Zach is happy as long as he gets food. We'll make him peel potatoes or something. :D

for all the lost Japanese majors

I spent last Friday compiling a list of headhunting/recruiting/consulting companies that deal specifically with people who speak Japanese. It's geared kind of toward what I want (a job in the United States) but there are some that recruit for companies in Japan and the UK as well. If this list is of any use to anyone I will be happy. I learned a lot just making it.

===================
Bremar Staffing Professionals http://www.bremar.com/ (USA)
Executive Resource Group http://www.jobschicago.com/ (Chicago area, IL, USA)
GaijinPot http://www.gaijinpot.com/job_search.php (Japan, some China/Taiwan/Hong Kong and Korea)
Interesse International, Inc. http://www.iiicareer.com/index.php (USA, Europe & Japan)
Kimata Personnel & Consulting http://www.kimata.com/ (Midwest US & Japan)
MAX Consulting Group http://www.maxjob.com/ (USA & Japan)
MRJapanese http://www.mrjapanese.com/ (USA)
O-hayo Sensei http://www.ohayosensei.com/index.html (English teaching in Japan)
Pacific Advisory Service http://www.paschgo.com/en/home/default.aspx (Midwest US & Japan)
Pacific Bridge http://www.pacificbridge.com/index.asp (Asia)
Q-Jin http://www.q-jin.com/ (USA, mostly Midwest)
Staff Service http://www.people-first.co.uk/staffservice/ (UK)
Teruko Weinberg Inc. http://www.twinc.com/ (USA)
TOP HR Professionals http://www.top-us.com/ (USA & Japan)
WIN Advisory Group http://www.winadvisorygroup.com/AllJobs.html (USA)



DIRECTORY OF RECRUITERS
http://www.i-recruit.com/index.html

NONTEACHING JOBS IN JAPAN
http://jguide.stanford.edu/site/employment_in_japan_238.html

lately things are looking cloudy

Friday morning I felt sick, so I didn't go to work because you're not supposed to work at a food service job if you've got a highly communicable disease...and I talked to my mom and she seems to be all for having me back home. I've been debating moving back to Wisconsin lately. She IS right about me having an opportunity to learn to drive again if I move home, and I wouldn't be putting so much stress on my brother and Jenny because they seem to feel like they have to parent me (and believe me, they aren't willing to be parents now). I just feel really intrusive here, I guess. Zach thinks maybe it's just that Jenny can sometimes get irritated with complications of having to share her personal space with another person, but it's not because she hates having me around. I get like that too, so I understand it, but it doesn't make me feel any better about it. Plus I'd be close enough to most of my family and friends, and my favorite person of all.

I can't think of much that I absolutely want to stay here for. I'm not finding the job situation to be any better, frankly. The public transportation certainly is much better, though, and I do like helping with the home improvement projects that happen every so often. Sure, I work at See's now, but that job ends on Christmas Eve, and I'm not getting that many hours as it is (but I DID just start...as Christmas gets closer I know I'll work more), plus it's been really stressful because of putting all my new knowledge to use, and it's a fast paced customer oriented job where I have to actively sell things, which is not a strong point of mine.

I think I just did things in the wrong order. If I came out here already having a job I'd be fine, but I was lazy. I was lazy the whole time I was in Appleton. I think it's finally gotten to the point where I actually WANT to get a job. Unfortunately it's taken a lot of people getting angry with me for that to happen.

But if I do move back, it's not because I've been defeated. I just need to go where I have the best opportunities, especially since I have so little money, and I found out this is not really the place. I would not be adverse to moving back here if I found a good job here further down the line.

And this past five weeks or so has been good life experience for me in terms of getting a customer service/retail job (completely new type of work to me) and learning what you can and can't make people do for you. I've grown up a bit, I think. Above all, I learned that I need to have a plan before I drop myself into a completely new place, or I will get nothing done. It especially helps if someone else is helping structure your plans (ex. school or a job) so you have something originally to keep you motivated day to day, and you just go on adding from there.

Lastly, I gave this no mention before and I should have because it's made me very happy all week. Ty was planning this surprise for me for a while and had a whole bunch of people in on it - Steve included. yes. He read 'Ominameshi', a Noh play about a woman whose husband cheats on her and she jumps into a river and drowns herself. The flower that grows on her grave becomes a symbol of promising to grow old together because she was faithful to him to the end. He read the part about the flower and decided he wanted to get it for me. He found the original text for the passage and that's what is written in the white bubble in the middle of the poster. He made the poster on the right under Molly's direction and with the art department's materials (muhahaha), and with Steve's help found the English name for the flower in the play (patrinia/golden lace), and got me two plants. I put them in pots and they seem to be looking less droopy than when I first got them. The leaves are still rotting in some places, though :( I hope they survive. The picture at the top is what the flowers look like.

Only two weeks until the JLPT...have to get cracking.

NHK Radio Online

I'm going to try to listen to this often, mostly because I don't understand Japanese news programs at all when I see them on TV except for the images and the headlines at the bottom of the screen (basically anything that moves slowly enough for me to read, or anything I can easily see). With this, it's basically just the audio track of the daily news (although there are other programs, hopefully music ones ^^), so it's interesting to figure out exactly how much I understand. I COULD just put it in English, but then it's not studying anymore...

chopping bamboo

At the moment I've had too little to eat and too much to drink for the day, so pardon my typos.

I suppose I ought to start with what happened since my last post. I really made my brother angry and I felt horrible about it. Not going to go into details. But I have gotten word from him that all is forgiven and the best way to tell him I'm sorry is not to do it again, which is easy enough to do. Just have to plan ahead for things and I'll be fine. Friday went fine, but I didn't do that much except have an interview with a recruiter from a job placement company that specifically deals with Japanese-English bilingual people and she said that Seattle was a really bad place for me to try to be getting my first job. part of me wants to take her advice and be much more open to where I live, but seeing as I've only been here for a month, I think I'll try to give myself more of a chance to find something before I call it quits here. like until May or so. Ty says he wants to at least try to live here. I think once I actually get a job I'll be a lot less stressed. But honestly, I don't care much where I live. Having a job I love to do is the most important thing for me, or at least more important than living in a specific place.

Saturday I went to an orientation and hiring meeting for See's, and I met a man who spent 7 years studying geology at my very same college, which was quite the coincidence since they only hired about 5 new people for seasonal selling. I can foresee plenty of people mixing up mine and Heather's names, judging by how I always get called Heather when people forget exactly what my name is. Joe reminds me a lot of my friend Fred, large and jolly and funny. I feel like I talked a bit too much about myself, but it was just so nice to meet new people, to be perfectly honest. I spent the evening studying for the JLPT while my brother and Jenny organized their office room. All I heard was excited voices, particularly when they found things while unpacking that they forgot they had, but apparently there was a bit of arguing too...

Today was rather nice. It didn't start out that way, though, mostly because I was feeling left out of the plans for the day. They were going to the outlet mall, which is where I wanted to look for rain boots, while I cleaned up the kitchen and washed dishes. It was nice of Jenny to call when she found some rain boots, though, and she picked up a pair for me. As for the boots themselves, I'm still deciding whether I want to keep them. I'm definitely sending back the Hunters, though. I like them a lot, but they're just too expensive, and not lined. The ones Jenny brought back today don't go all the way to my knees, but they cost about half as much, and come lined with sheep's wool. Much better deal if you ask me. I went poking around in the backyard where this wooden table with clay pots is standing (and the clay pots have algae, standing water and slimy crap in them from the previous owners of the house just leaving them there), and found a few cute little pots and washed them. After they came home I found out Jenny wants to keep most of them, just hasn't gotten around to cleaning them up yet.

And then Jenny went grocery shopping while Zach and I went to pick up some caulk (to hopefully stop the ant problem in the kitchen) and an electrical outlet tester. We also got paint samples for the house. Then we plugged up the holes the ants were coming in, and spent the next two hours chopping about 10 square feet of bamboo out of the yard. I wanted to keep a little bit of it, and Jenny was very reluctant to let me, but she said as long as I keep it in a certain size pot and keep it outdoors, she will allow it. yay ^^ I think the situation with the bamboo in their backyard has made them both hate it forever. IT IS SO HARD TO REMOVE, particularly from very confined areas. Zach spent two hours out there with a hatchet, chopping it down and then digging out the root balls with a shovel (then throwing it on the deck) while I cut/broke it into manageable pieces and packed it into the yard waste bin. If you ever want to have bamboo in your yard, THINK AGAIN. Or just keep it in a pot.

I planted three stalks of the bamboo in a pot, and we're all happy that that's all that's left. I also transplanted a plant that Jenny's best friend gave to her. She gave it to them because it blooms in October, and that's when Zach and Jenny's wedding is :) Turns out it's a camellia bush! Camellias are so pretty. I'll have to see exactly what kind it is, because they can be red, white or pink, and can have two major types of flowers. I hope it's the kind that look like roses. In any case, it'll look better than the bamboo when they plant it. XD

Tomorrow I go to get my food handler's permit! I'm going to the earliest morning class (8:30) because I figure there will be less people than at 11:00 and 2:30. I also have to get the missing parts of my work uniform. Maybe I can find them downtown? I'm going to the market again tomorrow too, to get more persimmons. kaki 柿. I love them. They're kind of like peaches, but even better.