creative paradise

Two sites that are worth checking out if you like unique handmade things: Etsy and DaWanda. People sell their handmade jewelry, art, clothes, and other accessories. If I had enough money and had less of a creative spirit I would buy a lot of things from here. Maybe someday I'll even sell my things from one of these. ^^

life in a deep freeze

Another month goes by, and I'm still without work. Go figure. I've been thinking a lot about it, though, and somehow I feel closer to knowing my options. All I have to do is decide which way I want to go. Since I had nearly no guidance at all in terms of career planning relating to what I want to do and how to go about it, I'm probably going to write up something for new graduates who studied Japanese and are looking for a job. Maybe it will help someone. In any case, it will let them know that the road is not exactly paved with sushi and Anime, even if you're in America. (thanks Molly for the inspiration :))

I've started attending a class at the technical college near my house called "Theory of Translation and Interpretation". It's surprisingly much more difficult and in-depth than I thought, and there are only nine people in the class, most of whom are older than me, so there's a lot of interesting discussion. You have to already have a bachelor's degree in order to take it, so in a way it's kind of like grad school. It's just a lot cheaper :) The teacher is originally from Cameroon, knows 11 languages, studied in many of the best translation schools in North America and translated for the government of Cameroon for a long time...so long story short, he's well qualified. I like how he talks too. He seems really happy to be teaching the material, and I like the sound of English spoken by African people. Unfortunately I don't do so well with theoretical-type classes, but I've decided that I will try as hard as I can since it's really the only thing I have going for me in terms of constructive life-skill-building activities at this point. I'm also needing to get in touch with the Japanese instructor at the school (amazingly they have one!), and although their Japanese classes certainly are nowhere near the intensity of the ones I took, I don't doubt that she could be a great resource for breaking into the Japanese community here. I thought there were no Japanese people here at all, but maybe she can help me find them. AND apparently she corrected my bilingual assessment and thought I did pretty well, so I've already made a decent impression. Yay :)

I've spent a lot of time taking care of Cooper too. He's mellowed out a bit since I first met him (AND we think he's potty-trained now) but there are some times where he's just been out of control. I do like him, though. He does a lot of quirky, funny things and he's very sweet.

I've occasionally visited Madison thanks to Ty coming to pick me up, but part of me feels a bit like I'm going there to escape doing something about getting a job, and I can't just relax and have fun. It makes me feel like any job at all would be better than this, even if it only paid minimum wage. Maybe if I tried harder while I'm home, I wouldn't feel so bad about going on "vacation". I think I'm just not trying hard because I don't know where I want to go...I don't have a clear concept of what I'm trying to do or where I'm trying to go with my life in the near future. But time is running out and I need to decide.

あたしの未来図をもうすぐ描かないと・・・。

happy 2008だよ

Or so it should be. I have a good number of things to be happy about. I think once I actually get a job or start with school (whichever comes first) I'll feel much better. So I'm going to talk only about the happy things.

I got home from Seattle just fine, and was especially feeling lucky after all the crap that my brother and Jenny had to put up with to get here and back. My suitcases were filled as full as they could go without being too heavy for the plane, and I sent a 17-pound box of crap home. Talk about good packing. I'm happy to be gone from there. My job at the candy store was the best thing about it. Living with my brother was more stressful for everyone involved than I think any of us thought it would be, and I've come to learn that my brother is awful about helping people out. He won't say no because he doesn't want to seem like a jerk, but when you bug him about actually helping you when he said he would, he feels like he's being taken advantage of. Just say no if you can't, and save everyone some freaking trouble and stress, because either way you're going to end up seeming like a jerk. Lesson learned: don't ask him for help. Ever.

Christmas was happy, mostly. I was happy to see my family again, and we did a lot of our traditional activities (except going to church, and my sister put everyone's feelings perfectly - she snapped her fingers, smiled and said 'darn!' in a lightly sarcastic tone :D). I got some awesome presents from Ty and my sisters and my parents.

Cooper is such a troublemaking little dog, and he got into his share of fights with Oscar while they were both here (mostly about food). But he's so warm and fuzzy and affectionate. My favorite thing about him is the way he tilts his head when he hears unfamiliar sounds or isn't sure what something is. It's SO CUTE.

I also like it when he smiles. :) he just got done playing with balloons when this picture was taken. I always thought it was dumb when people get dogs and that's all they ever take pictures of afterward, but they're really like part of the family in that way. I mean everyone takes pictures of their new babies, and puppies are sort of like babies.

I've been on vacation for a little while with Ty in Madison, visiting friends and doing fun things together. It's been really cold so we've been spending time mostly inside, cooking and playing Wii games and watching movies. We did go to a theater to see Sweeney Todd though, and it was amazing. There are lots of good actors, they're all decent singers, the songs can be funny and kind of catchy, and it keeps you interested. Although it's depressing (it is, after all, about a serial killer) it's wonderfully executed (haha, I made a funny...), the best example of this being that it doesn't drag on unnecessarily like a LOT of other movies I've watched lately. It's very concise, tells its story wonderfully, and then gets out of the way, but stays in your head.

Out of all the new video games Ty got for Christmas, the one I like most is Super Mario Galaxy. This is because I have had a special place in my heart for Mario games ever since I was born. My mom used to play them and she's pretty inept with any form of electronics. That's how cool Mario is. It's cute overload, what with all the stars and penguins and the bee suit and themed galaxies. Even the ones that are supposed to be scary are really cute. The scariest part of the game is not always knowing whether you'll be able to walk upside down on stuff or if you're going to fall off or float away into oblivion.

I've also been learning bass guitar, or attempting. Ty has been teaching me a few things. It's not as hard as I thought, at least once you learn the notes you need to play. I can't read music and I'm not good with recognizing notes by ear, but I'm sure if I work at it enough I'll be able to tell what each string is supposed to sound like if it's in tune. I learned to play a couple of Blue Hearts songs (and it was no coincidence that we'd just watched Linda Linda Linda before this). :)

Molly's New Year's Eve party was also really fun, although I had a little too much fun and had to spend the next day recovering. I STILL don't think my stomach is fully recovered. ehehe. Yesterday we threw a ramen party, which was a lot more fun than it sounds because I spent all day cooking the soup and base myself (noodles I KNOW I'd have screwed up so I bought some), and we had a lot of toppings for it. We couldn't find kamaboko so we used chikuwa instead (they're both a type of fish cake), and it reminded me of my host mother and how she used to fill the hole in the chikuwa log with cheese and serve it as part of meals. :) The meal itself was really good, and a success in that we got a lot of our friends to try new foods...like fish cake and miso and seaweed. And they liked it.

Today we go sledding on lunch trays down Bascom Hill after Ty and Molly are done with work. Somehow to me that just embodies the spirit of college. I never actually did it before I graduated, so I better do it now :)