kimeta

So today I received an answer from my counselor back at U of A and as it works out if I take japanese pop culture class and any Chinese studies class this summer I will fulfill all of my requirements for my degree. Well with the exception of my senior capstone class, which is not offered at all over the summer. I really wanted to just have my degree a month after I got back but this isn't too bad of a situation either. Its not really a class, for my capstone but rather I have a senior project that I work with a teacher with so, I think, I just have to keep a teacher updated on my progress of some project and I won't have a set class that meets at a set time.

So in other words after a month summer class I am freed up time wise. That means that I can start searching for a new job and not be constrained on what hours I can work (the main reason I stayed at walmart for so many years, they let me work the bare minimum when it was best for me). Now if I had my bachelors it would be much easier to find a job for sure but I have an associates, I have two computer certifications, hopefully a Japanese language certification so hopefully that will peak someone's interest enough to at least get an interview. Of course I won't quit walmart before I have the next job lined up but I can honestly start looking even a little before I come back.

In some sense I am picky, I really don't want to do retail, I want at least $10/hr, and I want Mon-Fri 9-5. I have good reasons for this too. I've done 6 years of retail, I'm just fed up with it. I make $9.40 at walmart I think I am worth at least another .60 cents, and I want to work that time so I can be freed up to have a good social life. Mainly I want to be really active in the single adult activities. I've come to this understanding that if I do what God wants me to do, God will give me what I want. God wants me to go to church actives, I want to find a wife, its a pretty obvious answer of what I should do then.

So if I got school out of the way, a descent job, I'm really thinking about getting a car and an apartment in Tucson. I really want to be close enough to church so that I can easily go to everything and I can invite people over. I definitely wouldn't want to move out right away because I miss living with my awesome family but I really think this is something I should do. I think it would be awesome to live with Cameron because we get along really well, we would be in the same ward, and almost all of our friends are mutual friends. The thing with Cameron though is I don't want to be the cause in any sense of preventing him from going on a mission. Right now he is living with his sister and, he says, that he keeps having to bail her out financially and thus can't save money. His parents place is way too small of the amount of people in it already so he's going to be paying rent some where. But that part is a little too far away to plan at the moment.

So I'm really glad that finally I have a plan again. Before I knew about the summer classes I couldn't even come close to making any plans and it was kind of upsetting, but at any rate I should talk some more about Japan. Last Saturday I took the train to Kyoto and just tried to get lost. Kyoto has a completely different atmosphere about it then Osaka has. Everything is more spacious, it sort of feels more like a regular US city. However it has more Japan-ish (in Japanese its a real word nihonteki) things. There are tons of temples all over the place, a geisha district, rickshaw pullers, and more Japanese style houses. I started at one point, just kind of walked to a big tower in the skyline (its in a lot of the pictures I took) then I arrived in front of the JR station, which I had used before, so I suddenly knew where I was. I was actually disappointed by that and just walked past that and up some more. I kept walking until I ended up in this little park in what seemed like a some what poor area, but not scary, part of town. There I just took a few moments to take in the scenery but also the fact that just some guy from Arizona was standing in this tiny little park in Kyoto, Japan. At this point in the program its kind of hard to get those, “holy crap Im in Japan!” moments but I definitely had one that day.

Classes are really revving up. I just had my religion mid term which I think I got a good grade on but was some what tough. Tomorrow we have a kanji test, next week Japanese midterms, then the week after that the Jtest (Japanese proficiency test). Now for the interview test next week its ridiculous! We have to read three “dear abby” letters from a newspaper and talk about what advice we would give the people. The first one is the person can't seem to form a strong opinion on politics or the economy and wants to know how to learn that kind of stuff. The second one is upset because hes short. The third one feels that because her husband is so devout in a religion that she doesn't really feel strongly in that its becoming a wall in their marriage. Its like geez I cant give advice for those situations in English, why do they think I could do it in Japanese?

I wish I could say I've made friends in Japan but that just not the case. Things are getting better with people at church because there is a set time and place to meet people and talk, when I come back I'm definitely going to consider church the main way of meeting people.

Oh also there was a going out of business sale at this used manga store by my school. At first it was ½ off some manga, then 70% and then for the last few days it went down to 10 yen a piece. I got 50 volumes for under $5! Some stuff I picked up just because it was cheap but some stuff looks really cool. I know have around 100 volumes (some are final fantasy game guides though), its not too heavy all things considering so hopefully I can mail it back to the states with out negating the bargain I got them at. I really want to send my gundams back soon but I still need to finish zeta gundam and justice gundam. Justic I started to spray paint so I need to finish but the weather has been kind of hit and miss lately so I have to wait for a good day. I think I'll mail the manga later because it is good reading practice that doesn't feel like studying.

I've complained a lot here about my host family but I really think I have a pretty normal host family now. Host families that people get along really well and are more like friends are the exception rather then the rule I think. One person had to change host families already and a lot of people say there is, usually a host brother/sister, that is just intolerable. And a large part of it is my fault. I don't talk as much as I really should to them.

I guess thats all there is to say at the moment, aside from what I said things are pretty futsuu. I do have one funny little story though. There is one ryugakusei who is studying at hawaii but came from mississippi. He asked another ryugakusei from hawaii if there was a beach on the west coast! She said “its an island!” I said “you said COAST!”