Weekly Resolutions

Hello everyone

 

Happy Monday.

 

Honestly though, I just had the worst Monday in the history of my life. I know this because I looked up the dates of other bad days, and none of them were on a Monday. Nevermind that, though, I don’t want to talk about it. There is too much work to do this week!

 

I looked up pictures from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. They were published in 1986, which meant that they have been around to scare me my whole entire life. I am teaching my first Halloween lesson tomorrow, and I thought “oh, what better to scare the pants off my kids than the most terrifying illustrations I’ve ever seen?”

 

I remember that in elementary school, if you wanted to check out the Scary Stories books, you had to have a note from your mom saying that it was ok. I skipped that process and got them from the local library, because they didn’t care.

 

Scary Stories takes folktales and legends and retells them to be extra-creepy. They are full of these horrific black and white illustrations that make them even worse. For example, the story about the lady who gets a dog in Mexico and it turns out to be a rabid sewer rat wouldn’t be nearly as creepy if it didn’t include a picture of the rat, which crawled in and out of my nightmares for a year or so. Ditto the girl who was raised by wolves – it sounds like a cute story, until you see a picture of the girl, who looks like she would rip your throat out with her fingers. I’m STILL scared of these books.

 

Are you ready, schoolchildren? Muwahahaha.

 

Also, I am planning on coming back home for the holidays. You will know me by the fact that I will be wearing a very stupid self-inflicted haircut. I always get this haircut after I watch Audrey Hepburn movies. For some reason, I always manage to forget that I look like a complete fool with bangs, mainly because I am not Audrey Hepburn. One day I will go completely mad and cut my hair short all over like hers.

 

I haven’t been doing this recently, but here are some weekly resolutions:

 

1. Climb the Bizan again.

I had a nice, clear feeling up on top of the mountain. I felt like a Kiwi bird I saw once, who managed to fly by jumping off a mountain. I didn’t feel like jumping off the mountain, but I certainly felt like I could reach out and fly.

 

2. Make some Amazing Life Goals.

Number one: Climb Mount Everest. Number two: Open a magnificent cake shop. Number three: Save an elephant. I keep telling my kids to dream big and not be afraid of their futures, but I’m not really applying that to myself. There are a million things I can do still, if only I set out with gusto and a vague plan.

 

3. Practice the Ukulele more!

I want to play many songs! Rumor has it there is a Hawaiian guy who dresses in a clown costume and sits in front of Tokushima station and drinks beer and plays the ukulele at people every weekend. I don’t want to do that, necessarily, but it might be fun to go have a ukulele duel or something. What are clowns mortal enemies? Mimes?

 

Ok, everyone. Have a good week. I miss you!

 

Emily

Weekly Resolutions (Aug 25)

1. Making Friends, Oranges and Limes, 2. Fruit Salad, 3. Summer Berries Blueberries, 4. Spaghetti with Fennel Sauce สปาเก๊ตตี้เฟนเนล + Recipe

Yum!

My resolution for this week is short and simple: Eat Healthy!
I’ve been eating a lot of rubbish lately… it’s all been delicious, mind you, but not so great in terms of healthy variations/getting enough fruits and veggies. My apartment may be clean, but my stomach is not. Less pocky, more kiwis!

Japan has a pretty good variation of healthy foods and delicious things to eat, but when you’re new, it’s apparently really easy to just eat udon or curry every day until you die. I’m experiencing it, it’s true. Why bother hunting and gathering and cooking a well-balanced meal when I can turn on my rice cooker and take a 48-minute nap while it hums away? Besides, we’re all a bit overwhelmed with all the new choices we have to make, not to mention we’re learning from scratch with considerations to groceries and cooking japanese-style. It’s easy to base all your meals around one familiar ingredient and get a bit of a “freshman 15″.

As I’ve heard over and over, when you eat poorly, you feel poorly. Nice as it would be, I’m not in the mood where I want to just eat Raw and have loads of energy on half the sleep, not to mention the perfect skin and happy glow… ok, I lie, those things would be great, but I’m not ready for 100% raw food. But I am definitely in tune with the bonuses that come from good eating.

So… whee! Sayonara, endless boxes of curry! You weren’t that great anyway! Bring on the unfamiliar veggies!

In the above picture, it’s actually hard to find all the fruits.. except for the citrus variety. Tokushima is known for “sudachi”, which is a little golfball of a green citrus fruit. It appears as a garnish all the time when you eat at authentic food places. Also, did you know that the kiwi is actually the result of cross-breeding and folks playing God with gooseberries? Yum, kiwi.

Weekly Resolutions (Aug. 18)

 

Weekly Resolution time!!

So last week, I did pretty well. I didn’t get stressed out by my participation level in terms of after-hours socializing. In fact, it was as I was taking a break that I met someone really cool, that I’d like to get to know better! So the lesson is that being yourself (or at least, paying attention to what makes you happy) pays off.

This week, I want to accomplish the following:

• Pick My Goals. There are a lot of things to do here, and I want to try and organize my desires, abilities, and thoughts as well as possible. Will I spend the next many months learning a new instrument? Hiking? Quiltmaking? Cooking classes? Which of these are things I really want to try, and will they bring me the things I want? In other words… I want to do things that I not only enjoy, but that will challenge me and help me learn culture and make social connections as well. So it’s time to send out my feelers and get my ducks in a row, and then start trying things out!
  The time is now! (use your time well, right?)
• Write a great speech. At the opening/back to school ceremony, I give a self introduction to all the kids (and teachers and so on). This speech will most likely be repeated ad nauseum in various incarnations as I go to classes and other schools. This speech needs to kick butt and not be painfully boring, in other words. I don’t want to be up there saying something that even I will get tired of after a few deliveries!
  This is also the time for me to show off in terms of who I am. It’s almost like creating a new character in a game: however I portray myself in speech form is going to be the first impression these kids have of me. And of course, I want to be funny and energetic and genki (that multipurpose all-encompassing word for good cheer and pep). So I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting out that pen and paper!
• Clean my apartment. It needs it! We won’t get into the details… let’s just say that I’ve been a bit lazy lately. Thanks, Dad, for training me to react to dust and disorder instead of just letting it go. I’m the person now who feels a bit bad when I know that there is dust sitting at home with no-one to wipe it up!

 

Have a good week, I love you!
Emily

Weekly Resolutions

 

It’s time again for weekly resolutions! If you made resolutions last week, did they go well? (I’m absolutely going to make my students do this!)

The only thing I didn’t do last week was to eat by myself. But instead, I ate with a bunch of other ALTs at a yummy Italian place! Then we all went to a little karaoke bar and sang songs! I’m happy with everything else as well… I feel accomplished! (By the by, the beer from the vending machines is not so good… It’s not lousy, but it’s not so good either). The food that I cooked was okonomiyaki (japanese pizza). It was not very good either, but I’m just learning, you know? And now I have a whole bunch of cabbage left over that I need to deal with. I took pictures, I will upload them soon.

As for my run… it was kind of a fail too! I didn’t make it very far before I thought “I’m gonna die!”. Then I just walked up and down the river a bunch until I felt better… but I didn’t sleep very well that night. My stomach and legs were all upset.

I guess you could say my only triumph was that I learned the hiragana alphabet! (How nerdy!)

But… I did attempt new things, which I think is more important than having those things turn out perfectly. For instance, I had to bust out a bunch of japanese at the grocery store to try and find the ingredients for my okonomiyaki. I think my week was a “win”, overall. Oh, I also bought a watch so I know what time it is! There are NO clocks anywhere… except for the 6 in the teacher’s room at school. My microwave doesn’t have a clock, but my rice cooker does. None of the stores or public buildings do. It’s like they hate time here! I don’t really like time either, but I can’t be late!

Resolution Time!

• Make new friends at Camp! Tomorrow I’m going to English Camp at a temple with other new ALTs! It will rock, hopefully! This means that I won’t be back until next Monday (yeah, it’s a long camp!) but I want to take lots of photos and meet lots of people! (I need friends… my apartment is getting lonely)
  Also, that is why this list is so short this week… it’s because I don’t have much control over what I can and cannot plan to do (because I don’t know what’s coming towards me this week!). So I want to say, in general, that I will strive to have fun, and to
• Think Positive! I tend to get stressed out by situations such as “camp”, or really anywhere where there are suddenly lots of people. I am not what you would call a natural socializer. I can fake it (till I make it!) but it can really bring me down. So this week, I want to keep my chin up and remind myself to think happy thoughts and not get bogged down in “keeping up” with the social butterflies.

  and finally
  

• Dance my head off! At Awa Odori. Thursday night is when we get all dressed up, have about 15 minutes of practice, and then join the 80,000 dancers and 1.3 million spectators in Tokushima’s traditional 4 night dance festival. Words cannot tell you how excited and nervous I am for this. Look for photos in the future!

 

love
Emily

Weekly Resolutions

Hi everybody

Some of you may have heard me blather on about Gala Darling and her website. Sorry! But because she is one of my heros and inspirations in terms of living an independent, exciting, fantastic life, I have to mention her again. Gala Darling used to do Weekly Resolutions, though they aren’t as common on her website, people still participate. Gala also does a weekly update called “Things I Love Thursday”, because people who express gratitude and practice optimism lead longer, happier lives (and have a better outlook on negative situations).

So this is the background for what I’m about to do next, which is to begin managing my weekly resolutions and Things I Love Thursday on this page. I was raised on “to-do” lists, so even though I’m not by nature a list-making person, I function pretty well when I can tick things off a sheet of paper.  So without further ado, I present

 

Here is what I want to do!

• Learn to cook 1 new thing. and that teriyaki from yesterday doesn’t count! Part of my goals for living in Japan include learning more about the culture, so this week I will be looking and trying my hand at a new food item. I don’t know yet what it will be (hopefully delicious!)
• Go by myself to eat at a cafe or shop. This has to do with overcoming fear, and being able to muddle my way through in a second language. I’m really scared of inserting myself alone into new situations, so I want to go in and order and talk to the clerks as best I can, without looking at the floor or mumbling. Also, I will get some coffee or something out fo the deal, and maybe find a new place where I can hang out and meet people.
• Drink beer from a vending machine. They sell beer in vending machines! This seems like a nice, silly, “I gotta do this at least once” thing to do.
• Go for a run. I don’t want to get out of shape by sitting at my desk drinking tea all day! I brought my shorts and sneakers for a reason! I will go at night when it’s cooler, and hopefully not get really lost.
• And finally… Finish memorizing hiragana! I used to know hiragana, but I need to relearn! It’s super handy for reading menus and boxes in the stores, and it’s the first step towards the ever-dreaded kanji! I try and sound out all the things I see on the streets, but I have a long way to go before I can just read hiragana without thinking too much.

That’s my list, folks! Wish me luck, or write your own lists, because having goals gets things done (usually!). And writing your goals down makes you priortize and manage your aspirations, and think about what you can do in a certain amount of time.

 

Bye! And good luck!