I feel like I should post something, but I don't know what to post about...

So I guess let me fill you in on the last few weeks.

Everyone knows I've been complaining about how hard it is here. And it is hard, I just thought I would handle it better than this. But thats what I get for over estimating my adjustment capabilities. So I have finally, officially decided not to stay another semester. I just miss my family and friends too much.

This has taught me a lot about my self though. Again, I thought I would be able to handle traveling to different countries a lot better than I have been. This is problematic because I was intending to make travel my life. Now I have to reconsider some of the steps and paths I want to take in the future.

I have also, and this is going to sounds kind of cold and mean but it is TOTALLY NOT meant that way, found that I care more about my family and friends than I thought. I love my family and my friends, god only knows how much. I just thought that once in a new place, in the whirl of it all, it would just slip to the back of my mind because I would be so busy focusing on other things. But again, this was not the case. It actually makes me kind of happy cause it proves that I am a kind caring person after all, which I knew but some people would debate ^_^.

So Eve has some thiking to do over how this will impact both her academic and professional carrer. Do I still want to go for the State Department job? It doesn:t necessarily mean I will travel but it is certainly likely. I could get a reaserch job in Washington, or maybe a job with one of the Think-Tanks. I will have to look into these psoobilities.

I am still of the opinion that the school work is a main factor in my current disappointment. And that if I was here simply to work, or even do school work I wanted to do (like write reaserch journals about Japanese society and culture) I would be much happier. Also, more freedom to interact out side of a certain group and to be alone when I chose would be nice. Though I have been doing most things on my own now and are much happier because of it. Everynow and then I will want to have company, but I am also finding I am a very solitary person when removed from my core group of friends at Washington. This isn:t surprising, I knew I was a loner, but the extent that is being revealed here is more than I thought. This trip is almost turning into a psych experiment on my self, it:s pretty interesting. Im learning more about myself than I would from any other experiance, and despite my compaining I value the information I am learning about my self from being here. It is valuable knowledge I must learn from.

In other news, I have finally found someone who I like (if not love) as a teacher in Japanese. Another girl here, whose name is Wendy, has been hanging out with me for study time and helping me in Japanese. She is very nice and explains things wonderfully and simply in a way even I can understand. She has also been studying for almost 10 years more than me and is in the heighest level of language classes offered here. So I am really extatic about this. Already I see more improvement and things are getting easier.

Also on the language front. I have been pulling some major overtime hours. I originally said 10-11 hours a wekk outside of class, but it:s starting to turn into more like 3 hours a day outside of class. However, with Wendys help, I am seeing a lot of improvement in my work, and I feel like I am improving. I have also re-taken two tests now, though I will probably only get partial credit for them, but it is much much better than what I had. I have also been told I can write a blog post about kabuki in Japanese for extra credit points. So expect a Japanese blog post in the near future. I will also write it in English so people can read it, but it will be as a comment on the innitial Japanese post.

Also, in the near future (read tomorrow evening or thursday evening, some time this week) expect two blog posts. One as a large ranting comparison on American and Japanese habits, cause some things have been bugging me lately and I have to get them off my chest. And another post on my Studio Ghibli visit. Which was indeed amazing, just like I thought it would be. That post will actually be part of an oral presentation for another class. I love completing multiple things in one fel swoop.

For now I must be off. I have class, and then to home and napping, for I am tired.

TTFN
~Eve