In all honesty, I’m not much of a nature person (if my nearly instant heat sickness and disastrous run-ins with several insects and a gecko are any indication) but I’ve grown to appreciate it a little more since coming here. I am pretty lucky to be able to live in a tropical place where you can go to the beach and one hour later be mountain climbing.

Luckily enough, I managed to get a part-time graduate assistantship with a different department in the school as a webmaster. It’s only 10 hours a week, and I basically get to choose my hours, which is awesome! Depending on what my course load looks like, I’ll probably try to get another job or take up some Japanese classes or something. The first day of instruction isn’t actually until the 23rd, so I’ve got a ton of time to explore still.

The food here is absolutely amazing. Because there’s such a large Japanese/Korean population here, there are tons of Japanese and Korean grocery stores that import food, as well as a million sushi and yakiniku shops, which makes me so happy you don’t know. It’s actually a bit cheaper to eat Asian rather than mainland type foods, so I’m practicing eating more noodles/rice/etc. It’s really hurting my soul not to eat cereal, but milk is about $4.30 a gallon here so… yeah. None for me.

There’s so much more I want to talk about, but for now I’ll leave it at this. Need a reason to write later on! And I’ll hopefully have pictures then, too.

But in the midterm, I am free free free. I already redid the blog layout, and I have a few site ideas I’ll probably design and code later. Other than that, I’ve been playing Bejeweled and Poupeegirl like a crazy person and watching various movies. I feel like I should use this time for something useful, like studying my various languages or reading or something but anything that requires actual brainpower seems too bothersome right now. I need to find something to do fast, though, because boredom + me = inevitable shopping spree!

Actually, I’m trying to get a workout routine together because I want to be able to be hot in a bikini and my sad lack of abs and slightly flabby calves are not appropriate for such a goal. So I’m doing the obvious situps/other ab-type exercises, and I’m also gonna try to do more dancing for cardio.

I will first start with this amazing song. The choreography is actually not that difficult except for a few parts, and the part around 1:24 is sexy as hale.

Some other recent songs that make me want to get down..

E.via’s Shake, obviously.

f(x)’s NU ABO is pretty good, even if I haaaate the music video. Okay, I don’t hate it. It’s just weird and confusing. I do hate their hair though. And I’m so happy Mr. Boogie was a track on their mini album, yay!

Any other new-ish dance/workout songs I should add to ye olde playlist?

My parents are actually both from Chicago, and I have family there, but it’s the first time I’ve been there by myself as an “adult.” On Sunday morning, I went to Millennium Park and ran into a guy taking pictures with his Canon DSLR, and he knew how to use my Nikon FM so we took pictures together for an hour or so. I’ve never really run into people who know a lot about photography, especially film, so it as really fun. Later that night I met up with a friend from school and his friend who was living there. We got dinner together and wandered around downtown. And finally, on Monday, I met up with yet another friend and went shopping on the Magnificent Mile. I love the Forever 21 they have there. It is huge and amazing and omg.

Anyway, I’ve found that I really like big cities. I know a lot of people hate how busy and crowded and fast-paced they are, but somehow all that energy really gives me some sort of inner calm. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Like somehow I am energized by everything going on around me, and I feel less restless. I really think I am one of those people that needs to have constant stimulation or I go a little nuts. I think that was why I liked Tokyo so much: it was a city that quite literally never slept. It could be 4 in the morning and I could get up and take a walk, pop into a convenience store, go to karaoke, or something.

When I applied to colleges, most of the schools I applied to were in cities, but I ended up going to one that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. So I’m glad that this go round, I get to go to a school that is pretty much in the middle of Honolulu. I think it might be hard for me to focus at first with everything going, but I’m hoping all that energy will help to keep me going, like it usually does.

(And yes, this means I ended up deciding to go to Hawaii for graduate school.)

I’ve made a lot of new friends and strengthened relationships with old ones. It’s great, but tinted with a bit of sadness. The fact that this is the last time I can hang out with them like this is always in the back of my mind. So, I play twice as hard to make sure the memories are amazing.

I managed to get into all three grad schools I ended up applying to. I also got offered job interviews at four different eikaiwa schools in Japan. I know that I’m really lucky for having all this choice when some people can’t find a job, but honestly, it’s killing me. If it had ended up being I could only do one or the other, then yeah, easy choice! But I want to go to graduate school and Japan for two entirely different but equally important reasons and I really don’t know how to decide.

Well, my first interview is on Saturday so we’ll see how it goes. I have to decide either way by April 15th either way so we’ll see…

But honestly, I can’t wait to be done with school. I’m applying to graduate school (oops, haven’t worked on those apps in weeks) but I’d rather just work. My Japanese friend, who has a ridiculous amount of connections, said he would help me to find a job in Japan. It’s too early for me to apply to jobs, but come spring I’m definitely applying to the big eikawa companies.

I meant to update earlier but I actually do nothing except lounge around my friend’s apartment and go to class occasionally and work. I’m going to New York City in a few weeks though so maybe I’ll have something to write about then. Although, some excitement before that would be good too.