I could give the speech about how I don't think my life is very interesting and thus never bother to update this thing but I think everyone's heard it before. Could someone start, like, poking me if I've not said anything in two weeks? Text, email, something - maybe if I have someone actively badgering me to update I actually will >>


So...Summer!

In short, it was not nearly as productive as I wanted it to be. I got to do a little shadowing, but it ended up lasting only about a month :/ what I did get to see was awesome, but I think I'm going to have to go through something else next summer if I want to get something I actually feel comfortable putting on my resume. I discovered that JET doesn't open up the application until like a month and half before the deadline which is just unnecessarily stressful and consequently got absolutely no work done on that (though I did just take a crack at writing the essay and I think it turned out okay, lack of teaching experience aside, but it's HALF A PAGE too long and I don't know what to cut T.T fuck you, two-page limit that is so not enough room.)

Pinewoods was a rousing success, I ended up getting a lift from someone out in Michigan who was driving over and it was much, much cheaper and easier than taking the train :D The dancing itself was magnificent, as always, and it was awesome to see Lizz and Anne briefly, and there was a surprising number of other japanese-speaking people so I actually got to make some new friends, ish. Most of them live in Seattle so...yeah. There were also baby birds in one of the largest pavilions and they fledged after one of the lessons and were kind of hopping around and cheeping really loudly - they were so cute and one of them landed on me and kind of looked at me for a while which was really cool. I also possibly gave myself shin splints and wore two holes in my (new) ballet shoes. But that's less important.

Outside of Pinewoods my only other travels amounted to a family trip to Maine at the beginning of august, which was lots of fun, if slightly foggy (again). The beach at Small Point is just gorgeous, even if the water was freezing.

Other then that, I did a lot of gardening for my dad (and got paid for it yay my bank account is vaguely healthy again) and worked at the vets and baked and kind of got a friend into Maou while she got me into Dr. Who. I also started actively seeking out more Arashi shows and music so they are now definitely not a fandom I know about because faded_lace is into them and one I'm in of my own volition XD I need to see more of their concerts though >>

What else? Oh, I got to move back to school the weekend hurricane Irene was due to hit the east coast :D Usually my mom drives me down to school and we belt musical soundtracks and make our leisurely way and she helps me unpack some and then leaves the next day, but because of the storm, my Dad came along and we ended up leaving super early on Saturday so that hopefully my parents could leave before the storm hit real bad. It pretty much worked, though it meant moving me in was rather rushed, and so I still have all the boxes we used to bring my stuff down, and no where to put them >> It was great having my dad there to help move furniture around, though :D I am super pleased with my tower room, lack of shelving aside (I had to get some cheap plastic one cause I had nowhere to put things), and hopefully we'll have the campus poster sale soon and I can cover my walls in awesome stuff :D

Classes have started! I am taking intro physics which is the most boring thing ever but necessary for vet school, Japanese 4 with an adorable if rather disorganized teacher - I'm still not totally sure how/when we're being tested and a couple other things, but I think it'll work out ok, my thesis and Japanese literature.

My Japanese lit class looks awesome, for all that the teacher is a rather air-headed grad student who I don't think has taught before. She outright told us that we don't need to finish the novels, and for our final project we have the option of "a creative interpretation of one or more of the course texts, which may take the form of (but is not limited to) sequential illustration, a screenplay, or fan fiction"

Fuck yes I am writing a 20-page fanfiction as a final project >D I love my school and the fact that I don't have to do another research paper on top of my thesis.

My thesis, on the other hand....is terrifying >> I mean, I'm sure it'll work out fine, I was pretty freaked out about my 20 page paper last semester but I managed that one ok, I just need to actually narrow down how/what I'm going to talk about. I know I'm basing it off my tenipuri paper from last year (which if anyone actually wants to read, let me know I'll send it along - I think it turned out well :D) but I need to like...actually pull in some sources so it's not just me going "well I think x means y :DDD" which I kind of feel I got away with last semester. Visiting professors, honestly...

The problem, of course, is that I know fuck all about linguistics let alone Japanese linguistics and I'm kind of terrified that no one will be writing about what I want to write about. Of course, I could be looking up books/journals instead of updating my livejournal right now, but if I put this off again you all won't hear from me until December :l so.

The other aspect of life that has me in a quiet state of panic is, of course, JET. It's really starting to bother me that I have absolutely no teaching experience, even though I know it isn't technically required and I have other things they are looking for - I just really really don't want that to be the reason they turn me down :/ unfortunately, at the moment I don't know that I can really do anything to get teaching experience without overloading myself and I really don't want to do that because I just know it will end badly and screw up a lot of other things. Oh and I still need another letter of recommendation.

I also want to try and find an internship for next semester, to, y'know, help me get into vet school, eventually, or maybe a praxis class if I can figure out what the hell to base it around, and so I need to somehow find the time to start looking into the applications and requirements for that and actually, if I get a half-credit from my thesis next semester maybe I can take only three other classes and just do an internship without the praxis issues and I'd still be at 3.5 credits. That might work :D except I still need to find the time to apply :l fuck.

Anime club is kind of coming together, with regards to con planning, but I am really, really missing Erin and her ability to just go "lets watch x and y this week" and also SGA's hotel fund cap is the most frustrating thing in existence :l it'll probly get better once I have more of an idea of who all is going and if anyone has a car/is van certified/etc and so can start planning transportation logistics :l in the meantime all I can do is fret, which is no fun and also very hard to turn off.

...Right, ok this is why I don't update very often, I just end up complaining about a bunch of stuff. MOVING ON.

Um...Parade night was a lot of fun :D even though most of my class was really drunk and obnoxious >> hopefully we'll be better for lantern night. I don't know any freshman yet D: I'm working at the post office again and it's going pretty well, I visited friends who are living in philly and they have an awesome apartment plus a CAT so I think I'm just going to like spend half of fall break there instead of trying to go home so I can work on my thesis.

I think that's the highlights, plus I'm hungry and still technically have stuff to do, so that'll be all for now, I guess.




tl;dr life is life, faded_lace got me into Arashi and they are slowly taking over my soul, I am a senior and have a thesis which is terrifying, also too much other stuff to do, and I now have a shiny new tumblr mind the arashi spam.

Oh and I live in a tower. There will be pictures. Eventually. maybe.