It is spring break, but

there is still a lot of snow.

25 years old!

* let it snow, let is snow, let is snow *

I mean.. I am 25 years old! Halfway through the glorious twenties.

My birthday (yesterday, in case you didn't know) was fun, many people wished me a happy birthday and I have lots of delicious food and nerdy conversations. What more can I ask for? (Wait.. no, we won't get into what I would ask for! haha.) And as mentioned in my (not)well-thought-out-haiku, it's spring break! (Despite the snow and cold weather.) I'm not going anywhere special.. but it is a welcome break from constant studying (although I do have to do a bit of that still..).

My old students from Amity sent me a birthday message!! <3

Paula & me on my birthday. I have so few pictures. :(

Since that last time I posted.. there wasn't anything too special to note. The usual busy grad school life continues. Surprisingly.. my new year's resolutions have been going WELL! GO ME! I am on top of my work and still balancing fun (aka - tv/drama), I have been cooking a lot more (the second 20lb bag of rice and periodic food pictures should be sufficient evidence), I have been "working out" every week (I have no evidence.. please just believe me!), this blog post ONLY took a month to write (instead of three months, but who's counting anyway), and I ALMOST have a plan for next year...

Next month I'll find out if I have been accepted to the IUC (I don't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but it's pretty much a 10-month hardcore Japanese language study program in Yokohama) or not. If I get in.. JAPAN here I come, again! If I don't.. I'll probably be in California for the summer and I'll have to start looking for a new place to live in Ann Arbor in the fall and think about my Master's thesis. That's a plan.. right?

That's about it for now. Until I blog again.. ^_^

View of snow from my window.

My first attempt at bibimbop. yum.

The first week is done.

Japanese, Translation, and
Cinema. Mochi.

My second semester of graduate school!
I've already been making myself pretty busy.. trying to stay on top of things.
My classes this year are 3rd Year Japanese (which should be good because the classroom is nicer and the people are more talkative in this class compared to last semester), a translation workshop (I get to do my own translation project and everyone in class has different language backgrounds so it's a nice change! Also my professor is awesome), and a Chinese & Japanese Cinema class (my professor for this class is also awesome - he always does strange things like show me pictures of his dog or tell me to exercise and strengthen my back). I think it'll be a good semester, work-wise.
But it's also one of my resolutions to stay balanced.. so keeping that in mind.. I've also been watching dramas in between study spells.

Yesterday was a fun day~ It was CJS' annual Mochitsuki Festival. There were lots of really neat things like watching people pound mochi, eating mochi, taiko drumming, storytelling, calligraphy, etc. It's a huge event and it was busy with tons of people. I volunteered and was stationed at calligraphy, so I didn't really get to explore the other events but I got to hang out with kids and my Japanese teachers. It was fun to watch people write characters - I think the worse you are the more artsy it looks and the more personality it has!
For my first calligraphy of 2012, I wrote 春風 - spring wind. I read that this year is going to be a low one for people who are the year of the rabbit, so I want my year to be nice, uplifting, etc like a spring wind.
Then I wrote 嵐　- storm. Because it's cool.. and I like 嵐.

Spring Wind

Thennn we went for our first drinks of the semester. Here's to a good one~

First post for this year

and last day in St. Louis.
Return to grad school!

Last post of this year-

let's have a toast and bring in
year 2012.

Sadly I won't be going to any fun parties - it's hard to beat the Group 1 hot tub parties and Tokyo/Osaka clubs of new years past.
But that doesn't mean I'm not excited for 2012!
This post is going to have 2 things.. my top 5 memories from 2011, and my top 5 goals for 2012.

Ok, here goes.. my top 5 memories from 2011:
1) Starting grad school.
2) The last week at Amity & Japan.
3) Solo trip to Nikko, Tokyo, and Fuji-go-ko.
4) Visiting family in Taiwan.
5) Trip to Kyushu.
Runner up - Golden Week in Okinawa


And now.. my top 5 goals for 2012.
1) Balance studying and relaxing better.
2) Cook more.
3) Have a plan for after next semester.
4) Blog more.
5) Work out once a week.

Yay!

Writing essays for

fellowships and IUC
is not fun on break..

or ever.


So it's been a week since i've come home for winter vacation.
And as usual, I hate to admit it but there are things I need to get done.. like essays and applications for getting funding next year and for going to Japan again. If all goes well.. I'll be able to go back for language study. hopehopehopehopehope.

Also.. I don't have much else to do when my internet is too slow for me to watch dramas.

Have you noticed that i'm trying to write a bunch of posts in the last week of 2011 to make up for overall lack of posts this past year?