quad 1 | quad 2 | quad 3
Happy 16 Months!
It feels like my time here is a smol child and I gotta do photoshoots to commemorate their growth.. u know like people do with their babies? It just hit me that imma be in japan for another year but dont worry u wont hear me say happy 24 month anniversary NO MA’AM. MY SON WILL BE 2.
12/17/2020 officially marks a year and 4 months but I’m not counting every month no more, partly cuz I’ve adjusted to my life here and partly cuz this first quarter quadrimester (I meant to post this last month) but life has been so fucking insane that I had to push it back and learn from google that every 4 months is a quadrimester u welcom.
Sooo here’s each month summed up in 140 characters or less:
September– back to school, enjoying my new whip, discovering shaka shaka chikin, daily unpaid overtime till 7pm, learning to long board, cooking a lot
Oct– student wins speech contest, more unpaid OT w/ 1 wk rest, crashing said whip, kfc thxgiving, best wknd in japan errands trip, acquired jpn license
Nov– acquired new computer, started studying my butt off for the JLTP, hyogo library tours, attended first racing event and first prefectural tournament~
Dec– final JLPT cramming, xmas gifts logistics n packaging center aka my living room, year-end shenanigans n its christmas next wk! STAY TUNED
(some daily life photos for any interested parties here)
and some statistics as of late…
currently health condition: tired, exhausted, neck pain, shoulder pains, carpal tunnel both arms, damaged knee joint/hip flexor, lost all toronto workout gains and conformed to the ideal japanese body shape but hey i m stil aliv !!
best purchase: $70 bookstore haul from junkudo sannomiya. after a year of purposely driving out to bookstores during rental car trips in hopes of finding english books and realizing that every shop thats not in a popular train station only carries japanese books, that moment when ur eyes meet shelves of familiar titles and readable words is just pure joy
number of shaka shaka fried chikins consumed: i need more than 2 hands to count
best things about this season: cheap oranges and upcoming strawberry season
proudest moment: seeing my student make history as the first time our school has ever made it to the hyogo prefectural english speech contest. and after training almost everyday for 2 months for, the amount of improvement, bravery and confidence she had to compete against the top schools in Hyogo, against seniors, against 8 native english speakers; was truly unbelievable. it was one of the most excruciating but enlightening experiences ive ever had. speech entitled NO VISION, NO PASSION.
selfcare that i manage to make time for: car naps, occasional swim, cooking comfort foods that i miss or just making something edible in general, feeding throwing treats from the car window to stray cats on the street
what’s left in the bank after getting a car, repairing it, and putting on winter tires: still 6 figures dont worry ma 😉
some end of year plans: (unrealistically but optimistically) passing the JLPT, my first christmas n new year in japan!! possibility of surviving winter in a RWD sports car, snowboarding, maybe wheeling a japanese bf? baby its coldddd outside (0 degrees in a country without central heating is just rough.)
happiest realization: i am the best version of myself that ive ever been
things wrapped, stamped or mailed: 4 parcels, 6 boxes, 28 postcards, at least 47 others
best memory: night out in osaka featuring a lot of johnnie walker, making new (ballin) japanese frens, longboarding thru the streets of osaka while accomplishing every single errand we set out for
biggest decision to make: whether or not to recontract for 2021/2022
最後衝刺= the final push (chinese not japanese. if u translate it, it will say the final STAB)
until the next quadrimester,
A
anntanya 