Dartboard

I just have too must to write about and not enough time to do it, never mind enough hard drive to save it.

I’m seriously getting a new computer. I’ve talked about it for months, thought about it for years, but I’ve decided I want it bad enough to finally do it.

And I’m taking the appropriate steps. Thanks to Yuki’s help this week, I have ordered a credit card and as soon as it comes I can go to Fukuoka and get a new MacBook Pro. Since I’m not going to pay for it all at once I need to have a Japanese credit card to purchase it with.

Then I will have a little more than 600MB free and can download the pictures from China and save my text documents (I’ve been denied a couple times before I found things to delete!) and actually post semi-meaningful things on my blog. Maybe next weekend!

Hey anybody want to buy a used Titanium?!?

I have a live, human boyfriend again!!!! Yuki is back on Goto for two whole weeks!!! I’m such a happy woman!!

I was jogging through Narao with Catherine Tuesday night when she taps me on my shoulder and points to her left. I glance up and see my Yuki standing there with his suitcase. Before my eyes even focused I screamed and jumped over the bushes to run and give him a big sweaty hug. It was like a dream!

See, I had suspected that Yuki would come this week, even though I asked him to come next week as I was feeling busy with school and just getting back from China. So he said he’d changed his plans, but as I was going home Tuesday I was half-expecting him to be in my apartment waiting for me. (I know he loves surprises!) When he wasn’t there I was disappointed, but I went over to Catherine’s and we—both in bad moods—decided to run out our aggression. I even told Catherine I thought Yuki would be here today, but I was upset that he wasn't.

We were on the last leg of our jog when we saw Yuki pushing his suitcase from the ferry port in the direction of my house. He’d tried calling but I didn’t have my cell phone on the run. I couldn’t stop smiling and jumping up and down. Then we showered and I drove him up to his house to surprise him mom.

This is the difference between American and Japanese. While I screamed and freaked out when I saw him, his mom hardly even got up to unlock the door and when she finally did she calmly said, “What are you doing here? What about school?” She was hesitant to answer the door because she thought he was a ghost. (Japanese people see ghosts much more than your typical Westerner.)

Because Yuki got such a good score on his TOEFL test, he’s allowed to stay here for almost two weeks. Currently we’re thinking about our future (the million dollar question everyone seems to be asking me right now) and what we want to do when August comes is...

1. Go back to Oregon together in August for a two or three week vacation. His mom has expressed interest in going with us, too. This trip, as well as 2, 3, 4, and 5 are just what I'm hoping for at the moment.

2. Return with Yuki to Tokyo so he can finish his last year of university. I’ll live with him, working and studying Japanese for about 4-6 months. I'm hoping to pass a Japanese proficiency test in December.

3. Spend Christmas in Oregon (because I haven’t seen my brother in over two years and he’ll be home this year).

4. In the early spring, move to Boston to attend graduate school, or at least start working even if I don't enroll in classes right away.

5. Yuki will graduate in April and just this week we’ve started looking at graphic/website design schools in the Boston area for him.

Yuki does want to go to graduate school, but he’s still unsure what he wants to study. He’s decided to do something he already knows he enjoys (website design) and knows he’s good at (English) until he figures out for sure why he’s going to graduate school. It seems like the most logical thing to do when you’re undecided—do something you enjoy! Besides, it gets him in the US at the same time as me!

It’s lunchtime and I’m starving!

I was a guest writer in Matt and Corrine Haning's montly newsletter. Here's what I wrote about China for their friends and family!
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Having done a couple major reports on the country of China in 5th and 8th grades, I thought I had some solid answers to the question, "What is Chinese?" I could recite the population, draw the flag, recall some stories about Wang Lung, the Chinese farmer in Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth." I knew about the one-child policy and the Great Wall and Taiwan's struggle for independence. I knew all these things, but sitting in a taxi with Corrine, and watching the hustle and bustle of a large Chinese city pass me by, I realized I actually knew almost nothing about life in this country.

If I were asked to draw a picture of "things Chinese," I could probably scribble out a couple pandas, a bowl of rice and a picture of Mao, but I still knew nothing very substantial about Chinese culture. Having lived in Japan for the last 2 years, if you were to ask me what I thought about this country, you wouldn't be able to stop me from rambling on and on. So, although I already had this idea of what China would be like (or should be like according to my school reports) China caught me off guard.

There are plenty of things about Chinese culture that you rarely see in books, split pants and spitting to begin with! If the Hanings haven't already told you about split pants, they're hiding something from you! Then we have the cacophony of car horns, bike bells and cell-phone shouters. Streets are complete chaos; bikes, taxis, rickshaws, pedestrians all going in any direction at any time. The popularity of Pizza Hut and Starbucks. The crowds. Bird on a stick. Public urination. The regulation of the internet. The undervalued currency. Milk teas. A society of only-children. The sound of the Chinese language and the feel of Yuan between your fingers. All these things you can never fully understand until you put down the books and travel to the country. While I don't undervalue the importance of my school reports, I realize their limitations. For those of you who are hesitant to visit China, I strongly encourage you do so. The Hanings are wonderful guides!

Corrine and Matt, for your patience, hospitality and a very special introduction to Chinese life and culture, thank you.

No, no! I haven't forgotten. I was in China, remember?!?

Well, now I'm back and I've got stories and pictures to post, but today work is really busy and I don't have enough time to pack a lunch, nevermind upload pictures.

But stay tuned--new, interesting stuff will come soon!