Contradiction

As one of my arguments about lots of topics, I really oppose being eager only to getting English skills. That is kind of misunderstanding and misplacing the priority. Even if people can speak English, they necessary cannot be the smart, cool and full of academic people.

Using English (or any other foreign language) as a tool to do something including communication with your friends, study or whatever is important. We should not make effort to study "English skills"

But, actually, I need to study "English skills"... that is so contradictory...I don't wanna and shouldn't study "English skills", but I need that kind of knowledge or skills to teach someone English in the future.

For example, I don't like to study a detailed grammar. I don't like to care about tiny things about the rule of writing or grammar.. But I need to do it....

So far, I always passed or ignore the word I don't know when I am reading the textbook or reading materials. That is the good way to read a book in English easily. Now I am thinking I should look up to each word I don't know to increase my vocabulary. Oh my gosh, that is gonna be hard work.. I need to learn the correct how to write a paper in English..

Does every English teacher in Japan know that kind of "English knowledge or rule, grammar" well enough??

Good night.

I saw the shooting star at first tonight....

DONE

DONE!

Finally I have finished the crazy writing assignment before due, safely.
I was gonna be crazy, because I have read about El Salvador more than 10 hours in a day for a week. American University assigns us reading and writing a lot, as I heard. I want to do something happy for me as a reward.

Tomorrow, it is gonna be Halloween. But for me, a Japanese, that is not understandable what is special in Halloween. Everyone says, "I can't wait!" or "I am so looking forward to Halloween!"
Is it so fun? I have no idea. One of my room mate is going to Santa Barbara for Halloween party. He says, there is famous crazy party in Santa Barbara. Everyone is coming to SB from anywhere else. He invited me, but I refused...sorry. That is because I can't imagine, what is so fun just to go to the UCSB and drink, and have a party? There seems nothing special. We can have a party here, San Diego. But he is going to stay two nights at Santa Barbara......uh...

Anyway, I like drinking, but I don't like crazy.
               I like drunk, but I don't like crazy.

good night

Library

Nowadays I use library very often. Using or staying library, I can concentrate on study. I can also study in my room, but in our suite, there is a kind room mate who always invite me to go out somewhere. I know he is kind. But at the same time I found I should not follow his invitation every time. Last Saturday, I went to the club, as I mentioned before, with him, which delays my study or doing assignments. I am spending very hard time on study because of that now. I want to avoid his invitation and concentrate on my study.

So, I decided to go to the library every day to study. I have to use the facility of university and chance of living on campus to concentrate on study. Libraries are open from 7:30am till midnight in Mon to Thu. On Mon to Thu, I will not come back to my room in a day once I left. Friday night I can enjoy party or socializing with my friends. But I need to work hard at library till midnight at least on Mon to Thu. Maybe I can have a fun in Saturday, too. Anyway, let's follow the time schedule of the library.lol

 The reason why I need to study hard is that every other people here only have to study for courses of the UCSD, but I also have to prepare for the test of job hunting to become a teacher as well as usual study for UCSD. I found that I need to study more even after I finished assignments of courses. I need to study more than other friends here. OMG.....this is so bad. But it is necessary. I don't wanna fail to the test. I want to pass it in one time.

By the way, finally I decided to become an English teacher in public high school or junior high school in Chiba prefecture. One of the reasons is that I want to change Language (English) education in Japan theoretically, practically, and directly. University professors or researchers also can be involved in language education "theoretically". But they cannot do it in "practical" or "direct" way. I don't think that I can be satisfied with only observing and thinking about problems. I want to be active and do something directly. I think public school teachers also can publish or state something as well as university professors or researchers. Plus, it takes a lot of time and money to become university professors. Since I came here, I found that being independent is very important and exciting! I need to be apart from my family soon. To do that, I need to earn MONEY. Becoming a teacher maybe makes me independent from my family. If I go to the grad school, I still need to depend on my family. That makes me feel very bad and far away from marriage and my future babies (I'm just kidding. lol)

Someone (including my family) say to me, "If you become a ordinary public school teacher, you might not be able to use your academic skills, English competence, or ability as much as you want." Yes. It might happen. For example, if I go to the very bad school where its students do not study at all, maybe I cannot use my skills or abilities as well as I want to.

Actually, I want to apply for these following programs of Ministry of Education in Japan as a teacher. These program is to send a public school teacher to foreign countries. These teachers help the Japanese students who are in foreign countries because of the father's job or something like that. Or they teach Japanese to foreign students who want to learn Japanese in the school.

In this way, I can use my academic skills or abilities and these programs are in the fields of my interests, which are "minority education", "bilingual education", and "language acquisition".

The references of the programs are

http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/clarinet/002/004/002.htm

http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/rex/main.htm

http://rexnet.loops.jp/index.html


Oops! I've gotta get back to my assignments.

See you.

why did I...

Today, I just invited a Japanese girl who went to the Boston career forum which is the job hunting event for Japanese students who are bilingual. I was interested in that. But I don't think i will do job hunting, and I didn't go there. Plus, Boston is far away from California. I just wanted to talk with her about how was the Boston career forum or something.

I prepared for rice and salmon (Japanese one) for her. (I said to her, "Why don't we have dinner?")

But soon after she came, my roommates appeared and they talked a lot while I was cooking.
Actually I had a class in 30 minutes when we ate dinner. While we were eating dinner, she and my roommates continued to enjoy talking. Finally I had to leave the room to go to the class.

I didn't have enough time to talk with her. What did I do? I just served dinner for her.
Why did I do such a thing? I got depressed. I just wasted my food.

ooo

I ate breakfast with reading.

I ate lunch with reading.

I went to the class and read.

I went to the library and read.

I ate dinner with reading.

But, I cannot finish my assigned reading. I should not have been to the club on Sat and Sun.

I am still reading.

All of the readings are about bilingual education programs for minority students and El Salvador.

Why do I read about El Salvador so much?

That's it.

crab and club

Last night I went to the crab hut, the restaurant which serves sea-food. That was nice because I have wanted to have good and lots of sea-food since I came here. But the restaurant was so wild. I have never seen such a wild restaurant. I mean, everyone sets gloves (like gloves for surgery operation lol not kidding) and table cross and there is no plate. We eat sea-food on the table by hands with gloves. Wow. I have been to the crab restaurant a few times in Japan, but that was more clean and neat...not this wild.

But the taste was good! That is OK.

After that, I went to the club.

That was the first time for me to go to such a place. (Did you guys go to Roppongi or something? I never..)

In short, that was not fun for me who do not have a partner. lol

Club is the place, as you can imagine, drink alcohols and dance with disco music all-night. That was fun, nor boring. But All of the couples (boys and girls) looked pretty much having fun than us. They danced together and the boys drove girls sexually..

I got so tired, because I got out the club at 2am.

Maybe I will never go to the club without a (future) girl friend...lol

NBA! but...

I went watching the NBA games LA lakers vs warriors. That was so exciting ! That was the first time for me to see the basket ball game. Cool. Kobe didn't appear, but that was fun. I want to see a game again while I am in the States. NBA is nice. Naturally, all of the players are so tall. Compared to them, all the cheer girl look so short. It was like they were elementary school children, but they are adult. lol

Anyway, I enjoyed the game,,, but,,,,

One of my Japanese friend and her boy-friend drove me to the arena by his car. They are so kind that I don't have any room to complain about them.

But, they are so annoying and uncomfortable!! I mean, they touched their body or shake their hands each other all the time. They are so touchy-feely! (in Japanese, "Icha-Icha") I got shocked a little bit, because Japanese girls are not being so touchy-feely in public situation. Moreover, it has been only a month since she (a Japanese friend) came here. Maybe she met her boyfriend only one or two weeks ago. How is possible? I can't understand, boys and girls who met only two weeks ago each other became boy-friend and girlfriend and being touchy-feely. I don't think there is a real love between them. Crazy. Why can't they do such a annoying behavior in public. Don't they feel any shame? For example, if it had been three or six months since they got to know each other, there is no problem in being touchy-feely. But why can she be touchy-feely only in two weeks to a strange foreign guy? Japanese girls here are too loose to guys. Maybe they cannot do such a touchy-feely behavior in Japan, so they use this opportunity study abroad EFFECTIVELY to be touchy-feely.

They shook their hands even in driving. I don't wanna see it anymore. So annoying!

And, they said before driving to the arena, "Why don't we go to the restaurant to eat something?"

Of-course the only thing I can do is following them, because they KINDLY took me to the arena by their car. I had no choice. I followed them.

"sure"

But the time was 6:30. The game would start 7pm

We arrived at the restaurant at 6:45. They were keeping enjoying love conversations in the restaurant. They were not trying to hurry to the arena.

Finally we arrived at the arena at 8:15. Half of the game was finished. That was the break time.

Damn! I really wanted to see the game from the beginning!!!

I saw only latter half of the game. I was so irritated and frustrated.

But super Alley-oop made me a little bit happy in the end of the game.
I couldn't imagine that I was able to see the super play, Alley-oop, on my own eyes in real.

On the way back home, they were touchy-feely. I should not have asked them to drive me to the arena. I should have asked another friend.

trouble

Trouble happen. My phone became unable to send an e-mail. But I can reply any e-mails from my friends. That is problematic, and actually it caused a problem. I planned to go out dinner with my friends today. We planned to meet at 5pm in front of the library. He said(in the mail), "When can we meet?" and I (thought to) reply, "At 5pm in front of the library." I thought I sent this e-mail to him successfully. But he didn't get any e-mail. Then without receiving any e-mail from him (of-course I can't get it, because he didn't get the mail from me.), I was just waiting for him in front of the library. He didn't show up. I wonder what was going on? And I sent him an e-mail, "Where are you? Are you busy today?" But of-course he doesn't reply. Finally I got a mail from him, saying, "It seemed that you were busy that YOU DIDN'T REPLY TO ME, so maybe we can have next time. See you." At this time I found I didn't send any e-mails successfully to him. Crazy phone! Damn!

Is it my fault that I bought a too cheap phone? Indeed, $10 in a month seems too cheap to be good quality. Sometimes I receive calls from the people I have never seen or heard. (They always say, "Is this Anny?" Hey, I am not Anny. Absolutely not. )

I need to contact my career of my phone.

raining

It has been raining since this morning today. Such weather is very rare in San Diego. I became a little bit nostalgic because of this weather.

And it is getting colder... I hope sunshine will come back. please.

The class is getting harder... I don't think I can finish all the reading assignment every time.

uh,,, I wonder if I have a .....

75kg

Last night, when I saw my face on the picture, I found my face getting fat...!
I just went to the pool today, and measured my weight there...
I am now 75 kg. I got 5 kg added to when I was a competitive swimmer.
That was not best balanced weight for me, who is 183cm tall.
The best weight is 73 kg.

I need to lose my weight by more than 2 kg....

That is the problem! Omg,, I need to keep on exercising. Plus I need to stay healthy.

I decided to keep track on my health.
I put a piece of paper on the wall.
I will write down on it,

when did I get up
what did  I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
What kind of exercise did I do
Did I have any alcohol
when did I go to bed


I need to check my health status and keep it nice.

Another bad thing is that from the last Wednesday, I drank alcohol 5 days in a row.
Too much. I should stop it.

And I will bring rice to any dinning restaurant, that is because in many cases, dinning restaurants serve only meat or fish, no rice or bread.

And then if I don't have rice, I will get hungry and have another sandwiches or something to make myself full. That is not good.

If I eat rice and dinner of dinning restaurant, I can be full.

Sunday supper

Today we had an event in my dormitory, called "Sunday supper". That is a kind of "semi-formal" dinner. We're just dressed up, and we have dinner together at the great hall. I also wear recruit suits. But it cost $25..(EXPENSIVE)

That was fun, but that was usual dinner. Nothing special happened. Moreover, the most disappointing thing is that the food was so bad, terrible. I can't believe why the food was so bad. Worse than usual 'bad' food in our dining restaurant. Not bad, but worse. The worst. Why did I pay $25 such a bad food. This is a kind of fraud.

Anyway, after this, we went out to eat something to make up. lol

My friends took me to the Japanese Izakaya near campus.
That was so Japanese! Inside the restaurant all of the things are Japanese.
The waiter and cook was Japanese, and the many of the customers are Japanese.
They speak Japanese. The waitress has speaks Japanese accent English.

I ate ramen. That was very normal ramen. But that was so nice. I also had yakitori. Maybe I cannot hate Japanese food ever since now and from now on.

Nowdays one of my friends (he is an official UCSD student) say to me, "Girls in UCSD is ugly, so maybe your standard of judging looking of the girls will go down. Your judge will become so loose while you are here."

As he says, it seems like that my standard is becoming loose...lol

So what? don't ask me anymore.

Anyway, what I strongly thought today was that why many Asian girls already have boyfriends.

 nice spelling

no more

Last night we have a concert on campus. Of-course I don't know the artist. But that was fun. At the field, we jumped and screamed, or whatever.

From Wednesday, I continued to drink every day. I got really tired. I ran out of my energy. I can't be excited or powerful any more. I need to take a rest. Plus, mid-term is coming, and I have a lot of writing assignment. Super birthday week should be over. Done.  I need to concentrate on study.

p.s. I felt just envious when I saw the many of couples are dancing together...forget about it...lol

Appendix

The fantastic celebration

Yesterday was my birthday, that was so fantastic birthday.


First, my friends took me to the Japanese supermarket Mitsuwa. That was so amazing!! I can buy "real Japanese food" I have missed Japanese food so much since I came here and yesterday was my birthday, so I bought many foods ! I bought Sashimi and Umesyu for my celebration by myself.lol I also wanted to buy Japanese books including comics, but I gave up buying, because it was so expensive. Because of the shipping fare, the total price is twice as expensive as original one. That was so stupid! When I pay, the shopkeeper asked me, "Show some ID" (because I tried to buy alcohol. The U.S is so strict) and I showed my passport to her. Then she found, "Oh, today is your birthday! Exactly you became 21!! Wow, Happy birthday!!" I was celebrated by the shopkeeper. lol So happy.


And then Mitsuwa has "Santouka" ramen shop !!! That is so surprising, isn't it?? (Guys, of course you know this shop, right?) Amazing! of course i ordered Ramen, it has been a while since I ate Ramen last time. America doesn't have "Ramen" Ramen is exactly Japanese culture. To be honest, I wanted to eat "Naritake"... but that's not possible. (no, if anything super miracle happen, Naritake could be in the U.S. .... lol)


Taste was nice as I imagined. So good.




At night, I was invited to "Martini cocktail party"


One of my friends made cocktail. He used a lot of types of alcohol. That tasted so nice. 
and it seemed kind of "rich" and "bourgeois".


So far so good.


But....


Soon after everyone knew that I was birthday boys, they gave me so much alcohols including vodka.
Unluckily, there was no "weak" alcohol like beer, because we just try to make cocktail. So I drank so many kinds of strong alcohol. So was everyone..


As you can imagine,


We became crazy! It has been a while that I became so drunk.


We rolled over the street, shout something, or whatever..


I hardly remember last night... but from the picture, I can imagine, we were so crazy.
That is ok, that was fun,,,


Even if I drank so much last night, I don't feel any hangover. Oh my super liver.


Something wrong happens and I cannot upload the picture. So i will upload them next time as an appendix

Forever 21

Thank you very much everyone. I finally became 21 years old. What will be changed in myself? What am I going to be? What will I be able to do? What kind of career will I choice for the future? What kind of person will be my....partner (it may or may not happen lol) I don't know all of these question! This means I still can have lots of choice and decision for the future. (I hope) Recalling this one year since mty last birthday when I became 20, I had so many good experience. I also got the shocking news including that some of my friends started to work! Yeah, it passed about 6 years since the graduation of junior high, and 3 years since the graduation of high school. Now I strongly feel that connection with people including family, friends or whatever is precious and important. I want to keep it forever.

Actually, last year, I went to the "sky garden" of roppongi hills (do you know?), I mean, the top of the roppongi hills, and shout to the sky "I'll do it!" (in Japanese) on my birthday. I know you felt it so crazy. So was other people around me at the sky garden.lol But I don't care.lol From that time, I decided to do something crazy every on my 20s birthdays. I was thinking about it last time, and I decided to shout out, "I'll do it"(again) at the La Jolla beach seeing the beautiful sunset. I also decided this crazy event for my 20s birthdays precisely. That is, "Shouting 'I'll do it!" at the place you can have nice view or scenely." Last time, I did it seeing all of the beautiful awesomeTokyo skyscrapers. This time I will have nice sunset view.
But unluckily today it is cloudly,,, so maybe I will have tomorrow or whatever...

At the same time I was thinking about my future. What will I do? I have several choice as my career.

1. An English teacher in high school. I should mention, I want to teach general academic things and my major interests (linguistics or bilingual education problems) more than teach English skills. I want my (future) students to be able to think this world critically. For example, I don't want them to learn English without thinking anything. I really want them to think, "Why do we have to learn English? Is English necessary in this world? If so, why does it happen? " something like that... I want them to find that it is so interesting to study.

2. Researcher (university professor) The reason is the same as above. I want the society or university to think what is going on in this world critically and what is the right thing to do (this is from Michael Sandel...  lol).

3. Jounalist The reason is the same above

4. NPO or NGO.... This choice is newcomer. I don't know them well. I have to search about it carefully. But one of my friends said to me, "You can have NGO or NPO choice."


uh... what is going to happen to my life? Depending on the choice, my way of life will change. I might start to work as soon as i graduate, or I might go to Grad school.

The only thing I can say now is that I will make use of this great opportunity the most and study hard for this study abroad life. Study hard.

omg

When I saw my body at the mirror, I found (or felt) myself getting fat,,,(a little bit)
My waist loosens. ......

Oh, my gosh! that is one of the crucial problem I was worried about before coming to the States. I should be healthy from now on. I will not eat any chips or French fries.

Here, "no more strong and oily taste food" act has been just passed. lol

This acts forces me not to eat oily, fatty and strong taste food. I should not put dressing on the salad. Hamburger is prohibited. Sandwiches are accepted only without mayo or any other strong sauce. Basically fry is not accepted. I should mainly eat vegetable or eggs.

By the way,,, I am still reading the same book assignment from yesterday. When the hell can I finish this...

uh..

I should not have hung out last Sunday...

I cannot finish my work! why do I have so many assignments?
Today, I read, read, read, read, and read one book from the morning to at night.
I have more 50 pages to read...

See you...

Hola!

This Saturday, I went to Mexico with my room-mate!
As you know, San Diego is very close to Mexico. From downtown San Diego, it takes less than one hour to Tijuana (Mexico)

Everything was new to me. Especially seeing the border was fun! (Japan does not have border line...) Interestingly, From the US to Mexico, it is pretty much easy to enter, but on the other hand, From Mexico to the US, it takes so much time including security check or passport check.

I felt the difference of power between these two countries. I'm serious. Entering the Mexico was a kind of entering the supermarket. lol Just going through the gate. But when we come back to the States, we stood in line for two hours.....


Anyway, I got the meaning "Mexico is more or less dangerous place." (http://www.anzen.mofa.go.jp/info/info4.asp?id=264)

 Every street is full of poor people and desolated. Many of the shops are very silent and sell a lot of imitation like copy of brand goods or animation character goods. Shop keepers try to ask me to buy the goods as soon as they see my face. The funniest thing is that they try to use Japanese. "Konichiwa, yasuiyo,  chotodake, choto dake, ne, onega-i, harakiri pura-isu yo" So funny, especially "Harakiri praisu " Where did they learn such a word...

So eventually there was nothing attractive or exciting for us. We just hung around the street. But actually there are so many beggars. I found we are so lucky people. In this world there are a lot of area where people cannot afford to buy something to eat.

Plus, Mexican people cannot speak English at all. That is very natural things, but Mexico is very close to the US, just beyond the border. But they don't and cannot speak English.. Interesting.

Maybe I will never be Mexico again, because there is nothing to have fun, and second, I can easily understand this place must be dangerous when it gets dark. I can feel such an atmosphere in the town...Scary...