De Ja Hasaam

Day #76
Funds: $4800ish (actually for a change I DID overestimate my funds - not a calculation error, I simply misread something. How embarrassing.)
Michael is back to where he was 3 years ago. And he brought some cool stuff with his brain!

Wowww I've been feeling pretty good lately ... Not a huge amount of stuff has been going on, and that's partly why I'm in this mood. (Oh yeah well we did go to the beer factory and that was ahah interesting.)

Things were crazy back home when I was working 2 or 3 jobs trying to keep my grades up and squeezing in a social life where possible while trying to plan this whole trip out like a Master Strategist. So far, absolutely everything has gone either exactly as planned, or better, so that part has worked out for me. Problem with micro-managing is of course that I didn't relax nearly enough, was too focused on my goal to really enjoy day-to-day stuff. (I did plan to relax, which worked out some of the time, haha.) I nearly missed out on way too many things, my 21st, for instance, just would not have happened if my family hadn't come together and done pretty much everything for me. I've been really lucky like that to have so many supportive and just generally kick-arse people in my life. And I've been really lucky to have met some more, too.

It's been really awesome to just kick back at a place knowing exactly where all my next meals are coming from, being able to sit back and watch tv, read books and go to sleep not knowing or wondering what'll happen the next day. It's a bizarre feeling, not even caring what day it is. I have vague memories of being like this before I started worrying about earning money so much. I have pretty distinct memories, actually, of swearing to always be like this and to not waste my life worrying about trivial things. I suppose at some point I started deciding way too many things weren't trivial anymore. Is this what growing up feels like? Eugh.

At any rate, in a mere four days I will have finally set foot on Japanese turf and my longest-standing irrational obsession will finally be realised. I am a little worried about my money, but I'll definitely be able to support the holiday phase, since I may not have to worry about accomodation again in March at least it will last through there as well, so that's the point where I will be on the look-out for any ways to get more. Right now the plan is to social network through the english-studying friends I have now to find students to tutor. That could work. Still have no idea if I'll be able to actually SAVE money, though, especially considering the fact I wanna buy so many presents! (Don't get your hopes up guys xD)

The fact I've graduated is starting to sink in. The fact that when I do come home, there'll be no more classes, no more getting up at 4 to deliver papers or sudden phone calls from the library asking me to come in, no assignments due, maybe even no big-deal end-of-the-year-month-long-or-so event ... just me and my family/friends and my books and my brain. I'm looking forward to that almost as much as Japan, actually. Don't worry, Dad, I'm not gonna become a parasite ... well at least, maybe not after the first 2 or 3 weeks back, hehe.

I'm thinking I may give a postgrad some serious thought, something to complement my degree in languages - and of course I'm going to have to put some serious effort into actually improving those languages. I know that sounds silly, but before with all the pressure all I could study was what was put in front of me, and most of it I found irritating or useless. I just wedged it in my head and passed the units. Now I got no excuses, so I really have to back up all of the crap I've been talking and get really good at Chi - oh hang on, I only have 4 days left. Okay, we'll see if I can actually improve my Japanese over the next couple months, and if stuff works out, I'll come back home and work on my Chinese XD If nothing encourages me, I suppose I'll just give up and bury myself in some aspect of linguistics that will confuse everyone to save face and seem smart. Oh well, I'm not gonna worry about that for a little while now anyway. All I have to do is figure out the best way to obtain and retain useful new words! Good luck to me!