Revisiting my goals and making a few new ones

 Remember way back in my first few months here when I posted some goals for Japan?  I thought it was high time for me to go back and look at them again and see how I am doing.  I have just over 5 months left here...what have I accomplished in the past 2+ years?

First, let's take a look at that original list of goals:

1. Climb Mt. Fuji  Not yet, but plans in the works!
2. Pass level 4 (the easiest) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) this December  check!  Not only did I pass level 4 of the old test (back when there were only 4 levels)...I also passed level 3 of the new test (it now has 5 levels)
3. Go to Tokyo Disney  been there twice!  And have plans to go at least once more this year, if not twice.
4. Wear a kimono/yukata (summer verison of kimono, I think) at some point for a festival(perhaps purchase one!)  still working on this...it does not help that last summer for all the festivals I was in America.
5. Sub-goal: Actually learn how to put on a kimono/yukata  when I bought a yukata last spring, the lady in the shop was kind enough to teach me and Alaina how to put them on
6. See the snow monkeys  been at least 4 times.
7. Really make an effort to speak Japanese with people  Not to be too American and confident, but I have really really really been trying and I do get complimented all the time.  And I do not mean the usual Japanese compliments (if you say konnichiwa, they are impressed! its ridiculous) but I mean actual, sincere compliments that make me smile a bit.
8. Get my students excited about English, but also about languages in general.  this goal is kind of abstract (more so than #7) and I am not sure if I have been successful, so I half crossed it out. When I go into classrooms, even now, 2 years later, the students are still excited to see me and respond relatively well, although I think this is more related to the fact that they know when I come to class we play games, whereas when I don't come, they have to learn grammar.   But let's pretend they always are excited about English!  How would I know, I am not there!
9. Try karate and/or kendo.  still working on this one.  probably not going to happen.  but there is karate in America.  I did learn the meaning of the word karate....kara= empty, te= hand.
10. Try taiko (the traditional drumming)  I have seen it a bunch of times, but have yet to try.
11. Karaoke- I want to sing a Japanese song, like, in Japanese. Also, Bohemian Rhapsody could be pretty fun, and Livin' on a Prayer  we karaoke at least twice a month.  for hours at a time 
12. Go to an onsen (if you are unaware, these are the hot springs, and you go in naked)  totally over the naked thing.  Onsen are awesome!
13. Visit Okinawa  Okinawa is far and expensive
14. Travel around Japan in general: Osaka, Kyoto, more in Tokyo, Hokkaido...   I have been to all the places listed here, plus quite a few others.  Shizuoka, Gifu, Nagoya, Matsumoto, Niigata, Joetsu, Yokohama...
15. Get to know Iiyama and Nagano prefecture  check and check!  I have been to the very south of the prefecture and I live in the very north.  And I have been to lots of places in between.  Iiyama...I know my way around.  scheduled holidays of stores, the delicious foods Iiyama is famous for...
16. Become a regular at some of the izakayas in Iiyama and actually talk to the owners. (izakaya= smallish drinking pub of sorts)  ok, well I do not drink nearly enough for this to happen.  But, there are some restaurants we go to semi-often and the owners or people working there recognize us and do talk to us, so I crossed it out.
17. Pass the Japanese driving test.  CHECK!  Thank God!
18. Learn to ski, and try to enjoy skiing. well, not skiing, but I learned to snowboard and have been enjoying it a lot, so that totally counts.

Ok, so where do I stand?  13/18.  That's not too bad, I guess.  I will keep working on the last 5, but before that, I do have a few other accomplishments that are worth sharing:

1. went to Korea!!
2. learned to crochet animals  (also improved my crochet abilities in general and I made a blanket!)
3. went to the doctor by myself once and managed to communicate successfully (harder than you would imagine)
4. Survived many earthquakes without completely freaking out.
5. I can now successfully call and reschedule package deliveries.  Call, I say.  No internet.  Talking...to a real person...on the phone.  The real question is...when I get back to America, will I be able to order pizza?????
6. I have passed not only two JLPTs but 3 kanji tests.  I am the equivalent of a Japanese student who has just finished 5th grade.  This means I "know" about 825 kanji.  No wonder there is no room left in my head for English anymore! 
7. I have a 100% pass rate for students who take the English Proficiency Exam interview.  (They have to take a written test first with grammar and listening and if they pass that, stage 2 is an interview.  I help them practice for the interview.
8. I have learned how to make cookies in a small kitchen with a small oven (bakes 12-14 at a time) and not proper ingredients.  My best achievement: I made over 300 cookies in 2 days.  My students loooooooooooove my cookies.

And finally, in my last 5 months...a few goals for myself. 

1. Continue to travel around.  We already have a trip planned for May to Hiroshima. I want to travel to 2 or 3 new places I have not been yet.  (Hiroshima counts as 1)
2. Pass the next kanji test, which would put me as a recently-graduated 6th grader.  In more impressive numbers, it would be 1006 kanji, about half of the government's "daily use" kanji list.  
3. Successfully clean my apartment and get everything important sent home. 
1. Actually determine what is important so that a bunch of random junk does not end up back in America  (you can stop laughing now, Mom)
2. Plan ahead well enough that I do not end up leaving mass amounts of trash for my successor.
3. Keep trying to figure out what to do with my old clothes so I do not have to just throw them away.  Japan does not do the whole donation thing, which is weird and frustrating.  You would think that after last March, they might have started really fast collecting clothes and stuff, but I cannot find anywhere willing to just take straight up donations.
4. Mom and Kevin are coming in August, so I want to successfully plan a trip to a few major sites in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.  This means knowing where to go because most likely I will be the one playing leader, rather than the usual me who follows someone more knowledgeable around.
5. Re-learn proper English so I can get into gradschool...sometime...in the future.
1. Really research grad schools and figure out which ones are actually reasonable for me to apply to. (speaking of proper English...I just ended that sentence with a conjunction!)
6. Start applying for jobs in America so when I get back I can continue to fund a somewhat enjoyable lifestyle.
7. Get all my paperwork done right when leaving Japan so I get my pension refund.  It is going to be a significant amount of money, and is thus quite important.
8. Start to get my French back in case I do end up pursuing a grad degree related to French.
9. Slowly get myself to stop bowing.  I think people will stare at me in America when they nicely let me turn and I bow to them instead of waving.  And all those phone conversations where I bow even though the other person clearly cannot see me...
10. Make a nice resume that accurately represents the many many many many things I have done on JET.
1. Figure out how to get letters of recommendation from JTEs.

Ok, that is a good number of goals, I think.  If I manage to come up with any more, I will add them in, but I don't want to overwhelm myself with all these things I want to be doing.

Thanks to all who have been consistently reading my blog for the past 2 years.  I hope you will stick with me for the next 5 months or so.  If you are lucky, maybe I will even write ranty blog posts about my experiences with moving back to America and reverse culture shock and realizing that Japan is far superior to America in every way (except the lack of certain foods and places to donate clothes).

In very American style, I am going to post some pictures of things I have done, one of which is very braggy. 

JLPT N3.  Check that score!!

My blanket.

More than 300 cookies.

Monday just kicked my @$$

I think (like many people) that Monday is the worst day ever.  I often fight with Monday, and it fights right back.  Today was no exception.  The final score: Monday: 3 points; Elissa: 0

Let me tell you how Monday won the fight and had me completely defeated before noon:


Today it was FREEZING when I got up.  Like freezing.  In the mornings, I usually get up and the first thing I do is look outside to see if I need to plan shoveling time into my morning.  But...the windows were all frozen shut!  So I went to the door as a back up and it, too, was frozen shut!  I had to give it a good hip-check to get it open.  Craziness.  At least my water didn't freeze.  Remember that?  I had to shower at a friend's house for a week last year.  

So I went outside gave my car a few extra minutes than usual to warm up and headed to school.  As I drove, I was thinking to myself, "oh, wow, I need to be careful, the roads are frozen, too!"  I made it to school fine, parked and headed inside.  I was walking so so SO carefully because I knew it was slippery, but even so, I managed to slip and fall.  Think banana peel kind of slip where your feet end up higher than your head.  Well...caught my fall on my right wrist and right hip area.  sat there for a few minutes regaining my composure (read: crying) and went inside.  I washed the dirt off my right palm to make sure I was not bleeding and AH the bottom outside of my palm was swollen and rather painful!  What do I do?!  After some pushing from friends, I decided to ask the nurse for ice.  This is the first time I have ever asked the nurse for any sort of health-related help.  I just wanted ice, but she asked what was wrong so I showed her my hand at which point she decided I needed to see a doctor to make sure it wasn't broken (I knew it wasn't) or fractured (hmm, fractured....).  She was kind enough to go with me to the doctor (I was so embarrassed!) and they took X-rays and confirmed that the bones were fine and that I just had a swollen bump of sorts on my palm.  He put some anti-inflammatory medicine on it, wrapped it, and sent me on my merry way.  I was really embarrassed, but I guess it is better to be sure there is nothing wrong with the bone that could heal wrong.  I may live to snowboard another day!

Dancing batteries and the flu

So as I sit here with the flu  (someone shoot me) I was going through my pictures and videos and trying to organize and delete and thought you might all appreciate the dancing batteries from Korea.  Apparently I found it really funny at the time (no, I had not been drinking) and I do still get a good laugh out of it every time I watch, though not quite what is recorded on the video.  Anyway...enjoy. 

Oh, the flu!  You are curious what happens when you get the flu in Japan?!  You have to take a week off work!  That's what happens!  It might just be schools, I suppose, but I have a whole week off.  A week off, did you catch that?  And guess what?  IT STINKS!  I am bored and sitting here feeling sorry for myself, especially because besides a cough, I feel fine!  What's the big deal?!  I had to miss a ski trip with my friends.  My week off school will cause me to miss the ski school with my students.  I had to miss Mexican night (I was SO bummed!!).  Not to mention the fact that when I go back it's just gonna be embarrassing cause I am the one teacher who managed to get the flu.  And I will probably have to wear a mask even though the flu will be gone from me.  The doctor also called me pitiful because I live alone and have no one to take care of me.  Yeah.  So enjoy the video while I sit here and continue to feel sorry for myself.

In other news, I went to the doctor in a foreign country all by myself.