(no subject)
The rhythm of life for someone living abroad is just so different. I have to be much more mindful of my energy and how I'm spending it, because it is so much more finite as a resource. It's not that I have less of it, but it just takes more effort to do most anything outside of my house, despite having adequate language abilities. Even so, I feel like I've kept up a busy and social life. A lot of my time not spent recuperating is involved in exploring and enjoying my new home, trying to immerse myself in the culture of my father, and staying involved in the lives of my family. But I do spend a lot of time doing mindless things like playing video games. Actually, a good metric for how stressed and exhausted I am is how many hours of video games I'm playing over any given period of time. Thankfully, I've learned how to avoid games that hit my grindy-hate-myself buttons, and so any time I spend playing games is not as compulsive as it used to be.
Anyways, despite being perpetually at war with potential exhaustion, I have visibly accomplished a lot in the year since coming here. For example:
* I was integral in the staging an evening of theatrical performances as a charity benefit for the recovery effort in Fukushima on the anniversary of the earthquake. It was my friend's vision; she was heavily involved in theatre in NYC for a number of years, and it was her connections to the global theatre community that gave it the spark of life. But she's the sort of artist who needs another person to shape her own vision, and she also needed someone to help with general project management, not to mention someone who spoke decent Japanese. It's exactly the kind of role I enjoy, and I was happy to provide my skills. After a few rehearsals and a ton of meetings, the evening went off perfectly, drawing a decently-sized local crowd.
* I improved my Japanese a hella large amount on all fronts. I'm pretty close to graduating elementary school in terms of literacy (500 kanji or so), and I can now comfortably do light conversation on most any topic, as well as have deeper conversations about things I'm knowledgeable about (e.g. education). Most any public interactions are pretty easy, too.
* I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for the third rank and passed (first rank is best; second rank is next best; and so on to fifth rank). I'm going to take the second rank in a couple of months and expect complete failure.
* I read a lot more. My predecessor left a bunch of paperback scifi/fantasy novels, and I've worked through them. I've discovered that Mercedes Lackey really isn't to my taste, though I probably would have liked the novels as a young teenager or a preteen. Now, I just want to thwap all the characters for being that irritating combination of smug and privileged-asshole.
* I presented two workshops at Orientation for the new JETs coming in this year.
* I learned a little bit of Uchinaaguchi, which is the native language of the Okinawa islands. I learned a LOT about Okinawan history, including the more recent stuff that helps explain the crazy politics involving the military bases on this island.
* I navigated the crazy social politics of the local JET scene, and have come through a difficult year in a good position.
* I have done an awesome job at my work. I'm a good teacher, my students love me, and I've been able to use my classtime like an engineering laboratory for education and game design. I'm able to do rapid prototyping of games/lesson plans based on stuff that was mostly theoretical for me up until now.
* I navigated Japanese bureaucracy and got my local driver's license. That process is a god-damn nightmare, involving the two most ridiculous bureaucracies on the planet colliding into one super-hot mess.
Still, the period from when hazliya was in America to recently has been pretty fallow, until just now. Now I've got a crapton of stuff on board, from presentations for more prefectural JETs to performing standup comedy next week.
It's just strange. When living my life day-to-day, it feels like I'm doing nothing, but when I take stock of my time, all these things magically appear.
There's no final thought for this entry, no satisfying conclusion. Just another data point adrift amongst my busyness.
Anyways, despite being perpetually at war with potential exhaustion, I have visibly accomplished a lot in the year since coming here. For example:
* I was integral in the staging an evening of theatrical performances as a charity benefit for the recovery effort in Fukushima on the anniversary of the earthquake. It was my friend's vision; she was heavily involved in theatre in NYC for a number of years, and it was her connections to the global theatre community that gave it the spark of life. But she's the sort of artist who needs another person to shape her own vision, and she also needed someone to help with general project management, not to mention someone who spoke decent Japanese. It's exactly the kind of role I enjoy, and I was happy to provide my skills. After a few rehearsals and a ton of meetings, the evening went off perfectly, drawing a decently-sized local crowd.
* I improved my Japanese a hella large amount on all fronts. I'm pretty close to graduating elementary school in terms of literacy (500 kanji or so), and I can now comfortably do light conversation on most any topic, as well as have deeper conversations about things I'm knowledgeable about (e.g. education). Most any public interactions are pretty easy, too.
* I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for the third rank and passed (first rank is best; second rank is next best; and so on to fifth rank). I'm going to take the second rank in a couple of months and expect complete failure.
* I read a lot more. My predecessor left a bunch of paperback scifi/fantasy novels, and I've worked through them. I've discovered that Mercedes Lackey really isn't to my taste, though I probably would have liked the novels as a young teenager or a preteen. Now, I just want to thwap all the characters for being that irritating combination of smug and privileged-asshole.
* I presented two workshops at Orientation for the new JETs coming in this year.
* I learned a little bit of Uchinaaguchi, which is the native language of the Okinawa islands. I learned a LOT about Okinawan history, including the more recent stuff that helps explain the crazy politics involving the military bases on this island.
* I navigated the crazy social politics of the local JET scene, and have come through a difficult year in a good position.
* I have done an awesome job at my work. I'm a good teacher, my students love me, and I've been able to use my classtime like an engineering laboratory for education and game design. I'm able to do rapid prototyping of games/lesson plans based on stuff that was mostly theoretical for me up until now.
* I navigated Japanese bureaucracy and got my local driver's license. That process is a god-damn nightmare, involving the two most ridiculous bureaucracies on the planet colliding into one super-hot mess.
Still, the period from when hazliya was in America to recently has been pretty fallow, until just now. Now I've got a crapton of stuff on board, from presentations for more prefectural JETs to performing standup comedy next week.
It's just strange. When living my life day-to-day, it feels like I'm doing nothing, but when I take stock of my time, all these things magically appear.
There's no final thought for this entry, no satisfying conclusion. Just another data point adrift amongst my busyness.