restless and tired for the past few days. think i ate something i shouldn't've, again... now i'm trying to make kimchi (it'll probably fail, i used the wrong type of cabbage and spices and the "sauce" is more like a watery soup instead of a paste) and fermented squid (hopefully won't fail) for the first time. for some reason i've failed in making ( Read more... )

got a cane for blind people and the disability office taught me how to use it… mixed feelings. on the one hand, i can actually look around me instead of at the ground when i walk, and people will actually assume i see badly (those 2 points are the reason why people even have canes); on the other hand i feel like i'm "really a blind person" now... i ( Read more... )

japanese uni i most want to do the exchange with announced they're offering ONE full 1-year scholarship (via the japanese government) to our uni, as in out of the 3 people who can do the exchange in the first place 1 can get $1000 USD a month to pay for all their living expenses.the chance of me being selected to go on exchange is rare (a ( Read more... )

(haven't written any clear spoilers in this post ( Read more... )

i found out that two of our upperclassmen (they just finished japanese III, which i'm just starting now) are going on exchange for a year to the school (in sendai) i want to go to most, starting in march... that school only lets in 3 exchange students per year so maybe there will be no room for me (who'd go in autumn), i don't know when the "year" ( Read more... )

long story short i've started learning greenlandic in order to write a textbook for it that will get me money (i know, i know.... yet another textbook idea). the language is -easy-, except for the fact that ALL the lessons for it are for crazy linguists, or people who actually already know greenlandic, and/or are in danish or german (99% danish - ( Read more... )

well my goal is to finish memorizing words from this japanese textbook before january; currently just got to chapter 7 out of 15. ate some too-processed food again (cheese for pizza - thought i was safe, wondered if it was the kefir instead, but my wife also felt bad from the cheese and didn't have any kefir) and surprise-surprise, have only done 4 ( Read more... )

traded mails w my mom a bit. her life is basically worse than mine at this point so i feel bad for her actually, though it's her own fault. she never got a degree or any kind of real further education (trade school etc), only ever dug herself deeper and deeper into debt, dated my abusive  stepdad for 10+ years and put him above all her kids and ( Read more... )

so lately i'm on a mad rush to memorize ALL the words in the 3rd semester textbook before that 3rd semester begins, because having memorized words ahead has helped me SO much this semester. there's 15 chapters, with about 200 things to memorize each chapter (only 100 individual words/phrases, but i have to memorize both the kanji and pronunciation ( Read more... )

basically someone said "you don't know the REAL japan, i've lived in tons of countries and japan's the worst for foreigners!" so i was like, why not, i'll go research and see if anything's changed from last time i read about this ( Read more... )