Of Easter, and Weather...

Happy late Easter to everyone.  As for me not posting for a while, I have been busy with school, dealing with this back ass-ward winter (it's almost fucking April and we got 7 inches last night).... And my computer was out of commission for a little bit. Woke up this past Friday to a popping sound coming from the computer. I pulled out the power cord to find out that it was /sparking/. Turned out it fried the inside power too, and that needed to be replaced. Luckily I had it back by the Tuesday night afternoon.  

Haven't been going to GEO this week, had other things to get done, except for today where I am just too lazy to run over there. Next week I will be better at this. I met with my Russian Professor for tea instead.  It is nice to do, because it is nice to have someone to talk to, and it is nice to know I have a place to go for a letter of recommendation when applying for AEON comes up. Don't get me wrong, though. I do plan on being productive this morning. I need to email the head of the Japanese Department here to ask for a tutoring position next semester. I want to help American students learn how to converse properly in Japanese. Colloquial expressions, different types of "ben", and other little nuances that could be useful. I believe that learning how to speak through dialogue checks isn't practical. It teaches you how to speak in that exact pattern, not in every day society. That may be why speaking in Japanese becomes such a tedious project for some people here. It doesn't flow like other expressions are supposed to. That is what I aim to correct. I also will email the head of the ESL department here to see if I can get an internship with them as well, helping foreign students with their English. I think these will be helpful with not only me getting my degree (which I need, apparently, before I even apply to AEON), and for the job at AEON itself.  Ah, what a pain in the ass the future can be!

Been having a problem with identity lately.  Not like someone stole my identity, but more like I have this  feeling that I don't know who I am anymore.  So many realities mixing, I worry that I am losing who I am and what I have accomplished so far as to deciding what my life will be like. I suppose everyone goes through something like this, but this is the first time for me. *sigh*

So, not much more news for now. Must wait till January to apply for AEON, which makes my Jan 10th leave date null and void.   A few more months will maybe put a strain on me, but I will do my best. 

頑張れ！

A look at snow, from both sides of the pond...

Being back in Buffalo means one very important thing: the dealing with absolutely shit ass winters. Buffalo is infamous for having long, cold and snow filled winters. Speaking to some of the foreign students that go to my school this year, almost all of them have been asked at at least once at some point while they were still living in their country, "Out of all the places in America, why Buffalo?!"

Amen.

The thing that sets Buffalonian winters out from most other winters is the lake effect. In brief description, Lake effect is heavy snow caused by a batch of cold air moving across a warm, and not frozen, lake (Lake Erie in this case). Warm water moves into the cold air , and as soon as it hits the colder shore, it dumps the snow, making for tough driving conditions, more snow than you would want to shovel ever, and a nice day to say "fuck it" and go back to sleep.

I.Hate.Buffalo.Winters.

Living here for 20 out of 21 years of my life gives me good reason to. Every year from October till March its the same damn thing. Unfortunately, also, any sort of snow fall makes the drivers on I-90 and I-290 and I-990 incredibly stupid. I hate driving in it.

I guess I was pretty spoiled this past year. Living in Kanazawa gave me something I hadn't seen in a long time: 4 seasons. Now, in Buffalo, there is a joke that we have all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, construction. And in most years that is true. Fall lasts all of 1 month at most, winter for 6 months, spring/winter for 3 (if we are lucky), and summer for 2. In Kanazawa this past year, the summers were nice, the fall beautiful and long, the winter short, and the spring full of cherry blossoms.

In the time I was in Kanazawa, it snowed twice. One time in January, another shortly before I went on a major tour of Japan in March. The nice thing about it is, people there don't tend to suck at driving during the winter, and the snow that year lasted for 3 days at most. Then it melted and we all felt better about life.

I miss Kanazawa winters.