Well it's been almost 2 years since I updated.  Life has been crazy.

I moved from Japan back to Canada for 2 months and then I moved to Leeds, England for University.  I had 4 wonderful flatmates in Montague Burton (University residence) and enjoyed all of my classes. It was super busy though, I don't want to ever do a masters degree in one year again. I have now officially graduated with a Master's Degree in Applied Translation Studies (MAATS) Japanese to English.  I also discovered that I don't actually like translation.  oh well.

I did learn that I like Project Management.  So I am hoping to find some work in that area but I only have 3 weeks experience. lol  We'll see how that goes.  I moved back to Canada September 12th, 2016 and ended up in the hospital the very next day because of my back.  I then spent a month in bed.  I'm now seeing a chiropractor 3 times a week and hopefully that will go down to twice a week sometime next month.  I stayed at my mom's house for a while and I have now moved in with a friend who owns a condo in Kanata about a 5 minute drive from my mom's house and all the major bus routes go right by the place!  So far we get along great and are both very happy with the arrangement.  I don't forsee any problems :) Now that things have settled down and my back is doing better it's time to look for work.  I'm hoping I find something good in Ottawa because I do not want to have to move again.  I really like where I'm living now.

It's really nice to be back in Kanata and to be able to see my friends after 6 years.  Not that I have actually been able to see most of them more than once.  I literally saw no one for the first 3 weeks or so since I couldn't really get out of bed.  Now that I'm mobile and living in my own space I hope to see more of them.

I picked up some Japanese textbooks to brush up on my grammar and kanji since I didn't do much of that at University and have done nothing with Japanese since I got back to Canada.  Now I just need to sit down and actually use them. I've been back for 3 months and I feel like I've done nothing.  Well...I moved houses. That's something I guess.

I want to find work but at the same time I want to stay home and do nothing.  I have no drive to do anything.  I don't think I'm depressed but I'm not exactly happy. I miss Japan. I miss my friends that are not in Kanata (the ones from Japan and the ones I made in England). And it's so cold here!  Apparently this is going to be the coldest Winter in the last 7 years and I've been gone for 6.  Go figure.  It's already hit -32C with the windchil factor.  I think the coldest it's gotten where I lived for the last 6 years is -5C.  I am happy about all the snow though. I have missed snow.

So that's it for now.  I'm going to try to update more often than just once in 2 years. lol

Happy New Year!

God, I can't remember the last time I was on LJ.  It's been a while!  How is everyone doing?

My Winter break is almost over and it's back to work in a few days.  So of course I got sick right before the break started and I'm still sick almost 3 weeks later.  On the bright side, it's NOT influenza, it's just a very persitant cold.  So I really can't complain.  I haven't been sick since the end of March, so I had a pretty good run.

I am now on my 5th and final year on the JET programme and am now starting to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.  I'm in the process of applying to grad school in England.  I'm waiting on a reference letter from one of my University professors in Canada and then I'll be done!  If I get accepted then I'll be moving back to Canada at the end of July for about 7 weeks and then moving to England for a year of insanity at the University of Leeds while I earn a Masters degree in Japanaese Translation. So I've been saving every scrap of money I can to send home (and I HATE that the YEN has gone down so much in value, stupid Abe!) to pay for school.  The British Pound is going up and the Canadian $ is going down and the YEN is just sinking! So I need a lot of money. :(  So I really hope I land a couple of scholarships to help me or I'll be needing quite a big loan from OSAP.

Halloween this year was amazing!! I was at my favourite school for Halloween for the first time and I made them all scream in fright! MUWAHAHAHA!!! It was a huge success and the kids had a great time.  I invited my students from two schools to come trick-or-treating at my place and this year I had 60 kids come by!!  12 of them were from Ono (which means that their parents had to drive them) and the rest were from my town (Yotsukura).  All but 3 kids dressed up and the ones who didn't weren't there for candy (they were just with their friends). I'd say Halloween was a huge success this year!

I went to Hawaii for my birthday back in September! It was absolutely amazing!! I really want to go back some day! It was for a sci-Fi/Science convention and I met scientists from NASA and got to sit in on some very interesting lectures, as well as met some actors and other very interesting people.  HawaiiCon was amazing and if I wasn't going to grad school next year I would love to go back.  Maybe one year I will be able to.

There are two more trips in planning before I go home in just under 8 months.  There is a leavers Conference in Februrary to give people leaving JET information about opportunities as well as workshops about how to write a resume (how to incorporate your everyday experiences into your CV such as public speaking, creating presentations, ect.)

The second trip is at the end of March during Spring break.  I am hoping to go visit a friend in Kyoto and we will go to Universal Studios in Osaka.  I really want to go to Harry Potter World!  My friend has a season pass so all I would have to do is get tickets at the local corner store and then book the train tickets.  I don't quite have the money saved yet but I will by March.


5 years has gone by so quickly! It's been a hell of a ride and I've loved most of it! I definitely could have done without the 2 week hospital stay my first year here, or the giant earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown (also in my first year here).  But the rest of it was pretty amazing!

My Halloween classes all went very well this week! I wore my costume to school yesterday and all the kids (and the teachers) loved it! It was the scariest costume any of them had seen in person (because Halloween here is seriously scewed!  It's way more cute than scary).  No one knew it was me until I started talking.  All the kids kept asking who I was. lol

I told all the kids that I would be handing out candy at my apartment and that they were welcome to come "Trick-Or-Treating" on Halloween night.  I had to repeat over and over again that if they didn't wear a costume, I would not be giving them candy.  I even went so far as to write on the board "no costume = no candy".  Most of the kids already knew where I live but I wrote my address on the board for them.  I ended up with about 30 kids which is less than I hoped for but more than I realistically expected.  I still have lots of candy left over...especially since a few of the kids gave ME candy! lol  I think about 6 of them gave me candy, and one girl gave me a bouquet of fake roses. lol   All but 4 kids came dressed up, and the 2 out of the 4 didn't even want candy.

The first 3 kids to come to my door were the little guys that live in my building.  The youngest is 4 and the oldest is in grade 6.  They were all dressed up and very excited! The youngest one was a bit nervous of my costume at first, but once he realized it was "just me", he was alright.  They went to my place and the other Canadian's place (Mai-Linh lives on the second floor while I live on the first floor).  They were so cute! It was their first time trick or treating and although they only had two doors to go to, they are already looking forward to next year.

Mai-Linh came over and helped hand out some candy and we watched Hotel Transilvania. 

Today I finished preparing my presentation for the Skills Development Conference next week and made all my copies for the people that will be participating in my workshop.  I think I'm ready! I'm nervous, but looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor's to get my foot checked again.  Hopefully it's healed enough that I can lose the crutches and the half cast. My foot still hurts, and walking is a bit of a pain, but hopefully things will continue to get better from here on out.  I'm sick of being so slow and awkward.  I'm really looking forward to getting to the point where the heavy blankets don't hurt my foot and I can lie in whatever position I want without my foot screaming at me because it's in a bad position.  Sleeping shouldn't be this hard.

Thank god this is a long weekend! Tomorrow I refuse to get out of bed before 7am! Then Sunday and Monday I can sleep as much as I want! (or as much as I can...?)  Then Tuesday the taxi will pick me up at 6:45 to take me to the Board of Education and from there all the Iwaki ALTs will hop a bus to Fukushima city for thee Conference.  The last 2 years the hotel rooms have been so warm that none of us "foreigners" have been able to sleep well, if at all...so I'm not anticipating sleeping much there either.

Energy drinks are becoming my best friend...

and here is the video I mentioned in my last entry.  Basically because of the typhoon, the ocean waves were HUGE.  The ocean was coming in pretty much right up to the road and every time a large wave came in, it flooded the canal and went under the road causing the sewers to go up like geysers.

My Halloween costume was a big hit at yesterday's party for the elementary chocolate kids. 60 kids participated and every one of them showed up in costume! The parents all loved my costume and many of them insisted on getting pictures of their kids with me. I, of course, loved the attention. My ankle, which I sprained and pulled some ligaments, held up well enough for me to wear the pirate boots. I have a half cast that I'm supposed to wear and crutches I'm supposed to use, but for the party I just wrapped my ankle well and hobbled around...very carefully. All went well and everyone had a great time. The only downside was that the material the pants are made of is so flimsy that the pants ripped...a lot. So I'll need to wear different pants on Halloween day at work. But I have a pair that will work, so it's all good!

And once again I'm so exhausted that I don't even feel like eating... It's now almost 5 pm and all I've had to eat today is 3 pieces of chicken. I still don't feel hungry...but I think it's time to go get some food. And I'm too lazy to cook, so I'm going to the corner store. Maybe I should get out of my pjays...

This week is Halloween lessons and I've got 7th grade covered, but 9th grade has me stumped... I have no idea what to do with them, and I have to teach them tomorrow...and I just can't find it in me to care. God, I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Ok, food. Maybe I'll feel better after food..and veggie juice.

Oh, yeah. That earthquake and tsunami the other night didn't cause me any problems. Earthquake woke me up, because as we all know, 90% of the earthquakes happen in the dead of night! But I slept through the tsunami. Yeah, that's how tired I am... I didn't even think to check about tsunamis...good thing it was only 1m and so was nothing to worry about. The typhoon 2 weeks ago caused more problems...oh I have a video of that I will post later. So, yes...all is well here after the earthquake.

Ok, I did it!! I pre-ordered tickets (hotel and convention passes) to HawaiiCon that will be held on the big island in 2014 from September 12th to 15th!!   I'm really hoping I can convince my friend, darkestnight01, to meet me there.  I first heard about HawaiiCon near the start of July and I've been thinking about it ever since.  The more I think about it, the more I feel  like I have to go.  So I've decided I'm going. It's going to be amazing!

First off...it's a sci-fi convention. There will be actors there from Stargate Atlantis, Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, Game of Thrones and more.

But there will also be Aerospace Engineers and Scientists from NASA!!  That was what grabbed me the most!!

There will also be Hawaiian Cultural Experts there to teach us about Hawaii. We will also be able to sign up for tours of the Island, and activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving, horse back riding, hula dancing, sunset cruises and more. there will be DJed events in the evenings, as well.  The convention is set to run as early as 6:30am on the last 2 days and finish a 2am!!  That's a lot of convention!! I believe Friday starts off at 1pm but goes on past midnight.

The hotel rooms are HUGE!!! I'm talking 600 sq ft for the smaller rooms!! and they are currently on sale for the next 29 days.  1 Con Pass (good for the entire convention) plus 3 nights at the hotel (in the HUGE room!) is only $595 USD!!  or for 2 people (2 con passes and 3 nights in the room) it's only $650. 

So I bought the "couple's" package because it's cheaper than just buying an extra con ticket (convention pass for the weekend is currently $75 but hotel is not included in that price).

So have I made you curious??  Check out the video and all the info that is posted on the website. Here's the link :)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/289378015/hawaiicon

It's going to be amazing!!! :D

Things at work are going well. Same old stuff.

I've been asked to be one of 3 judges at this year's Iwaki City High School English Speech Contest in September.  I've never been a judge before, so I'm a little nervous, but also really excited. Something new to put on the resume :)

Jen came over last night and is now on her way to Tokyo. We had a good night. We went out to a local Izakaya for dinner and then watched, "Rise of the Guardians".  It was good to see her again.

Last Friday my back suddenly started to really hurt again.  I made it through Friday, barely, and spent the weekend on the couch.  I talked to my boss at the B.O.E. and she called Kashima Clinic to see if I could get an appointment with the back specialist there.  That clinic has 2 doctors who specialize in back issues.  One of them was accepting new patients, but new patients can't make appointments.  So Horikoshi Sensei picked my up at 7:30am yesterday (Tuesday) and drove me to the clinic and stayed with me the whole time.  We were there for about 5 hours total!

5 hours at the clinic, which looked more like a hostpital, got me 4 x-rays, a shot in the back, and more pain meds. The shot in the back didn't really do much, I'm hoping the meds help. Turns out the gel-like stuff between my 4th and 5th disk is pretty much gone. There is little to no space between the disks at all. Also, the little bones that sticks out from each side of the disks are not the same on my fith disk. The one on the right is a hell of a lot bigger than all the others and it is hitting something near my hip and that's where the hip pain is coming from. oh yay. So now I have a bunch of instructions on how not to move and how often to get up and move during the day and what have you. Turns out I'm not alowed to twist at the hips...and damn, I tend to do that a lot. I've been doing that since I was in grade 7! I have enough pain meds to get me through Saturday and was told that if I am still in pain after Saturday to go back and see him again. *sigh*

Thankfully the pain meds are working really well.  Today I woke up pain free for the first time in almost a month.  I know the meds are just masking the pain, but it is such a relief!  One of the meds I was given is to help with inflamation and I guess it's working.  I hope things get better soon.  I definitely need to get back with the paleo life style.  Christmas ruined me completely this past year. Fell right off the wagon and didn't get back on.  So now I need to catch up.

I went to the store this morning and bought some lettuce, spinach, red and orange peppers, onion, garlic and hamburger meat. I'm going to make taco salad for dinner tonight :)  It's been a while so I'm looking forward to it.

My back is getting stiff and a bit sore again, I think it's time to get up and move around a bit.