The return.

I realized that I started a post earlier this summer, the day after I posted a link to my work blog. I never posted it, but I think I should now.

"By the way, things I should probably mention:

"My parents are getting a divorce; they separated this Christmas. Earlier this week, my Dad proposed to his girlfriend, Shannon.

"I'm going to Japan this fall; I finally got notified of my acceptance by Kansai Gaidai (the university in Japan), and I bought plane tickets yesterday."

So, it's been a while. The only people who probably still read this know the most important things. That my parents separated about a year ago, got divorced last summer, and that my dad remarried this August, a week after I left for Japan. My dad sent me a care package on Halloween with a photobook and DVD of the wedding. It was probably better that way.

I've basically been in a different life for 4 months. I'm gradually getting back to it, but now I know how I want it to be different.

I don't want to lose Japanese. For a long time I'd sort of given up on it. I received a C- in my last Japanese language class, in Fall '06, and I decided it was time to take a break. I was burned out. I may never be fluent in the language, but I don't want to lose it again. My proficiency in Japanese plummeted while I was taking a break from it. Not speaking or thinking about a language for a year and a half does that to you.

While I was in Japan, I didn't get the immersion I had expected. Honestly, I spent most of my time there speaking and thinking in English. My classes were in English, my classmates (even those from non-English speaking countries) all spoke to me in English, my roommate and dorm-mates spoke to me in English, and those Japanese people I knew also spoke English enough that I would often have half-Japanese half-English conversations with them. I ate lunch with my speaking partners once a week, but they would often bring their Japanese friends, and instead of talking to me, ended up talking amongst themselves in Osakan slang that I couldn't understand, occasionally turning to me and attempting to translate in broken English.

By the end of my time in Japan I could talk about various things, but I still couldn't really understand what was said to me, most of the time. I did have a rather strange one-sided conversation with the taxi driver on my way to the airport the day I left, though. The thing I remember from our conversation was that he disliked old politicians - the new prime minister is younger than the last one, apparently - and that he didn't like Hillary Clinton because she was too old. Yeah... Well, at least the Japanese know the U.S. presidential candidates. More than I could say about Japanese politics. I mostly muttered "yes" "is that so?" "ah" and such while he happily ranted at me. What surprised me, though, is that I actually figured out what he was saying. Often I don't get that opportunity because when someone says something to me and expects me to understand it immediately, I often don't understand the context well enough to guess at the meaning, so they get frustrated and give up, or try switching to English.

I think the biggest change that I saw while I was in Japan was a healthier way to live. I don't really like Japanese food, so I had completely different eating habits while I was over there. I like bananas again. While I was there I lost about 30 pounds and I got into what was, for me, probably the best shape I've ever been in. I walked everywhere, biked to school every day, went outside every day, explored shrines, and hiked up a mountain. My life was relatively low stress. I just learned not to freak out or stress about things, because I had to deal with a lot of changes, and to act the way I do at home would have been horribly stressful. Japan was an interesting place, but mostly, it was an opportunity to see how my life could be different, and what I could do with it.