Kyra

Okay, so not to say that I had it worse than anyone else, but I’m sure it would be a tough call. The week before midterms I was engulfed in the internship application process; interviews, assessments, more interviews, etc. I think the University of Iowa could better space out when this fair occurs, because having it a week and a half before midterms is gruesome. All the employers expect you to get this done in two days, and that done in three days. I’m not complaining too much because it is a blessing that I have even been selected to be a part of the process. It just gets difficult if you are taking on a full load of classwork, and then having to choose where to spend your time-sensitive efforts, between internship and academics. The weekend before midterm week was my best friend’s wedding. It was an entire weekend-long event. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. She looked absolutely stunning, the food was fantastic, her family felt like my family, I won fifty dollars, and not to mention I am really happy for the both of them.

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After the wedding -BOOM midterm week! I had a total of four exams, one quiz, and two Spanish papers to do. After a very late night of studying and procrastination (I was having a hard time trying to focus), my first exam went great. After a pep talk with one of my good friends, my Spanish research paper turned out alright. The first day was done and I was feeling good.

Tuesday I had to do an assessment for one of the internships I was applying for. I found this internship at the Spring Job and Career Fair hosted by the university at the Iowa Memorial Union. They sent it to me on Friday and said that I had 2 business days to complete it. The wedding consumed my weekend, and I spent Sunday and Monday preparing for exams that I waited until the last minute to do the assessments for. Tuesday night I begin to start feeling really sick. It was obviously my lack of sleep was catching up to me. By 6pm I had a cough, sore throat and an achy body. At 10pm I was trying to get these assessments done, and I ended up being so fatigued that I fell asleep during one of them. I completely bombed them. I currently feel awful because I know that I could’ve done a lot better had I been well rested and not sick.

Wednesday morning I woke up so sick I could barely move. I went to an academic adviser meeting where I was encouraged by my adviser to “follow my heart.” Okay, so those were not her exact words, hers were of course less cliche and more wise, had a lot more content, and more structure.

Right before my first class I stopped by the Center for Diversity Office (my favorite place on campus), and although there was no food present I did find an empty beanie bag in the backroom. I sat there with the intention on taking a quick nap. I felt like complete dog poo. I had aches all over my body, and it hurt to talk or think. My nap turned into a two hour siesta.  Once I woke up, I knew I had to go to the doctor. While I was waiting for the bus a good friend of mine brought me some soup. I am so grateful for the friends I have made at Iowa, they are so sweet. Later, I called Student Health and made an appointment. After describing my symptoms the man on the phone told me to not go to class.

I went there and good news, I didn’t have the flu! However, they believed it could be something else. They couldn’t test for it, because the results for this “something else” do not show up until 1 week after you’ve begun to experience the symptoms. However, my doctor did tell me that I need to rest all evening and all day tomorrow to see if it helps. She also suggested that I did not go to class, until I was feeling better.

For the first time in a while, I thought… YES I CAN BREATHE! So, I went home and slept for quite some time. Then I woke up to dismal emails from my professors about making up my exams. Talk about STRESS!

My trip to China is even more precious now, I can’t wait!

Sadly, I am not a performing member of Iowa Andhi this year. Luckily, the current captains have granted me the manager position, so that when I freakishly show up at every performance and random practices — I have a title!

The pictures above are from the VSA Lunar New Year Dress Rehearsal that we had prior to the show.

Directly after the Vietnames Student Alliance’s Lunar New Year event the entire team came over to my house. SLUMBER PARTY!

To say the least, there was a lot of cupcakes, snacks, and candy! We played the board game life together and stayed up a lot later than we probably should have.

For those of you who don’t know (that would be all of you, because I don’t think I have ever mentioned this before), my housemates and I refer to our home as the Panda House. We no longer live in a dorm. We live in a house about a 12 min walk from campus. Our house has been separated into 3 apartments. I share an apartment with two other girls.

The first semester is almost over and it is time for a spring cleaning in the middle of November.
We recently just called a meeting to discuss what needs to be spiffy’d up!

Maybe I’ll post pictures when we are done.

On the flip side, when I came home today there was a little pink sticky note on my door from my landlord that said she’d be showing our apartment to somebody else tomorrow! I am telling you, finding another place to live is not what I want to be doing with my time right now. The stress of finals  is already here with finals week being less than two weeks away! I know what you are thinking…
“Why don’t you just stay at the Panda House next year?”
I’ll tell you why… because it is so goshdang EXPENSIVE.

I want to be closer to campus (although I am already pretty close), and pay less than the 583$ I am paying for rent every month of the year (it does not exclude the summer months) and that is not including utilities. I don’t ever think I’ve ever been so broke before in my life! We have a really nice house and a decent landlord, but I just can’t do it. I just picked up another job.

Say HELLO to Buffalo Wild Wings!
I had my first day of training today, and I loved it.
But it is still a job and takes up time and energy.

My goals are to find a cheaper place to live, budget my money better, study early and study well for my finals, clean up my house, and stay on top of things with my organizations.

With all the beautiful leaves changing, this campus just becomes even more beautiful.

I am trying to balance staying inside and sipping on my hot Chinese Peach Tea and studying.

I really need to utilize all the study spaces offered on campus.

It is decided!

My rent is too high. I need another job.

I will begin searching on Jobnet this weekend. Jobnet is the University’s on-line advertisement system for all employment, including student employment.  Community employers can also utilize this site to advertise part-time jobs that are for 20 hours or less per week. I will let you know what I find.

=Kyra

A month into school and I’ve already realized I have been slacking.

This weekend I have cleared my schedule to take some time to sit back, reorganize, and set some goals and guidelines.

To make sure that I hold myself accountable, I am going to write an update each day of the weekend on my blog. I will include all accomplishments that I’ve achieved during that 24 hours. Look out! I am about to get back on top of my academic and organization game!!

Sincerely,

Needs To Be More Productive.

先週のしゅまつは　京都　に　いきました。

Here are pictures from my trip to Kyoto.
I visited Toei Kyoto Studio  Park and Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama.

Today, marks the end of our third week of class which also (unfortunately) means that earlier today I had a midterm exam. As usual I was the last one to finish my exam. However, I do feel confident that I study efficiently and that I did my best. I will let you know how that plays out once I get my score back. Today the program created an event for us to connect with more of the locals called Curry night! Some Japanese students from Shiga Daigaku will come over to our apartments and cook curry with us. I am not really sure what history Japan has with Curry, but I know my best friend’s mother makes the best Indian South Indian curry I ever tasted so this meal is going to have some pretty high standards to live up to! I just got back from the Grocery store, Beisia, I swear I have to go like every three days. Today I spent way too much money!!! My groceries costed about 5000 Yen.

I need to be a little more strategic when purchasing my food. On the way back I stopped at McDonalds…what can I say??

A Karaoke Night!

カラオケ

Karaoke is said to be a form of entertainment invented by the Japanese (I am not sure if this is true or not, I wouldn’t doubt it though). Unlike what is common back in Iowa and nearby locations, karaoke bars are virtually all over here. I’ve seen about 4 so far and I have not been anywhere close to seeing a fourth of this city. They are extremely common and are just as popular among Japanese businessmen and women as it is with the high school and college students.

The Welcome Party was an event planned by JCMU staff to help us American students make Japanese friends. At the welcome party students from the near by university (Shiga University)  met with us, played games, and practiced speaking both of our foreign languages. I met a lot of really cool people, I can’t wait to begin building relationships with them!

June 3, 2012 Sunday- Japan

Today I woke up around 10 am Japan time and let’s just say I felt like a real adult! Lol
I got up and toasted me some raisin Danish bread that I bought all on my own yesterday evening at the supermarket called Beisia! My microwave in Japan acts both as a toaster and a microwave! How sick is that? I just put the bread in and push the little red bread icon that reads “to-su-to”トースト (toast) and when I take my bread out it is toasted! I put some jam on it and had a bottle of Aquarius water! Then I decided to do some planning for my trip to the Dominican Republic that I want to take before school starts, the moment I leave Japan. I will share more about that later.
After spending about 3 and a half hours on Students Abolishing Slavery academic year planning, there was a knock on my door. My new friend Scott from Massachusetts wanted to know if I wanted to go exploring. HECK YES! I asked my roommate Addie to go and then we were off! Frannie, Scott, Addie and I went to a nearby Shrine, chilled on a huge rock in the lake, climbed a mountain, and explored a nearby town. To say I had a blast is a huge understatement.

Now I am back in my apartment waiting for the rice to cook so that I can cook my dumplings! After cooking dinner today’s exploring group is going to be reunited so that we can watch a Japanese movie together! All the other students have been studying all day because we have a Japanese level placement test tomorrow, but because I plan to get placed into the first level Japanese I don’t necessarily need to study. There will be plenty time for that once classes start on Tuesday.

I am not quite sure if I have said this enough times or not, but I am so thankful to be in such a beautiful country with such amazing people. Last Friday Scott and I took off on a little adventure of our own to go see the beautiful 400 year old Castle of Hikone. This is one of the highest accessible points (besides other mountain tops), and the point with one of the best views that I have seen so far. Looking out into the distance from any angle will give you an irreplaceable view of Hikone, including the beautiful Lake Biwa and the city of Hikone itself.

Time and time again, I had to just stop and take it all in. Just to think about people over 400 years ago walking on this very ground, building this very castle is quite a humbling experience. Once we made it to the top and I avoided the evil Japanese hornets, I sat on a bench in the wind and listened to every sound of the city. The holler of the air whistling through the mountains. The voice of the black and white birds in the trees just a few feet away. The city’s vehicles. What a sweet combination of nature, history, civilization, and peace. This gave me an opportunity to let my mind roam in places it ordinarily wouldn’t. I asked a lot of “why” questions to myself and imagined what life would have been like. Unfortunately, because of lack of planning and Scott and my spontaneous spirit, we did not get to the castle during the hours that the inside was open. In more than one way I am thankful for this. We were able to pay close attention to the outside architecture of the castle as well as its beautiful surroundings .

Leaving Hikone Jo, I felt renewed and restored. I had some prayer and much needed relaxation time. The JCMU Intensive Language program is very intense, I study here like I have never studied before… I might just need to visit Hikone Jo a little more often.

The landscape and view from the castle delivers peace and beauty with every look….