Busy

Life has been pretty crazy the past few months. Trying to keep up with everything and finding time to blog about the fun stuff is just not happening lately! I'm only on right now because I'm taking a break in between writing two papers for grad school ;)

Updates?

I climbed Mt. Fuji! I need to type up the whole story so I never forget the details, because it was an exciting and crazy journey. I injured my foot near the top of the mountain and was transported down. My foot is healing, but slowly. I am back to walking normally, but cannot do more than a mile walk at the gym without pain and cannot do anything outside of walking on flat, level surfaces. Even though the healing process is very frustrating, getting to the top of the mountain was worth it! Jeff's already planning a trip next year to climb it again - I'm done! I did it once, that's it.

I'm in my last semester for my graduate certificate. I lucked into two rather busy classes at once, so that's fun. I'm excited to complete this certificate and getting excited about all the paths my career could take. I stumbled into something I love over here on this remote military base.

I have a very special visitor coming to Misawa soon. Which is part of why I've been stressed for school - trying to get a couple major assignments complete before said visitor arrives! I haven't seen this person in years and I just cannot wait. Expect major picture overload on Facebook and eventually over here too.

The heat wave has finally passed Misawa. Those few hot, humid weeks are miserable but they went by quickly this year. I'm looking forward to fall weather, but I'm not too thrilled about all the snow shortly after! This will be my last full winter in Misawa, so I will have to soak up as much winter fun as I can. Hopefully my foot will heal enough that Jeff and I can finally go snowboarding this year!

Otherwise life has been pretty normal - working and trying to relax. My schedule recently changed back to days so I'm able to cook dinner with Jeff again. After months of working nights, I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We haven't had the energy to explore much lately, but we've continued to enjoy all the amazing food in Japan.

I should get back to my homework now! Only two and a half assignments to go before I can relax and count down to vacation! (My work day count is in single digits, hooray!)

From my Phone

So let's talk about technology. I love it. It's been an absolutely essential part of living overseas and staying connected with friends and family far from us. But sometimes, it's a pain in the ass.

 

Jeff's iPad died last week. I bought him that for Christmas. We can't get it fixed unless we make a trip to Sendai (5hour drive) or Tokyo (9hour drive), or back to the states to get to an Apple store. Boo.

 

My laptop decided to crash days later. I just bought the laptop in June! I had to wipe it and start it from scratch again, losing all my files on the computer. I'm trying not to be bummed. I didn't have a ton of personal pictures on there that weren't backed up already, but I did have a lot of work pictures and videos that I lost including quite a few that I hadn't uploaded to our Facebook page yet. I'm in the middle of semesters right now, so I didn't lose anything I need to turn in or other such catastrophes, but I did lose a lot of files and resources I had planned on using for graduate school and my career. But when push comes to shove, at least the laptop is working again and I can move on from here. Once I re-download all my programs and find as many files as I can.

 

Onto a brighter note, I finally grabbed a microSD to grab the pictures from my phone. I don't remember my phone has a camera the majority of the time, but here's a few.

 

 

 



 

The Japanese think of everything. These minimalized drink holders fit into the bag with the food so everything can be carried in one hand.  I've said this many times, but McDonald's in Japan is like the fast food you dream of, or fast food the way it was intended. It's absolutely delicious. I don't think I'll have a huge problem giving up fast food when we moves back to the states :)

We tried a new ramen place a few weekends ago for a lunch date. Neither of us were too enthused with the ramen, it was just okay. But it was nice to get out of the house.

 

Have you met Jeff? He loves video games. And shooting arcade games. He couldn't resist this one when we were wandering through the stores. He said he was doing great until I tried to join and help...

 

It's like Guitar Hero with Taiko drums! I played, and I'm about as good on this as guitar hero, although it's slightly easier since there are no buttons. You just bang on the drum with the sticks provided. Entertaining.


I'm off to set up my laptop again! And be very paranoid that it will crash again, since I haven't figured out WHY it crashed the first time...

Action Shots

I've had the added bonus of working on my photography skills at work lately. We're doing a basketball league through the summer for the teens, so I volunteered to photograph the games. It's been fun fiddling with the settings to get the best shots I can.

(I've blurred all the teenager's faces, but you can see the great action shots)

Otherwise life has been pretty quiet lately. I've been reading lots of fluff to make up for all the dry textbooks I endured during the winter.

Jeff and I have gotten into weekend lunch dates since I work most evenings. Yesterday we tried a new ramen place and today we went for one of our favorites: sushi. I love that we can go out for delicious foods and not ruin our diets, since it's all healthy. I will forever love french fries, but Japanese food is amazing too.