Look, look, a post!

I know, this is…unbelievable.

But I had some information of interest, and since it’s something I’ve posted about at length, I thought I’d share.

Next year, I am spending eleven months in Udonthani, Thailand.   I leave in five months, and though it may not be Japan, I am completely excited and nervous and predict complete amazing-ness.

It’s getting harder and harder to think about leaving, though, with one boy becoming increasingly sweet and wonderful.  My mantra stays: take life as it is.  Enjoy what you can while you still can, because regrets aren’t my sort of thing.  And I would regret passing this boy by.

Well, D’s next, isn’t it.  I plan on divulging a little about the unknown Dutch-American culture.  Trust me, it’s more interesting than it sounds right now.

Mata ashita.

C for Calendars.

In my Japanese class, we occasionally play some memory games with kanji, just for the relief of playing games in class.

Frankly, I rock those.

I have a mildly photographic memory, so identifying pictograms is pretty thoughtless.  I haven’t lost once yet, and Japanese sweets are good enough to motivate me not to ever.   On occasion, though, the prize isn’t just amaimono.  I have two pieces of very pretty wrapping paper and a calendar, won from three separate games.

The calendar is ancient.  1968, made by the travel bureau; each month has a corresponding painting from prominent artists of the time.  I started cutting out the pictures, and I’m thinking I’ll make a collage for the extremely blank span of wall above my bed.

My favorite is one of red flowers.   I’m a sucker for red flowers, but not roses; I remember how sad I was that poppies had to be used for drugs.  Suddenly, I felt like I couldn’t like them as much since they were used for bad.  I think the red flowers are poppies, though I can’t find the picture right now.  If they are, if they aren’t, no matter, they’re going in the middle of the collage.

B for Bears.

Bears. Bears. Bears?

Among the ponderings of my mind is this sudden motif. It doesn’t help to have a friend semi-nicknamed “Bear” (in a way…that’s hard to explain) and to be reading Enchantment, the novel by Orson Scott Card of which I could gush for hours. If you’ve read the book, you know the importance of bears. If you don’t, consider this your sign to read it. Read it now.

Really. Read Orson Scott Card, in general. Until you get too far into the sequels to Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow. If you were wondering, yes, it really is only downhill from something as stunning as those books. But that doesn’t mean the man couldn’t write. It means he couldn’t write about Ender or Bean anymore.

Bears. Right.

In the back of my head I almost wonder if there is some strange meaning to this theme in my life. I’m sure I could dig up a whole bunch on it, but I probably wouldn’t end up believing it anyway.

Mostly, I just thought those links were amusing. And Enchantment. Read it.

Important edit:  I almost forgot.  Da Bears.  You know, the ones who are going to beat the Colts today.  Those Bears.    -Go Chicago!

…Mata ashita.