Random thoughts.

I'm starting to get use to my life in Japan more and more but a lot of things are still weird. One example:The time difference. It blows my mind that I am a day ahead of everyone else. I've made the joke that I am in the future. On Super-bowl Sunday, which was Monday for me, Chad asked me who won Super-bowl and I told him the Cardinals. He told Alex and for a second Alex really thought I knew who won. Like right now it's 6 p.m. Monday but in Portland it's 12 a.m. Sunday, well technically Monday I guess but still you get the point. I swear  I will never get use to it. 

The grocery store that I have complained about, Sanko, has redeemed itself today. After swearing it off for life I caved in today because I was hungry and it's close. This time the lady that is always screaming through the speakers and the marching band were replaced with Japanese rock music, which wasn't half bad. I even recognized some of the words. It was filled with old people still but this time they weren't annoying and in my way. They all stared at me as I walked past them, I think because I was towering over them and because I have bright hair. 

One old guy stared at me as I walked down one of the isles with his mouth open. He was in front of me in line and wanted to talk my ear off. The checker didn't know much English, he was pretty bad and I hardly know any Japanese so it was funny trying to understand each other. I was able to answer a few questions in Japanese so I was pretty excited about that. It's funny how you think you're not making any progress but when you get put in a situation where you have to speak it, you find out that you know more than you thought you did.  So I decided that after today I will give Sanko another chance. 

Everything is so expensive here, especially with the economic crisis back home. Japan is in a recession of some sort too but nothing like the U.S. in fact the yen continues to rise while our dollar continues to drop. A bad time to be studying abroad for sure. I spent $40 at the store and really didn't buy that much. It stresses me out being here because I had to take out a private loan to be able to pay my way here. My financial aid only covered a portion of the costs so I had to supplement it somehow. My lovely friends had some benefit shows and some just donated money to help with my trip and between the two shows and the group of friends that donated to my cause, I left with an extra 1,000 for my trip. I am extremely grateful for their support and contributions. But it's still rough. 

When I get back I am going to start studying for the GRE exam to get into graduate school so I'll be skipping the fall term which means no financial aid, which is how I usually pay my way. So it's a little unsettling and I am trying not to worry about it too much now because there's nothing I can do about it. Before I arrived here, I was going over how much everything was going to cost and I was extremely frustrated because it seems like only students with rich or somewhat well off can afford to study abroad and after talking to a lot students here my assumptions were correct. A lot of them don't have to worry about money, there are some that are paying their own way but it seems like a lot of them rely solely on their parents. I hate money, it's stupid and I hate how much it affects people's lives. But I didn't want something like money to stop me from coming here because it's such a great opportunity for me in so many ways. It's amazing to be in this country and to experience the people, culture and rich history. I miss everyone deeply though.