In an effort to save money, I've actually been keeping cramped up in my room for most of this week, so I'm pretty sure that this entry will be relatively small. Sorry about that.
I have done a few things, though, so I'll tell you about them. Not many photos this week, but I'll see what I can think of to make up for it towards the end of the post.
My last attempt at exercising was a flop--a couple of months ago, when I decided to practice my yoga every weekend? Finals came up shortly thereafter, and I had decided to take so many classes that I just didn't have time to do anything besides school work. So I've tried again. One day, I got tired of being bored and decided that I would pick up both my yoga and my belly dance again, and set my goal to be to keep going at least until my birthday [but hopefully I'll work more towards setting it as a habit rather than make it to my birthday and just quit]. I've been at it for six days now, so I'll keep going on.
Along with my determination to exercise, I've also began to watch what I eat much closer than previously. I didn't eat badly, per se, but I definitely ate a bit more than my body seems to genuinely need. It's a real pain, however, because I do really enjoy eating.
Really.
Hopefully, though, I'll be feeling somewhat charming-looking by the time my birthday rolls around here in a week and a half, even if it is only endorphine-induced. My body is currently hurting to sit still for a few days now, but I know that if I can push through this, things should be okay.Will persevere, however, and keep you all posted, if only to keep my motivation up. Sorry this blog has become so multi-purpose.
I've also started avidly watching anime and working on my vocabulary, as well as reading a grammar dictionary to see about learning as much as possible before the placement tests next month. I'll see about making this trend last, too. Once I got home from work today [will add more about that later], I studied for about four and a half to five hours with a friend of mine in the dormitory study room. It was a good time, I got a lot of new vocabulary that I'd like to study. I wanted to write it out in sentences to see about making it last, but that's just a little tedious for me, when I don't have any creativity with my Japanese just yet. So I'm working on memorising the new vocabulary by rote. We'll see how long it sticks. I'm hoping it'll do all right as long as I stick with it.
So, for the past week, I've mostly been doing what I can to meet with my goals of becoming good at dancing, getting fit, and learning as much Japanese as humanly possible over the next month or so before school starts back, so that I can progress even further rather than starting over on a few things.
A couple things have happened over the past week, though, so I'll go ahead and tell you about that, yeah?
I've been painfully bored, if you haven't noticed--bored to the point that I've started asking people if they've wanted to do anything. Normally, I'm so introverted that it never seems right to try that, but desperate times have been calling for desperate measures. Many of my friends have become busy with something or other, so a lot of them aren't available until next month, but I have planned a couple of things with a few of my friends. Friday, I'll be heading to the Sunshine Aquarium in Ikebukuro, and then I believe we're going to try to go down to a beach shortly thereafter.
So I've planned that.
I've been hanging out with various friends with a little bit of free time off and on--but they all have part time jobs or are travelling or something, so for the next week or so, things might be a little bit quiet for me again. We'll see. Hopefully they won't be, but one can never tell.
Monday, I went to see the Avengers with two people, which was fun. It's finally out in Japan, and came out in both dubbed [voice-overs] and subbed [subtitles] versions. Initially, my friends and I had intended to see the subbed version, of course, but my Japanese friend mixed up the tickets and we wound up watching the dubbed version.
Oops.
It showed me just how little Japanese I know yet. Looked cool, but I had nary a clue as to what was going on most of the time. My friend apologised [I didn't mind, so of course it was okay], and we kept watching. It seemed good--it will be nice to be able to watch it in English, however, when it comes out on video. It looks like it will be thoroughly enjoyed once Samuel L Jackson and Robert Downey Jr sound like themselves again instead of bizarre Japanese men. Haha.
I have subsequently developed a rather large crush on Tom Hiddleston [Loki] since watching the film. I had found out previously that he did Shakespearean acting, as well, which made Loki my favourite character in the Thor and Avengers movies, of course, but I didn't realise until just the other day upon investigating Wikipedia that he did a BBC version of Henry IV parts I and II, as well as Henry V, with Jeremy Irons. Jeremy Irons is my absolute favourite actor, hands down.
Tom Hiddleston is Prince Hal, and Jeremy Irons is Henry IV. Shakespearean literature can be written up there in my list of passions; I'd like to act, but alas. I have no skill in such art. However, it's needless to say, my intrigue was piqued, and my fangirl-ism for the both of them tripled.
Their rendition of the plays cannot get any better for me. I've found it online to watch, though, from what I've watched thus far, I will be intending to purchase it as soon as BBC releases it on DVD. Apparently PBS is supposed to be airing it some time in the future, so for my American readers, see about tuning in when it comes out if you enjoy Shakespeare! Thus far, I highly recommend it. Will let you know next week after I've finished the entirety how it is.
Nothing of importance was accomplished yesterday--as a matter of fact, I felt a little ill most of yesterday due to some unknown digestive trouble--it has passed since then, but it was a bit of a burden yesterday, and kept me from getting much besides my laundry accomplished.
So I got little to nothing accomplished, although I did manage to exercise for about a half-hour before I gave up entirely on it due to simply feeling too bad.
Today I went to work for the first time for the real thing! Hurray, nepotism! Well, at least when I know someone.
It was fabulous--everything went really smoothly, save for the fact that for some reason, the conversation recording seems to have been taped in slow motion [using a cassette player, you see], and I can't seem to get it to play fast enough for our voices to not sound funny and hard to understand. I'll keep tinkering with the thing, and hopefully something will come of it, but if not, I'll manage the best I can with what I have. Even found the button that's supposed to play everything fast-paced and it's still slow--any suggestions, guys? The buttons are all in Japanese, and even though I've translated all of them, it's still a little bit intimidating.
After class, though, which ran for an hour, I came back home, and my friend messaged me to ask if I wanted to study with him. So, we studied and talked for a while, as I mentioned before.
But that's really all that's been going out. When I need to go out, I'll usually walk over to the grocery store and pick up a couple of necessary items, just to get some fresh air. Or I'll just go people-watching.
I don't have any plans for tomorrow, but as I said, for Friday, I'm planning on going out to Ikebukuro to go look at the aquarium.
The Rurouni Kenshin movie comes out on Saturday, so I'll try to see that relatively soon, as well.
Will keep you posted.
In the mean time, for your entertainment, let's see what I can scrape up.
Ah. I've got it.
Go learn how to dance, everyone! I'll see you next week!
-RD
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