Challenges abound

So I’ve definitely been meeting my fair share of challenges over here in Japan.  Seems like something new pops up every week from trying to borrow a wrench at a bicycle shop and getting berated to getting into a shouting match with my friend over her driving after drinking (loooong story – maybe I’ll devote a blog entry to it).  I run into challenges in the classroom too when trying to figure out ways to teach the kids in new, fun ways.
Luckily, when things go well in the classroom, it makes me forget about everything.  The feeling of fulfillment I get from leaving an excited, happy class of students is super rewarding.  I did a lot of research before I came over and I was warned on several accounts that I would be challenged mentally/socially/even physically as an ALT.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t possibly imagine these kind of situations on this level.
However, I will leave you with a great bit of advice from a former ALT that I has helped me out.  “Challenges in life come at all times and must be treated as opportunities to learn,  These opportunities help discover strengths that one never knew one had.”
がんばって！

Game Save Darwinism

So I have this tradition whenever I buy a used game (particularly a cart game with limited saves). When ever the game has all the saves used up, I respectively only overwrite the lowest level/time so as to respect the hard work that the previous owner out into the game. Weird, I know, but that is my way of the gamer ninja.

Rainy Season starting early! →

Good thing I *just* got my raincoat in the mail!

Rainy season starts in Kanto-Koshinetsu, Hokuriku, Tohoku | The Japan Times Online.

My Love/Hate relationship with Linux

Seeing as how I haven’t really had a computer challenge really since I came to Japan, when my friend asked for help getting an OS on an old laptop, I jumped at the opportunity to help.  She said she wanted to put Linux on it since her old laptop, which was having charging problems from blunt force trauma, so naturally, I was like “Oh yea, this’ll be easy and awesome!”  Boy, was I wrong!  This is why I’m convinced that Linux is the devil…

How Japan is trying to tear me down →

Sonnova-beech!  This kind of stuff is happening to me everyday!
Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday microaggressions that grind us down | The Japan Times Online.