42 down, 10 to go

You know how some people say they’re going to take a year off from whatever it is they’re doing so they can travel and “find themselves”?  I never really understood what they’d be finding or how they’d go about finding it.  In my 42 weeks here thus far, I’ve had a lot of time to think and reflect and in hindsight, I do think that I’ve found a new part of myself.  Eric version 1.1, if you will.  Here are some of the upgrades:

Public speaking: I used to get super nervous when speaking in front of large groups of people.  I had no idea how I was going to manage to teach classes of close to 30 teenagers without turning beet-red throughout the whole class.  Somehow, the redness never, or rarely, appeared in class.  Maybe it’s because I knew none of them could understand what I was saying.  Also, I was never really good at meeting new people but once you’re over here, you have to or else you’ll be pretty lonely.  Then again, everyone is in the same boat so it’s rather easy to strike up a conversation and such. 

Housework, etc.: Well, before I came over, I had a limited skill set in the kitchen.  Cooking rice, pasta, potatoes and eggs were easy.  Now I’ve expanded into meats and fish, and vegetables.  It’s nothing really fancy or anything but it’s edible.  You can live on prepared bento boxes and such for about $5 a meal but it’s lacking in nutrition in my opinion.  And it doesn’t have the ingredient of love that a homecooked meal does.  Hahaha.  As for laundry, I can do it over here because all you need to do is push one button and throw detergent in.  There aren’t any settings you can play with.  When living on your own and there’s something that needs to be done, you have to do it.  There’s no one else that will do it for you, or even help you do it.  (This is where a girlfriend would come in handy.  hahaha)

The future: Somehow I managed to decide that I wanted to go into pharmacy.  It’s another 4 years of school but I’m excited to be able to go back and do undergrad over again.  I just wish I had realized what I wanted before finishing my first undergrad.  Then again, maybe I wouldn’t have been mature enough to appreciate it.  But one thing that hasn’t been upgraded is my tendency to put all my eggs in one basket.  There’s never a backup plan.  If I didn’t get into the JET programme, what would I have done?  Try to find a job most likely.  What if I don’t get into pharmacy?  I’ll have to find a job most likely.  How do I find a job with pretty much no experience in the field?  It’s pretty hard to get experience if you need experience to get it.  Get it?

Randoms: In my mind I wanted to hit a target weight of 160lbs.  I was about 153 when I first came over but after about 6 months of all the biking and walking and eating, I’ve reached my target.  I don’t think I’ve necessarily gotten fatter since I’ve lost a notch on my belt (or maybe I just wear my pants higher over here).  Also, I’ve recently noticed that I’ve been needing to shave like every other day, and it’s getting close to being every day.   Used to be like once a week when I was first here.  It must be something in the water.  Steroids or something.  I’ve also developed like permanent bags under my eyes due to lack of sleep.  During the week I usually get between 6-7 hours of sleep a night, whereas back home I used to get like 8 consistently.  Even on weekends, I go to bed later but my body clock wakes me up after like 7 hours.  Hopefully the bags will disappear once I return. 

 Time to sleep.