and so it end...ed

I've been home for more than a week and made not a single bit of progress in catching up on this blog! :D

Study abroad is over.

"Real life" begins again...except it's winter break, so I'm still on vacation.

And then, "real life" begins after graduating from school...

And then, that might not feel real enough, so "real life" might not start until I get married and have kids...

At this rate, when will I ever enter real life?!

Maybe my whole life is real already.

Including Japan.  Including college.  Including everything I have ever been a part of.

All of that, and right now, is a whole lot more "real" than the future I can't predict or control.

2010--hard times though there were, may I always remember it as a seriously God-blessed year.

2011--let's go even further~

Time is tickin’, T-Time is tickin’ away…

"One (feat. Ji-Sun)" by Epik High is a prettttty cool song.  I just looked up the lyrics, conveniently found a translation, and ummm, gosh, I think I'm going to need to re-read this a few more times before I understand...

BUT the point is:

4 days left.

no way.

no way.

no way.

...

I always knew the end would be difficult, but...oh, this is ridiculous. ;-;

♥ Our Christmas/Holiday/Goodbye/Final Family Dinner ♥

I won't say that there's nothing good about good-byes (ha, just look at the name!)...but [no words left to properly express how I feel]...

~*~*~*~

it suddenly got suuuper cold these past few days (single digits, in celsius, admittedly still positive numbers), but according to tenki.jp, will warm up again next week...very slightly.

this is FINALS WEEK

trying to write final papers on top of overwhelming feelings of anticipatory sadness is difficult.

figuring out what topic to write on the night before the paper is due was a bad, bad idea.

a note to future KGU exchange students: do as much of your work as you can, as early as possible.

Otherwise you're left juggling:

• FINALS--studying for tests, writing papers, projects/presentations....
• packing
• sending stuff home by post
• goodbyes, goodbye parties
• last-minute traveling
• souvenir shopping
• selling your bicycle
• all the fun of "terminating" your status as a student at KGU
• a deep desire to slow down, really pause and reflect on how damn quickly this semester's gone

Everything I Want to Say and More

Ohohohoho...I didn't update at all during November, did I..

:P

Doesn't mean I didn't want to update, though!  REALLY.

For your anticipatory pleasure, here are various drafts I have in progress (some have been sitting for almost 2 months now, haahahahaha):

• Hiroshima trip
• Tokyo trip
• Being Christian in Japan
• Analog Fish live (concert) in Osaka
• Things I like to complain about
• my 枚方市 (Hirakata-shi, the town I've been living in these past few months..) family ♥
• etc.

by the way, this post was a draft for about a week.  haha...

Other things, not yet drafts, but definitely worth mentioning:

• 紅葉 (kouyou, autumn leaves turning colors) trips
• my participation in 華道部 (kadoubu, flower arrangement club), where we do 生け花 (ikebana, flower arrangement)
• super-long-awaited home visit in Wakayama
• seeing Merry live
• final update on how the "study" in study abroad actually happens in reality
• living in Seminar House 4
• food-related nonsense
• etc.

Hmmmmmmm hopefully I'll have time during winter break to compose some of this stuff....hopefully. 8D

Entries will probably also pop up as I procrastinate on final papers~☆

楽しみにしてね～ (tanoshimi ni shite ne~)
Look forward to it! :)