life currently

For the past three weeks to a month I have been applying for Jobs in Japan. After my rejection from the JET Program, I just felt so down on myself! Like I wasn’t worthy or something. I don’t know. Kyle’s been supporting me through it- I’m over the JET thing now, but we’ve been helping each other out with resume editing, cover letter writing and all the works. It has been EXHAUSTING.

I’m relieved a bit that I can write here again. I mean… I just have a lot of thoughts and no one to really convey them to. I’m sitting on a leather couch in a giant living room slash playroom. I was asked to stay overnight and babysit a 4 year old, a 10 year old and a 13 year old. I’m attempting to finish one of three lesson plans I have to write up for my Education class.

In other news, I have like, 3 interviews. I interviewed with Interac yesterday. It went well, but I don’t really want to work with them. I have another interview with AMENET, a close-knit school on Kyushu Island:

It’s right by where Fukuoka is circled. Actually, the school is near Fukuoka city. Kyle is probably going to be placed near Tokyo, so i’m aiming for that region. Honestly though- we are prepared to live alone especially because being placed as a couple will probably be near impossible. HOWEVER, the Heart English School’s recruiter interviewed Kyle recently and actually mentioned ME in the interview because I have also been in contact with him. The Heart English School’s locations are only around the greater Tokyo area, and he mentioned that he would totally place us together in the same city! I am crossing my fingers for this. The only sucky thing is, is that they don’t pay for airfare, and the salary isn’t to die for. But living near Tokyo would be AMAZING!

Hm, yeah. It’s weird how your life partner suddenly affects your decisions. Well not suddenly, but subtly. That’s the word. Of course I’d be happy working in a close-knit community at AMENET, but to be days worth traveling apart from Kyle… these are tough decisions. I’m preparing myself for what’s to come. We aren’t allowed to talk about it until we’ve been employed and have booked our one-way tickets.

That’s another SUPER COOL THING about all of this (the future or whatever) is that I finally get to book a one-way ticket to another country! Isn’t that fantastic? I feel like i’ve waited for this moment forever.

Well I’ll stop for now because I should be putting this effort into my lesson plan.

“STORIES TO TELL OUR KIDS” A (soon-to-be) Novel

I was inspired suddenly, at two-something in the morning, to write a blurb of a novel I have yet to put into existence. It feels so real to me. It is like a sleeping child that will one day grow older. I will make this tangible, one day.

The title of it, is called, “STORIES TO TELL OUR KIDS.” I hope you’ll enjoy it. Feel free to leave any points of constructive criticism.

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“STORIES TO TELL OUR KIDS,” manifests itself as a non-fiction hybrid, sketching a portrait of the seemingly-mundane life of a twenty year old named Claire. She retells, in skin-touching detail and breathtaking clarity, her whimsical and capricious experiences around the globe. Told in either first or third person, her unconventional writing style of quirky vignettes, prosetry and short stories strewn together as an unpredictable collage induces any reader into her metaphysical and lucid reality. She finds this comparable to the rhythm of a brief summer rainstorm, or the sensation of standing in the midst of an unpredictable wind.

Haruki Murakami, her most reveled, fiction-writing muse, puts this exact feeling into words: “It’s hard to tell the difference between sea and sky. Between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart” (Kafka on the Shore).

In no particular order her tales consist of metaphors and similes rooted in simplicity. They are cherished old photographs at the bottom of a drawer. Claire’s voice wields emotion like a great river. Running the length of the Garden State Parkway, through the intimate stretches of time etched between herself and her true love; It runs north to Montreal, a city of shimmering chartreuse and marigold scents and across the Mediterranean, where paper-skinned grandmothers smile toothless in stone villages on the Mars-like surface of Crete. Wearing the soles of her mother’s worn shoes, she finds herself traversing her heritage along the clear-water coasts of the tiny Philippine island of Coron. This is her unending adventure.

At the end of each day, Claire will watch the sky grow heavy in its tangerine succulence. And in this sweetness, wherever she may be, she will daydream of small children to lovingly tuck into sleep.

“These,” Claire will whisper to her lover, “are the stories to tell our kids.”

What Daylight has Saved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eileen Cooper, my Music T.A. invited the class to see her Thesis Recital. Held at the Schare Recital Hall on the Douglass Campus, the hall itself was stunning. And Eileen’s voice? Gorgeous. Strong-willed.  Emotional. I’ve never listened to Opera sung live; it felt like every note suspended in air like strong sunlight held the hearts of the audience! The way of story-telling through just voice and expression (she was singing in German, Latin, French) was magnificent and breath-taking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from that, I drove to North Jersey to visit home. My dad changed the oil in my car and replaced my left headlight! Thank goodness for him. I watched my mom fry some fish (delectable!) and make Vietnamese stir-fried noodles! We went to Home Depot, I strolled around photographing flowers.

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Lately i’ve been actually managing and researching Japan English-Teaching / ESL programs, budgeting living costs, and compiling some good data on that. It makes it a bajillion times easierknowing that rent will be split right in half between Kyle and I. We’re both going to apply to the same teaching positions and hopefully score two jobs around the same area. So far, I’ve found this:

A super-cute lofted apartment with big windows in Osaka!

AtJPY59,000, it converts to about USD$715. I figure we’d be splitting about $400 a month. Not bad at all, considering that a lot of teaching positions i’ve come across pay starting at around $3,200 a month. Kyle and I already know how much money we need to eat every month.

Honestly, my future has never looked brighter. What’s also nice is that we’re never going to buy a house and get trapped in mortgage payments. Nope nope.

Enjoy your Saturday night. I’m trapped inside a library until Midnight.