Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Ever since I started this new job I realized that I could not blog as much as before. Perhaps it is a new place – I mean really new because the center only started running less than 3 months now. I just hope that things will run smoother and I can feel a lot more relaxed. It isn’t a stressful job in general, but there are days that are real hard. I don’t think kindergarten/daycare jobs is anymore stressful than doing Resort Clerk Jobs and get to work in a vacation like atmosphere.

I like my job as I said before. I can only hope that I can only like it more and not less.

Besides the fun and challenge of working, I find myself looking forward to holidays more and more. In two weeks time we will be going on an Easter holiday break for a week. Enough time to really relax and rejuvenate myself. I cannot deny that working for a month now and having not enough sleep – compared to what I used to have before – is a little demanding on the body.

The ‘other half’ will start his weekly routine with his colleague again – weekly football match against each other or against another team from other companies. To be honest, I’ve never seen him played football before and I’m interested to see him play at least once even though he never wanted me to see. He always told me how good he is, so I hope to see him in action. Perhaps order a few branded hoodies with team logo just to get into the spirit.

On the 9th there will be a short day trip to Vienna for myself. Then there is also a hiking activity with my colleagues in mid-April and dance theater performance to watch on the 17th of April. I’m so looking forward.

Unlike some countries where they have the JLPT twice a year, in July and December, in Hungary there is only one in December. I don’t really know why, but I’m guessing that it may be due to the lack of candidates.

I have decided to apply and sit for the exam this year. Sure or not? Well, I’m not very confident about my exam taking abilities, but I think I really should take it. At least there is some sort of a target and hopefully I can use the certificate to work. Having a JLPT cert is like having an accountancy degree or an IT degree. Because you can always find accounts finance jobs, or IT related jobs anywhere you go. Accountancy is usually the same anywhere, the same goes for IT. My law degree is not recognized here since the legal system is not the same. Japanese language would be the same anywhere, and as long as there are people or companies who needs it (quite many) I may be able to use it.

That is what I think at least. Other than that at least the exam would be something to focus on and look forward to.

My Japanese teacher moved to another country, following her boyfriend. So I am teacherless for now. I’ve got to admit, without a teacher I do tend to slack more times than I’d would like to admit. I need some sort of order or routine. Doing it myself, it’s not so easy to create a routine. How do people do it?

So I am browsing around and thinking about whether or not it would be a good idea to get an online tutor. Talk through skype or YM, and send in homeworks through emails. Believe me, looking for a toro snowblower with a great bargain is easier than finding the right tutor with the right price.

I am considering to just enroll on the YesJapan.com courses. I own 3 of they’re textbooks so perhaps their courses would be the most ideal since I am somewhat used to their style of teaching. Though I’m not really sure whether there is ‘live’ online chat involve or not. Or I can just ask some random Japanese whether they would like to be my online teacher for a fee. The latter choice sounds more interesting to me.

Whatever it is, I really should get back to that learning and studying routine.

I wasn’t feeling well for nearly two weeks and it is only today that I am feeling rather light weight and didn’t feel too tired or sleepy to do anything. It’s only today that I am up and about studying, cleaning etc. I think I even lost some weight since I didn’t have much appetite while I was not well. That’s the only good thing about getting sick, it’s like a fast track to weight loss.

I’ve used one bathroom scale to check out how much I weigh, still need to use the other one I have. I have 2 bathroom scales at home. Both of them would show different results, so I would use the average between the two. Not getting myself too happy or excited about it though cause since the quicker I lose ‘em, the quicker I gain ‘em.

Our hamster, Hamlet died last Saturday. I thought it wouldn’t feel so bad, but I felt depressed. Seeing his cage empty, I almost wished that he would come out of his little house to greet me. Tomorrow, we may go to the pet store to get ourselves two new hamsters. We will never forget Hamlet. After all, he is our first hamster. As they say, ‘first cut is the deepest’. I suppose it’s applicable to hamsters too?

Well, at least I am feeling well enough to be out of bed, all I need to do now is try to get rid of this bad coughing.

If you had the choice of getting a thing as a gift or money, which would you choose? I’d choose money. That’s what I got for christmas this year. No surprise, I know. But at least I could add to it and buy myself the cellphone I wanted – Nokia C3 or Nokia 5230.

I already have a cellphone, but I need to get another one for another number. Two cell phones – one for family and another for other usage.

The funny thing is I still have to wrap it up and put under the Christmas tree. That’s the deal.

It sure is difficult to put down a good book when you start reading one. I was up rather late, reading ‘Pride & Prejudice” for the humpteenth time. Only to be able to put it down at about 2 am, more or less. I made myself put it down because I need to wake up at 6 am. 4 hours of sleep. Less than that actually since it took me sometime to drift myself to sleep. Not counting the number of times I woke up.

6 am, I dragged myself out of bed, went to the bathroom, stared at the bathroom sink for a few minutes, (my brain was still half asleep) washed my face, brushed my teeth and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. When everyone is out of the house leaving me alone, I went straight back to bed. Woke up at 12 pm.

I once wrote about there being no such thing as a morning person or night person. Well, due to my husband’s somewhat logical argument. But I found out that this isn’t true and that research has been conducted saying that some people can be genetically a night owl. I’ve always been a night person since I was a teen. Despite myself trying to get to bed early, I would be tossing and turning in bed till it’s late. Or even when I’m tired due to working in the day, I’d still wouldn’t be able to sleep early and wake up early.

Tough I tell ya, being a night person living in a world where you are expected to be a morning person.

Spring is here, and the time moved 1 hour forward again. So we lost an hour. It was a little hard to adjust the first day when the time changed. Not only because we haven’t adjusted the time on the clocks around the house, we also misjudge the time since now it gets darker a bit later.

I am looking for an alternative Japanese class right now. I am already attending Japanese class. But my one and only classmate feels that 1 class a week isn’t enough for her. I agree. But the thing is timing isn’t good. I can only go for certain days. In fact I would like to enroll for their Saturday and Sunday classes, but they are only in Hungarian and they won’t allow me to go to that class. So if she leaves and find some other place to learn Japanese, there isn’t much point in continuing since I only joined it because of her (I mean because of another classmate. I wanted to learn in a classroom not one-to-one) I can always find for somebody to teach me one-to-one through the internet at a much flexible time I suppose.

Okay it all depends on her, if she leaves I leave, if she stays, I’d stay too. But I would still look for alternative classes because we’d never know when I may need it. I’m searching for tutors on edufire. com and from a few other websites as well. There are many Japanese online tutors – experienced ones, amateurs, and native speakers. Only problem is when it comes to looking for a reasonable priced one. $40 an hour is pretty steep for me I must say. $10 – $25 is reasonable. But I have to browse page by page. Are there any tutor sites like a term life insurance quotation website? Where I can just check and choose by the rates they charge easily.

Well, let’s just wait and see.

I was just going through my bookmarks and organizing them when I found a website which I bookmarked and kind of forgotten about it. It’s Tenso.com. It is a shipping forwarding company based in Japan. If you ever tried to buy items from Japan most probably you would know about how some Japanese companies would require a Japan shipping address and won’t deliver overseas. That is when Tenso comes in the picture. You can get them to collect the product you bought and they will deliver it to you for a small fee.

So I browsed around to see the products that I can potentially buy – from body acne treatment to the latest tamagotchis. All you can buy at a cheaper price directly from Japan. Of course I checked the Japanese Electronic dictionaries as well. Hah! the prices are unbelievably cheaper even combined with shipping fees than what I can get if I buy it from anywhere else. I suppose I’ll be getting a e-dictionary sooner than expected??

I went to visit the language school last evening. According to them I am the second foreigner who found the school. First one was a girl from Azerbaijan. They asked me how did I came about finding them. So I told them that I googled and found a link to their web address through a blog.  Therefore, there are 2 of us that are looking forward to Japanese lessons in English. Maybe I should suggest to them to get the best seo software so that their website can be found easily or I should help them find students and ask them whether they would implement reward program – like discount for every student we find for them.

They suggested to me to either go on Saturday to see how the class is (which is by the way already near half through the syllabus), or I go there this evening – the Azerbaijan girl would be there. I said I’d go there this evening. I’m curious about the girl.