01/16/2009: "Back in Japan (two weeks ago)!!"

All right, so.. I've been back for about two weeks but hadn't got around to writing. I know it's a mix between being lazy and busy. Mostly lazy, but I'll throw that 10% 'busy' in there too so it offsets some of that laziness (I hope).

Oddly enough, one of biggest reasons why I don't post is because I want to put up pictures, but I never get around to setting aside time to go through all the pictures, selecting a representative few, resizing, and then uploading them. But anyway, I just uploaded about 50 pictures from my trip up to a Facebook album here and you can see all the Korean excitement that way. You don't need a Facebook account or anything, just go to the link and look through the pictures.

It's missing the snowboarding pictures, but I'll put those up... someday.

Since I've last written, I wish I could say I've done a whole lot, but really, life's just been kinda going along as per usual. I didn't do a whole lot to ring in the new year, but I did go to a presbyterian church (and sleep overnight!) in Korea from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. Definitely an interesting experience, and I'd say out of 300 million Americans, it's safe to say that I'm probably the only one who did that. Met a lot of great people, though, so it was nice.

As for resolutions? Last year, it was "stop smoking". Now, considering I don't smoke and have smoked a half-cigarette in my life (not a proud moment, and I actually vomited shortly thereafter. Gotta love it), it was a resounding success! Quit cold turkey, didn't smoke a single cigarette or have even the tiniest bit of a craving all year! Yeah, I rock. As for my more serious resolution, I think it was to exercise more or something. Did that, worked all right, not much to say. I liked my 'stop smoking' one better.

This year, I suppose it's the generic "study Japanese harder", and for the more 'stuff I should actually do', we have "pay off my student loans by March this year" and "be more open to new experiences". How are those coming? Well, I've been pretty lazy when it comes to studying (I need to just get down to it). As for new experiences, I'm trying to go out more and do new things. Last weekend, I took a train out to Osaka (2 hours away) to go meet someone I haven't seen in 2.5 years. We ran around the city, went to the castle and aquarium (one of the 3 largest in Japan), and then I came home. Needless to say, traveling for 4 hours to hang out for 7 (to say nothing of the cost of transportation alone) isn't a really good idea as a regular activity, but it was really good to do. I also will be starting calligraphy lessons today. It ties into studying Japanese more, too, so.. hey. I'll call it a win-win. Of course, I've also shot down going to two parties within the past two weeks, but hey.. I'm making progress.

Student loans? That, I'd say, is a resounding success. I went to the bank to wire transfer the money on Thursday, it arrived in my US account on Friday, and I sent the payment to the loan company Friday afternoon. I graduated in May and started paying in July, and January was the first month where interest started to accumulate and I actually needed to start paying on my loans (were there enough and's in this sentence..?). Honestly, I came out from a respected university with a 4 year degree pretty decently, at $9992 in debt (no idea why, but that's such a great number that I probably will tell my grandchildren, simply because we're talking about thousands of dollars, and that $8 makes all the difference). And now? It's all paid.

I was going to wait until March, but I really don't know what the exchange rate's going to do. Since I get paid in yen, this matters--a lot. Paying now over paying in August works out to a $1,750 difference because of the strong yen and relatively weak dollar. So, in short, I didn't want to risk the dollar bouncing back up.

But that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that it's nice to know that every thing I have now is mine, and that I don't have to worry about it. Even more so, that I won't be overpaying on my loans in interest (over the life of my loan, I paid a whole $42 in interest). So now, I can save for grad school and my future (yes.. I'm saving money for retirement. And yes, I feel like an old man to be thinking about my retirement at age 23. Seriously.. I need hobbies)

I should get around to getting dressed so I can go out to calligraphy class shortly, but I'm glad that I finally did get around to writing something. I should also mention that I do have design stuff kinda ready, but I never seem to get around to changing the layout of this journal for some reason or another. Eventually...!

So, go look at those facebook pictures, and enjoy my awesome Korean-ness!!


Jason

On Tuesday, January 20th, Kat said:

Congratulations-you're doing a lot to further your growth in the world ; )