Well, the travels are over, but the adventure continues. In the South of all places. And if you want to know my general opinion of the area: I am not impressed. Details to follow eventually.
In the meantime though, I've taken to posting here: The source of all Evil . As you may note, it's a site about college. So although I may reference current events in the articles, the majority of what I post will be retrospective. I'm forced to a schedule over there, so who knows? They might even get something interesting out of me.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Acorns keep falling on my head, but that doesn't mean......
Forewarning: Tyler and I just came back from a bar, so this post is a bit impulsive. It was a drunken rumination of the past four years spent at Berkeley, primarily conversing about how we will miss the food at Berkeley, our friends, and the food at Berkeley (if you haven't been here, you need to; Berkeley has every ethnic cuisine you can imagine).We spent this past week lazily relaxing at Tyler's parent's house, seriously salvaging the last of the free time we'll have for a while and the last (unfortunately) time of really being able to hang out with his parents.
We were both forced to walk at our graduation ceremonies last week (thank you family), and guess what? graduation was boring as presumed. However, our families finally met (I know; it only took three years). The number of times we thanked the Lord that day is truly unfathomable; with gloomy skies and sporadic rain clouds hovering over our heads all day, we thought it was going to downpour during my graduation (which took place in an outside auditorium). Even with that 70% chance of rain and the winds blowing my family back to San Diego and his grandparents back to Hawaii, they came, they sat, and they fell asleep. Devotion? I think so. (By the way, remarkably, it only rained before and after the ceremony).
Afterwards, our families and some of our friends came together for dinner at one of the few places at Cal that is able to hold 20 people in one sitting area; luckily, the food was pretty good too. My family acted psychotic per usual and did not attempt to hide their craziness, but I love them for it. No one was really able to chat as intimately as much as I had hoped, but it was too idealistic given the size of our party. However, it was a stepping stone to what might actually be a good familial relationship. In retrospect, we thought my family would never accept me dating someone who isn't Chaldean, and therefore, would attempt to kill me when finding out. It appears, though, that I am still alive and they still love me; miraculous things can happen when you take risks.
Now, we move; we have been selling our furniture on Craigslist for the past couple of days and have been making quite the profit. We were actually considering doing this for a living. We joke, we joke (parents: we were just kidding... you can calm down now hehe). Packing is actually not that difficult, and it's probably because Tyler's ten thousand boxes of books are already stored away. Next Thursday we will begin the next saga of our lives to Mississippi. For some reason, I have a good feeling about this.
OH. okay. I haven't included any pics in a while:
Pictures from our camping trip....
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We saw dolphins while kayaking! sooo cute!!!
Love and San Diego beaches....happiness
Naked bikers in San Francisco.... confusion happiness
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| Awwww the family :) |
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| ST. MEOW |
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| Friends who studied abroad with us (Mishies) |
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| My cousin and little sis |
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| Tyler being silly as always |
There are lots more pictures if you follow the links:
Saturday, May 14, 2011
On Realizing the Dream and the Devaluation of Art
I’ve often debated the usefulness of keeping a blog; as is probably evident by my number of posts. There was a time when I had my very own unique url over at Wordpress. I had picked out a generic template that seemed to have the least amount of aesthetic dissonance and was ready to author my first post. Then I deleted the entire thing and went back to editing page 52. People that know me might ask: “Tyler, you university-educated hipster! You’re an aspiring writer! Why wouldn’t you take any opportunity to publish your words? Even if it’s a single drop of water in the ocean of drivel that is the Internet, that’s still something, right?” Whoops, guess I gave away my opinion, didn’t I? In all seriousness, if I tried to self-publish any sort of fiction via a Web Log, I’d be competing with everyone else who has been entranced with the embarrassingly large amounts of money that certain “teenage romance” (pronounced with the same tone I would use to describe “country music” [to those whom I have not yet offended: don’t worry, I’m getting there]) series have been making lately, and have decided that there aren’t nearly enough knockoffs and imitations within the industry itself and extended the drudgery to new mediums. And the other way that one garners attention besides sculpting out alarmingly specific unrealized high school fantasies, is by having opinions. And not just any opinion; the more incendiary and controversial, the better. It takes a certain sort of pretentiousness to toss out one’s opinions on a regular basis, with the intention of inciting argument (I possess a different sort of pretentiousness, if you haven’t noticed already). It’s a different matter to raise public awareness on topics that most people would rather ignore, but there are just so many people that retread ground that has already been burned over and salted for the sake of attracting undue attention; i.e. blogs whose only purpose seems to be reinforcing a painfully obvious political agenda. To make a long story short, it’s not worth it to me to fight a losing battle on the Internet, especially when I don’t have a finished product in hand. I, of course, reserve the right to change my mind once projects begin to reach their completion; about fighting losing battles, that is.
While we’re on the subject, let’s talk more about writing. I’ve introduced myself to a number of people this semester and inevitably, upon learning that I’m soon to graduate, raise questions about my future plans. After I tell my charming inquisitor that I intend to pursue writing after the completion of my education, the next question undoubtedly is: “What kind of writing?” After I reply that I intend to write fiction, there’s usually a silence, after which we move on to other things. It’s a little disappointing that no one seems to have any idea what to say to that sort of thing. Maybe it’s one of those aspirations that you’re not actually supposed to tell anyone about until you’re already famous. Summer tells me that I get a lot of questions as to why I’m writing, rather than pursuing a career in whatever it is that people do these days; it must be lucrative though, since everyone is doing it. However, I’m not in it for the money, obviously; otherwise I’d already be pumping out a trashy romance series, since everybody seems to love those. I’m doing this because I like it; and because I believed all the advice, that everyone from my generation apparently ignored, about making a career out of something that I love. And also, this isn’t really something I can do as a side project; at least not the way I write. One particular side project has been going on for 5 years and I’ve just hit the 100 page mark in Word. Based on the current production level, I might be finished by the time I’m 40.
I guess this post hasn’t been a total waste of time. It’s actually been more illuminating than I actually thought possible. Some of you may be thinking that I have a bit of an axe to grind. Which is more or less true. What I pursue may very well be a dying career. Perhaps in 20 years my kind will be reduced to posting our works on Facebook 2.0 and spamming friends for donations. That day may yet come; but for now, I’m not ready to delete everything and shuffle quietly into the office without a fight.
End obligatory mission statement.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Peace. Or something like it.
"Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him" Proverbs 24
Good news, though. Tonight our student government passed a resolution against this ordinance. Against open discrimination of the homeless. Against the criminalization of poverty. Thank you entitled people of Berkeley who forget what empathy means. You continually give us something to fight for.
Is a temporary fix for a facade of peace, achieved through war and hate, really the best route we could have taken? I don't think "disturbing" is quite sufficient enough to describe seeing so many praising death. I know Americans are upset, but how can we fight back in the same manner he made us so angry by? Society never ceases to amaze me.
How about closer to home? The city of Berkeley is discussing a sit-lie ordinance that would prohibit people, namely the homeless, of sitting on the sidewalks of Telegraph--the main street of Berkeley. Why? because apparently they are affecting the income of the businesses on the street.
I think not. Perhaps it is due to the recession instead? Take them off the streets, BUT provide more funding to shelters and programs so they have somewhere to go. Do not merely rid of this "problem" by, once again, arguing that keeping them off the streets will increase the revenue of the stores. It is obvious this is an argument of the wealthy and the privileged; the discrimination is readily apparent.
Good news, though. Tonight our student government passed a resolution against this ordinance. Against open discrimination of the homeless. Against the criminalization of poverty. Thank you entitled people of Berkeley who forget what empathy means. You continually give us something to fight for.
"Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.
It might be the only sunshine he sees all day"
Thursday, April 28, 2011
....
I promise I'll write a new blog post soon, but if you have time now, read this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110422/us_yblog_thelookout/homeless-woman-prosecuted-for-enrolling-son-in-conn-school;_ylt=Aq3Q2ZHPcS.ksYQ2tGE7L4yGXMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTRlcGY4dWJhBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTA0MjIvaG9tZWxlc3Mtd29tYW4tcHJvc2VjdXRlZC1mb3ItZW5yb2xsaW5nLXNvbi1pbi1jb25uLXNjaG9vbARwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fZXh0ZW5kZWRfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNob21lbGVzc3dvbWE-
muah.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110422/us_yblog_thelookout/homeless-woman-prosecuted-for-enrolling-son-in-conn-school;_ylt=Aq3Q2ZHPcS.ksYQ2tGE7L4yGXMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTRlcGY4dWJhBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTA0MjIvaG9tZWxlc3Mtd29tYW4tcHJvc2VjdXRlZC1mb3ItZW5yb2xsaW5nLXNvbi1pbi1jb25uLXNjaG9vbARwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fZXh0ZW5kZWRfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNob21lbGVzc3dvbWE-
muah.
Monday, April 11, 2011
It's time to change the world, baby
Last week Monday was ridiculous. In one day, Teach for America (TFA) notified applicants if they were accepted, it was my three year anniversary with Tyler, and it was the day before my last two midterms of undergrad. I knew that if I got into TFA, I would be going to the Mississippi Delta.
I did get in to the Delta (teaching elementary)!, studied like crazy for those midterms, and celebrated my anniversary. After drinking way too much this past weekend, this morning I finally realized that I needed to make a decision. I can't quite place a finger on what was halting my decision. I think it was the same response I received when I told people Mississippi, "What the hell!!?? Mississippi????? You didn't choose that location, did you???" haha now, now. Let me explain .......
In between the phone and final interviews, we ranked our grade/subject preferences and our regional preferences (highly preferred, preferred, and places we won't go to if life depended on). The one place that I wouldn't go to was Texas. Then I got Tyler's input. HAHAHAHAHAHA. He added everything on the list, it was kind of amusing to watch. Mississippi Delta was on there. My highly preferred looked something like Bay Area, LA, Seattle, Chicago, Hawaii. Basically they try to place you based on your highly preferred list, from top to bottom. They choose based on your qualifications, the applicant interest in the area, and most importantly, the region need for teachers (which is why I'm going to the Delta). First you get accepted. Then you get placed.
Before I submitted that list, we had a final interview/regional preference informational session. Not only is the Delta one of the most needed regions, but not many people were placing it on their highly preferred regions. Here's a stat from their website: "31 percent of children under age 18 in Mississippi and 26 percent of children under age 18 in Arkansas live below the poverty line, with Delta counties being more poverty-stricken than the state average." I grew up in a low-income home all my life, went to underfunded schools, and had no intention of going to college until the 10th grade. In fact, at one point I was tracked into the group who would never make it to college for various reasons. My parents didn't know what this meant, they never went. And of course I didn't know what this meant. Kids at that age never do. 10th grade was transformational because of one teacher who helped me realize my potential. From that point, community service and academic skills excelled, APs/straight A's the rest of the way.
Now: my little sister is in 8th grade. They told her not to take honors in high school because she would fail. Honestly, how can you tell a student that?? It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you have low expectations for your students, they will fulfill those expectations and you will believe it's due to their "inability" to work hard and their race/SES/etc, but in fact it's because their own teacher is telling them they will fail/have certain low expectations of them. My little sister said to me, "It's alright Summer, I don't really care anyway." UGHHH. Luckily, she has a psycho sister that's going to inspire her to believe that she can do whatever she puts her mind to. And, luckily, I had a teacher in 10th grade that told me I could do it; he saw that I wanted to work with others to make this world a little better, but knew I needed the power that comes with a good college degree to do it: thank you to that teacher. And thank you Berkeley. I will take your prestigious name far.
This is why I put Mississippi Delta on my highly preferred regions. Yes, I would have been more comfortable in the Bay Area. Yes, I would've been closer to my family if I went to L.A. Yes, life would've been easier in Chicago. However, my childhood has allowed me to have a glimpse at what these children might be going through. That glimpse is just enough so I can be emphatic; I'm not there to help them, I'm there to work with them. Most people don't see the difference. Often times we go into a social helping role with the intention of making the world a better place. However, in that role we take our bias and knowledge that makes us think we are "better" than the people we are helping, because society says so. Most of the time all this does is create a vicious cycle and a temporary fix for those people. Give money to the homeless? How about trying to work with them so they find a way to make money on their own. Tell students not to take a class because they will supposedly fail? How about inspiring them to believe in themselves, setting high expectations, so if they fail, they know they need to work harder. I have the opportunity to change the life trajectory of these kids and I'm not about to let it pass.
I know many of you are wondering if Tyler is coming with me. After MUCH deliberation, he is joining me on this adventure. This will actually be an excellent opportunity for Tyler to work on his writing. Job-wise, we're not quite sure yet. It's not like he can just join TFA and get his credentials to teach. Even though it is Mississippi and Tyler is a remarkable person, he didn't apply = would be really unfair to the 40,000 (90%) people who weren't accepted. More importantly, Tyler doesn't want to teach. There was a reason he didn't apply in the first place. No worries though, he will be fine. As long as we're with each other, we'll be fine.
Next time: spring break in san diego
Sunday, February 27, 2011
oh, crystal ball, will there be an engagement party in my near future???
..............................................
...................................
........................
...............
.......
...
.
Not of mine, suckers. Thanks, though, for the repeated passive attempts at asking if we're getting engaged. NOT. haha, all the different methods did crack me up though. If you really want to know something at this level of privacy, then there are many ways of going about it depending on who you are:
1) you're either family or really good friends, so you should feel comfortable asking because our relationship SHOULD allow us to do so. and if it doesn't, then there is something innately wrong and it should be fixed --> our relationship would be that much better --> more comfortability and happiness, yes?
2) we're distant family or just regular friends, and you're curious. it's fine, we're all humans and love gossip. if this is the case, you should have someone from 1) to do the asking.
3) you are the friends of someone from our family. like the people from 2), you love gossip. it's all good, but again, encourage the people from 1) to ask us directly.
4) you're someone who doesn't like us but still wants to know details from our life because, at one point, you were probably close to us. I hope you dislike us for the right reasons, and not because you are overly-competitive and envious of us.
Ok, so the moral of the story- family and good friends: please ask us directly so I don't have to write more blogs like this. We love you, but NOT your indirect, around-the-bush ways of telling us you want or you don't want us to get engaged. We're not ready, we've barely reached the age limit to drink, let alone to have a social excuse to have kids. I refuse.
If you do want more juicy news, Tyler is FINALLY coming down to San Diego to meet my family during Spring Break! fkgjhdfgdfgdhfghdjfgdg. We've been together for almost 3 years, I'm practically part of his family, and we're graduating soon, so we don't see a better opportunity presenting itself anytime soon. I know you may ask, why the wait? I wish I could explain, I really do, but it would have to be in person (hint, number 1ers...). Anyhow, let's just say my family (well, the older ones) are traditional in their Middle Eastern-ness, which means that if I ever bring someone to introduce to them, then he should be Middle Eastern and we should be engaged, or promised.
So, now you're probably thinking, how the hell are you going to get out of this one? It's not like you can make Tyler Middle Eastern. Oh, but I can! Ok, not really. But they have kind of chilled on that part, especially since I go to Berkeley and I haven't turned into a pot-smoking hippie. So the engagement part???? Yeah, we're not getting engaged as you found out from my rant. However, we are getting promised... isn't it the SAME THING AS GETTING ENGAGED? According to many sources, it's not.
Here's a summary of the responses I got: a promise ring is saying, I promise to get engaged to you one day when I'm not a broke ass college student and when I'm ready to have babies. Less jokingly, it just really symbolizes to be true to each other (which we were a long time ago... why do we have to support the damned ring industry by buying another material item????)
Ok, rant has ended. love you :)
Living with Tyler and Max is simply ridiculous. I mean that in the best way possible. We're always arguing about everything, especially about religion, sociology, and psych. Max continually tries to convert me to atheism, but to no avail. I try telling him he has no chance, but he doesn't listen. It's also a continual battle to fight off this senioritis, but seriously, it's so difficult. Just coming back from Japan doesn't make it any better. But, we'll continue to make it look like we're working hard :)
Oh, P.S., sorry if this post was too blunt, it was meant to be as a joke more than anything
(\ /)
( . .)
...................................
........................
...............
.......
...
.
Not of mine, suckers. Thanks, though, for the repeated passive attempts at asking if we're getting engaged. NOT. haha, all the different methods did crack me up though. If you really want to know something at this level of privacy, then there are many ways of going about it depending on who you are:
1) you're either family or really good friends, so you should feel comfortable asking because our relationship SHOULD allow us to do so. and if it doesn't, then there is something innately wrong and it should be fixed --> our relationship would be that much better --> more comfortability and happiness, yes?
2) we're distant family or just regular friends, and you're curious. it's fine, we're all humans and love gossip. if this is the case, you should have someone from 1) to do the asking.
3) you are the friends of someone from our family. like the people from 2), you love gossip. it's all good, but again, encourage the people from 1) to ask us directly.
4) you're someone who doesn't like us but still wants to know details from our life because, at one point, you were probably close to us. I hope you dislike us for the right reasons, and not because you are overly-competitive and envious of us.
Ok, so the moral of the story- family and good friends: please ask us directly so I don't have to write more blogs like this. We love you, but NOT your indirect, around-the-bush ways of telling us you want or you don't want us to get engaged. We're not ready, we've barely reached the age limit to drink, let alone to have a social excuse to have kids. I refuse.
If you do want more juicy news, Tyler is FINALLY coming down to San Diego to meet my family during Spring Break! fkgjhdfgdfgdhfghdjfgdg. We've been together for almost 3 years, I'm practically part of his family, and we're graduating soon, so we don't see a better opportunity presenting itself anytime soon. I know you may ask, why the wait? I wish I could explain, I really do, but it would have to be in person (hint, number 1ers...). Anyhow, let's just say my family (well, the older ones) are traditional in their Middle Eastern-ness, which means that if I ever bring someone to introduce to them, then he should be Middle Eastern and we should be engaged, or promised.
So, now you're probably thinking, how the hell are you going to get out of this one? It's not like you can make Tyler Middle Eastern. Oh, but I can! Ok, not really. But they have kind of chilled on that part, especially since I go to Berkeley and I haven't turned into a pot-smoking hippie. So the engagement part???? Yeah, we're not getting engaged as you found out from my rant. However, we are getting promised... isn't it the SAME THING AS GETTING ENGAGED? According to many sources, it's not.
Here's a summary of the responses I got: a promise ring is saying, I promise to get engaged to you one day when I'm not a broke ass college student and when I'm ready to have babies. Less jokingly, it just really symbolizes to be true to each other (which we were a long time ago... why do we have to support the damned ring industry by buying another material item????)
Ok, rant has ended. love you :)
Living with Tyler and Max is simply ridiculous. I mean that in the best way possible. We're always arguing about everything, especially about religion, sociology, and psych. Max continually tries to convert me to atheism, but to no avail. I try telling him he has no chance, but he doesn't listen. It's also a continual battle to fight off this senioritis, but seriously, it's so difficult. Just coming back from Japan doesn't make it any better. But, we'll continue to make it look like we're working hard :)
Oh, P.S., sorry if this post was too blunt, it was meant to be as a joke more than anything
(\ /)
( . .)
c('')('')
One of my favorite quotes:
"Life is too short to wake up in the mornings with regrets. So love the ones who treat you right, forget the ones who don’t. Remember that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance take it, if it changes your life, then let it. No one said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it."
-Harvey Mackay
Shout out to the MEOW house. we wuvvv you!
One of my favorite quotes:
"Life is too short to wake up in the mornings with regrets. So love the ones who treat you right, forget the ones who don’t. Remember that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance take it, if it changes your life, then let it. No one said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it."
-Harvey Mackay
Shout out to the MEOW house. we wuvvv you!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
After the Fall
Well, it's been a little over a month since we've been in the States and I haven't smuggled myself back to Japan in an oversized FedEx box. Which doesn't mean that I haven't considered it.
It was unbelievably difficult in the beginning. Reverse culture shock was not kind to us. The very first thing that I saw an American do after disembarking was complain. Loudly. Our connecting flight to Sacramento was through United. I could be brief and tell you that it was simply a bad decision. But since it left such an impression on me, we'll delve into detail. There was a single security line leading into United's terminal, which took us over 2 hours to pass through. During which, we had to endure all sorts of people with entitlement issues, demanding to cut security line because they thought they could get away with arriving 20 minutes before their flight. Also during our time spent waiting (at least we got a delightful view of the smog) I was forced to notice America's top 3 fashion trends for men: baseball caps, shaved heads and hipster beards. Service was also sad in comparision. Our flight attendant looked like she was going to fall asleep. We also made the mistake later of trying to get American Japanese food later in the week... Let's just say that cultural atrocities are committed daily. Don't think I'll forget that day.
Now that we've had time to adjust, it isn't as bad as we thought; actually, life is better, we're happier than we were in Japan. Slowly, the cheapness of food in America has made me overlook the quality. Sure, the $2 apple I had in Japan was the best one I had ever tasted, but I can get 5 of them in America for the same price. It's just too bad that they're not very good... I'm still not ok with people running around town in sweatpants and hoodies, but I'm not going to start a revolution about it like I was earlier. I could go on, but that'd just be redundant.
Renting an apartment blindly in Berkeley actually worked out. We're renting a place with our friend Max from the program. Having a car, by the way, makes grocery shopping so much easier. Even though we think the general culture of Japan is better, we live better in America. I know it's confusing, but just overall, we're happier. Our apartment is always lively. Always trying to get each other to wake up or exercise or eat healthy or study or something else. And of course, with varying amounts of success. There are a lot of debates concerning human nature, social institutions and exercise programs. Summer and Max seem to argue about everything. One thing they agreed on, however, is that they hate how banana-flavored ice creams always have nuts in them. Otherwise, yeah, not much agreement.
It's our final semester at Berkeley. It's definitely bittersweet; we love learning, but not the cost of it. Summer and I are both finishing up the last of our required classes. I've got a thesis to write and she's taking a class that requires about the same amount of pages, only spread over multiple topics the whole semester. We both got into a meditation class, so hopefully we'll be channeling the stress away. Summer also got into a knitting class; she had to beat up about a hundred people to get in. We're exercising like crazy; we found this home video program called Insanity, which is basically max interval training reversed. Let's just say it's a rough hour of working out, but worth it. We also started pilates back up. Getting up at 8am never felt better.
In short, coming back to America made me open my eyes to many things. I wouldn't have it any other way. We've missed being here and it's great to be back. Japan is awesome, but our family and friends are here, and that's what matters.
New photo links:
It was unbelievably difficult in the beginning. Reverse culture shock was not kind to us. The very first thing that I saw an American do after disembarking was complain. Loudly. Our connecting flight to Sacramento was through United. I could be brief and tell you that it was simply a bad decision. But since it left such an impression on me, we'll delve into detail. There was a single security line leading into United's terminal, which took us over 2 hours to pass through. During which, we had to endure all sorts of people with entitlement issues, demanding to cut security line because they thought they could get away with arriving 20 minutes before their flight. Also during our time spent waiting (at least we got a delightful view of the smog) I was forced to notice America's top 3 fashion trends for men: baseball caps, shaved heads and hipster beards. Service was also sad in comparision. Our flight attendant looked like she was going to fall asleep. We also made the mistake later of trying to get American Japanese food later in the week... Let's just say that cultural atrocities are committed daily. Don't think I'll forget that day.
Now that we've had time to adjust, it isn't as bad as we thought; actually, life is better, we're happier than we were in Japan. Slowly, the cheapness of food in America has made me overlook the quality. Sure, the $2 apple I had in Japan was the best one I had ever tasted, but I can get 5 of them in America for the same price. It's just too bad that they're not very good... I'm still not ok with people running around town in sweatpants and hoodies, but I'm not going to start a revolution about it like I was earlier. I could go on, but that'd just be redundant.
Renting an apartment blindly in Berkeley actually worked out. We're renting a place with our friend Max from the program. Having a car, by the way, makes grocery shopping so much easier. Even though we think the general culture of Japan is better, we live better in America. I know it's confusing, but just overall, we're happier. Our apartment is always lively. Always trying to get each other to wake up or exercise or eat healthy or study or something else. And of course, with varying amounts of success. There are a lot of debates concerning human nature, social institutions and exercise programs. Summer and Max seem to argue about everything. One thing they agreed on, however, is that they hate how banana-flavored ice creams always have nuts in them. Otherwise, yeah, not much agreement.
It's our final semester at Berkeley. It's definitely bittersweet; we love learning, but not the cost of it. Summer and I are both finishing up the last of our required classes. I've got a thesis to write and she's taking a class that requires about the same amount of pages, only spread over multiple topics the whole semester. We both got into a meditation class, so hopefully we'll be channeling the stress away. Summer also got into a knitting class; she had to beat up about a hundred people to get in. We're exercising like crazy; we found this home video program called Insanity, which is basically max interval training reversed. Let's just say it's a rough hour of working out, but worth it. We also started pilates back up. Getting up at 8am never felt better.
In short, coming back to America made me open my eyes to many things. I wouldn't have it any other way. We've missed being here and it's great to be back. Japan is awesome, but our family and friends are here, and that's what matters.
New photo links:
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