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
(\ /)
( . .)

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!

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:

Kawaguchiko, Mt. Fuji

Kyoto & Nara

Last of Japan

The Imperial Garden

Tokyo Christmas