frellnik | Entries tagged with update on life

Good morning world! I was on here looking around last night and realized I haven't been on here in 3 and a half years. A lot has happened since then. I"m back in Canada now. I left Japan at the end of July, 2015 and came back to Canada for 7 weeks to get my student visa to study in England. I went to England for a year and got a Master's Degree in Translation (Japanese->English) from the University of Leeds. Then I moved back to Canada in September of 2016. I loved the UK. I lived in Leeds and got to visit London a few times, Liverpool, Manchester, York, New Castle and a few other places. I also spent a week in Scotland. I love Scotland! Some day I hope to go back.

I have been earthquake free for nearly 5 years. It still feels weird and I sometimes tense up when heavy trucks goes by and the house shakes a bit. I'm still waiting for the next earthquake and most of the time I don't even realize I'm doing it.

I met a fantastic guy at the Ottawa Geek Market in 2017 and we hung out at Ottawa Comic Con that year and then again at Ottawa Comic Con in 2018. He asked me if we could hang out since we always get along at the events. I agreed but told him I wasn't interested in a relationship. I'm Ace and kind of aromantic. I start off all lovey dovey but cool off pretty quickly. I also post alot of ACE stuff on my facebook feeds and I noticed he had been sharing a lot of it. Then he asked me questions about it and asked for clarifaction on a few things. He's the first person to really do that.

Next wednseday (June 17) will be our 2 year anniversary. We moved in together December 2019 and things are going well. We each have our own room and...wow, I lucked out with him :) He has 2 neices and 2 nephews that we will occasionally take for the day (not all at the same time!) and we treat them to lunch and a movie or video games. Neither of us want kids so this works out great.

I had a great job last summer season working soft scaping and I loved it and thought that I may take the horticulture aprentice program at Algonuin college, but COVID- 19 messed that up for me this year so now I'm working at Walmart. I like it so far, so if it stays a good place to work I may just stay there. It has good benefits (even for part time employees) and there is guarenteed work all year long.

I've been working hard on getting healthy for the last few years. After I finished my Master's Degree I was very overweight. At my heaviest I was about 225 pounds. I hated how I looked, hated shopping for clothes because it was hard to find stuff that fit me properly. My back hurt all the time (I ended up in the hospital the day after I got back to Canada and spent a month in bed/hobbling around with a cane). So I decided I was going to lose weight and eat healthy. I joined the Nerd Fitnes Accademy online and I slowly cut out all sugary drinks (I only drink water and the occasional energy drink), cut out sugary snacks and desserts and cut out most processed foods. I lost 40 pounds in a year just by eating healthy foods and walking every day. I got down to 164 last summer working outside all season and I've been feeling great.

I hurt my back moving a freezer this past March and spend about a month hobbling around again and I was eating junk so I put on about 16 pounds. I'm now back to eating healthy stuff and I'm doing zumba and/or going for walks. So I'm hoping to have the weight back off by Christmas. It is so much quicker and easier to put the weight on than it is to lose it. :/

I have noticed that my back hurts if I eat too much sugar or processed foods so that's another incentive to eat better. Sometimes my knees and elbows hurt too if I've had too much sugar. My mom has the same problem...inflammation? I know sugar causes/feeds inflammation. I've done quite a bit of research into food and how my body reacts to it. I've incorporated some vegan recipes into my diet and well as vegetarian stuff. I don't eat any artificial sweetners and try not to use sugar (with the exception of coconut sugar when absolutely necessary), I prefer to use dates, honey or maple syrup. It definitely helps.

Well I think that's about it for big life-changing stuff from the past 3 years. How have you been doing? I don't know how many of you on my feed are still posting here but I'd love to hear from you if you are.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Kanata, Canada
Current Music: Harry Potter Music & Ambience | Gryffindor Common Room - Peaceful Fireside Relax

Well it's been almost 2 years since I updated. Life has been crazy.

I moved from Japan back to Canada for 2 months and then I moved to Leeds, England for University. I had 4 wonderful flatmates in Montague Burton (University residence) and enjoyed all of my classes. It was super busy though, I don't want to ever do a masters degree in one year again. I have now officially graduated with a Master's Degree in Applied Translation Studies (MAATS) Japanese to English. I also discovered that I don't actually like translation. oh well.

I did learn that I like Project Management. So I am hoping to find some work in that area but I only have 3 weeks experience. lol We'll see how that goes. I moved back to Canada September 12th, 2016 and ended up in the hospital the very next day because of my back. I then spent a month in bed. I'm now seeing a chiropractor 3 times a week and hopefully that will go down to twice a week sometime next month. I stayed at my mom's house for a while and I have now moved in with a friend who owns a condo in Kanata about a 5 minute drive from my mom's house and all the major bus routes go right by the place! So far we get along great and are both very happy with the arrangement. I don't forsee any problems :) Now that things have settled down and my back is doing better it's time to look for work. I'm hoping I find something good in Ottawa because I do not want to have to move again. I really like where I'm living now.

It's really nice to be back in Kanata and to be able to see my friends after 6 years. Not that I have actually been able to see most of them more than once. I literally saw no one for the first 3 weeks or so since I couldn't really get out of bed. Now that I'm mobile and living in my own space I hope to see more of them.

I picked up some Japanese textbooks to brush up on my grammar and kanji since I didn't do much of that at University and have done nothing with Japanese since I got back to Canada. Now I just need to sit down and actually use them. I've been back for 3 months and I feel like I've done nothing. Well...I moved houses. That's something I guess.

I want to find work but at the same time I want to stay home and do nothing. I have no drive to do anything. I don't think I'm depressed but I'm not exactly happy. I miss Japan. I miss my friends that are not in Kanata (the ones from Japan and the ones I made in England). And it's so cold here! Apparently this is going to be the coldest Winter in the last 7 years and I've been gone for 6. Go figure. It's already hit -32C with the windchil factor. I think the coldest it's gotten where I lived for the last 6 years is -5C. I am happy about all the snow though. I have missed snow.

So that's it for now. I'm going to try to update more often than just once in 2 years. lol

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Kanata, Ontario

Happy New Year!

God, I can't remember the last time I was on LJ. It's been a while! How is everyone doing?

My Winter break is almost over and it's back to work in a few days. So of course I got sick right before the break started and I'm still sick almost 3 weeks later. On the bright side, it's NOT influenza, it's just a very persitant cold. So I really can't complain. I haven't been sick since the end of March, so I had a pretty good run.

I am now on my 5th and final year on the JET programme and am now starting to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I'm in the process of applying to grad school in England. I'm waiting on a reference letter from one of my University professors in Canada and then I'll be done! If I get accepted then I'll be moving back to Canada at the end of July for about 7 weeks and then moving to England for a year of insanity at the University of Leeds while I earn a Masters degree in Japanaese Translation. So I've been saving every scrap of money I can to send home (and I HATE that the YEN has gone down so much in value, stupid Abe!) to pay for school. The British Pound is going up and the Canadian $ is going down and the YEN is just sinking! So I need a lot of money. :( So I really hope I land a couple of scholarships to help me or I'll be needing quite a big loan from OSAP.

Halloween this year was amazing!! I was at my favourite school for Halloween for the first time and I made them all scream in fright! MUWAHAHAHA!!! It was a huge success and the kids had a great time. I invited my students from two schools to come trick-or-treating at my place and this year I had 60 kids come by!! 12 of them were from Ono (which means that their parents had to drive them) and the rest were from my town (Yotsukura). All but 3 kids dressed up and the ones who didn't weren't there for candy (they were just with their friends). I'd say Halloween was a huge success this year!

I went to Hawaii for my birthday back in September! It was absolutely amazing!! I really want to go back some day! It was for a sci-Fi/Science convention and I met scientists from NASA and got to sit in on some very interesting lectures, as well as met some actors and other very interesting people. HawaiiCon was amazing and if I wasn't going to grad school next year I would love to go back. Maybe one year I will be able to.

There are two more trips in planning before I go home in just under 8 months. There is a leavers Conference in Februrary to give people leaving JET information about opportunities as well as workshops about how to write a resume (how to incorporate your everyday experiences into your CV such as public speaking, creating presentations, ect.)

The second trip is at the end of March during Spring break. I am hoping to go visit a friend in Kyoto and we will go to Universal Studios in Osaka. I really want to go to Harry Potter World! My friend has a season pass so all I would have to do is get tickets at the local corner store and then book the train tickets. I don't quite have the money saved yet but I will by March.

5 years has gone by so quickly! It's been a hell of a ride and I've loved most of it! I definitely could have done without the 2 week hospital stay my first year here, or the giant earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown (also in my first year here). But the rest of it was pretty amazing!

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan

Well, I'm sick again. Spent all day yesterday lying on the couch drugged up and drinking lots of water. My throat doesn't hurt much today so that is a big improvement, but my sinuses are so blocked up that my head feels like a balloon. My nose hurts from blowing it so much and is stuffed up and running constantly, and my eyes hurt. The fever is better today too. I'm hoping I'll be good to go to work tomorrow as I'm at my favourite school this week and I only get to go there once this semester.

So, I got some great news!! I was talking to my mom last week and she told me that she had decided that if she could get the money together, she would come to Japan this year!! This shocked me somewhat, and made me really frelling happy. My mom had told me numerous times that she didn't want to come to Japan. It's too far away, it's too hot, it's too expensive, it's not her thing..... and out of the blue, she decides to come for a visit! :D

So I tried very hard not to get my hopes up incase money was not available. I knew that would be the only reason she wouldn't be able to come. Well, earlier this week she told me that she is definitely coming! !

MY MOM IS COMING TO JAPAN!!!
In August!

So I asked her what she wants to see while she's here and she answered, "Disney Land and Ueno Park". LOL I love Ueno Park! lol It goes without saying that I would take her there! lol And Disney Land and Disney Sea will be lots of fun too! So we came to the decision that we would stay at the Disney Resort for a couple days while we go to Disney Land and Disney Sea so it will be easy to come and go and mom could go for a quick nap at lunch and then go back to the park...sure. Except, August is TOP season, that's busier than PEAK season...and the prices are REALLY expensive!! Like...$1000 a night. So...I thought about vacation packages...and what I thought was the price for 2 people, turned out to be the price for 1 person. That wasn't going to work either. Then syuria gave me the brilliant idea of checking out the Disney Partner Hotels which are very close to Disney Land Park and have free shuttles to and from the parks as well as being run by Disney all while being much less expensive. So I found a great room and thought we'd stay there 3 nights. Then I tried to find a hotel elsewhere in Tokyo for the other 4 nights we'd be there and found 2 potential places. Mom didn't like them lol. So instead she suggested we just spend the entire week at the Disney Hotel. So I ended up booking us at the Disney Hotel (Fountain Terrace Hotel) for 6 nights!!

While we're in Tokyo I'm hoping to visit 2 of my host families, who have both expressed a wish to meet my mom; go to the Harry Potter Exhibit in Roppungi, Tokyo; go to Asakusa and Ueno Park, and spend 2 days at Disney Land and Diseny Sea. At the end of the week we'll be coming to Iwaki to spend a week at my place and enjoy the ocean, the country side, some Kareoke parties, good food and just relax after a busy week in Tokyo. Then I'll take mom back to the airport and have a week to recover before the start of 2nd semester.

I haven't seen my mom since Chrsitmas of 2011. I am really looking forward to seeing her <3

In other news, I failed the N2 exam I took last Decmeber so I will be taking it again on July 7th. I hope I pass this time around. I also applied to take the JET Translation and Interpretation Course this fall. There is an extrance exam at the end of June. If I pass the exam, I can take the course. If not, I'll try again next year. I hope I pass, because I'm getting sick of failing all the time. and I have been studyig. lol So here goes!

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

My arms are fine today! My legs...still hurt like crap. Especially my calves. Going up and down stairs is hell. I had to go one step at a time and had to go down sideways. Kind of embarassing. lol I hope my legs are good by Saturday because I'm dancing in the Iwaki Odori (parade dance) and the dance is about 6 blocks...maybe a bit more than that. It goes from the beach to the train station, the route should take about 45 minutes to dance from start to finish and since there are so many groups, the parade should be about 2 and a half hours. I'll be dancing with the teachers from my base school.

Today I went to work and had no classes (thank you summer vacation). Lots of kids were at school enjoying their club activities. I spent the morning in the office with Nami talking and reading. Then after lunch Nami told me there was a nice couch in the room next to the office. She gave me the key to the room and told me to go sit in there and open the windows. So I did.

I sat in this beautiful comfy armed sofa chair with the windows open. I could hear the brass band practicing (they are really good) and I could hear the ocean waves crashing over the breakers and up onto the beach. I ended up dozing off a few times and I guess I dozed for about an hour. I read some more too and just had a nice quiet, peaceful afternoon. Then, just before 2:30pm, Nami came in and said that the Principal had said that we could leave early before the rain came. It was so dark outside that we needed to turn on lights. So Nami drove me to the grocery store and I picked up this weeks groceries and then she took me home. I got home just before 3:30 instead of almost 5pm.

It was a good day. Now, if only my legs would get with the program and stop hurting! lol

I've been lurking around over at Nerd Fitness and I finally joined up today and made a few posts. I am taking my time looking through everything. I am joining a Class Guild too. I'm an Adventurer (General Fitness, Weight Loss, and haven't picked a Class yet). I think I will eventually be either a Ranger or a Scout. At the moment I am not sure which Class I will be most suited for. So I'm going to enjoy being an Adventurer for now.

I may even try the next 6 week challenge that comes up. I'll have to think about what to do for it though. I'm already paying off my Visa Card ($1000/month) and should have that paid off by October, I'm making monthly payments on my student loans and putting money aside for Grad School. I don't need a challenge for that because I'm already doing it. I guess it will be eating habbits and sticking to my workouts...which are on hold until I can at least go up and down the stairs without wanting to whimper.

I'm going to have to start working on stairs (running up and down stairs, and walking up while skipping 2 and 3 steps to get different height intervals) to better prepare myself for my next try at Fuji...1 or 2 years from now lol. Alright, I guess that's about it for this update.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima