Thursday, August 21, 2008

I've noticed something since I've been in the US.
I feel like an attractive woman when I'm out in public.

In Japan, the only time that men are looking at me, I know it's because I am an oddity. I am a gaijin* in a country of Japanese. I'm a square block that doesn't fit in the hole.

On one hand, it is nice to feel attractive again, but on the other hand, I feel threatened. This is a generalization, but Japanese men are the most non-aggressive men I have ever been around. In the US, men look at you. Men flirt. And you know what? It freaks me out!

Thank God I've got Stan, so I can just ignore the rest!

*gaijin means foreigner, or outsider.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

I'm back in the US for the first time in almost 2 years. It's kind of crazy!
I'm enjoying myself so far, but I'm also in a battle of wills with jet-lag. I feel that I'm winning so far. Well, if winning counts as going to bed at 8pm and waking up between 4 and 5 am! I'm fighting jet-lag like an old school farmer. I don't have any livestock to feed at 5am, but I do scoop out some cat boxes.

My first meal on the way back from the airport was Arabic food. It was soooooo good. Stan and I make hummus regularly, but having tabbouleh and falafel was just amazing!

Besides that I have been playing around on and figuring out my new Macbook! It's very pretty and fast.

I also went to Costco with my family yesterday. It was GIGANTIC! MASSIVE! Kind of overwhelming! The carts were big, the store was big, everything was big! I told my parents that in three years in Japan, I had never bought as much stuff at once as they did on our trip. You would need about 5 Japanese shopping carts to fit the contents of 1 Costco cart.

I have started sorting through all my stuff that's been stored in my mother's basement for three years. Oh, lordy. When you move out of the country for three years, and then come back and look at the things that you thought were worth storing, it's kind of shocking! I had a lot of crappy stuff down there, and I've only scratched the surface! That being said, there are also lots of treasures! I already have a big pile of clothes and bedding for charity, and I'm planning on adding lots more!