Weekend result: unsatisfactory

I was so hyped this past weekend that if I hadn't known better I would have thought that I had too much coffee or maybe even some kind of drug. On Saturday I studied a bit in the morning, then I went to the sports festival of one of my elementary schools. It was the best sports festival I’ve attended, but I think the primary reason for that was because it was short. Instead of having an event for every grade and several combined events, all the events that I saw involved combined grades. Ah, except for one, which replaced the tug-of-war. Instead they had several bamboo poles that each team tried to pull all the way to their side. Once the pole was clearly captured, the pullers could then join another group in trying to pull. However, the poles weren’t long enough for more than twenty or so kids to grab, and the kids tended to trip and fall, so it was amusing as well as exciting.

The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur. I climbed on Saturday, and it was good (I climbed with my friend Funatsu-san) but I didn’t do anything particularly great. Sunday I was set on going to church, and then somehow the time came and went. Instead, I went for the first time to the Japanese class that takes place in Shiojiri. I was given a newspaper article and struggled through it with one other student. The article was about the importance of a balanced diet, so it was interesting to me, but had several difficult words and phrases. Our teacher was a former nutritionist, so that was neat.

I cooked lunch and thought about going back to the gym for a second day in a row. I probably should have, especially considering I can’t go today since it was a holiday yesterday. But anyway, I cooked lunch, then ended up going to the store and buying ingredients to cook dinner as well. Oh, I went to the library for two hours and tried to study. It didn’t go very well. I did meet some of my junior high students, which was cool. Mom helped me figure out the ideal course schedule for going to Liberty.

On Monday I applied to Liberty and sent my transcripts. I also practiced violin and studied Japanese at home. That was pretty much my whole day. It wasn’t very productive. I wanted to go biking, but couldn’t find the motivation. I had also meant to do some programming, but it completely slipped my mind. Well, at least I didn’t play any Factorio. I played an idle browser game, but it’s very casual so I think I can ignore it or stop without difficulty.

So in Japan alcohol isn’t nearly as taboo as in America, even for younger students. Several homeroom teachers have mentioned drinking beer in front of the class. Also, one of the students last week was wearing a shirt that advertised beer.

I’m a little worried about money when I go home. Since I will need to take 9 credits every semester, I won’t have much time for a job, which means I won’t have much income. I want to take the first electrician class too, so that will cut down on my time even more (speaking of which, I should try emailing GTCC to find out if it’s even possible). If I only had to worry about tuition it wouldn’t be a problem, but I will likely need to procure a vehicle, which won’t be cheap, and I think it would be ideal to be able to pay rent to my parents—maybe $150/month. If my tuition costs $15k, then $2k in rent, that means I need to buy a car and pay for gas as well as extra stuff with the rest, which at the moment is looking to be about $6k. It’s possible, but tight.