2020 Reflection

Recently, I had been rolling around in my room, bored up the wazoo. I tried to pass the time by learning Korean and watch my favorite YouTubers. Everyone says that Korean is probably one of the easiest East Asian language (Japanese being the hardest). But, it is the complete opposite of me. The pronunciation gets me all mixed up and hangeul is such a struggle for me. The sound of the double consonants is tripping me up. Chinese script was a cakewalk. However, the way I speak Chinese will make native speakers want to choke me out. The only way I will survive in China is just me carrying a whiteboard and dry erase marker. Just depressing. In addition, one of my favorite J-dramas (Sunshine or おひさま）is off of Viki. J-dramas are already hard to look for in the first place. I am just fortunate that they still have A Girl's Breakfast on there. That drama is pretty much about four women (office worker, yoga instructor, bartender, and a housewife) who were friends since high school. Each episode to either focus on one of their lives and breakfast. It reminds me of the novel of the girls and the traveling pants that I read back in third grade. The girl(s) in each episode would eat and kinda review the food of an actual restaurant. It is nice seeing that honestly. It takes me back to a school day back in Japan where I came home early enough that I both come home earlier than my host sister and watch a bit on the drama that my host dad was watching. Except the food wasn't easygoing breakfast spots that would be featured in the magazine for OL but, a warm eatery that blue-collared workers went to smoke, eat and laugh with their co-workers. Things like this make me miss Japan (Nagoya especially). I will never forget the simplicities of just taking public transport, the hugs that my friend would give me the mornings at school, cicadas and, eating with my host family. Even playing Uno with my host siblings and mixing soy sauce with my host family give me internal fuzzies. I would die to go again but it is reallllll pricey. Maybe I could just survive on capsule hotels and convenience store food to save up. Then again I need to save up for university so, I doubt that I will be going this summer :/ 

Oh dear, oh boy, birth control

Back in like 2009, I would watch MTV and BET after school (I was so obsessed with being older omg). I remember a lot of the commercials on MTV mainly because BET had the same medical compensation commercial over and over. One the commercials that I both remembered was the bedsider commercials. Those commercials reminded me of the weird commercials from the The N. Eight year old me was like man, that will never happen to me. Now before you press the back button and search somewhere else, those two commercials that I did not really relate to then. Who knew that their weird quiet, The N-ish commercial would prove me wrong. In about n the span of two years, I had to deal with TWO different types of birth control, The first was one that I would oppose of at first: nexplanon. I didn't really like where the placement beforehand. One of the girls from the orientation had it and it kinda changed my perspective on it. I did it in late August of 2018 and it was really quick and painless. I was legit shock by the process. Just please PLEASE do not watch videos of people getting it put in and taken out. I did that mistake on the day before it and freaked out (especially since I have a fear of needles). Thank god, my mom calmed me down about it and gave me support of the day of. After the application of it, I ended up having a loooong period that lasted from really August (29th) to February. It would switch up between spotting to light+medium bleeding. It settle down in March and it was a little irregular. Before the implant, my bleeding was very regular but, the bleeding was terrible. My "light" bleeding was medium. I had to change my pad almost every hour, that's how bad it was. With the implant, it was better and shorter (6 days) too. Then it went downhill in this August. It was the second time where I had two lengthy periods in one month. In addition, I had intense mood swings and decided to call it off. That when I got the IUD (Oct 3rd). I got the Mirena one because of the time length and the hormones. I did not have a period until the 29th or so. That's a real big gap. The immediate recovering of it lasted like two days for me. Now I had a period since the 29th which is composed of light bleeding and spotting (medium here and there). The reason I wrote this because when I got it the implant, the experiences was black and white. Either people absolutely love it or would've murder it if it was a human being (most extreme being YouTube comment of a someone cutting it out their arm by them-self). Personally, my experiences and feeling are not that. Before getting the nexplanon, understand that there is a high probability that you will get irregular periods and long period. That's just the truth. I liked it because it lowered my amount of bleeding and cramps. Also, it's really convenient and, good for folks who are bad with routines or busy bodies. On the downside, I got multiple periods in one month and the mood swings would get real fierce for me. With more and more people getting birth control for either sex or just mensutral cycles, remember to keep an open mind. Keep others's experience with different method with an open mind. Your desicion on choosing BC should be a halfway glass of water: one half with awareness of the cons and the other with pros. And do not assume that all birth control is rainbows and glitter pies. Even with "the one", there will be troubles.

How to make an impressive host letter

On April 20, I got my acceptance letter for my study aboard scholarship.! I am going somewhere in Japan and as of right now, I am not sure as to where I am placed and who's my host family. In order to celebrate my acceptance, I decided to post a guide on how to write a host letter.

                                                 ★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★
   Personally, I feel as though not many talk out or clarify about writing host letter when it comes to the study aboard process. Host letter is quite important. It's an honest introduction made by yourself (duh!) to your future host family. The letter is supposed to be intimate yet, public. Yeah, I know it's a bit strange but, it will make more sense once I explain. Recommended length is perhaps 4-5 paragraphs (including introductory and conclusion paragraph). Make sure, your letter isn't too long or short. Too short would it seem like you aren't too interesting and sluggish. Too long could bore your possible host family. Your outline should be in this order: introductory, SAYL*, SAYL, SAYL, and conclusion  Similar to the name, go ahead and introduce yo' self! In this paragraph, it is wise to avoid going into details about your interests and relationships. It is way better to give each big aspect of your life, it's own paragraph. For example, this is okay, "I live with my two parents and have two siblings." but, this isn't, "I live with my two parents, Raymond and Elizabeth. My dad is an inventor and we constantly go the movies together and...". Put all of those juicy details into one of the body paragraphs. For the body paragraphs, focus on a big part of your life. It is recommended to go into your interests (like your favorites), your relationships (this can include both family and friends) and school life. However when talking about these things be aware to not put in personal information. Most of the times, study aboard companies put these on a forum or send them host family that can fit your criteria. So, it isn't a good idea give out names, phone numbers, etc. You could tell them those things yourself if you want to when you meet your host family. In the end, conclude your letter. Tell why you think it is important for you to study aboard and the beneficial parts and effects of foreign exchange. This can be a bit tricky but, view this part as if your travel agent or a charismatic salesman trying to ease into booking a trip. If you are still blank, search up pros of foreign exchange or maybe ask people around on their feelings about. That could give some inspiration. Your concluding sentence should be something like this, "Thank you for reading my letter and please consider hosting me. From, Jane.".  Here are a few tips that I can offer:

1. Don't put anything in the letter that could prevent you from getting the host family and application. I don't know how hard that could be for some people but, try not to. It is not the brightest idea to talk your frequent recreational drug usage or, you how much stuff you lift from your local Dollar Tree. Study aboard companies doesn't want you or your host family sitting a jail cell in a different country.
2. Be aware of the country you writing these letters to. If you know that you writing a host letter to a country is pretty conservative on certain acts, please try to avoid to talk about that. Of course, there are progressive folks in countries like those. It is safe not to mention them. Additionally, if you do not know if a country is alright with certain things, avoid adding it in.
3. Include some of the stuff from the country into one of the paragraphs. I am not saying to go full butt kissing but, draw some connections from the popular cultures and norms into your life. Simply saying that your interest is learning that country's language in your free time or you love a show that is currently being there is a nice way to connect with your host family. That being said, don't lie! Don't talk about how you read all of that country's iconic literature even though, you don't know one of the names of any authors there.
4. Steer away from taboo subjects. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT TALK ABOUT POLITICS AND RELIGION!!!  Please don't go on about how you love a leader that everybody and their mam know that treated the country you want like crap or, traumatizing event that impacted and sacred that nation. It is okay to talk about how you go to church and youth group and stuff like that. It is not okay to talk about your religion is the best in the world and other religions can go suck eggs. Just be kind and safe.

 I think that about does for right now! After this post, I could possibly write a pretty good sample host letter. I just hope that this can help someone out there. I could try to talk about more study aboard prep like funding, pack list, and all that good stuff. When I do go, I will take pictures and post a bunch.

Public school funds and things on my mind

   I don't know about schools in other countries. But, the spending in public school in the great almighty United States is absolute crap. A lot of the spending goes towards atheltics and anything besides the arts. At my school, my IB art program only has a few types of art mediums: matte acriylic, tempura paint (the type little kids paint with), colored pencils, and oil pastels. We don't even have canvas. Band is another program that is really underfunded. I mainly brought this because of what I've heard.
So, I have been placed at a table where I am surrounded by girls either in ASB or just locals (sometimes both). Only one of them really talks to me (let's call her H) and actually knows my names, the other two don't care and forget about my presence(aka J and F). Anyways, the local three were talking about the following:

1. Rise in breakups 
2. One of the girl's jerk of a recently ex-boyfriend
3. Some girl they condemned just because she embraces her sexuality
4. Girls that are stuck up
5. ASB

Because they think I am some lousy rock on the chair across them, I was able to listen on while looking bored. I overheard something that ended kinda pissing me off. J bought up the yearly ASB retreat,which I found out on that day - Thursday, and H continues on that conversation. Then, J added that fact that the head of ASB was thinking of  flying out the entire ASB! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH AIR FARE COST FOR AROUND 15 KIDS AND ONE FREAKING ADULT?! Absolutely ridulous. Just for a reminder, I am at a public school. Where's the money coming from? What's need for it? All of they do are decorate and pick themes for school events. Nothing real important there. Additionally, they're like Julius when it comes to club money. In freshman year, when I was in the Feminist club, we planned to give snack bags, basically a decorated brown paper bag with garnola bars, PB&J sandwiches and water aka simple. We had to give one hundred snack bags, so we decided to use our sorta useless club money the food. After going back and forth with ASB and the president (who was my friend, so were most of the club counsil), we can't use the club money that was saved from the food fairs we did. Not joking, ASB only allowed us to use the money only for the two most important and serious situations: pizza parties and T-shirts. In order words, donation for a shelther = a waste of money and time but, pizza parties= make it rain like a nigerian wedding.

                                     ASB:"That's almost $2 worth of club to a women shelther"

This rant felt longer than I thought. I wanted to talk about something else but, I ramble on any longer it make people fall asleep.

Virtual*✭˚･ﾟ✧*Hime

*✭˚･ﾟ✧*･ﾟ*✭˚･ﾟ✧*･ﾟ* (It was kinda hard trying to post this playlist :P)

Things on my mind #3: Anime boys and/with flower crowns

I adore anime boys more than the ones in real life. It's kinda weird because when I'm daydreaming, reality sucka punches me in the face and yells how they're not real. Then, logical thinking kicks me in the gut and says if they would like me in real life. That would be a no, unless their name is Alois Trancy or a pedophile. Here are my favorites (listed by animes)-

1.Death note (not all dead,but dead)

2. Hetalia 

3.black butler

4. DRAMAtical Murder

4. Free! Swimming Anime

5.Attack on Titan

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I also LOVE flower crowns. They're so retro and cute. They remind me of flower fairies and when I lived in Portland.

I also love anime boys with flower crowns ,too.

This post is a flashback from middle school. I was super obsessed like this then. So, enjoy I guess /:

Things on my mind #4: People from HS

Until yesterday, a super late revelations hit me while I was thrift shopping: I have to stop quickly assuming about things. Real original, right? However, that's a huge problem that I fail to really fix. I would assume the best of people or events then, it would be worst than I thought. When I was in sophomore year, I always thought it was so cool that my friend could instantly get with her artsy group of friends, hop on the metro and hang out at MOCA. I thought it was also puzzling on how she could get away with all things she did, like causally smoke and go to late night shows with hypnotic vocals and crowds that moved like crashing waves. All that time, I would think that her mom was some carefree hippie that also did that. My viewpoint changed for the worst late last year. I wonder if someone thought for the worst of the better. If so, I'd be interested yet, scared.
Additionally, I had this revelations since a week ago. People depend on me way too much and they're okay with it. It is sad and disappointing. It is weird that adults are absolutely okay with people depending on others when there's actually work to be done and they have to do it. But when ONE person looks at their phone, it is the most disrespectful thing on earth and it is the end of the world. Makes no sense at all to me. I already feel the depressing side effect of it: disappearing edges, deteriorating skin, and ultra-sensitivity to noise. This is one of the constant reminders that I will probably won't miss most of the people from high school.