My monthly post..

Yeah, my blogging time has gone down the drain the last few months, which I suppose is a good thing as well. Last month was crazy and I really had no free time besides a few hours here and there. Once again, I post an edited version of my monthly report to Fulbright.

I started this period by going to a Fulbright outing for the new head of Fulbright Asia(?) and then meeting up with Yamashita in Tokyo. Patricia, I can't believe you had to remind him of the BBQ story. Can you really not think of what I eat? But anyways, I had a great time catching up with him and found the meeting very helpful in discussing my future career plans. However, after I returned to Tsukuba, I realized that somehow my keys went missing despite being put in my coat pocket; it should have been safe because the pocket had a little flap over it as well. It being close to midnight and all I started to have a mini-panic attack because I absolutely needed to be able to go home since my research lab was having its thesis presentations the next day (a Sunday). I needed my suit and frantically called my friend for help. Thankfully, I was able to find a locksmith late at night, though it cost me a fortune (over 2 man...$220+). By the way, just in case anyone loses their key, it seems like if you have the time to stay somewhere else for a short while it is not that big a deal. After the weekend passed I went to my real estate agent and got the spare key quite easily. I was half expecting to have to pay some kind of fee or something but I was able to duplicate the spare key without any problems. But since I had the thesis presentations the next day…

The thesis presentations were quite interesting, though I have to admit that I was not able to fully follow most of them. Since the presenters had a time limit most of them were speaking at a rapid pace. If I did not have a copy of the abstracts in front of me I would probably have been totally lost. However, it was overall a very rewarding experience and some of the presentations gave me some insight for my own project. The party afterwards was quite interesting, especially when I was asked by a professor in front of 40 people what my type was (unfortunately, I did not have an answer for him; apparently I was suppose to pick a celebrity I liked?).

There has been a lot of traveling this month as well; going on a short and cheap ski trip with Tsukuba friends, Sapporo with some many others for the Yuki Matsui (and various tabehoudais), and then Tokyo/Yokohama/Disney with Reed, Rebecca, and May. My first ski trip was cheap ($110) for transportation, two all-you-can eat meals, housing, one day ski lift pass, and rentals) and I had a great deal of fun. Going to Hokkaido was a blast as well despite the fact that I sprained my knee again (sigh, you guys can laugh). My knee does not seem to approve of skiing. It was interesting living in a place with a lot of snow again (after 18 years of Taiwan and Southern California, though I was freezing). The ice sculptures at the Yuki Matsui were pretty amazing too. Ah, we also went to this cookie factory which had a sweets/cake all-you-can eat. It was delicious but scary, especially since we went to a sukiyaki/shabushabu(hot pot) all-you-can-eat later that day.

Chinese New Years/Valentines Day was slightly disappointing at Yokohama China Town (was expecting a more celebrative atmosphere) and it kind of sucked that it was raining when we went to DisneySea (the more "adult" version of DisneyLand, haha) but I had a great time anyways. I’m sure that it will get out anyways so I might as well say that even though I was screaming like a little girl throughout all of the rides, I am glad that I went on them. The trips have been really fun but once again I am slightly worrying about my diminishing wallet.

The biggest thing that happened to me was figuring out that I was going back to Taiwan for a short while this March. The reason, the LA Dodgers will be visiting Taiwan mid-March for two exhibition games with a Taiwanese all-star team and I will be volunteering at the games. I feel like I somehow lucked into the connections needed to get the job. Professor Miyake, and did one year of Japanese pro baseball research in Japan 10 years ago (on a Freeman Grant). I contacted him earlier this year asking for his advice on baseball research after Professor Miyake gave me his info. I offered my services to him after I found out that the Dodgers were going to Taiwan and that I had time and luckily, after passing my information among various channels, I met a Vice President of MLB International at his Tokyo office (luckily I was not only in Japan but near Tokyo). I will basically be volunteering as a translator/jack of all trades for one week and hopefully this will lead to more connections/other opportunities in the future. I would LOVE to work for MLB International and still be able to live in Asia. Oh, and living in a 5-star hotel for a week is a nice perk as well =P

Let me see... I had my IUC placement test and even though I stressed out a lot about it it turned out to be a piece of cake. It might sound arrogant but now I am slightly worried I might have placed out of the program by scoring too high. Not that I knew all of the answers but I am historically good at taking SAT-like tests and I was able to narrow my choices down to two for most of the questions I wasn't sure of. Then again, I don't think it will happen, so I am probably worrying too much again.

My mom stopped by as well for 4 days and I was able to show her around Tsukuba a bit. We didn't go to Tokyo but she just wanted to relax a bit and see me, so it turned out to be ok. It was fun showing her around but slightly hectic because I was taking finals at the same time. Thankfully, I finished all my finals yesterday =)