Wednesday, December 31, 2014

wrapping up 2014

All right, before I (presumably) make a post to reflect about 2014 as a whole, I feel like I need to fill in all the blanks of the past three months, where so much has happened that I just haven't been able to post more than the bare minimum.

Notable events of the past 3 months (super summary version)
 - went to FujiQ, a famous amusement park in Shizuoka, with some people from my yosakoi team
 - started the interpreting course at Simul Academy, the school associated with one of Japan's leading translation/interpreting companies. Actually I can't believe I haven't written about this at all yet - just another sign of how crazy these few months have been, I guess. I have class twice a week in Tokyo, and I'm the only non-native Japanese speaker and probably the youngest in the class. I'm also the only one who hasn't had formal training before now (I tested into a course that people usually reach after a year or two of study), so it's been challenging, but also very interesting!
 - lots of yosakoi events, including the biggest yosakoi festival in Chiba and our
 - went back home for the second wedding of the year and had a fantastic time with family and friends
 - took the BJT (Business Japanese Proficiency Test) but am not really looking forward to the results...at least it's not pass-fail
 - was invited by a Chinese lady to her house to have lunch and play with her kid - the whole family speaks Chinese, Japanese, and English to varying degrees and they were really nice
 - was in charge of Chiba AJET Thanksgiving
 - interpreted when the mayor of Montreux came to visit our mayor and his family and couldn't get over how adorable the mayor's kids are
 - went to Kamakura with a couple of friends from my yosakoi team, which was super chill but super fun
 - had a good time seeing people again at CIR mid-year
 - held my first ever event, making graham cracker gingerbread houses with elementary school students. The kids seemed to enjoy it and made some pretty creative houses, so I'd consider it a success!
 - finished the AJET report and presented it at our annual opinion exchange (this involved so much time and energy I don't even want to think about it anymore. So glad it's over, but scared to think about how I have to do it all again in a few months)
 - went to the Tokyo Career Forum and met up with a friend from Niigata
 - went to our yosakoi team's end-of-the-year party and stayed out later than I probably ever have in Chiba
 - had a Christmas shabu-shabu dinner with my coworkers and exchanged gifts - I got a nano blocks Tokyo Tower set that I should try to put together sometime during this winter break
 - went to see a gorgeous Christmas illumination in Nakameguro
 - went swing dancing and wandering around Yokohama and Roppongi with a friend from Carleton, which was nice because I don't often just explore Tokyo (and every time I go to Yokohama I just can't get over how nice it is)

If I were to go into detail about everything it would probably takes pages and hours to write...so I won't, even though I kind of wish I would (but am too lazy). And now that that's all written, time for a general post about the year!

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