1.  I am bored and have no classes or planning to do this afternoon.
2.  Thoughts immediately then go to my Thanksgiving trip to California.
3.  I am a compulsive list-maker.
4.  The lists will be edited as I get closer to the actual trip.


Things to Eat in California:

1. Burritos.
2. Nachos.
3. In'n'Out Burger.
4. Grand Lux and/or Cheesecake Factory.  (Same difference, really, since Cheesecake Factory owns the former.)
5. Korean food besides kimchi and kalbi.
6. Chicago deep dish pizza.
7. Turkey.
8. Stuffing.
9. Mashed potatoes.
10. Pumpkin pie.
11. Trashy super market white cake with SUGAR FROSTING.
12. Quizno's.
13. Ben and Jerry's.  (This should comprise of many, many flavors.)
14. Hot dog.

Things to Purchase in California:

1. 2-3 pairs of work-suitable pants.
2. 4-5 tops that are not t-shirts.
3. 1-2 dresses.
4. 2-3 covering tops.
5. New Clinique foundation.  (I'm pretty sure I'm now lighter than my current foundation as I have received minimal amounts of sun in the last 2 years.)
6. Omiyage/souvenirs for my students.
7. Omiyage/souvenirs for my teachers.

Funnily enough, I haven't actually read this book (though I'm thinking about ordering it).  Instead, I was reading a review of Nora and Delia Ephron's stage show inspired by the book, and it got me thinking - what are the things I remember wearing as a kid the most?  The awful things, the awesome things, and just the things I wore at important times?  Here are the first three of mine:

Outfit #1: My Birthday Suit
One of the first things I remember wearing is nothing at all.  You know those stories of kids who adore being naked?  Well, this might come as a shock to those of you who knew me in high school and college, when changing in the open was expected in locker rooms and I refused to do it, but I was one of those kids.  My outfit of choice at home until I was around three?  Nothing but my underwear and this white stone choker necklace Olivia and I had been given matching set of.  Also, my hairstyle until the third grade consisted of a barrette clipping back my then-completely straight hair (it would become naturally wavy and start to curl later in life) from my side part to one side.  There are unfortunately pictures and everything of this, of me playing with a fully-clothed Olivia - clearly extremely happy with the fact that I am not fully clothed.  One time my mother and I were looking at that picture at home, the summer after I graduated from high school, and she laughed so hard tears were coming to her eyes.  She said she always thought I looked like some strange South Pacific Asian native child in those pictures.

Sometimes I comfort myself with the other fact that part of this was because Olivia and I would play a favorite game where I was her dog, and I had insisted to my mother that dogs don't wear clothes.  But I know that was an excuse.  The story to counter this is that one day my mom and aunt took me shopping in some Korean department store, pushing me around in the cart.  They turn around for a second to look at something on a nearby rack, and after not even half a minute, they hear laughter from the people around them.  They turn around and there I am, stark naked in the shopping cart, dancing to department store music (I had originally been in the child-seat part of the cart, but even then I was a sort of acrobatic, climbing sort of kid, so I'd maneuvered myself into the big area).  Another unfortunate fact is that I figured out how to undo buttons at a young age.

Outfit #2: Embracing My Heritage
Like all Korean kids (even halfies like me), I had a hanbok.  Being on the scrawny side of the spectrum when I was little, I was able to wear it for a relatively long time without outgrowing it anywhere but the legs, and that was slowly.  It was green-topped and red-skirted, as is pretty common for little girls to have.  It was shiny and satiny, and I think it bespoke an early sense of style from the bright colors on it...later in life that was something that always attracted me.

My mom said it was interesting, because I enjoyed wearing it more than Olivia did.  Olivia preferred the western, poofy, white, Glinda-esque dress my parents bought her when she was little and had to do a piano recital at her preschool (yes, preschool...it was in Korea).  I was attracted to the bright colors...and more importantly, I had probably already developed a personality attribute that's stuck with me for a long time, even when I tried my best to counter it in middle and high school (when it finally occurred to me that I was already different without even trying thanks to being mixed race), and that was my desire to be different.  It probably stemmed from wanting to be different from Olivia, since I was the second child (and eventually the middle child).  Even though my parents were very careful to try to keep me away from feeling neglected or forgotten like most middle children, I think it's inevitable for any middle child to develop at least a small complex.  So when Olivia chose the frills and white, I chose the Christmas colors in a style that other kids (when we moved back to the States) didn't wear.

Outfit #3: Matchy-matchy...Sort of
Though my parents did their best to make sure that I knew I was as special as my older sister, they still supported the idea of buying matching clothing.  It wasn't as often as some other sets of siblings, but the Toro girls certainly had their share.  Later, this would be curbed, my mother says, by me, who liked having the same things as Olivia, but always wanted a different color.

When we lived in Mexico, even though I'm pretty sure it didn't rain often, my parents bought us expensive, matching, plastic, cloth-lined hooded raincoats.  Olivia's was purple with yellow snap-buttons, and I had insisted on the white with pink snap-buttons.  They had come with matching hard lunchboxes in the cartoon construction worker style - Olivia's was purple with yellow snaps and mine was white with pink snaps.  At the time we bought them, which was around 1990, they were considered kind of cool - they could hold cold packs in their lids thanks to special holder and were large enough to hold pretty much any lunch.  Though I can't remember it, I think this purchase was made due to Olivia's necessity and my wanting to have one, too - and my parents were the type to try their best not to let me feel left out (I was one of those kids who got a present from my parents on my sister's birthday until I was four or five...both my parents are oldest children from families with two of their sex and one of the opposite, so the fact that their family was not like that made their whole child-rearing experience even more of an experiment than other parents, I think).  I didn't actually use the lunchbox until I was 6 and started first grade.  We'd moved to Virginia by that time, where it rains a good deal more, so I got to use the raincoat that the other kids didn't have and sometimes got to use the lunchbox the other kids didn't have.

2 Signs Japan is now showing rejection symptoms to me:

1.  I got into a car accident.  It was my fault, my car came the worst off, and yes, I'm totally fine.  The guy yelled at me, I was extremely embarrassed, and I need to purchase a new car (which is thankfully easy and pretty cheap in Japan because of the shakken system rendering any used car five years or older almost worthless).

2.  For the first time ever, my autumn allergies are rivaling my springtime allergies.  I'm going on my third autumn here right now, and I have NEVER had to deal with autumn allergies here.

I feel like I'm the new kidney given to Japan and after a month or so of functioning fine the greater body is showing signs of rejecting me completely.

But don't think that I'm hating it here or anything, guys.  I'm still enjoying my last year here, most definitely.  I love my students and really like my job, and I'm happy and well-fed (though I'm trying to curb this part in an effort to look less like a beached whale).  I get to go home for Thanksgiving this year and see some of my absolute favorite people in the world.  For the first time perhaps ever, I got a haircut I really, REALLY like thoroughly, including the drying/styling after the beautician did (usually I like the cut, but the beautician is totally unused to my hair and kind of half-asses it).  Also, my hair is a color I like more...it gets too light in the summer from the dye and I always think I must look unnatural with lighter hair.  Ah!  And my birthday's coming up - my last birthday to be celebrated in Japan!  I'm turning two dozen years old, haha.  24.  Sheesh, I feel old.  I'm going to be in my mid-twenties in just 10 days!

Anyway, that's about it.  Sorry for the lackluster update...but I'll at least try to be more frequent now!

This article makes me really happy!

"Shinkansen" is the high-speed rail system in Japan, or the "bullet train" system made famous by the Nagano Olympics in 1998.  While they are still slower than flying to locations when you compare actual flight times versus rail times, once you add in check-in time, etc., high speed rail is about the same time (depending on the distance you're traveling, of course).  Think about it - since I was a kid, I'd had it drilled into my head that you should arrive at the airport approximately 2-3 hours before your flight is scheduled to depart.  So even the very short time it takes to fly from Chicago to Washington, D.C., (approximately 1:45), it in fact takes 4:15.  In Japan, the same distance is covered in about 6:30 - but the entire time you are on the transport vehicle, having a kind of ridiculously smooth ride, and you are most likely to arrive in the central station of the city, not an airport situated 30-60 minutes from your destination within the city.

But there are differences in these forms of travel.  In comparison to some high-speed trains in Europe, Japanese shinkansen don't offer luggage check-in - you must be able to roll/carry your bag onto the train and fit it somehow within your seating area, either in the small overhead racks they have or around/under your seat.

The other difference is that the due to the Japanese culture and relative lack of crime, there is no security check (though there are security guards looking for any strange behavior around the train platforms, etc.) - no x-ray for bags, no metal detectors, nothing.  When I took EuroStar trains between Paris and London, I believe there were security checkpoints, but they were minimal and very quickly done (though that might be because it was Europe and not the U.S.).

Another difference is the transportation industry costs in Japan vs. the ones in the States.  A shinkansen ticket is almost always of a comparable price to that of a plane ticket to the same destination - and that doesn't mean it's cheap.  For example, a flight from Sendai to Hiroshima (comparable to the distance between Chicago and Washington, DC), is around $250-$290 at any given time.  A shinkansen from Sendai to Hiroshima has about the same cost - $250.  However, in the States, companies like JetBlue, Southwest, etc., offer prices as low as $60 sometimes for flights from Chicago to Washington, DC.  So if this railway idea is to be successful, this means that AmTrak has to be able to offer prices comparable to these airlines, if not better.  Which is another problem, because in all other countries, railway ticket costs are constant, they don't fluctuate over time the way airline ticket prices do.

While I'm excited about the prospects of bullet train travel in the U.S. (it really is pretty great - smooth, comfortable, easy, fast, energy efficient, and really, really reliable), I'm worried about whether we can carry it off with the same efficiency as other countries, and if the proposed system can combat the American way of always seeking the cheapest cost to yourself.  Ah well.  I'm still enthusiastic and excited for it!

...That's Japanese for "long time, no see", in case you were wondering.

Anyway...I haven't posted in a long time...but I really wanted to post this because I think it's important to talk about it and the great shame that ideas like this are still present in our country.  The fact that she is an elected official and has the gall to say such a thing about a country built upon people coming to the nation with diversity, ranging from ethnicity to education to ideas, is mind-boggling.  She said "you and your citizens".  Can we analyze that comment for a moment?  If they're voting in the United States, they are UNITED STATES CITIZENS.  Meaning they are her FELLOW citizens.  Then let's talk about the fact that she is telling Asian-Americans that they should have names that are easier for "Americans to deal with".  So she's saying that these Asian-Americans, who are eligible to vote either through official naturalization or birth, are not "real" Americans.

Not only is she not being asked to say any names or read any, she is arguing on behalf of voter identification legislation, meaning that NOBODY has to worry about saying those names unless they personally meet citizens with "difficult" names - the only thing that happens in voter identification is they check your name against your driver's license/passport/I.D....they just have to check spellings, in other words and perhaps type it out again in some official document.  Meaning the people who work in voter identification offices only have to be able to read and type.  NOT be fluent in any other sort of language.  This woman is absolutely ridiculous and entirely racist.

EDIT//
So, after more evidence, I have to be fair and say that she really wasn't being very racist, though there is a certain American ignorance/arrogance in her tone.  The article I posted above gave a rather unfair, completely antagonistic slant to it.  They were actually discussing the transliteration of naturalized citizens' names and the problems that arise with this - from the fact that naturalization documents are sometimes lost or put into tediously-reopened safekeeping places, to the fact that upon naturalization names are transliterated one way, but over time the individual might change the way they transliterate their name because they discover there is an easier way to romanize their name and have people read it more closely to the proper pronunciation, to the fact that many Asian-Americans will adopt western names/nicknames in order to fit in and have an easier time in social situations.  So the problem arises when a person goes to vote and runs into one of the following problems: 1) they do not have the naturalization document or 2) the name on their I.D. (the adopted name and/or newly spelled romanized name) does not match that of the one on their naturalization papers.  In some states this means the voter could be completely turned away from the poll station, for something as small as the lack of a hyphen.

Basically, I was a bit too harsh on Betty Brown because her quotes were taken completely out of context by people who don't completely understand the situation themselves.  From what I can tell, she is not saying Asian-Americans should change their names...what she IS saying is that they ought to just pick a way to romanize and stick with it...so the only thing she's guilty of is ignorance of interculture translation.

I've been sporadically sick for the past couple of weeks now, but this week's been the worst by far and I'm on my third sick day (I think by tomorrow I should be fine, though).  All of the ALTs in my town have been down with similar maladies, so I figure it's just something I need to get through before I enjoy my winter.

Anyway, in an effort to stave off boredom today, I stole a meme from my older sister's blog.  In an effort to be humorous, I'll include all of my foreign music, too, and will translate their titles as best I can and include clips and lyrics translations when I can find them.

Hoppípolla (Jumping Puddles), Sigur Rós (hmm)

Tagged by the oldest Toro sister.  Heh.  Admittedly, I left out all foreign and instrumental music I listen to (which is actually quite a lot...I hadn't realized how many Craig Armstrong pieces, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese songs, and movie soundtracks I'd stockpiled), but here goes!  By the way, I'd say there about three of these that I'm very embarrassed about, haha.  Oh well.

Step 1: Put your music player on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly (No lyric hunting! That is cheating!)

1. "I hate the world today."
2. "Hey, Jude, don't make it bad."  guessed by starrcandi , "Hey Jude", by The Beatles
3. "Christmas, Christmas time is near..."
4. "When we got to Boston..."
5. "Give me a kiss to build a dream on..."
6. "If there's a God, he's laughing at us and our football team."
7. "Take me to the place where the white boys dance."
8. "Looking around the house..."
9. "Say you were split, split in fragments..."
10. "Quit acting so friendly..."
11. "A brand new baby was born yesterday, just in time."
12. "'So, here's a riddle to guess if you can,' sing the bells of Notre Dame..."  guessed by Matt, "The Bells of Notre Dame (Reprise)", by Alan Menken, sung by Paul Kandel
13. "Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight..."
14. "Was it all in real-time?"
15. "If it weren't for your maturity, none of this would have happened."
16. "Is there anybody out there that wakes up with the bitter taste?"
17. "Oh, the first flush of youth was upon you when our eyes first met..."
18. "Memories consume, like opening the wound..."
19. "Baby, please try to forgive me..."
20. "I took my love, and I took it down."  guessed by starrcandi , "Landslide", by Stevie Nicks
21. "You, you were a friend..."
22. "So far away, come on, I'll take you far away."
23. "Hello, can I say that there's something wrong with this place?"
24. "Sara-spelled-without-an-H was getting bored..."
25. "Can anybody find me somebody to love?"  guessed by starrcandi , "Somebody to Love", by Queen

I read this article while at work today and thought it was interesting.  Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania during World War II and helped thousands of Jews escape Europe through issuing handwritten visas.

I love history.  There's so much we don't know.

I don't really understand how people can vote for Proposition 8.  The U.S. Constitution says that there is a freedom of religion within our nation and a separation of church and state - which then gives way to the fact that the U.S. government cannot deny a church its right to turn people away.  That being said, this means that it is absolutely no government's right (federal, state, or local) to make any ruling based on religious beliefs.  Therefore, the Constitution says all Americans are to receive equal rights - this should include the entrance of marital unions, at least on a governmental level.  That should be that.  Then it is left in the hands of religious leaders of churches whether or not to allow gay marriages to take place in their places of worship or not.  It should be completely out of the government's hands.  Doesn't that mean that Proposition 8 is illegal on a federal level?  If people are voting for Proposition 8 because of religious beliefs, I think that's wrong.

But I guess, like in abortion, you can't control voters' trains of thought, nor who votes.  It's so frustrating.

I feel really silly, but what might be only the second time in my life, I cried with happiness.  Obama's the United States President-elect.

In a really weird way, I almost physically feel like I was part of something that just helped a glass ceiling shatter.  I can feel the shards cascading around my head, surging upward in one of those Willy Wonka elevators, haha.  I guess that's what Obama represents to me, too.  I support his causes and a lot of his policies, and more than anything, while it didn't make me vote for him, I'm impossibly happy that our country is finally ready to pick a president without regard to the color of his skin.  Because that hits home for me harder than I ever thought it would.