...

I'm getting tired of Japan. It's nice enough here but I think I am discovering I like Chicago more. There are a lot of frustrating aspects of living here - I can't read anything, which makes eating Japanese food difficult because I don't know what things are (and the way they cut their meat is much thinner than in America - I keep cooking it beyond the point I want it, but it's never overdone). I'm tired of people always looking at me. I rarely get a chance to use Japanese because people try to speak English to me. The classes are so ridiculously easy that even I'm tempted to ditch class simply because it's boring. I would be learning a lot of Japanese if the class was taught in such a way that it behooved you to remember the vocabulary and grammar beyond the ten minutes it takes to complete the daily quiz. I guess I just feel like I'm wasting time that I ought to be using to actually take classes that I need to graduate. Granted, I only need 23 hours of anthropology credit, and I'm going to use studying abroad to write a paper that will fill 8 of those, but I don't know how to start writing or researching for it. I've checked out all the books the library here has on ethnographic writing... all 6 of them. And only one has proven to even be vaguely useful. I should be researching grad school and doing things that are going to help me get a job after I graduate, not making risotto every night simply because I have plenty of time to stand in front of the stove stirring it. At least I will have improved my cooking skills.

I feel like I live in a cubicle.