Just Your Average Monday

今日の日本語の言葉: kodawari (こだわる) - to be perfectionistic about something
This word was brought to you by the comments Yoshiko-san always makes about me and my writing style, eating style, bento style, etc.

As the post title says, today has been your average day, and thus there isn't much to write about, but nevertheless, I want to write once a day, no matter how little, and thus, I will.

Actually, come to think about it, some exciting things did happen today, though they're not related to Japan whatsoever, and could have been accomplished anywhere. I just happened to do them in Japan, and thus, they're going on this blog!

First things first, I woke up this morning and had a nice breakfast of edamame, rice, and meatballs. It was a bit weird of a combination, but hey, each of them separately were delicious, so who am I to argue? I'm very lucky that Yoshiko-san is such a great cook. Yum!

And then the rest of my morning was spent doing something I haven't done in a while: writing. A long time ago (say, two years ago), I was writing a fan fiction story about an anime called Hetalia. I started it three years ago, and my last update was two years ago. People kept bugging me to update, but I always found better things to do. But recently, because of all the writing I've been doing for the blog and for my RPs, I've found that I've missed writing. There's a certain creativity that can be released in writing that I haven't had the chance to do recently, and it's so invigorating!

Thus, this morning, for the first time in two years, I posted the next chapter of my story. Poor readers, they've been left hanging at one of the story's biggest cliffhangers for two years. And you don't know how much it made my day when a mere half hour after I posted, I got about forty reviews saying how much people were glad that I was back. It's very nice to write, but it's even nicer to know that you have an audience who's waited two years, and then replied in half an hour to a new chapter. I might end up being a writer as a career after all. It's just such a good feeling!

Anyways, when I was forced to do so because of the time, I went to school. I wasn't looking forward to it today, because I wanted to stay home and write, but alas, education calls. However, before I got into school, I dropped by one of the hundreds of vending machines I pass on the way to school and bought myself a can of Van Houten Cocoa out of curiosity. I've been wondering about this drink for quite some time now, and was hoping that it'd somehow be a can of hot chocolate, but it's actually a cold can of hot chocolate. And it doesn't taste like chocolate milk either. It actually just tastes like iced Swiss Mix hot chocolate or something. Very weird.

I felt compelled to drink it though, in homage somehow to The Fault in Our Stars, which is John Green's latest and highly wonderful book. You really should take time to read it if you haven't. It's about cancer patients, and it's the only book to have ever made me bawl (The Kite Runner made a tear drop from my eye, but I was up at three in the morning bawling when I finished The Fault in Our Stars). Goddamn. It's so good.

Anyways, the reason why this can is homage to the book is because within TFiOS, the main girl, Hazel, is in love with this fictional book called An Imperial Affliction by a Peter Van Houten. Neither the book nor the author exist, much to my consternation, but nevertheless, it has "Van Houten" in the name, and thus, I drank it for you, John Green.

Class was relatively interesting today, because I learned something new: how to correctly ask someone if they want to do something, like go to the movies. There are many ways to do this, and I already knew most of them, but the main accepted way was something new to me, grammar and all, which was an exciting change of pace. I've discovered that I'm also one of the three people in my whole class who can correctly pronounce "za," because the sound of "z" just doesn't exist in their home language.

I also managed to take a snapshot of another one of my senseis. This is Yoneyama sensei, who has a wonderful sense of humor and is very patient when people don't understand things. He cracks jokes all the time, and he's very smart. Since I only have four senseis in a span of five days, he's the guy that doubles. Mondays and Wednesdays, I think.

Anyways, after school, I went straight home. I want to go to bed early because today, for some reason, I was more tired than usual. And plus, I want to wake up early tomorrow to optimize on writing time (I want to start on the next chapter, which is a huge undertaking, because it's the final chapter of a 26 chapter story, and I know at least 500 people will be reading it in anticipation of a good ending -_-"), and also optimize on Skyping time for anyone who is around to do so.

A cool Pretz box that hangs out on the side of my
table as my little trash can. 

For dinner, I had macaroni salad (which I ate out of politeness, but is now making me sick, because of the eggs. I'm fine with _____ salad, but the combination of cold mayo and eggs just... bleh), wild rice, beef (which was delicious), and miso soup. And then, after I cleaned up, I drew Ayuka a small picture of a kitty cat and then went right up here to write this post. My nights don't seem to be the most inspired, I have to say. 

But! I've also been spending some of my time writing replies to comments and reviews (I take pride in having replied to each and every one of them), which enlighten me much about my own writing (I'm so happy when people give me constructive criticism) and make me feel much better about my writing as well. Huzzah!

Whelp, that's it! I don't think anything much more interesting is bound to happen tomorrow or the rest of the week but writing, school, and dinner. I hope that another mosquito incident doesn't happen, but who knows? Life can be crazy sometimes.

Cheers!
Maggie