2 posts tagged “english”

Japan is great! I'm having lots of fun and learning a lot. Made many new and wonderful friends. I feel like I am the real me here. Hopefully I can bring this "me" back home at the end of this month. Today is a day off. phew. I so needed it. Everyday is early: 5 a.m.! Alarm goes off at 3:50 a.m.! I'm getting use to it.

It's raining today. But at least it's not super hot yet. Tenri (the city where I am) is famous for its hot, humid, muggy weather.

Sometimes I feel like my Japanese is so inadequate. It can get stressful. Speaking is ok, reading and esp writing in Japanese causes me to go bonkers. I had a little breakdown yesterday but it's all for the good.

I feel like my English isn't so great either. And I want to be an English teacher, ESL that is. I've been told that I have an accent when I speak English. Well great.

I want to stay here yet I feel that I should go back. Well, after I earn my degree, I'll be free to go anywhere. I'd love to work in Japan and make tons of $$$$$$! I really do like it here. Maybe because it's Tenri. Almost everyone is so nice here. It's probably like any other place outside of Tenri. I will probably find out soon enough.

Take care!

So, I guess you're wondering about the title...well, I took a day-trip to Maui yesterday to see the Dalai Lama.

Maui is so Beautiful!! I was blown away. I wish I could upload pictures but I'm too lazy and I didn't take that much anyway. Please use your imagination. But WOW! I kept saying it reminded me of Haleiwa or the North Shore of Oahu. Very laid back, country feel.

It had been over ten years since I'd gone to another island. I think the last time I went was a band trip in high school. It seems so easy, you know. Buy the tickets for about $80 round trip (right now it's $40!), hop on the plane and get on over there. But with the excuses of work and other obligations, I never thought about actually doing it until now. Of course it's more fun to go with someone but solo would be cool too.

Anyway, we arrived a little past 8 in the morning, scooted over to get our Dalai Lama tickets, and drove to Lahaina. I wanted to see the banyan tree. It's so funny that when you're younger, everything looks so much bigger than it really is. I was maybe 12 when i last saw it and the tree seemed to go on forever, but yesterday when we took a look at it, I was like, that's it? wow. Don't get me wrong, it is a huge tree but not as big as I thought. Nearby was the Lahaina Public Library, and working in a library myself and a bookworm, I couldn't help but take a peek. It was not air-conditioned like mine but there were plenty of books and magazines. The librarian was very friendly (that's important) and even offered to let me borrow books if I had my card. ( I could always return it back home) But I didn't.
Then, where did we go? Just walked around and waited for BJ's Chicago Pizzeria to open for lunch. It was delicious. Deep-dish style! Then it was time to head back to the Dalai Lama venue. We had to go through metal detectors and could not bring any kind of bags in with us. It was extremely hot. I felt like I was cooking in the sun. I heard that there were more people the second day, the day we went, and sure enough, there really were a lot of people. There was a nice mix of people. Seems like a lot of people trekked to Maui just to hear the Dalai Lama give his talk. That's amazing. He spoke in both English and Tibetan with an interpreter. It was neat to seem him in person after reading his books and only seeing pictures of him. His English sounded a bit British and the interpreter had an English accent with a trace of Hindi. I heard that the interpreter has two PhDs! Wow! So anyway, we left a little early and went to explore more of Maui. Dusk was the best time, the mountains and valleys so green and lush with rain droplets here and there. There were no huge tall buildings to block the view! I was surprised by that too. I thought Maui would be more developed. I'm glad that it isn't. You could actually see the whole half circle of the rainbows in the sky!!

I realized that Oahu is too developed, too urbanized, too over-populated, too many cars. Well, Honolulu anyway. And they're talking about developing the West side of the island in Ewa (ehvah) and Kapolei.  I really hope that they leave Maui the way it is, although I heard that the people are talking about the "traffic" there. It cannot compare to H1 in the morning and evening. Even the air smelled cleaner on Maui. I could tell after we got off the plane. I wouldn't mind living on Maui...I am a country girl at heart.

So if you ever need a little R&R, Maui is the place!