This is another interesting tool to help you out with your Japanese written language skills: http://www.furiganizer.com/. Furigana basically means small text that "translate," typically Kanji to Hiragana so that it's easier to read for people who haven't had the time to study the 1,000+ Kanji characters out there.
Anyways, Friday was the usual. As usual. Class in the morning: though this time I wasn't 100% into the class, because after Thursday's meeting with the Professor, I thought I had much to do - in my structural wind engineering field - and meanwhile this class was about environmental wind engineering. It could be useful in the future, but not now. It is a very difficult subject matter to internalize. Then again, I remember: no pain, no gain. Lunch again was at the by-the-pound cafeteria, and dinner was the last batch of my nilagang baka. And then basketball as usual, wherein no one won the "betting," but we won the no-betting match which was a 3-on-3, which was as international as it gets: 2 mainland Chinese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Korean, 1 Japanese, and 1 Filipino. Well actually before, instead of the Japanese it was an Indian. And even before that, instead of the Taiwanese it was an Italian. Cool.
Talking about international, you can see how more unfortunate others are in some respects. Some people have lived all their lives in generally closed societies, for example, marrying only within their own large clan, or not being able to go out of their country or watch a lot of movies, or shows, or news events, or even international sports events that are not in their country. And so as you might imagine, they are not very open to many new things. It is difficult for some of them, for example, to eat Japanese food (even those that are not contrary to any religion, like the fish/seafood and vegetables), to learn even just a little Japanese language, to use chopsticks, to be a friend to people other than their own, to go out and explore Japan (and there is much to explore) by themselves, to understand that there is such a thing as postcards and not just greeting cards, to be considerate of others in terms of their own personal hygiene habits that they've grown up with, and the list goes on and on and on. I nor anyone can't do anything about them, of course. It is all up to them to open up and really go international, instead of bringing their closed, little society (little compared to the global society) with them to this international setting. But what could they do - or anyone - brought up "shy," to be coming from such "closed" societies.
Anyways, there are one or two stories I will tell you guys about in a future post. Until then, my Friday story continues:
So as usual, after basketball, I go straight home to eat dinner. But I was so tired this time from the basketball. And right after dinner, I felt so sleepy and so I fell asleep! That was around 9pm or earlier, I think. I was so tired, I fell asleep with two of the lights on (the kitchen and the main room lights)! Also, this time around, my knees are feeling better - but there's a little pain in my ankles this time, pain that I haven't felt since I ran a 10 km "marathon" in 2008 (which I haven't done since ~1992). I am now and back in 2008 nearly 50 lbs (22 kg) heavier than I was when I first ran (twice) back in the early 90's (I was still in high school, and was still 14 or 15 years old). Is this what growing old means? Ha ha! I didn't think this would come this early, at least not the physical aspects. I know 50+ year olds who are more fit than me, and I thought I could be like them. I can accept that I can't jump as high as before, but feeling all these things is something I didn't expect. Of course, this is a product of being an engineer in the Philippines (a.k.a. very busy) and having practically no exercise in the past 5 or 6 years. This time, I'm hoping to make this a regular thing, and hopefully get some of my "groove" back. I'm not expecting I'll be as athletic as I was like 6 years ago when I was already at my sports prime, but I'm just hoping to get some back.
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