This blog has now reached it's end. The American Adventure has finished. Will there be a sequel in the near future? One will never know, but for now let's let the credits roll...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chapter Ohm

It's been six months since I've been here in Tinseltown.

It's been six months since I've been in school.

It's been six months since I left home.

It's been six months since...

Things I've learned about myself
- I have a knack for losing small 'less important' things or belongings. I lose my pencils a lot and my water bottles. And I also lost my first cap I brought here. But I never ever lose anything truly important like my wallet, student ID, house keys etc..
- I enjoy talking to myself and with God to make walking less arduous. Since I have no portable music playing device, I resort to my own methods of entertainment.
- I am an American misfit. As an Asian that speaks good english I am an anomaly. White people won't strike up conversations as randomly with me because they don't expect asians to speak english. And Asians can't converse with me because I don't speak korean/japanese/good mandarin. I am a misfit.
- I do not need rice to live as most Asians do. Sure it's nice to have rice. But it's not a requirement.

Other things I've learned
- Cooking daily is not as easy as parents make it out to be. Creating a menu day to day is as difficult as painting the Mona Lisa. I pride myself on cooking well, but to cook diversely requires not only skill, but a brain that works in ways none can fathom.
- Grocery shopping is tedious. It's clearly impossible to purchase things for exactly a week. I can't do the once a week grocery shopping simply because I have no clue how long things will last. My powers of prophecy and prediction are not so powerful. So I end up buying what I need when I need it. Which means going to the grocery store more often than usual. Which sucks.

- The big one will have to be learning to live with other people. Tolerance often gets stretched to the outer limits and beyond sometimes. And this has been a particular struggle for me in these past couple of days. It's especially hard when one perceives himself to be more considerate and understanding than the others. I do not boldly claim to be, but it certainly feels that way a lot of the time. It almost always feels like I'm the one stepping out of the way and being considerate. But obviously the truth is that silent tolerance works both ways, so I haven't said anything but that doesn't mean that I haven't done anything that brings annoyance - it could just be that others haven't said anything either. It's most definitely mutual... but it's so easy to feel like it's not that way.

Sometimes I feel like paying it back. Sometimes I feel like making my own noise just to prove a point. Sometimes I feel like being an irritating moron when I've been taken to my own limit. I feel like paying it back. But I can never do so. And I feel like screaming 'UNFAIR! WHY MUST I BE THE ONLY THOUGHTFUL ONE!?'

Which is never true. Nor do I claim it to be. It just always feels that way.

A friend of mine joked - this is training for the future when/if I get married and I have to live with someone who's from a different planet for the rest of my life.

Dear Jesus,
Help. You know what.

Amen.


Things I need to learn
- to defrost meat ahead of time
- to read my Bible more often
- never forget to wash the dishes before I sleep
- boil my potatoes 1/2 an hour before I plan to eat dinner
- use my coins when grocery shopping.. otherwise my penny pile will keep growing.

I'm not thinking of anymore. I'm done for now.


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