My slice of Paradise

So blues fest was/is awesome. I rode the bus and met this crazy lady who was definitely taking something at the time and/or drunk, talking about just breaking up with her meth head boyfriend, it made the ride very interesting. I went to the blues festival and the music was great, the fireworks were pretty fun, but made better when I was handed a pair of prismatic paper glasses that made them look really epic. I ended up talking to the guy for a while and we went to get a drink afterwards. Basically it was an amazing evening.

I think I'm falling in love. With the state, the place, the feeling, the idea. I haven't felt this alive in years. I love challenging myself, and Oregon seems to be full of possibilities for me to challenge my skills, my knowledge, my body with. Every time I come back from windsurfing, I just have this euphoric feeling the rest of the day. I can't stop smiling, and I can't wait to get back out there and keep trying to get to the next level, gain one more skill. +1 experience waterstarts, +1 skill turning, +1 bonus balance/strength. I want to meet the people, I want to make friends and engage with all these incredible athletes that are striving the same way I am to just enjoy something new.

It's not just that either though, the Columbia Gorge in general is just gorgeous, and the mindset of the people can be rather astounding. Being able to balance the work and play so easily, because it's all just right out your backdoor. Oh the backdoors, the new outdoors where the tourists don't travel. I want to explore and live. I want to take pictures and write about everything that I see and experience. And I want those experiences to be breathtaking, unique, each one something new. If I could find a job that I could love here and let me pass on that joy of it all to others, and also be able to play in the gorge, and go skiing, I think I would be pretty happy with life. And I could make friends and expand those boundaries to try even more new things. Those spendy things, that I just can't learn right now. Those things that require some small grain of knowledge passed on from those who have been learning for years. I want to live and learn every day, and sometimes I think Oregon could be the place where I could do something like that.

This summer is going to be officially awesome! Today was spent hiding while my roommates packed up their stuff, getting in the water with a swim team and helping them work on their flip turns and feeling appreciated, making dinner for my friends which led to renting a movie, buying wine and garlic bread and just having an awesome night. Hopefully it's a sign of how much fun I intend to have this summer, not too much work, but hopefully I wont' get too bored along the way. I still have to move all this crap I have to a new apartment even though I love these HP's (mostly for the nice kitchen/counter we have) With a few people in here (at least to visit) it makes it feel so much more lived in. And parts of it are temporarily clean too. Friends will visit during the summer, I'll make new friends and maybe I'll just move on and learn to make the best of what I've got, because really, I do enjoy what I have.

Summer. Ready, GO!

(ya, maybe I'll post a few times this summer even)

Augh. I need to stop thinking about the future or something, but at the same time I shouldn't. I need to desperately find a job for the summer so I can stick around and work with Brian on that Grant/research/publication thing that I don't know what to call it. . . Anyway, I'm just feeling so unmotivated in my classes right now, having a hard time studying and focusing and I'm finding myself extremely jealous of my friend down in Cali who has taken time off school to play music, write stories, and now apparently open a restaurant with friends. I just keep finding myself thinking about if I want to go to grad school, what would I study there, what do I want to do with my life, where do I want to go/live? I know I at least want to take some time off before grad school to figure some of this stuff out and I'd love to travel abroad and teach english. So I'm hoping for the JET program, but am not sure I can actually get accepted, and I don't know if I can figure out for myself how to get a TEFL certification and travel alone and find contracts to work in different countries for varying lengths of time. And of course if all that doesn't work out can I get an internship/job at Daz 3D or some similar company or anywhere that I would benefit from working at?

Phew, sorry. That was just sort of my frustrated rant that I had to get written down somewhere before I imploded and had a serious breakdown. Back to studying for tomorrow's "quiz." At least QAS is over so I get to sleep in tomorrow.

wheee......

http://asteroid.cs.linfield.edu/~kfehr/

go to Projects and then the Interactive Physics one.
Quick, before I decide to destroy it. . . . blah.

Well that just reaffirmed the notion that I am not a complete failure at all things in life. I somehow managed to get a passing grade on the 3rd level of the Japanese Proficiency Test that I took this fall. Yaaay.

Back to oodles of homework.

This has been a wonderful day. A good morning workout is always a great start. It gave me energy all day even though I was tired from lack of sleep. Also hearing from one of the teachers you most respect that your presentation was good, that he would love to work with you as peer advisor for colloquium, being asked to take notes in his class for helping others, AND being told he's working on a grant to publish a work of great art essays and asking for your help is just plain ego boosting. It just made me really excited and happy because I think it would such a great opportunity and *squee* I just respect him so much and it would be amazing. Ok. That was it, just had to get it off my chest again ^^ yay

I can't decide what to go with for my url/domain name. KristaFehr.com or fehrkl.com What do you think?

So, I think I may die this semester. But I'm going to love every moment of it. That's my goal. I'm excited. And there are so many aspects of it that I'm excited for. Now if only I could afford to do everything I wanted. I should get another job, which would take away from time to do fun stuff. Besides job hunting is hard. Do not want. Yet if it were at an outdoorsy place I could get discounts which would be awesome. And I could work mornings weekends around Tigard and go dancing in evenings and night skiing and whatnot. My weekdays are fairly full already anyway, by choice mostly. And it's all good fun, though I don't know if I'm creative enough to keep up with some of these classes. Anyway, that's my update.

So. . . I don't know if I'm ready for this semester. And I signed up for an Agility/Quickness/and Speed training class that sounds fun and terrifying, mostly because the football coach teaches it and it's probably all football guys which could be kind of awkward.

And socializing, that's gonna be scary too. Ahhhh

And yet I'm excited to be back too. See you all soon!

Welcome 2009! Hopefully you'll be a year of change in so many ways ^^

Resolutions:

1) Cook more often and make it healthy food.
2) Work out more and lose weight.
3) Get a job so I can stay in Hood River this Summer and actually earn a good amount of money -.-

I think that sounds fairly reasonable. Those are my top important ones anyway. There's the usual stuff like study hard and live a good life.

And just because I want to remember this; "I love your ears." Random quote from dinner with friends the other week.

Wow, It's interesting to go back through the Genki I book and realize how much of the early chapters seems like common sense now. It makes me hopeful that some of this stuff actually sticks in my brain. I still don't think I'll pass the JLPT 3, but it's reassuring to see how far I have come since starting Japanese and just how much I have learned. The tougher the grammar gets the harder it seems to remember, but maybe with time it will stick. Same with vocab since I can never seem to remember a lot of words. ^^ Ya, sorry this is me procrastinating.

*sigh* It's ridiculously tempting to switch my major to just art sometimes. I would have less classes to take than I do right now. I wouldn't have to take the mass comm classes that I don't want. Though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the major either way. I think it will all just be a link to culture or something else that I'll study in grad school. No matter what I don't think I'm done with school. Blargh.

On another note. What is it about some peoples personalities that just rubs me the wrong way? I get along with them, but after a while little things just drive me insane and I have to avoid them for a while.

It doesn't feel like this semester is over. It's weird to think that I'll be back in the states soon. Time went so quickly and it doesn't seem like it's going to slow down soon. I hate listening to some of the people here bitch about their little problems just because they've been so spoiled in life. They don't seem to have enjoyed the semester very much and all for very stupid selfish reasons that make me want to slap them. It frustrates me because I don't want it to have any sort of negative impact on this program, but they're so vocal about their feelings that who knows.

Anyway, It'll be nice to be home and I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Yay Obama ^^

welp. . . I put skype back on my computer. So if peoples want to get a hold of me the name is otakufea.

Omg. For real? http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=61084 Live Alice in wonderland. I'm so excited for this!! Burton directing. Depp as Madd Hatter etc!

Allright. I'll try to post in here once in a while, but I think most of my blogs about Japan are going to be at meanderingfea.blogspot.com

So far it is beautiful and amazing and hot and humid. Anyway, check out the blog.

Hope you all have a fun fall semester!

Alright, alright, I did it. I got Twitter. Otakufea. Should be interesting right? Maybe it will be incentive to write those random thoughts that come up all the time.

Summer has been fun/interesting so far. Been working, taking classes, still looking for a second job. Going to parties and trying to find time to drive out to a lake and go windsurfing.

I went to lunch with a friend(?) today which was interesting and am going to a movie tomorrow with another friend. Yay friends.

Woo Summer. I'm still looking for a second job, but have pretty high hopes for Starbucks. Also, two days of swim lessons, I love my kids! And I already have 2 privates set up! Yay $32 an hour! Unfortunately they're not consistent enough to rely on as a secondary income. More just pocket/gas money. Which will be good since I may not be able to ride my bike as much as I'd like to this summer *pout* It just takes too long to commute and there aren't enough hours in the day. Still, it's been fun, it's nice being in this Japanese class too even though it's all review. The teacher is great and the other students are pretty cool too.

Anyway, that's about it right now, hopefully I'll actually update once in a while -.- Though summers are usually dull or I don't feel like updating about everything that happens or whatever. It is nice to be home now, especially now that I've mostly stopped sneezing. Though I still have so much stuff to go through. :p

So amazingly fun.
I need to find a job that will let me do stuff like this with my life.
I learned to windsurf today, I'm sore now ^^ but it's lovely here. I wish I could get a job around here and stay all summer and work and play *sigh* Dream on. Maybe next summer :p Or I'll have to find something to do somewhere. I want to get better at windsurfing, I'd love to learn to Kiteboard. I want to do more rocklclimbing and running and bicycling. etc etc etc
Woo. ok. Gah. I want to get on MSN! but can't remember my password and am on my mom's laptop. so frustrating.