Selfies as Moments in Time

Do y'all know what a "selfie" is? They've technically existed since the invention of portable cameras, but the term "selfie" only entered dictionaries earlier this year with the definition of "a photograph that one has taken of oneself." Selfies mean something different to everyone, I've heard people describe them as "pure vanity" and also "self care," but there is no doubt that they are a good measure of one's life. So much changes between the gaps, between the stories, and that's why I've felt like sharing a few of mine with you.

As well as taking selfies on my camera, I tend to exchange them with two of my best friends within AFS. Sometimes they're jokes, sometimes they're amazing feats of planning (like one taken while riding my bike downhill!) and they're always a show of love to those two.

 (like the above selfie triptych which were titled "one for the road, one on the road, one of the road")

Whether you knew me before I came to Japan or not, I hope you enjoy seeing the differences in the photos . Read them how you like, but when I see them I notice the change in how I have viewed myself during my months adjusting to a foreign home, to the changes in my personality, and to the emotions I deal with daily.

Friends, Vikings, Kinsmen, Lend Me Your Ears

I come to break my silence, but not just yet... How many times have I written this post, the one to get me back at it? It seems to have happened a few times now on this blog, and it's not you, it's me.

Tomorrow is the beginning of my "School Trip," a tradition in Japan where the 2nd year class goes together on a trip for around three days. My class is going to Hiroshima, Osaka, and Kobe; I've never been more excited for a school event in my life. And, it couldn't have come at a better time.

Not only myself, but a lot of exchange students have been feeling the stress build up since the beginning of summer vacation. As I have come to understand the culture and language I've been immersed in, the more I miss my own, and the more I tend to feel lost between the two. I mean, I come from a white family in the Pacific Northwest, there's not really a lot of "culture" I can show anyone here. There are, however, smiles and jokes and landscapes that I had come to know as my home. I had built my own culture, much like everyone else does, and now find myself building a new one almost in the blueprints of the last. Almost.

Sometimes it feels like when you see a Italian villa with the floor plan of a ranch home.

It's refreshing, and it's hard work, and it doesn't help that I've also been ridiculously busy.

However, rather than writing this "let's get back to it... again" post, I've found myself thinking about specific topics and themes lately. When I get back from my trip you can expect posts about Kendo and my experience with it, Japanese HS vs. U.S. HS, reading in another language, how much I love biking, summer camps, etc. etc.
This School Trip marks the end of my busiest period and now I'm headed into my last three months with just the hopes to enjoy it while it lasts.

I'll be back to writing next week, for now check out my new photos. Hugs and kisses. <3 br="">

Off to Camp!

Hello everyone! I'm writing to you as I prep to leave for AFS camp in 15 minutes, it's going to be four days of fun and chatter with the other exchange students in the Nagoya area. Although I'm sad I will be missing my Kendo club's camp (same days,) I am happy to be seeing the friends I made at orientation that aren't in my area.

Speaking of Kendo, I am still fundraising for my equipment. I will go buy them at the shop when I get home on Friday, so please help me out! I'd like to thank my Uncle Bryan and my cousin Chris for giving me $130 of the $200 I need, I am so grateful. Only $70 left to go! Here are some photos from a tournament my clubmates did last Friday:

My clubmates (Senior girls) are judging this match!

The Girl's team putting on their armor.

Everyone warming up together before the matches began.

So, please remember to share my post and my blog, and I'll be back soon! Bye~

Kendo: I need your help!

Hello everyone! I know I've talked about Kendo a little bit before, but let me just say, I love it so much. We have club for a couple hours everyday, training hard and encouraging each other, and I have never felt so connected by a sport in my life. A few weeks ago, I got to start training with the other club members in full armor, this is what I look like:

The thing around my waist reads: "Toyohashi East High School / Maggie"

Don't I look awesome? It's supper hot inside all that so we're all very careful and drink lots of water, but finally being able to be hit and really practice hard alongside everyone and one-on-one with the teachers is amazing. Do you notice the shirt and pants I'm wearing? They're called (ken)dogi and hakama respectively, and they have been lent to me by one of my teachers. See the shinai (bamboo sword)? It's also been lent to me by a teacher.

I kinda need to give them back and get my own.

My first competition is August 24th, a scary and exciting date that I've been working hard to prepare for, but there are a few problems: the teacher who lends me my hakama needs to wear them that day, and the shinai I use is old and not made specifically for me. The solution: buy my own.

Of course, once I have my own I will continue to use them for the rest of the year, and also when I return to the US. (Do you KNOW how many Kendo associations there are in Oregon alone? It's amazing.) What better way to keep my connection to Japan open, make the return to the west easier, and stay in shape than to continue sweating away in a rigorous sport?

So, I'm sorry to do this again, and I know that I have yet to send letters back to the donors for my vaccine (there's been some trouble finding my file with all your names and addresses in it over the phone portion of skype,) but I would ever be grateful. Tell your friends, tell your senators, I'm excited for next month.
And please, have them all help me out: http://www.gofundme.com/maggies-kendogear  Thank you!

Who wouldn't be? Kendo tournaments are awesome! Take a look:

Japan Life 2.0

A lot has happened in this last month, bad and good and in-between. First, as mentioned in the last post, we had our Class match! It was a lot of fun and each class had their own t-shirts, ours being a spoof of CalorieMate (ClassMate for our use) with quite a bit of English text on the back, written by yours truly. I don't have any photos of the dodgeball games (because I was in them,) but let me tell you, Japanese dodgeball is not American dodgeball. I expected that, but, Japanese dodgeball is NOT American dodgeball. (Please click this link for info about Japanese dodgeball.) That being said, I had a five minute breakdown before we began our first day, and the next day we walked away champions of the entire school. My team was amazing and although I got hit quite a few times I did my best to dodge and support them throughout every game. All the other sports team in our class (boys and girls volleyball) had lost in their tournaments so everyone showed up for our final game, and everyone cheered on our team until the final throw.

 (Boy's and Girl's Volleyball matches, we're in the orange!)

Class 2-8 with our Dodgeball Team Captain holding a award from the school principal.

Also at the class match, I modified the FGHS fight song a little bit to fit our class and sang it with back up clapping and chanting  at every match, sometimes with backup from the opposite team, and once with the backup of the entire gym. It was amazing to bring everyone's spirits up and show our support in a fun way, often the other classmates would nudge me and say, "Let's sing it! Let's do it!" Here's my version:

Class 2-8 our hearts go out to you!

Pink and orange, to you we will be true!

We are the mighty honeybees, let's hear it for class 2-8!

C-L-A-S-S-2-8!

(And here I took to doing a silly drum noise then yelling "GANBARE!!!" which means "Do your best!")

After the class match, school got hectic again as we all prepped for summer vacation, studying and going to clubs, as well as prepping for our Cultural Festival and Sports Festival when we return in September. Finally, a week or so after the class match we were all able to go out to dinner together to celebrate. We all met up at a fry-your-own restaurant that specializes in Okonomiyaki and ate to our hearts content. I took a lot of photos but also just enjoyed being with everyone, even if I hadn't gotten the memo that everyone would be in uniform (so I rushed home to change and refresh then biked back, spending fifty minutes on my bike and ten at home.) It was a great night and I was glad we all got to hang out together that night in celebration.

Okonomiyaki and hashbrowns!

Ayumi and I, she leaves for study abroad in America within the next two weeks!

Kiki (she is SO crazy)

Right after we all hung out, summer started with the swealtering bang of fireworks! The AFSers in my area all went together (with most of us wearing Yukatas) to view them together with our chapter head and had a great time. I really love everyone in my chapter, and I'm always glad when we can hang out. Wearing a yukata was difficult, mostly because I like taking big strides while walking, I'm not used to the sandals, and we had to sit on tarps laid on the ground! Umi was smart to wear versatile Malaysian clothing instead, but Rose just forgot altogether.

Sasha (CA, USA; WEST COAST REPRESENT!)

Rose (France) and Qing (previously mentioned as Ko-chan, China)

Umi (Malaysia)

Yamada-san! (Our chapter head and a rad dude as shown by his backward cap and sunglasses)

Sadly though, not everything has been perfect. I have a great life here in Japan and am blessed with very amazing people that care about me, but bad news still strikes.

About the middle of July, my computer crashed, causing me to lose the physical copies of almost all my photos. The ones I uploaded are still online, but all the beautiful ones I was planning to save for portfolios are gone, and most of my personal ones are too. I got my computer working again, but at the cost of a system reboot. Don't cry for me, I've moved on and am learning to back my stuff up better now and share what I can while I can. Everything's beautiful.

Another sad piece of news (and one that I don't much feel like talking about yet but needs a mention,) is that my friend and the first exchange student to stay with my family, passed away while on exchange in Argentina. I didn't know until a week after the funeral here in Japan, and her death has hit me hard in many ways. She was and will always be my big sister, and I was so excited to visit her and speak Japanese with her, this has all been so much of a shock. My host family, AFS, and my family/friends back home have been wonderful, but it's weird to think that my main reason for coming to Japan was the push her friendship gave me. Everything would be so different without her, and now I don't get to explain that to her in her own tongue.

So, update finished I guess. Life is hard, it's fun and it's not. We get up.

What Makes This Fun

It's weird to think that it's still June, the year feels like it's going so fast and it IS, but it also feels like I'll never be leaving. I know I will so that's that, but the feeling is there.

Though I'm never quite sure what to blog about, I do think about this blog a lot and about my friends and family back home. How can I share with you what I'm going through? The wonderful and terrifying (not in a bad way) experiences I have everyday. I'm not a very good writer in my opinion and I forget to take pictures because I don't want to be living behind the camera. Maybe I'll try lists of things, things that have made me really happy lately:

• The ways people laugh here, how my friends all start of quietly and build up, then fall back down again to silence. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's not, and I think sometimes they're surprised by my roar that comes from nowhere and ends just as abruptly. 
• Every time I ask a school friend to hang out and they say they have to study, it's annoying mostly but they're so sweet about it. They don't want to be studying.
• When people are surprised that I like Umeboshi.
• The ladies at the school store who know I'm there for the Umeboshi onigiri. 
• Wearing makeup on the weekends, feeling my glitter or red eyeshadow click everything back into place after a week of confusion.
• Singing backup at karaoke but never in the right tune or speed, sometimes just reading the lyrics deadpan or ad-libbing, and then watching the singer try not to laugh.
• The second floor of the McDonalds near the station where I go with friends when we just want to sit and talk in the middle of everyone.
• Holding hands in crowded places so nobody gets left behind.
• Watching adults play baseball so poorly that nobody is even watching them anymore, and spilling soda on myself when I cheer for them getting a home run. 
• Understanding conversational Japanese, communicating.

I'm leaving for school soon, today we don't have club and we won't until late next week. We have tests and then the class match, I'm on the girls dodge ball team. I told them about the rubber balls in the US that leave welts, how you get good at catching or you get bruises. They're terrified.


P.S. Make sure to check out my photo album (click on the photo slideshow in the right sidebar,) I update it pretty frequently and there are some photos from a Kendo tournament in there now.

Communication

I mess up in Japanese a lot, like A LOT. Sometimes it's funny, like when I accidentally said my hands were "shit" rather than "stinky" after my first day wearing the Kote in Kendo. Sometimes it's really frustrating and I want to give up, so angry that I can't make myself understood properly Usually though, at that time, we pull out a dictionary or start miming things, and it gets fun again. No matter how much I mess up, everyone here knows that it's going to happen and nobody holds it against me (not that I ever expected them to, but it is nice to know.)

Somehow all this confusion has got me studying more languages. I practice English a lot, using the little prompts given out for discussions in the International English courses (a group of students follows this course separately from the others for their entirety at school and most of them go on exchange) to write essays everyday. Sometimes they're AP Board worthy, sometimes they're just words, but it keeps my brain exercised. On top of this practice, I started to take up French again to fill the time between my breaks in Japanese and reading and trying to figure out what is going on in class, and it's been wonderful. My French is so limited now after a year without practice but I work on it little by little, and when I hang out with the other exchange students in my chapter we switch between Japanese and what we know of each other's languages, which gives me a chance to talk to Rose, from southern France.

Last week I popped out some stuff about my little sister and how good she is at French, but laughed at my own weird sounds and finished with "Je parle tres mal francais." Rose laughed and said my French was cute, and we switched back to Japanese.

Most of the time when we are together we speak in Japanese, sometimes we use english when our tongue fails us or Ko-chan (from China) wants to practice, but we speak to each other in the tongue that is new-ish to us all. It's fun, it's hard, and it's got to be weird looking in from the outside.

Now I am studying French and Spanish in my free time, not for any particular reason, but they are some of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn and that keeps them from being too distracting from Japanese (one of the hardest.) It's fun, I'm enjoying it and I want to keep going. Who cares whether it'll be useful or not, I'm just playing and words are the best toys.

Sports Day!

Within the last week or so I've been to two sports day, and my own is only a few months off. If you don't know about sports day in Japan, here's a quick wikipedia description:

"Sports day, called undokai in Japanese, is usually held on a Saturday or Sunday in Japanese schools. During weeks preceeding the sports day, students practice their events which they would like to show their parents and friends, within their class of physical education, which often includes tamaire, performances by the school band, and presentations by various school clubs as well as individual and group competitive events. These practices, and the sports days themselves, normally take place on the schools' fields, which provides little relief from the heat and sun."

It feels like summer, but it's JUST SPRING.

Hello friends, it's been just over a month since I said I'd start updating more frequently. Hahaha. Sorry about that, I really am, and I'd like to say I have some excuse like only getting half an hour to myself everyday or I've been frantically translating for everyone in my city, but I haven't. That's okay.

Also, I've been aprehensive about updating here because, well, I'm not really sure what I want here to be. Before I knew what it was like to be an exchange student I had all these plans for things I'd do, and would still like to, without knowing the complete exhaustion that comes with only understanding about 55% of what's going on when you're not being talked to with a clear voice using vocabulary you understand. It's rough, and I'm always tired, but I've found that spending time actively talking in Japanese and enjoying myself, whether it's in Kendo or making jokes with friends or relaxing with my mom, it really helps dull the exhaustion. Sometimes it's still there and I'm unable to remember a single word, therefore losing the meaning of an entire paragraph, but it's manageable and getting better everyday.

To combat the confusion and exhaustion, I've been writing a lot more. I don't know, maybe it was two years of being taught to the AP test exactly what writing should look like (which I did voluntarily), but I haven't been reading or writing much for myself since Freshman year. Now I am, and I'm singing at karaoke clubs, and exploring cities with a friend on the back of my bike. It's nice, so I would like my blog to reflect that. Maybe I'll be updating with weird thought processes, or an essay I write in class about something that happened that day, or an open letter to people who talk about me thinking I don't understand them; maybe it will be art, maybe it will be angry. The only truth I can offer to you now is that it'll be honest, and hopefully you'll come to understand what I'm feeling like, here in a big city where I think I belong.

To end, I'm including my daily schedule because maybe I play it down, it's pretty crazy, but it's better then a lot of Japanese highschoolers.

I'm a 高校生 again!

Hello everyone, I'm writing to you exhausted from my couch after dinner on my third day of school. They haven't even been real days, Tuesday was Opening Ceremony and a short day, yesterday and today were almost all testing, and Kendo club just started. However! Japanese High School Life is interesting and a lot of fun, very different from America in ways that don't make me homesick but very excited.

Like I said, I'm really exhausted right now. During my last few weeks in America I went to school for a couple hours every other day, and it was soooooo nice, so now it's like I'm starting school all over again, which I am! Ah!

I've made some really neat friends and I'm excited to start learning about Kendo, and even though I forgot half of my speech for OC onstage I've been welcomed so much that three days feels like a lifetime.
I love it here, I'll write more soon.

We're Gonna Be Fine

Tomorrow I start high school, again. I'm very excited for this new experience but am anxious about lots of things, and however natural that may be, it still freaks me out.

As a kid I was never good at sleeping the night before a big event, I think I got that from my dad. This past fall I lied awake waiting to start my senior year, thinking it would be the last time I did so as a child, and luckily I think that'll be true. Tonight, I feel, will be full of beautiful sleep and probably a little sleep talking.

My mom informed me this morning on our way to Itsuki's opening ceremony that I'd been talking in my sleep when she woke up. I was embarrassed of course, there's always that level of embarrassment that comes with not knowing what you've said, but I realized that 寝言 (negoto / sleep talking) is just another way of communicating. Back in America, Liz would sometimes write down what I said when I talked in my sleep. My favorite, by far, was "I DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED!" which was screamed in desperation from my party van (from an altogether amazing dream that pretty closely followed the plot of Thumbelina) and when Liz read it back to me laughing we talked about the future of the part van industry.

Maybe I don't know where I was going with this all, but that's okay. I think the point was that the weird things we think are embarrassing are probably gonna make people laugh at you in a good way (you know, the way that hopes you'll laugh along with you so that they feel safe telling you some of their own embarrassing things) and you just gotta get over it?

I have to wear a uniform tomorrow at school and give a speech to all of my peers and the school's faculty and probably the families of my fellow students, and that's scary. I get embarrassed when I can't where what I want because clothing is so important to me, but by wearing a uniform I am saying "we're the same, we can connect," and that's a pretty cool idea.

Hello Again!

Sorry for not posting sooner, but I am happily spending time with my host family. The Yamashita family is amazing and they've welcomed me fully, it's been a lot of fun. I'm so grateful to be in Toyohashi with them and the school that I'll go to, everyone's been so kind.

Yesterday I went shopping(かいもの or kaimono) with my little sister Rika and her friend, we rode our bikes to Toyohashi Station and parked them underground, then walked to the shops on the other side of the station. We went to an office supplies and books shop first and I bought markers and pens for drawing, then we went to some other places and I bought some Alice in Wonderland earrings at Claire's. (Not gonna lie, Claire's in Japan is so much better than America.) We walked around a lot of other shops and finally rode our bikes back home, where we had a really delicious dinner.

So far we've had a lot of interesting Japanese food, like Nabe and Okinomiyaki and DELICIOUS Onigiri, and they've all been amazing. Tonight I think we're having Takoyaki! YUM!

However, I've been having so much fun that I haven't really taken a lot of pictures of Toyohashi yet, but I'll show you those soon. How about my trip here, do you want to see those photos?

Update from LA!

Email me at racheCorn@yahoo.com, I'll talk to you soon!

Goodbye Oregon!

Hello everyone!

I leave for L.A. tomorrow morning at 5:30, it's gonna be rough. I love you all and thank you for all your support. Also, thank you who showed up today to wish me well, I had a great time.

I won't be able to post until next week, email me at racheCorn@yahoo if you want to say hi.

Love you!
Maggie

Hello Again!

I've been so busy finishing school and my senior project, it's been crazy. I just wanted to update though!

This morning I got the second and final shot for Japanese Encephalitis! Thanks again everyone who donated, I couldn't have done it without you.

Hannichi Homestay 2013

Hello everyone! Yesterday myself and three other students spent half the day (hannichi) at the home of a Japanese family living here in Oregon, speaking only in Japanese the entire time. It was a lot of fun but really hard, I'm glad I went. Our family, the Kubota family, consisted of Mama, Papa, Little Brother (7), Big Brother (13), and a Japanese exchange student studying at PSU. They were all super welcoming and I felt so comfortable with them that it was hard to leave when the time came; because they were so welcoming I was able to practice my Japanese without being too scared.

Kubota Family

Quick Question for YOU!

Hello everyone, I have an inquiry!

Would anyone be interested if I did some vlogging on my exchange? Vlogging is like blogging (this) in video form, and if I did do it I'd be making lots more videos about my life, school, etc. The videos would go up on my youtube channel and I'd link to them in my posts here, so you won't miss them.

I'm definitely interested in vlogging, but I would like to know if there's anyone who would want to watch them. Please comment or send me an email, ありがとう！

わたしは日本脳炎の予防注射をでぃました！ (I've been vaccinated against Japanese Encephalitis!)

Well, not fully. I still have until March 1st until I get the second, and final, shot in the series. However, because of the generation and efforts of my friends and family, I'll be able to pay for that nearly $400 shot come March, actually come now!

You may have noticed the GoFundMe widget on the side of my blog these two days and now it's all resolved. Thank you Cassie, Mary, Lauren, Aunt Cindy, Kim, and Mrs. Filbert! I am so grateful and I with think of your gifts as I travel through Japan.

Ah, I'm still in shock to be honest; I've been very emotional about this and nearly cried after every donation. There's a lot of fundraising left to be done and I'm working hard with amazing support so that I can spend my exchange knowing I'm okay to ride the train and visit my sister Yo in Osaka, see the students in FG's sister city Nyuzen, or go out to karaoke with friends after school. Everything is going to be so much fun and I feel at home with the other students in my group, I don't think I've been this excited for anything in my life since I watched the first episode of Adventure Time.

***

If you would like to donate to my exchange, please check out my donation page! Thank you!

スケートボードが大好き! (I love skateboarding!)

I've always been really interested in 1.) subcultures and 2.) traveling really fast; when those overlap you get my insane love of skateboarding, rollerderby, and MapCrunch. Okay, the MapCrunch bit is just because it's really fun to play "Where's The Airport?", but I really do love the other two and love meeting people who enjoy them.

My parents bought me my first (and sadly, only) skateboard for my 10th birthday. It was the normal style, the kind you see a lot in skate parks, and on the underside was Batman jumping right out at you. Along with the skateboard they gave me some safety gear and a helmet with Sunflowers on it; I've gotta admit, I was the coolest kid in town. Now, seeing that "town" was a two mile long road right of the highway, I didn't actually get to skate a lot. I just sat on it and rode down a hill. When my board was eventually broken by a friend it sucked, but I was really more interested in the culture.

I am like 98% sure it was this exact design. R.I.P. you beauty.

Recently I've been looking into getting a board again, but what about Japan? What I've read online is that while skateboarding is on the rise, it's pretty easy to be considered a nuisance. Is there anything I can do? Heck yeah! Meet this beautiful penny style board:

I might cry.

At only 22" I can actually fit it in my luggage or just carry it around with me. Plus it glows in the dark so that I'll be more visible (not that I'd be skating much after dark.) Another great thing about these small boards is their use for cruising around town and weaving between things. I'd love to have an actual Penny Board, but other brands make the same kind of board for just as good, and this way I save some money to customize the trucks and wheels!

Anyways, it's definitely one of the things I'm thinking about. I leave for Japan in 47 and I would love to skate while I'm there, so I'll look more into it, especially when I find out where my hosts live. Ah, I'm excited!

Pre-Departure Freak Out!

Okay, I'm not really freaking out, but I am realizing how much I actually have to do now. This is the last week of first semester and boy am I glad that I'll only be in school a few more weeks, there's a lot going on and I think it'd be hard to juggle everything.

Another nice thing recently was my Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) that happened on Saturday in Vancouver. It was cold and almost sunny, but I got to hang out with other AFSers from the area and talk about going on exchange. There were five of us there, each with a parent (or two), and while most of them were going to Latin America, there was one girl going to Japan! Her name is Tala and she's very friendly, so we got to chat and dispel some of our fears. Even talking with other kids about it was amazing, everyone was so friendly and there was a lot of laughter.

A common thread though was our parent's fears. Lots of them were worried about safety and how we'd fit in where we stay (also, how we might eat our hosts out of house and home!) One of the projects we did was make collages of our Fears & Expectations, it was a lot of fun and a nice creative way to open us up. Here's my collage:

There's a lot going on here!

I realized that I'm really worried about my sleep habbits and how being a night owl here will affect me on the other side of the world, hence the cat that glows in the dark. Some of my other fears are about the things I don't like (the pug) and how I'll adapt, the difference in scenery (haystack rock), and my child's level of Japanese (as represented by an actual Japanese child's notebook.) BUT! Never fear (haha), I do have some expectations! The little nesting doll represents all my different traits and abilities that will bloom because of this exchange, how I hope to learn my own balance of delicacy and strength (mona lisa's hands & the rice crispies bicep), and how I'm going to be a glow in the dark kitten! It was an interesting task and we were all worried about not fitting in, so I think introspection is a great idea.

The best part of the day was probably when we ate lunch with students that are being hosted here. Tala and I sat with the two Japanese boys, another kid from our group, and a boy from Iceland. It was a great lunch and talking about our experiences, I was really nervous though and ended up not speaking a lot of Japanese. It was really interesting to hear what they had to say about people here in the Pacific Northwest and how it's so different from their home.

Everything about Saturday made me super excited for March, and now that there's only 49 days left until I fly to L.A. for Gateway Orientation it all feels much more real.

Happy New Years!

Welcome to 2013 everyone! I had a great New Years hanging out with my family and sneakily watching people's fireworks from my sister's porch. We're not big fireworks people ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy them! In retrospect, it would've been real nice to have a brought a blanket with me outside because boy was it cold. How was your New Years and/or New Years Eve, did you do anything interesting? Let me know in the comments.

 Since the new year has begun, I've been using my Christmas itunes giftcard (thanks Kate) to grab some apps and organize for my exchange. My packing list, my flights, and my photos are all laid out and accessible; with everything at my fingertips I believe I can do this. Not that I didn't think I could, I just couldn't process everything at the same time and keeping track got a little confusing. But! That's why all these cool apps were created! Isn't that neat?

Anyways, one of my organizational flaws tie in with the new year: clothes! Who doesn't want new clothes for a new year? I know I do, and most of them Comme Des Garçons, right now though I'm thinking about what to bring to Japan. AFS has lots of tips in the Participants Guide on packing, from taking lots of layers to modesty, but I still felt confused. So I've been searching through organization blog backlogs for packing gurus and I found an interesting tip: Choose a color palette.


I never would have thought of it! (Well maybe, after a long while it would've clicked...) One of my problems with clothes is color palettes because I love colors so much. It's hard for me to stick to just a few and I'll find myself randomly buying a bright red blazer. It's a great blazer and I wear it all the time, but in buying it I've excluded a few of the other items I have. I've shifted my palette. Right now my clothes are mostly dark purples, navy, crimson, black, and tan. It's an definitely an interesting combo, but I think it'll work.

Time to get packing! (Not really.) (Way too early.) (Just planning.)