Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Odd One Out
It happened. My streak is broken. For the past 6 years, I have spent every odd birthday out of the country. I turned 19 in Taiwan, 21 in Chile, and 23 in Japan, but this year I am stuck here. If it hadn't been a Tuesday, I might have been able to go to Canada at least, but oh well. Maybe it's a sign my jetsetting days are over. Or maybe that I need to switch to even years. Or every third year. Hmmm.
It's very weird to think that I'm 25 now. I don't feel 25. I didn't really feel 24. The last birthday I seem to have registered, according to what I felt like putting down the last time I was asked my age, was 23. I rather enjoyed being 23. 24 didn't have a lot to recommend it. I wonder if 25 will be better, despite its rather irritating beginning of waking me up with a horrible cold that had me so disoriented that I hallucinated calling someone to sub for me this morning before I woke up enough to realize I hadn't actually done it in reality.
Before the cold started, though, I was well enough to appreciate the birthday loot sent me by my parents: 3 Miyazaki DVDs of my very own (Nausicaä, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke, which means I now own almost the entire collection), and two linguistics/cognition books. Yay! I think I've been trying to put myself mentally back in Japan lately, since I've been watching so much anime and just this week finally started Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance, which I bought in Japan and never got around to reading. Maybe I was saving it for now. It does make me wonder why the two foreign languages I've studied the most turn out authors with such a preoccupation with magical realism and weirdness, though. I'll report what I think of it when I'm done.
(*cough, cough* In case anyone felt like buying something, I might point to the wishlist over there in the sidebar. *wink*)
It happened. My streak is broken. For the past 6 years, I have spent every odd birthday out of the country. I turned 19 in Taiwan, 21 in Chile, and 23 in Japan, but this year I am stuck here. If it hadn't been a Tuesday, I might have been able to go to Canada at least, but oh well. Maybe it's a sign my jetsetting days are over. Or maybe that I need to switch to even years. Or every third year. Hmmm.
It's very weird to think that I'm 25 now. I don't feel 25. I didn't really feel 24. The last birthday I seem to have registered, according to what I felt like putting down the last time I was asked my age, was 23. I rather enjoyed being 23. 24 didn't have a lot to recommend it. I wonder if 25 will be better, despite its rather irritating beginning of waking me up with a horrible cold that had me so disoriented that I hallucinated calling someone to sub for me this morning before I woke up enough to realize I hadn't actually done it in reality.
Before the cold started, though, I was well enough to appreciate the birthday loot sent me by my parents: 3 Miyazaki DVDs of my very own (Nausicaä, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke, which means I now own almost the entire collection), and two linguistics/cognition books. Yay! I think I've been trying to put myself mentally back in Japan lately, since I've been watching so much anime and just this week finally started Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance, which I bought in Japan and never got around to reading. Maybe I was saving it for now. It does make me wonder why the two foreign languages I've studied the most turn out authors with such a preoccupation with magical realism and weirdness, though. I'll report what I think of it when I'm done.
(*cough, cough* In case anyone felt like buying something, I might point to the wishlist over there in the sidebar. *wink*)
