Trials and Tribulations

Hey guys, I'm finally feeling better and I've nearly finished my course of antibiotics (thank goodness, because I'm sick of taking damn tablets). I'm still a little snotty, which is a bit of a problem because in Japan it's considered rude to blow your nose in public, it's preferred that you just snort it back in. This is of course giving me headaches because of all the snot trapped in my head. It comes out for a reason Japan! Moving on...

As you probably remember, Rikkyo was contacting QUT about the number of classes I'm taking. That was 2.5 weeks ago and QUT still haven't given Rikkyo an answer. What's taking them so no I have no frickin' clue. They clearly just like messing with student's lives and well-being. Anyway I simply couldn't keep doing 10 classes, as a result I was having trouble keeping up in Japanese, and so I've dropped my Japanese classes. Sorry Aunty Mary, I won't be speaking Japanese upon my return like you requested. Unfortunately, this means that I'm now only doing the equivalent of 3 subjects back home instead of 4, which means that I won't be able to graduate at the end of 2014 as planned, but I'll be finishing my degree in the middle of 2015. Sorry Dad, guess you're stuck with me a bit longer, but I know how to cook teriyaki beef now! I still need to contact QUT about whether I'll be given academic penalty for dropping a subject, but fingers crossed it won't affect me.

Winter (or what I refer to as Winter) is well and truly here. Clearly my life up until this point has left me ill-prepared, because the Europeans are calling this Autumn. As far as I'm concerned, Japan decided to skip Autumn all together this year since the weather went from 30 degrees one day to 18 the next (literally) and hasn't looked back since. Yesterday was 14 degrees, and I simply don't know how to dress for anything below 20 degrees. And it's only going to get colder. For some of the people here it baffles them that I don't own a scarf or gloves. What the hell would I need them for back home? Clearly I need to go shopping, and I can see that this is going to be a somewhat expensive venture as after googling 'how to dress for Winter' it's come to my attention that not only am I going to need proper coats (not just the thin jumpers that I own now), but also jeans (not stockings), gloves, scarves, and beanies. But it doesn't end there...I then need new clothes to go under the coats because what I own now will look silly under a coat, and I need new shoes. Shoes will be the major issue since it's nearly impossible for me to find any here that fit. Usually I love shopping, but this just all seems so exhausting. I pretty much have to build a wardrobe from scratch, and this would normally excite me because it means I can reinvent my look, but it doesn't because it's a lot of money to spend on stuff that I won't even be able to wear back home.

My other issue is the saunas disguised as trains and buildings. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to dress for indoors or outdoors because outside it can be 10 degrees but the second you step into a building or get on a train it's about 40 degrees. I got on the train in a light jumper the other day and nearly passed out from the heat. In Brisbane our buildings are warmer than it is outside in Winter, but not so hot that you want to strip down to a bikini. If I get sick again, I'm positive that it will be from the constant hot/cold temperature changes. Honestly, the whole concept just frustrates me. Getting dressed in the morning should be a simple process, but instead I have a tantrum every time I have to pick something to wear because the extreme hot/cold thing plus my lack of Winter fashion know-how just leave me feeling lost.

I'd better stop writing before this turns into a novel. I'll leave you with these photos of Halloween donuts. I finally went to the cat cafe last week, so I'll have photos of that up soon.

Anthea xx