I had some time to listen to three (one old, 2 new). I wanted to find out how the job hunt is going, since the last episode.
Ep. 28
Summer is over and normal life resumed. Have to get used to getting up early. This episode I will talk about things that please me. Etc.
How do you spend your day off? I get the impression from facebook etc that people do a lot of different things. Going to amusement park, restaurant etc. Lots of different ways to enjoy oneself. I thought I would talk about what we do. On weekends, we are trying to spend less (財布のひもを締めて conversely 財布の紐を緩める to go on a spending spree)
Cheap things to do:
Hiking: Recently we kind of spent a little too much so. If you have ideas let me know. What we like, is hiking. Here, not just students, but young people too. There are young couples who hike and it’s normal. There are a lot of different hiking trails. Both free places and in national parks you pay a fee. We have an annual pass for the national park. There are different kinds- foresty trails and more sandy style trails. Where you can see rivers or the seas. Not just the trail environment but also distance. I was surprised that couples hike, but take their kids even ones that can’t walk yet, and carry them. Amazing! It seems that hiking is normal. For me, I like to be surrounded by green, forest. It’s the best.
In addition to hiking, there’s camping. It’s cheaper than hotels and easier on your wallet (お財布に優しいですよね). Camping is really popular. At first, we had to get all the essentials for camping. Then we can get things bit by bit. Plus we can share some equipment from friends. I get excited when I see photos of camping from friends.
Beach – where we live, the climate is a little cool. I mean, cold. Even on warm days, the oceans are cold. Surfers go in, but I don’t. But on nice days we’ll go to the beach to read, take naps and there are volley ball or smash ball you can play even I don’t go into the water.
Antique and flea market fairs – even if you don’t buy anything, it’s nice to walk around and look at stuff. The atmosphere is nice. Most places in America have antique fairs so check it out. At the end of the year San Fransciso has a huge flea market.
Museums and art museums – so if you are a local, you can find days to get in for free. Museum of natural history the local one is pretty fun. For locals you can go in anytime for free. It’s so I wondered if you had to show an ID or something, but they just want to know your zip code to get in free. Unexpectedly, there are lots of discounts for locals. In my area there is a famous aquarium that costs $50 to get in, but there is a week when locals can in for a discount. Plus, I often find a discount on groupon.
Library events – free workshops. In the summer we did a craft workshop which was fun so we thought we should look for more.
Search internet for free events – you can find free things to do by searching on the internet as well. If you have ideas, let me know.
English corner – speaking on the phone in English!
It is truly a difficult thing to do. [note: describing a smooth conversation style she uses the term キャッチボール(catch ball) from baseball I guess?] So I’ve been here 5 years now. Face to face conversations I can understand. But on the phone, I can’t see their face or gestures, or hear the pronunciations as well. About 2 years ago, we moved, for this moving process, we had to call for water, electric etc hookup. It was really scary, I had to convey my address etc. I did my best. For some reason, I couldn’t tell them my address! It was hard to pronounce my street name, and in the end, they couldn’t understand me so I ended up almost crying and hung up. Now, I think I would have spelled out the name, but …. Since I had that bad experience, I’ve been afraid of making phone calls. Well, my husband is fluent.
Talks about a friend on Facebook who says their mom is having a birthday party. They are tap dancing related. They wanted me to come a tap. And if any problem happens, etc, here’s my phone. Let’s talk by phone about the details. When I saw this, it made me uneasy. Talking to people I don’t know on the phone makes me scared. I don’t really talk on the phone with my friends (like Marta for example). I don’t really use the phone. So to suddenly talk to strangers on the phone, ahhh!
Everybody, how is it talking on the phone in English? Are you used to it now? One of my friends who has only been here 2 years sounds so good on the phone and I’m so amazed.
America ni aru aru – shower head doesn’t have a hose attached to it (wall mounted shower 壁固定のシャワー). Just sticks out from the wall and it can’t move. You see this in the movies in some sexy movie scene where they are in the shower and the showerhead just comes out the wall. In the showers where is no bathtub. But how to direct the spray to specific places, also after you finish the shower, how to rinse the walls. I don’t really know what you do? Like when you want to clean. Do you use a bucket? Usually I will check for loose hairs etc. Without a hose shower it’s really difficult! We really dislike the wall-mounted shower. So we changed it so it’s much for pleasant. What do people do here? Do they really not mind?
Ep. 54
I’m still in bad shape (体調不良) still coughing, nose is running, but slowly getting better. Thank you for all the good wishes. Husband seems to be ok. We don’t really like the cold. Where we live, it’s not that cold, where it snows and all, but where I live it’s kind of not so cold that you don’t turn on the heat, but still it’s cold inside. So it’s not obvious to turn on the heat. It’s not really in the image of California that I had, where’s its hot etc. Where we live is in the middle of California, where LA is further south. In the day time it’s sunny, but there are days where we feel like we could use heater…
It’s march so soon it will start to get warmed. I’m looking forward to spring.
Theft at apartment - These days, the apartment where we live, I want to talk about a problem we had. Someone stole my welcome mat. Someone took it in the night. But this welcome mat was nothing special, not expensive or anything. So isn’t that strange? What would someone need this for? It’s really a mystery. So now we don’t have a mat. Has anyone had their mat stolen?
Rent increase - We got a call from the super of the apartment about the rent a little before. They said, from May (ie this month) the rent will go up. But this time, it was going up $200! Our rent was expensive, maybe not as expensive as silicon valley, but on a single income It’s tight and also it’s a worn down apartment. But moving costs money, and finding another place is hard. Moreover, we have a contract for one year. So if you leave, you leave at the end of the lease. Well, my husband is a teacher, but it’s not always certain where he will be teaching. So we have a one-year lease and may have to move so entering a new lease in May is a little risky. It’s a little problematic (微妙) And just before, our car suddenly broke down and we had to spend money to repair, so all this is making me scared.
My favorite Corner – I want to talk about a book I just read. It’s Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I saw an interview with her in a magazine etc, so I thought it would be good to read. As expected, it’s a popular book. So it took a while to be able to borrow it from the library. I get the book for three weeks, so I wondered if I could finish it because I read slow in English. Usually I read before I go to bed, but I thought I would read when I had time on weekends, etc. But then my physical condition got bad from the flu. It took about 2 weeks to recover, so I couldn’t read. I thought I would extend my loan, but I couldn’t because there were people waiting to read it. It’s the first time I experienced this. So I had only 3 days to finish. I was already ½ way through. So somehow I read as much as I could and managed to finish. I kind of skipped over words I didn’t understand. But more or less I read it not fully understanding everything, but finished it. This was super interesting! I wondered if Michelle herself actually wrote this. It was well written. It was the kind of writing style I enjoyed, like where she listed points and at the end of a chapter summarized things. And she would repeat things. I liked the writing style and tempo. It was truly a good book. The Obama couple I don’t know all the details about but I felt like they are a popular couple and I’ve seen lots of photos online about them. They seem very relaxed or natural (自然体) . Reading the book, I got to know more than the surface (上部) For example, she went to high school and an elite university then went to Harvard for law school and worked as a lawyer. Then she met Obama. Then stuff about when Obama became the President. So you really get a picture of Michelle’s life. And what she thought about Obama’s time as president. There were lots of things I didn’t know about. Life after the Presidential term. I got the feeling that she is just a normal person facing difficult situations. Throughout her life, during the presidency, she wondered “am I enough” do I have value, can I do it? Lots of doubts about herself. I felt like she was just a normal person facing these challenges.
There was also stuff about their families. Just looking at the photos you can tell they love each other. You wonder sometimes if they are putting on a face for the public. But it seems real. I don’t usually read this kind of book. Usually I read mystery genre. Like Higashino Keigo. But it was really good. I got to read the first half slowly and had to read the second half super fast so if I get a chance, I would borrow it again. Michelle is really popular isn’t she. I really recommend this book! I was also thinking of listening to the audiobook. It’s easy to read. It’s ok if you don’t look up every word. But you can if you want but don’t have to. To each their own. I’m kind of talking about this excitedly (興奮して)
What I miss about Japan – Ice. What I mean buying ice cream from the store and eating it at home. Here they ice cream sold is huge like 1.4 liters and you eat it in a bowl. But here, to get a little one, there aren’t a lot of variety. For Japanese like ice cream bars you can get a family pack of four for example. But they don’t really have those bars you can get at a convenience store for 150-200 yen. For example Black, super cup, etc so many varities . The seven-eleven brand bars. Japan is a ice cream paradise (天国) There are tasty standard bars here, but new products don’t come out that often. In America, it doesn’t seem like they are adventurous with flavors or new products. And they don’t sell them in individual bars (個包装) But why? Americans like ice cream so why aren’t there different types sold? But they way they sell them in Japan normally they should be able to sell them here right. In Mexican stores, they sell ice cream bars in singles. But it’s usually one brand or two with multiple flavors. Korean stores have them but the flavor is not quite… they do have some individual packaging, but not that big a variety.
Ep. 360
First I will talk about my job hunt and then my favorite corner.
Worker Bee Utaco. This is my corner where I talk about my job hunt related things. Last summer I looked for a job, but now again, I am looking again this year (season two). Well I was supposed to have an interview, but it was cancelled. Boohoo! [She uses the wordぴえん] They said they would be going with another person. For the interview they asked which day would be good, and I picked the later one so I could prepare. It wouldn’t have been impossible to do it earlier, but I felt hurried and felt better to do it one week later. So now I wonder if I would have had a chance if I took the earlier interview date.
For the other job interview at the school district, I am still waiting to hear from them. She compares the two interviews saying she thought the oral exam would be similar but she found that the first interview (the one she’s still waiting to hear on), although there were a lot of scenarios where she didn’t have experience she could describe, they seemed to be more into her, nodding and smiling, whereas the other job interview they seemed colder just taking notes every time I answered. But I’m getting stronger because even if things don’t go well, I don’t leave feeling like I’m going to cry.
For the job she is still waiting to hear from, so while I am waiting I have a little dream and a faint hope (淡い期待 あわいきたい) maybe that’s not good. So those best ranking people who break through the interview (突破した とっぱした) and move to the final interview will be related to the school rankings, but of course I’m not one of the top two on the list, but while we are waiting if one of those offered decline, then they may go down the rankings and call me….! That kind of hope I have anyway.
There are a lot of processes to do, so it will take some time, so I wait.
America Aru-aru – America people often ask what kind of cake you like (聞かれがち -N3 grammar 〜がち prone to do, tend to do) . By this they mean what flavor of cake do you like. Not like in Japan when they ask you what kind of cake you like, they mean like short cake for example. But here’s they are asking what flavor you like. Even if they don’t use the word “flavor” they are asking about the flavor. So when people are talking about a birthday at the workplace that’s coming up, they want to know what kind of flavor you like. There is always someone in charge of getting a cake.
For spongecakes, there are different flavors like chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, or rainbow sprinkle type. They are asking what flavor among these. But I have trouble answering this because I don’t really have any preference. Just someone making a cake for me is enough. I don’t mind eating sweet stuff, but I don’t really have a specific taste. Like those cake that are covered in frosting, I don’t think too much about this. So I would answer I haven’t really thought about it. But not only birthdays, they get cakes for moving away or other celebrations. I hear it a lot at workplace.
There are people at work who will make cakes (I make really good cakes). When we talk about baking they will ask what flavor I like. So it really is like that here. So I answer tea flavored cake. And they look at me like… what? “Pee?” like they don’t understand. Then they say “matcha flavored” but that’s not quite what I mean. 紅茶ケーキ And some of the ladies at work will say I make really good banana cake. I don’t really bake, why? Maybe it’s too much work? But here a lot of people seem to bake. There are people who buy the cake mixes or make them from scratch.
Hey listeners, do you hear people here asking what flavor you like? Is it like this in Europe too?
My Favorite Corner: The trolley! There is one where I live. I was wondering whether I could use it. I had a lunch date in Little Italy downtown and since parking is expensive around there, I decided to try the trolley to get there. It takes time to get there by train. But I like being on the train, I enjoy the time doing mails, etc. I make use of the time. Inside the train was really clean, unexpectedly. I took the train in LA and it was dirty. So the trolley in San Diego was nice. It’s not like in Japan, where here you’ll often see homeless people. But in the trolley you could kind of relax and immerse yourself in whatever you are doing. You kind have to pay attention to your surroundings. So again, on the weekend, my husband and I went on the trolley to go to a couple of beer places and at the end we ate tacos. It was fun to look out and notice the tall building or such. Nevertheless, taking the trolly is kind of a pain. We’ve become used to car lifestyle. If you need to stop somewhere along the way it’s easier. Plus if you need to charge your phone you can do it in the car, whereas in the train you need to bring a charger. On the other hand, parking is expensive or if it’s super crowded event. One way on the trolley you pay $2.50 even if you get off for a bit and get back on within 2 hours. So I started to think about using the train. The app is useful.
Hey everybody, do you use train or subway in your daily life? I would love to do a train trip in Europe.
Some expressions from the episodes that I learned:
- Spending related:
- 財布のひもを締めて - literally tightening the purse strings, or to not do wasteful spending
- 財布のひもを緩める ー(conversely) go on a spending spree
- お財布に優しい - nice to the wallet → budget friendly
- body/character related:
- 体調不良 - in bad shape (eg. from the flu)
- 自然体 - down to earth, or natural (when talking about Michelle Obama)
- ぴえん - which means boohoo or waawaa (first time I heard of this word!)
Episode: 052
Time Count: 29:47
which is my favorite…)
