Life in CoMo

Well, I haven't written here in ages, mainly because life is so hectic right now. I have homework everyday (which is not something that I'm accustomed to) and I'm always busy with meetings, either for AIESEC, Japanese Conversation Club, or puppet rehearsal. Tomorrow we will be doing our first puppetry performance in the US. We will be performing at the Greater KC Japan Festival hosted by Johnson County Community College. We also have gigs in VA and FL in the next several weeks. I find it very odd that these different institutions are paying for my flight and hotel so that I can perform for there community. Last week we received an e-mail from Jim Henson's daughter asking us to perform at the national puppetry festival in FL, which just happens to fall on the same weekend that we were going to FL anyway, so that has been added to our list of venues. It's pretty cool to be a puppeteer. For now anyway. All of this traveling is keeping me very pressed for time. I'm also going to NYC in two weeks for AIESEC's 50th anniversary Gala. I'm really excited about this!!! I know that I will have more than perhaps the fun receptors in my brain will be able to handle. I'm going with my roommate, Landon, who is the AIESEC Missouri President. We're leaving on Thursday night, so I'll be missing a bit of class that week, but my teachers approved. As soon as we arrive, our adventure in NYC begins! We're leaving on Sunday so we have to work hard to fit in all of our sightseeing plans with the AIESEC gala events. I'm planning on getting all of my sleeping done in the plane because there won't be very much time for that once we arrive. While we are there, we are going to stay at the house of a girl who was the AIESEC President of Austin, TX last year, but she graduated and is now working for national AIESEC staff in NYC. She says that she already has two sleeping bags waiting for us, which I'm thrilled about because my summer in Japan made me a professional at sleeping on the floor! These travel plans to NY, FL, and VA have been the things that are eating up most of my time, as well as AIESEC in general, but I have no complaints! AIESEC Mizzou is doing so great this year!!! We doubled our membership already, and we still have more interviews coming up! Hopefully our sales team will be successful as raising a traineeship in the area. However, even if we do, I won't be able to see the results since I'm graduating this December. Maybe this is what is eating up the most of my time, figuring out what my post-graduation plans are exactly. Right now I'm applying for different internships in Japan through AIESEC, and this is probably what I'll be doing in the immediate future, but 6 months down the line, who knows! There are so many different things that I want to do that it's hard for me to figure out where I should begin. I'm still going to retake the foreign service exam in April, but getting a job with the foreign service is very difficult and I know that it will take some time, so until then, I have a chance to explore a little bit. I've had thoughts about moving to DC or NY, and maybe attempting to get a job with the UN, but I've also had thoughts about doing a developmental project in West Africa. Right now, as to what I'll be doing this time next year, or where I'll be living, anyone's guess is as good as mine! In a way, that is kind of exciting and refreshing. I'm very ready for a change. As much fun as I've had living in CoMo and attending college, I'm done. I'd stick a fork in myself if I thought it would get me out of here any quicker. I'm ready for action, adventure, and the poverty that comes from paying back student loans. The sooner I start paying them back the sooner the bills are out of my mailbox and out of my mind. Anyway, I have to go now. I have a lot of homework to do before tomorrow and I think my fish just died..... not that those are always associated. It's time for a little fishy funeral and to send the dearly departed to the giant aquarium in the sky....