It's New Year's Eve

Yes, I am congratulating myself that I finished my job on Wed. Actually, not really. I just felt like finding a random pic of an Edward Monkton card... Ah well.

(But I am glad it's over!!)

Hope your celebrations are fun and lovely!

Arigatai

[a-ri-ga-ta-i] - grateful, thankful

Yey! Hope everyone had as lovely a Christmas as I did. :-) There was a bit of hassle picking up the lamb on Christmas Eve and a few cooking hiccups, but once we sat down to have dinner, it was lovely! My brother actually remained in a good mood for the WHOLE day! This is the first Christmas I remember that he was happy and content. Wow! Praise God! Also, I got pyjamas and cosy socks from my mum! Yey! It was my most favourite present. Simple minds have simple pleasures. :-)

So, all in all, my last Christmas in Scotland was a good'un.

Things to be thankful for:
- great family time together
- team effort producing good food
- no need for Gaviscon
- warmth
- mum
- bro
- pyjamas!
- most importantly, Christ coming and dying, giving us life!

Praise God! :-) Yey!

PS: We had foggy weather for most of the day, but it was beautiful. It made the ground frosty and it was a white Christmas of sorts. It was lovely!

Meri Kurisumasu (Eve)

Yey! It's Christmas tomorrow! Isn't it amazing that Jesus - God himself!! - humbled himself and became a little baby, laid in manger after he was born, lived among sinful man and died for us! I can't think about Jesus's birth without also celebrating the reussurrection as well. Amazing! Praise God! :-)

I Just Can't Understand What Is Funny About Spam

subtitle: 'It looked like my dog's poop, but I'm not a dog poop expert'.

Intrigued by the new post on Neal's blog, I went on a news search to see if there were anymore stories of people trying to convert animals, however, I came across News of the Weird instead, which you may already know about. Anyway, it's worth having a look at for a laugh. I just can't believe it's real news! :-D

What is the point of a Blog?

After much blogging, I'm beginning to wonder what the point of a blog actually is. Yes, I've read the blurb on blogger to explain WHAT a blog is, what's the POINT of it? My blog's pointless right now cos I'm not in the Far East yet - though now it's only 8 months till I go! Yey!

Why was the first blog invented? Oh, and when?

(Japanese for "why" is naze [na-zay])

(And have you heard the JCB song? How random is it? "I'm Luke, I'm 5 and my dad's Bruce Lee. He drives me round in his JCB...")

A Turn Up For The Books

First of all: Only 5 and a half days left!! Woohoo! (Till my job ends forever, that is, though Christmas is also 5 and a half days away... Lovely!)

Second of all: After having another boring and long week at work, I was landed with a HUGE amount of work on Friday at 4pm that had to be finished for Monday, which of course meant that I had to stay till it was done. So, at 6.30pm, I was finally able to go home. I was grateful for the work, but why did it take till 4pm to give it to me to do? Ah well...

Third of all: I miss Uni. I miss bumping into people you haven't seen for ages in the library, reading room, on Uni Ave, in the Beanscene. I miss regular and frequent hugs. I miss randomness. I miss staying up till 3 speaking to Miriam in our flat hallway about nothing in particular. I miss having mounds of free time.

Fourth of all: I'm greatful that I had a gap between leaving uni and going to Japan, because it probably would've been extra difficult.

Last of all, Japanese for today: I decided to look up 'love', since I miss the folk I love, but once again, there were quite a few words. I think there are lovely meanings as well as simply amusing ones:

koigokoro [ko-ee-go-ko-ro] - love; awakening of love
ai [a-ee] - love; together; mutually; fellow; joint; accomplice; indigo
aijou [a-ee-jo-oo] - sadness; love; affection; beloved daughter
ji [G] - love; be affectionate to; pity; hand-writing; child; emperor's seal; order; sequence
suki [su-ki] - liking; fondness; love; chance or opportunity; refined taste; spade
koi [ko-ee] - carp; request; love; tender passion; ancient ways; intention; purpose; bad faith; thick; strong

I love you = Kimi o ai shiteru [kee-mee-o-I-shi-tay-roo]

11 Days Left

Though it feels more like there are 11 years as opposed to days left of employment. And how gutted am I that I'm no longer a student? All my uni friends are having loads of banter and I'm stuck in this office. :-( Ah well... It won't be long till I'm back in the West End and stalking Fraser... Only cos he's the easiest to find since he's pretty much in the Beanscene or Offshore and I can't get into the med school and stalk the medics... (giggles)

Things to be thankful for:
- my bro and I getting on for longer than a week :-)
- the sunshine!!
- women's bible study at church
- the book of Ephesians
- friends
- my mummy

Japanese word for today: hikage [he-ka-gay] - sunshine; but it also means shadow...

Aitsatsu

[ai-sat-suh]- greeting, salutation


So, back to Japanese... I realised that I really haven't taught you anything useful like how to say hello... So here are some greetings for you. You probably already know a couple of them ;-):

ohayo (gozaimsu) [ohio (go-zai-mass)] - good morning (add for addressing your seniors - no jokes about my age, Breakey!)
konnichwa - good afternoon/day; hello
konbanwa [con-ban-wa] - good evening
oyasumi nasai [o-ya-su-mi-na-sai] - goodnight
sayonara - goodbye
(domo) arigato (gozaimasu) - (very much) thank you (polite)
dō itashimashite [doe-i-ta-shi-mash-tay] - you're welcome

There you go. Introductions are next. Will leave that for Monday. It's Friday today and we're putting up Christmas decorations in t'office this afternoon. :-)

PS I know Christina, and other language geeks like us, will enjoy the multi-language dictionary. It has Malay in it!! But no Tamil till "I Love You". Heehee! So funny reading Malay and being able to understand a language I haven't spoken since I was 10!

Mission

Seeing as I've been hired into this office because they were expecting tons of work and actually there's been none, I've been thinking that it definitely isn't 'coincidence' that has brought me here. To be honest, I just don't believe there's any such thing. I believe firmly in the truth of Rom 8:38; that good or bad God's purposes prevail whether we know the result. We don't need to anyway, since we know that the fulfilment of times reult in Jesus (see Eph 1:9-10)...

Anyway... I would like to have been a witness in some way since I've had no opportunity to explicitly speak to anyone about my faith, Jesus or salvation. They know I go to church and teach sunday school, but that means nothing to them since one of the trainers also goes to church, but swears like there's no tomorrow and is no stranger to drunkenness. I can only pray that in SOME way I have been a light in my actions, if not in my words. I've just started reading 'The Journals of Jim Elliot' and he expresses my longing better than I ever could:

Jan 24, 1948 (Gen 30) - My cry is Rachel's this morning, "Give me children, or I die" (v.1). Lord, I long to be reproducing Christ in other men, and I wonder if because Thou hast favoured me naturally, as Thou didst Rachel, somehow You have seen best to withhold fruit. "Judge me and hear my voice" (v.6). Take away my reproach, Lord, I would bear a Joseph."

Help me, Lord, I hunger for the labour that bears much fruit.

(I highly recommend any book on Jim Elliot if you are seriously considering mission, whether here or abroad.)

Shiawase

[she-ah-wa-sae] It means both happiness and blessing. :-)


Hello! :-) Yes, I am smiling today at work because not only is it Friday (Woohoo!!) and Penman's gig tonight, but I actually got quite a bit of work today. AMAZING! The only bad thing is that I forgot my purse, so I couldn't have any lunch. I did, however, have a jaffa cake bar and a cup of tea, so I guess that's not all bad.

I also made a wee call to the NOVA office (the company I'm going to work for in Japan) and found out that I didn't have to apply till April since I only want to go in August, which is brilliant because I'd have completed my beginner's Japanese course and be a fully qualified English as Foreign Language teacher. Heehee! I think that might mean I won't have to put that large cheque in with my letter to sway their favour in my direction... (giggles)

Also, when I was looking up happiness:

kofuku [ko-fu-ku] - happiness; contentment
sachi [sa-chee] - happiness; fortune
kahou [ka-ho-oo] - artillery; happiness; extra allowance; overpraise
kou [ko-oo] - not happiness, but female phoenix bird; body cavity; weather

Whoops!

If you're particularly observant, you will notice that my title has changed once again. That's because last night I discovered that adjectives precede nouns in Japanese just like in English. Ah well... I'm only learning myself, and we don't cover grammar till chapter 14, though my course only goes up to chapter 10. I'm guessing some of you already know that won't stop me from studying it anyway...

(If you're wondering how I figured out about adjectives preceding nouns if we haven't been taught it yet, well, I found out as I was reading through my textbook at work - on chapter 5, I must add. There you go.)

Anyway... Last night at Japanese lesson 8, we spent the whole evening practising katakana, which is one of the three Japanese writing systems. I tried to find a way of including it on this post, but I'll have to do it on another post on my wee ibook at home as it allows me to use Japanese characters on it since this PC doesn't. I have tried to provide you with a link to where you can see some Katakana, and if it works, yey! I've learnt something new and been able to implement it, thanks to Neal pointing me in the right direction. If it doesn't work... Well, we won't go there yet...

La la la... Hmmm hmmm hmmm...

Hi! I was trying really hard today not to blog because I have done it every single day since I started and really, my life is not at the height of excitement at the moment. I can't believe I spend 8 hours a day doing absolutely nothing when I've got loads to do for my EFL course and Japanese, which isn't boring cos I REALLY want to do that. :-( Only 17.25 days left of employment (I've taken out weekends). Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the end... (yawn) All the work I had to do today was finished in no more than 15 mins. But thank the Lord that it's not the most boring job in the world. Phew! (Neil Folwell had a job sorting nails and screws!)

So, I guess I should do clothes... You might notice a not so coincidental similarity to English...

pansuto [pan-soo-toe]: tights, stocking, panty hose (oo-er!)
sukāta [soo-kaa-ta]: skirt
sētā [sae-taa]: sweater
sūtsu [soot-su]: suit
wanpiisu [wa-nuh-pee-suh]: dress (or a one-piece)
shatsu [shat-suh]: shirt (t-shirt is either t-shatsu or simply t-shirt)

Well, any more and you'll be bored out your brain, and I won't inflict that on you having had it inflicted on me for the last two months. Yeesh!

Koromo

Since I really didn't have anything to say today, but also have nothing to do at work, I thought I'd spend some time teaching you how to name clothes. Surprisingly, though we covered several items of clothing, we didn't actually learn what the word for clothes was. So, once again I came across a few words that not only meant clothes like 'emon', 'fuku' (foo-koo), and 'ifuku' (ee-foo-koo). (In both these cases, the 'u' is not silent.)

emon: drapery, dress, clothes
fuku: crawl, to blow, to emit, to wipe, clothes.
ifuku: awe, child of a different mother, clothes, awe into submission.
koromo: clothes

Lovely, so now you know how to say several things in Japanese, but you won't be able to name individual items of clothing. Ah well...

Don't walk before you can crawl...

Whoops! I was trying to be too clever with my website, but when I was doing my Japanese writing practise, I found out there was no such thing as 'fi' in Japanese... The closest is 'fu' and so Steph is 'sutefu', pronounced "sutef" as the 'u' is silent. But then, in Japan you get called by your second name, so I guess I'll be called 'pieru-san'...

Anyway... The moral of the story is, don't assume you're cleverer than you are when learning a language like Japanese.

Word for today is: 'hito', which means person.

Gurama

Ooooooooh! Two posts in one day. I must be very bored indeed...

Actually, I need your help. I need to do a pre-course task for my teaching course and one of them is to talk about negative associations with grammar. Those who know me will know that I'm a bit of a freak and I love grammar. Yes. I do. I think it's the easiest thing in the world, so you can see why I can't do this task at all... So, if you could help me by posting what you think of grammar - no swearing please! - that would be great. Thanks!

Yuki

On trying to find a Japanese word for snow, I came across a couple of words that mean more than just snow - I guess depending on the context they are used in. The first word is 'kousetsu', which primarily means 'sexual intercourse'. Hmmm... Interesting... Will try not to use that word EVER, as Japanese culture has a big focus on politeness and "face", I'd rather avoid being impolite and lose face myself, cos it can't be restored once you lose it... EEK!

Anyway... The next word is 'tenka'. This word has several different meanings inluding snow, such as 'second marriage', 'ignition', 'descent from heaven' and also 'fire caused by lightning'!! 'Yuki', however, though it can also mean 'going', primarily means snow, so I chose that. Lovely!

So, back to Yuki: Isn't it lovely? I passed Queen's Park - as in the actual park! - this morning on the way to work and it was sooooo beautiful!! The view I saw was snow falling on a semi frozen pond, surrounded by swans and other white swim-flying birds that aren't sea-gulls, with some bare and evergreen trees all around it. Isn't God so good? It just made me so happy to start the day with such simple and yet amazing beauty. :-)

I was going to leave you with a Japanese word for today, but you've already had 3, so that might just be too much for your poor wee brains!

Hugo Edward Lafferty Petersen

Yes, it does spell HELP...

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my honorary little bro, Hugo and my honorary sister, Lydia. (In case you didn't know, the Petersens unofficially adopted me about a year ago.) Anyway, little Hugo is only 8 days old and is tiny!! Today was the first time I saw him and incidentally, if he'd been awake, I would have been the first brown person he ever saw, but hey, he decided to sleep making several different facial expressions, tried to sit up - which is pretty impossible at 8 days - and impersonated a bee instead. I stress, this was all while he was sleeping. It was highly amusing. (giggles)

In case you're wondering, I do have the Petersen's permission to put a pic of him and Lydia on my blog...

And on a completely different note...

I had another Japanese lesson last night where we learned how to ask "how much is this?" (kore wa ikura desu ka) - along with prices (too complicated for this website) - and colours. I just want to tell you about the colour pink in Japanese: there are two ways of saying it - pinku and moro iro (moro = peach and iro = colour). However, if you are ever in Japan and feel the need to discuss the colour pink, don't try and sound more Japanese by using the more traditional option because it is now commonly used as a synonym for porn. Ahem...

The very beginning...

Hello! I was going to wait till I was on my way to Japan to create my blog, but then I had far too much free time at work, so the temptation was too great... Ah well. In case you're wondering, "sutefi chiisai ooinaru seken" literally means "little steph big world", but I don't know if I've placed the words in the correct order according to Japanese grammar, since I haven't learned it yet. So if you are a Japanese grammar expert and I'm seriously grammatically incorrect, I feel your pain cos I suffer from nervous twitches when people use grammar incorrectly in English - and sometimes German too...

So, luvlies, what is this site for? Is it because I want to be like all my other cool blogging friends? Well, not quite. I really, really want to travel and post as many pics as I can of all the beauty of the Far East once I get there. Though, I am going to Paris and Clermont-Ferrand in January, so I might post some of that too... Hmmm... And I do have some old, grainy mobile pics of Hungary, so maybe that too. Of course, this will be once I figure out how to do all that cool stuff...

And so with a little Henry sigh (hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...) I must say goodbye before I get into trouble.

:-)