Travels and Grad School

It was so wonderful to be home in NC for a few weeks around Thanksgiving. I actually didn't do very much besides sleep and watch tv. I wish I could have spent more time with friends and family, but I really just needed to rest and hang out at home! It was great seeing those of you who came out and hopefully I'll catch everyone else next time around.

As if a trip to America wasn't enough, in 5 days I'm going on another trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I'll be to Phnom Penh, where the famous Killing Fields and S21 prison of the brutal Khmer Rouge are found. I'll then go to Siem Reap to tour Ankgor Wat. In Thailand I'll be spending time on the beach in Koh Phangan, where I'll be going to one of the wild Full Moon Party's on Christmas Eve (ever seen the movie The Beach?). I'll end my trip in Bangkok, where I will visit the Grand Palace, watch Muay Thai fighting, and take a day trip to Tiger Temple and go on an elephant ride. Well...those are my plans anyway. As I've learned from traveling around Asia so far, anything can happen. You have to be flexible or you'll be miserable!

I'm coming back to Japan early so that I can spend New Year's Eve in Japan. New Year's is really the only big holiday in Japan, so I wanted to spend at least New Year's here. I get back the night of Dec. 29th. My boyfriend and I are having our own Christmas Eve/Christmas on the 30th/31st, and then celebrating New Year's Eve. My city, Ise-shi, is home of the most sacred shinto shrine. This makes it the best place to be in all of Japan for New Year's. I can't wait to visit it. I've been many times, but this should be an entirely new experience.

In January, after all my holiday travels and celebrations, I will be starting a grad school program through UNC Greensboro to obtain a masters in Liberal Studies. My first two classes are 1) Dangerous Minds: Terrorism, Political Violence, and Radical Orthodoxies and 2) The Middle East: An Historical Perspective. I'm really excited about both of these classes because they deal with topics that are of great interest to me. I know it will be a ton of work though, so my blogs will probably get even slacker next year, if that's possible!

Well, that's all for now. I'm really going to try to update my blog frequently while traveling. I not only want to share my experiences with my friends and family, but also use it as a travel journal so that I can remember all the amazing experiences I'm having in Asia! I always try to write when the trip is over, but it's too overwhelming to write about an entire trip at once and I always forget the details. I hear when you turn 30 you really start to forget those things...is that true Caren??? heehee