Welcome To Being Local

Being a local of a so called "Village" is not the same as what's seen on TV. It's not really a small town because all of the towns up this way pretty much merge into one another. People also come and go a lot.

What is nice is having a lot of things to do. There are a lot of shops and restaurants (that are also always coming and going, but hey at least there's variety). Plenty of community events like every other Wednesday in the summer they were showing movies in the town square. I can easily walk to the library and what I think is a community pool (I haven't confirmed that).

For the most part, I'm only social when I need to be. I go to the gym 2-4 times a week and talk to other people in my classes. My roommate has me going to the cafe she works at on the weekends. I also sometimes go out to eat.

Now, eating at a restaurant by yourself is a little intimidating. I say intimidating instead of other adjectives because I like eating by myself. I like not having to cook and getting out of the apartment. It can be a little intimidating because it's just you by yourself surrounded by other people who are with other people. Often I am the only person going solo to the restaurant. This is why, most often than now, I end up at the local bar. I feel it's less awkward.

Having a local bar isn't really like how it's portrayed on TV. It's not even where people really know your name. There always seems to be someone new when I go to the bar. Hell the only people who I know are consistently there are the bar tenders. Who knows, maybe they are judging me for going every other weekend by myself to a bar. At least I get to watch sports (still don't have cable).

You also never know who you might meet at the bar. I've had conversations range from how the new Suicide Squad movie looks to debating the finer points of the art of pizza making. I might go to the bar because I have nothing better to do with my life (plus happy hour), but I stay because I'm having fun. Hopefully I'm not making too much of a fool of myself.

Heck just this past weekend, I got into a conversation with a group of people at the bar. One of them gave me an apple to "keep the doctor away". I'm not sure how drunk this person was (though believe me, he had been long before I showed up), but he was certainly interesting to talk to.

If being a local means you've lived in the area for 5+ years, then I haven't accomplished that yet, but I am very familiar with the town. I walk to and from the gym without worrying too much. Sometimes I even recognize people and say hello. Well, I've been around long enough to see business open and then turn around at the end of the season and close. I'm a resident of this town, I feel like a local.

It might not be the towns shown on TV, but it is home.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, or leave a comment. I like hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Let me know if you guys ever have a topic you'd like me to write about.

Welcome to a Language Barrier

Because why only know one language?

Americans seem to be stereotyped as a people who only speak one language, American English. I wouldn't say that's an accurate stereotype for the Americans living along the Eastern sea board (or at least northern New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and New York). There are a lot of different people and cultures.

My roommate is Brazillian. She speaks Portugese and English (and I think she also knows Spanish). A lot of her friends are also Brazillian and though they also speak English, their friends and family who come to visit don't. This can lead to difficult conversations.

Today, I went to visit my roommate, who has been working at an Itallian cafe (it's a neighborhood cafe in Nutly New Jersey). A friend of her's was also at the cafe with her family visiting from Brazil. Everything that we said to each other had to be translated. I really wanted to be able to communicate with them, but I didn't know enough. I even accidentally said "good morning" instead of "good afternoon". 

My roommate's family is coming to visit and I don't want to sit there awkwardly while they're staying here. Therefore I've decided to learn Portugese. 

It's not the most difficult language I've tried to learn and thankfully I have a background in Spanish that helps a little bit. That doesn't mean Portugese the same as Spanish. I'm already noticing a lot of differences between the words. It does mean that the sentence structure is familiar and I can figure out a lot of the vocabulary with context clues. It's easier than learning Japanese (and some of my family members have been trying to teach me Japanese since I was young). 

I've been studying Portueges by using an app call Duelingo and listening to my roommate and her friends speak. So far, I can understand a little bit, but whenever I go to say something, I almost always end up saying something in Spanish. 

But I can't give up. If I want to be able to master a new skill, I have to keep practicing. 

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please like, share or leave a comment. I like hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Now, back to the studying.

Welcome To Creativity

I recently read an article that said reading 30 minutes a day (or was it a week?) will help boost creativity. I wonder if they were only talking about books or just reading in general (you know, news stories, comic books, ingredient's labels...etc).

I read a lot. Fiction, mysteries, manga, biography, fanfiction are just a few of the many things I read on a regular basis. Sometimes I'm reading to learn something new. I recently got a copy of Jimmy Carter's autobiography (which he signed 😄) and have really enjoyed hearing about where he grew up and his live before he was president. Other times I'm off in a fantasy world, possibly fighting dragons with alien parasites. Thank you "Song of Fire and Ice" books (Game of Thrones) by George R. R. Martin for those crazy dreams.

Reading is a big influence on my life (even if it did take me a long time to start). Harry Potter is a huge part of my life and I'll never forget the first time I picked up an Astrix comic book. Reading has helped me imagin undiscovered worlds and dream up situations I wouldn't have before.

Maybe that's why I write so much. A lot of my writing is based on my dreams and even my nightmares. When I'm bored I'll think up new places to explore or monsters to fight. Hey everyone has at some point dreamed of being the hero...right?

And creativity isn't just about writing or drawing comics. It's also creating music, making cloths, knitting, designing buildings, solving math equations (yes, math requires creativity, lots and lots of creativity) and solving problems that aren't intuitive (like when you're toilet explodes for no reason or there's a BBQ and no one remembered a spatula).

Since this is the age of the Internet, it has become easier for people to share their creativity with others. Some great sites to post work (or see other people's work) are listed below. I personally use a few of them (user name will not be given) and have so far had a positive experience.

From YouTube to FanFiction (you know the place "Fifty Shades Of Grey" became famous), there are plenty of places where a person can post their creative work. For the movie makers there's Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook (how's that working out by the way?), for the writer there's FanFaction, her sister site for original content FictionPress, and many blog hosting sites. There's DeviantArt, Pintrist, and Tumblr for artists. ComicFury, The Duck and more for inspiring comic book and manga creators. Heck social media is a great place to share creative work (one of the many reasons this blog is shared on Facebook).

It might be true that reading 30 minutes a week helps with creativity, but there are other things that inspire creativity. I find that taking walks is very helpful to the creative process. It's not a "one size fits all" approach. And thank the higher powers for the Internet. There might be a lot of strange and random things floating on the web, but there are a few gems too.

After all if "Fifty Shades of Grey" started on the Internet, then the next " Game of Thrones" might be floating around somewhere on here too.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome To Family On The Go

Guess what everyone! I've hit my two year anniversary since starting this blog. What does that have to do with this post and why was it that I didn't update last week? Well, it has to do with all the changes I've recently been going through.

Between the end of March and the beginning of May, every single person in my immediate family moved. I'm not kidding. We all went from being in one central geographic location, to stretched all along the north east. I was the last to officially move (see any blog post in March, April or May to hear my whining thoughts on that). It's been tough being far away from my original support system and its even harder trying to build a new one.

With my current job, I have a grand total of 15 personal days (not including sick leave). This is a luxgery for someone's first job right out of college (personally I thank the fact that I work for a French company for this much time). However, I was used to the college schedule of having a month off between first and second semester and then three months off in the summer for vacation. It's true that I used a lot of that "free time" to work jobs and internships, but I was always able to travel if I wanted to. Now I have to squish all of that time into 15 days.

It makes you look at your priorities a little more closely.

Do I take that adventure in Hawaii or visit my mom in Michigan? Should I go visit my cousins in North Carolina or my family in California? When was the last time I saw my family in Arizona? Should I really take that long weekend in October or save up for the holidays?

For my summer vacation time this year, I decided to visit one of my favorite childhood places with my mom's family. This required a two hour plane ride and then a nine hour car ride. It was worth it. Though it was strange to have TV for the first time, we still didn't have Internet.

It was calm and it was relaxing, but because I spent so much time in Northern Michigan, I wasn't able to see all of the people I wanted to in the Detroit area. I also felt a bit rushed at times to get everything done.

Today I'm heading out to visit my family in Pennsylvania. I'm a lot closer (geographically) to them now, so it's not as big of a trip. I'm excited to catch up in person as Facebook only tells you so much.

It seems like I'm doing a lot more traveling since moving to New Jersey and all of it to see family. This isn't a bad thing. I love visiting my family. I have their backs (even when I don't agree with them) and hopefully most of them have mine (when we're not driving each other crazy).

It's a tough balance and I'm still not sure how to do it aall. It requires a hard look at what you value doing, who you value seeing, timing and how much everything will cost (hey I'm still just starting out and have to budget everything).

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please like, share and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. If ever you guys have questions or have a topic you'd like me to write about, let me know.