Everytime someone comes over, it prompts a need for me to go into cleaning mode at my place, since let's face it, I'm kinda lazy so when there aren't social expectations from the outside making me clean my house, things tend to pile up and gather.
It's even worse when I'm packing or moving!
But yeah, as I was cleaning I came across so much old stuff that I had stored and saved up. The urge to go into hyper cleaning "throw everything away" mode rose within me. Being called a pack rat and a hoarder has such negative connotations; I still remember when a friend came over unexpectedly to my house to use the bathroom, which he turned into an invitation to take a look at my (post-social gathering) house. What he said still bothers me a little bit, though I'm not sure if he meant it intentionally or not. I think I wrote about this too, but as he was poking around, he made the comment that he, "always throws stuff away because he's not a pack rat."
I understand too, the appeal of not having that much stuff. Makes cleaning and organizing easier. Makes moving easier. Makes your house/space look larger. Not cluttered. Clean. Blah blah.
But! But but but. I mean, you can still keep stuff and be kinda organized about it. I'm... half organized. I'm not a neat freak, nor am I OCD but generally things have some kind of order (so when people help me clean, things get kinda mixed up ahaha)
Also, the entire reason why I keep these things is because my memory is pretty crappy. The odds of me actually recalling specific bits of memory - unless it's really quite memorable, like when I left my wallet on the bus in Tottori prefecture - are pretty low on its own. However, introduce something - a brochure, ticket, maps - and the thing serves as a kind of mental scaffolding I can use to dig deeper into the parts of my memory that like to remain hidden from me. The memory builds on itself as I remember another thing, which prompts another thing and another. It's amazing the amount of things I can remember that way! It's why I need to take things like notes or memos all the time, since otherwise, for some reason, my brain is quite bad at mental reminders. I guess that's also one of the reasons I write in this blog in the first place! To help me remember things.
I suppose all these things would probably go better in say... a scrapbook, (as far as looks and organization!) but I'm... kind of bad at getting those going. I don't know why either. I think I spend too much time reminiscing to get any actual work done haha.
...then again, there's also stuff here (especially anime/manga/game stuff!) that I have just because ohmigawd I need it. Hahaha. That I have no excuse for.
I also have no excuse for why I'm writing this. This is shameless procrastination from cleaning haha.
I suppose I should get back to throwing away stuff since I need to be moving out in less than three months now. Experience the here and now! All that stuff. Make memories that last. :)
Man, I really wish Pensieves were real! I WOULD SO BUY ONE. That would be super rad.
Maybe I'll just have to work at researching one haha. ...in my East Asian Studies major. Ha!
OKAY SERIOUSLY BACK TO CLEANING.
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
christmastime
I'm still having a hard time believing that I'm in Osaka and am flying out of Japan back to home for a bit (and Christmas) before spending new years with my friend Maxine in the Philippines. It just feels so... surreal. I've finally gotten excited about going back (for the longest time, I wasn't. I'm still kind of like, aww, I miss Takahashi.). And what am I excited for?
Driers.
Man, I feel old saying that.
You know what else I'm excited for?
Elevators everywhere. Now I really feel old. But seriously, two of the five stations I was at today had no escalator or elevator, meaning I had to haul my suitcase up and down a flight of stairs. While I try to go by the golden rule of "don't pack what you can't carry" it's still a giant pain in the rear.
*
I'm actually kind of sad I don't have more time at my schools. Today we were doing christmas lessons in all but one class (we watched Marmaduke in that class instead, which actually wasn't too bad). I wore reindeer ears! They're little clip ons I bought from the dollar store, and they're friggin' adorable. Oh man.
Today was also a little stressful due to the ridiculous procrastination ability I have; I was still packing this morning and afternoon. Plus during 7th period, I went with my JTE to go buy stuff for English club, which was actually happening at my house. I suppose it's good, because my living room was pretty clean for that and was left in an even cleaner state.
Japanese people cleaning = no joke. My students... woahhhh. I mean, my version of clean was like, make sure the dead bug gets swept up, make sure there are no horrible stains or huge crumbs lying around, pick up the house, make sure you can see the majority of the table...
My kids managed to outclass me. Sigh. They came in and the first years, bless their sweet hearts, had nothing to do so they asked where the broom was and they started to sweep around my table and stuff. Every parent's dream - getting your kids to do their own cleaning. I suppose that's what you get when your culture has institutionalized cleaning in education, and doesn't actually have janitors to clean up after you at school. And then they wiped down my table. I felt kinda ashamed. My mother would probably kill me.
But I had thought it was clean with it you know... being picked up and all. Sigh.
Despite the huge amount of stress it added, I'm glad we had English club at my house. I made frosting from powdered sugar (thanks Jessi for the tip!), milk, and vanilla. It turned out pretty good! We used the frosting with graham crackers and the students went about making a gingerbread house with the zillion different candies I had bought for them. It was a lot of fun! I think (I hope) they enjoyed themselves. Sadly, there was no time to eat them, so they put the gingerbread house in the International Room (where I hope many people see it and go, "oh wow, English club is AWESOME I want to join!"
Hopefully they'll eat it soon though. Dunno how long that stuff lasts.
*
Speaking of clubs - I absolutely love my cooking club members. Yesterday I was helping a student out with speech contest practice (pronunciations, stresses, etc) and it took much longer than I expected, cutting in to my club activity time. I don't mind though, because I like doing these kinds of things. I mean, it's essentially what we were paid to come over here to do, so usually I'm more than happy to help students out with that.
But alas, by the time we finished, it was already like... 5:30, so they had finished making their food. As we walked by, the students saw me, flagged me down, and told me that they had left mine on my desk. What sweet girls! I got to my desk in the staff room and indeed, there was a little.
so much love to the students
ONE APP DOWN
New goal for the new year: don't fall asleep under kotatsu as much!
EDIT: this never ended up getting posted for some reason, so I'm backdating this one :)
Driers.
Man, I feel old saying that.
You know what else I'm excited for?
Elevators everywhere. Now I really feel old. But seriously, two of the five stations I was at today had no escalator or elevator, meaning I had to haul my suitcase up and down a flight of stairs. While I try to go by the golden rule of "don't pack what you can't carry" it's still a giant pain in the rear.
*
I'm actually kind of sad I don't have more time at my schools. Today we were doing christmas lessons in all but one class (we watched Marmaduke in that class instead, which actually wasn't too bad). I wore reindeer ears! They're little clip ons I bought from the dollar store, and they're friggin' adorable. Oh man.
Today was also a little stressful due to the ridiculous procrastination ability I have; I was still packing this morning and afternoon. Plus during 7th period, I went with my JTE to go buy stuff for English club, which was actually happening at my house. I suppose it's good, because my living room was pretty clean for that and was left in an even cleaner state.
Japanese people cleaning = no joke. My students... woahhhh. I mean, my version of clean was like, make sure the dead bug gets swept up, make sure there are no horrible stains or huge crumbs lying around, pick up the house, make sure you can see the majority of the table...
My kids managed to outclass me. Sigh. They came in and the first years, bless their sweet hearts, had nothing to do so they asked where the broom was and they started to sweep around my table and stuff. Every parent's dream - getting your kids to do their own cleaning. I suppose that's what you get when your culture has institutionalized cleaning in education, and doesn't actually have janitors to clean up after you at school. And then they wiped down my table. I felt kinda ashamed. My mother would probably kill me.
But I had thought it was clean with it you know... being picked up and all. Sigh.
Despite the huge amount of stress it added, I'm glad we had English club at my house. I made frosting from powdered sugar (thanks Jessi for the tip!), milk, and vanilla. It turned out pretty good! We used the frosting with graham crackers and the students went about making a gingerbread house with the zillion different candies I had bought for them. It was a lot of fun! I think (I hope) they enjoyed themselves. Sadly, there was no time to eat them, so they put the gingerbread house in the International Room (where I hope many people see it and go, "oh wow, English club is AWESOME I want to join!"
Hopefully they'll eat it soon though. Dunno how long that stuff lasts.
*
Speaking of clubs - I absolutely love my cooking club members. Yesterday I was helping a student out with speech contest practice (pronunciations, stresses, etc) and it took much longer than I expected, cutting in to my club activity time. I don't mind though, because I like doing these kinds of things. I mean, it's essentially what we were paid to come over here to do, so usually I'm more than happy to help students out with that.
But alas, by the time we finished, it was already like... 5:30, so they had finished making their food. As we walked by, the students saw me, flagged me down, and told me that they had left mine on my desk. What sweet girls! I got to my desk in the staff room and indeed, there was a little.
so much love to the students
ONE APP DOWN
New goal for the new year: don't fall asleep under kotatsu as much!
EDIT: this never ended up getting posted for some reason, so I'm backdating this one :)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sink mold
Hurrrg, so it took me this long to notice that my posts are actually all time stamped in Pacific Standard Time. Normally, I wouldn't care (which is why I haven't noticed) but yeaaaaaaaah, I was trying to figure out if I had written a post for today or not and I looked and was like "...wait how could I write this post yesterday at 8 am about a concert I went to at 6pm?" CONUNDRUM.
Or well, not really. More like, TIME ZONES LOLS. Sigh. Well, I've got that fixed now, hopefully.
*
My house is really really old - almost as old as my school. When I first got here, they told me that it was either 40 years old, or that it was built in the 40's. Based on what I've seen, I'd totally believe that it was built in the 40's.
When I first got here, there was a ring of mold around the ceiling/walls of my shower/bath room at least a foot wide. Just lots of black spots that my predecessor had warned me about. He said that his girlfriend had an allergic reaction to the mold and couldn't stay there so they changed to a different apartment. Me, being stubborn, decided that I would try the place out after giving it a good cleaning.
I'm happy to say that the mold went away, after several rounds of vigorous cleaning. It hasn't really come back either (since I try to clean every so often, and when I see it BAM out comes the mold cleaner).
My sink though, my sink is a different beast completely. I clean that WAY more than I clean anything else. Like, I have a drain and a basket thing inside the drain with a net to catch the stuff that got through the grate thing that's on top of the basket with the net. The grate thing has the biggest holes, and catches everything larger than finely diced foods. The net catches the rest of that. I try to change the net once a week when I cook during the week, but sometimes if I don't cook (or don't do dishes for a week) I don't change it until the sink is empty. I clean the basket itself about once a month, and sometimes more often.
But that once a month... oh god, it's disgusting. I swear, tonight I cleaned it but I cleaned it the last time I changed the basket, which was two or three weeks ago? But I didn't cook at all last week soooo yeah. Mold was growing on the bottom of the basket and around the bottom of the drain and some of it was black while also part of it was kind of slimy.
SO FREAKING GROSS.
I'm not entirely sure which will kill me first though- the mold in my house, or the stuff that I use to clean it. The cleaning agents here are ridiculously strong.
I meant to write about my school's culture festival preparations, but yeah, mold is kind of good at growing in places where it shouldn't be.
Or well, not really. More like, TIME ZONES LOLS. Sigh. Well, I've got that fixed now, hopefully.
*
My house is really really old - almost as old as my school. When I first got here, they told me that it was either 40 years old, or that it was built in the 40's. Based on what I've seen, I'd totally believe that it was built in the 40's.
When I first got here, there was a ring of mold around the ceiling/walls of my shower/bath room at least a foot wide. Just lots of black spots that my predecessor had warned me about. He said that his girlfriend had an allergic reaction to the mold and couldn't stay there so they changed to a different apartment. Me, being stubborn, decided that I would try the place out after giving it a good cleaning.
I'm happy to say that the mold went away, after several rounds of vigorous cleaning. It hasn't really come back either (since I try to clean every so often, and when I see it BAM out comes the mold cleaner).
My sink though, my sink is a different beast completely. I clean that WAY more than I clean anything else. Like, I have a drain and a basket thing inside the drain with a net to catch the stuff that got through the grate thing that's on top of the basket with the net. The grate thing has the biggest holes, and catches everything larger than finely diced foods. The net catches the rest of that. I try to change the net once a week when I cook during the week, but sometimes if I don't cook (or don't do dishes for a week) I don't change it until the sink is empty. I clean the basket itself about once a month, and sometimes more often.
But that once a month... oh god, it's disgusting. I swear, tonight I cleaned it but I cleaned it the last time I changed the basket, which was two or three weeks ago? But I didn't cook at all last week soooo yeah. Mold was growing on the bottom of the basket and around the bottom of the drain and some of it was black while also part of it was kind of slimy.
SO FREAKING GROSS.
I'm not entirely sure which will kill me first though- the mold in my house, or the stuff that I use to clean it. The cleaning agents here are ridiculously strong.
I meant to write about my school's culture festival preparations, but yeah, mold is kind of good at growing in places where it shouldn't be.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Today I had to give my speech to the students and teachers from my base school, the school I've been hanging out and bumming internet off of since I came here. So like, these teachers KNOW me. And these kids have seen me. I live right next to the school.
So what did I do? I practiced. I even had it written down and practiced from that. Then what did I do? I IMPROVED HALF OF THE SPEECH. Seriously, major mind blank right in the middle. I think I rambled and said dumb things. I think I was too quiet.
It's not like this was the first time I've spoken in front of a large crowd of students, but it was the first time I had already stood in the classroom in front of a good quarter of them, perhaps, or had seen elsewhere.
Yeah way to botch it Jess. The other English teachers said it was really good, but I'm not sure if any of the students actually figured out what I was saying. Maybe. Hopefully? I had originally planned on doing it in Japanese and English (more like English with brief amounts of Japanese here and there) but the kencho-sensei said pretty much everything I was going to. So yeaaah. Oops. That's what prompted the whole improving thing.
Ahhhh well.
Afterwards, I had no class, but instead spent time making posters about myself lol. Seriously. There are like... four or five posters with my pictures on them. BTW, Jeana, your picture is there, large, front, and center lol. The one with the duck. :D They think it's cute haha.
I swear though, it was more work than being up in front of the class room almost haha. I'm SO TIRED. And hungry. Two posters were posters of FOOD. Not my idea, actually. Suga-sensei's. So hungry because of it.
I also made a 25 minute video of pictures and short videos of me and friends and family lol. I didn't think it was possible to go on for so long about me.
This also prompted cleaning out my computer, because I'm desperate for more space. Seriously, I don't know what's eating up all this space. I cleared out two or three gigs worth just from deleting old mail and attachments from Finder (not entirely sure if that'll screw up something else but I have my backups...) and deleting program supports of programs I'd already trashed. Woo. I'm sure there's a bunch more in iTunes, especially since I downloaded a billion different podcasts haha. I think I have 5 gigs or something there. o_O I kindddd of want a new computer haha, but not until I leave JET. My next large purchase, I think, will be an external hard drive. That, I need.
Seriously though, where is all the space on my computer going? >_<
In other news, I've been cooking a lot at home. I think being stuck out here in Japan has made me want to cook more, to have foods that are a little more familiar to me since - lets face it - food is a central part of my life. What did I bring from home in addition to pictures? The family cook book (half of which I cannot use, due to lack of oven or lack of ingredients).
Which reminds me. If anyone has recipes for things that are cooked with basic ingredients (not things like Lawry's season salt - I'm planning on getting my hands on those soon!), rice cooker recipes, or microwave/stovetop recipes, I WOULD LOVE THEM. Seriously. Anything. I'm so down for trying to cook new things. Hell. I'm even making tortillas out here. So send them recipes my way and I will love you forever~ :D
So what did I do? I practiced. I even had it written down and practiced from that. Then what did I do? I IMPROVED HALF OF THE SPEECH. Seriously, major mind blank right in the middle. I think I rambled and said dumb things. I think I was too quiet.
It's not like this was the first time I've spoken in front of a large crowd of students, but it was the first time I had already stood in the classroom in front of a good quarter of them, perhaps, or had seen elsewhere.
Yeah way to botch it Jess. The other English teachers said it was really good, but I'm not sure if any of the students actually figured out what I was saying. Maybe. Hopefully? I had originally planned on doing it in Japanese and English (more like English with brief amounts of Japanese here and there) but the kencho-sensei said pretty much everything I was going to. So yeaaah. Oops. That's what prompted the whole improving thing.
Ahhhh well.
Afterwards, I had no class, but instead spent time making posters about myself lol. Seriously. There are like... four or five posters with my pictures on them. BTW, Jeana, your picture is there, large, front, and center lol. The one with the duck. :D They think it's cute haha.
I swear though, it was more work than being up in front of the class room almost haha. I'm SO TIRED. And hungry. Two posters were posters of FOOD. Not my idea, actually. Suga-sensei's. So hungry because of it.
I also made a 25 minute video of pictures and short videos of me and friends and family lol. I didn't think it was possible to go on for so long about me.
This also prompted cleaning out my computer, because I'm desperate for more space. Seriously, I don't know what's eating up all this space. I cleared out two or three gigs worth just from deleting old mail and attachments from Finder (not entirely sure if that'll screw up something else but I have my backups...) and deleting program supports of programs I'd already trashed. Woo. I'm sure there's a bunch more in iTunes, especially since I downloaded a billion different podcasts haha. I think I have 5 gigs or something there. o_O I kindddd of want a new computer haha, but not until I leave JET. My next large purchase, I think, will be an external hard drive. That, I need.
Seriously though, where is all the space on my computer going? >_<
In other news, I've been cooking a lot at home. I think being stuck out here in Japan has made me want to cook more, to have foods that are a little more familiar to me since - lets face it - food is a central part of my life. What did I bring from home in addition to pictures? The family cook book (half of which I cannot use, due to lack of oven or lack of ingredients).
Which reminds me. If anyone has recipes for things that are cooked with basic ingredients (not things like Lawry's season salt - I'm planning on getting my hands on those soon!), rice cooker recipes, or microwave/stovetop recipes, I WOULD LOVE THEM. Seriously. Anything. I'm so down for trying to cook new things. Hell. I'm even making tortillas out here. So send them recipes my way and I will love you forever~ :D
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
KABI KIRRAAAA
Yesterday, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to ride home with two brooms just chillin and hanging out of my basket. But for some reason, the mood to clean hit yesterday and I found a bottle of this stuff called kabi kiraa (mold killer) that had been recommended to me by another JET for cleaning mold.
So I changed into my cleaning gear once I got home and attacked the shower, which, regretfully, I have no pictures of prior to the attack. Literally, the ceiling around the tiny room was COVERED with spots that looked like it was or had been mold spots. All over. Not subject to being rubbed off either; I tried.
But I sprayed it with this magical stuff and WOW. Wow. My walls are white again. Like seriously. It's pretty amazing cause of how awesome it looks. I had to close the door to the shower room because I was spraying above the door, and was also using water to spray the top stuff (since I wasn't sure if I was supposed to rinse or drench in water or what...). It turned into a virtual sauna in there. I was definitely sweating enough for it to be.
It's so clean though~
I'm so happy about it. I used the whole bottle of cleaner though, and it is probably not the best for one's health. Oh well. My bathroom is clean. It smells an awful lot like chlorine, so in essence, my bathroom smells like a swimming pool. But it's clean!
So I changed into my cleaning gear once I got home and attacked the shower, which, regretfully, I have no pictures of prior to the attack. Literally, the ceiling around the tiny room was COVERED with spots that looked like it was or had been mold spots. All over. Not subject to being rubbed off either; I tried.
But I sprayed it with this magical stuff and WOW. Wow. My walls are white again. Like seriously. It's pretty amazing cause of how awesome it looks. I had to close the door to the shower room because I was spraying above the door, and was also using water to spray the top stuff (since I wasn't sure if I was supposed to rinse or drench in water or what...). It turned into a virtual sauna in there. I was definitely sweating enough for it to be.
It's so clean though~
I'm so happy about it. I used the whole bottle of cleaner though, and it is probably not the best for one's health. Oh well. My bathroom is clean. It smells an awful lot like chlorine, so in essence, my bathroom smells like a swimming pool. But it's clean!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)