So it's not just me?

I've been back at Creighton for a few days now. There's still a big brown box next to my computer and the suitcases are half-full of junk, but I am more or less settled.

I started my position as ad manager for the school paper, which sucks right now, and I was stuck in my little corner for a good part of the afternoon catching up on calls and emails. One of the editors, Mary, who had just returned from a stint in Poland this semester, came by to entertain me. We studied abroad for the same reasons, and ironically seemed to have had similar outcomes from the time abroad. Neither of us knew the local language very well and still don't have a firm grasp of it, drinking was always a good time (in Poland? I would have never imagined), and we didn't really hang out with the natives.

The same editor was in my dorm when I got back today, prepping with my room mate for a photography adventure on the roof of the law school. My room mate, Lisa, studied abroad last semester at a Jesuit school in Ireland. The three of us started talking about our trips, and we agree that:

1. We have no idea where our money went
I just read on the interwebs that Tokyo is ranked as the second most expensive city to live in, and I can believe that. My application packet to Sophia said I'd need about $1500 a month to survive, and I laughed. It's so true, though. I don't even want to think about the amount of money I spent, let alone try to figure out what I spent it on. My room mate had to deal with the currency exchange in euros and pounds, and Mary managed until she got to traveling around Europe.

2. There's no place like home, but... America sucks.
We don't like it here anymore. Mary told me point blank, "I do not want to be here. I want to be in Poland." I've been telling anyone who wants to know about my trip that I loved Japan (despite the cost) and I will run away one day to live there, or at least get paid to fly back and forth a lot. All this journalism stuff? 18 credits a semester? Ad manager? I love it, it'll look great on a resume, but in the end it's all part of the plan to return to Nihon.

3. America sucks but Americans are so interesting!
Why are Americans so fascinating to everyone? We're magnets for odd things and attention. Mary had some crazy clubbing stories, and I've complained enough about the looks I'd get in Japan. Lisa didn't mention anything weird, but she went to an English-speaking country. Americans aren't *exotic* to the Irish.

4. Foreign guys > American guys
I walk around campus completely unimpressed with the boys. I grew to appreciate the smaller, less intimidating, chou kawaii, not-so-freaking-hairy Nihonjin boys; Mary and Lisa grew to appreciate the wonderful accents and charm that all European men seem to be blessed with. American boys... gah... they're so impolite, they're too worried about "looking gay", they don't dance, they're so dumb, etc. I'll take Arashi and KAT-TUN over whatever boy bands we have in America. Who's Diddy pimping these days? Day26 or something? Whatever.

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I forgot to add one very important halfie to the list last time...

JERO!

Like Crystal Kay, he's half-black and half-Japanese and a popular singer. Catch is, he sings enka. KiKu airs enka singing contests from time to time, and it's usually old men and women singing about long lost loves and heartbreak. It's strange to watch his YouTube videos -- looks like Ne-Yo but he's singing in slow, drawn out Nihongo. Perfectly fluent, too; I think he has a video with that other half-Japanese girl in my last post.