The Infamous Proust Questionnaire

I started reading Vanity Fair when I came to Japan.  All of the foreign magazines are really expensive (like $20)  so I picked the longest/thickest one in order to have it last.  I fell in love with its mix of pop culture and current events as well as its in-depth coverage of the past, such as an article on when Jackie Kennedy got into publishing or the guy who introduced John Ford to Monument Valley.  Anyway, at the end of the magazine is "The Infamous Proust Quiz."  It's a series of questions they ask writers/actors/directors/etc.  Here is a website on the origin of the actual quiz, the infamous Proust quiz


I thought I would answer the quiz myself because I am a bit bored.  There is nothing particular about it, just something I read every month.  If you do a google search you can find a lot of interesting people along with their interesting answers.


1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
With all due respect to my husband, a good book, a hot bath, and a small terrier curled up and napping on the bathroom rug.


2. What is your greatest fear?
That I will live an unlived life.


3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I am too chatty and get jealous too easily.


4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
I hate cockiness.


5. Which living person do you most admire?
As for people I know, my friends Ashley, Wyatt, and Bud.  All of them are such achievers.
As for someone famous, Tina Fey seems like such the perfect woman.


6. What is your greatest extravagance?
Flights between the US and Japan.


7. What is your current state of mind? 
Sightly bored, slightly conceited (in that I think people will read this).
In the larger picture, I am pretty content at the moment but still feel as if things haven't quite gotten started yet.


8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Bravery


9. On what occasion do you lie?
Working with students and people of a foreign culture, I lie at work.  All.  the.  Time.


10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My height and weight can't seem to strike a happy balance.


11. Which living person do you most despise?
Haha...  For this I shall just stick to famous or infamous people.  I would say the selfish Americans who make the US look ugly to other countries.


12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Humor and an easy-going nature.


13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Humor and an easy-going nature.


14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
like, In America..., anyway


15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
As much as I would love to say Motoaki, I think books have been and will be with me longer.


16. When and where were you happiest?
I think the fall when I first met Motoaki and was living in Tsuyama with Eddie, Genesis, Gemma, Sanyu, Lauren, Andy, Ben, Lenny, etc  There was such a feeling of fun and freedom that being an expat gives you.


Or spring semester of my first year at University.


Or being on the State 4-H council.


17. Which talent would you most like to have?
I wish I was better at languages and sports.  Is having a photogenic memory a talent?

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I wish I was generally more considerate of others.


19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
So far, staying for the most part true to myself.


20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A hymn or a hymnal.  Or a terrier (one of the fluffy ones).  Or a book.  Something daring that children would read hidden under their comforters with a flashlight and that adults would reread into their adult lives.

21. Where would you most like to live?

I am happy where I am at now, but if we had to move, Tsuyama, Des Moines, the Twin Cities, or Sydney.


22. What is your most treasured possession?

My mother's copy of Little Women, my Paul Frank quilt made by my grandmother, my United Methodist Hymnal.


23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Losing a loved one, the thought that there is a good chance my life is half way over or more than half way over.

24. What is your favorite occupation?
Teaching, although I would love to be a writer or dancer.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?
My voice- talking, singing, writing

26. What do you most value in your friends?
Their willingness to keep in touch despite distance and time.  Their ability to selflessly meet and support me whenever I happen to be in the US. And their humor.

27. Who are your favorite writers?
As much as I love books, I am not as loyal to writers.  My favorite books are Behind the Attic Wall, The Poisonwood Bible, As I Lay Dying, The Time Traveler's Wife, How the Garcia Girl's Lost Their Accents, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Baby-Sitter's Club, The American Girl series, Me Talk Pretty One Day


I do find that if I buy an Anita Shreve book, I will like it.  The same goes for David Sedaris.




28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, Jo March, Curious George

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Arthur Hart-Synnot, from the book Sword and Blossom, and, in regards to his quote that "I cannot live without books," Thomas Jefferson.  I was brought up to greatly admire Harry S. Truman and I do, but I can't say that I identify with him.



30. Who are your heroes in real life?
My grandmother(s), my mother, my aunt, my husband, my father, my friends.

31. What are your favorite names?
George, Robin, Truman, Fitch, Nora, Ella, and Jane

32. What is it that you most dislike?
People who complain or who can't take care of themselves.  Sadly, that includes infants.
And centipedes and snakes.

33. What is your greatest regret?

I hope it isn't the decision to stay in Japan.  There have been a lot of lost chances to say what I really felt or meant and too many chances where I said what I shouldn't have said.

34. How would you like to die?

In my sleep, in a warm room, old and ready.

35. What is your motto?

Don't walk in front of me, I might not follow.  Don't walk behind me, I might not lead.  Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending.

I cannot live without books.

The First Post

WARNING: If you know me or live in Japan, this is a BORING post.  Just a little "FYI" on who I am and what I do.

I have decided to start this blog as a way to keep in touch with family back at home as well as the friends I have all over the world.  If you don't know me but want to read about the mundane details of life in Japan anyway, then go for it.    I have been quite inspired after starting to read "married in Japan" blogs.  It started with seeing Gaijin Housewife in Japan (http://gaijinhousewifeinjapan.blogspot.com/) in the Japan Times and continued on with Gaijin Wife (http://gaijinwife.wordpress.com/), Always Leaving things Unfinished (http://alwaysleavingthingsunfinishe.blogspot.com/), Nay and Naoki (http://nayandnao.wordpress.com/), Sassymoo (http://sassymoo.blogspot.com/), etc.  I highly suggest all if you want a good read on the life of a non-Japanese woman married to a Japanese man.

Just a note, if I sometimes complain about Japan it is merely a way of me blowing off steam.  I love my husband and I love my life here.

As for, "about me," I am in my late 20's, from America, and live in Okayama-ken, Japan.  Though I won't give out all my details, it will be pretty obvious who I am if you know the area.  Japan is small and the gaijin (non-Japanese) community is smaller. 

I came here in 2005 and worked for an Eikawa (private English school) for three years.  I then went home for six months in 2008 to give it a go in America one last time, and then moved back to Japan in 2009 to the same area.  This was largely to do with my then boyfriend, now husband, who is Japanese.  We were engaged in the winter of 2009 and got married during the summer of 2010.  But we have basically been married since 2007. 

I am an English teacher because that is what most non-Japanese people do in Japan.  The catch is (or might be) that I love my job and am good at what I do.  Teaching English is never boring (especially when teenagers and kindergartners are thrown in).  It requires just enough effort to be busy but not enough to be totally tied with work.

In my free time I read, Read, READ and I watch movies.  I also hang out with the other foreigners in the area, usually at restaurants or karaoke boxes.  I try to study Japanese but usually it gets passed over for a good book or movie.  I do attend classes and so am at an ok level, but nowhere near where I should be.  I also recently joined a community choir which consists of about 50 30-80 year-olds.  Everything is done in Japanese so I am always struggling to figure out what page we are on.  Thank God for being an alto- I can usually just harmonize even if I don't know the words.  I figure that is Japanese practice enough. 

Whenever my husband gets free time, we usually drive to a big city to shop (he lived in Osaka for seven years so usually we head there) or go to the beach so he can surf and I can read.  If we get enough time, we head out even further to Kyushu, Wakayama, Shikoku, or Tokyo.  We speak in a crazy mixture of English/Japanese that only we usually understand due to a lack of grammar skills on both our parts, but it works.  He is quiet and I am loud but when we are together our personalities swap and I am the quiet one and he is the loud one.

OK- that should about do it.  If you have any more questions, ask away.