かんじ or Kanji

So today is 'I'm-So-Excited-To-Learn-Japanese' day! In a slight change of pace, I have moved on to learning some kanji, or the Chinese characters that Japanese uses along with its two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana. I am learning how to write my address in Japanese, and quizzing myself on Anki. Now I'm tired of memorizing and writing, so I'm searching the Japanese internet for kanji that I recognize. Mind you, this is only what I've learned and their meanings are by no means 100% complete or accurate.

番 - Wow! This symbol is in my address! With another kanji, it notes my house number.

中 - This symbol I think means 'middle'. I've seen it in the written form of chugaku, or middle school.

西 - This symbol is sometimes read 'nishi', as in Nishihara, which is where I live.

原 - The other half of Nishihara! I remembered this symbol by noting that it looks like a hanging lantern.

I also learned the symbol for 'free' or 'relax' so I can read on the calendar which afternoons I have off. Good to know.

It really is fascinating learning another language this way. At least, for now. My vocab takes some interesting turns. I've seen a lot of frogs, so I know what the word 'kaeru' means. Nishi means 'west' and yama means 'mountain', and one of the elementary schools is named Yamanishi so when I met my neighbors yesterday, we were able to have a brief conversation about the geography of Texas. Yes, there are mountains in Texas, but only in west Texas. South Texas is flat (fu-ra-to).

In other news, I got the tv to work! I also bought a small hibiscus plant and it blossomed this morning! We'll see how long it survives. Also had my first cockroach and first (thankfully, tiny) centipede yesterday. Bugs. Cockroaches I can handle. They don't scare me so much as make the place seem dirty, and I'm trying really hard to keep it clean. The centipede fell out of a book as I opened it - scared the bejeezus out of me. I guess it's a tropical place, so no matter how hard I try, I can only keep the bugs to a minimum and never completely get rid of them. If they become a problem, I have actually considered luring them into the microwave with food or something, then shutting it and nuking them. I don't think I would ever do it, but it's reassuring just to know that I have options.

And tonight - I shall attempt to make fried chicken. I'm craving deep-fried food, but I don't think my cooking skills are that sophisticated. But it would be awesome if I could make my own tempura.