Late night
This might be the latest I've stayed up since graduation. I'm still up, and feeling quite awake, because I'm excited about the JET program again! The past several weeks have involved a lot of worrying about logistics-- where do I stay? how much does it snow? wait, I need a car? how much will that cost?-- that I kind of lost track of the big picture. I'm going to Japan to teach English to children! I'm going to get paid to go live in a new environment, meet and interact with new people, and share my culture and language with kids. It doesn't get much better than this.
And the reality is starting to hit home. After looking at pictures of Mount Asama (scroll down for images) and realizing I'm going to be living only a few miles from it, I realize just how much nature I'm going to be surrounded by. Checking into the Facebook group for all the JET participants from Gunma, I realize what a network of support they have in place to keep each other sane in a completely foreign country. Staring at the picture of a classroom in a school I'll be teaching in, I can practically smell the blackboards. I'm nearly there, and I'm burning with anticipation once again.
I'm really, really looking forward to being in Japan again. I can't wait to meet my fellow teachers, get to know the locals, and get involved in the community. Am I projecting overly high expectations of how awesome living in this rural village will be? Probably. But right now, when I'm just short of arrival and the whole experience is a blank slate, the potential for awesome is overflowing.
Do I need to go to bed? Yes. But I won't be asleep for a while, and when I do, I'll dream of living near volcanoes and the smell of chalk.
And the reality is starting to hit home. After looking at pictures of Mount Asama (scroll down for images) and realizing I'm going to be living only a few miles from it, I realize just how much nature I'm going to be surrounded by. Checking into the Facebook group for all the JET participants from Gunma, I realize what a network of support they have in place to keep each other sane in a completely foreign country. Staring at the picture of a classroom in a school I'll be teaching in, I can practically smell the blackboards. I'm nearly there, and I'm burning with anticipation once again.
I'm really, really looking forward to being in Japan again. I can't wait to meet my fellow teachers, get to know the locals, and get involved in the community. Am I projecting overly high expectations of how awesome living in this rural village will be? Probably. But right now, when I'm just short of arrival and the whole experience is a blank slate, the potential for awesome is overflowing.
Do I need to go to bed? Yes. But I won't be asleep for a while, and when I do, I'll dream of living near volcanoes and the smell of chalk.