Packin' Fury!!!!
How does caramel leak out of a Snickers bar?? I mean... come on!! The caramel is the best part. If anything, I want JUST the caramel. Ugh... anyway, even though I'm watching Stephen Colbert interviewing a guy on the problem with branding becoming an epidemic in our society (interview sponsored by Dr. Pepper), it's time for an Adventures in Japan update. (apologies if I'm repeating anything... I'm too lazy to go back and see where I left off)
I made contact with my new co-workers. Well, some of them at least. There is one girl I've been talking to mostly and then I got a few emails from the branch manager in Hiroshima. I will be working with 3 other ALTs... 1 girl from New Zealand and 1 guy from Jamaica who both started last semester, and 1 new girl from England who is actually a JET. With connections already made, I already feel like this new place is home. You have no idea how much of a weight off my shoulder this is. It's bad enough that I'm going to be shuttled around and pointed to, prodded at, and pushed around... told when to eat, bow, yawn, sneeze, blink... but now that I know that there's a cool girl already excited about my arrival so we can cause mischief and mayhem in the mountains of Okayama, it's such a relief.
I already know about cars... thanks to Fedora on that one. I have computer-help available... thanks to Sam and Paul there. And I have at least one friend in Japan already who knows the language enough to help me in a pinch... thanks to Crystal. I also have Megane (Tokyo) and Mike (Niigata) to lend me a hand (and provide travel-destinations!!) with miscellaneous stuff, plus John (Iwate) and Eric (Kurashiki) to help me with any bull INTERAC tries to fling at us. And of course my many fans, friends, and supporters back in the US and abroad from in and around Boston and on the anime-source.com blogs.
Training is resuming back in Narita for the week. Pete was trying to get me and Eric to come out to Hiroshima, which I really would have loved cause I really want to visit Children's Peace National Monument Park, but I can do that later on in the year... as well as the Samurai Festival in Kurashiki!!!!!! Being in Narita will help me bond with the INTERAC branchers and the others who will be in Okayama-ken with me. It'll be a cool networking opportunity, though I'll probably be anxious to get out to Takahashi to meet all my actual coworkers and get accustomed to my new city.
I have less than two weeks to go until I leave. I have 2 shifts left at the fire department, and then a going-away party on the weekend. I'm seeing X-Files 2 with Chris and Shawn on Friday... hopefully they won't mind driving to Framingham cause I want to use my AMC pass before I leave. Kelly wants to take me out to dinner before I go, too. I have to meet up with Melissa and Jenna to do their School Days photoshoot, as well as take some photos of the popular Boston landmarks before I leave. I'm hoping Vu will join us, though he's been AFK now that he's made it with a woman ("Kif, inform the men!!"). Anyone else who wants to join in, you'll have to get a hold of me with proposed details since I'm too busy to actually think out plans.
Left on my to-do list:
- travel clinic appointment... hoping to do it before the insurance runs out
- talk to my aunt about moving furniture into her basement
- sell my car... Dan's too broke to take it
- PACK!!!!!
Phase 1: Books and magazines
Phase 2: Figures and wall-art
Phase 3: Small furniture and seldom-used appliances
Phase 4: DVDs and non-accompanying clothing
Phase 5: Large furniture and kitchenware
Phase 6: Japan-bound items... clothing, documents, laptop, toiletries, DVDs*, onagiri
* I need to think about which DVDs (and yes, that includes anime) that I want to bring. They need to represent American tv and cinema, my interests, and also have high rewatchability value. This will probably be my closest window back into homelife for the next 3 years... well, not counting episodes of the Simpsons and The Colbert Report I sneak on YouTube, hehehe.
okay, this is long enough. Lots to come over the next few days... followed by a period of blankness (well, I think I can get online at the hotel, but it's not gonna be anything exciting), and then later in the month, hundreds of "ooooh aaaaah gaijin-wackiness" and "putting bugs in people's hair"-wackiness with my new friend.... hahahahahhahaa. ^____^
PS... I had an awful dream about melonpan last night... I got my hands on a piece from the same bakery as IRL, but when I bit into it, it wasn't sweet at all, and when I asked why, the girl at the counter said the first piece must have been a fluke!!! :___________________(
I made contact with my new co-workers. Well, some of them at least. There is one girl I've been talking to mostly and then I got a few emails from the branch manager in Hiroshima. I will be working with 3 other ALTs... 1 girl from New Zealand and 1 guy from Jamaica who both started last semester, and 1 new girl from England who is actually a JET. With connections already made, I already feel like this new place is home. You have no idea how much of a weight off my shoulder this is. It's bad enough that I'm going to be shuttled around and pointed to, prodded at, and pushed around... told when to eat, bow, yawn, sneeze, blink... but now that I know that there's a cool girl already excited about my arrival so we can cause mischief and mayhem in the mountains of Okayama, it's such a relief.
I already know about cars... thanks to Fedora on that one. I have computer-help available... thanks to Sam and Paul there. And I have at least one friend in Japan already who knows the language enough to help me in a pinch... thanks to Crystal. I also have Megane (Tokyo) and Mike (Niigata) to lend me a hand (and provide travel-destinations!!) with miscellaneous stuff, plus John (Iwate) and Eric (Kurashiki) to help me with any bull INTERAC tries to fling at us. And of course my many fans, friends, and supporters back in the US and abroad from in and around Boston and on the anime-source.com blogs.
Training is resuming back in Narita for the week. Pete was trying to get me and Eric to come out to Hiroshima, which I really would have loved cause I really want to visit Children's Peace National Monument Park, but I can do that later on in the year... as well as the Samurai Festival in Kurashiki!!!!!! Being in Narita will help me bond with the INTERAC branchers and the others who will be in Okayama-ken with me. It'll be a cool networking opportunity, though I'll probably be anxious to get out to Takahashi to meet all my actual coworkers and get accustomed to my new city.
I have less than two weeks to go until I leave. I have 2 shifts left at the fire department, and then a going-away party on the weekend. I'm seeing X-Files 2 with Chris and Shawn on Friday... hopefully they won't mind driving to Framingham cause I want to use my AMC pass before I leave. Kelly wants to take me out to dinner before I go, too. I have to meet up with Melissa and Jenna to do their School Days photoshoot, as well as take some photos of the popular Boston landmarks before I leave. I'm hoping Vu will join us, though he's been AFK now that he's made it with a woman ("Kif, inform the men!!"). Anyone else who wants to join in, you'll have to get a hold of me with proposed details since I'm too busy to actually think out plans.
Left on my to-do list:
- travel clinic appointment... hoping to do it before the insurance runs out
- talk to my aunt about moving furniture into her basement
- sell my car... Dan's too broke to take it
- PACK!!!!!
Phase 1: Books and magazines
Phase 2: Figures and wall-art
Phase 3: Small furniture and seldom-used appliances
Phase 4: DVDs and non-accompanying clothing
Phase 5: Large furniture and kitchenware
Phase 6: Japan-bound items... clothing, documents, laptop, toiletries, DVDs*, onagiri
* I need to think about which DVDs (and yes, that includes anime) that I want to bring. They need to represent American tv and cinema, my interests, and also have high rewatchability value. This will probably be my closest window back into homelife for the next 3 years... well, not counting episodes of the Simpsons and The Colbert Report I sneak on YouTube, hehehe.
okay, this is long enough. Lots to come over the next few days... followed by a period of blankness (well, I think I can get online at the hotel, but it's not gonna be anything exciting), and then later in the month, hundreds of "ooooh aaaaah gaijin-wackiness" and "putting bugs in people's hair"-wackiness with my new friend.... hahahahahhahaa. ^____^
PS... I had an awful dream about melonpan last night... I got my hands on a piece from the same bakery as IRL, but when I bit into it, it wasn't sweet at all, and when I asked why, the girl at the counter said the first piece must have been a fluke!!! :___________________(