How EXCITING!

Since I figured out how to upload pictures, I may as well put some more up here.



This is the Tokyo skyline from the 40-somethingth floor at the Orientation hotel. It was actually completely overcast and rainy most of the time we were there, so this was the one day clear enough to take pictures. Pretty!



Time for one more picture before I leave work for the week. A picture of me in a yukata (summer kimono) for the Nebuta festival. Or at least, my bells that I was supposed to throw at people watched us dance by. What did the full ensemble look like? Oh the suspense! I'll show y'all later.





So okay, nothing too exciting yet....but I'm excited that I actually took time off my busy work schedule of sitting in front of the computer all day long to figure out how to do this.

Now it's time to mull over my latest problem of washing clothes for Aomori orientation and getting them dry in time to pack. I forgot that I didn't have a dryer. Sigh.

I finally figured out how to upload pics...I think. And how to rotate them. In honor of this, I'll dedicate a whole post to my favorite animal (or sea-mammal, anyway).

May I present to you....the....one and only...BELUGA WHALE.



I took this picture at the Shedd Aquarium. I told Matt to take me there because it was the one thing I truly wanted to do in Chicago, and he did. We did a whole bunch of other things too, but the best one was seeing the Beluga Whale.

I have a lot more cute (and cuter) pictures of lil Beluga, but this will do for now.

Take my word for it though, the best sea-mammal out there is the Beluga whale. Dolphins ain't got shit on them.

Hirary Crinton

It took me forever to figure out how to update, since the computer at the Board of Education (where I'll be 'working' after classes if I finish up before 4) is all in Japanese. There's got to be a way of fixing things, but there is so much else to worry about.

If I come here tomorrow, I'll be posting pictures of all the excitement that has gone on: Tokyo orienatation, the Nebuta festival, and perhaps some pictures of my hometown. Counting today, I've been in Gonohe for a week...however, it feels like much less than that since so much has gone on.

One funny tidbit to keep this interesting: on our second day in Gonohe we had our welcoming party. We got flowers and made speeches. And sat with a bunch of random important Japanese people from the town and school who really didn't know any english (or so they'd have you believe...I am convinced that our supervisor knows so much more than the four or five words that she can purportedly speak). I thought I looked quite nice, but the head of the Board of Education told me afterwards that I looked like Hilary Clinton.

I'm pretty sure he was serious. So, looking like a fifty year old wrinkly woman. What could I do but laugh it off? Oh, Japan.

The clock is ticking

The hour draws near...after a crazy day of wringing my hands about this/that, things that did/didn't get accomplished, things I want to/don't want to forget, I'm left with the realization that I still have to pack.

Whoops!

It's really too crazy and unsettling to even think about leaving the United States for a whole year and becoming illiterate overnight. I guess the little mermaid did okay when she didn't have her voice. But actually...things totally didn't work out for her. I know things will be better for me!

I'll keep this blog updated, and my goal is to take a lot of pictures. Don't believe me? Well, you're all reading the words of a girl who just bought "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Japanese" less than 24 hours before moving to Japan. I guess that means I procrastinate but I do get things done.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go get things done. It's going to be crazy, so please keep me in mind my friends.