intruder!! eeek.

Okay here goes...

Last night, I was trying to be a responsible citizen and pull my trash together to go out to be recycled today. Since my apartment has been lived in by JETs for the past 10 years, (at least) stuff accumulates. I was collecting a few boxes, magazines, and paper around the apartment to take out. As I am doing this, lo and behold behind the trash can IN MY APARTMENT a cock roach runs behind it. UGH! really? 2nd night here and I already have bugs, EWWW! Needless to say, he is lucky I let him live. In all honesty he was WAY to fast for me to smush. I went into my room, shut the door, and tried to go to sleep...

7:00 AM - Alarm.

So the Japanese have a very sophisticated trash system in which almost something goes out to be recycled every day of the week. Also there is a select time in which to take the trash...that would be between 7 & 8 AM! On my way to take the trash out, I passed the CUTEST man and we exchanged hello, good morning in JAPANESE! :)

Back inside...I went to sleep for all of 30 more minutes because a new home is being built at the end of my apartment complex and it felt like an earthquake was happening...hence not being able to sleep because of noise and motion.

I woke up and made my very first pot of coffee :), ate a bowl of cereal, and got ready to go meet my fellow teachers. I am teaching at two Junior High schools: Hinode JHS and Itako 2nd. I will be alternating between the schools literally every month. I begin Itako 2nd on September 1st and Hinode on October 1st. The teachers are very nice and young too! I have met some of my students and we exchange smiles, laughs, and simple introductions. I am very excited to be here to be able to share this exchange with the students and the schools. I told them that I play Tennis and create art. That opened a door of opportunity for me, perhaps too much but we will see. The teachers are excited that I want to be involved! I am too!

After meeting my teachers, I went with Yamada and John to the bank to create a bank account for myself! yippe! Then we tried to pay my car insurance; however, since I do not have my alien registration card yet I can not pay for my insurance. So I am without a car for about two more weeks. Itako is great, I can bike everywhere!

We then went to a wonderful little Chinese restaurant for lunch and had fried rice, soup, dumplings, and a little cucumber salad. John has become good friends with Rie, the owners daughter, because she is virtually fluent in English which is a huge benefit to the two of us! John speaks broken Japanese but hey its better than the 10 words I know!! Rie was so sweet and gave me her contact information so we can go out and what not!

John and I needed to go with Yamada after lunch to go to "work" for a few hours. Yamada had some work to be done at the Board of Education so he let John and I search on the Internet and chat while he worked for a bit. We were then off to a temple here in Itako to go honor his ancestors. It was an amazing experience of seeing the shrines to all of the ancestors. We lit incense and placed them in front of the various shrines to his family. It was a wonderful experience to share with him.

I made returns today from a shopping trip made two days ago. I told Yamada that my bedside table is falling apart and needs to be replaced. I had no problem paying for it myself; however, since my BoE IS AMAZING! They are picking up the tab for any needed expenses I need for the apartment. So I am more or less just helping with the upkeep of the apartment. I will go with Yamada on Monday to pick up everything and bring it to the apartment.

Now I am home, contemplating dinner and perhaps a glass of wine since it is Friday night after all and I have been working very hard all week :) working = adjusting to my new way of life. Off to Tokyo tomorrow with John to explore this incredible resource we have only a little over an hour away!!

Talk soon!! xoxo,
Lauren