Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her.
|
|
| We're Not in Japan Anymore... Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her. |
|
|
Saturday, August 30, 2003 Alright... well, I finally found my way to the train station, and then found the guts to ask to use a computer here in this 'lab' thing. Luckily the receptionist spoke broken English, and I speak broken Japanese, so we were able to communicate. (: And now I know how to sign in to use the lab! Yatta! Still no connection in my apartment, though... nuts. I gotta figure out how to get Yahoo BB soon... First I want to worry about finding the English newspaper here! I've tried a few places so far, but not the train station yet. So after this, I'm going to check it out. And I still need to find one of those HUGE, cheap bookstores--Book Off! Numazu HAS to have one nearby, if Hikone did... a city of half Numazu's size... Sooner or later, I WILL find it! I just can't STAND to by my manga for 370 yen (about 3 bucks) when I know I can get it for 100! Sheesh. And I have sooo much Inuyasha to catch up on! Speaking of! Inuyasha should be on tomorrow night! I only have 7 channels or so, though... so I'm worried I won't find it... ): Pray for me, please! Hehehe And my apartment is slowly coming together. I've gone through a bunch of the stuff left behind, but there's still one BIG tub of junk to sort through. But today I have to prepare my lessons for the week. I will teach between 6 and 9 classes each week (I forget exactly) and I will introduce myself to the kids--then have them play a game to see what they learned/remembered. Should be fun!! School starts tomorrow, but we won't have class until Tuesday. I guess there are ceremonies and stuff. We'll see! (: Last night I got to see some fireworks (花火--hanabi: hana(花)=flower, hi/bi(火)=fire) over the bay Numazu is on. There were some really beautiful ones! One bunch of them, the ships in the bay set off the fireworks, and several seconds later they exploded in the water, so it looked like a series of red, blue, and gold fountains! Soooo pretty. The Japanese love their fireworks. (: I took some video with my lovely little Canon Powershot. Maybe I can figure out how to link them to my site soon. Jaaa! posted by Katie Suttles | 8:39 PM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, August 28, 2003 Hi again! I had a busy day in Shizuoka City-the capital of Shizuoka-ken (state)---ooooooooo.... I got a re-entry Visa, so now I can leave Japan whenever I want! ... maybe. But it will get me home for Misha's wedding, which is the important thing! And tonight I move into my apartment! Neat. BUT... it means internet access gets cut til my 'partment gets wired. So hang in there, loyal readers! I shall return! In the meanwhile, 'shout out', e-mail, and snail mail me, please! When I went to see my apartment for the first time, there was a letter from my friend Heidi there already! So fun! So, yes! My address on the business card works! Yatta! But be careful if you try to write it in Japanese... I know you are all like, 'good thing you told me! I was going to try!!' ....My address is a little wrong... I forgot a character. 本 is missing.... after 沼津市, before 錦町.... so it SHOULD say: 本錦町. So maybe, just write *Honnishiki-cho* (: Make sense? 分かった？ O-KAY! Well, better go! Keep in touch! posted by Katie Suttles | 3:53 AM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, August 27, 2003 Okay okay okay! So here I am! In Japan! It's been pretty uneventful so far. ('How can you say that?!' you say, right?) But it's true. I am staying with Fusako-san, who is part of this Kalamazoo-Numazu Sister City deal somehow. She and her husband have been VERY nice to me. (: Tonight, for example, she's hosting a small party so I can meet some people who really want to meet me.. or something. (: It should start soon, so I should jet! But, so I'm not living in my apartment yet--a few more days, still. But soon I should get 'net access there, and posts will be more frequent. So check back when you can, and 'shout out' if you like! (Ugh... I wish I could change that, but my attempts have proved more harmful than helpful...) Jaaaaaaaaaa! (translation: see yoooooooooooooou!) posted by Katie Suttles | 3:28 AM Comments-[ comments.] Monday, August 18, 2003 Hi again, everyone. I'm still in Lawrence, Jeremy's off at a training meeting at the moment. I've found myself with a lot of 'alone time' since I've gotten here... Hasn't been easy for me to enjoy/get used to/whatever, since all I can really think about is leaving the country THIS SUNDAY. Ack. I've gotten a bit scared, too, I think. Oh well... not much to do but suck it up and take my chances. I'm certain I'll have a wonderful time; everyone will be super-nice, I'll get a lot of experience, and I probably won't want to come home. But that still doesn't quell my fears. I called the Consulate today and my Visa is approved. Rock on. So I guess my travel agent can FINALLY buy my tickets! How dumb!! I leave in less than a week, and I still don't have tickets?? Why are things like this...? It doens't have to be this crazy... does it? Well, whatever. Hopefully an email saying "I got approved!" is enough for my agent to buy tickets. If not, I still have to wait another day or two til it arrives in the mail. Apparently this blackout may be messing with the mail system, cuz it was sent on the 14th, but still isn't at home. POOP. Hope it arrives before I have to leave! Anyways... time for me to get some breakfast, maybe study some kanji. B'bye! posted by Katie Suttles | 10:18 AM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, August 15, 2003 Man am I glad I traveled on Wednesday! I can't imagine getting stuck in a Chicago airport for hours and hours... And it's funny... as I was flying, I was thinking, 'Maybe I should have just left Thursday or Friday,' worried that Jeremy was just going to be so busy with Hall stuff. Guess I'm pretty fortunate! So at the moment, I'm sitting pretty in Kansas which, to the best of my knowledge, was not affected by the power outtage. Waaaaaaaaaa... So this blackout... Crazy stuff, huh? It's amazing how much we can rely on electricity. 50 million people affected... 9 nuclear reactors shut down... And they still aren't positive they know what happened. How can something like this happen and we still don't have an answer? Sheesh... seems like it might be obvious, doesn't it? I mean, this outtage knocked out the power that supplied almost 10 major North American cities... I would think something that did such a huge amount of damage would be a bit more apparent. But I guess not. (: And hey, what do I know about electrical plants anyway? (: So anyway, Lawrence is pretty nice. (: Jeremy's been a bit busy, so we haven't gotten around a whole lot, but we did walk the main strip last night as we looked for a place to get some dinner. There are a lot of stores I want to peek in! (: We'll probably have plenty of time this weekend, and next week, to check out a lot of the city. I'll try to get some pictures up, when I get my camera out. (: Oh, and I am finishing the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. If you enjoy fantasy books, I totally reccomend it! He has an amazing imagination, and is a great writer. (: I'm really enjoying the characters, too. I'm gonna check out his other series when I get a chance... which, unfortunately will probably be next August, when I come home. Oh well! posted by Katie Suttles | 9:24 AM Comments-[ comments.] Sunday, August 10, 2003 Okay... so I'm trying to add an "encoding help" sidebar for those who missed the post where I told you what to do about getting my Japanese characters to show. Check it out if you find some screwy letters in the middle of my posts. posted by Katie Suttles | 12:28 AM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, August 09, 2003 And so it ends, my glorious stint at the local A&W. I had some fun. (: Not all the time... but it certainly had its moments. (: I hope I can stop in again when I come back for Marisha's wedding. (: Since it's a bit after midnight... that makes today the tenth. Fourteen days... yeah, two weeks from this Sunday, I'll begin my new adventure in Numazu. It's hard to believe, after months of saying, "only three more months," and then weeks of saying, "only six more weeks..." Now I'm down to days... and eight of those days I will spend in Kansas... gawd, I have so much to get done... And, well... Jeremy's not online, and his away message doesn't say when he's coming back... so there isn't much reason to stay. Good night everyone! posted by Katie Suttles | 11:30 PM Comments-[ comments.] So here it is... one day of work left at the A&W. It's been a long, difficult summer... but I think I ended up having a little bit of fun. (: I made a few friends, and certainly improved my hot dog-making skills. Something to pass on to my children, you know. Today Ruth asked me to send postcards to the restaurant once in a while. That'd be fun! I think I just might. I just hope there are a few people there that would care to hear from me.... I got my Visa application mailed off--FINALLY. This has just been crazy... all the random paperwork to get me to Numazu. And TODAY (less than 20 days til I leave) I got a call from Kalamazoo's City Clerk that I had a medical exam something to fill out. Thank god for fax machines, ne? Well, apparently a doctor should have examined me, but do I seriously have time?? I'm leaving the 13th to see Jeremy, and I'll be gone til the 22nd. And besides, I have no doctor. >sigh< So hopefully they'll take my word that I'm healthy... And so, yay! I get to see Jeremy on the 13th. (: I'm so excited to get to Lawrence and see his new, beautiful city. I'll try to take lots of pictures to share. (: But I'm sleepy now. I'm gonna get rested for my last day of "dog duty." Oyasumi! お休み！ posted by Katie Suttles | 12:01 AM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, August 07, 2003 Marisha and Arnel came home today after spending a year in Japan as JETs. It was really good to see them both again, but... it just keeps me thinking about how much closer my own trip is... and how I am going all by myself. It's frightening... but encouraging in a way, I suppose. I know it won't kill me, just make me stronger... right? But that doesn't mean that it isn't going to be about the hardest thing I've faced... But, yeah, it was really good to see those two again. (: posted by Katie Suttles | 12:03 AM Comments-[ comments.] Tuesday, August 05, 2003 So I'm kind of enjoying FLCL. The voice actors kinda give it the ol' "seiyuu try" and make it sound a bit like the original Japanese actors do--which helps a lot. It's good to watch it again, crazy as it is. I'm glad I'll be around to see all the episodes. Well, today was my last "Coney Day". No longer will I dread Tuesdays. I have defeated the 'bane of my exisitance'. Or well, I guess it was a truce... seeing as though I was never able to maintain my post as the "hot dog lady" for the duration of a Coney Day. I always got bumped... to the frier or the dishwasher. Neither are so bad, but it's a little disheartening to know that I 'can't take it' or whatever. I guess it's nothing to sweat over... I'll probably never end up back there, making hot dogs and frying onion rings for the good people of Flushing. And so I only have four days left. I'll miss a couple of the people there; a few of the days have been fun. (: A couple have really sucked, but hey, that's life. When I come back for Misha's wedding, I hope I can stop in. (: I have to go back two weeks from this Friday, too, to pick up my last paycheck. Nifty. DANG does Blue Gender stink. Don't bother paying attention to [adult swim] until Trigun comes on right after. Vash rocks. There need to be more cartoon characters like him. Oh... Mom and I opened me a new bank account, on account of the nearest National City being in Clio--which is about a 1 hour trip, no lie. I thought it'd be mean of me to ask Mom to drive out there to deposit every time I sent money home to her. Just another step closer to leaving the country.... geez.... What will I be doing in a month...? posted by Katie Suttles | 11:48 PM Comments-[ comments.] |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
