hisashiburi ne!

that means it's been a while huh! alright, here's the low down short version style ...
went to aomori last week for orientation. learned lots of good stuff and had lots of fun. saturday, hung out with my new friend becky who lives the closest to me. sunday went to this international gathering and did pottery and ate yakisoba. monday, i took the day off to go to hirosaki to get my car. today, went to the office, then drove around with my supervisor to find my schools, and got some paperwork done so that the car will officially be in my name, and so i can have internet at my house. tomorrow is the first day of schoool ... and whew, taking a breath. for me details of the above events, continue reading :P

okay, so before the orientation i took car of my car insurance. man that shiot is expensive! about $90 a month and it will be that way until i leave because it doesn't start getting cheaper until your 26. boo! wednesday, left for the orientation and arrived at a very nice hotel in aomori. had our own rooms, and i'm envious of the slightly large bed i had in the hotel compared to mine at home. 1st days events included a welcome reception lunch and check in. then went out with some jets to go eat and then found a dance club in which only jets were there, so that was fun dancing to strange 80s music and other random bits.

the next day was full of seminars in which i got some good ideas for my first day of class. also obtained my cell phone, finally!!! i love it! it's all fancy pants and i can talk into it like a walky talky because the screen is the entire speaker! hee ... well that night, much exchanging of phone numbers occurred and i dont feel so isolated now. a lot of the jets went out to eat and then went to karaoke. it was loads of fun, but i made it back by 12 while others continued on until the wee hours of the morning. i need sleep :P friday was another day of seminars, one of which taught us a little bit of tsugaru ben, the local dialect of which i understand nothing!!! after that, went home and slept! felt so nice!

saturday, i hung out with becky and we made dinner and watched tv. it was cool just to chill for a while. sunday, a few of us went to goshogawara for this event that apparently about 8 other jets were going to as well. some other japanese people were there and i think it was an attempt to have some culture/language exchange, which happened a little bit. it was fun though, we made some potter. not sure if we will ever get it back and ate some really good yakisoba (noodles). but it was bloody hot! it's been raining non-stop here, although when it does stop (i know, oximoron) it's crazy humid and hot!

monday was very exciting because i finally got my car. had to take the train down to get it and guess what? while i was waiting for the train in goshogawara i found the soka gakkai culture center! i had seen it on the map, and it was close to the station so i figured i'd go look for it, and there it was! didn't go inside because i had to catch the train, but at least i know where to go. i think i have to wait for tokyo to settle everything before i actually get involved with the organization here, but i imagine that wont be too far away. wonder what it will be like here.

today was nice, i finally felt very comfortable with my supervisor. he drove me around to my schools (i met the staff very briefly) and then he tested me in my own car on where all the schools were. passed with 100%! heee ... looking forward to school starting tomorrow, although i imagine time will start to go by quickly though! i probably wont be posting nearly as much until i get my internet, which should happen sometime next week (crossing my fingers). alright, signing out. love you all!