Well, I’m finally writing an entry for my new blog. I hope that my friends and family will look at this page often as I get a little more accustomed to using it. Some of the links don’t work yet and I’m sure that I’ll add some more in the future. I’ve got a lot of pictures to upload from my trip to MN and NC (where I still am) but I don’t quite have the hang of putting pictures on here yet - hopefully next week or sooner. Nova has moved my departure date to Wednesday, June 7th as they haven’t received my certificate of eligibility from Japan yet.

Very exciting - I went to an oral surgeon last Friday (May 26th) and had all four of my wisdom teeth removed plus one little broken off tooth too. So it’s been nothing but squishy foods and lots of painkillers since then….. On the upside - my teeth hopefully won’t be hurting me at all after this. I was getting some not so fun pain the previous week that was from the wisdom teeth and I couldn’t think of anything funner to do with them so I got them taken out.

Well, I’ve been delayed once more. But now I have a definite date! On June 14th I am leaving for Osaka!!! The Japan offices have received my COE (Certificate of Eligibility) so it is definite, for sure, and positive that I am leaving on the 14th. (Yeah!!) Let the hasty preparations begin….

I’m finally adding some photos today though the format will probably change again in the near-ish future I felt bad having all these fun photos laying around and not sharing them.

So we’ve got me and momma up at Pilot Mountain, Sebastien patiently waiting for lost luggage at possibly the smallest airport I have EVER seen (Winston-Salem and I’m just kidding), and some super tasty fresh strawberries!! Yes, this is why mom’s strawberry jam tastes so good.

And now some from Minnesota:

And we have my lovely gramma who turned 91 this year, her son (my Dad!), and me in front of her mountain ash tree, a picture of a wren’s nest that is inside a hanging plant basket on dad’s porch, and some pretty trees in silhoutte as we drove back to the farm on the highway.

Well hello and goodbye! I’m sitting in the Detroit airport with almost 3 hours to go until my flight to Osaka. I found an electrical outlet so I thought I’d write a quick goodbye and share some more pictures from North Carolina and Minnesota. If you click on the picture thumbnails you will go to a larger version with a text description so you can read a little bit about what was going on when I took the pictures…. Hopefully I’ll get the internet figured out nice and quick (along with the language, the food, the money, the transportation, the new job, the….).

I hope everyone is well and that everyone comes to visit me really soon too!!! Later…….

I’m here!!Â� I already have pictures that I want to post but I am only able to use the hotel’s computer so I can’t upload pictures yet….Â� I will be leaving Osaka today and travelling to Nagoya and Nisshin during the day. Should be all kinds of fun!!Â� Osaka is REALLY neat - I wish I could stay longer. There are a lot of tiny clubs, grafitti everywhere, little restaurants, and -big surprise- Japanese people everywhere!!Â� It was raining when I arrived so I got a nice shower on the way to the hotel but it’s clear and sunny today. Hopefully I will be able to post some photos in the next day or two…. And just so you know - it’s a 13 hour time difference here from the east coast - it’s 9:30am here, Friday morning (contrary to what the blog’s time stamp says).Â�

Osaka was SO cool. I MUST go back. The flight was delayed out of Detroit so we left at 5pm or so. We arrived around 8pm the next day - watched four movies on the flight. Ate dinner, a snack and then breakfast. The flight really didn’t feel like it was all that long. I guess because I slept for quite a bit of it. We then took a little bus and walked thru the pouring rain to our hotel. The rain let up so I went walking and lo and behold - grafitti everywhere. It was really fantastic. Apparently all of the stores have their doors done so night time was the best time to go walking around. I finally found a little shop that said ‘english menu’ outside of the door so I went in there.Â� Â� i know, I’m a chicken.Â� Â� it was great. i paid for my bowl of rice with many chunks of chickens and one beer. had a broken conversationg with the 2 guys working there and a girl wo was eating too. some guy bought me and the girl a beer. and then the workers gave me a third.Â� (YEAH!!)Â� so all of that was around $10US.Â� good stuff.Â� so i’m putting up a bunch of pictures that i took. they’re just in the order that I took them. and of course, click on the picture so you can read what the heck it is.

SO, on the very next morning after arriving and running around Osaka taking pictures of grafittiÂ� i had to get up and hop on a train to get to Nagoya. we rolled our little carryons to the station (a few blocks away) and went down an escalator and waited for the train to arrive. i was the only one going to Nagoya so a Nova employee said, here’s your ticket, when you get there in 2 hours someone will be meeting you. i took all of these pictures out of the window on the train. actually, i took at least double of what’s here, but i’m only putting up the best ones.Â� it was a really beautiful ride. (pictures have bigger descriptions again and are posted in order from osaka towards nagoya.)

And where did i get to after that long trip?!?!?Â� HOME!!Â� Pictures of the apartment are below. We’re on the first floor, the apartment closest to the camera. So that little window right in the middle is mine. There are three rooms, three roommates - Kerry from Canada, Lisa from Australia, and ME!Â� I got the only japanese style room with tatami mats on the floor (the rest is hardwood). There are sliding doors connecting my room & Lisa’s (not so great) and i have a huge closet too (all sliding doors).