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| Just in case someone comes across this old site and wonders what's become of me, here's to let you know that I've just started a new blog (with the same title) here:
http://aofthedc.blogspot.com/
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| So, I've had a bit of a mishap: I lost my passport. 
On Sunday night as I was packing, I went to get my passport out of the folder I thought I'd left it in, only to find that it wasn't there. So I started to look for it, thinking I must have just left it on the table or something. After several minutes of searching with no passport in sight, I started to get concerned. Pretty soon my entire family was searching all over the house, sweeping stuff out from under the couch, sorting through endless stacks of papers, and even looking in such obscure places as the insides of books. We must have searched for at least two hours, but the passport never turned up. I was sure it had to be somewhere in the house, but we had searched everywhere we could think of and there seemed to be nothing else to do.
So I had to cancel my flight (I was supposed to leave last Monday) and apply for a new passport. I will now be leaving next Monday. Unfortunately a lot of people have been inconvenienced by this whole mess, not to mention that I have to pay a lot of money for canceling my flight and to get a new passport on such short notice. But I suppose it's not the worst thing that could happen-- at least I still get to go to Japan.
So, long story short, I am still in Centralia and will be leaving for Japan this coming Monday. (So Marlo, if you're reading this, we can still hang out if you want!)
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| Okay, funny story...
Since I'm leaving, of course I need to sell my car. I'd been talking with my dad about how to go about this, since he knows these things.
So the other day at work, I'm standing by the cash register when my brother Jeff walks in with an amused expression on his face.
"Hi!" I say, pleasantly surprised to see him.
"Hey," he says hurriedly, "Do you have the marker you used to write on your car?"
"What are you talking about?" I ask, confused. "I didn't write on my car... Maybe Pop wrote on it."
"Well, did you notice that he spelled 'For Sale' wrong?"
"Whaaat?! I didn't even notice that he wrote it!!"
"Yeah, he spelled it 'F-O-R S-A-I-L."
"Are you serious?!"
At this point my boss, who is standing nearby, is laughing hysterically.
I look out the window and, sure enough, the words "FOR SAIL" are emblazoned on the window of my car in bold pink letters. Fortunately though, my dad had left the markers sitting inside my car, so Jeff, armed with a stack of Quiznos napkins, was able to go and fix it.
Later that day I did my best to tease my dad mercilessly about the incident, but he's one of those people who's really hard to make fun of. No matter what it is he's messed up on, he'll invent some reason why his way is the right way, and he really did it on purpose. Uh-huh.
His defense of his spelling error? "Well, it attracts attention!"
After hearing this story, one of my coworkers remarked, "I'm really glad you're going to be the teacher, and not your dad."
Yeah... me too. Me too.
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| So... Several things are happening.
First of all, I found a job in Japan and will be leaving a month from now!
I was going to go through the whole long process of applying to the JET Program, but decided to give up on it this year for a couple of reasons. First of all, I seriously think I would lose my mind if I had to stay here in this town until August. (If I got into JET, I would leave for Japan in August.) Don't get me wrong-- I love my family-- but I simply don't belong here. I never have and I never will. Being such an emotional wreck after my year in Taiwan, I'd thought it would be good for me to stay here for a while, but I guess I just misjudged the length of time it would take to recover. I simply have to get to Japan as soon as possible. Besides, I could still apply to JET from Japan next year if I want to-- I'd just have to fly to the US for the interview.
So, just a few weeks ago, I found a website called ohayosensei.com, which is basically a list of classified ads for teaching jobs in Japan. I saw that any of the employers were accepting applications from people outside Japan, and to apply all I had to do was send an e-mail with my resume. It seemed far too easy, but the website seemed to be very reputable, so I sent out a few applications. Much to my surprise I got several responses within a few days, and a few e-mails and phone interviews later I had a couple of job offers to choose from. One offer, from a small, family-owned school located a couple hours north of Tokyo, seemed particularly good. The salary was good, the owner seemed friendly, and the school would even pay for my airfare to Japan. So I did more research into the school, asking lots of questions and even contacting some of its former teachers. It seemed to check out as a good, reputable place, so I decided to accept the offer. Now they want me to start teaching in March. Yes, it really is that easy to find a job teaching English in Asia. I think I got lucky with this particular school though, as the conditions are unusually good.
What I really like about this school is that it's not a big, chain school like Hess in Taiwan, which I always got the impression was more about business and making money than it was about actual teaching. This school is very small, with no more than about 150 students in all, and it seems to be very close-knit and family-oriented. I'll also be teaching adults as well as children, and may even be teaching some French as well as English. (Apparently the school has just one French teacher, who gets a little overwhelmed with his class load sometimes.) So I think it's going to be a nice place to work-- much nicer than Hess, at any rate.
In February I'll be going to Florida for a couple weeks to visit my good friend Sarah. We've been pen pals for over seven years now, but have never actually met. Crazy, right? So I'm pretty excited about that too.
I'll be coming back from Florida on the 20th, and will hopefully leave for Japan a few days after that.
Everything's happening so fast, I've barely had time to process it all. But I'm finally going back to Japan... After three and a half years, I'm finally going back.
I think I'll end this post with a few pictures I took in Japan back in 2004.
This is the bicycle path leading to the house where I stayed. I took this path to the train station every day.
With some kids I taught English to.
A, um... Giant Buddha. In Kamakura.
This picture was taken from a tower in Shinjuku.
If you can't see it, there's a little sign in English that says "Very Important Moss. (Like VIP)." This was at the "Ginkakuji" temple in Kyoto.
This is in Nara, a city that's famous for the tame deer that wander its streets collecting handouts from tourists. You can buy little crackers, or "sembei", to feed the deer.
From the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima. This building has been left in the same state it was after the atomic bomb hit.
Kids dancing for the "Awa-odori" festival in Tokushima, Shikoku. (Yes, I went all the way to Shikoku...)
I'm very proud of the fact that I actually took this picture myself. It looks like a postcard, doesn't it? It's the famous Torii gate on Miyajima Island.
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| Yes, in spite of not having updated since September, I do seem to be alive, as far as I can tell. I also still seem to be at my parents' house in Centralia, Washington.
I'm not sure why I haven't updated in so long... It's not like nothing has happened. Some rather momentous things have happened, as a matter of fact.
It took me the entire month of September to adjust to the fact that my youngest brother had apparently been abducted and replaced by a completely unrecognizable teenager who towered about a foot over me. It also took me that entire month to find a job. In the meantime, though, I really enjoyed hanging out with my family and catching up on things I'd missed over the past year.
My dad says Charlie (the dog) is his favorite kid.
Isn't my mom purdy? (And yet she's probably thinking, Get that camera away from me!)
My brother Sander cooking up some sort of experiment, probably in order to blow something up. 
After some searching, I finally found a job at the beginning of October-- at Quiznos Sub in Chehalis. I have to admit I wasn't too excited about the job at first (I just took it because I needed the money, and they were the first place to call), but after getting to know the other people who worked there, I actually started to enjoy it. It made me realize that it doesn't really matter so much what you do, as who you do it with.
In early November, I went to Vancouver, BC to interview for a job teaching English in Japan. (I know, I know... I said I never wanted to teach English again. But I tend to change my mind. A lot.) I took an Amtrak up to Vancouver, and it was quite a pleasant trip, really. It was the first time I'd been to Vancouver and I thought it was a really cool city, even though everything was closed because it was a holiday (National Day), not to mention that it was also freezing cold outside. As for the interview, I thought it went really well. I was hardly nervous at all, I felt like I did a good job with the presentation I had to prepare, and I was able to answer all the questions easily. Unfortunately though, I got a letter about a week later saying that I hadn't been accepted. I was slightly disappointed, but honestly, that interview really made me realize how much I didn't want that job. The impression of "We're just a big company who only cares about making money in any way possible, and we're only looking for smiley, energetic, clueless Americans who will make good advertisements" was just too strong. 
Thanksgiving was really nice this year-- or maybe I just appreciated it more because I missed out on it last year. We all went to my grandma's house for dinner, as usual. And we all just sat around and talked and had a really nice time. 
I have absolutely no idea what Jeff is doing... 
Me and Sander with two of our cousins, Jackie and Ellie.
In December, I went to Seattle to take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), which I'd been studying for for the past couple of months. Basically, if you pass this test, you get a certificate "proving" that you are proficient in Japanese, which is good to have if you want to apply for any sort of job where you might need to use Japanese. The test wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I feel like I probably passed it... But unfortunately I won't find out the results until February or March.
I also applied for the JET Program again, so hopefully I'll get an interview in February... but I won't find out about that for a while, either.
Perhaps you heard on the news that at the beginning of December, there was a really bad flood in Washington. It snowed on the 1st, but then it suddenly warmed up the day after and rained a lot as well, causing the rivers to overflow. The area where I live, Lewis County, was the hardest hit. One section of the main freeway (I-5) was under ten feet of water. A ton of people were stranded in their homes and actually had to be rescued. Some families completely lost their houses and everything they owned. Fortunately for me and my family, we happen to live on a hill, so the flood water didn't reach our house. The Quiznos where I'd been working, however, was right in the middle of one of the worst-hit areas. I got a call from my boss, who sounded quite distraught, saying that she didn't know how long it would take to fix the damage, and the store was closed indefinitely. I'm now in the process of looking for another job, because I have student loan bills to pay and can't afford to be without a job much longer.
This picture is just classic... It's the elementary school I used to go
to. Don't ask me why they thought the "no school" sign was necessary. (The water was much higher than this in some areas, by the way.)
Anyway, that pretty much sums up the past couple months. Now I'm still here, once again without a job, and really starting to wish I could be in Japan right now... I love my family and I'm glad I came home, but I'm starting to realize that maybe I don't really want to stay as long as I thought I did, after all. But whatever-- things never really seem to go the way I plan them to.
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