It is Sunday night here in Sapporo, the evening before our first day at school, and it has already been a whirlwind experience. I've spent the past 36 hours or so in a near constant low-level confusion, but my Japanese has gotten a lot better!
I've got an awesome homestay family, the Saito family, and they've been amazingly supportive and energetic (and understanding) towards my clumsy attempts to get situated and such. ..and I've eaten more food in a day in a half than I would in a week back home, I think.
So far, as a quick rundown since Emily's post -
After breakfast we met at the school (Hokkaido Univ) and milled about waiting for our hosts to arrive, which was surprisingly nerve-wracking. Needlessly, as the hosts and school administration has gone to great lengths to prepare everyone over here for us, and Emily's host family and mine took us to lunch together before we seperated. Since then, I've been around Sapporo on bike (they've got a bike for my school commute!) and been to the supermarket (disorienting), gone to Sato-land (a sort to cross between a park and amusement park, and another park with giant fountains and bike racing and little mountains. I had written in my introduction letter that I like hiking and biking, and they've been concerned that I wouldn't get a chance.. so I get quite a bit today.
..and so much food! I don't think I could detail/catalogue it all, but it's amazing. They really appreciate food around here, I think.. French, Chinese, Korean, and of course Japanese in abundance, as well as interesting versions of American food.. and lots of sweets. I think I've gained weight.
Tomorrow morning (Monday) is the first day of school, with a placement test first thing in the morning, and it'll be the first time I've seen Emily since yesterday morning.. which doesn't sound like a long time but it feels like a very very long time. So tomorrow is another big day, looking forward to it, blah blah..
Oh! It's also Father's Day in Japan, too. I watched some crazy show that seemed similar to 'kids say the darnedest things' or whatever, but it was all cute little kids saying things about their fathers (i think... umm..) anyhow, it's 3am or so where my dad is, so I'm gonna skip the phone call.
Happy Father's Day!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
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1 comment:
I'm so glad you are writing this. It's really funny hearing the perspective of someone traveling internationally at the same time with a different experience. I am glad you are getting situated and feeling well-taken care of for food, transportation, etc...and you must be so excited to start teaching!
We are having similar feelings getting situated in Nica. Tomorrow the work on trash houses begins. We have been in Granada the last couple days and took a crazy ride up a volcano, hiked around the top of it, and did a canopy zipline tour. It was quite exhilarating. Food here is monotonous but pretty tasty, but we also have a lot of western-style food here then we will have in Boaco, which is where we will be working starting this afternoon. Also starting to pick up the language and hoping it will improve a lot over the next few days.
Can't wait to hear more! It will be fun to follow your blog while we are at different overseas places. Maybe we can use this as a way to coordinate our master plans to take over the U.S. from abroad.
Have fun and be safe!
-Melissa
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