I've had enough of Xanga. Enogh "eprops" enough "blog rings", enough unintentionally deleted posts. My subscription is set to run out in about a month, so I'm just going to let it. Hence the "nightfall" theme of the present page here. Get it? Isn't that clever of me? Well done, me. Me deserves a cookie. Mmmmm... cookies...

I don't post here often enough to justify the yearly expense, and when I move back home I'm going to be poor for a while. Life will probably also be more boring than it already is now (if that's possible).

But I'm sure that I will feel the urge to "blog" from time to time, so I am going to go make my home somewhere else on the web, somewhere that doesn't charge for basic functionality, somewhere that will let people leave comments without having to register, somewhere that won't fill my posts with useless garbage HTML. WordPress looks like a good option. Facebook may get the majority of my "junk" posts about silly videos of cats and asinine politicians, so look me up there if you haven't been assimilated yet.

If and when the new site is ready I'll be sure to leave a link here so you can follow me, if you wish. I really have appreciated all your feedback over the years, and I hope you will keep reading, even if the most interesting thing I have to talk about is the tally on my stack of job search and grad school rejection letters.

じゃぁ…

GRE
I got my official score report in the mail just now and the mind-boggling (for me) Verbal score of 700 stands, 125 points above the average for the program I want to get into. The math score also stands at 700, but it's only the 70th percentile and 6 points below the average. But whatever.  The analytical writing turned out to be a 4, which is not good for my program. I'm trying to figure out if I can retake only that section, because I  doubt my ability to reproduce my other two scores.

Work
...has been crazy lately. It seems like they are trying to make up for the 2.5 years that they made me spend sitting on my butt doing nothing by piling everything on at the last minute. Now I stay at work until 6:30 or 7 to help the girl's volleyball team 3 nights a week, and I just went to their tournament on Saturday and Sunday (they got 3rd place and thus won't be going to the prefecture finals- they were gutted). I have to do a demonstration lesson, practice for that demonstration lesson, teach at the fire fighter's academy, teach my adult conversation class, do my yearly health check, go to elementary school every day of the week from now on (usually I only go 3 days a week), and fit two month's worth of kindergarten visits into my final two weeks.  I worked a 14-hour day last Tuesday. Not to mention the upcoming 6 or 7 farewell drinking parties. I am already exhausted.

Post JET
And on top of all this, I'm trying to start moving out of my house. I have so much junk to get rid of after three years. I looked in my garage and found a box of plastic drink bottles that I've been hanging onto since my first week in Japan when I didn't know where the garbage collection spot was. Also have a lot of old clothes, toys, cookware etc. that I'm going to donate or sell as much as I can to cut down on shipping costs. The cheapest service I have found so far has been $500 for one cubic meter. Any other former JETs or expats out there have any advice on this matter?

I've got lots of friends in New York, a special friend in Boston, lots of family in Seattle, perhaps lots of job opportunities in California... I don't know where to go next, but it will be really nice to spend some time with my parents in my good ol' podunk hometown while I try to figure it out.

Job search
A friend of a friend of the family has a company in Germany that exports to China and Japan. Word got back to him that I can speak all these languages and now he wants to meet me when I get back. That could turn out well. I'd love to live in Germany again. I miss the schnitzel and rotkohl. Other than this one opportunity falling into my lap, I haven't really gotten anywhere on the search though. Calling people in the states during business hours is virtually impossible unless I wake up at 4am, which for me is an equally impossible feat. I'll send out a few resumes any day now... as soon as I'm not busy at work... which means probably not until I get home.

No, not for me- I am coming home in August, don't worry.

But I was just curious about how much apartments in Tokyo cost. This was one of the cheapest I could find:



Reminds me of Bruce Willis' apartment in the 5th Element. Let's put it next to my current house, which I rent for 35,000 yen ($290US) per month: