Parental Warning

Warning: Those of you who know me may find the following information upsetting, disturbing or altogether unbelievable.

Today I packed. Well ... kinda.

So here's the deal. I have to pack for a year. I have a 20k allowence. I can only bring one bag to training (about 3 weeks in a hotel) and the rest have to be sent to my school. Everything that I don't bring on the flight will have to be posted.

So me, being me, was stressed almighty about this. So, I decided to do a trial run. And me, being me, got bored about half way through and started playing Mario Kart.

But I did realise that although I will have to post a box of summer stuff, and a box of books I should be able to manage it.

However, after India where I started packing, drunk, at 2 am for a 6 am flight, you might want to check back in about 11 days to see how the actual performance goes!

Name Check

6 in the morning. The phone rings. 4 drunken guys in a desert. Some hilarious comments and a whole lot of laughing. Hee hee.

These shoes ...

So on my birthday I got a card from my school in Inuyama. Each of the teachers had written a short note saying how excited they were to see me. It really did put my mind at ease, and made me realise that I really am going!

I've also been emailing Meg, the girl that I'm replacing. She's so nice, and normal! I'ts such a relief! I've been worrying that I'm going to join a robot army of corporate english teachers. But she's just normal, and loves her job and is excited about me coming. So huge sigh of relief from me!

But of course, me being me, I'll always find stuff to be nervous about and as my lists seem to be getting longer and longer and my bags are gettting fuller and fuller, I'm wondering if I'll ever actually get there.

But I swear, under all the complaining and griping, and nervousness and uncertainty, there's a very excited little girl.

Is that a grey hair?

Dear God! How old am I! I should have a job. I should have a mortgage. I should have kids.

But oh no... I'm about to go off and do something stupid half way across the world in a desperate attempt to avoid adulthood and responsibility.

But at least the journey will be fun thanks to my new DS!!

My toy boy and his parents very generously indulged my oh so childish antics and bought me a Nintendo DS for my birthday! YAY!

So instead of knuckling down and learning japanese or brushing up on my english grammar or doing anything useful, I'm addicted to Mario Kart! The best darn game ever!!!!

And my thoughts of romantic nights in with Dave once we're closer than 8 time zones away are all gone. Now I'm concentrating on beating his ass in MK!

I also got a beautiful bunch of flowers and a couple of donations to the 'Joanne is so broke' Fund (all of which went on The Sims and Mario 64). Dave also sent me a "Japanese Kitchen", a cooking book to complement the one my mam got me, "Authentic Recipes from Japan" a few weeks ago. Dave's is great at telling me how to make dishes while Mam's motivates me to bother by having lots of pretty pictures of what it's supposed to look like.

So as the time gets closer and closer, am I panicing? Of course not! I'm far too busy beating my best time in Mario Kart!

Konnichi Wha?

So it seems like I should learn Japanese. Just seems like a good idea.

And very unlike myself, I've set myself a pretty tight schedule. I try to study for about an hour every day after work.

First of all, I spend about 20 mins searching Google for some good free websites, with fun games and pretty graphics. Of course, I don't actually have time at this point to read any of it. I'm far too busy sticking to my schedule.

After that I knuckle down and search Amazon for a good 20 minutes for some good Japanese books that I'll never buy to complement the ones I borrowed from the library that I never listen to. In my defence on this one though, the library only provides tapes, and the only walkman we could find doesn't rewind. I have to take the tape out, switch sides and fast forward. ( I love my iPod )

After that I write in my workbook. Remember when you were learning joined up writing in school and you had to trace the letters again and again. Well it's the same as that but for Kana. Its fun. But theres only 15 minutes for that in the schedule.

After that I take a well deserved break for about 5 minutes, and then
The Apprentice is on so study time is over!

.... Yes ... I know ... I'm doomed ...