Monday, August 25, 2008

Rain happens, but that is no excuse

for the horribly depressing and blah post I left on Friday afternoon. It has been raining here for over a week now and I let it get the better of my mood and emotions. Thanks for the really nice and happy comments you all left on my post. It was nice though because as soon as I made that post and left school on Friday, my whole day started to look up and things got a lot better.

To start, on my way home from school on Friday with one of the teachers here, I was invited to dinner. I have been wanting a social invitation for during the week for a while now, so I immediately said yes and had a really nice time! We went to a Japanese style restuarant that kind of resembles Dennys. It was great company and a nice conversation and I was immediately feeling better.

As though that highlight wasn't enough, when I returned to my apartment, I saw some bags hanging on my doorknob. At first glance, in the dark, I though they had returned my trash to me, but I was happily wrong. They were actually flowers and some oranges hanging there. These lovely gifts were from an Adult Education Engligh group that would like me to join them once a month. The flowers smelled so nice and now my whole sardine can smells nice! And the fruit was such a nice surprise because I have been wanting fruit, but it is too expensive for me to buy in the grocery store. I have already eaten two of them and they are sooo juicy!

Shortly after I arrived home, we had another earthquake. After thinking about how to describe it a little more it hit me! These small earthquakes feel like turbulence on a plane. That is the best description I can give!

On Saturday morning I went with one of my friends to Tochigi-ken and did some shopping and went to the movies. We went to see Sex and the City because it has just arrived in Japan. I loved the TV series and I really enjoy the movie, even if the critics say it is too long! When we walked into the theatre I smelled caramel popcorn that reminded me of Tokyo Disney land! I prefer caramel popcorn to regular popcorn anyway, so this was a great discovery! After the movies we went to the outlet.

Clothes are some of the most expensive things you can buy in Japan, and that thought was confirmed on Saturday. Good thing Thursday was a pay day! I am going to climb Mt. Fuji (insert laughter and mocking here) next weekend and I needed some appropriate clothing for this endeavor. I picked up a jacket from Columbia, some pants from Under Armour and some cheapy tennis shoes from a Pay-Less kind of store. It was a really fun day, inspite of the rain!

On Sunday morning I went to school, early, to meet with the car insurance salesman and get everything squared away with my car. The inspection is finally over (after 2 weeks) and I was able to drive my car home. Initially the teacher who picked me up from my apartment was a little nervous for me to drive home all by myself, but I politely told him that I could do it and that I would call him from my apartment when I arrived. He relented and thus began my first driving adventure!

It is amazing to me how much easier the whole manual driving thing is when you are actually driving on real roads and shifting out of second gear! I think practicing is a necessary step, but very difficult given the stop and go nature of the parking lot. It was also nice to be on my own, having to figure out everything on my own. I did notice that it started to sound blaringly quiet, so I am going to have to get a CD to put in my car pronto! This morning I drove myself to school, of course. I must report for your laughing pleasure that I drove the first 100 yards with my emergency brake on!!! I am a dummy. I don't know why I didn't remember it was on, I am a notorious e-brake user, even on flat ground on my automatic at home! But luckily I noticed that the car wasn't going above 10km/hr and I finally took the e-brake off. Hopefully that will be the last of my stupid faux paux's with the car, but I doubt it.

So the moral of my weekend is:
Just because it's raining does not entitle me to be crabby and crappy on my blog, because as soon as I go off and vent like that someone thinks of me and makes me feel special so my venting looks silly and petty! And always, always, always remember to take off the e-brake!!!

Now, I want everyone to be able to see the pictures I am taking, so I am hoping that my html skills from college (thanks Professor VanderClock!) pay off and the links I put below actually work! Please comment and let me know if I have screwed something up.

*Pictures have since moved, please look at the top right corner of the blog*

4 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL! omgosh! I love your pics! and thank you for posting them that way for us non-facebook members so we can still see them! :)
the vending machines look awesome, as does your school! i wish my high school had archery and a pool! and i'm sure that matt wishes he could have practiced martial arts at school too - thats so awesome!
ack! have to run - work people arriving. miss you! sending big hugs!

Mikey said...

Oh man, I've had many times when I drove for a while with the e-brake on. The worst part is when you realize that you're going slow and proceed to kill the e-brake more by accelerating. Ugh...

Anonymous said...

The e-brake scenario has happened to me before, too!

And hooray for pictures! When are you gonna post photos of the sardine can? :)

Anonymous said...

I love the engrish pics! I cant wait to stay in hotel sunshine someday (wink wink).