The Preparation

Right, so here I sit at my desk, at the school where I'm going to be teaching for the next year. And available to me is a bunch of free time and not too much to fill it up with, since I can't leave said desk. So i decided to start this blog both to record the pictures I take and try to keep most events fairly fresh in my mind.

Things really started to hit once the bags came out and clothing began to pile in. I had at this point, a fanciful hope that my packing would be so efficient that I wouldn't need to pay any fees. I mean, come on, paying fees is for amateurs and I had a 100kgs available for free. I didn't know that I still qualified. By the day before departure came around I had come to realize that one bag at least was going to be over, so I packed that bag to the brim.

I set aside the rest still to be packed, and headed out for the final orientation in Toronto. While that orientation provided us with our passports and tickets I felt supremely jipted since tiny ordeurves were all that was given to eat, in place of what was supposed to be a pre-departure dinner. Still it did finish sooner than expected, so I bolted back to the subway, popped back into my car and headed back to Lewiston for a real party. party photos here .

While I cruised through traffic, happy that I didn't hit any major slowdowns, it occured to me that this was the last time I would be behind the wheel for a year. An odd thing to think about but since I'd been pretty much attached to my car since getting my license more than 7 years ago, I wasn't sure how I'd deal with structured travel. My car was always available to me, but the trains of Japan would not. I gave myself another few seconds of what I'm sure was very deep pondering that I simply can't remember, then shrugged it off. I still wasn't fully packed, I could worry about other things later.

Soon I was back in Lewiston, greeted by the delicious smell of cake mix cookies! Fantastic! And, introduced to the freshly restocked alcohol store, the celebration was soon in full swing. Nicole, Peggy, Toby and Rachel were already there, and Derek and TJ arrived soon after. We simply hung out and talked for a bit, before breaking out the Wiimotes and trying to thwart each other on the digital playground. ( Mario Party Battle . However, in the first game I regularily got screwed over by the blasted pipe in the kitchen. Gah! So mean! I never did manage to win any rounds, and Nicole was also bested by the evil cannon.

Gretchen and Theresa soon arrived and a bit later we convinced Stephan. Derek tossed me the phone, saying that if he asked, Stephan wouldn't have come, so I called him up and took 30 seconds to get him to agree, (Yeah, I just asked) and Stephan informed me that had it been Derek calling he would have said no (I will never understand brothers).( Shake your own thing We all took note that TJ always won on the fizzy pop game, tsk, tsk, tsk. the winner..and greeted Tom, who had just driven up from Boston, having finally completed his licensing exam.

Things were soon winding down and people began to depart. And I began to feel it. Gah! Not the Tears! I managed to hold together pretty wel, though my voice, I believe, cracked a couple times. Damn traitor! And here I was trying to practice the Japanese stocism. (I don't believe in it, but I figure its important so I don't tramatize my coworkers, at least not initially). Finally it was time to say goodbye to Derek and Stephan. Derek handed me a card with an iTunes gift card (Essential for surviving in my new English deprived environment) and the voice cracking got worse as I made a vain attempt to tell him to take care of himself. We shared some hugs and then he and Stephan had to go. I went back into the house and cried. I gave myself a few minutes to just let it out, before I got back to packing. I was pretty sure at this point that I wouldn't be getting much sleep. But I'm sure that hardly surprises anyone ;-)

---

---