Well 2 Months in, but...

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Hey Everyone,

I know I haven’t written once since I’ve been in Japan, and that this is my first entry after 2 months of being here. But to tell you the truth there’s not much to tell, and what there is to tell is just rather depressing, so… here it goes:
The main event this summer has been my sad attempt at a love life. I told Sumida-san, this amazing guy who I have been half in love with since last summer, that I liked him, only to get the “I like you as a friend/little sister,” speech. And in Japanese no less. Apparently, this speech, hated by potential boyfriends/girlfriends everywhere, is universal. Since then it’s just been a disaster. Awkward “hellos” and “goodbyes” and him bailing out on pretty much every group activity where we would both be present. I just made things worse when I sent him an email telling him that I wish that none of this had ever happened and that we could just go back to being friends. Now we can’t even look at each other in the face. I’m glad I only have another month here. Then I can just get back to studying and forget all about this mess. The thing is, it’s really such a shame, because he is such an awesome guy, very sweet, incredibly smart, and someone I really would have liked to get to know better. And then there’s the fact that I really like him a lot. Unrequited love just sucks. My friends tried to cheer me up by taking me to a club in Nagoya, but the guys there were unbelievably sketchy. You could practically see the slime oozing from every orifice. I guess that’s another universal trend, you don’t find boyfriend material on the dance-floor of a club.
I haven’t had any money this year so I haven’t done any traveling. I have been hanging out with Charlene and Shawna and the gang quite a bit. And quite frankly if it wasn’t for them I probably would have been on a plane back to the States by now. Work has sucked incredibly—that’s another story and one I can’t post for fear certain people will read this. Let’s just say, the only worth making the trip over here this summer has been my friends—Charlene, Shawna, Julie, Takeshi, Laura, Sarah, Nathan, Shouko, Akiko, Adachi, and Nana—I love you guys, and am so lucky to have you as friends. It’s funny, even though I’ve had one of the worst summers I can remember (oh yeah, I also got tonsillitis and bronchitis a few weeks back and had to miss a week of work) I still want to move here and live here permanently. For all the things that have gone wrong, I still love this country, the people, the culture and the language.
Which brings me to my next point. It seems that I am not fated to be done with school just yet. I have decided to take a year after passing the bar and go to Japanese language school here in Nagoya, while teaching English at NOVA part time to earn money. With a year of school I can probably pass level 2 or even level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which would make me an extremely valuable commodity for potential employers with Japanese clients or Japanese firms who need a bilingual associate. Well, what’s one more year if it will give me a better chance of getting a good job and enabling me to fulfill my dream?
Anyway that’s all that’s really new right now. I am looking forward to going whitewater rafting on Saturday with a few people from work. Charlene is coming along too, which will be cool. And then next weekend starts festival season, so there will be quite a few fireworks and Obon festivals in my last month here. Who knows, maybe my luck will change and for once in this blasted summer, something really amazing will happen...cross your fingers for me k??

Love,

Jenn

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