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Published: August 8th 2012
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Nighttime off my balcony It's been awhile since I updated!
It's nearly my birthday, which means I've gotten TWO wonderful birthday packages in the mail that contained FOOD. This is excellent for me, since I am still working off my "you have no money, please be a hobo" lifestyle. I now do not have to buy groceries for several weeks, which is by far the greatest thing that ever could have come via the mail, haha.
I finally got a Japanese bank account set up. It was an arduous process, and one that I do not ever wish to repeat, made more difficult by the Japanese insistence that I have a phone number - I do not have a cell phone yet, because THAT IS EXPENSIVE, YO. I don't have the money yet to get one, because I haven't gotten paid. And I can't GET paid until I have a bank account, and the first bank told me I couldn't get a bank account without a phone number. Please take a moment to review that and spot the glaring, ridiculous problem.
Finally, I got an account with the bank here in town - less helpful for me, since the bank I wanted
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Trying to photograph the moon is hard! had ATM cards that worked overseas and online banking in English - but at least I can now receive my paycheck on Friday, which is pretty much A+ necessary by this point. It's a really small paycheck due to the timing and the atrocious system of "salary" over here, where you don't see a single yen until over a month after you worked. It took awhile to get it all set up with my extraordinarily terrible Japanese ability and the well-meaning clerk who didn't have any English but tried her best to deal with my failure. I had to go purchase a 300 yen bottle of wine afterwards due to RAGING STRESS AT THIS BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEM OF CRAP, but that's okay.
Work has been going wonderfully! Every day I am just in awe thinking about how much I love my job. It's the best job in the world, seriously. After three years, a master's degree, and countless days striving towards my goal, I can say with 100% certainty that I was meant to be a teacher - it's what I love the most and what I am the best at doing. I am so lucky that all day I
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Box of goodies from Jamie and Kimmy! get to teach adorable Japanese children and amazing Japanese adults a language. I love all of my students and the stories they have, their interests and their lives and their histories and their dreams. So amazing. This is without a doubt the most rewarding experience I have ever had, I am continually so happy that I worked so hard to get here!
And I found, in a journal entry from 3 years ago, a quote that said, "In 3 years, I will be in Japan teaching English." I made my life goal come true! It took all 3 years to do it, but I got my Master's and I graduated with an amazing GPA and I wrote a pretty awesome thesis, and I did it! That's saying something, I think. 😊 So even though I am a bit sad to be spending this birthday without my family, I am proud of myself for coming this far and accomplishing what I set out to do all those years ago. It certainly was a LOT of hard work and a lot of months spent wondering if I would ever make it, but I did it. <3
It's a strange thing
to come home every day from work and think about how happy I am. I don't think I've ever felt that way before. I'm so grateful to the people who supported me and helped me get here, and I hope that I can make my family proud, too. This year, I'll keep working even harder to become a better teacher and a better person!
I've included some random pictures taken over the past week, so hopefully everyone enjoys. I miss you all, and am thinking about you on the GLORIOUS DAY OF MY BIRTH, haha. Thanks for going through with all that pain, mom! We are doing a night of birthday shenanigans on Sunday after we are all out of work, so hopefully that will be an exciting time spent in Japan as I'm turning 28. 😊
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