I'm starting to feel that weird anxiousness you get before traveling (or the one I get before traveling...though I doubt I'm that unique in that respect.) I've got literally only one more full day in Tarnow before heading out. Unfortunately, I teach 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm and then leave Wednesday before 5 am. (My train leaves for Krakow around 5 am, then I have a train at 7:20 from Krakow to Berlin, then from Berlin to Hamburg.)

I feel like I am constantly cleaning recently. Had to reorganize and clean the entire kitchen, which was a wreck because I live with a male. Still gotta clean the stupid bathrooms as well as my room. UGH it'll be so much better next year when I live on my own with Jeff...household tasks will actually be SHARED. I refused to clean up after my flatmate, so the place was a mess, but whatever. I'm not his 1950's mother. I swear to god, why would any woman want to be with a man who doesn't think it's important to clean up after himself? But that's enough complaining for now ;)

My first real vacation in Europe starts on Thursday. Super freakin' excited, except I'm too tired from all this stupid cleaning to really show it. Downside...it's supposed to rain a lot :( Boo.

Also, I'm recently feeling nostalgic about everything, but especially DePauw. Maybe it was cause it was just over a year ago that we all graduated. *sigh*

MIA for 2 months

So, the last time I wrote an entry was in April. Seems I have been neglecting this blog when I was one of us who was really pushing is to use this in the first place.

I found out my placement yesterday: Matsusaka-shi (city) in Mie-ken (prefecture). Pretty much in the middle of Honshu (biggest main island of Japan). At first I was thinking shit this looks like it's in the boonies since there is only like one rail line to that area, but its actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Further south of the prefecture is really in the boonies. The city's population is about 170,000, so not too small, and it's in the center of the prefecture. Osaka and Nara are about an hour to the west and Nagoya is about an hour to the east. This is totally way far away from Fukushima and where the earthquake and tsunami were. Lots of wilderness and mountains for me to explore and its right by an huge bay/ocean. I'm actually quite some distance away from Ingrid and Charlie, but I'll make it out to visit them.

Oh and the best part, the town I'm in is famous for their beef. Matsusaka-gyu. Japan has like the best beef ever, its called Wa-gyu, sooo good. They like give the cows beer and massages so they aren't stressed out and stuff, and the meat is super juicy/fatty, delicious-ness. There are 3 top types of wa-gyu, and this town is one of the top 3! I'm pretty excited for the beef, but its kind of expensive.

Lets see what else....Waikele Borders closed down so half of their staff came over, including their GM and 2 other managers. We finally have a full staff, but it is still busy and crazy. Since that other one closed down we are getting lots of their customers and just more business in general. But, last week Borders announced another list of 51 stores (including my store and 2 other ones on oahu) that will be shut down by the bankruptcy people if they do not negotiate their leases. So....that sucks. We might be closing, or possibly staying open. They want a decision by the 21st of June, but Borders is trying to push it back to July because they may be a buyer who will buy out Borders stores. Too bad, my store makes the most money of all the Borders stores on Oahu too.

Been working out a lot and practicing a lot. I'm pretty disciplined. Depending on what time I work, I usually wake up early and practice for an hour, go to work, then go to the gym after work. Fitting it all in. I should fit studying Japanese into this somehow too.

Ok, that was pretty much it I think. I'm going to a wedding next week. This is like the first wedding that I'm going to as an adult......kinda crazy.

I'm pretty excited for Japan. Thinking about packing is stressing me out though.