Our Japan adventure is over. About 6 months shorter than expected, but it was a good 5-6 months that we spent there. It’s too bad that we ended up having to leave sort of not on our own terms. A lot of the people we said goodbye to said they hoped we wouldn’t have a bad impression of Japan because of Nova. Of course our impression of Japan wouldn’t change based on the crap company we worked for. It isn’t all of Japan’s fault that there was one crazy mad man who owned Nova and was making one mistake after another and refused to step down. We look at our time in Japan as a really nice extended vacation. We did a lot of things that anyone on a normal vacation wouldn’t be able to do. We went to Kyoto a few times, Nara, Osaka, Tokyo, and Himeji. We climbed Mount Fuji! We saw a few different castles, a ton of temples and shrines. We tried Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki, and many different traditional dishes. We got to teach some super cute little Japanese kids. Some of them weren’t so cute, but it kept us awake;-) I had MANY ups and downs. Many more and much stronger than my culture shock experience in France. Of course Japanese culture is much different from America or Western Europe, so that should be no surprise. I put Chris to the test;-) He stuck with me through the whole ordeal. A few times my mom would ask me if Chris was hanging in there in other words, she knows how difficult I can be to deal with in tough times:-)
Now we’re back to reality. For me that’s no job, no car, no home, no money or better yet, negative money. We didn’t get paid for the last 6 weeks of working with Nova and if we do ever get that money it’ll be a very long time. But all that said; I’m really excited to be home with all my friends and family again. Each time I go away for a long time, I really realize how much I have and I become more appreciative of it all.
I have a LOT of photos to post and I’ll get around to them soon. I promise, but just in little bits and pieces. I ended up leaving my school branch a bit more abruptly and felt really bad about it, but given the circumstances for my leaving I couldn’t really have a farewell lesson with students and sit there and say, “Well the company is going down the drains and I don’t feel I have any other choice”. I left my email address with a few of the teachers that were sticking it out and told them to pass it on. So a few students got their hands on it and said they wanted to say goodbye. One of the students (thank you Hiroko) invited everyone to come to her house to say goodbye. It was a great party!!! I’m so glad I was able to say good bye to many of you. Thanks to all who were at the party and all the great gifts you gave me. I really appreciate your kindness! I will miss Kohei, Yui, Nami, Yuu, Kazuki, Tsumugi, Tsubasa, to name a few students that I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I wish them well and hope they continue to learn and practice English.
I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Waikiki while I type this. Many people back home know we’re on our way, but my sister is one who doesn’t know! Everyone else in my family knows, but I wanted to surprise her. She is one of the people who I think missed me most while I was gone. It’s her senior year in high school and she wanted me to be around for the big events: graduation, prom, etc. I was really sad to be missing them BUT turns out I won’t! I can’t wait to surprise her. We’ve got it worked out so we’ll surprise her at work and her boss will let her leave early so we can go out to dinner. Maybe she does know though and is just really good at playing dumb. My mom confessed the just the other day when they were in the kitchen (Nick and her) and Liz was half asleep on the couch just in the next room, she says, “Well Sam will be home in…. (Nick looks at my mom with an expression that could kill) ….6 months” And Nick tried to cover it even more by saying “Geez mom, you’re really weird in the morning sometimes.” Either way, surprise or no surprise, I think she’ll be happy to see me:-)
I’ll post more pictures of our trips soon. For those of you who are hearing that I'm back in MN for the first time, sorry:-) I'll see you soon!
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