July 16th, 2006

Ahhh....today is going to be a nice day. It's Sunday here and it's finally rained. Last week was miserably hot because its been trying to rain the entire time. That makes it very humid. However, today, it is raining and there is a nice breeze/wind going through the apartment. It's nice to not be hot for a change! And yes, I know its hot in Georgia. It's almost the exact same temperatures and humidity here and there, possibly even hotter there. HowEVER. I really don't like to play that "I'm hotter than you are, so I win!" game. It makes me crabby when I think someone is telling me that I shouldn't complain about being hot, because they have it even hotter and are more miserable. See, we can be unhappy and miserable together, instead of competing. See, its so much more fun when we can share being miserable! Hooray!

Apparenty, I am not going to recognize the house when we go back to Hiawassee. Since I have been gone, the house has new carpet, the downstairs bathroom has been changed, my room has been changed to be officially the guest room, there is now a carport (which I had no idea was being planned) and a new coat of paint. Weird! It will be like a stranger's house. Mom sent me pictures, but Im sure it will still look even more different from that (I assume the deck will be painted or sealed or something). Crazy! People really forget to tell me things. All of a sudden mom was like, 'oh hey, we had the house painted and Cecil has started the deck...' My words (not to mom but allowed was), "deck? painting...what?" Oh well...thats what I get for being so far away I guess *makes pitiful face*

Keep me informed, people! (Especially, if say, a relative has passed away, mentioning that "Laura is going to Aunt Evelyn's funeral with Nana" is a unhappy way of finding out that someone has died!. Just FYI for future purposes).

As you can tell, Im in a better mood. It's cool. I am so much nicer when Im not sweating all over the chairs, or sticking to furniture. It's been an unusually not-rainy season so thats why its so hot right now. It wants to rain...it just doesn't and no one knows why. OoooOoooOoooOoooOooo

Hey! Im getting a car finally. We probably won't actually have until we get back from America, but I have picked out which one I want. It's a tiny little thing. We will have to take pictures of Chris in it and standing beside it. Its about half the size of my old Focus, if that brings things into perspective at all! It's so tiny! It looks like a car from England from the 1970s though. It's marroonish and has cute little round headlights. Its a Subaru Vivio Bistro Chiffon! You won't be able to find pictures of it because its only been made in Russia and Japan I think. Its sooo not an American car. The funny part about it was they were letting me test drive it around a small circle...and it died! It quit when I was turning out into the road. Ooops. Apparently the battery is poor. They are going to clean it and fix it up for me though. How fun. Titia's car turned out to be a pile of crap that was only worth the junk pile or something. The car people reccommended that we should get a different one and Titia agreed. So fun!

School is winding down. I have one more class with Takamatsu (ever!), two with West Izumo, and one Saturday English class. Takamatsu will be sad because I'm leaving them for good. My substituting is over with and I need to stop since Im starting this new school up. West Izumo will be fun because I am going to bring in a CD with jPop songs that are mostly Japanese but have a lot of English words in them. Then, Im going to have the students pick out the English words. Basically, its going to be a mini-party-ish class because I don't really care to worry about a real class. Its not first semester anymore...the kids have their grades and have taken all tests. But its also not second semester yet because that starts after summer vacation. So...what are we doing in class? I've just been playing games and wasting time. I think I am going to do the same class with Takamastu since its my last class and thats a fun activity. Saturday English is going to drive me crazy. I love the class and the students, but that's the day before we leave for Tokyo. I am not going to want to be stuck in a room with these kids who are actively trying to not do work. Ive already warned Miymi that I will be very distracted.

Yesterday was very exciting for me because we got all of our shopping done for coming home. We got gifts and other things we want to bring. We also found some kanji (Chinese characters) workbooks for 1-3rd graders in elementary school. This is very very awesome because its a way for us to study and review kanji and get at least half of the ones we should know out of the way. Yay! To pass the fluency test and be certified 'almost fluent' you have to know about 1000 kanji, which is roughly equivilent to what 6th graders know. I dont want to take the fluency test, but using that as a gauge is good for studying. The first level fluency test you have to know about 1400 kanji or something. It's really hard and something I will never achieve (you have to know the kanji along with pretty much all the grammar from the Japanese language). I'm not a good student. I don't like studying so hard. Luckily, we found a Japanese teacher adn we will probably start taking lessons once we get back from America.

So we are both really antsy right now. Our trip is so soon. Like I said, yesterday we did all of our shopping. Today and tomorrow I think I am going to clean the apartment from top to bottom so I can come back to a nice apartment instead of a depressingly messy one. We can't start packing packing until about Thursday or Friday and that is driving me batty. Im sure I will start setting out the suitcases and the stuff that I want to bring home besides the clothes...but its still hard to wait. We will leave for Tokyo a week from today and then fly out of Narita the next day. My wonderful sister is going to be picking us up from the airport, a week from Monday. Rumor has it, she's goign to bring us Taco Bell! *gasp!* Actually, its not really a rumor since that's what she told me...Im just trying to be cute. Heh. See, Im very excited. It's going to be the longest week ever.

Anyways, I should stop rambling and go get ready to start the day. It's lunch time and Im hungry! I love you all! We are both very excited to spend time with everyone!