update dump (end of year three)

Oohh boy. It's been over three months since my last update and there has been so much going on, I could write for hours and only just barely catch up. (Does anybody even read this anymore?)

I don't think I'll be able to do everything justice, especially so long after everything has happened, so this will have to be a big summary info dump, and then maybe I'll get back to updating regularly, though things should be much quieter/less exciting in my life after this month (... is what I've said to myself every month since May -.-').

Anyway, since my last post I have:

- Visited my GHP friend Tomas in Thailand for Golden Week! I wanted to go to Thailand and he has been doing a research Fulbright there for the past year and was kind enough to take me all around (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Khon Kaen) and interpret for me for almost a week! I saw so many beautiful temples, ate so much delicious food, took a million different types of public transportation (including an overnight train!), and rode an elephant! A fantastic trip.

- Done some cool things at work like interpreting for the daughter of Peter Drucker (the "father of modern management") as her parents' at collection was on exhibit at the Chiba City Museum of Art and also helping interview candidates for the new basic interpreting course run by the city.

- Met up with three different friends/acquaintances from college and also some other alums/current students who were here on an of-campus program. It's always really nice to keep up the Carleton collection and there's always such great intellectual conversation, haha. Sometimes I miss being surrounded by nerds. :)

- Participated in the Yosakoi Soran Festival in Hokkaido for the second time, except this time as the head of a committee and therefore the leader of a fairly large group as we went from venue to venue over the course of the weekend. Actually it was super stressful and we didn't place, like we hoped we might, but it was still fun and a good experience overall. Best parts: two of my friends in Sapporo volunteering as staff for us and seeing the finals live from quite close.

- Officially ending my terms as Chiba AJET President, National AJET CIR Representative/Project Manager, Chiba-kun Ambassador, Chiba block coordinator, and API AJET block representative. I'm still the head of the international committee for my yosakoi team and taking interpreting classes, but finally having less responsibility and the pressure to be constantly doing something productive is feeling pretty nice. I'll be taking it easy this year and trying to plan more for the post-JET future.

- Gone home for the wedding of our dear family friend Faye (the first of two weddings I'll be going back for this year). It was a very short trip (just a few days for the wedding since I am actually running low on vacation days for once) but full of family and friends and love and I enjoyed every single minute of it.  <3


- Taken my friend Michael around Chiba and Tokyo as he visited Japan for the first time on his way to Australia! We've been talking about him visiting ever since I came and now he finally has, and it was super fun. He actually came back on the same flight from the US as me and we managed to get seats beside each other, yayy. We spent five days walking all over Tokyo (over 20 miles one day!) and just seeing the sights, eating all sorts of Japanese food, and generally having a good time. Next it'll be my turn to go to Australia, maybe.  :)

- Spent every weekend so far in July at a CIRHP meetup! The CIRHP is an online forum for CIRs where I spend far too much time and have made many of my good friends in Japan, and this year we've started actually hanging out in person too. So the first weekend I had (delicious deep dish) pizza with people in Kanto, last weekend I went to Ehime Prefecture for castles and mikans, and I just came back from an epic trip to Okinawa that involved renting a little house by the beach, Cards Against Humanity, and lots of good conversation and just chilling out (also cats).

So the end of my third year on JET has been pretty action-packed so far, which is all I can really all for, anyway. It's weird to think that after this I still have a whole year left before things might change, but I have high hopes for what's to come. :)