T-minus 24ish hours!

Family visit number one!

Hi Guys! I can’t believe I’m leaving for Japan tomorrow! It came up so fast, I can’t even really process it. This has been a very, very busy week. JET is going to my first full-time job, and on top of that, dress standards are a bit different in Japan than they are here, so I’ve spent a lot of time shopping for workplace-appropriate clothing. It’s also a tradition in Japan to give small gifts to your new coworkers, so I’ve been  shopping for those as well. (I’ll be working at five different schools and I have a TON of coworkers, so one of my gifts is going to be 150 individually-wrapped packets of Crystal Light!  It is an American thing, and I hope they like it ><.)

  

Aside from shopping and packing, I’ve been catching up with my some of my closest high school and college friends and spending time with my family. My cousins, aunt, and grandma have visited me twice this month! They live pretty far away, so it’s a big deal. We had a lot of fun playing old family card games and board games. My cousins and I even climbed on the new ropes course at the Palisades mall. (It was so much fun. If you live in Rockland and haven't been, you should check it out.)

On the ropes course with the cousins!

And last Saturday, I had my last American singing performance for the next twelve months – with a group of my very good friends at a concert in Wurtsboro, New York. I’ve been singing with this group, Broadway Concerts Direct for almost seven years. I’m really going to miss singing with them this year, so I’m glad I got to do one last concert before I head off.

Before I go, I want to take a minute to say thank you to my wonderful friends, and to the community at Wurtsboro, and to my family, for being so supportive of me, especially over these past few crazy weeks. I’m so lucky to have you all in my life, and even though it makes leaving sort of bittersweet, it’s so comforting to know that I have people back at home who care about me (and read my blog posts! =P)

That’s it for now! The next time you all hear from me, it’ll be from the other side of the Pacific. Here I go!