Geneva Marie (Niigata-ken, 2008-09) grew up all over the U.S. but if asked will tell you she’s from Minneapolis, MN . JET Lag will recount Geneva’s experiences and thoughts as she prepares to leave the comfortable womb of her JET life and figure out her next move.
It’s been an entire month since my last JETLag post! I had an entire week of birthday activities, I did some much-needed traveling, and soon after I was…sickety, sick, SICK! Needless to say -I’m playing catch-up.
It’s no surprise. I was getting off too easy. Nearly two months with nary a cough, sniffle, or sneeze. I knew it wouldn’t last, especially given my bill of health in Japan.
I had spent nearly all winter ill. Like, totally illin’, but not in that Beastie Boys kind of way. I was told that it was probably due to the fact that I was teaching little kids for the first time. Either that, or because the whole “no heat situation” in indoor places OR the worst case scenario: there was killer mold hiding in the apartment somewhere. Whatever the case, I was sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. I got the flu which is pretty normal for the winter season just about anywhere, but I had gone out of my way to get a flu shot every winter in America for about the last five years or so. I had forgotten how freaky the flu really is: the sweating, the puking, the hallucinations. All experienced alone, in a cold apartment without a kind hand to wipe the sweat from my brow.
In any case, at least it wasn’t swine flu, or monkey-bird flu, or any flu for that matter…eh?
I spent my byokyuu time this week wisely though –making seemingly never-ending lists full of chores to complete for my eventual return home. 30 days! It was just 60 days…the other day….uh last week? I’m sure this happens to most all JETs, but I have the strangest concept of time these days. I can’t remember the job I worked at 13 months ago –I didn’t totally forget, but the details are sparse. It seems like 4 years ago, but Fall seems like yesterday. When I return to America, to the same apartment, to summer – it will be one year and 5 days after I left it. I’ll be in the same place, but it will be different. I’ll be different. The year I spent in Japan will be like I was abducted by aliens –always wondering “Did that really happen? Really?” I was there and gone, so quickly. I must, somehow, readjust my place in the space-time continuum it seems…
The List (so far):
- Send successor extensive paperwork/emails detailing the geography of my town, school info/JTE info, and about possible summer spider infestations in the apartment✓
- Ship first round o’ boxes containing souvenirs, winter clothes, and more souvenirs (mostly souvenirs)
- Buy MORE souvenirs (Woo! Omiyage shopping!)✓
- Re-write/update résumé and create linked-in account
- Plane ticket…bought!✓
- Painstakingly write as many “thank you notes” as possible in humble/honorable form Japanese to folks that I’ve troubled with my gaijin-ness over the past year
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN (find that mystery mold!)- Pack the rest of one year’s life abroad into two airline approved suitcases
- Wave goodbye and say Ostukare! to Japan (for now, not forever)
- Try not to sweat the small stuff…literally!
30 days 30 DAYS. It’s happening. I need to stop procrastinating. Now to focus on that résumé…
Ooh wait a minute… is that ネプリーグ on TV?
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