From the Land of Potatoes to the Land of the Rising Sun...
...To the land of hippies! Yes, that's right--my afterJET destination is officially Eugene, Oregon, otherwise known as the hippy capital of the world. Why Eugene, you ask? Well, there's 3 basic reasons:
- It's not far from the ocean, which is mandatory for me, as I have become spoiled after having the ocean nearby the last 3 years.
- Like Idaho, it's still located in the Northwest U.S., so I will still be reasonably close to relatives, but not too close.
- It has one of, if not the only, public primary schools along America's west coast with a mixed curriculum of both Japanese and English. So, if all goes as planned, Jared will be attending 友人 Elementary School (pronounced the same as Eugene Elementary School--友人 means "friend" in Japanese).
The irony of it all is that, after it being my sole U.S. residence, I'm finally moving away from the Boise area just when Forbes magazine declared it the number 4 U.S. metro for business and careers (details here), and I as of yet have no employment lined up. Ah,well... That's the way the potato chip crumbles.
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Very, very exciting. I am glad you have found somewhere with a bilingual school.
yey, he`ll become sooo good at japanese!!! thats awesome he can continue it! so how is life as a lone parent going so far???
tj: Just hopefully the Japanese curriculum is somewhere near the level Jared has achieved. If not, at least there will be teachers from Japan that Jared can talk to in full Japanese.
beckyyy: What's with all the Ys? Oh, and the single parent life is still overwhelming. It would help if I had proper washing and cooking facilities and materials, though. Do you know where you're going to be living in Fukuoka? How does Taka feel about it?
Hey Jagaimogirl, I've really enjoyed reading your adventures and musings since I discovered your blog a few months ago, but I haven't checked in for a while and didn't realise that your family would be moving back to the States. It's a real pity because I will miss reading your funny observations of Japanese life from the perspective of an open-minded and keen-eyed Jagaimo girl. I've learnt quite a few Japanese words just from reading your blog :)
I wish you and your lovely family all the very best during this transition period and that you will settle in very soon. It might be difficult at times (I myself have experienced both culture-shock and reverse culture-shock) but I'm sure you will do very well in whichever cultural setting you find yourselves in, because you're such lovely, open-minded and friendly people! Hope the boys like their new schools (how awesome indeed that you're able to find Jared a bilingual school!) and that you will soon find a great job in the Land of the Hip :D
Take good care! 祝你們快樂!
p.s. I like your blog's new look. I've revamped my own blog as well a few days ago and I hope you don't mind, but I got the ideas (as well as the links) for the blog toy, the Weather.com forecast and the visitor map from your site. These are such cool things to display on the blog and so thank you so much for the inspiration (as well as the actual links!)
How exciting! One of my sorority sisters is from Oregon. Her cousins went to that school. She had nothing but good things to say about the school and even suggested I try to get a job there when I finish JET (I have a teaching license, but not for Oregon).
yay! West Coast! feel free to come up to my neck of the woods (well, once I get back ;) I'm not tooo far from oregon.
that's so awesome that you were able to find a school with japanese!! hopefully it will help ease the transition. maybe there will be other kids who speak japanese who can talk with him too?
snowdrops: Thanks for the kind words. ^_^ Feel free to take anything you want from the blogs--it's rather flattering.
ang: Too bad you don't have your teaching license for Oregon. That would be cool if you got a job at Jared's school and could talk to each other about the same little rural area of Japan.
laura: Oh that's right--you're from British Columbia. I have a question: Do you know what "B.C. Roll" is? One of the Oral Communication textbooks at my school goes on and on about it. So much that the JTE couldn't believe I never had one.
I'm hoping some of the kids at Jared's new school will speak Japanese well. A lot of them are probably just kids that picked that school because it's nearby, though. At least he's guaranteed to be able to speak Japanese to some of the teachers, as many of them are from Japan.
Ya, I know what a B.C. roll is... Can't think of exactly what's in it right now though...I think it's called a B.C. roll because it has smoked salmon in it? They're very common (along with California rolls) in my city and in Vancouver. Not sure about elsewhere. Come visit and you can try one. ;)
I've never actually eaten one either because I was a way stricter veg before coming here! (I'm eating exported B.C. salmon in Japan...ha...)
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