San Francisco

It was quite a day yesterday.  Long, exiting, exhausting, fun and more.  I think Jackson Brown's song "Running on Empty" pretty much sums it up.  The flights went well with some bumpiness out of Chicago.  We were rerouted around it, adding another half hour to our flight.  In Providence I met two others JFMFers, both as excited, yet as tired as I was.  Most of us got very little sleep the night before, doing our last minute this and thats.  Believe it or not one guy was even mowing his lawn at 10 PM.  Okay, I wasn't that bad!  Once in San Francisco we were shuttled by coach bus to the beautiful Sheraton Hotel near the airport.  With little time to change, I made my way to my room, freshened up and headed directly to orientation.  A few of us from the east coast got here after lunch so we missed out, but they did have boxed lunches for those on later flights.  Directly from the orientation we boarded four very large coach buses and made our way to the Japanese Consult General's mansion.  Wow, were we made to feel honored.  There were speeches and dinner, Japanese Cuisine of course...Lots of yummy sushi!!!  Mmmmm Mmmmm,  We were thanked over and over for becoming part of the exchange program.  Imagine, thanking us after feeling so honored to be chosen.  The thanks truly goes the other way for allowing me this wonderful opportunity.  Every single person in this program is upbeat, excited and friendly.  We all have so much to talk about and so much to share from our classes and families to expectations and plans once in Japan.  Not that we have much time to ourselves, but there is a little.

So, what has been instilled in me so far...Don't let the bath water out!  Others will use it after me.  Strange but true.  You soak in the tub, but definitely don't wash in it.  Be prompt for everything.  Don't walk and eat.  It's considered very rude.  Needless to say at dinner last night I caught myself on only one occasion.  I sat on the floor after that thinking it would keep me out of trouble.  Chopsticks have not been a problem, although I don't use them conventionally.

Sorry to cut this short but the bus is here and I'll update further when possible.  Don't want to be late.  Hugs to all and especially my family and class.