久しぶり！ It's been a while. I have decided to start using this blog again as I am about to return to Japan. I suppose I should do a brief review of what's happened since my last post.
I returned to Denison and graduated with an East Asian Studies major and a History minor. Pictured above are my roommates from this past year. Left to right that's Andy looking looking leery, Steve looking bored, and Casey looking somewhat disappointed in me. Shortly after graduation, I returned to Ohio and left from there to China where the Denison Chamber Singers toured for ten days in Shanghai, Xian, and Beijing. I will probably post just about that trip at some point, but for now here is a picture of me on the Great Wall.
After that, I went on a service project with my Church to McDowell County where we did a little flood clean up and scraped and painted a couple houses. That was rewarding as always. Following that, I spent a couple weeks in New York taking a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification course. In the week between these two, I went to the National Archives in College Park, MD to research my great Uncle Herbert Smith who was an Entomologist for the USDA in the early 20th century to help my Uncle David with a book he is writing on Uncle Herb. As I didn't know much about entomology before, that was an interesting experience. Following that, I attended the family reunion and was then reunited with all three of my sisters for the first time in a couple of years.
That brings us up to the current adventure. I have been applying to jobs in Japan all summer and had several interviews, but am still unemployed. I recently decided to just go to Japan on a tourist visa and look for a job in person. I've heard that it is extremely easy to get a job as an English teacher in Japan once you're there, but I imagine it will be somewhat harder to find a job that will support a working visa, which I'll need to do any work. Still, I think my chances will be better if I'm already there. In light of this, I leave this week for Japan. I will be staying with friends there, so I will be saved some living expenses, and I will have 90 days to find a job before my tourist visa will expire. I am not in the least bit worried that I will not have found a job within 90 days. I'm currently finishing everything I've had to do to prepare for the trip. Today's errand is photocopying my passport, license, and diploma.
I suppose that's all for now. I plan to write more consistently this time around, so feel free to complain if I don't live up to my plan.
