Holy crap it's almost December...

Yes, I say dude.  You gotta problem with that, dude?

  

After almost four months in Japan, it's been a whirlwind.  As everyone else has been posting list after list of things they are thankful for, it almost seems silly to me to make a list, as... I live in Japan dude! How you can you be more thankful for anything than that?!

But, most of you know it's not as simple as that.  It's been a challenge, much more so than we bargained on, and it's worth a shout it to some of the things we've managed to accomplish.  Volunteering in the evacuated area, canyoning down a giant 20 m waterfall, bringing home an illegal foster kitten, starting training in a Japanese martial art, starting a second graduate degree... we've been so fortunate to accomplish so many of our personal goals already.

As December rears its snow covered little head, life is finally slowing down enough to consider... what next? It feels like we've been just bouncing around from one event to the next, never stopping long enough to process where we've been or where we're headed.  So, having had a whole three day weekend to reflect, I ask myself... where have I been and where am I going?  (cue godly dramatic music, with a Monty Python voice.)

Monty Python says we should go to Nepal.

I never realized how much I was coasting through my life in the U.S.  I'd accomplished so many goals I'd had there, and I felt confident in my work, my friendships and my hobbies.

Coming here, it's been a drastic change to suddenly being the one who knows nothing... is never doing anything right... can't even read the label on a tube of toothpaste.  Every day, the simplest things are challenging and ego deflating... and I never knew I had such a large ego to deflate, until I came home utterly exhausted and defeated from a whole day of being a failure. (yes, I hear you all smirking and tittering about the large ego you all knew I had.  Enough from the peanut gallery.:)

You're probably not surprised to know it's been good to be taken down a peg, and remember what it's like to be the last one from which anyone would ever ask for help.  At least now I can point to what exactly it is that makes me so tired, irritable, and impatient... and admitting you have a problem is supposedly the first step to recovery.

But where do we want to go now?  Looking down the long, cold, icy tunnel of winter, our travel schedule will be severely limited by slick mountain roads and a lack of central heating.  What will we do all winter?

I realized that Alan and I have always done a great job of maintaining our own goals and interests.  But now that we have one car, one income, and limited time, we are forced to work together.  So far, I can't say that we've been very successful. But I hope the coming winter will allow to accomplish one of our major goals for coming to Japan... to become more of a couple, and set some mutual goals that we can both honestly pursue together.

I have to say, I think the fact that so many people asked where Alan was at the last training conference is at least a step in the right direction.  In America, there were so many people who hadn't even met him, and now I can't go anywhere without him.:)

Golf will *not* be one of our mutual goals.  Golf is evil.