what a day.

Woke up at 5 this morning and got ready for work.  Today, instead of going to school to teach, all the ALTs in Fukushima Prefecture went to Fukushima City for the annual mid year conference.  So Sam and I had a taxi waiting on us (he was quite early) at 6:50 this morning to bring us to the B.O.E.  From there we took a bus (just for us) to the conference.  The ride went great until we hit Koriyama...and then it was bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic for almost the entire rest of the way.  Instead of taking 2 hours to get to Fukushima, it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes.  So we were a bit late getting to the conference. 

On the way there we saw 2 beautiful rainbows.  One of them was so close and so bright that I could almost make out where it "landed".  It came down infront of a mountain and although you could see the mountain through the rainbow, it was like seeing the mountain through colour tinted glasses.  The colour of the rainbow affected the colours on the mountain.  It was amazing!!  I've never seen anything like that before :)

THe conference itself was ok.  The first lecture went by rather quick, which is a good thing because I was starving!! I don't even really remember what it was about but I have handouts, so I'll read them all later. lol   Kim and I went to Fukushima station for lunch and went to a burger place called Freshness Burger.  I had a Classic WW cheeseburger. (classic double cheeseburger). I also got a large fry to go with it.  The burger was DELICIOUS!! It was also almost too big to fit in my mouth! lol  And the fries were more like potato wedges! And there was ketchup and mustard and garlic sauce and relish! It was amazing! I ate the whole thing! Soo good!

Then we stopped in at Jupiter (a forgeign food store) and I picked up some American Chocolate food stuffs. lol YUM!

The afternoon went by in a bit of a blur.  I had a headache, so although I participated and even presented a bit, I wasn't really paying that much attention.  Again, there were handouts and I took some notes.  I didn't learn anything new from the afternoon seminars.  Then the final lecture was dull. It was good stuff to know, about creating events and activities in your city, but nothing that I really plan on doing myself. Or I should say, nothing that I plan on initiating myself. If someone else wants to, I'll help, but I don't want the responsibility of putting together and funding and planning an event.

Finally it was 4pm and time to go home!  I ended up in the same seat I had going there. The bus was small and cramped and us poor TALL foreigners did not have an easy ride. On the way back, D got sick and asked the bus driver to stop at the next pit stop, but we had just passed one and before we got to another, poor D had the bus driver stop (we had to ask him a couple of times because he was nervous about stopping on the highway) so D could jump out and be sick.  He climbed up the cement embankment to get to the grassy hill so he could be sick and void at the same time.  I'm thankful, for his sake, that it was dark and we couldn't really see him.  The driver didn't want anyone else going outside because we were on the highway and it was dangerous but P went out with some tissue and S went out just to help while I stood on the bus step wanting to help but not really able to.  I had a plastic bag I gave to D, just in case he needed it, but he made it back ok.  I hope that he feels better tomorrow.

I got home much earlier than I had thought I would and now I'm getting stuff together for my trip to L.A.  Tomorrow is my last day of teaching before the trip.  I'm at my base school tomorrow but over at the Junior High instead of the elementary school.  When I get home tomorrow I need to pack everything into my suitcase and then I'm all set!! I have to be out of the house at 07:05 Thursday morning to catch the first of 3 trains to the airport. My flight leaves at 14:55.  I arrive in L.A. at 07:45 which will be 01:45 for me.  It's like arriving in at LAX airport only 40 minutes after leaving my house in Japan! How is that for JET LAG! lol  damn, it's going to be a REALLY long day!  I hope I can at least doze ont he plane.  =P