  I'm back in business with the internet totally running right through my living room at a scorching 20 megs per second! (I have only heard that it is scorching; I, technologically inept, wouldn't personally know) Yes, that means I won't have to get my email rocks off at Cafe Allegro, where the smoothies are suck and the apostrophe is above the "7" key. Deserving of just as much fanfare is the reunion, spiritually at least, of my four Tokyo friends and me. Kirk hopped over to visit me in Iwakuni just in time to get pulled over for an unfortunate U-turn , Tammy is out wandering the streets of Kagoshima city, Brooke is making endless cheesecake faces for the eager camera, and Tim is rationing out pecans to the restless natives. urlLink Those of whom I speak. urlLink Ok, speaking of cheese...I met two of the absolute biggest cheeseheads ever today.
They are two guys who are 4th year ALTs in my city, and something in Japan has definitely made them a little touched in the head . Sean is actually a little more normal, I think, but Patrick takes the cake. He has perfected the Japanese tendency to say absolutely nothing with much solemn nodding and murmuring of " sooooo desu ne...mmmmm... " Yet he also retains the Canadian (? he's Canadian) trait of acting like a teenager without his Ritalin by getting up to wander around the room in the middle of a conversation with his boss. When asked about their first impressions of Iwakuni, this is how their responses went, translated from their incredibly solemn Japanese: "Iwakuni...it's very close to many other places. " "Yes, very close.
" "It's true. " "Ah, it is, isn't it? " "So it's very convenient. " "Very, very convenient. " "So convenient. " "Yes, so true.
" "Yes. " Oh man, I wish I could have laughed out loud during that moment, but I believe that the attempted tone was, as always, solemn, respectful. So I kept quiet. We also received gifts from the superintendent, and let me say, I have never seen two men ooh and ahh so much over a couple of teacups . To be sure, they were nice gifts...but seriously, add some bad synth music and it would have been a softcore porn. The rest of the time here has been somewhat boring, which is my own fault.
I have long since slept off my jetlag, but you wouldn't guess that by all the napping I have done. In between naps, I ride the granny-bike to Chuo Food for groceries, or I take the one bus route I know down to Iwakuni station, and I say hi to the squid guy (who is now my pretend Japanese boyfriend, with Damon's blessing) and perhaps buy myself some cake. Mmm, cake. This weekend, Kirk and I are going to Hiroshima for some rumored Peace Festival that he has pointed me in the direction of. Before that happens, though, I have orientation in Yamaguchi City, tomorrow and Friday. That means I'll be sharing a train and bus with Sean and Patrick, the cheeseheads (don't ask me why they are cheeseheads.
That is just the word that comes to me, the same way my old roommate was undeniably a tool, and my best friend's fiance was inarguably a chump). Enough of that! More of the cool people: urlLink Just look at those sullen faces. urlLink See you all after my trip out of town. 
