Packing

Packing was a fear. I avoided it for days using the excuse that my room wasn't big enough for laying everything out. When the day came around for us to actually get in the car and drive to Chicago for pre-departure orientation, I had yet to start putting things in bags. Well, most of my stuff was in the livingroom, so it wasn't going to take that long, right? I could still get everything ready before noon for sure. So there we went, pulling out of the driveway right into rainy rush hour traffic.

It didn't help that I had 30# of omiyage (gifts) for my principal, other Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs), neighbors and whoever else may come along the way. That's a separate category of fear. I packed and repacked a few times with rounds of cuts as individual pairs of pants or t-shirts got cut from the team and landed in the "ship it" pile. After the final roster was posted I still had 1 bag that weighed 70 lbs. and the other weighed in at a *light* 60 lbs. Not to mention the carry-on I had stuffed full and the extra college "carry-on" on my waist. (I wonder how much flab I'll lose in Japan? I'm actually looking forward to my 30 min. bikeride to school for that reason ;-)

So yes, the fear was growing that the airlines wouldn't let my luggage get on the plane, and the Japanese were just going to have to settle for my birthday suit rather than the 3-piece. Which would probably be much more comfortable given all the warnings I've received about the humidity! Once at the hotel in Chicago I waited and watched as other new ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) rolled their luggage in. I tried to eyeball the weight and dimensions based on how much their parents were struggling (needing to factor in age, athletic condition, etc.) and instantly determined that I had waaaaay too much. I should have seen the warning sign bound in the wheels of my 70 lb bag which were now bowing perpendicular to each other.

Luckily I have a very patient and helpful father who got on the phone and called several Japanese shipping services to figure out how we could ship all my extra stuff right here from Chicago today. After many transfers from people who only knew 1 sentance in English (being "I don't speak English, I transfer you") my dad got through to someone who said they would ship 2 boxes of my stuff overnight for only $160. Those boxes are going to arrive at my high school in Kambara before I do! I wonder how long I could hold my pee inside a cardboard box...

As you can see we weighed my newly reduced bags on the scale in the fitness room at the hotel and found them nicely under the 50# weight limit each. This helped calm some of my nerves, and kept the armpits to a simple damp. What really helped me though was the pre-departure orientation this afternoon. Our short 4 hours or so were filled by several reassuring and light-hearted people who gave me much encouragement and got me pretty genki-ed up.

It opened up with a presentation by Chicago Police Officer Mark Vaccaro who gave us a handout with a chalked outline of a body on it accompanied by the statement, "Any day you don't wake up in chalk is a good day." It went uphill from there. One of the sections of the handout included a space to write "My New Life Resolutions." I wrote 1. Join a community club 2. Always eat what I am offered (this could be a dangerous one) and 3. Ace my correspondance Japanese language lesson exams. Another notable point from the presenters (presentors? Please, if you do post, feel free to correct my English- I need to learn this language before I begin to teach!) was the Japanese man who went over our instructions for getting our luggage onto the shuttle and into the airport. Of many interesting sentences my favorite was "Package never had a foot" - I can only assume this meant that it didn't have feet and couldn't take itself to the truck! He was hilarious and pumped his fists when we applauded him.

The dinner was quite interesting as well. We were served fancy catering type food (cantelope wrapped in thinly sliced ham) which might as well have been Japanese food for all the mid-west, scandinavian, homestyle cooking I'm used to. I got to know a few other people who are going to be teaching in my same prefecture as well as a lady who taught at Ihara High School in 2003-2004.

This evening we met up with Jess Koehler and had dinner for the second time today at the same restaurant we went to lunch for. Hey, it was good and Chicago is confusing. Well, that pretty much brings you up to this moment as I'm typing it, so I'll spare you the play by play of my life in the present and say goodnight for now and I'll be posting again from the other side of the world!


Luther