Aa...bla!

Thought stream, lazer beam, whipped cream, eau claires...

I haven't written in a while and maybe I'm ready to explode, maybe the moment will pass a la "lost in translation." I need to see that movie again now that I live here.

BTW I'm listening to Cracked Rear View right now... first CD I ever bought.

Something caught my eye the other day as I was biking to school- something that I never want to forget nor do I think I ever will. It's playing in my mind now, those few precious seconds of time, vivid and candid. I was passing a group of students on their way from the train station and I looked left and saw a man lifting a crate of freshly caught sakura shrimp. Behind him stretched several yards of black drying tarps with hundreds of square feet of shrimp already laid out for that day's drying. I remember thinking to myself in that moment, "This is how I want to remember Japan." I can't explain it I guess, other than the brilliant way my pictoview was displayed, cutting and fresh to my morning eyes.

I'm caught so physically between home and here. Living in my apartment, existing in this room with my English books, my English thoughts, my English facebook... I said this to Will over break when I was home - I often feel like I'm going to walk out of this apartment and hop in my car and drive over to his place for a visit. Then I realize he's 10,000 kilometers away and I can't do that. Then I walk out of my house and see my rusty bicycle in my parking spot, hear the words I can't understand and feel my small world stretching slowly from my feet.

I signed on for another year. It's official. I turned in my signed contract form to my supervisor this past week. I had already decided my second day in Japan that I would sign on for another year. One year is not enough to spend in another country, and looking at it after 6 months I still feel the same. What have I really learned here in this brief period? I'm not saying I've learned nothing, far from it. But I think I need more time to really flesh out some deeper meaning. Certainly practically I need more time here to learn the language.

I spent 2 1/2 hours this Saturday evening in Starbucks studying Japanese. It felt good to be there, it felt like a corner of America pulled up to these shores and tucked in around my sides. I slept in its aroma and dreamed of home.