one big holiday

...a feeling in my soul that i'd never felt before. i knew you always told me, no matter how long it holds me, if it falls apart or makes us millionaires...and on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads. -jim james

i finally feel like summer has officially arrived here in portland for me. i quit my job helping with summer camp because i was getting screwed and it was just not what i needed in life right now. i'm going to enjoy my last month being here and really soak up the beauty in this place before i journey on. biking, hiking, discing, dancing and just generally worshiping these trees and this land that has captured my heart so quickly. there is nothing else like being connected in so many ways to life as i perfectly am here. these really are my people and this really is the place that i want to return to after journeying and watch the sun slip under the moutains in the distance and the firefly flickers of bike lights on the road at night.

so i've gotten lots of new about details for japan today and i must say that i'm pretty stoaked about all of them. i found out that my placement more specifically will be an island called naru off of nagasaki city population about 4,000. i'll be teaching high school, jr high and elementary students in very small schools. yea! i was so hoping that i would have the opportunity to have a small class size and really connect and interact with my students in a number of different ways. looks like i'm going to for sure as my high school's enrollment is something like 95 students! after all of these years of living in NE i will finally get to really live in the country. i'll be a ten minute walk from my school and my apartment will cost 12,000 yen a month! i can't even believe it, that's only about $125 US, and i will be surrounded by the ocean...all the time. i hope i get to open my windows year round and let the waves always be in my ears.


i start japanese lessons tomorrow afternoon. it will be so fantastic to be able to speak japanese with some native speakers before i get there. i've been at learning, or at least attempting to learn it now for months and feel like i've made little or no progress as i know my ennunciation is off and so if my phrasing. i can't wait to feel like i'm starting to figure it out, though i know that it will be many more months before i'm having conversations. fantastic things to look forward to.

but...until then i've got heaps of stuff to get done. lists to make and do, people to love and see, and things to get rid of, holy crap! seriously if anyone out there wants to buy my car or my bike i'll cut you a sweet deal :)

thanks for carin to keep up with me friends. lots of love to each of you out there in your corners of the world. remember to make them each as bright as they can be and enjoy every moment of this thing we call life.

namaste

beth