First a little housekeeping. Here are the pictures from my trip to Pennsylvania. I wasn't as shutter happy as I probably could have been but eh. Whatevs! Blog layout redesign coming in the near-ish future.

My adjustment back to Japan (both time and culture) was hellish. I think the fact that mom and Kikko were out of town made the entire thing a little more difficult. On Saturday evening, I dragged my zombified self to grandma's house for dinner and promptly dragged myself home when I was done eating. After overcoming the evening jetlag threshold, I stayed up until midnight-forty-five, an oddity considering normal jetlag trends. On Sunday morning, I got up at six and took a series of naps throughout the day. By the time five pee-em rolled around, I realized I was way too tired to go to dinner, called my grandma, and went to sleep properly. This decision had its consequences. I woke up at midnight, stayed up until two, woke up at five and stayed up preparing for school.

The Sunday was not only sleep-pattern worrying but was also body-function worrying. I had a sporadic periods of irregular heartbeats and an afternoon of angry bowels, but decided once they had subsided that it was probably all stress induced. I was also mildly depressed because I missed my friends and felt like an outsider in Japan for the first time. It was very strange.

In any case, when I walked out the door to get to my bus stop, I realized that I hadn't been outside for over thirty hours. School was less painful than I expected and having a scheduled day helped my jetlag immensely. Since Monday, I have mostly readjusted and I have been incredibly happy and satisfied. Having concrete plans for college has definitely helped me get excited about the future. Life is good. I have little to complain about.

On that note, I have a CUTE story to tell. I was monitoring on the bus home and chatting up a storm with my two favorite first graders, Emma and Connor. Emma asks me why I don't monitor in the morning and I tell her that I'm only employed as an afternoon monitor. "I wish you monitored in the morning too," she says. "What's wrong with the morning monitors?" I inquire. Connor comes back swiftly with criticism. "Jacob's mean, Amalia's weird and that other girl doesn't do anything." I swoop in for the kill. "Don't you guys like Jacob?" "No," Emma replies, "I don't really like him." At this point, I'm all "SCOOOOOORE!!!" internally and I go back to tell Alice that these kids love me best.

After drowning in cuteness in the back seat, I go back up front to do my duty. Emma continues.
"Why aren't you head monitor?"
"Because I've only been doing this for a year."
"Will you be head monitor next year?"
"I'm not going to be here next year. I'm going to college."
"... Can you come back after college?"
"No, they won't let me work as a monitor after I graduate."
"Oh..."
She asks for a pencil and when I collect it, it's accompanied by a scrap of paper that has scrawled upon it, "you dont have to go to colage."

SQUEAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!

'Nuff said. I am appreciated by the munchkins and it makes me glad and proud.