New Friends and Costco!!

So this last weekend was pretty interesting. I'll start with a couple incidents earlier on in the week though. So on Thursday of last week as I was coming home from work, I left about 5 mins early and got to the bus stop in time to catch the earlier bus, yaay! Well since there were so many people waiting at the bus stop, I walked to the far end of the bus stop area so that I wouldnt be in the way. I realized that this positioned me toward where the front of the bus would be and, therefore, the door. Now, japanese are very particular about lining up for trains -- usually making 2 straight lines where the doors will be....most of the time (although Ive never before seen a line at this hole in the wall bus stop..) Anyway, realizing that they might think im cutting in line (god forbid!) I kept a distance and waited for the other passengers to board before I got on. Well, as the end of the line was nearing, i inched closer, but one old man obviously thought i was gonna cut in front of him, and all of a sudden he shouted to me angrily in English "No! You go here!" jutting his finger behind him. I was so shocked, not only to be yelled at by an ojiisan (grandpa-type) in English no less, but also because I hadnt been doing anything wrong and was trying to be out of the way! This angered me and I stewed about it for about a day and a half. I also was kicking myself for not saying anything back and just taking it. In my mind, theres NO excuse for being so rude, no matter how old you are. Now, heres the part that gets me. He yelled at me cuz he THOUGHT i was gonna cut in line, right? Well, I cant tell you how many times Ive been waiting patiently in line to get my train tickets from the machine and then right as Im stepping up to the machine a little old woman scoots in and shoves her money in before i have a chance to protest.. GRRRRRR!! This happened to me on Friday night, and even though I said "Hey!" she just ignored me as i mumbled curses not so quietly under my breath. Just because you have one foot in the grave does NOT give you the excuse to cut in line when every one else is waiting paitiently and politely. Thats pure bullshit in my book. Sorry for the lack of sympathy, but if they have enough strength to shove by me and be rude, they have enough strength to wait. So, basically, this enraged me not only cuz she actually cut in front of me (this is like the 3rd time this has happened) but because some guy yelled at ME for THINKING i was gonna do the same thing!!!! I just wish i could curse or at least tell someone off in japanese. I hate getting yelled at and taken advantage of just because im a foreigner. Its bullshit.

Yesterday we met up with Chie, who is a friend of Sean's (good friend back home). He'd met her when he was here in japan and said, shes soooo cool, i just have to meet her, so I did. Guess what? He was right! She was really nice and funny and smart and since she'd lived in Tacoma for 3 years and went to TCC, her English was excellent! So we decided to go to the Costco a little outside of Osaka. Yes, they have a Costco here, and yes its almost just like the ones back home!! Anyway, on the way to meet up with her Adam left our backpack with all our overnight stuff (my make-up, hair stuff, pills, favorite sweater etc..) on the train!!! So Chie helped us locate it and they said that since theyd found it, by law they had to keep it at the place they found it. Well, since that train was headed to the next prefecture over after we got off, my backpack was now in Hyogo prefecture, about 35 mins away if we were lucky..... damn. So, we decided to go to Costco first and get my backpack afterwards since Costco was on the way anyway. Well, Costco was amazing!! After 4.5 months of teeny tiny rations of american food we could find when we were lucky, the sheer volume and quantity at Costco was overwhelming!! We had basically come to take a look so that we knew what was there and we could come back with a suitcase, hehe. When we got in there, though, we wanted to buy the entire place! Instead, we bought a big ol' block of extra sharp cheddar cheese (yaaaay!), guacamole... ohh yeah, and some multi-vitamins. We wouldve bought more, but the backpack had been intended for Costco to carry our stuff and since we didnt have it, our purchases were limited to our armspace.. oh well! OH! but on the way to costco (sorry about the disorganization of this story) we ran into a huge thunder and lightening storm. Luckily for the worst part we were on a bus, but at one point as i was looking out the window, the lightening hit so close, i felt almost blinded by the flash and then deafened by the immediate BOOM of the thunder. It was so lound it shook the bus and you could feel it in your bones! whoa... kinda cool though! Unfortunately it was pissing rain when we got off the bus and wed all forgotten our umbrellas, so I hunkered down under my hood and Chie and Adam had no choice but to get completely drenched.

Ok, so after Costco, (it had stopped raining by this time, thank the Goddess!) we went to take a train to Takarazuka, where my backpack was. Well, as a result of the lightening (most likely the one that blinded me) some of the lights near the tracks were shorted out and all the trains were delayed, messed up, and altogether whacky! Soooo.... instead of it taking us 20 mins to get to our destination, it took us an hour and a half......only to spend a total of 5 mins in the station to get my bag and hop on another train returning...... ugh. But it was a nice ride, despite the length. We got to talk to Chie about a lot of different things and it was really cool. Its nice to finally have a japanese friend!! Yaay!

So this morning im a little wiped out.. the wind last night was knockin things around outside and it was really loud...annnnnddd its FREEEEEZING today!! it was 2C this morning but felt like -2C!! which is like 27F... and they STILL wont turn on the heat in the school!! Everyone is complaining about how friggin cold it is, and yet no one will do anything about it! grrrrrrrrrrr......

So last night Adam and I were talking about possible plans for after JET. We were thinking that wed like to go to Spain for about a month or so to take a language course to brush up our skills and hang out for a bit, while looking for a job there, or maybe in Germany. Wed also like to eventually move to Vancouver BC to get a job... At the language school we were thinking of, which is the same one Adam went to when he was 16 (?) there are people from all over the place who have varying degrees of spanish language ability, sooooo Id not only get to touch up on my Spanish, but also hopefully on my German and French, which would be cool. Anyway, were kinda looking into working for travel agencies or some place that deals with traveling, and most of all utilizing our different languages. Idealy we'd like to live in Europe for a little while. I mean, why not? I was thinking about what our parents would say to us doing all this and my thought is that they wouldnt exactly approve, maybe thinking that were playing too much and need to settle down and get serious... but after thinking about that for awhile and realizing that doesnt sound so great, I thought to myself, "why do we have to settle down? we want to do what makes us happy, which is traveling and constantly doing new things. so as long as we have a balance of comfort (ie enough money to support ourselves, pay back loans, and pay bills) and fun, why should we have to settle for something less than what makes us happy? Just cuz its the norm?" i cant see us doing that at all for a long time. I dont want to have a job that I hate. Period. And neither does Adam. So, we wont settle for that. Sorry parents. We will visit and we know this doesnt make you happy, but hey, we have to do what ticks our clock, theres just no way around it. Idealy wed like to have a job thats interesting, constantly changing and engaging but also relatively close to one of our families.. maybe vancouver is the answer.. not sure.. we shall see!!