Fed Ex arrived!!

Woo Hoo! I got my itinerary today. I'll be heading out from Milwaukee on the 8th at 6 in the morning. We have an orientation in the afternoon and a dinner at the home of Consul Yasumasa Nagamine in the evening. The whirlwind adventure is going to start with a bang. I can't believe it will happen in just over a week. This weekend will be a push to finish the final touches on my follow up that needs to be turned in when I get to San Francisco. Then I'll wrap my host gifts, check and double check my clothes, get my travelers' checks, and finish up school stuff. Yep, I'll be busy, but what a great kind of busy!

Waiting and a surprise!

We received an email saying that our itineraries were sent via Fed Ex yesterday. I was hoping to get it today. Instead I got a fun package from my friend in California! She sends the best packages with little notes on everything inside. They are so great! I got some marble Pocky candy (which I've already tested), rice cracker with seaweed, and a survival phrase book. All were purchased at a Japanese market. I needed that. All this to get me in the mood for the trip. Maybe I'll get the itinerary tomorrow. This waiting is killing me!

Milwaukee Museum

Today we had a field trip to the Milwaukee Museum. I was able to get closer to Japan in the Asia section. The picture is my group and I in front of a Japanese home where a tea ceremony is taking place. The students were impressed by the beautifully raked sand in front of the home.

My excitement is growing and my anxiety is shrinking! I've gotten some major projects completed. Now I can concentrate on finishing the school year and getting my packing finished. I'm eagerly awaiting my travel itinerary. It should arrive in the next week. I'm also working on learning more about this blog site. Hopefully I can jazz my site up a bit!

I have many new friends!

Well, after working on the class play and then attending a play on Friday, I came home about 11:30 and decided to check my email. What a shock! I suddenly had about 60 new friends. The listserve was posted for JFMF participants and people were emailing like crazy. At first I thought my new computer was malfunctioning. Even though all I had been thinking about for the past several hours was sleep, I spent the next hour reading and responding to emails. It all seems so real and so close! Now that my class play is done, I'll have to start getting very serious about my trip. I have a lot of reading to do, and I need to write my follow on plan.

I'm practicing uploading pictures

Well today was Mother's Day today. Since my whole family was here, I got some help from my sister and brother with my computers. I'm uploading a picture of our PTO Spring Dinner. It was themed "Take me out to the ballgame". Well, here goes!

Now I know why I haven't bought too many gadgets. I always thought it was just because I couldn't afford them. Well, I've discovered that it may be because they are smarter than I am. I've been trying to download music to an Ipod, set things up on the laptop I plan to take on the trip, and I'm sure I don't know half of what my camera can do. I'm also trying to figure out what kind of adapter/converter I need for my laptop. People keep asking me questions that I can't answer. Hopefully I'll get some of this figured out before I leave. Or, maybe I'll meet someone on the trip that knows how to use these things. One can only hope!

I've found out that I will be visiting Inagi in the Tokyo prefecture for my school and home visits. I'm trying to find out more about the city on the internet, but my computer doesn't currently support that language font. Just another thing I have to find out how to do. Sigh.