One year on....

I haven't blogged for ages...in fact I haven't looked at my blog for ages (hence I just saw Jo's where are you? comment from the 12th), but seeing as today it's one year since I left Japan I thought I'd write something... I just read back a couple of blogs, one from the 28/7/04 when I was in the office and busy going to farewell parties of people leaving, recalling my arrival to Japan the previous year. I read my blogs from last year, my final Japan blog and the one after arriving in Thailand. Just so crazy to think 3 years have passed since I was preparing to go to Japan in the first place. The memories are so fresh, but it feels like I have been gone for so long too.

To reflect on my post-Japan life... I've done the CELTA course, but haven't done anything with it (I hope the day doesn't come where I try to and am told it's too late!). I've moved to Christchurch and am working in a call centre for a telecommunication company (not what I was thinking I'd be doing), I'm happy enough and only count down for the day to leave out of excitement for going overseas again. I joined a gym for the first time which I enjoy for the most part...if I had more self control with food I'm sure the results would be amazing by now! Would like to say I've been keeping up my Japanese, but not much... could probably still apply for the JLPT and start studying but that may be too much of a commitment!

I have though been thinking and speaking more Japanese of late cos I've been hanging out with a mate Masato. Some may remember him from Jo's b'day trip to Fukuoka last year when Abra was over. Masato had lived in NZ for quite a few years and at the time I was convinced he sounded like a Maori... I'm not so sure now that he did, I could have just thought that since I'd been away for so long and he probably had more of a Kiwi accent than I did. Anway, we've kept in touch and he came back to Christchurch about 6 weeks ago. He's trying to find a flat and a job. Prob is he needs to be sponsored because he's used his visas for NZ, so if he can't he'll be gone at end of September. It's been fun hanging out. I took him down the Timaru on my days off on Tuesday and Wednesday - showed him the big smoke and all that! We walked to town on Tuesday morning, thru the Bay, to the art gallery (couldn't go to the museum since it didn't open til 1.30pm!), then back home. The tour took all of 2 hours! We then drove back to town for lunch, went for a tiki-tour before I had an appointment at optometrist. Poor Masato got stuck for ages while I tried on glasses and he had to help decide which were keepers for taking home to check with everyone else! I've realised how awful my old glasses are now!

Yesterday, Masato, Mum and I drove up to Lake Tekapo. It was so beautiful up there and after 3 years it has developed so much. It was a perfect day though, lots of snow around on the hills and mountains, blue skies and the water was it's usual glassy self. Love that place.

That's about me for now... Nothing too exciting but I'm content. I miss parts of what I had in Japan, but you're going to get that with any change. I miss my friends I have scattered over the world, but that's also going to happen wherever I am. Thankfully I did end up in a job that always me to call people more frequently than I would if I wasn't working in telecommunications! Hope everyone's well, and I'll be blogging again soon cos have a really random story to tell, but I won't get into it now (thought you'd be thinking this blog is long enough by now Jo!).