A brief update at last

I know it has been quite a while since the last entry. There is no special reason or good excuse, so I won't make one. I will briefly lay out the future for the Chicago Man in Japan and the blog by the same name.

The third semester is almost over. Japan is divided into three semesters, and I arrived before semester two had begun. This means my third year students (9th graders by American standards) are going to graduate next week and go off to high school in April. It also means most of the teachers will switch what grade they are teaching, some teachers will be transferred to another school or get a new job, and our school will also receive new teachers. A lot may change.

I am also counting down the days until the Apple Store in Osaka receives the new MacBook Pro from Apple. Once I am able to purchase my new machine, I am planning to design a new page from Apple iWeb, and host it on .Mac. This means I will have a new website address. It will be posted when it becomes available.

I should finally get the Internet this month. I know I have been saying that since August, but it should be a sure thing now. The story is too long and frustrating to explain, except I'll say that NTT (Japan's national phone company) has admitted they were at fault for making me wait for so long, and they are in the process of fixing their mistake. Once I am online at home, I will attempt to do the small daily blog entries, which I had planned to do before I came, with monthly or bi-monthly larger entries. With the Internet, I will finally be able to make cheap Skype calls. I owe a few of you an international call.

Mom and Dad are visiting in the end of March during my spring vacation. We will see all of the local sites, many of which I have not yet seen, and that will probably be my first major blog entry on the new page.

In May, I am going to Southern India to "build houses" with Habitat for Humanity. All those years of home-building labor finally pay off! I'll be able to use all of their skills I learned there for the team. This means I will probably be the least productive member of the team. Nevertheless, this should be an amazing trip followed by a massive blog entry.

In late July, the brothers will be coming to Japan. After the brothers have finished seeing my little corner of Japan, I will visit the great U.S. of America in August. The first week will be with the older brother in L.A., and then I will be in sweet home Chicago for about two more weeks after that. Of course, since this is a visit, that means I will be staying another year in Harima-cho as an ALT. At this exact moment I feel like two years will be a good amount of time in Japan, but only God knows the future.