So as anyone who has moved far away from home knows you do get homesick. It can be the smallest thing that sets it off and then you are gone and the desire to get something familiar covers all and you hate the situation that you are in. For me it happened the day that I moved into my apartment.
It had nothing to do with the space or the little city or the fact that I would be on my own in a city with no one who speaks English. This is coming after spending almost two weeks in Osaka with my fellow English-speaking teachers so I had people that I could speak with and be always understood. It had nothing to do with finding my classes (3 of which I have to bike to – which is awesome because I am going to get so fit not driving places).
It had to do with the fact that I had no internet connection!!!!!!
GASP! WHAT! OMG!!!
These were the first things that I experienced. I had been told that my apartment would come equipped with internet. Well it has Internet, but I needed a password to connect to the network. This was something that I didn’t have, so I started freaking out. I discovered that I could only connect to gmail, but nothing else.
So immediately I was emailing my supervisor to see if he knew what I could do, but nothing that he gave me helped. I didn’t get angry at that – there is only so much someone can do without seeing the computer and not really knowing what is going on.
So I got more and more frustrated and sent home an email saying “This is the first time that I feel like quitting and coming home.” Yes I kind of got to that point in my anger that I wanted to go home.
After that I sort of unpacked and put everything I brought into the middle of my floor to unpack, but I was still to angry so I grabbed a Chu-hi (vodka and fruity drink) and went to bed.
It didn’t get any better the next day. It was pouring rain and showed no signs of stopping. So I thought I could get some stuff done in the morning. I was up early and headed to the bank. Unfortunately when I got there I was missing a form that had some information on it so I couldn’t do that. Then I found out that there was a typhoon warning for the area so all my classes were cancelled, but I still had to go in to do an office day. So I had to walk 30 minutes in the rain to my school where I spent the next 5.5 hours working on lessons and just getting familiar with the area.
When that was over I headed back to the empty apartment. Where there would be no one to unwind with and no Internet to connect with people back home.
So all of that combined made it the worst day of my year in Japan. I did break down and cry three times. Once on my way to the school, the other time when I got back to the apartment all alone and frustrated and the third time when I found the card and letter stuffed into my suitcase by mom. It really hit me that I was missing home and that I wouldn’t see some people for a year.
But then I realized that I should organize my stuff from the pile that I had left on the floor from the previous night. So I put on my Broadway/Musicals playlist and got to work. I went through and sort of arranged my stuff into places that I knew they made sense to me and made lists of things that I needed to buy to make it more organized and more like home (not that it could ever be, because home has Mom & Dad, Isaac and Jorge and Ebony and all my friends who I miss so badly). But the good thing is that giving myself that task I started to miss home a little less.
Then something awesome happened I was able to use gmail chat to talk with home. So I spent a good hour on there chatting with Mom and realizing that things will get better. The nice thing too was that it finally stopped raining. It really brightened me up… and so did watching Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man when it was time for me to go to sleep.
So I’ve had one period of missing home and missing the comforts that come easily from having lived in the same place for 24 years.
But as always I will miss it.
I hope you didn't mind this kind of sad whiny blog, but hey it's life and that's what happens.
Next up a little bit about the apartment and a photo of my sweet new wheels!
AND NOW A BONUS UPDATE!!!
I GOT THE INTERNET SORTED and NOW I AM FULLY BACK ONLINE!!
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