:Japan )

The first leg of the journey has started. Nashville has been left behind and I am now writing from a hotel in a satellite city of New Orleans (Kenner). Everything has been going well so far. I was able to get many items on my list completed in the last couple of days of packing which I thought was going to be virtually impossible. Then there was the emotional send off from the parents…mainly Mom. Kinda sad but had to be done

Just as I was feeling everything would be smooth from there on out, I find out that I was one of the lucky ones to get the full TSA search. Unfortunately for me there was some new lady working and didn’t know all the proper procedures which of course threw the whole operation into disarray. I wouldn’t have known this lady was new except for each of the other people cussing her out under their breath as I moved to each little station in the search. I’m just one more to add to the statistic.
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Well it’s been a hectic last couple of days. My bags are probably 98% packed I just need to do some list double-checking tomorrow. It’s gonna be a busy day. My plane will be lifting off for New Orleans on the 29th at 4pm so I’ve got about a day and a half for the last minute stuff. With all the packing and preparations, I don’t think it’s totally dawned on me that in about 3 days I’m going to be in a totally different country…to stay… for a year. Oh geez.

In other news… I had a nice send off dinner with my bro (who I haven’t seen in quite a while), the parents, and my uncle, aunt, and cousin whom I haven’t seen in years. It was a good Mexican place probably my last mexican food for a year.

Argh the more I think about what I have left to do I think of old-school-in-the-lab-all-nighter thoughts….

Well I finally was able to get 2 boxes shipped out before heading to Knoxville yesterday but not before becoming royally pissed at UPS. So you’d think that as an international delivery service (or at least one that touts itself as international) that they’d understand that different countries have different styles of addressing systems. However it seems that their computer system wants to know the street, city, and state when addressing stuff to Japan. That all might seem logical but when Japan addresses things with street, city, district, and then prefecture it make clerks who keep asking for the U.S equivalent look stupid along with the programmers who made UPS’s shipping program.

Ah but after those 10 minutes or so of data entry pass you find out that the 3 options from UPS airmail is ~ $200 +/- $4 !! Of course there is an $89 sea mail option (which you were looking for in the first place) Great! Gimme! Oops now you have to fill out all the stuff you watched the clerk type into the computer by hand on a Customs shipping form… Uh oh what does it say up there at the top? USPS? Grrr.

Lesson learned: Ship your big packages that don’t need to be there for 4-6 weeks directly at the U.S Post Office.

I might give them one more chance to redeem themselves on any smaller packages that I might have if their prices for lighter weight stuff is more reasonable.

Received the digital camera I ordered in the mail today. It’s a relatively cheap 2 megapixel Nikon 2200 (relative to what seems to be the current 3.2 - 4 megapixel standard) but it should be perfect for publishing photos to a weblog. Amazingly I haven’t opened the box yet so I can’t give a first impression review. I know, I know, I failed today as a geek. Oh well one day out of 365.242199 shouldn’t cause the world to explode. I’ll be making a road trip to Knoxville tomorrow so that should be perfect testing grounds for it and maybe a chance to redeem myself.

Speaking of failures… I failed to get anything shipped today. Maybe I’ll be able to do it before leaving tomorrow for Knoxville. Arg.

8 days left before I head to New Orleans for the our Pre-Departure Orientation. The past two days I’ve been getting more stuff (mostly winter clothes) in the mail from on-line orders, de-tagging them, and then packing in boxes. I’ve also gotten a lot of my own personal books boxed up. Tomorrow might finally be the day I get some stuff in the mail!!

Today was not all success, sadly I failed to find thermal underwear today in Target or Wal-mart. I guess I can’t complain too much seeing as it’s still Summer here and stores aren’t stocked with fall or winter clothes (and thus why I ended my search after two shops). I still have 3 months or there about before Winter hits my area so I’m not too worried yet. Speaking of warmth in the Winter, I still have to get copious amounts of Jack Daniel’s in various sizes for use as presents. I have feeling some of the teachers will be glad I’m from Tennessee…lets just hope they like apple butter too

Seeing as how I have 11 days left before I leave the good ole U.S. for Japan for one year or greater, I figure I should start getting into the practice of updating this blog more often. As much as I had intentions of making this website more visually appealing before I left, I wasn’t able to fit it into my schedule so far…so please bare with the ugliness for now. If you are already montioring the site, Welcome! I should be posting everyday until the day of departure and onward.

So to at least make this entry interesting here is a photo of the residence and car I should soon be inhabiting and driving respectively: