Not so last minute preparations

So the travel agent’s finally told us when we leave for Trinidad. (Have to stop over there before I make my way to Japan.) On July 31st at some ungodly hour of morning I will be at the airport. Between the early morning check-ins and the jet lag, I think they trying to kill me. Then the million hour Tokyo Marathon – um I mean Orientation at the end??? “I say a likkle prayer for me!”

Right now I am trying to get prepped. I was on track and then I got a job marking papers for CXC- which is the Caribbean’s equivalent of SAT or Cambridge exams. It’s only til the end of the week, but when you only have 2 weeks and a few days, a week is a long time. Plus considering I have known where I was going and what I would need since May, I really should be completely ready and packed at this stage. I am not! I have thrown some stuff in my suitcase- underwear and about 2 T-shirts, deoderant, cream, and toothpaste. Clearly that is not all I need to survive a year in Japan.

So today I went and bought some cloth to make a suit and a dress - for a grand total of 2 suits and 1 dress. Lol! Yeah, I know I really making progress towards a whole year of clothing right? I got some stickers for my kids too, because my predecessor on the program said that the kids love it when they get stickers for stuff. I have 2 packs of 270, maybe I should get more. On the upside I really don’t need to buy that much stuff. I am sure I am mostly covered clotheswise, if I would actually take the time to go through my closet. I don’t want to take too much summer clothes, since my town is fall and winter 10 months of the year.

I also need to pick up my hello presents for my Supervisor and my Principal. It seems that this is a time-honoured JET tradition born out of a perversion of Japanese culture. But since it’s been done by my predecessor, heaven forbid I turn up as the only new JET since Adam with no hello presents. I want to get a combination of something nice out of mahogany, a bottle of Mount Gay (which is a Barbadian Rum and also the oldest brand in the world) and a Rihanna CD (also Bajan). For the teachers I’ll work with I am thinking sugar cakes and guava cheese (Bajan sweets) but I want to wait til a later closer to the time to get food stuffs. Oh and I have to get something nfor the neighbours. Probably some snacks as well but I'd like to get them something of substance too.

Despite the fact that I am pretty prepared, I still somehow feel a bit- um stressed??? Like I’ll run out of time or something. It’s hard to believe I’ll only have a week to say goodbye to friends and family. This JET programme is harder on the mind than anything else.