Jean Of mArc

All my anticipating has just become a reality: I am now in the land of the rising sun! Actually, I’ve been here for four days now, but my days have been so packed I’ve not yet had the time to write anything about it. However, sitting here in my new apartment where I will begin my new life, I finally have a bit of time to sit down and share my tale. Here’s the story:

On Friday, July 24th, us future JETs had an orientation at a Hilton hotel in Montreal. There, we were pumped up to go, had some practical advise on lesson planning, got our passports back, and discussed some last-minute details. In my opinion, the most useful was the lesson planning because it gave us a chance to take some ideas, make a lesson plan and activity out of it, and then present it to the other JETs. The advice on how to evaluate it were pretty good too: is it interactive? does it get everyone involved? what do we learn from it? After every group had had a chance to present, the ideas were compiled into a document by Mrs. Giroux, who will soon provide it for us all.

Afterwards, I dropped by the bank to pick up some yen, and then headed back to Tristan’s, where the Bixi bike was STILL located, to get my stuff so I could head over to the hotel, which is by the airport. The hotel was called (and probably still is called) “Aloft Airport Hotel”. It was a very differen hotel than anthing I’d been in before: it had thin neon lights along the side, the reception desk was in the center and was round, the floor was made of different-coloured squares, the bar had each bottle in its own lit box behind the counter and they had different colours, it had futuristic furniture (although technically that’s impossible since it exists now, but you know what I mean), and was playing electronica/dance music in the lobby and hallways (not too loud though). The rooms were pretty stylistic too. But none of that mattered because I was quite tired, and it was time to go to sleep during the afternoon to start the battle against jet lag. I went to bed at about 4:00 PM… but then woke up at about 7:45 PM and could not get back to sleep. And when I woke up, that was the beginning of my looooong night.

I walked over to another hotel nearby which had a restaurant called “Eclipse”. I liked that because it reminded me of a good Java IDE, but I’m probably the only one that thought of that when going there because I’m a geek. Looking at the menu, I realized that it might be my last chance to have certain kinds of meals, so I got a Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich and some Nachos. They were both excellent (although on the the pricey side): the Sandwhich was almost as good as Ben’s was (though not QUITE as good), and the Nachos were piled high with lots of chunky btoppings; exactly the way they should be. The only thing I didn’t like about them was that they already had salsa on them under the cheese. I know this is a controversial topic, but personally I don’t like having salsa on the chips because it makes them soggy quite quickly. I prefer the dip method when it comes to salsa. Call me a heretic if you wish.

Afterwards there really wasn’t very much for me to do. It was about 10:00 PM after I left the restaurant (I really took my time there), so I still had 10 hours until we were meeting up at the airport. I decided to go for a ride on the airport shuttle. There was really no reason to, but it was just an old man going around and around with no passengers, so I hopped on and provided some company for a round. Then I got out and went back to my room, but it was only about 10:30 PM. 9 1/2 hours left.

I spent most of the time watching some movies, writing some stuff, playing Xplorers online (basically Settlers of Catan) and basically trying to make the most of the time. My view was kind of neat because I could watch planes take off. But by 4:00 AM I was ready to give in and just go to sleep for a few hours, but I knew that might ruin it, so I managed to push myself. I left for the airport at 7:00 AM expecting to be the first one there. To my surprise, however, one of the girls from the team was already there! I chatted with her for a bit while other JETs started showing up.

After a while of Air Canada employees arguing amongst themselves trying to get us all organized and out of the way, we said our goodbyes (well, the people whose families were there said their goodbyes; I said goodbye only to Mrs. Giroux, the program director from Montreal) and we were off to Vancouver. I can’t really recall much about that trip though, since I think I passed out on the runway, woke up every time they were offering some water or juice, and then I woke up when we arrived in Vancouver. I was told the trip was 5 hours, but for me it was about 30 minutes. Then we had to get out to transfer over to our next flight, which would be twice as long as the previous one. After having one last subway sub, we met up with some of the other JETs from Alberta, and we were on our way to Japan.

The flight was kind of long, as expected, but it didn’t feel too bad for me. Because it was now 6:00 AM in Japan, I decided to stay awake since I had to act like it was day time now. The interesting thing, though, was that because we were heading west the whole way, the sun never got ahead of us, and we were always smack dab in the middle of the sun’s light location on Earth. And because I saw the sun rise in Montreal at 5:00 AM July 25th, and it fell at about 8:00 PM July 26th in Tokyo, I was able to see the sun for a total of 26 hours straight. Needless to say, my biological rhythms were a bit off.

On the ride to Japan, I was sitting next to a Japanese man who was a Doctor of Meteorology. I was able to speak with him a bit in Japanese, and whenever I was stuck he would switch to English. He was in Canada on a 1 week business trip, and was returing home to Kyoto. He says that his work involves a lot of travel around the world.

Along the way I only slept for an hour: I stayed up for the rest, either chatting tiwh other JETs, or playing cards with them, or watching the on-board TV screen, or listening to iPod, or anything else to keep myself busy. Having done it for 10 hours at a hotel before, it was even easier to do it wither others around who all had to do the same thing. Of course, every once in a while I’d get up and walk around.

I’m not sure, but I think the flight crew was addicted to serving drinks, because they came around and did it, it felt like, about every half hour. But hey, when you’re on a 10 hour plane ride and that’s your job, I guess you really want to do it!

Eventually we were getting close to the Narita airport, and everyone was getting excited. I was lucky in my seat placement, because I was able to see quite well from where I was. I took some videos that I’ll upload soon of our arrival. Upon landing, the JETs on the plane all started cheering and and clapping. We were all quite genki to be there: after months of anticipation, we had finally arrived.

To be continued…

I know I’m kind of jumping around in time like a time traveller here, as in, this post is not the sequel to the NS trip as promised before, I know a number of people are curious about the status of my being in Japan. Well as of my writing this, I am not there yet. But here’s the journey to get there.

The last few days before leaving were busy, but also calm and bitter-sweet. I got to spend a lot of time with my dog Tigger, which was very important to me. He has been my dog since I was about 12, so he is 12 years old now himself, which is pretty old for a dog. Factor in that I’ll be gone for maybe 2 years, and there’s the possibility that I may not get to see him again. This is of course saddening for me; saying goodbye to man’s best friend. However, it was a good goodbye because I was able to walk him every day, take him to Papa & Gam’s (my grandparents’ house, which he loves going to), and play around with him. I also gave him more treats than usual. Although he doesn’t understand what’s going on, it was great to see him active and enjoying life during what may be my last time with him.

Also during this period, my parents spent most of the time at the cottage, and weren’t home very much, which gave me a lot of time to chat and eat with my grandparents. Growing up I spent a lot of time with them and sleeping over at their place, so this was also an nostalgic experience.

Finally, I got to hang out with my brother, sister, Father, Mom, Andrew, Peter and Cecil before I left. I basically got to see everyone in Halifax that I was hoping to before heading out!

And it was great to have Masashi, Yuko and James at the airport as well for the send off. We got there early, so we were able to hang out and chat for about an hour before I went past security. There were some tears from some of the women in the crowd, and it made me feel a bit guilty for leaving. However, this has been a dream for 4 years now, and it is finally coming to past, and I’m very excited. I will miss everyone here at home though.

So off I went! The plane trip to Montreal was (THANKFULLY!) uneventful, as was the taxi ride to Tristan’s, who is graciously letting me stay at his abode until my departure.

Today I rented a bike at one of those Bixi rent-a-bike stands that are all over Montreal. We rode down the streets to the market place, which is like a huge farmer’s market which happens every day it seems. A lot of people would like it, I think, especially those who like fresh, local food (like me!) And they have free samples: one of my favourite things!!

Unfortunately, the Bixi bike stand was not very good to me, and wouldn’t accept the bike I was returning. I called the technical support line, to which they asked me to “take the bike home until we can pick it up”. It’s not an elegant solution by any means. So I had to babysit (bikesit?) this thing and lug it around the marketplace while getting strange looks from passers by. Then I had to take it back to Tristan’s place, and I called them to tell them where it is, but here it still sits. Bixi, if you’re reading this blog, please come get your bike.

Tonight, JET held a banquet at the Consult General of Japan’s house. It was great to meet up with the JETs who were at the orientation, as well as those who were unable to make it. There are a surprising amount of participants from the Maritimes going out this year (including 2 others from Acadia!) as well as a surprising amount coming from Florida. Well, there’s only 1 of those, but that’s a surprising amount for a Canadian send-off. She was born in Canada but grew up in the States… but never switched her citizenship. Anyhow, because everyone has been asking me “how many of you are going (from Montreal)?” and I’ve always said “I’m not sure… 15 of us?” I have a more definite answer for you: 23 of us, hand-selected by the rigorous JET selection process. Those are their words, and not mine just to make us more exclusive.

We were taken to the house in Westmont, where we got to meet the Consult General, a man with a humble and gentle demeanor. There were speeches all around that made us feel proud and got us pumped up, followed by a delicious buffet of unspeakable delights. Well, they are speakable, but I can’t remember what each delectable thing was called. So let’s say a large selection of well-prepared meat, with salad, noodles, rice and curry. There was also some other interesting, though deadly to me, seafood dishes. I can’t really comment on their taste though.

The dinner was intended to last until 8:00 PM, but it ended up going until about 9:00 (or so). We were just having a great time getting to know each other, and ask each other over and over “so where are you headed?” to which someone would reply “(Japanese city name)” to which person 1 would ask “where’s that?” to which person 2 would say “(prefecture of city mentioned)” to which person 1 would say “Ah! That place!…. Where’s that?” to which person 2 would explain it. Then person 3 would join in the conversation and say to person 1 “so where are you headed?” Of course, this was because everyone was interested in each other, not just because we couldn’t think of anything else to say!

Afterwards we took a bus back, and we have another orientation in the morning tomorrow. However, it is 3:50 AM and I am still awake. Why? Let me tell you why:

I am trying to fight off the evils of jet lag by preparing for it in advance. As Mitchell put it, I’m doing a “Jet Lag Pre-emptive Strike”. Simply put, I’m staying up late tonight so that I’m really tired tomorrow during the day. Why? Good question! It’s so that I can go to a hotel and sleep the whole day after the morning orientation. Why? Well, that’s the same question as before, but I’ll humour you: because then I can easily stay up all night. “BUT WHY?” you say? I’m going to tell you: so that I can sleep again during the day on the plane, and stay up during the night. I hope you’re piecing this together: Japan is on the other side of the world, so day here is night there and vice versa. Therefore: if I’m already sleeping during the day here and awake during the night there, what is it going to be like there? The answer… is out there.

Anyhow, that’s pretty much the update.

Oh, and if you have Skype, could you please send me an e-mail and tell me your Skype name so I can add you? And if you DON’T have Skype, could you please install it and then make a username and then follow the steps at the beginning of this paragraph? Thanks.

That’s it my friends! I will update you more soon. If I can. Maybe. Yes, for sure maybe.

Before I begin this post, it has come to my attention that some people think that I am already out in Japan. I can understand the confusion though, so here’s some clarification on this issue:
June 27th was my last day in the valley, but not in Nova Scotia. I left the valley on the 27th in order to come visit Mitch & Anastasia in Hollywood, California. However, I will be coming back to Halifax on July 9th, and will be there until July 22nd when I leave for Montreal. In Montreal I have a few pre-departure orientations. Then on July 25th, I will be leaving for Tokyo, Japan for a big orientation for all JETs worldwide. Then finally on July 29th, I will be heading to Hirosaki, Japan, where I will begin my new life as an Assistance Language Teacher at Hirosaki High School. There, that should save everyone some confusion!

Now, right before leaving to LA, Solveig and I had the chance to borrow my parents’ vehicle and take a trip to various points in Nova Scotia. A trip around your home province may not seem that exciting, but hey, I don’t usually have a car, so it was something new! This trip was important to us because even though I am coming back to Nova Scotia after this current trip I am on, Solveig will no longer be there because she is currently on a cultural exchange in Kazakhstan, and won’t be coming back until after I am in Japan. Therefore, this was our last chance to spend some time with each other before webcams become our main mode of communication.

We sort of made up the trip as we went along. On Monday, Solveig, Mark, Yuko, Kasheena and I first went to the Oakland Farms Zoo, where the world’s largest known lion recently passed away. It’s actually probably the best zoo I’ve been to, having been to ones in Calgary, Hong Kong and Florida. Why? Because:

1. There are no lines for anything anywhere.
2. If the animals are friendly enough to approach, you are allowed to go right up to them and give them a hug or whatever (ie. no cage or fence between you and the animal).
3. They had loads of animals, both local and exotic: ponies, camels, ostriches, cougars, lions, goats, monkeys, raccoons, you name it. No giraffes though.
4. The animals there, at least on the day we went, were actually very exciting. Often you go to a zoo and the animals are sitting around with nothing to do. But at this zoo, the monkeys were swinging and playing, the panthers were knocking a ball around a pool, the ostriches were running around, the goats were eating out of people’s hands.
5. Most animals have a pretty nice area to roam around in. In some zoos I’ve been to the animals literally had concrete floors to run around on. Here they often had a large area to explore. Not as big as in Florida, but still quite nice.
6. The entry cost for students is 3.50$. Can’t complain about that!

Pictures of the animals will come as soon as I get them!

Then we all went down to good ol’ Digby, home of scallops and Cecil Wetmore (sing the song!). The day was rather cloudy, but reasonably scenic none-the-less. We stopped for lunch at the harbour, and took turns using our serviettes as sailor hats. That previous statement may require more explanation, but I’m not sure what more to say about it. I would like to show you some pictures, however I am not currently on my own computer, so I don’t have them uploaded to show you. Again, you’ll just have to imagine the places for now!

Next we continued along the Digby Neck. We were disappointed to find out that you can’t really see the ocean for most of the way down. On a map it looks so long and thin that you’d have ocean on either side of you, but don’t be fooled!! It’s mostly just trees. However, eventually we came to a spot where you must load up onto a ferry. However we decided not to, and instead pulled over to take a look around. It was actually quite a nice view of a long stretch of island. There were many levels, and the colourful houses were raised just above the sea. To our right, off in the distance and up high at a peak, stood a proud lighthouse to warn ships about the islands’ presence on foggy days (and this was just such a day). On our side was a dockhouse of some sort that seemed almost abandoned, though I was later proven wrong when I heard party music coming from it.

Solveig was in some sort of mini-paradise because as we walked along towards the ferry there were many lobster traps along the way. When the ferry returned from the other side, we decided to hop aboard. We didn’t take the car, we just walked on it and waited for it to cross. And it was during this time that the down-pour started. It was a wet ride across to the island, both because of the rain, and because Solveig and I were standing at the bow getting splash by the water. The ferry was very low-rise, so the water splashed up pretty high. We asked them how much time we had, and they said that the ferry would leave again at 6:00. On the other side we walked along the roads of the town… it was definitely and indoor day, as we saw no one else outside of their car. They probably thought we were crazy coming out all this way just to walk in on the deserted streets of a fishing village on a rainy day. If they didn’t think that was strange, they at least had a good laugh at our expense. Especially when we asked Solveig what time it was, and she said 6:00, so all five of us began running towards the ferry yelling “Wait! Don’t go!”, but we made it aboard. Then I looked at my cell phone’s watch, and it said that it was only 5:50, meaning that we looked even more ridiculous running towards the ferry. Either way the sailors (ferryers?) were very nice to us and let us sit in a heated room to warm up on the way back.

And that concludes this episode of Nova Scotia Trip 2009. Stay tuned for the exciting sequel, affectionately called “Tuesday”.