Hisashiburi

I'm sorry for the length of time that has passed with no update. I'm doing well, I've been busy. Last week we had Saturday off in lieu of a holiday. My friend Ayako, Patrick and myself went up to Kyoto, we also met some other friends (Keri, Jo, and Candace) -- I'd just like to say that I feel like i'm typing a 5th grade essay about my summer vacation-- we had a great time.

We were so hard core! It actually took us a while to get out of the station. A) we had to make reservations and what not, then we were hungry and then we just flat couldn't figure out where to get out. We finally made it out and hopped on a bus to Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) it was beautiful. However I did have a little mishap with the bus...I went to pay the 220 yen but all I had was a 500 yen piece. I screwed up and instead of putting it in the change thing I dropped it in the pay hole... Not good. The bus driver had to give me all my change back in 10 yen pieces... yep, thats 280 yen in 10 yen pieces. Awesomeness. He could have kept it, honestly. It was totally worth it though the place was beautiful! We went to many other temples and shrines on Sunday as well. Everything was gorgeous, I'm not kidding. We met up with Jo, Candace and Keri on Sunday night and had dinner. Have I mentioned yet that we literally had pasta for every meal except 1? Cause we did. It was good, but very unjapanese.
On Monday we totally overslept and didn't checkout on time which resulted in like a 50 dollar fee. Whooops. But then we saw Patrick off, and all the girls continued on. We only went to one more shrine, as we got there we saw a scooter wreck. It was so scary! They sideswiped each other and one stopped but the other flipped. It was awful. I think he ended up being ok, he was ok enough to sit up to wait for the ambulance. But on a lighter note, this place had 4km of vermilion torii gates. it was amazing! I bought a kimono-ish thing, for 5 bucks.
hopefully if you click this link, you'll be able to see my pictures. That other website sets a limit to how many pictures I can upload per month. Lame...

http://greenville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008185&l=275f7&id=152400334

Anyway. This week I had follow-up training. I thought it was going to be boring, but it was sooo much fun! It was good to see everyone again as well as meet awesome new people. Loved it! The place was pretty isolated so we were comparing it to the hotel in the Shining, minus the snow. At lunch we were talking about who would be the one to go crazy... we decided Kurt, one of the trainers...then during my personal interview with him, he leans in and says "do you hear voices" It was hilarious! I did hear the voices so it was ok, but had I not heard them I would have taken off running. They had fish for 3 out of 4 meals (dinner, breakfast, lunch). I was really hungry the whole time. It still makes me gag to think everyone ate that fish. Yuck.

Ok, time to hop in the shower, I'm going to Hiroshima! bye now!