真岡!

Tonight I did something I had imagined I wouldn't be able to do until ten years from now: I finished paying off my student loans. Entirely thanks to a wholly unanticipated and incredibly generous gift, the burden of debt was prematurely lifted from my shoulders and I found myself confronted with a staggering sensation of freedom.

But wait. It gets better.

On Thursday evening, May 8, I received a phone call from Mr. Steve Bishop of Glendora, California's Sister-City Program informing me of my acceptance for the position of Assistant English Teacher (AET) in Moka City, Japan. The program sends six Americans overseas each year to teach English in one of six junior high schools in Moka, providing the AETs with housing, airfare to and from the country, a generous salary, medical and dental benefits...even a bicycle to ride to school in the morning. On top of all this, my dear friend Josiah was also accepted for the program, meaning that I will not only have the opportunity to live in an exciting new place and experience another culture for a year (at least), but that I will be able to share these things with someone whom I'm already close to.

So there you have it: in four months I will be living in Japan, working at the job of my dreams and encountering people, things, ideas, and places that I now can't even begin to anticipate. Until then, I'll enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about student loans. To boot, I also happen to be single, childless, lacking of any major investments, real estate, or basically anything that requires dramatic overseeing or concern on my part. My oh my. What a place to be.

The purpose of this blog then, I suppose, is not just to reflect gratuitously on the amazingness of my current situation, but also to posit this little question: when given three and a half solid months of absolute uninhibited freedom, but also very little money with which to explore it, what should one do? Find a crummy summer job so as to save up a little pocket change for that first month abroad? Say to hell with it and move to Monterrey, CA or some other not-very-exotic-but-still-interesting place to spend the time writing and working at some crummy job that pays the rent but allows no pocket change for the first month in Japan? Or something else that I haven't even considered?

I don't think anyone ever reads this blog whom I don't love. The very fact that you do read it, despite the fact that I seldom have anything interesting in insightful to say, makes you all the dearer to me. And so your input is valuable to me here. Or lack of input, even. I just love you so gosh darn much.

*Translation of title: "Moka!"