Training is done!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibaraki_Prefecture

Here's the link to the general area we will be living in, the Ibaraki prefecture. Our apartment will be in the town of Tamatsukuri, which is roughly 13,000 people. We haven't seen it yet, but Chris will be doing his interview with his Board of Education in Inashiki tomorrow, and he'll see some of the landscape on his drive down. Wish him luck!

I don't start till the 13th, so I don't know yet when I'll have my interview. These interviews are more for the BoE to get to know our personality and make sure we look presentable and capable. Today we practiced some Japanese, and worked on creating a short, formal introduction to the BoE or principal (and a more fun one for the first day of school when we introduce ourselves at an assembly). I'm feeling pretty good about pronunciation, but of course I need to really memorize my intro because I'll be doing at least 4 or 5 at each school I start at - that's 5 *8, so roughly 40 intros!!!

So for the next few days, we'll be hanging around our hotel in Mito, getting our hankos (signature stamps with a special character that we like or find special meaning in), and maybe doing a few local train trips to check out the region.

Hopefully the next time I post I'll have pictures to post of our area - it's a neat city!

Over and out.