Last Will and Testament
No, not mine, but I will explain in a bit. I know what you must be thinking. I have not been able to recount my mundane daily activities for two whole days now. Glenn, you must feel lost in life without my daily blog post (or so I hear). Well, not much has happened I guess. There seems to be people coming over my house now almost daily in an attempt to get my internet up and running. I am not sure if I find it humorous or annoying. First of all, let me say that these people are driving all the way from Kagoshima City (which means a 40 minute ferry ride and an hour and a half car drive) for a futile attempt. It is a bit frustrating to see them just do the same thing over and over agin in the hopes that the next time they do it, it may just work. It never does. Now they say that my computer does not have a floppy drive or some other type of drive. If this is so, I found it odd that they did not notice the other two times they had worked on my laptop. Yesterday, the man even brought and english translator with him to read the messages that popped up in the computer. I feel bad because now I think I don't really need nor want the extra expense of the internet. The people are supposed to be coming to my house again on Friday so I think I may tell my office man before then that I just don't want it anymore. He has been really persistant that they come from all the way over there and has been really stone faced when they look at him and tell him that its not possible. (I think he suspects that the drive excuse they gave last was a bunch of bull crap too.) I think I should make him rice pudding or something.
RED. This is now the color my kitchen. So after walking through the green genkan that beckons you to go, you arrive to the kitchen that screams STOP. I think (now) it looks quite good. At first I thought it looked like someone was murdered in there, but after the paint dried, the finish looked more matted. So I have the red and white checkerboard thing going on the ceiling with a red shelf and wall. All I need to do is add some black borders and I am done.
If I were to have a last will and testament, I think that as of now it would only include Uchinoura Blockbuster which now resides at my home. I think due to my current experience, I would have to leave it to ALTs in the surrounding areas which I know would have a greater appreciation for it than anyone back home. Thanks to my mother I now have several movies and TV shows (and a can of guava paste and electronic pest control units). The reason I do bring up this somber subject is because of what happened to me today. As I got back to the office after spending a VERY ACTIVE day at the Uchinoura Elementary School, they handed me a manila envelope about an inch thick from a lawyer in Seattle. After a bit, they told me that they would like for me to read it and let them know what it was about and what they needed to do. I read it and it was in regards to a woman's last will and testament. About 40 years ago, a woman from Uchinoura married and American and moved to Seattle. About 2 years ago, she died (the husband had died some time before). She had a huge estate; over $1,000,000. She left the Uchinoura Board of Education $90,000. I hope you are thinking what I was thinking when I heard that -- that is more than enough money to provide a nice house or apartment for the ALT. I guess that they found a better purpose for it. In any case, they were a bit afraid that they would have to pay something. Apparently, it was just a settlement of accounts of the deceased woman's money including what was billed by the lawyers and split between the remaining beneficiaries.
Before I go, I must tell you that it is really beginning to get chilly. I have slept the past 2 nights with the air-con off. Everyone keeps on saying that the winters here are intolerably cold because you never have a warm place to be (other than the hot springs). No buildings are insulated which makes it very difficult to retain heat. In any case, I am hoping that I will somehow survive. Whenever someone mentions it, I just imagine how I would truly die if I were placed anywhere north of here. What makes it even worse is that I hear this from the people who were here last year who say that it was the mildest winter in 15 years. Apparently this one will be pretty darn cold because of the early migration of the birds (or something like that).
Well, as always, I hope to hear from you soon. I think that several of you have been lacking in the mail department.
RED. This is now the color my kitchen. So after walking through the green genkan that beckons you to go, you arrive to the kitchen that screams STOP. I think (now) it looks quite good. At first I thought it looked like someone was murdered in there, but after the paint dried, the finish looked more matted. So I have the red and white checkerboard thing going on the ceiling with a red shelf and wall. All I need to do is add some black borders and I am done.
If I were to have a last will and testament, I think that as of now it would only include Uchinoura Blockbuster which now resides at my home. I think due to my current experience, I would have to leave it to ALTs in the surrounding areas which I know would have a greater appreciation for it than anyone back home. Thanks to my mother I now have several movies and TV shows (and a can of guava paste and electronic pest control units). The reason I do bring up this somber subject is because of what happened to me today. As I got back to the office after spending a VERY ACTIVE day at the Uchinoura Elementary School, they handed me a manila envelope about an inch thick from a lawyer in Seattle. After a bit, they told me that they would like for me to read it and let them know what it was about and what they needed to do. I read it and it was in regards to a woman's last will and testament. About 40 years ago, a woman from Uchinoura married and American and moved to Seattle. About 2 years ago, she died (the husband had died some time before). She had a huge estate; over $1,000,000. She left the Uchinoura Board of Education $90,000. I hope you are thinking what I was thinking when I heard that -- that is more than enough money to provide a nice house or apartment for the ALT. I guess that they found a better purpose for it. In any case, they were a bit afraid that they would have to pay something. Apparently, it was just a settlement of accounts of the deceased woman's money including what was billed by the lawyers and split between the remaining beneficiaries.
Before I go, I must tell you that it is really beginning to get chilly. I have slept the past 2 nights with the air-con off. Everyone keeps on saying that the winters here are intolerably cold because you never have a warm place to be (other than the hot springs). No buildings are insulated which makes it very difficult to retain heat. In any case, I am hoping that I will somehow survive. Whenever someone mentions it, I just imagine how I would truly die if I were placed anywhere north of here. What makes it even worse is that I hear this from the people who were here last year who say that it was the mildest winter in 15 years. Apparently this one will be pretty darn cold because of the early migration of the birds (or something like that).
Well, as always, I hope to hear from you soon. I think that several of you have been lacking in the mail department.
posted by Jesse Montano at
3:25 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for satisfying the addiction.
-Glenn
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Anonymous, at 4:54 AM
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