Hello/Goodbye

This is my first entry on the new fistful of chang. Today, I leave the U.S. to go on my Fulbright year. My flight for Japan leaves in a few hours, and hereafter this blog will act as my public log of my travels in Asia.

I just finished what turned out to be a pretty great summer back home in California. It was sort of my California swan song - 3 uninterrupted months at home. The longest time I had been here in 3 years and the longest I will likely be here for many years to come. I worked at Nordstrom (laugh it up, asshole), and made some great friends (andre, ahmad, diana, alice, emi) and reunited with some old ones (christine, sarah, everyone else from high school) along the way that made the summer easier to swallow. It was strange sitting the whole summer in anticipation of the rest of the beginning of the rest of my life. You'd think it would give a guy ample opportunity to prepare for his work. Nope. I'm sitting here at the starting line, and I feel like I forgot to put tires on my car. I should have read another book about kanji. Or at least figured out what's going on in the Japanese economy. Whoops.

Okay, so much for entry one. See ya United States.