Back at Work after a week in Yokohama

I'm at school really early today for our state-wide entrance exams. I luckily don't need to mark them (most teachers will be here from 7am until midnight!!), but it means a full day of sitting in the staff room without much to do. Looks like the Hyogo Times (the newsletter I write for) is going to actually get their article early - and maybe even two! - this month. At least the tests mean we also get really fancy bento (box lunches) provided by school, as well.

Anyways, I know I have a lot of catching up to do on here, but I feel like I can hardly remember last Saturday, let alone what I've been doing the last few weeks. I actually just got back from AJET meetings (National Non-profit I am on the national council for) all day Saturday and Sunday and then a CLAIR conference in Yokohama (near Tokyo) for people returning to America soon. 

Once the AJET stuff was officially over and I finished my last long run on Saturday morning (Tokyo Marathon is next week - ahh!), it was all about the conference.  Met people for meetings all week, random dinner jaunts around Chinatown and finally a night out with an acquaintance from New Zealand who manages a restaurant here and a really awesome friend from college. 

 

I thought the conference was really interesting and offered a lot of good information (resume help, panel discussions with successful and prominant individuals from all over the world, career information, grad school advice, etc), but more than anything, it was really beneficial to pair with people similar to myself who have been living in Japan for a while and are preparing to make the move back to a western country.