The Last Post

Hey everyone.

As you may or may not know, I'm coming back to America tomorrow (as of writing this). So, it's with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Japan.

These past nine months have been some of the most amazing of my life. I've experienced so many things. I've farmed rice, I've gone to Disneyland, I rode Japan's highest rollercoaster. It's been so fantastic. I also got the chance to meet tons of fascinating people and made friends along the way, and I'll miss all of you.

I also had a chance to learn about myself. I figured out what I really wanted. I figured out that I what I thought I wanted in life really wasn't what I wanted at all. It was a bit disillusioning, but it was something that I'm glad happened sooner rather than later.

Really though, this is has been the greatest time of my life. I cannot thank the people involved in this enough. Yukari Okuno, Kensuke Tsutsui, Tamaki Tsutsui, Mr. Tsutsui, Shinobu Koiwai, Haruka Koiwai, Nozomi Koiwai, Grandpa Koiwai, and Mr. Koiwai. I cannot thank you enough for taking me in and treating me like family. I don't think I could've gotten through the year without you. I also want to thank Mr. Akahane for securing my host families and getting me into the school. I want to thank the entire faculty of Matsumoto Misuzugaoka High School for helping me adapt to my surroundings and trying to include me in all of their classes. I also want to thank the entire global rotary community for letting me experience this.

I also want to thank you, the reader for showing your care and support by reading my blog whenever it updates (which admittedly hasn't been very often). But we all must move on. So this is it for this blog, there will be no more updates on this blog. But you can still follow me and what I do at my new blog: The Life and Times of S. Greenfield.

Again. Thank you all...and Goodbye.

Be sure to visit The Life and Times of S. Grenfield.

Monthly recap

First off, A quick recap of the month. First there was cherry blossom viewing. Then my host family and I went to Karuizawa to do some shopping. I bought some very weird shoes there from Puma outlet. After that, the rotary district and I went to Takayama and saw a museum of carriages and some old-style stores. Then we went to Shirakawago where we got to see some of the old-style housing and saw some museums of what it would be like to live there. We finished up the night with a Yakiniku and Karaoke. After that, we went to Kanazawa to see a park and a restored, ancient castle. We finished off with a visit to a famous food-market.

Instead of Posting pictures, I'm just going to link to the Picasa photo album of the whole thing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/otaku9000/Dooodooodod?feat=directlink

Until next time.

University-wise.

Hey everybody.

You may know that now, I'm nearing the end of my senior year at Boulder High School, where I will be graduating from. Like many others, I've been applying to Universities. The stay in Japan has complicated things quite a bit.

I have not been able to get a transcript for this year of school until recently for reasons such as ____________. I have gotten my transcript but unfortunately it was much too late. Not only had I already been rejected or wait-listed from all of my schools, but it was also received by BHS after the final consideration/reconsideration deadlines. Without any documentation of my any actual academic work being done during my senior year, my schools rejected me.

Now, yes it is a bummer, but it's just a little setback for me. I just wanted to let you guys know in case you were still wondering. I'm not sure what I'll be doing for this next academic year, but it'll be alright and I'm planning on re-applying in the Fall.

Well, that's all for now.

Picture Dump

Hey guys. I re-organized my photos, so my Picasa web albums had to be updated and I lost pictures from earlier posts. So I'm just going to put the pictures that were lost (and a couple of extras) in a one post with minimal captions.

First, the flight there and the hotel I stayed at the first night.

At the airport. Jake, Mom, and Dad come to see me off.

In the Plane.

The Hotel.

My Cell phone.

My first trip to Matusmoto castle.

Street performers

My School

Deodorant spray.

Possibly the best name for a company ever.

Left to right: Florian (Germany), Me, Marc (Australia), Christine (Long Island, NY), Anna (Germany)

Here's my first host home.

My Bike.

From the Sunday Nerd fest posts

And Here's my first host mother.

That's all.