Finale Friday

I just finished unpacking the last two rooms of our house. What alot of work this past week has been. Erase that. What alot of work the past few months has been. Hard to believe that just 4.5 months ago Matt accepted a position that would move us to Japan. But we are here. Our stuff is here. And now we are ready to start decorating and making this really into our home.

So just a few things that have been going on this past week. Now that we are finally getting settled I can really start blogging some good stuff. (Well after this post)

• The kids are really settling into the school, new friends and in Emily's case, gymnastics. While I know they are still having some adjustments,they are doing way better than I anticipated. The school is way different than we thought it would be. Not a bad different, just different. The classes are accelerated past where we were in NC, lots of projects and lots of homework. The teachers are fun, yet strict.
• Through all the packing, I managed to do a few fun things this week. I went to lunch with 3 other Cat expats, one which arrived last week. It was nice getting to know them better. Yesterday morning I met Ilena for coffee/tea (she is awesome, BTW) and then I attended a PTA meeting. This morning I attended my first photography class, and can I just say I am pumped to go back next week. It has 4 different sessions, and while I only planned on signing up for the first two, I think I will do the other two. And no, the French photographer leading the class has nothing to do with it. :-) Now if I can just remember to back up all my pics to my hard drives before next week's class.
  
• Tomorrow Matt and I are going to brave a car dealership. Someone told us of one on Port Island that has two English speaking salesmen. So we are heading there with our fingers crossed that they have something for us. The whole car process is already a nightmare, we really don't want to have to go to a Japanese car auction to get one (this is what most Cat people do). And while we are on Port Island we will have to stop by Ikea. Can't be in the same area and not stop, right?
• We had an offer for someone to rent our house. Unfortunately their credit rating was about a -20 (according to our realtor that is not much of an exaggeration) so we had to decline them.
  
• Tonight there is a goodbye dinner for one of the managers who is going back to the States next week. He was actually Matt's boss's boss when we lived in NC so Matt has worked with him for almost 3 years. Since Emily won't be home until 9ish from gymnastics practice I am skipping the dinner and meeting up with Matt and everyone for drinks afterwards. My first night out. I am excited.
  
• I talked with several of my friends back in the states this week. I miss them. But only 4 months and we will be back for home leave. And as we know, time flies.
  
• The kids get a week off for spring break, so we decided to jump on our first vacation while living here. We will be spending a week in Hong Kong. Air travel is more expensive than we anticipated so when we found a good price we decided to grab it. The weather at the end of March should be in the 80s, so perfect for a spring vacation.
  

So that is a bit of our week in a nutshell. Nothing exciting. But as I sit here and think about what may lie ahead I get excited. Who knows what the future holds for us over the next 3 years, but whatever it is, I am sure will be amazing. And who knows, maybe someday I will get it all put on paper.