I leave Minneapolis VERY EARLY Friday morning (I have to get up at 4:30 - yuck) and get to Detroit before noon. Yup, I have to fly EAST to Detroit before I fly WEST to Osaka. Crazy. From Detroit I start my 14-hour flight to Osaka. I'm hoping the flight isn't as crowded (overbooked) as my flight last spring to Tokyo. It'd be nice to have some room to stretch. After 14 hours of bad sleep and movies that I've probably already seen, I'll land in Osaka about 5PM on Saturday. School representatives will meet me and the two other trainees who are on my flight, and we'll forward our big pieces of luggage to our individual branch schools. Then we have to take a local train to Osaka Station, where we'll transfer to the shinkansen (bullet train) to Okayama City. (Dad will be so jealous!) I don't know what time we'll finally arrive at the training center, but I do know that I'll probably be ready for a good 10-12 hours of sleep!
The company has nothing planned for us on Sunday, so we can do whatever we want. Like I mentioned below, I'm meeting my friend. Of course, the forecast calls for rain, so we may not get much sightseeing done. Training starts Monday and goes through either Friday or Saturday.
BTW, my back continues to feel good - I had no pain at all today, and I even got to exercise for 20 minutes! Yay!
Guess that's all for now. Kinda strange to be writing at my computer in the US for the last time! Sayounara!!
November 18, 2002
I started my countdown at 100 days, and now I only have 4 days to go before I leave! Wow. The last couple months have been up and down, though. My lower right back started hurting in mid-September (for unknown reasons), and last week was the worst it’s ever been - I couldn’t even bend over to tie my shoes, ‘cause it was so painful. I stayed in bed all day last Wednesday and Thursday but didn’t have any noticeable improvement, so I went to urgent care on Friday for x-rays. They didn’t really find anything but think that it’s a problem with my SI joint, which is where the spine meets the pelvic bone. The doctor gave me some new medicine and recommended that I see the physical therapist in the same building. So I had a 40-minute PT session, went home and took the new pill, and about 1.5 hours later, I was 90% better! Woo-hoo! I’ve felt only very weak pain since then, so hopefully, I’m good to go....I’ve already been off the ice for 3 weeks because of the pain, so I’m really itchin’ to go back. It’s so frustrating! I have another PT session tomorrow, so we’ll see what he says about skating.
On a happier note, my mom and I are about 80% done packing, and it looks like we’ll have to ship a lot less stuff than we originally thought, so yay! Also, one of my Japanese friends will meet me in Okayama City on Sunday to take me sightseeing and back to her house, so I have something to look forward to right away!
That’s all for now...there’s still a lot to do today!!
Mata ne (until later),
Kelly