Hola California!

Posting a brief update to let you all know that I have arrived safe & sound in my temporary Orange County home. The weather here is gorgeous, 80 degrees and sunny, which has been adding quite a bit of joy to my otherwise chore filled week: I have been trying to get everything sorted for school start/my move to Berkeley and I am quite please with the progress, as you can see I am a real California resident now with both a CA license and new plates for the Super Focus (which of course from know on will be known as the Super Cali Focus...).

I already miss Japan terribly and I am having the strangest jet-lag/withdrawal symptoms such as craving Granola at exactly 3.30 in the afternoon (which is 7.30 AM in Japan, my standard breakfast time there...) and almost crying in the deli section of the local Vons at the sight of their take-out Sushi (unfortunately un-related to Japanese Sushi...) On a side note, I am sure that Mini Stop combini store chain management has called a special emergency conference to discuss why sales in the northern part of Chiba-ken are suddenly falling drastically.

Another fun little activity of mine here in the OC has been dogsitting my sister's dog Jackie (that's her right here). She's a fun and slightly crazy little dog. I have been keeping up on my running schedule and for anyone looking to spice up their work outs I can highly recommend adding a 2 year old Jack Russell and a wild life running trail...


Finally, I have of course been doing due diligence when it comes to following the Soccer Worldcup and I have on several occasions gotten quite the kick out of knowing that while I am watching the games here, my friends in Japan, Denmark, Germany, UK, Ireland, Seattle, Brazil are watching as well. For the Germany-Argentina quarter finals, I joined my sisters housemate Chris as he headed to Huntington Beach's German Village "Old World" for an 8AM soccer party that included plenty of beer, sausages and happy Germans. Alas, after today I guess we will no longer be going back there for the final, which means that I'll also be missing out on the Dachshund Race oh well... :)

Next up is brief trip to Berkeley to look for housing -- no idea how that is going to work out yet, but, I am out-of-control excited about being going to check out the place that will be my home for the next two years, so stay tuned, more news to come!