The weekend rolls around again

The end of a fairly slow working week. It wasn't particularly notable in terms of things to do, but since word has got round that I am leaving, everyone seems to be particularly eager to get a piece of me. I've had requests this week for 7 school visits, 2 speeches, and 1 interpreting gig, which will probably be my last act as Shiogama's CIR. Couple that with the development of a new picture gallery for the city's website as well as the weekly English evening classes, and I'm going to be very busy for my last 2 months here. Not a bad thing by any means. I guess it's kind of the nature of the job to go in peaks and troughs...山あり谷あり、ってやつだな。

News is also in of my replacement, who is to be a 22-year old Japanese-American girl out of California. A Poli-Sci grad from UCLA, apparently. I spent most of Thursday translating her profile and statement for our office; not entirely sure that I should have been given it to look at, but the concept of confidential information does not appear to be particularly widespread here. There was something slightly odd about going through all the welcome letters and writing in my name for "Leaving CIR". It felt kind of like writing my own obituary...?

I've also been attempting to get to grips with the many-headed hydra that is the US immigration system. Apparently there was a minor problem with my application for an I-20 (form needed to apply for a F-1 student visa) at Columbia and that'll be delayed. In the meantime, I've made an appointment at the US Embassy in June to have the interview ("Mr. Tuck, are you or have you ever been a member of Al-Qaeda?"). The degree of detail required is pretty daunting; I had to list all the countries I had been to in the last 10 years, which took some thought. Needless to say, Japan featured quite prominently, and so did Belgium, mystifyingly enough.

This weekend brings a shopping trip to Yodobashi Camera for the eagerly awaited digital camera, and a big everybody-who's-anybody-style party in Sendai Saturday night, which will no doubt lead to the regulation debauchery. I'll check in again on Monday...