and now we're off

internet at home! what a brilliant idea...
got it hooked up today with the help of a vice principal.. the NTT (phone company) guy showed up and brought in the line and the adapter and said something in Japanese about not being the person to hook up the internet. So i thought, hey, no problem.. i'm computer savy.. i can hook this thing up. Opened the instruction booklet and started following along with the pics, ignoring all the japanese scribbles..no go.. got stuck on the third picture..some sort of fault occured..but i couldn't understand what..very irritating to have the capability but not the ability to accomplish something.
but now it's up and running and is at a decent speed.
if anyone has Skype, let me know. My nickname is huliganjetta and i will have microphone and headphones in a couple of days. i'm also considering establishing a phone number with a Wisconsin area code for Skype so that anyone without the software could call while i'm on-line, or leave a voicemail if i'm not. brilliant, eh? (that's a mix of british and canadian for ya)
very few american JETs on Okinawa. I'm making friends with aussies, kiwis, brits, canadians, and there's even a woman from Turkey somewhere on the island. No russians, i'm afraid.. there's only a handful in the JET program and they're all on the mainland.

Block 1 had a party on saturday. First we had an athletic event that took place at a children's playground like i've never seen before. Huge constructions, made it really challenging and fun. We raced in teams and unfortunately my team did not win, but we finished at a very strong last place. :)))

Then off to the beach and grilling. Swam in the ocean for the first time. The water was quite cool because of the departing typhoon that never hit, and there were still some waves. Very nice swim.

Later there was eating and drinking and off to the bar for a late night cocktail.
The bar, interestingly enough (for anyone with any hebrew knowledge) is called "Sababa," and for others not in the know, it means "all good" or "cool" or "allright!" ..kind of like "dajobu" on Okinawa.
The owner is a Japanese surfer dude who lived and worked in Tel-Aviv for a few months. Very nice establishment with a full size pool table and fussball table.
Fun was had. I lost several games of pool and won two..

check out my photos website..the link is provided on the right. Now that i have home access, i'll be putting up all the ones i've taken so far.

cheers