CHRISTMAS UPDATE - OR, SOME STUFF FROM THE LAST FOUR MONTHS IN TOKYO

Haven't sat down to write a blog in ages it seems. Indeed, apparently it was almost four months ago that I wrote my first, and so far only, blog from Japan. And now it's past Christmas and I'm trying to get this blog post out before 2015 turns into 2016. Seems like a good day to do so. It's finally started to snow and now it seems properly cold and cozy and winter-like. I like the ice and cold and snow. It's been a chilly 45-55 F in Tokyo and I expect it will be about the same when I get back. Here in White Bear Lake it's about 20-30 F. Much better for winter, and yet not too cold.

There are a couple of reasons I haven't been blogging. One reason is that from August to December we've been marching forward with almost no breaks. It's just been a progression of weeks with winter break as end-goal. There was Silver Week early on, which would have been a five-day weekend except that elementary teachers were at an IB professional development from Sunday to Tuesday, leaving just Wednesday off before classes resumed on Thursday. Silver Week refers to three Japanese holidays that occur very close together at the end of September. Sometimes the stars align and all three holidays come in immediate succession and join with a weekend. 2015 was one of those years. The next is 2026. Thanks CIS for helping me celebrate my first and possibly only five-day Silver Week with extra doses of pedagogy and best practice techniques.

The professional development wasn't all bad though. First of all we got to visit Yokohama for the three-day workshop and and even if it did feel like a bit of an extension of Tokyo, it was somewhere new and exciting for me anyway. The second night some teacher friends and I went out to eat in the Chinatown district and the next night we ate barbecue that was just as good as what you'd get at home. By the way, Yokohama International School, based on outward appearances anyway, looks like the stuff of teacher-dreams. Someday, if I'm very good, maybe I'll be there. Second of all, it was rather fun to meet other international school teachers. Some have been in Japan for ages and some had just arrived. I got to chat with a good number of people, including one who passed me contact information for an agent / realtor who specializes in helping foreigners find apartments in Tokyo. Having contacts is so useful! After my friend Shayne and I got our new apartments through him we later got a modest payment back for recommending him to someone else.

The only other break we've had was Labor Day, in late November. It's certainly true that I could take more initative to go exploring on the weekends, and sometimes I do go and explore new parts of Tokyo, but more often than not I'm sleeping in, buying groceries, and going not much further than a few stops down the Yamanote Line if I go anywhere at all. It was nice to have the three day weekend to do all of those things and make it out of Tokyo for a day trip as well. That weekend, Shayne and I decided to go to Kamakura for the day.

I feel I should explain who my friend Shayne is. The two of us have become quite close very quickly. In fact, early on people asked if we had known each other previously, but we only met in August. We are the 5th grade teachers and sometimes teach together and swap classes. She's from British Columbia and this is her second year of teaching, making me the slightly-more veteran teacher, which, believe me, was a new and weird feeling at first. But we're both new to CIS and find ourselves figuring stuff out together quite a bit. It's good we get along so well because we see a lot of each during the day. It's also nice to have a friend in the same building but I'm glad I have my own apartment. They're too small to share, and anyway it's nice to have space. But... I digress... Back to the day trip to Kamakura.

Kamakura is south of Yokohama and only takes about an hour by train. Using some sort of directions from the internet we hopped on board a fancy looking train at Shinagawa station. It was exciting! Us headed out of Tokyo, bound for a day of adventure, zipping along on a snazzy looking train. Soon after depature, however, a man came along the corridor and stopped in front of us, asking for our tickets. Um... er... tickets? We sheepishly flashed our commuter pass cards, called a Suica card, and hoped it would work. It did not. We were told to get off the train at the next stop and get on a local train. We had ended up on some sort of fancy express train too good for the likes of us and our humble commuter passes. (By the way, a Suica card is not just useful, but essential in Tokyo. I've had one from the start. It can be purchased for a specific route which you can travel as many times as you want during the month, with credit added on for any other routes you might take. The train system is a bit complicated at times because there're about a half dozen companies that run the different lines, but most of them accept a Suica card which will automatically deduct credit when you flash it in front of the sensors at the turnstile.) We were somewhere headed south out of Tokyo, but we didn't really know where we were when we got off. We didn't even know what train to take next. When the next local train pulled up we saw a double-decker carriage that came to a stop right in front of us - the so-called "Green Car".

"Do you think we can get on this one?" "I don't know. It's worth a try." Double-decker train carriages are pretty fancy for the likes of us, but we decided to try anyway. It was 50% ignorance and 50% audacity to see if we could get away with it. We found a couple of empty seats in the upper half and marveled at how comfortable said seats were, with such views out the windows. Ah! What luxury! They sure know how to travel in Japan!

We knew we were probably in the wrong section because every other person was sitting beneath a green LED light and the lights above us were red. And it's just universal, is it not, that green is yes and red is no, green is go and red is stop, green is right and red is wrong? And you don't have to speak Japanese to get the feeling that you are once again freeloading from the fancy-people's train carriage. Should we swipe our Suica cards next to that plastic bit by the light? Would that even work? We let the menacing red LED lights be and enjoyed watching the scenery pass for many miles before someone came around selling snacks and noticed that the two white girls in the Green Car looked slightly suspicious and out of place. Did we have our tickets? Um... er... does this Suica count?

And that's how we found ourselves getting kicked off of two trains in less than a hour's time. We didn't have to actually leave this train but we did get kicked out of the Green Car. We went as far as we thought we could but the door between carriages said it was to remain closed while moving. So we sat dutifully. The snack ladies followed up however, yanked the door open, and saw us into the standing-room only commuter car with the other plebeians before yanking the door closed again. As I later remarked to Shayne, we're just too poor for forward-facing seats on trains.

Kamakura itself was lovely. There are many shrines and temples, including one that hosts a giant, hollow Buddha that you can go inside of. We did a nature trek to the other temples and it was really wonderful to be surrounded by greenery and fresh air. The hike wasn't too difficult but had enough ups and downs to feel like a decent workout. We saw some fall foliage, a glimpse of a hazy Mt. Fuji in the distance, and tried some gelatinous snack on a stick. Moving on we saw statues, a money-washing temple filled with pilgrims and incense, and a temple with with red / orange tori gates. (Imagine the Fushimi Inari shrine of Kyoto or that one scene from Memoirs of a Geisha, but on a much smaller scale.) I noticed that stone statues of  wolf-like dogs guarded many of the temples, all clad in dirty weather-worn redish pink skirts. I still don't know the significance of these statues, but I hope to find out. Kamakura was lovely and I'd be happy to go back sometime. This time - perhaps - on the correct train.

Besides more workdays and fewer breaks than Bina Bangsa, another reason for my dismal lack of blogging is that I feel like there's less to report on than when I was in Indonesia. I don't think that's strictly true and the more I visit with family and friends over Christmas I realize I do have stories to tell. The truth is that life in Tokyo is comfortable and modern and predictable and mundane. (Most of the time.) East Asia is very different from South East Asia (and by East Asia I mean Tokyo, because that's the extent of my experience.) In Jakarta we used to say "TIJ - This is Jakarta" when things didn't make sense and were zany and unorganized and mixed up, and there was no explanation other than Jakarta itself exerting its chaotic powers on the world. That really doesn't happen in Tokyo. Sometimes because of weather or accidents or whatnot the trains get delayed and then we have a fragment of the chaos we used to have habitually in Jakarta. But it will never live up to the struggles of macet, banjir, or trying to get on a Lion Air (or, heaven forbid, a Wings Air) flight. Comparing Japan to Indonesia,  I'd like to throw out that marvelous phrase "same-same-but-different"  but I really can't. It's more different and less the same. Much more like home and other Westernized cities around the world. Sometimes, the expats who have been around for a number of years ask us newbies how we're adjusting to life in Japan. They seem genuinely concerned about the potential for culture shock. I appreciate it because it's very considerate of them, but I always have to answer with a shrug and say everything has been fine so far. Because it has. Any difficulties I've faced so far have been fairly minor. After two years in Jakarta, I think it would take a lot to seriously shake me up. (By the way, I miss SE Asia. A lot. More than I thought I would.)

What sort of stories do I have to tell then? I've already covered both of the times I've left Tokyo at all, in Yokohama and Kamakura. Those were fun but the first was just for professional development and the second was only a day trip. The things I have to report on will have to be about life in Tokyo. Thus, I welcome you to the next topic of this blog post: The Mundane Adventures of Danna Trying to Figure Out Life in Tokyo! Look on as she jumps through five different queues and waits for three hours at the immigration bureau! Observe as she attempts to get national health insurance, for the second time! Watch with bated breath - will the bank allow her to transfer her rent money this month, even without the proper address on her residence card?! Such drama! Such intrigue! So much red tape!

All of the things I mention above really did happen. Some of that drama was due to the fact that the school largely left us to figure out those things on our own. Apparently they're going to improve support for new teachers in that area. I hope they do so anyway. Something I've learned is that there are very specific steps you have to take in the right order. Having a residence card is key to everything. Because I was hired so late I didn't get a visa ahead of time. Others had their visas ready to go and residence cards waiting for them. I came in on a tourist visa (that was similar to Indonesia) and got my residence card soon after. The paperwork was approved by the time I arrived but I had to go through those several queues at the immigration bureau. I ended up going there three times. The second time I was very nearly about to finish the whole process but got denied because the date was missing on my form. A clerk highlighted the missing field and I tried to every so sneakily write the date in myself, but because it had been highlighted, the person in the next queue knew the error of my ways and didn't accept it. I was told I would have to have my employers fill it out and to come back again. Grrr... I did eventually get my residence card though. I finally just got national health insurance as well. I've got to say it's much simpler than US health insurance. I will pay 30% of my medical costs and the government covers the other 70%. To cover this, I have a monthly bill, which the school will pay half of. It doesn't cost much the first year, about $12 a month, but it goes up after that. The Canadians at my school sometimes complain about it because they're used to having excellent coverage and paying very little or nothing. Coming from the US, however, it seems like a very good deal to me. I also had to have my residence card before I could get a cell phone or a bank account, but I have both of those things now too. Overall, I feel I'm doing pretty well. I'm getting settled and even saving a bit of money - hooray! There's monthly rent to pay, as well as bills and groceries, food and drink, odds and ends, but without having big breaks, travel costs have been... well, non-existent. 2016 will be another matter though. There's spring break and Golden Week coming up.

My next challenge will be learning Japanese. So far I can only say "Hello," "Yes," "What?" "Excuse me," "I'm sorry," "Thanks," "Thank you," and "Thank you very much." I know the words for "red" and "white" because Shayne always orders white wine and I order red. I don't know other, such useful things "No," or "See you later." I have found that I can read certain things though without knowing how they are said. For example, by using Google Translate on my phone, I can now successfully work my own microwave and turn on the hot water for the shower, or set the fan settings. I didn't translate the washing machine but so far I've been successful. One word I've picked up  from the appliances in my apartment and elsewhere is "off" as in on/off. I have no idea how to say it but it's a useful one to recognize. In my head, I see it and say "off" even though that's not really right. I have a much greater appreciation now for what it must be like to be illiterate. It's much harder to pick up Japanese than Indonesian. My vocabulary is soooo very small and I can't figure stuff out by making good guesses; it's just not possible with a pictographic language, at least not at my level of knowledge / ignorance. I am desperately dependent on pictures and graphic design on the things I buy. I have often struggled to decipher pictures on even the most basic purchases. And if it wasn't for Google Translate I would be truly lost.

To wrap up, there's one last thing I want to mention, about how coming home for winter break has made me think about the differences between life in Japan and the US. Some of these differences are not shocking but it took a homecoming to bring them to consciousness. Chiefly I'm thinking about cars and food, the amount of time I spend in the former and the amount of which I consume the later. Both of which are more stateside. While home for break, I've been in a car every single day. On the other hand, in four months in Japan, I have been in a vehicle twice. The first occasion was on my first full day in Japan when Shayne, and another new teacher, and I were picked up from the hotel and brought to our temporary apartments (the so-called Monthly Mansions which turned out to be like high security college dorms, except not nearly as nice.) The second time was when Shayne and I moved to our new, aforementioned apartment building and hired a taxi van to bring us and our things from Shinjuku to Shinagawa. (Specifically we now live in Higashi-Shinagawa which is south of the city center and pretty close to Tokyo Bay.) Other than that I've traveled exclusively by train and walking. I took a bus once to get to the immigration bureau. I do a lot of walking in Tokyo. It's about 8/10ths of a mile to school, one way, and about the same distance, one way, to the nearest big train station, Shinagawa station, whose map of converging rail lines looks like bulging bicep. There are two stations which might technically be within closer walking distance but these are either out of the way, more expensive, have less frequent trains, or some combination thereof. At Shinagawa you never have to wait more than a few minutes for the Yamanote Line train to arrive. Granted it's crowded, sometimes claustrophobically so, but it's a great service. But my point is, I do a lot of walking these days. I knew I had lost weight when I found that unzipping the pair of jeans I had bought in August was no longer necessary, but I was still more than a little surprised when, weighing myself for the first time in four months, I found I had lost about 15 lbs! I think I must have gained about five back in Christmas food alone. Which brings me to my second point. Food.

Why are portions so excessively large in the States? Why do we eat so much rich food all the time? Foreign food doesn't turn my stomach - leastwise Japanese food doesn't - it's coming back home and eating out at a restaurant or eating Christmas potlucks which are inevitably part of the holidays. When I met a friend for lunch the other day, I ordered a burger, which came with fries. I couldn't finish it in one sitting because it was just so much. I might get a burger that size if I were in Tokyo, but the mountain of fries that came with it was excessive, about two or three times what it should have been. There's no way a human stomach should try to conquer all of that. I didn't realize how much my stomach had shrunk (figuratively and literally) until I got home.

Even when I think life in Tokyo is uneventful and mundane, I'm coming to value it by comparing it what I know life would be like if I were still in Minnesota. When I get back to Tokyo I think I'll appreciate the good food and walking to school and the train station all the more.

Winter break has flown by incredibly fast. I'll be sad to be leaving Minnesota once again but looking forward to heading back to Tokyo. And now that I'm somewhat settled, I can start to explore Tokyo and Japan more. Here's to more adventures in Asia in 2016!

FIRST TWO WEEKS IN JAPAN

Hello! We meet again blogosphere! After my two years in Indonesia, I wanted to keep doing this whole international teaching thing and now I find myself in Tokyo, Japan. I have lots to say about my first two weeks here and I see no point in starting a new blog. So if you're an aunt, uncle, or friend who had subscribed to my Indonesia blog and you now see this in your inbox, that's the reason why. Same blog, new stories. ^_^

So... Japan! My new position is a 5th grade homeroom teacher at Canadian International School Tokyo. The position came about rather suddenly. I saw it posted through Search Associates - a very good association for overseas teachers and schools - and e-mailed to find out if my American credentials would work at a Canadian school. The reply I got was along the lines of Yes, that's fine. When can we Skype? Apparently they had someone else for the job but he quit rather at the last minute and that's where I stepped in. I've known all along that I'd make a great place filler. I have international experience, four years of teaching under my belt, no master's degrees that make me more expensive to hire, and come with no dependents! A great deal, all in all, if I do say so myself. The job offer came on August 7th and I boarded my plane on the 20th - just 13 days later! A very quick change in situation, but I'm flexible and having been overseas before made it less intimidating than it might have been otherwise.

I quickly booked a flight and ended up going with Air Canada, which meant a four hour layover in Toronto (which turns out the be a really nice airport.) Air Canada was... meh. "Adequate" is a word that springs to mind. I do think I'm going to go ahead and blame them for my luggage getting soaked in the rain. Not just a little damp on the outside, but really wet on the inside too. Enough to ruin a couple books. Really, the only redeeming factor was that they had Muppet's Treasure Island as one of their in-flight movies.

For the duration of the 12 hour flight from Toronto to Tokyo I was in the middle seat of the right hand row. (At least it wasn't the middle of the middle aisle!) My seatmate on the left was a Canadian-American university student who's just finishing up her last year of study at Temple University's Tokyo campus. She had nothing but positive things to say about her adopted city and I got a lot of useful advice and encouraging tidbits from her. On my right was a middle-aged man who's a smartphone engineer who gets to travel wherever he wants for work as long as he has an internet connection. (Lucky man!) For being stuck in the middle of a row, it wasn't too bad and I had some good conversations with both seatmates, followed of course by long periods of silence, boredom, and zoning out.

By the time I arrived, I hadn't properly slept in about 23 hours. I was feeling brain dead and a bit feverish / intoxicated from lack of proper sleep. My Temple University friend helped me find my way through customs and we parted ways. At the school's instruction, I was to take a bus from Narita airport to my hotel. After purchasing my ticket, I had about 30-40 minutes to wait, so I decided to exchange money. With new yen bills and coins in hand, I stepped out of the queue to put my money away and quickly realized I no longer had my wallet. Cue panic. I searched all throughout my backpack in case I had dropped but after a frantic minute or two I realized it was gone. And I had just exchanged money, leaving the only conclusion to be I had left it on the wrong side of the exchange counter. I edged back in line and showed my face. The reaction from the money exchange people was the one I wanted: Oh hey, there's that girl. Say, So-And-So sitting behind me, that girl came back. Well, guess what? They no longer had the wallet! It was not more than two minutes since I left, had gone all of about ten paces away and back, and in that time they passed it over to the information counter. Thanking them in an embarrassed way, I went over to the information counter and inquired about my poor, lost wallet. They let me take the wallet after thoroughly checking that everything was there and said I could take it only because I fetched it so soon. They were in fact preparing to file an international report for it, in which case I would have still gotten it back but a lot later and after a lot of hassle. Needless to say, I still very pretty silly over the whole thing.

I had read stories like this about Japan before I left, of people losing items and having them returned in-tact with a bow attached to boot. It seems to be the case. My feeling overall is that Tokyo is very safe. There isn't a feeling like you shouldn't be out at night. People walk around at night all the time, and frequently you see kids - little kids, elementary-aged - walking around on their own, commuting to school or going elsewhere. For a city this size, you'd almost expect more crime, but hey - I'm not complaining.

Back to my first night in Tokyo, even though I felt exhausted to the bone upon arriving, I also felt energized in a way too. It was a feeling that began when I got on my first flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. You know, the beginning of a new adventure. Wearing my sneakers, sweatpants, and scarf, passport around my neck, flinging myself across several time zones just for the sake of trying expat life in a new place. (By the way, I'm now 14 hours ahead of Central Time.) That was a good feeling, as was the feeling of relief when I finally got to my hotel room, but mostly, my first thought was sleep...now...

The next day I had a chance to explore the hotel's beautiful traditional Japanese garden, as well as experience the sweltering humidity and cacophonous drone of cicadas, before meeting with the school's business manager who had helped me arrange all the details of getting over to Japan. I felt a little out of place in the hotel lobby. Finely dressed wedding-party members walked back and forth as I sat with my mound of luggage, typing away at a Bethel University assignment (which is still in full swing and has not kindly paused for my life transitions.) Eventually another white lady (Girl? Woman? I never know what to say) came and sat by me, although we didn't talk. When the business manager, Mr. Takaguchi, approached us and inquired if we were there for CIS, we both responded. The other white lady, it turns out, was Shayne, another new teacher to CIS who just so happens to be my 5th grade teaching partner and now good friend.

We were introduced to another new teacher and office staff, and after briefly going over this and that in the lobby, headed out in two vans to our new residence, the so-called Monthly Mansion. The "monthly" bit is correct, because you do pay by the month, but the "mansion" bit is definitely a stretch. My room is about the size of a dorm room, but includes a teeny-tiny bathroom, a burner, sink, and mini-fridge. It also came with one spoon, fork, bowl, plate, kettle, and rice cooker. It's basically a box of a room with a very narrow closet space that leads to the door. And I'm lucky to even have the closet space; Shayne apparently does not. It doesn't help that the corridors have all the appeal and appearance of a jail. Heavily locked doors that require a key card for access stretch down the non-descript corridor, there are no decent windows, and no less than eight (I counted) security cameras mounted to the ceiling on my floor alone. On the plus side, there is laundry, so there's that, right?

So I think we might take "mansion" with a grain of salt. "High-security-glorified-dorm-room" is more accurate. Then again, I've only ever heard Mr. Takaguchi call it a Monthly Mansion. According to the sign outside, it's just a Monthly Resi-Stay, which makes more sense as a name. Needless to say, the search for a new neighborhood is underway. Actually, I quite like the neighborhood I'm in right now. It has a nice feel. There are plenty of good restaurants (including great sushi, curry, and ramen places!), as many 7 Elevens and Family Marts as your heart could desire, and even a grocery story and a Seiyu, which turns out to be a subsidiary of Wal-Mart. (I traveled 6,000 miles from home only to be closer to a Wal-Mart owned store than ever before.) It also has a nice combination of energy and calm that make me think it might be nice to continue living here. On the other hand, Tokyo is absolutely huge and there are lots of great neighborhoods worth exploring. Wherever I end up moving to, I'm sure it will be good.

So far, I've mostly be commuting from home to work and back again, but Shayne and I have managed to visit Shinagawa, Roppongi, Tokyo Tower, and Shibuya as well. Shibuya was crazy by the way. I recommend doing a Google Image search to get an idea. I could spend a thousand words trying to explain the atmosphere, or... you could just look it up. If I were to use any words to describe it, they would be: chaotic, loud, busy, bright, crowded, etc. Also - honest to God - Shayne and I saw a sign for a club called Club Gas Panic. I kid you not. There's no connotation of those particular words together that is good in any sense.

What about school? I think that could be an entirely new blog post right there, but I'll try to sketch out some details anyway. Canadian International School Tokyo (which, rather smartly goes by the acronym CIS and not CIST) is in the neighborhood of Shinagawa. We go to work everyday on the Yamanote line, which is not properly the metro but the above-ground JR line.

Standing jam-packed with a minimum of four or five strangers pushing into you on the train lost all of its appeal in about, oh, two or three days. At first it seemed like something out of an color-photo "A Children's Introduction to Japan" book, but then it wasn't so fun anymore. It's damn crowded, is what it is! Believe it or not, getting on the train at 7:30 is much better than at 8:30. We left later in the morning during orientation week than we have been for the regular working day, and it was much worse and more crowded later on in the morning. People seem to have very late working schedules. It gets very busy at 8 or 9 in the morning and again at 8 or 9 at night. Leaving at 5 PM, as we usually do, is quieter and more peaceful than leaving in the evening or night. You might even get the chance to grab a seat after a handful of stops! You never get a seat right away. You generally have to wait a while to grab your opportunity. Even when the train is "quiet" it's not really quiet. It's always full. It's either just full, or insanely over-full.

According to Shayne, who taught in Korea last year, in Seoul there is a cultural standard that prizes staying late at the office as a mark of dedication, even if you're just sleeping at your desk or essentially wasting time by working as slow as molasses in January. It would appear the same is true here in Tokyo. People get off of work so late and then often head out for drinks with co-workers rather than heading home.

I got off-track though. What about school? So far so good. I really like the school, my co-workers, and kids so far. I'm very spoiled with a small class. I mean, really small. As in eleven kids. Shayne also has eleven. (!!!) We heard through the grapevine that the most troublesome trouble-makers seem to have left between last year and this and so we've got delightfully small classes of delightful children. I'm going to be spoiled this year. And with only eleven, I can get to know them all very well, and any problems that do pop up should hopefully be very manageable. Honestly, if I ever start complaining about my kids, someone ought to put me in my place.

In my class I have seven boys and four girls. Four are Japanese, four are Korean, one is Chinese, one is Malaysian, and one is South African. Shayne's class is quite similar, although she has one student from Saudi, one from Myanmar, and three kids who are Canadian-Japanese. Overall, we are both really enjoying our classes.

The school is an IB school but only teaches the PYP (Primary Years Programme.) I chose some international-flag-themed PYP displays off of Teachers Pay Teachers for the classroom walls. My wonderful nerdy kids have taken up naming as many flags as they can during breaks and lunch (which we eat together in the classroom) and quizzing each other on which flag appears on which poster. Already, I couldn't be more proud of them!

We've had one week of school so far and each day was easier and went more smoothly than the last. Shayne and I have been doing a lot of co-planning and co-teaching, and it makes sense. It's been working out well so we'll likely keep that up. Language arts and science are integrated into the PYP transdisciplinary units, but we teach math and spelling separately. Like a typical Western school, our preps are during specialist time: music/art, Japanese, P.E., Writer's Workshop, and library. The day operates on an alternating A Day / B Day schedule, but it's not worth the time or effort to go into more detail. I'll just say that the first week went well and I think I'm falling nicely into the routine of things. The only thing that's very different from what I expected is that I eat lunch with my kids everyday and supervise them during recess twice a week. Perhaps that's not so weird at a small school, but it's a bit of a turnaround from Mounds View last year.

I'll leave it there for the moment. Of course there's plenty more to say, but I think that can be reserved for another blog another time. I feel like I've been here quite a while already, but it's only been two weeks! Time flies.