in some ways, the following post is a departure—an aside, if you will—from this blog's usual content matter, while in other ways it's entirely not. either way, i'd like to take a moment to share a random snippet of my dealings with reverse culture shock as a repatriated Black American...
after having lived abroad in Japan and Australia for 11 years, i've finally moved back to America, turning a long distance relationship into a.... not... long distance relationship...
over 11 years after first leaving America for Japan, the time has come for me to finally try my hand at life back in the States…
…soooo, i just had a 1.5 hour conversation with a random Nigirian guy at Starbucks and i need to let off some steam. so, as you’d predict, i met random Nigirian guy completely randomly when i got off a train one night after work and he came chasing after me to strike up a conversation. me being the overly nice person that i am who finds it hard to say “i’m tired, go away.” ended up engaged in a short conversation with him. he seemed like a nice enough guy and i couldn’t help but feel for his situation of being the sole non-Japanese person at his workplace and not having anyone to talk to because he can’t speak Japanese. when he asked to keep in touch after i finally got up the nerve to tell him i had to go i obliged, although i knew well enough by now not to…
after two long days of frantic cleaning and setup amidst long work hours, i was finally able to go out into the rain and bring Calcifer (Cal) home ahead of the slowly approaching typhoon. he’s now been home for 24 hours and i can honestly say that it’s like he should have always been here to begin with. but also that it’s as if i’ve finally gotten back something that goes beyond finally having a cat again. something that i lost 4 years ago in losing my two Devon Rex, with whom he seems to have so much in common with that i could honestly cry. ;( having met and worked with hundreds of cats and kittens (among other animals) during the course of 3 years spent as a volunteer photographer at an Australian humane society, i can honestly say that he is such a unique and special little cat…
….it’s 6:44am, i have to get ready for work, no time to recount things for Tumblr so just screencapping, but like. if the news of this ever makes it to the US enough for the US government who is responsible for Japan’s military defense to actually care, just know that i’m okay but just like what the fuck right now and i do not look forward to whatever shit response the Cheeto eventually puts out that just makes things even worse for people on my side of the world.
18 days and two near anxiety attacks later, the ball is finally starting to roll again after having been stalled for weeks because of Japan’s love of Red Tape™. now that it’s finally rolling again, gravity has it rapidly gaining speed down a sharp incline of 15 days until i officially move out, with smaller finish lines in the form of various deadlines along the way. sigh!
as a follow up on this post about losing my job and a general life update, i guess: after a month of what felt like running a 40km marathon of creating multiple resumes, writing cover letter after cover letter, waking up at 4am to catch the 6:20am train to Tokyo and back for interviews and such all before going to work for 8 hours that same day– i’ve finally got a new job…! and not just any job, a job that’s better than my current job in every possible way minus paid vacation– ouch. the new job is going to be really challenging for me because while i have experience teaching high school students, i have never actually taught at a high school let alone an international one! as much as i could jump out of my own skin right now out of anxiety, among other things, i’m also excited…! except for the…
…i’d seen a post or two come across my dashboard related to what i’m about to go off about, but i never imagined that something like this would target me or my family. oh, how naive of me. anyway, i’m simultaneously pissed off, frustrated and worried and Twitter isn’t enough to contain these feels right now. on my way to work today i random get a message from mom saying “Have you been saying things that you shouldn’t say online? The government is monitoring you.” of course i’m like “whaaaat the fuck you talking about, mom?” my mom is no “conspiracy theorist”, but she did live through shit that you read about in textbooks and given the shit going on in America these days, there is immediate cause for alarm when those words come from her. apparently people claiming to be a ““research group”” (who won’t / haven’t told her an actual…
a while ago i wrote a random post titled “story time: when “African” is more important than “American””. well, it’s time to follow that up with another even more random post. back when i lived in Brisbane, Australia i used to use public transportation (photoed) a lot to get around before eventually getting up the courage to drive on the “wrong” side of the road. i met people from all over while living in Australia, but in so far as i can remember, i only ever met one African-American person during the 3 years that i lived there. bad luck on my part, perhaps. maybe. not exactly. but i tell myself that it is to ignore the other factors at play because the truth is that no matter what country i’m in, it’s a novelty to meet another African-American abroad and i’m well aware of the various reasons for that.…
