(we made it) lessons from traveling

It's 6 AM here in Sapporo. I've been up for a few hours due to some super fun jet lag. But, what a great chance to let you all know that we've arrived here safely, right?

After 24 hours of being awake, 19 of travel, 3 airports, 3 different security checkpoints, customs, and immigration I have learned somethings.

1-american sizes for carry-ons do not equate to Japanese standard sizes for carry-ons. and if you try to shove your american carry-on into a japanese plane, the stewardess will make you feel very stupid and embarrassed.

2-Traveling in snow-boots and heavy parkas should be avoided. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I wore them rather than used 1 whole suitcase for them, but it definitely got me some strange looks everywhere I was (until getting here).

3-Choose airports wisely, If you fly through LAX from a domestic to an international flight, they will make you chance terminals and go through security for the second time in 3 hours.

4- don't wear white when traveling if you have trouble eating and drinking while stuck in an airplane seat. (Thank you Sandi for the Tide Pen!)

5-However well intentioned you are to take pictures while traveling, if you are overloaded with a parka and all your carry-ons, you won't. (hence the lack of pictures, sorry)

We had a great night sleep, and are heading out with our supervisor, Tim, to start some necessary paperwork and such.

We will be in and out, but should have internet access from time to time.

If you would like to contact us, our emails, kborba@asianaccess(dot)org sborba@asianaccess(dot)org , would be easiest.

Also, I'll be checking skype. My name is katborba. And our skype phone number is 1.559.477.4433.

Have a great day! God Bless!

The Final Count Down

3 more days until we head to Japan. We have been running around seeing everyone and doing everything (it seems). Here are our last few days in picture diary form.

Friday 1/21 (T-8 days)

Packing up our Shipment of Boxes to Japan.

I am glad to say all 14 boxes are now on a ship heading for Japan.

Saturday 1/22 (T-7 days)

Moving Sale!

We had a pretty good turn out at our moving sale.

We were able to sell/ give away 90% of the stuff we didn't pack.

When we advertised "everything must go" we meant it. Even the dog got picked up.

Here I am with biscuit's Auntie Beth.

Sunday 1/23 (T- 6 days)

We were prayed for at church, I only have pictures of the HS group version though.

After that, we went to lunch with friends and then over to another friends house to hang out.

Surprise! Our Bible Study friends had been planning a party all along.

Monday 1/24 (T- 5 days)

(paperwork day, I'm sure you don't want to see pictures of that)

Tuesday 1/25 (T-4 days)

Had a BBQ with Stephen's friends from Modesto.

(To be continued)

giving up mascara

I think I need to give up mascara, at least for this next week. When I cry, I become a mascara panda: big circles of black surrounding my eyes.

This is a week of goodbyes.

Truthfully, they started 2 weeks ago with my cat and my best friend.

Followed by my two good friends from college.

But, this week (and a half) is the big one.

Tonight is my dad, granny and grandpa.

Tomorrow night is Stephen's dad.

Saturday is our dog and our house.

Sunday is two sets of our Bible study friends.

And so it goes, until Saturday morning when we will say good bye to our moms. (Who should probably give up mascara too. At least for that day)

All of this sadness is tempered with joy. Some one asked me the other day how I was feeling about moving to Japan so soon. I said I feel like I am swinging wildly between total excitement and utter depression. I think that sums it up nicely. It is a joy to get to serve the Lord in Japan. I am thrilled to meet our pastor. I light up just thinking about having the college students over to our house and making it a place of rest for them.

On the other hand, I am really going to miss my family and friends and church and house and pets and mexican food and HS Group and... and... and...

But God promises:

everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Mt 19:29)

Please pray for us as we are saying our goodbyes here and our hellos in Japan.

the latest from the whirl-wind

Our lives these past few weeks have been a blur (which is starting to seem like a trend). For those of you who haven't heard, we got our certificate of eligability last week. Since then, every spare second has been filled. This is the first chance I am having to sit down to blog. After hearing word that the Certificate was coming, we have been hard at work sorting out every little detail.

We drove to Portland to give our cat, Marzipan, and our car, Norman, to my friend Theresa.

It was a loooooooong drive, but it was great to see our Portland friends.

Dropping of Marzipan was really hard, but I am glad that she has a new family who loves her. She also seems to really love Theresa's bed, which should help the transition.

While we were in Portland, I booked a moving company AND purchased our plane tickets to Japan. We are leaving Saturday 1/29/10 at 8:14 AM. We arrive in Sapporo Sunday 1/30/10 at 8:40 PM. That gave us three weeks (now only two) to get everything sorted out.

When we got home from Portland, we took all our paper work to San Francisco to apply for our Visa. We took at least 10 wrong turns, passed up 5 parking garages, and arrived just in time to hear, "I'm sorry, the office is closing for lunch in 2 minutes. Please come back in 1 hour."

URG!

Luckily we found a place to hang out, eat lunch and finish our paperwork.

After finally getting to the window, the man helping us whited-out 1/2 of the information we wrote down. He was also very concerned that one of the addresses we included was a residence and not a business. We assured him that our supervisor works out of his home, so it was both.

He gave us a receipt to pick up our Visas on Tuesday (1/18) if there were no problems or questions. They have since called to tell us it will be ready Wednesday (1/19). Please pray they don't call tomorrow or Tuesday to extend the date.

Now, we are working on packing up our house. The goal is to be out of this place by Saturday, then go stay with our friends from church.