My new pastime...

so, because immediately after promising more blog posts, I got sick and had no desire to sit and write the post I indented on, here's another great (but short one).

When I'm out and about around town, there is always one thing that can brighten my day and make me laugh, guaranteed: Japanglish!

If you have spent any time in Japan, watch any Japanese TV shows, or know anyone in Japan, you probably have encountered Japanglish before. If you haven't let me introduce you to my newest form of entertainment.

Here are two children's T-shirts I saw the other day at the store.

sometimes Japanglish is grammatically correct, just something that is so unusual. Like...

I'm not sure about you, but I wouldn't want my kid walking around in a shirt that says "need love"

sometimes it is just a mash of English words that, when put together, mean nothing. Like this one...

one month (and counting) + Our church family

We've been here in Sapporo for 1 month and 2 days. Since touching down, we have been super busy with all the things that are involved in setting up a life in a different country. (I seriously didn't realize how many things needed to be done, and I am discovering new things everyday.) That coupled with lack of internet in our home has meant that this blog has been sorely laking updates. For that, I apologize.

But now, even though the to-do list is only getting longer, we have internet in our home, which means I can blog! (I also apologize, especially to Tim, for that horrible run-on sentence, and for this one too. :P )

But as is usually the case, since we have been away from the blogging world for so long, there are too many things to share. So, rather than write one loooooooooong post; I'l write a few short ones.

So here is the first of a few installments: Our Church Family

As you know, if you have read this post, we are serving with Sapporo EV Free Church. Before we got here we only knew that they had a vision to reach college students in the area. I didn't realize they already were a congregation of primarily college students. Looking around on a sunday, you would be hard pressed to find a person over 30 (other than the pastors.) Another fun surprise was that a good portion of this church is international students from places like Ch*n*, and Korea.

We are having a great time getting to know these students each Sunday. We have especially liked the meal and hang out time between morning and evening services. I have never been at a church where people hang out for hours after church has gotten out. Those of you in American churches know what I mean right? After grabbing some goodies from the snack table, everyone jets out to do their own thing on Sunday mornings. It was a big surprise to learn that most sundays students hang out in the sanctuary; playing games and chatting.

Stephen asked one of the students why they hang out each Sunday. This student said, "There are not many places we can be ourselves." It's great to hear that we are at a church where people come, not only to worship, but because it is a place where they feel free to be who they really are; without pretense or facade.

it's been too long!

Sorry I'm so lame about updating you all about the past few weeks in Sapporo. We are still without internet, but I have decided to blog a bit from church before I run some errands.

Our first week, we were staying with the M Family. They have 2 young daughters and Stephen had a lot of fun playing with the youngest girl, F.

As hard as it was for Stephen to leave behind his new friend, we're really glad to still be in the same city, and look forward to hanging out with their family in the future.

We moved into our apartment last week and are still in the process of getting settled in. Everything here is a feet to accomplish. Even buying groceries takes a serious amount of brain power. I am glad to have things more set up than a few days ago, and look forward to making more progress as the weeks go on.

Sunday, we attended our first services at our church in Sapporo. The congregation is very young, mostly college students. We felt very welcomed at all three campuses. I didn't feel right taking pictures our first day. But I will post some as soon as I get them.

Monday, is couples day for Stephen and me. The past few sundays we were able to take the subway or bus to see some of the sights. Last Monday, we saw the Sapporo Snow Festival.

Valentines day, we went to the Maruyama zoo.

(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.