almost settled in

after a very busy Golden Week, i think my new home is almost complete.

Golden Week, for those who dont know, is a bunch of public holidays that occurs at the beginning of May every year. there are 4 official days of holidays, but many people tend to take time off from work/school for the remaining days for travel, rest, etc. Golden Week is also an extremely popular time for Japanese people to travel within the country.

for me, i kept it really simple. this is how my golden week went:

Fri (4/27): move into my new apartment
Sat (4/28): clean new apartment
Sun (4/29): clean new apartment
Mon (4/30): clean new aparment
(you think i lie, but i literally spent 3.5 days just CLEANING the recently moved out of apartment.... stupid middle aged single men.... arrrg)
Tues (5/1): school
Wed (5/2): my most hated school
Thurs (5/3): left Tsushima for Fukuoka. drove all day to Omura in Nagasaki Pref.
Fri (5/4): Went to Arita in Saga Pref, famous for its pottery and blowout sale during Golden Week. I, of course, went nuts and bought a lot of china. Ended the evening in Fukuoka
Sat (5/5): Saw Dazaifu in Fukuoka, and the new museum in Fukuoka (for those of you who care, it was the 九州国立博物館. i rather liked it.. it was huge). was back in tsushima by evening.
Sun (5/6): read my manga all day because i was bored to tears.

all of the guys were in tibet from the day before i moved till this past tuesday, 2 days after i had been back at work. it was kinda lonely, but i kept myself busy. i read 2 volumes of my manga in 4 days. that's a personal best for me. that was the longest i've NOT been around a native english speaker since i got to tsushima, and it was weird going days without using a complete english sentence.

so, in the process of moving in/cleaning/unpacking, i have unwittingly learned to overcome a few fears, namely:

- cleaning a toilet that i've never used
- cleaning the hair out of a drain of a shower that i've never used
- scrubbing metal shelves that were caked in rust until i could see my reflection in them (took me 2 hours with the combined power of a cream cleanser and steel wool. can i just say, steel wool is my best friend)
- using a vacuum cleaner to remove spider webs lacing my concrete walls
- wrapping my hands around a grease and oil laden fan cover, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned once in the 30 years of its existence (i dont know how old this building is, but i'd easily put money down saying it's at least 30 years old, and that that fan has not been cleaned). needless to say, my hands still felt sticky 3 washes later.
- using a sponge-on-a-pole contraption to wash away the years of grime and dirt on my shower room walls (it was quite disgusting). note: my walls remain brown even after this initial wash.

all i feel i really have left to do is paint the walls to my shower, which will theoretically happen tomorrow. wish me luck!