Well this is a random surprise, isn't it? I can't say good or bad, I leave that up to the reader.

It's been quite a while since a visit to this website has occurred; funny how time and distance can make some of the most incredible moments of your life seem so distant. It's a shame I've waited this long, that things have not worked out between all parties as hoped. I accept my role in that and can only hope and wonder that time might make insignificant those differences that seemed insurmountable. I wonder what caused it and I wonder what, if anything, might resolve it.

So why the e-visit? Upon returning to the states and heading back to work, I realized that I was not happy with my situation. Work had devolved - perhaps I just had a different perspective on life - and I found myself wanting to move on, to keep moving, to keep the adventure going. So I thought about some things and eventually wrote those ideas on paper.

Months later, I'm moving to Japan. In late April I received word from the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET Program) that I'd been accepted as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) for 2007-08. I'm moving to Higashi Village in Okinawa prefecture, population 1,863. I leave July 28 and I don't know if I'm ever coming back. I'll be minutes from the beach, surrounded by jungle, pineapple trees, and coffee farms, and I speak hardly enough Japanese to make life easy. Good news is I'll be teaching elementary and junior high students; for some reason, that is good news.

I'm slightly terrified. I don't worry about the food, the culture or the language. The teaching troubles me most. Will I be any good? Will the kids learn anything? Do I have anything worth teaching to share? Why should the Japanese trust me as a teacher of English, an ambassador of culture? Why am I asking rhetorical questions of an unknown audience?

Whatever the answers, I know that I'm still as proud today as I was a year ago to have been a part of the BCMC. I'm proud to have driven with Dominic, Jen, Patrick and Seth, and James, Neil, James, Andy, Barry and Charlie across parts of the world most will never see. I'm sorry for the problems and the miscommunication that built and never got resolved. Seth, if you read this, I can't thank you enough; I can't think like you either, but in the end I think that was a strength of BC, not a weakness.

One last thing: Gents, I'm working on scanning the best of the pics I got and will be burning them to some sort of D. If your addresses have changed, fill me in. If not, expect something shortly.

Live life, drink beer, and all that other good stuff. Until again,

Vaughn