Red, White, and Buuruu

So I went in for my first and last day of orientation yesterday. Out of the 8 of us there I was the only American. A Canadian girl tried to slip past me, but gave herself away with a reference to the CN Tower. So as the only American, I have to tell you: not so impressed with the other English speakers of the world. Except for the one British guy, a bunch of idiots in my opinion. Then again, I believe our arrogance is how foreigners identify us. Not much happened other than that. I have my schedule too - I work five days a week and get Thursday and Friday off. I work for 7 hours and 40 minutes on three of those days and only 4 hours on Monday and Wednesday. Thats a full schedule if youre confused. I know, it rocks. Im going to have as much disposable income here as I did in Boston too. The reason is that I was paying somewhere between 28 and 35% in state and federal taxes, and here Im paying less than 7%. How can they afford quasi-socialism with those numbers? Thats not like, the foreigner tax-rate either. Everyone pays that. Ummm... oh yeah. My address. If anyone feels the need to send me money, cookies, or a bookshelf, send it to the following address:

474-0061 Aichi-Ken
Obu-shi
6-63-2 Kyouwachou
#602 Sun City Wendy Court
JAPAN

Post cards and letters are welcome. Please dont send me drugs. They told us yesterday at orientation that they search all international packages at the border, and theres a no-tolerance policy with controlled substances. I get 2 years mandatory for both hard and soft drugs. Also, apparently I can be detained by the police for as long as they feel like and without what we might call a `reason.` I have three days of training in Toyohashi starting today at 1:20pm, so wish me luck and Ill be thinking of each one of you guys. Especially you, right there.