It's Tuesday again. Another week here in the land of the rising sun. As I sat quietly at an onsen (hot springs) tonight, I reflected on the ups and downs of this past week. There were some really high times and then the low - very low, to the point I felt depressed. Luckily, I know how to bounce back and not let it get to me for too long. Plus I have some really good friends back home who are keeping taps on me, making sure I am staying afloat, and rooting for me even though we are thousands of miles away. Anyway, this was my roller coaster week:

Monday: Day 1 of being single. Getting out of bed was hard. Resisted all temptations of a breakup.

Tuesday: Work was a great escape but must put on a happy face.

Wednesday: Snow storm distraction (see previous post). Heard about the Haiti earthquake.

Thursday: Less snow. Lots of news about Haiti. My heart finally feel less heavy.

Friday: A little shaken from a FB status. Worried friends. Friendly neighborhood kitty came to keep me company. Donated money to Haiti. Felt good.

Saturday: Crazy busy work day but good. Learned a lot from my students and started to have a better grip on the flow of the lessons. Then crazy fun night out with co-workers and students.

Sunday: From the very high the night before followed by a very low day. I didn't want to get out of bed. Feeling lonely and homesick, I moped around until I found motivation to head out for some window shopping. I went to Canal City where there are lots of stores like Gap and Zara. Not only it gave me a little comfort of home, the thumping US rap and pop songs were a great distraction.

Monday (today): It was a nice sunny day and I was quite excited to go to my first Japanese lesson in the morning. Got a private lesson from an 85 year-old Japanese woman who volunteers at the community center where the lessons are held. She was really sweet and told me she likes sake. LOL! Another old lady who likes to drink (Chan is the other one). Maybe that's the real secret of longevity here. Sake and beer with good food = good life = longevity. Feeling good from the lesson, I randomly went to a ramen restaurant and ordered a lot of food. I am always a little proud of myself that I have the balls to just walk in to a place, order food with hardly any Japanese and manage to have a good meal. But what I was most happy about today was that I walked all the way to the next town, found the recycle /thrift store I researched on (with the help of my iPhone), bargained a little with the shopkeeper, bought and managed to get a coffee table delivered to my house!

What I learned this week is endurance and embracing challenges with good intentions and positive attitude. With a little help from my friends, I should be able to find green patches in the rough roads ahead.

Peace.