you say you want a revorution

Oh my god, how much do I suck? Honestly, how much? Let me tell you, I haven't updated this poor site over a month!! Like I need to tell you guys, all patiently waiting out there for some news. Well, wait no more! Things are going well over here in Osaka. Jeff and I are totally settled into our new place (which means it's pretty much a hopeless mess most of the time) and my job is pretty comfortable by now (though I do have kids songs in my head a lot more often than I'd like). Jeff took me to the World Expo in Aichi for my birthday! The theme this year was "Nature's Wisdom" and as you can see, the whole place was built with gardens, lakes, and tons of plants and wildlife areas, despite it's capacity to hold 10,000 people a day. A lot of the pavilions had green roofs too. The coolest buildings were definately the corporate ones. It's not a great shot, but this nondescript looking one with the pipes had water dripping from it constantly. I hope you can see it, because it was so cool. They turned the entire building into a giant fountain! These pavillions rocked, but the lines to get into these things were 5 and 6 hours long! Obviously, I did not have time for that. So, no, we didn't see any frozen mammoths or robot bands, but instead, we saw an array of smaller countries with shorter lines: India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, New Zealand. I bought an amber necklace at the Morroco pavilion, then I went to the Ukraine and they told me it was a fake. Oh well! Guess they were just trying to represent their country. India was my favorite. All the African countries (except Morroco and Egypt) were lumped into one pavillion that had nothing but a food stall, some handmade crap and an awesome Makossa band. It was so great groovin to African music again, even though the crowd didn't know what to make of it. We also saw a performance of traditional Japanese drums (taiko). This was amazing, especially considering these were high school age kids and retired women. Except for the incredible drumming, the whole event had the feel of a high school talent show, with parents taking pictures, and kids in the audience hooting and hollering for their friends. Damn, can you imagine this being your after school activity? Amazing. Overall it was a great time, even though I didn't have time to check out the most important country of all! Ten bucks says this stupid mascot was not an Irishman's idea. Will this stuff ever stop being funny? Just let me know when it happens :) More to come soon. Love, Erin!