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Erin's picture

Long time

A couple of days ago I fired up my Skype and heard this message left by 2 drunken fools rambling on and on about how I never call and write and how they had t shirts for me.... In addition I have got a few email enquiries asking how things were going.

I have not posted anything since I got to America. There was just too much going on and I was not really feeling like .... well like I was really back in the USA. I have had the feeling more like I am on vacation from Japan and soon I will have to go back. There was more then a few times when I questioned why I was here WTF I was gonna do about XYZ problem and how I was gonna make it till the next day. In that time a couple of things pulled me through, team reports of matches on the TokyoGaijin.com text messages and emails from friends and lastly, the videos of all of my teammates at my going away party. Honestly, Lonnie told me not to watch them till I was on the plane. I waited till I needed them and they really helped me get through a couple of tough times.

When I got to Texas, the first thing I did was try to find the rugby club in my area. It was kind of a disappointment. I have been on plenty of teams before, but the coach and a couple of others made me feel pretty unwelcome right away. I shrugged it off and things got better, but when I got my work schedule I found I had to work on Saturday, our game day here, and the fact that I did not have health insurance till February did not help. Finally in January I scratched my leg. I slid in on my shin for a try in touch and got what I thought was a little brush burn. $300 and a swollen leg and 3 weeks of antibiotics later, I decided to wait till I had real health insurance to keep playing. There are some summer 7s and 10s matches coming up and I am trying to get fit to play in them.

After a long peacefully quite wait Satomi, Eric, Anna, and little baby Sara all arrived with the help from my mother in law.  

It took some time to get all our stuff and fill the house but we did it and now have a guest bedroom, anyone want to come and stay in Houston for a couple days?

Eric started going to school and playing rugby. Both are going well for him, he scored a hard fought try on the wing in his last game of the season, and his English is improving also he passed ESOL reading and writing level 1, and his teachers and coaches are always ecstatic about having him around. In school Eric seems to be enjoying himself and his teacher is very happy at how well he does in math, especially word problems, with out being able to read them he still manages to under stand the problem and solve it correctly.

His Rugby Couch lets him play all over to get the feel for the right position and he likes prop lock and hooker, but the assistant coach would rather stick him on the wing cause he is tall skinny and fast. In his first couple of games Eric made a name for himself and had everyone screaming his name as he ran across the field twice to drag a player to the ground from the opposition who had made it past everyone else and stop what seemed like inevitable tries.

He is naturally better then me at everything he tries to do, but he is never very serious about anything still, like father like son. He always asks why we do not have after parties for his team like we did in Tokyo? "In a few years..." I say.  

Anna has become quite the handful since moving but is still cute and funny! She speaks Japanese and English, in a very matter of fact way, so fast that the words sometimes run together into nonsense. Her favorite phrase right now is "You gotta wait!"

Sara is a patient little angle who rarely cries.... except at 4 AM or when she really wants to be held.

Finally I left the company I came to Houston to join, and had to find some new employment. There was nothing wrong with the company I was at, I just did not fit in. I found a new job and it appears to be a great fit so far. Things are getting better little by little.

I want to say that I miss all my friends from Japan and enjoyed the lessons learned, during my time in Tokyo. I miss all of my friends at GMO, TGRFC and TLUG, and hope through out the crisis you are doing well. I think about you all at least once or twice a day and think Gambatte!

Seriously if you're interested in coming to Houston, send me a message on my contact page or you can hit me up on Skype at erin_hughes_jp. 

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