New Old President

The votes are in and we have 4 more years with old George W. What do you think about that? I am going to try and keep my comments on here as neutral as possible due to the diversity of readers. I feel that is an oxymoron, how can politics be neutral? Allow me to voice my concerns of my own voting misfortune. I was unable to vote. This would have been my first time voting (wasn't quite into the elections when I was 18 unfortunately). Before I moved here I applied for my absentee ballot and sent it in very early. Early October arrives and I hear my American friends talking about how they have received their ballots and voted. I start wondering where my ballot is. I wait and wait and then realize it is too late to vote and have no clue who to contact or what to do. This really frustrated me. So election day comes and my friends and I are huddled around Daniel's computer watching the progress of the election. What state just happens to be crucial in the decision, oh yes, Ohio. This made me even more mad. Everyone teased me that Bush was ahead by one vote and if only I voted things might be different. Really funny, guys. I was amazed to see how much my non-American friends were interested in the election. I wish I could have voted to give voice to some of their opinions in the election. Afterall, most of the choices the President makes affect the rest of the world. It's exhausting being from the most powerful country in the world!! Just kidding ;)

Ok, enough of that. Last weekend I celebrated Halloween in Yanai. For all of you that are wondering and that don't know, Halloween is not celebrated in Japan. They have all heard of it but don't really understand what goes on. They think it is a festival of some sort. I attempt to do "Trick or Treat" charades to get them to understand how we celebrate. They ask me if we eat special foods, I tell them Halloween night is pizza or McDonald's night (in other words, fun food). Anyways, in Yanai I went to a party with most of the JETs here and the coolest Japanese people I have ever met. They all dressed up and really got into the holiday. There was a DJ mixing tunes and then a girls hip hop and a boys breakdancing group performed. They were unreal! I really enjoyed watching them and then dancing with them afterwards. It is nice to learn some new moves or just try to imitate them. Christine, Bren and I were ghostbusters! We picked up some smocks at DIK, attached a hose to the waist (for sucking up ghosts) and taped some ghostbusters pictures on our outfits, and there we had a costume. There were some other really good costumes as well, a pregnant nun, a horny priest, zoo animals, the cops and even SpongeBob!