Hellos

Aaron's successor arrived the afternoon after Aaron left. His name is Gavin, and he's from Oregon. He's lived most recently in Hawaii, and is pretty big into surfing. He's also 25, making him the oldest newbie, the same age as Aaron, and, of course, a year older than me.

Before he left, Aaron asked me to take over for him as block representative. Basically, the prefecture's ALTs are grouped into blocks depending on their region, and each group has a designated representative. That person is in charge of helping out in general: helping the newcomers adjust, giving advice, and networking. Aaron made it a point to organize at least one thing every month, be it mountain climbing, bowling, or going to the beach. Eager to pass on the hospitality and kindness the two of them showed me, I accepted.

Last August, Aaron made the effort to round up as many of us as possible, as soon as possible. That's how I met Mike and Mitch so early on. This year, the weekend after Aaron and Evelyn left turned out to be the only weekend in August that all eight of us would be on the island. So we scrambled and threw together a crazy-ambitious plan for the weekend. The most important part was dinner Thursday night. We just barely got everybody together at Kinkai, a yakiniku restaurant conveniently located halfway between the northernmost and southernmost ALTs on the island. Dinner was a lot of fun. I met Kim, the fourth newcomer, who's from Maine. All the newbies are great, and everyone hit it off well.