Beginning

I've set this blog up to serve as a record for my adventure participation in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program, and as a way to keep in touch with friends and family while I am in Japan.

Let me begin by way of an introduction. My name is Jen, and my hometown is near Denver, Colorado. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in geology from CU Boulder in 2003, a master's degree in environmental engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2004, and I began working in soil and groundwater remediation for an environmental consulting company in Denver in 2005.

I've been a fan of Japanese culture for years, enjoying the wonders of their entertainment industry and cuisine, learning the language (albeit poorly), and studying Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, in which I have achieved the rank of 4th Kyu. I found out about the JET program at the career fair at CSM shortly before I graduated in December 2004. I opted at the time to pursue my career, however the idea has stuck with me since then and last fall I decided it was time to take the plunge and applied.

I'll be posting about the application process and the agonizing wait that accompanied it, and also about the last remaining 2 months leading up to my departure for Takayama-shi, in Gifu-ken in later posts. For now, welcome to my blog!

PS - The title Rurouni comes from one of my favorite series, Rurouni Kenshin. It is the story of a wandering swordsman in Meji-era Japan, with rurouni being a word invented by the author to mean "wanderer". I found it quite fitting for this journal :)