Monday. So here I am at the Zen Center, little break between evening service (chanting, I was lost except for the 10-line Kannon Sutra).
So I'm about 75% packed, will finish when I get back Wednesday. Spent yesterday scrubbing the apartment, cleaning cleaning cleaning. Also wasting time on the net; I found a free trial offer on ancestry.com, a genealogical site. Everyone here asking about my family ha stirred up the idea that I ought to do some research. The site has census records searches, which let me track back a ways; did find that Mom's side, the Sproles and the Hobbs both, seem to go back earlier that I'd thought - pre-Civil War. I'd always thought everybody got here after. So that was interesting, even if it did distract me from cleaning an packing.
The guest house at the temple is absolutely lovely. Little moss and rock garden in front, old tatami floors; a little rough around the edges but good wabi-sabi. I showed up around 3, one of the monks (just seen two so far, both gaijin, European I think) showed me around, showed me the proper bowing and stuff for the service (which of course I screwed up a bit). Just about dinner time now, I'm going to head on over.