random things i love:

when a japanese teacher just LOSES it for no reason. Is screaming and yelling at students for not singing loud enough really kosher? The icing on the cake is when the other teachers just snap back to normal and are like, "ok, lets carry on." bwahah.


also, snow on the mountain's trees while the valley is warm. awesome.

leaver's conference next week, have we come that far already?

playing a mario kart review game; kids LOVE IT. I LOVE IT.

the 3rd years have taken their high school entrance exams; they no longer even put up the front of trying to study in class anymore. BOO.

i'm fed up with japanese taxes on beer. Plz get me back to america.

i'll try and post up my crazy weekend exursion back to the land of the monkey park from a couple weeks ago sometime here soon-ish.

i always have moments I want to share, but I always forget to.


spring is here, it's beautiful, i'm listening to music that is uplifting to the soul, and I will do what I can to never forget the time I've spent here.

more snow last night, this time it stuck. lots of wind blowing it around, ominous, dark clouds over both mountains and the sun trying to break through created a really beautiful contrast of dark and light. great way to kick off the day. :) it's pretty chilly too. trying to stay warm!

snowy afternoon

snow showed up outta nowhere during lunch. i love being surprised by it like that. i also love when snow comes down on days that aren't windy. it just slowly floats down at it's own pace. fantastic. :)

4 months now? haha. does anyone even read this then?

wowza, i wonder if it's even worth updating anymore since it's been 4 months. well, it's a new year, so might as well give it a shot then.

it's hard to stay on top of this, especially after this long of a time, since things lose their luster and nothing is eye-poppingly new anymore.

i'm back from x-mas break. i spent 3 weeks at home seeing friends and family and travelling. i didn't realize how much i missed the good ole US of A. of course, i realize that my trip was a 'best of' kinda deal, as i won't be able to goof that much when i'm back for grad school next fall. :P still, madison, washington, and florida were all good times. i'm happy i could go.

my time between the last post and my x-mas vacation wasn't particularly exciting. i mainly just spent lots of time with friends around nagano. Thanksgiving was delish and jesse and I purchased a fishing trip for next spring. i went to a game place in nagano called 'round 1' in december that was intensely fun. the block meeting the day before i left was also fun: i met a girl at the high school we were at who had done a study abroad in Iowa. wooo!

we'll see if i can be better about this blog thing from now on. but i'll try to be realistic too. :P

Two months, already?

Man, I'm really slippin' here with this blog huh? Well, a lot has happened in two months, so I'll just do little bits of things as they pop into my head.

The newbies are here, and I like them. Yay for having great replacements.

School festival was last weekend, it was a blast. The band concert in particular was great.

drinking party after the festival was also fantastic. talked with lots of people, had lots of fun. the after-party was also epic. Great times.

typhoon came through a couple of days ago at night. woke me up from the wind, but wasn't any worse than a storm. mainly because of the mountains breaking it up i think.

i'm almost done with battlestar galactica. probably my favorite show in terms of enjoyment ever.

i'm reading the wheel of time series, so far, awesome.

i'll be waking up early on saturday to watch the hawks play their night game. :D

i went to kanazawa a couple of weekends ago for the 'silver week' holidays with chad. it was a blast and we saw some great things; ninja-temple, 21st centurty contemporary art museum, and the famous japanese garden there.

i'm bummed harold, the american staying in iijima, is gone. we hit it off really well and liked a lot of the same things. it's a shame i only knew him for two weeks :P

made burgers a couple of nights ago, it was fantabulous. minus the part where i fell in the gutter walking to molly's car becuase it was pitch black outside of her apt.

all day meeting for english teacher's yesterday. it was horrible and i wish i could have snuck out, like some other teachers (american and japanese both) did.

kasuga seems really bummed at his new school. it makes me appreciate what i have in iijima.

i might try hiking a trail outside of iijima in the mountains this weekend. but we'll see. haha.

i randomly decided (after reading the last book), that splitting the harry potter book seven into 2 movies is actually great for everyone, in terms of making money and covering more of the epic story.

the brazilian restaurant in ina will be shutting down sometime in the next couple of months. I'm going to miss it dearly.

the chinese restaurant in iijima has a pretty good sweet and sour set. i may go there tonight.

i did a presentation about graduate school applications and how to find what's right for you. it was fun, but i felt weird talking about it like i was an authority. far from it i feel.

i feel that the yamagomi (the nagano magazine about anything) is always awesome, but the last one was particularly epic. great pieces.

having elementary on friday afternoon is far and away the best way to start a weekend.

3 day weekend this weekend, i'm unsure what i'll do....probably just be a bum.

i really, really need to get my passenger-side door on my car fixed. it's like prying open an oyster every time.

i feel like i'm eating out more with the newbies here, but my food spending isn't really higher since i'm spending less on meals at home. yay.

i keep meaning to go to pachinko...why don't I? oh right, i see the guys camping outside of them at 8:45 in the morning before they open.

i made janis' spinach salad for the first time last week, my how i missed it.

i think i'm hungry, judging by how many of these lines are about food.

i'll be going to kyoto in november to see old friends, kansai gaidai, the leaves changing, and to show stephen kyoto. should be great. :)

booked my ticket home for the winter. 19th of dec through jan 11th. going to be great to be home.

after halloween last year, i tossed the two pumpkins we had...and they took root and grew this year. we have two pumpkins, both around 40kg, sitting in the school right now. AWESOME.

i'm going to go to a halloween party this year, should be fun. i'll get pictures of my costume. :)

i keep using glue on to keep my school sandals in good condition because i didn't wanna spend another 8$ on a new pair and i had this glue sitting at my apt not being used.

it's starting to get cold, and i see leaves falling here and there even though the trees are still green.

swine flu is still around and plenty of people are sick, but it's not the terror it was a couple of months ago.

is it really almost 2010? i remember 1999 wasn't so far away. how did this happen? where is my decade? am i old now or what, musing on lost years?

spying cats sunbathing outside my apt is like, the best thing ever.

there's a spider just outside my apt door that i've taken to feeding. i had high hopes she would have been able to handle the grasshopper i tossed in her web, but alas, it got away.

i still stare at the mountains in wonder, every day, without fail. i'm going ot miss them.

i feel a lot more laid back in the class now, and i think the students like that.

pen pal letters came a couple of weeks ago. the students LOVED THEM. i introduced them by asking the class "whats the date today?" "september 25!" "boo! december 25th!" "whaa? huh? christmas?" "yes, it's christmas, because....i brought you PRESENTS" *holding out the letters* "WAHHH (as the students lose their minds)."

one of my co-teachers ahd to have surgery on her intestines, but was back early to keep teaching. she's a trooper.

there's probably more, and maybe i'll be more on the ball from now on out. ;)