Ain't life grand

This week has been a pretty easy one as far as weeks go. Not too many classes and nothing too out of the ordinary. No special classes to teach or wild kids to wrangle…and as I write this I have two more classes to teach at Tobu elementary. (The school with the best/ wildest kids!!) It has been raining pretty good today, so I caught a ride here with one of the teachers at my school, and I hope I can get one back home. The bus leaves from City Hall to go to the station at 4:23…and I finish work at 4. Not much room for error, as I have to go to my apartment and change clothes first! YIKES! If I don't make that bus it’s not the end of the world, but it does mean that I have to wait two more hours to catch the next one.
Life in Japan is going well, Toei is a nice place and I have made some friends here. This weekend should be fun, as I am headed to Tahara tonight to brew beer with Nate, and tomorrow we have a birthday party for Miyuki’s dad at Udagawa, the great (expensive!) place that her family like to go. Somewhere in there we have to get our Halloween costumes together, which should be a real riot if we can pull off our idea. Group costumes are always the best!
The boys at the apartment and I are still trying to get all of the bugs worked out of the slingbox, but a guy I met online (I know…) is feeling sorry for me and is letting me connect to his slingbox so I can watch the cats. I hope that I have something to watch this weekend though! We have played well in Florida in recent years, but saying that makes me feel like we are about due for a blowout…
The election is getting closer and closer, and here people could care less and less. I never hear anything much about the election from the people here and probably won’t until it is all said and done. That’s crazy to think about, especially since it is dominating everything at home.
I wish that I could tell you that I am getting better and better at Japanese, but I think I am getting worse and worse. I really want to better my speaking ability, but that seems to be the hardest thing for me. It was the same in Bosnian as well, I could always understand more than I could speak. And I won’t even mention French, as I can’t remember how to say anything. I am sure if I did try to speak French, words would come out in a mix of languages that no one would understand. Add to that the fact that the longer you stay here the more English you forget, and I am royally screwed.
I hope everyone at home is getting ready for a great Halloween and Thanksgiving to follow quicker than we all remember. It seems that each year the holidays come quicker and quicker. I guess we are all just getting old. In my mind I think I’m about 22, and plan on staying that age for a few more years.
It’s about time to head to class…I’m sure they too will be over before I know it. I just hope my activities work, or the 45 minutes that is class can feel like 3 hours. There is nothing scarier on the face of the earth than staring at 15 pairs of eyes staring back at you, and you have no idea what you are about to do. Well, I guess the only thing scarier than that is staring at 30 kids…
Have a great weekend in KY. Take some time to do something that you like to do and haven’t done in a while. Look at the stars, call an old friend, eat something bad for you, drink a KY Ale…it’s ok—I said you could. And when you do it, think of me…I’ll be stuffing myself with some expensive steak sushi. Ain’t life grand…