The summer is almost here in full swing. The nights are getting warmer, and it seems like the birds are up and chirping at 3:30AM every morning. I woke up to a bright sky this morning and could have sworn I was late to school, but when I checked my phone I saw that it was only 4:45AM. It makes me happy when I do that though, because after that I can get the best 15-20 minutes of sleep.
School is going well the days come and go just like the ones before them. I wake up and do my morning rituals: email, read the news, shower, make my coffee, ichat with Michi, call friends and head to work. My afternoon rituals vary somewhat—usually I get home from school, check the news, run/exercise for about an hour, make dinner, eat, read/watch movies/relax, and hit the sack early. I know my life during the week sounds a bit boring, but believe me that the alone time can be nice and that I do make up for it on the weekends.
Usually I spend the weekends with friends and traveling and just about every weekend is spent with Michi. I have a room in her brother’s house that makes it real easy for me to stay in Toyohashi on the weekends. Sometimes life in her brother’s house gets a little wild with the four kids—but it is exciting.
It’s hard for me to believe that I only have about two months of school left until I will be home again for another visit. Time here passes both fast and slow. Sometimes I look at a calendar and wonder where the month went, and other times it seems like lunchtime will never get here. I do know that it seems like it was just yesterday that I was back in Japan—but in another sense it seems like forever since I have been at home relaxing. I have one sweet break lined up this summer (more than six weeks off!) and I am looking forward to making the most of it.
These days I have been reading a lot more, partly because I am trying to learn a lot and partly because I want to finish all of my books before summer so I can stock up with new ones when I am at home. Now I’m reading Sex God by Rob Bell. He says some good stuff but the way he writes and his endnotes are not to my liking. Sometimes I think he just wrote a bunch of sentences on a piece of paper, cut them out, put them in a bag and shook them, and dumped them on the table. Wherever they landed they stayed. He is full of great info and good information though.
I have two more classes to go on this Friday afternoon before I am done for the weekend. I’ve already taught two at the junior high this morning, and today I ate so much for school lunch that I need to explode or take a nap—or maybe a combination of both. Now, it’s time for me to put on my best smile, muster all of the energy that I can, and go teach some elementary school aged Japanese kids a few English words and games.

I am taking a nap after my afternoon run. For sure.