Today is Thursday

Huge Rainbow. Outside the window. 3 or 4 leprechauns must live there. Must...get...the...gold. So much gold, probably at the end of the rainbow. Why...does it keep...moving...when I....get...close? Gold...leprechauns...pumpkins...

Ok, whoa, whoa, let me get back from my brain-dead zombie state.

It's Friday now. The day of Fri. I'm in the office again. Help me, I'm going a little stir-crazy. I've been sitting, and sitting and sitting. I'll get up in 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, that's my break. I think, if people can have smoke-breaks, I should be able to have a "stand outside" break. They should institute that.

Institution. Did you know that the old President, Taro Aso, is OUT of office. His single digit approval ratings probably did him in. Yeah, he was that bad. Sorta like Bush, if we didn't have a #### ##### ##### ##### part of the country. Your software automatically blocked out what I wrote, so please use your imagination to enter whatever you think fits.

I'm going to China in a little more than a week. YES! See the great wall, Tienanmen Square, the Summer Palace. I can't wait! One more country off the list. I never thought that I, in my lifetime, would go to the great-wall. At least not until I retired and then was too old to enjoy it. But I'm actually doing it, and it's an amazing feeling. I believe that we should be able to travel a lot more when we are younger, and work it off when our reduced mobility makes us perfect office workers.

I've been reading the Dragonball manga (comic book). One of the groundbreaking manga's, and one of the few well-known ones in the US. It's interesting, and it's stretching my Japanese, for sure. It's good practice, and I can relate to my kids with it. "Hey, remember that time the kid with the monkey tail lifted the tortoise and brought him to the ocean. Yeah, that was good chapter."

I have been scootering around on my new old scooter. It's wicked fun! I can only go up to 50 or 60 km/hr, but that's all I need. I can explore all of the areas that were previously inaccessible. I drive between rice fields, up small mountain paths. I follow rivers and cross shallow streams. There is something so much more visceral about scootering than driving a car. Driving a car, you don't notice the beautiful scenery as much. You don't feel the wind pushing your body, it's ever-present pressure feebly trying to stop your movement forward. You can smell the air around you. Freshly-cut grass, rice, nature. Your body feels the drop in temperature when you increase in altitude, and the refreshing pocket of warm air when you get back to ground level.

Also, a tank of gas costs $5.

-Out.

The nicest present

I'm in my office as I type this. I should be getting a few more kanji reviews under my belt, but... Anyways, I came back to a coke bottle filled with sake on my desk. It reads Takko-town garlic sake. I never expected to have alcohol just sitting on my desk, let alone in a half-filled plastic coke bottle. I'm not a shady kid, and neither are my coworkers, I swear!

I also had a review today. 5 of my coworkers came and looked at my class. I think it went well, it was a normal middle school class at Shingo. I also reviewed my students' English speech contest performance...they aren't going to win this year, that's all I'll say. 2 days away and they still haven't fully memorized their speeches! There's only so much I can help with if you don't memorize your speech.

I can't go to the contest though, I will be teaching at an elementary school instead. When I asked if I could go to the contest when I finished, I was given the "well, I'll have to ask so-and-so, because it is considered a business trip..." which means no. Too bad, but maybe next year?

Ok, that's all ya get. Suck it up or go to another blog! Once I finally get these stupid kanji reviews done, then you'll get a proper list of updates. Be strong, for me.