I’ve got quite a lot to talk about for this post, but I’ll try to keep it short, instead of just rambling on and on.
The first bit, and perhaps what everyone wants to hear is when I’ll be visiting. I’ll be coming for Christmas and New Year’s Eve this year. I’ll arrive on December 15, and I’ll be flying out on New Year’s Day. So it is just a little over two weeks. It will be nice to be able to spend Christmas with everyone again. If you have any requests for gifts, or just want to let me know when you’ll be free, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to pick something up here for you.
Next, I’m driving now. Yep, I got my Japanese driver’s license. It’s really nice to be able to drive. I forgot how much I loved driving. It was a pain to get (I’ll probably be devoting an entire post to just that when I get some time to sit down and think about it), but luckily, I’ll never have to go through that process in Japan again.
Work has been tough. We are still short on teachers, and one of our teachers is on vacation, so that leaves 3 teachers to do the job of 5. Needless to say, I’ve been getting a lot of overtime. We even got a couple new part time teachers to fill the classes that would have been impossible to fill with just the regular teachers. That brings me to my next point.
I have a roommate now. At least for the rest of October, and the first part of November. He’s from Germany, but has an expert level of English. I met him through Couch Surfing, as he’s backpacking through Japan. When he heard that my office might need some help he offered to stick around for a month in Koriyama. We tried to find a cheap place for him to stay, but the cheapest he could get for one month only was over $1200. I offered him a place for the normal cost of renting a room. It’s been a little crazy living in such tight quarters with someone again. Reminds me a lot of university. No privacy, but at least there’s always someone to talk to.
Finally, I’ll be adding photos of my autumn sightseeing to my gallery. I went to 五色沼 (pronounced Go Shinki Numa), or the five colored ponds, on October 19, and yesterday, or October 26, we went to 那須塩原市 (Nasushiobara) in the prefecture south of Fukushima. Both were beautiful, so I thought it would be nice to add them to my gallery.
That’s it for now. Pics should be up within the next hour or so, so don’t forget to check out my Gallery!