bits and pieces

the past few weeks have flown by for some reason. perhaps it’s because i’ve been worked more than usual at my schools – which brings me to the average workload that most people have – and that the students are going to australia soon, so i’ve been busy helping them with translations – make that A LOT of translations – and helping them prepare their presentations and so on.

there have been lots of events lately too, which means that i havent been home as much as i’d like to have. it’s ironic that my schedule is near booked out from now till i return home; when i’m busy i’m really quite busy, and when i’m free i’m bored out of my wits.

this week is another hectic week. i’m going to arima onsen for the weekend (YAY!), and have to rush to complete my CLAIR translation and interpretation course.

next week brings me to Shiga for the seminar for that same course, where i’ll be in class from 9am to 5pm. it’s like being back in school – perhaps worse actually, since i never had such a schedule! – and i’m not sure what to expect, so we’ll see how it goes.

the weekend is the Honjo apartments’ “Round the World Party” – it’s like a pub-crawl in 6 of the 8 JET apartments in that complex, which each apartment having a different theme: caribbean, mexico, UK and Ireland (although the Irish arent happy that they’re being lumped together with the UK), russia, france and japan. i’m looking forward to it, as it’s the last big gathering that we’re having here before we all go home for the holidays.

after that is the last week of school for me, and then a christmas karaoke night to welcome my friend’s boyfriend’s maiden karaoke experience, then it’s my birthday the next day, and then 1 day to pack, and then home very early on monday morning.

busy busy!

i suppose i havent been home much, which makes things worse. in the past few weeks i’ve had enkais, meetups with people, autumn leaf viewing, mid-year seminar, friends visiting, thanksgiving dinner last friday with karaoke after, Inglorious bastards (i never know how to spell it “right”. it was a good show by the way, though rather gory at several points) on saturday, and today, tachinomi and then more drinks at balabushka.

it was crazy today. i definitely had a bit too much to drink and way too much to eat, but it was good fun. i learned that the Caribbean is pronounced differently by people from that region, the americans (and singaporeans) and the irish; that only americans when using fork and knife to eat, switch the fork between the right and left hand; heard a very heated debate on thierry henry’s handball against ireland and zinadine zidane’s headbutt many years ago AND a further debate on henry and FIFA and the whole world cup palava against ireland – as if i havent already heard enough about it since it happened – and chatted about a range of other stuff.

would like to do this more often, but i do have to watch my pocket and my poor tummy AND my liver. boohoo.