22 December, 2014

very overdue update (aka i'm a lazy person)

Oh gosh, it's been about 3 months since I've last visited my own blog (let alone written an entry) that Chrome doesn't even remember the URL any more! I need to step up my game, because I have a lot of backlogs to catch up on! Here's a quick update just to let everyone (read: myself and maybe the random stranger that somehow stumbled into here — hello!) know that I'm still perfectly fine and alive, and that I haven't been eaten by any strange Japanese mythical creatures (yet).

There's only 3 days until Christmas, (can you believe it?! Because I can't! Especially with the non-festivity that occurs in Japan) and I'm here, still at work, typing away. My last day of school is on the 24th, which means I've almost finished teaching my first semester! I remember feeling completely out of the loop when I first arrived back in August — actually, I still feel out of the loop all the time, but I guess that comes with being a foreigner in a very un-multicultural society (more on this another time).

I'm actually scheduled to "work" (I use this term very loosely on days during the kids' holidays, because well, it's mostly just down time in my case) on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but I've taken annual leave for 2 reasons: 1) I am not "working" on Christmas Day, and 2) I'll be going to Singapore and Malaysia! With the New Year's holiday we're entitled to, on top of weekends and a couple of days of alternate leave that I've accumulated over the past 4 months, I only had to take one day of annual to get a total of 12 days on holiday! (If you count the days I'm flying as well).  

In preparation, I've… actually done nothing besides booking a hair appointment for tomorrow (gotta look decent in my photos, yes?). I haven't even started packing, and knowing me, I will end up stressing during the last few hours before I have to head towards the airport. My flight is at 9.30am (on Christmas Day — I better be feasting like a king on the plane), and my plan is to take the very first train at around 5am towards Kansai International Airport, so there will be no sleep for me prior. I also have a 忘年会 (bounenkai, an end of year party/dinner) with one of my schools on the night of the 24th, so let's hope I hold up okay! I had one just last Friday with my teachers from another school, and the shit (excuse my French, but there is no better word to describe it) that teachers talk about when students are not within the vicinity is hilarious. Great night (besides the insane 6,000 / $65 I had to fork over), would totally do again.

This post is already longer than I had expected it to be, and I'm not even finished yet! Proves that when I'm not lazy or procrastinating (which is very rare, sad to say), I am capable of throwing together words on the screen for some bored and lonely person to read (I don't mean you, I mean myself when I'm going through my own posts years later and wondering what kind of strange things were going in my head). To end it off, (and as a reminder to myself), here are the blog posts that I need to catch up on, even if just to remember the awesome time I had:
  • Koya-san / Hyogo / Kyoto-Osaka / Thanksgiving-Shingu trip
  •  My Halloween / Christmas lessons (aka games that the kids played)
  • New beauty purchases
  • Taiko experience
  • …and I'm drawing a blank, but I’m sure there was/will be something!
This shall be all for now, it's pass my contracting hours and I'm ready to go home (and do nothing as per usual).