A Life Update

So, it occurs to me that I have a lot of little things to report, but nothing really big, so I'll consolidate:

1) Kyudo: This is pretty much eating up all of my time. I am going to class five times a week now... but the test for Shodan (Which I recently discovered is "Black belt" for those of you not accustomed to the Japanese system) next Sunday. I have to answer questions (Luckily I can wrtie the answers in English... but I have to listen to the question in Japanese... I'm not sure that helps much). This is the primary reason I'm not getting anywhere on my major Hiroshima blog post.

2) School: School has started and my new first years are so cute. I have a girl in my second years who is wonderful, but she has a problem staying conscious... (I'm not sure what it is, but it's medical). Last year she passed out once a month or so... but this year she has passed out every day so far... and sometimes she is out for many hours... it's unfair but the teachers are thinking she's going to be remanded to a care facility... Which is a shame, except for this problem she is a perfectly normal little girl (I say little but I had to lift her from the floor a couple of times... Perhaps "Perfectly normal teenage girl" is more appropriate. She doesn't seem so little when you have to lift her up...). This is unfair considering we have a third year boy who has punched a teacher (Not me) and we can't get rid of him (He also fights every boy he gets near and he insults me simply because I'm American... he hates Americans, see...). He stays, she goes. Next time people talk about the wonders of the PTA, I'm going to remember this. It's because of the PTA that we can't ship him out.

3) Drawing: I am getting some drawing done, but because of Kyudo I am a little behind. I am in the middle of an interesting side story for Tamerlane which I think is cool (But don't we all think our work is cool? I mean, who would purposely do uncool work? I guess whether it really is cool or not is debateable) :)

I've started watching the evening news in hopes to get better at my Japanese. Maia is going to help me on a weekly basis with Japanese as well... see, a few weeks ago Sensei looked at me and said "Your Japanese is awful! I would have expected more from you after two years! You are slacking! Get to it!" It stung, but it was really refreshing to hear (Most Japanese people look at you and say "My goodness! You are almost fluent" when you can barely say "Sayonara"), he added, "If you go back to America without speaking Japanese fluently, it will not only be a waste, but you won't be able to keep the language." He is absolutely right. One of my goals while I was here was to become fluent in Japanese. Not so that I could watch Anime without subtitles, but because I firmly believe it is important to be bilingual. Any language... but there is sufficient evidence that says bilingual (Or quadlingual... ahem... DrMal) people are markedly sharper mental-processing-wise, and have a lower risk of Alzheimers.

So, soon DrHeimlich is moving, Good luck to you on that one, my friend! I'd love to say "I wish I was there"... but really... that would be lying... a lot... But at least I have a hell of an excuse :D I wish I was there for the "after-moving-pizza and a movie"!

Also Good luck to Tia for her Job hunting this coming weekend! :D

And.. er... Gads, Mal... what ARE you doing? (Noting nothing on your blog recently, hint hint)

Okay, so... I twisted a muscle in my neck somehow sleeping crooked so I'm going to go to bed, read a little more "Musashi" and go to sleep I do believe!