Brian’s Japan Adventure

January 28th, 2008

A Cold Day In Okayama

Brrrr. Got up early this morning and headed straight to the office to print out some worksheets that I will use in various classes this week. There are quite a few good ones, but I am not quite sure which ones I will use in which classes. I’ll think about it some more tonight, but oe way or the other, I’ll have good stuff for them tomorrow. I just need to be sure to make it no harder, and maybe a little easier, than last week’s movie lesson. I already found one activity that is interesting, but very easy that I will use for the Friday kids.

I printed off my lessons, posted my stuff to the blog, and read my emails. Nothing much major happened to report online since Saturday. I came back down the hill and into the apartment to get some “work” done. I learned a new trick on the Mac about how to capture images. They have a program called “Grab” that you can use to make screen captures. That’s not big deal, but you can also grab the contents of an individual window, or just a certain selected area. I found it quite helpful in making little thumbnail images today.

I worked for a couple of hours, and the apartment got colder and colder. The heaters here just don’t keep up on really cold days. They could keep up, but they keep switching themselves off. I don’t know if they are working too hard or have some kind of safety feature that makes them cut off, but they are only on about half the time when it’s really cold outside. That also makes it really cold inside.

Finally, I gave up complaining about the cold and decided I wanted something to warm me up. I wanted CoCo Ichiban. Yes, I was going out in the cold, riding my bicycle, catching a bus, both ways, just for a plate of hot curry. No, it wasn’t worth it, but I wanted to get out of the house for a while.  Not only did it get colder, but it was raining on the way home. No, not raining, freezing rain.  I was gone for about an hour all together and the food was good, but probably not worth the trip.

When I got home, Marc had returned from teaching his classes today and he was making curry on the stove. He cooks. A lot. If he were cleaner, I’d try to get him to fix me something once in a while, but as it stands, I’m happy to get my own food. We talk about what we are going to do after the Japan trip ends. He’s considering joining the Peace Corps when we’re done here. Or maybe not; he isn’t decided yet. He doesn’t like that they decide where you are stationed. He thinks he’ll wind up in Siberia or something. He could be right, I don’t know.  I wonder if they’ll call me for my opinion on where to send him? I think I’ll have him put me down as a reference. Those poor Russians!

I did a little more work, and then listened to a few more podcasts. There sure are a lot of good podcasts out there, and it’s hard to listen to all the old broadcasts in order to get caught up.  The freezing rain quickly turned into snow, and now, around 10pm, the ground is covered, including the roads. It’s not as much as what we got last week, at least not yet, but I have my fingers crossed. I’d like nothing better than for a surprise day off on Tuesday. I don’t mind Wednesdays at all, which is odd because that’s my long day, but Tuesdays and Fridays I do not enjoy so much. Tomorrow is my day to have lunch with the Principal. Lunch meetings are especially scary here, because I never know what they are serving or what to order. This guy seems to not speak ANY English, so it’s going to be a unique experience.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.