Admittedly, I'm Terrible At Remembering I Have a Blog

It's extremely bizarre to look at the date and realize I've been here for a month. A month and a day, actually. I feel like I'm finally getting myself settled in. My apartment feels like home, there are markers and bits of paper everywhere, and I own a plant. My students know who I am and say hi to me randomly. My neighbors no longer look like they're going to bolt away at any second (on the few occasions that I see them).

I'm slowly adding to my minimal knowledge of Japanese- I've figured out wonderful (subareshii!) wait a minute (chotto motte) and how to write the names of my junior highs in kanji. It's a start, right? I'm waiting for some kids' books to get here- I hassled my mother into sending me a few. I have a feeling they'll be useful- one of my new friends, a math teacher at one of my schools, has two little kids who are unbelievably sweet. I'm gonna bring the books over for them to look at as soon as they get in.

My friend Steph and I have somehow become the information hub for the new-ish Nagoya branch kids. We seem to end up in charge of everyone's plans at some point or another, which is kinda fun and extremely funny. This past weekend was amazing- we dragged a bunch of people up into the mountains to visit us and then climbed and drove all over the place. I definitely need to spend more time lounging around on the rocks in Nagiso- best place I've ever seen to curl up and do a whole lot of nothing in the sun.

I've got my first elementary school lesson in two days, a holiday on thursday, and then a five day weekend where I'm intending to town-hop for a few days to visit all the people who came to visit me, with a few additions. Hopefully it will work out perfectly, and even if it doesn't I bet it'll be fun as hell. I'm looking forward to the Iga ninja festival. Seriously- it's a town full of ninjas, and people pretending to be ninjas, and ninja-themed everything. Why on earth wouldn't I go?

Here's a couple of photos: a friend of mine in Nagiso, right before he fell in the river, and a shot taken from the graveyard in Tsumago. This weekend was gorgeous.