Hiatus

It seems it's been a while.
Well, someday, I promise to catch all three of my loyal followers up on what I've been doing lately. Mostly, I live in a photocopy room with the odd excursion to school.

Okay, not all the time. Sometimes I try to get rid of all the garbage that has taken over my office. Literally. I can only dump my recycling once a month, and I'm never home that weekend. So I have over a year's worth of recycling in my office.

Last weekend was the HAJET summer meeting, so I trekked out to Lake Toya (sorry, you'll have to google it yourself - suffice it to say it's a very beautiful place very far from where I live) to talk about what I've been doing with HAJET pubs, visit active volcanoes, socialize around a campfire and say goodbye to people I won't get a chance to see again. It was a strange weekend, and although I had a fun time, it was coloured by the fact that there are a lot of great people I will probably never see again. And that sucks. On the plus side, I did hear that there will be someone new coming to live near me. I just hope they're cool...

I also made a stop in Noboribetsu (a famous -- at least in Japan -- onsen town, filled with oni = demons! Yes, it was as tacky as it sounds like it could have been), did some onsening, and went to the tackiest place in Hokkaido (maybe, it's a tight race) -- an Edo Period theme park. We missed the ninja show, but got to participate in the Geisha show. Yes, I have a ridiculous number of pictures which I will post as soon as they make it off of my camera.

Tomorrow I have my first "Homestay Eikaiwa (English Conversation) class" for the parents of the kids who are hosting Canadian students this year. There are going to be loads of Junior High School students from Canada descending on my town and I have been roped into helping to herd them. I'd much rather be going to ECC camp (or Fuji Rock, but that's it's own sad sad story). But before they get here, I'll be giving the homestay parents some idea of what to say to these kids. It should be interesting, but I think I'm supposed to be making snacks too...

This weekend -- well, I don't know about this weekend. I want to take some of my friends that are leaving out for dinner, go and enjoy summer in Hokkaido before it's winter again, I have to get my Newcomers Manual finished, print some more books... all I really want to do is sleep.

I was a bad monkey and skipped work yesterday morning. There were no classes at school, the BOE was expecting me to be at the school but the school wasn't. So I pretended that neither of them existed. I felt bad, but my enjoyment of a morning to myself was disproportionately greater than my guilt about skipping work. So that makes it okay.

I have loads of pictures on my camera, so when I get a spare moment (and an available internet connection) I will treat you to a photo essay on what I've been doing outside of the copy room for the last month. Hopefully things will slow down a little in August. But I doubt it.

Until then, I may not be online much. Feel free to call, write, or email.