Home again

I got back from Taiwan safely, and once I've had time to go through my journal notes and photos, I hope to update with more information. But as things are now, I'll just wish you all a happy new year!

Taiwan, here I come

I'm getting ready to walk out the door. I'm heading to Taipei this afternoon, and I'll be staying overnight in Taipei before heading towards the south of the island on Christmas morning. I'll be back in Japan on the 30th, hopefully with a lot of photos and stories. Ni-hao!

SNOW!!

It finally snowed! Woke up yesterday with a good 8-10 centimeters on the ground! (It's supposed to rain tomorrow so a lot of it will probably melt.) The first snow is always a good time for photos, so I got out the camera. Here's a few of the best from yesterday.



Little stainless steel birds on the guardrail.



The entrance to Nakjima Park, right next to the apartment.



Nakajima Park



Ducks in the Izari River.











As you can see, Japanese snowmen are only 2 snowballs, not three.

You're in the M***** F****** space olympics

Holy Moses in a go-kart, it's been a long time since I last wrote anything here.

Life continues to move along at a fairly breakneck pace, at least at work, though that should begin to calm down after this week. I had a few weeks of absurd schedules.

Jon, can you teach for 6 hours on Tuesday, 7 on Wednesday, 4.5 on Thursday and another 6 on Friday?

Um. I guess so. I don't want to, but what choice do I really have?

Actually, it turned out to be not that bad. Oh, don't get me wrong. It wasn't fun. I felt as mentally exhausted as on that Thursday as I can remember. Maybe once my last year of uni when I had two 20 plus page history papers due the same week, but other than that...

But, in fact, I survived that week and last week as well. This week is the last full week before winter vacation, and I'm heading off to Taiwan for a week, followed by a week of relaxing at home, hopefully hitting the slopes - if it ever snows. We've had a serious lack of snow this year, particularly here in Eniwa. We've had accumulation once, and it was actually in late October. That melted in a couple days, and we have only seen flurries since. The temperatures keep yo-yoing up and down, above and below freezing, meaning that even when snow comes, it's not long for this world. Pretty much all of the ski areas have had to postpone their openings, which I'm sure is killing the areas economically, something that really hurts in rural Hokkaido, where things have never recovered after the bubble economy went "POP". I want to do my part for the economy of Rusutsu and Kutchan/Niseko! Come on, snow! Do your thing!

But, yes, Taiwan. The day before Christmas, I'll be flying off to Taiwan, my first overseas trip in two and a half years, when I visited Mongolia. I'm not really sure what I'll be doing there, but that's just the way I roll. I don't really make plans, and so far, it's worked out pretty well for me. The reason for heading to Taiwan? Well, I guess it's because I'm trying to visit all the east Asian countries, and for a winter trip, Taiwan or southern China (People's Republic of) sound better than S. Korea or nothern PRC. I don't have a problem with cold weather, but it does make traveling a little more difficult. Once I've gone to Taiwan, that will leave the Korean peninsula and PRC. The northern part of the Korean peninsula is kind of difficult to get to (though not entirely impossible) and mainland China, well, that'll just have to wait until I have a longer vacation - it's a big place and I think I'd like at least 2 weeks there.

In unrelated news (sorry for the disjointed nature of this post - it's been a while since I've done this blog thingy. I think my branch of the tubes are a bit rusted) I'm just about finished with my first semester of online MA TESOL studying. I'm not sure what to say about it. I can say that it hasn't been a huge challenge, perhaps in part due to having been teaching for 6 years before I started the program. There's been a lot of, "Oh, that has a name? I've been using this for 3 years, and apparently it has a name. That's nice." Of course, there have been some new things and ideas that I can hopefully use in classes going forward. And hopefully this next semester will be slightly more interesting - no methods course next term. It's not that I don't like the methods stuff. It's just that, well, it's a little dry sometimes.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe I'll write again before I head off to Taiwan. More likely, I won't. But I will certainly have something to write after I get back from Taiwan. Until then, adios.

(PS - the title of the post has no connection to the blog. It's just a line from this song.)