Alvin and Abigale....

I've been feeling less than fantastic again here as of late and have not much to report.


This past Thursday and Friday was the Mid-Year Seminar in which we, all the new and old ALT's in Shimane, got together to discuss teaching, share ideas and attend a variety of workshops. I was not looking forward to it in the least but will admit I walked away inspired to try a plethora of ideas I got from my peers.

An extremely popular theme amongst us all was re-contracting. Mind you the final paper work does not have to be filed until February, yet somehow it kept coming up in conversation. I myself still don't know quite what I will do.....stay tuned in.

I've come to a point although I do enjoy writing the big posts filled with pics and verbose descriptions I've gotten a bit bored with them. So this is going to mark a change in things to come hopefully here on the little blogerella. I'm gonna try to include many more smaller anecdotes about Japanese life for me. I've noticed that my writings have become more about the big stuff as opposed to the day to day experiences. We'll here's to something new.

I bought Alvin on a whim at a flower shop just next to the Japanese Agriculture Co-op Grocery store (JA) in town. I've started frequenting this store more since it reduces my biking time by half even though the prices are a bit more. But back to Alvin....What makes a house a home? Or in my case an Apartment a Home? Family, and since I still scare girls, I figured plants are my next best bet. I can't tell you what kind of piney tree he is, but its a good looking one. To get Alvin from the store to my house I had to tuck him into my satchel, zip up the pot part with trunk part sticking out the top and pedal home as gently as I could. I did catch a reflection of myself in a store window on the way home and it basically looked that I was growing a tree from my butt. Classy.

Every big brother needs a little sister, its just what makes the world go round. (I love you Kate) So albeit my little space at home was greener, I decided it wasn't quite enough. On my next trip to the JA store, I strolled once more through the flower shop and happened upon this beauty who I've named Abigale. Again, no idea what she is....but does it matter. She is loved and adds more character to mi casita.

I've had them both for about 3 weeks and their not dead....which is good. When I lived in Richmond with Matt and Christina, I can't count the number of times they asked me to water stuff and because I kept forgetting, after a while the only green things in our house were plastic plants. Which, much to Matt's amusement, I watered on several occasions trying to make up for my black thumb.

Here's hoping for life.