Bamboo forest about a minute from my dorm

I'm watching the vacation days be crossed off on my calendar one by one with increasing panic and dread.  I've enjoyed the vacation so much - sleeping in, lazily reading the news with a cup of coffee, endless crosswords with Sean, baking projects, Skype dates, Netflix binges and long walks/jobs on campus.  It's been glorious and one of the best staycations we've ever had.  Both of us have been mildly productive as well but mostly we've enjoyed the precious free time that we've had together.

The last of the vibrant Japanese Maples on campus (pics from one of my long walks in the sun)

 January and February are going to be busy beasts of months as school and everything starts up full force this week and Sean starts some required training for an English job.  We are also having two visitors:  Ken, our teacher friend that we met in China, is coming for a week and a half at the end of January and Jen, Sean's sister (currently lives in Saudi Arabia), is coming for the first week in February.  Add to that a mini ski trip and winter exams at the end of February and the time is going to fly.

But one of the great things about being a student is though while in-session time is frantic and pressurized, there is plenty of vacation.  We have the entire month of March off which I am already looking forward to.  For the first week, Rotary takes us on a fully-funded trip to Hiroshima to learn about the history and visit the peace museum there.  Then I am hoping to take a trip to Florida for a bit to see my whole family as my parents rent a condo near where my brother and his family live.  If I time it right, I can be down there when my sister visits as well.  Though I would love to visit Holland, March is about the worst time to be in Michigan so I am more than happy to rendezvous down south.



I'm hoping to make a few changes this winter semester to have a more balanced and sane time.  This includes getting up a little earlier in the morning and committing to less events on weekends.  I'm also hoping to start swimming to relax a bit and also because there is a convenient pool on campus right near my dorm.  I'm feeling more and more the need to have a chance to actually speak Japanese as my ICU class focuses mostly on kanji and grammar.  I'm on the list for a volunteer retired community tutor, but I've heard that can take awhile.  Though my undergrad tutor practices speaking with me, that's only one hour a week.  Everybody else in Mitaka just wants to practice English with me as soon as they hear my toddler level of Japanese and find out I'm from the States.  This has prompted me to look at some online Japanese speaking partners/teachers, which is kind of ridiculous as one wouldn't expect to have to do this living in Tokyo . . .

Campus trails

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