No grumblings. Well, as far as teaching goes - even my preteens seemed to enjoy themselves this week. We were doing a lesson on future occupations. I went around the class asking each kid what they wanted to be, and all the girls wanted to be veterinarians and all the boys wanted to be baseball players. Well, except for one kid called Yesushi, ( Read more... )

This really shouldn't make me THAT happy.

http://www.kids.ecc.jp/school/kinki_area/oji/oji.php

Don't know what I'm saying.

I spent today's kids class finding the letter "S" around the room. My kids are expert S finders!!!!

I finally have my alien registration card. It took me six weeks to get it because they needed to verify all my information. Because one day, Japan might need to find me. Which they won't. Because my address is, according to the Japanese government ( Read more... )

For the first time since high school, I feel mostly happy with most things in my life. I'm sure in 6 months I'll be disillusioned with everything, but for now...contentment ( Read more... )

It must be bad form to make an entry about your travels before you've started traveling. No, I'm not writing from an ancient temple, or Mt. Fuji, or even the airport terminal. I'm in my house, the one I've lived in for nearly my entire life ( Read more... )

Leaving the theatre during intermission ( Read more... )

In true "the universe is against me" and "Diana can and will fuck up anything" mode, I managed to fail at my job of....house sitting. In an attempt to buff up my savings for Japan, I've been taking on a series of jobs generally left to twelve year olds - tutoring, babysitting, dogsitting, and the latest one, sitting in a mansion in Cedarhill ( ( Read more... )

CASE 1 - A spacious dining room, eight people. The Royce family sit and eat dinner in absolute silence on straight-backed chairs that would impress Queen Victoria. The average age is 110. Dinnertime topics include: the new bus route, the delicious turkey, the shortcomings of women and Jews, the new bus route. Dinner is 1 piece of turkey, 1 ( Read more... )

The fan girl in me will never completely die out. It's pathetic really. Here I am, age twenty-four, indulging in fantasies about tripping over Doctor Who and his TARDIS on an almost hourly basis. "What's that Doctor? You lost your sonic screwdriver and I'm the only one who can find it? Consider it done ( Read more... )

I just spent three particularly wonderful days in Wildwood, New Jersey. The place is tacky, sunny, and for some incomprehensible reason, INFESTED by Quebecers. There's so many of them the place has even devoted two hotels to them, the "Quebec" and the "Fleur de Lys". If anybody found out I was Canadian they asked if I was from Montreal, and when ( Read more... )