dust in the wind

Today was another windy day. I kept finding sand in my hair and on the back of my neck.

Despite the blusteriness, it was sunny and slightly warmer, and my house doesn't seem as cold, either. I'm dreading winter though; people have told me stories of how they practically never took off their long underwear for three whole months of winter, other than to wash them. A girl told me on Monday that last year, she stayed in japan for winter break but wished she hadn't because it was just way too cold all the time. I was thinking "um... great."

This morning I had to get an x-ray. All new teachers are required to have this health inspection, and many ALTs have to come to Numazu to get it. Really though, it was an RV parked out in front of the prefectural office, and it took all of two minutes. Still, I didn't have to go in to work until after I got it done, and I got to see a couple ALTs from Izu that I haven't seen in a while. I also got some sweet cards from the stationary store : ) I'm going to go broke on stationary and postcards because they are so adorable here. If you want to perpetuate my impulsive stationary binging and would like a postcard, please give me your address!

So I've decided not to go home for winter. It was a hard decision to make, but ultimately, probably the most practical one. I'm going to miss everyone terribly though, especially when I'm alone on Christmas day.

I've been feeling ambivalent towards the "group" here. I find myself deleting a lot of their emails without reading them, simply b/c I'm tired of the same old stuff. I really couldn't care less about how well their lesson went, or this or that about their school. I have no problem with them in person, but I think the email list gets pretty clique-y. And seeing a certain group of 2nd years at bowling on Friday (last year's ALTs were notorious for being clique-y) not really interacting with anyone else but their own little group, confirmed my distaste for this type of stupid exclusion.

I'm really excited about Kyoto.