Lazy Days

I've been really lazy since moving into the apartment. I finally finished cleaning late on Thursday night, so Friday I spent pretty much the entire day (I got home from school around 4:30pm after hitting the bank and the 100 yen store) on the internet and reading scanlated manga. I was too lazy to even make pizza toast for dinner, so I had a bah hu (shredded pork floss) sandwich, plus Cadbury Mini Eggs.

I slept in until about 12pm today then hooked up the phone, did laundry, and looked up various Jane Austen spin-off books (sequels to her novels, completions of her fragments, etc.). I was so lazy I didn't even eat cereal (I think the milk expired yesterday anyway!), just the remainder of the Mini Eggs bag I opened yesterday. Luckily Allie sent me a message to invite to dinner with her, Juliet, Teresa, and Kelly and Ron or I probably would've skipped out on dinner too. ^^;;

Just before heading out for dinner, Crystal called to say that they were in the area, so she and Weldon and some other ALTs (they had gone out to Lake Towada) came by to pick up the intermediate Japanese course books (provided through the JET Programme) I had barely used and to view the apartment.

After dinner, everyone came over to hang out until about 11 something.

I really think that for the next couple of weeks I could be quite happy just staying at home reading manga and watching movies. (I also suspect I wouldn't eat much more than cereal and pizza, though, so it's good that I get school lunches!)

Even though I don't have the excuse of moving into/cleaning the apartment anymore, I don't think I'm going to go to church tomorrow.

It's sad to admit, but it's been over a month since I last went and I don't have any feelings of missing it at all. I do have the occasional pang of guilt for not calling and at least giving them my new contact info, but not strong enough that I'm actually planning on doing so in the near future.

Since I started thinking seriously about Christianity (i.e. junior high/high school), I've always believed in the importance of going to church, but I guess my conviction wasn't as strong as I thought it was. I hate to say it, but I'm really thinking that I prefer to not go to church rather than dragging myself to and through it every week. But since I've also been negligent in personal devos/Bible study, not going to church would probably turn me into a in-name-only Christian.

*sigh* I've always had problems with determining when the action is more important than the accompanying feelings/motivations and when the right motivations/feelings are more important than the action. Does God want me to go to church even when I'm unhappy being there, or do my negative feelings render the act (of going to church) meaningless?

It's harder than my university days because it's not simply a matter of laziness: I've tried churches here and am simply unsatisfied by them. But I don't know how much of it is real dissatisfaction and how much is me inflating the negative points to justify not going. @_@ It's all really a tangle.

But on a happier note, I finally got the official OK to go on the school trip with the ninensei in October!! I'll have to take nenkyuu (vacation) and pay for myself, and I won't be able to watch the Lion King with them (I've already seen it anyway), but I get to go!!! They were saying that it would probably be OK for a long time, but I was still a little worried that something would come up to prevent my going, so it's a relief to finally get things settled.

I am a little worried about being a burden on the teachers (they have a lot of work to do for the trip) but I really do want to do my best to be helpful and to find ways to get the students practicing their English on the trip. ^_____^

I'm also going to the big regional (?) JHS sports festival in Tohoku Machi next weekend!! It'll be a long weekend (starting at 6:50am on Saturday!), but if my students win on Sunday, I'll be able to go cheer for them on Monday (instead of going in for an office day). ^_^

One of the most meaningful compliments I've gotten from the other teachers at Kirita is that I'm like a regular teacher, and I really hope that this year I can continue improving as a teacher and increasing my role as a member of the staff at Kirita.

Admittedly, with all the moving stuff I've gotten a little lazy and less pro-active about lesson planning, but I did have some really good jishu gakushu (extra English) classes with every grade this week (everyone seemed to have fun and get the grammar points I was teaching/reviewing), so hopefully I'll be back on track next week.

So yeah, I guess that's it for today's rambling post. If you're interested, I posted five new photos of my now CLEAN apartment on Facebook here.

Settling In

Moving is really tiring, not to mention expensive.

On top of the 100,000 yen I paid to cover the first month's rent, plus various fees (real estate agent fee, "key money", etc.) I've probably shelled out between 300,000 and 400,000 yen on appliances, furniture, cleaning supplies, dishes, etc. @_@

But I think it's worth it to have a place that truly feels like it's my own (even though at most I'll only be spending another 4 years here).

I didn't realize how much work packing and unpacking would be, however. Well, the packing wasn't so bad. I got all of the stuff from the old house moved into the apartment in about 6 car loads (remember, my car is very small!). The unpacking and organizing, however, is insane. I can see now that I was being hopelessly optimistic in thinking I'd get it done within the weekend.

And of course, the place is so small that as soon as I buy anything, it'll become messy again. ^^;;

Oh well. I'm teaching tomorrow, so it's time for me to go to bed!

Check out the pictures of my apartment (through various stages of moving in) on Facebook here.

End of April Photos Up

So I still haven't had time to write about the end of April (when mom, dad, Cecilia and Brenda visited), but I have posted some pictures on Facebook, so check them out!

- Quarter of a Century (22-23 Apr - birthday pics)
- Oirase Gorge (22 Apr - not many pics since I've been there so many times)
- Hirosaki (24 Apr - the most famous sakura in Aomori Prefecture, probably)
- Homecooked Dinner (24 Apr - quiet dinner at home since everyone was pooped)
- Kanchogai Dori & Sakagami's (25 Apr - the last day for everyone to be in Towada)

Almost Furnished!

I bought two sofas (a 3-seater and a 2-seater), a TV stand, a bookshelf, and many small things (garbage cans, a dish rack, etc.) at the Jusco today. It was a lot of cash to shell out in one day (luckily tomorrow's pay day!) but at least I got a 5% discount, plus points by using my WAON card (a quick pay card you can load up to 20,000 yen onto).

The sofas and bookshelf (it was too long to fit into my car) should be delivered either May 31st or June 1st, so my place isn't going to be fully furnished until right when I move in, but I figure that's for the best since I still want to do cleaning before all the furniture is in.

I'm a little worried that the sofas are too big for the limited amount of space I have, but since they're doubling as beds and I wanted to have something for a guest to sleep one, they had to be fairly large.... Ah well. I'm sure it'll all work out somehow (although I suspect we may have to move them in through the window rather than the door!)