O Marathon! O Tanenbaum!

It's been a while, yeah? I fear a few of you thought that the bump to my head proved fatal. But, no no no...I am fully recovered. I know that my break from blogging had some of you worried. Sorry about that.

So...I'm assuming that if you're reading my blog, you're also reading Tori's blog. That means that you already know about our sumo adventure. She posted a bunch of nice pictures, so...no need to do that here, right?

Here's an interesting little tidbit about the Japanese culture...something I never read about in any textbooks...and something that you definitely wouldn't find in America. A few weeks ago, my school had a "marathon." While it wasn't a full marathon, it was close enough. The guys did about 13 miles and the girls did around 10.
The morning of the marathon, it was about 30 degrees outside, and I was freezing my cheeks off. I was wearing a sweatshirt and a headband, but it didn't seem to make any difference. It was still way too cold to be outside. If it started raining or snowing, they were going to call it off, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. So...everybody showed up and almost everybody ran. (There were a few girls with broken legs or sprained ankles that decided to sit out, but other than that...it was a schoolwide thing.) Even a few of the teachers and the vice principal decided to run it. Everybody finished within 2 hours, most in an hour and 20 minutes, some in just over an hour...impressive. I remember in high school, when we had to run the mile for P.E., some people would take more than the maximum 12 minutes. At that rate, 13 miles would take about 2 hours and 40 minutes. There are definitely none of those slackers at my school.

Now, if only they would bring that kind of enthusiasm into the classroom...

Here are a few pics:













In other news, we decided to get a Christmas tree. Originally, it was just going to be a smallish plant that we could string some lights on...but we ended up with a tree. Granted, it's not your traditional Tanenbaum, but...we like it. It's just a little piece of home...something to keep us company in the evenings.



Testing in school this week, so I've had a lot of nothing to do. Read a few more books...watched some cartoons...listened to some music...wished I had some baby powder for my chafed ass cheeks. (I don't think I'm cut out for a desk job.) By noon, almost all of the teachers are gone, but nobody ever tells me I can leave, so I just assume I have to stay...I'm there until 3:45. During testing like this, by the time I leave the school, there's usually only 2-3 other teachers still there. Seems...silly to keep me there. Oh well...good time to catch up on some neglected reading. Speaking of which, I just finished reading the Godfather, and I'm feeling inspired. I think it's about time to turn to a life of organized crime. Or maybe disorganized crime. Hmmm...I need something to burgle. Any ideas?

Vacation Update: We leave for Thailand in 16 days! Muahahahahahahaha!! Oh, I'm so excited.

On the friends frontier...Nate had a baby boy, Nolan, a few weeks ago! Congratulations, Nate. Tough luck, Nolan.
Also, congratulations to Nate's wife, Eunice, who played a somewhat pivitol role in the birthing process.

I think that pretty much sums up my life as of late. So...till next time.

Laters, Y'all!