Books, Bikes, and Bangkok

BOOKS
Well, it wasn't the most exciting of days...but it was nice. The students are preparing for the sports festival, so two of our classes were cancelled today. Consequently, I only had one class to teach...and about 7 hours of free time. So, what did I do? I studied a little and read a lot. Going in to work today, I'd read about 90 pages of Life of Pi, and by the time I left today I'd finished the remaining 230 pages. Good story...made me think a lot.

BIKES
What else did I do today? I found out that (even while gripping my hand-brake the majority of the time), I can coast nearly a half-mile from the front gate of my school...without pedalling a single rotation.

BANGKOK
In other news: Thailand (our tentative Christmas destination...to which we were planning on buying tickets tomorrow) has been overthrown by a military coup. So...looks like we'll be holding off a little while before we jump into that. In the mean time, any other ideas?

Anyhoo...feeling a lack of motivation and proper blog-fodder to go on tonight, so...I think I'll leave it at that. I'm also feeling a bit lethargic due to two separate, conspiring details:

1. I don't seem to be able to sleep well recently.
2. Tori made the most delicious fried rice tonight, and I just gorged myself.

Hope you all are having a good week...thanks to those who are writing emails. It's always nice to get some info from y'all. There seems to be a common misconception that we don't have time to read email...but trust me, we do...and it really helps with the homesickness.

G'night.

Storm Watch 2006 (Continued)

Midnight: The rain is gone...as are the clouds. The wind has decided to stay a while longer, though. It's still blowing like hell out there, but it's really just kind of a warm, peaceful breeze. I think we'll take the garbage out now.

Good night.

Storm Watch 2006

8:00...The winds are really starting to pick up quite a bit now. It's been a while since I've seen winds this strong...probably since the storm in Oregon in 1996...the one that picked up our trampoline and tried to put it in the neighbor's yard. Power lines are wavering, stop signs are dancing, and our sliding glass door is flexing like a plunger under the changing air pressure. We're good, though...just in our little cave of an apartment. Every once in a while we go out onto the front balcony to see how things are progressing, but then we get scared and have to come back in. I really want to take the garbage out (it's a little stinky), but it may not be a good idea just yet.

It's funny how tranquil and enticing the winds are, though...I can't help but want to go outside and look.

The Storm Is Upon Us

It's a typhoon!! But not to worry...we have the Internet, lots of food, books, and a whole stack of movies to keep us occupied.

The wind and rain have been picking up all morning and it's starting to look pretty ugly out there. We've even had a little lightning that's apparently decided to come along for the ride. So here we sit, plans with friends cancelled, but not too terribly disappointed. If we're lucky, maybe this will last for the rest of the 3-day weekend, then go on through Tuesday so we end up with a 4-day weekend! Chances are pretty slim, though, so don't hold your breath for us.




Yesterday we took a little trip to Beppu (the 2nd biggest city in our prefecture). It's pretty legendary for its hotsprings, so of course we had to try one. We opted for the touristy, not-naked style hot springs so that we could hang out together. What's the point in relaxing in a hot tub if you can't talk to anybody, right? It was really fun. There were 3 separate pools: a big, lukewarm one, and two smaller, much hotter pools. There were a couple of little babies swimming around with their parents, so it was fun to watch them laughing and screaming. So cute. We also met a Japanese lady that lives in Seattle, so it was nice to talk to her for a little while.

We also took along a little friend:




I realize my blog has been pretty short on pictures lately (sorry), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to change that.


(The beautiful Beppu beaches)


(A close-up of all the stuff you see above)


(Tsurusaki...our fair city...across Beppu Bay. You can tell Tsurusaki by the factories and towering smoke-stacks)


(A cool sculpture in the park)


(And, finally, a picture of the two of us, fresh from the hotsprings)

Tonight, we're going to make tacos (complete with home-made tortillas) and if we still have electricity...I think we're going to try to make brownies in our toaster-oven. Should be fun. Wish us luck.