Well. I was planning to write a long post updating you all with what's been happening in my life so far, but tonight coming home from dinner with a friend I accidentally made a huge scratch on another person's car. So I'm a little stressed. I went back inside and told the waitress, and luckily one of my English teacher's was at the restaurant so once the van owners' were found we could communicate fairly well through translation. It also transpires that they are my neighbours, also living in Uddo Tah-un (Wood Town) and the dude knows my supervisor. The joy of living in a small town. On the flip side, seeing as this is a small town and my teacher was at the restaurant, all my schools are going to know about this and I wouldn't be surprised if my supervisor tries to halt my driving "privileges". Ah well, nothing to do until more is known.

So the last few weeks have been an awesome kind of busy. The weather too. It got warm , then cold, and then today it was sort of warm again, due to the rain. I'm sorry, but I couldn't update without posting about the weather, however brief this is.

Seeing as it is the end of the year, there have been quite a few enkais (parties) going on. Last week I had a badminton tournament with the police officers of the town, plus the police of two nearby towns. The tournament itself was fairly miserable, but afterwards we had a very nice dinner where I was regaled with traditional singing and hilarious dancing. And then, of course, in the path that most parties follow, we ended up at karaoke. For two hours I listened to a bunch of really drunk middle aged badminton players croon to several unknown songs. Then I gathered courage to sing Like A Virgin, and though I was definitely the worst singer there, I did get a lot of cheers. A good night all in all.

Last week I had both my board of education enkai, at this swank yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku is Japanese barbeque, although that doesn't really cover it. There are grills in the tables, and they bring you plates of raw meat and vegetables that you grill yourself. When it's cooked to your liking, you dip the food in delicious sauce, let it cool a bit and eat. Since it's winter, we actually had shabu-shabu, which is a hotpot. The plates of food are still brought, but you cook the food in a pot of boiling water. It doesn't sound nearly as good as it tastes, but believe me, it was awesome. The night was also great because it gave me a chance to practice some Japanese, which I have begun studying in earnest now that I have a bit more free time. Though I am still far from anywhere near fluent, I definitely feel more confident.

Also, last Tuesday, the gun, county, had its annual speech recitation day. All the junior high schools in the region have a few students perform a little skit in English, which the ALTs judge. Afterwards, they are divided into random groups and perform a tiny skit with an ALT. I had been practicing with the four students from my school for the last couple of weeks. I wrote the play, only a couple of pages long, and though I'm not sure if the kids really got what it was about, the other ALTs thought it was great. We had costumes and everything. I thought they did a great job, and I had a blast, getting to know a few of the kids a bit better. One of them I took a shining to the first day. My personal nickname for her is Hermione, although she's the first kid's name that I learnt. Her parents are dentists, and she's this super overachiever who's incredibly smart and is involved in about 15 different after-school activities. Plus, though her pronunciation isn't amazing, her delivery is. Seriously, she sounds so natural in her stress and attitude, better than some of the English teachers at school. Another kid is also one of my favourites, just because he's so cute and small with a perfectly spherical shaped head.