time passes quickly

I have been meaning to write for awhile, but you know how that goes.

This semester has flown by. I am in the last week of classes for third semester. Next week is graduation for san-nenseis (third-year students). During the month of March I don't have any classes...not even one. It will give me time to clear my head and catch up on things but I will miss being with students. That is when I am happiest and most productive. On the other hand I have been doing a lot of grading so even though it is productive I get easily tired and my head feels cloudy.

I have a lot of little trips to look forward to: Kyoto this weekend, friends from Aichi Prefecture coming to Fukui, Sumo in Osaka with my MN girls and my sister coming in April. It is really going to happen this time...God willing. I am trying to strike a balance of spending money to do cool things here and paying off loans/saving for next year when I return to the reality of life in the States.

I have five months left in Japan so I have been thinking about my original goals in coming to Japan and whether or not I have met them. Mostly not. In January, I started a private group lesson for Japanese language study which has been good because instead of 18 students there are 3 so I am forced to pay attention and do my homework, thus improve a bit. So I won't be fluent by the time I leave (my original goal was to be able to have a conversation) but I can still try to improve and study. Regarding the goal of finding my dad...well I wrote him another letter and I wrote my grandma one as well. And we applied for a tv show where they reunite people so I'm just playing the waiting game now.