s'alright

This week has been strange, not unsettling, just, all-over and different.

I haven't felt like cooking for various reasons, but a long conversation today helped bring back my appetite. Thanks, Ana ♥

There are two more people living on my floor now, soon to be three. My immediate neighbor, the new art teacher, I have not actually seen at school yet, and I don't hear much of her in the building despite thin walls and noisy plumbing. The next resident of the big apartment in the corner is my school's new English grammar instructor. She is a formidable lady - I respect her style. It's odd to actually hear other people coming and going at night, but I don't mind feeling the place is actually inhabited once in a while.

Also on the list of things helping me be okay with life: this happened

Zombies for Obama

As proud "Obambies" Nicole and I were savaging any and all American JETs we met at the Halloween party in Matsusaka who hadn't sent in their absentee ballots. This is what the slackers had to face up to:Incidentally, that is also exactly what I looked like while teaching classes on Friday. And riding the bus to Minami-ise in the morning on my way to teach classes. And walking to the bus station from my apartment. I made a couple middle-school kids run screaming down the sidewalk, and one of my senior boys shriek like a little girl. It was a good day.

Today was also a good day. I spent most of it writing while sitting at my desk, and obsessive-compulsively checking cnn.com (remember, I am 14 hours ahead of the East Coast. The polls had only just opened in the States by the time I was done with dinner last night) The verdict finally came in just before I taught my only class today, the last class of the day. I felt a hell of a lot better about my nationality as I walked into that room than I had when I walked into work this morning. Today is the first day in I-don't-know-how-many years that I've actually felt proud of my country.