End of the Semester (Mostly)

Thursday was the last day of regular tests at our school, so Spring semester (the first half of the school year in Japan) is now officially over. We still have a few make-up tests that need to be given and grading to do, but life is looking much rosier now.

To add a little gold touch to the rosiness, I also get a weekend this week! Last weekend I spent Saturday at school doing study abroad orientations with students and parents (I had to give two speeches in Japanese - yikes!) and Sunday we had Open Campus, so I spent the day talking to prospective students from local high schools.

Yesterday, (Friday) we didn't have tests, but we did have to compile a list of students that need to retake their finals (which meant some crazy fast grading for some of us). We also had a big party for the study abroad students who will be heading out over the next two weeks. They all gave speeches and then all the teachers gave speeches and we ate lots of snacks. It was fun. Knowing all the students this year made the experience really fun. I'm going to miss them!

The test retake list took longer to put together than expected. Russell had come in to work at the school, so he and I stayed late to help get the list to the front office. We got out about 7:30pm and headed straight to our neighborhood izakaya (bar/restaurant) for dinner and drinks. I was so tired that after dinner and a beer I was pretty much ready to fall asleep at the bar. Russell was pretty sure I needed a second drink though, so we had one more round and headed home. I don't remember much after that, but at some point Russell decided I should be sleeping in bed instead of on the floor.

This morning I woke up very happy. I am feeling more relaxed and well rested than I have in a long time. My plan for today is to do some cleaning, spend a few hours grading papers and drinking lots of coffee at a cafe and thinking about a certain flight on Thursday. Hooray!