I had a really sweet Google Chat conversation with a very excited Brian earlier tonight–I haven’t even met the guy yet, but I really like him just based on the e-mails/chats we’ve had, and I can tell this is going to be a really cool year full of really cool first-years, particularly out west. (It’s so weird to realize that I’m now officially a second-year ALT, and a senpai as well.) I’m really looking forward to our regional meet-and-greets on Thursday and Friday, and I’m glad I’ll have senpai backup at both, in the form of Chalice and possibly Nate on Thursday, and Nate on Friday. They’re all coming tomorrow.
I spent tonight running around buying more stuff for the apartment, including some frames to try and put up some photos to make my place look less dungeon-like for when new folks may come by (like Ashley, the new ALT downstairs). I picked up some really beautiful postcards of some paintings a Japanese woman did this weekend, and I have a lot of other small things I could put up as well.
Yesterday was our regional sports day, and I now have a definite tan–including definite tan lines, instead of ambiguously murky regions, on my arms and neck/chest. (When I say “chest,” I mean the v-line that a typical v-neck shirt would make. Get your minds out of the gutter.) Worst of all…I have an off-center watch tan. Those are the worst, aren’t they? My watch keeps slipping so the face is more towards my ring finger and pinky, and the bottom edge of the face is perfectly centered with my middle finger. Great!
Did I also mention that I left my Nalgene bottle on the train on Sunday? That thing is my lifeline–they just don’t drink water here, so to keep myself well-hydrated, having a 1-liter bottle on me at all times comes in quite handy, especially when I can refill it on my lunch breaks on my BOE days. I tried buying bottled water for the sports day, and by mid-day it tasted awful and actually made my throat feel funny. Luckily, I have one at home my parents are going to send (along with a bunch of other stuff, including but not limited to books, food, another pair of capris, and my favorite shirt), and Laura’s very kindly picked another one up for me and is shipping it this week! I’m going to see if anyone turned the lost one in this weekend, though–I’ll most likely be in the city. I’m still not sure if I’m going to the beer garden on Saturday, though…it’s a monumental waste of money for vegetarian non-drinkers, and it isn’t really an optimal setup to meet new people, but I’d like to all the same. At the same time, I’ll be meeting people at English camp starting a week from Friday, too…anyway, we’ll see.
Another reason I want to go to the city, though, besides wanting to show Ashley around the way Lindsay showed me around last year, is because a few friends set goals for themselves to read 50 books this year, and I’ve decided to try as well. I checked out 3 books from the TOPIA library and just finished one today (Koontz’s Shadow Fires–an early work, and definitely not his best, but not a bad read) and am over 100 pages into another (Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land–did I mention TOPIA has a pretty awesome science fiction collection?). If I can finish off all 3 of these (the third being Asimov’s Robot Dreams) and get 3 more for next week, to hopefully finish off by Friday morning when we meet at TOPIA for English camp, that would be really awesome, especially considering that I’m pretty far behind on my goal.
All right…I’m off to go make this place look more liveable, and I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck!