Happy Merry X'Mas

At Valor on the way to the station.

Well, the JLPT is good and taken. That's a load off. Not that I was worried about it, but it was a task to be completed and now it's complete.

The weekend in review:

On Friday I started off good by going up to my Faraway School (45 minutes). I even got there 15 minutes earlier than usual: 8:00. I hung out biding my time for half an hour before anyone realized that I wasn't supposed to be there. So I had to haul heiny (how do you spell that?) back down to my LES (10 minutes from my house) and perform Emergency English Teaching. Well, I just did the Thanksgiving lesson I didn't get to do last week, but I just wasn't up to my usual dynamic self. Also, I realized afterwards that that was my third elementary school in one week. A record for me, I believe.

Saturday morning I got up and out early to go to the doctor so he could take a look at my foot/ankle again. Of course, even though I got there as soon as they supposedly opened, the parking lot was already full and I had to take a card and come back two hours later. I had gone last Monday because it had been swollen and sore for a few days. They took x-rays (without giving me a protective vest), found nothing and sent me home with a prescription for two anti-inflammatories, something to protect my stomach from the former and pain-killing patches. As none of these treatments did the trick, I returned, only to have him poke, squeeze and tap with the triangle reflex hammer and find nothing. I left with another prescription for the same medicine. I don't think I'll be buying it.

At Tsurumai JR Station on the way home.

Today I was out the door at 7:00, rushing, only to find that my car was frosted over, requiring warm-up time and lots of windshield wiper fluid.

Let me describe today's test to you:

First, back in late August I applied: paid 500 yen for the application, filled it out, attached a picture of myself within the specified dimensions, and paid 500 yen to have it sent via insured mail as instructed. At the beginning of November I received my test voucher. Today I took it with me to prove that I was who I said I was and to direct me to my assigned room and seat.

At the beginning of the test, some instructions were read, including "turn off the cell phone that you weren't supposed to bring," and "if you do any of the following things wrong you will get a yellow card as a warning," "if you do something else, you'll get a red card and will have to leave." No joke. These instructions (that were also printed on the application and test voucher) took 15 minutes (including the pause at the end of them to make sure we stayed on schedule) and were repeated at the beginning of each of the three sections.

After the first section (25 minutes) we had a 30-minute break. Section 2 was 45 minutes followed by an hour for lunch. Section 3 was 65 minutes. Now, had we not had those two breaks in there and not repeated the instructions and warnings each time, I estimate that the test could have taken about 105 minutes, less than two hours. Instead, it took 4 hours.

How I felt after footing it around Nagoya this afternoon.

At any rate, it's over. I booked home instead of meandering around Nagoya because it was really cold and windy and I just wanted to get home. Leaving the station, I heeded temptation and followed the enticing aroma of goheimochi and got myself a few sticks. De-licious. And here I am. Finally posting something.

Cheers, mates.

The moon over waiting taxis at my home station, 4:05 pm.