First Week Back in Kochi

I spent most of this week at the office, pretending to work and getting to know the new ALTs. The three of them seem like cool people; I'm hoping to hang out with them more often. On Thursday I went to opening ceremony at my big junior high, AJHS, and that was all well and good. They had the routine speeches, plus a fun presentation on earthquakes.

During the week, I had dinner with Tatsuya. It was really nice to see him again. I gave him some souvenirs, including Idaho Spud bars. Partly out of meanness, I brought him a pair of clip-in Mickey Mouse ears. I made him close his eyes, clipped them into his hair, and directed him to the mirror. My intention had been to embarrass him, but he seemed to quite like them. I suppose his enthusiasm shouldn't surprise me by this point. He also seemed to enjoy the pictures I showed him of my vacation. In an effort to increase the amount of time we can spend together, I offered to make tacos again. So this week we'll have another taco night.

I also met up with Julie during the week. I came back just a day too late for her birthday celebrations, but it sounded like she had a great time, which was good to hear.  This weekend I got to spend more time with her and some of the other girls; there was a house party at Mary's on Saturday night, so we stayed over and then all went together to Ino on Sunday for a river float. Unfortunately, because of the heavy rains recently the water was running high and fast, so we didn't think it was safe to float. But we did barbecue and swim in the river. The current was very strong, as predicted. It was extremely difficult just to stand in one place for any length of time. Everyone was saying how cold the water was, but it wasn't nearly as cold as the Boise River. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun.

After the swimming and barbecuing, we drove into the city to do a little shopping. Several of us are going to be undead Disney princesses for Halloween, so we were searching the thrift stores for suitable garments. I'm planning to be Rapunzel, strangled with her own hair. Anyhow, we did some shopping, ate dinner together, and then split up.

All in all, it has been a pretty good week. The weekend was especially nice. For a while now I haven't been enjoying house parties that much, because usually there are a ton of people and it kind of stresses me out. But the party at Mary's house was great because it was a relatively small group (seven of us) and they're all people I enjoy spending time with. I'm hoping to see some of the girls again next weekend. Tomorrow I'm off to my new school, NJHS. It's also a very small school a good distance from the center of town. I'll have to take a bus this time, though; no more taxis for me. I'm a little anxious about going, but I've been told that I'll love this school. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. Wish me luck!