It used to be that everyone I knew who cared about updates (minus my parents who never seemed to remember I have an account here) could be reached via DA. Now it seems that only two people still use it. Hm...

Not that I'm very up and up on the info-web. I comment about as often as solar eclipse... So here's a few things that have been going on with me since I entered "Lureker Land."

I applied for, tested for, and (eventually)received my Japanese driver's license. The test is MUCH more difficult than in the USA. Seriously. But I got it, so that's a major relief.

I went to the Coca Cola bottling company with my first year students. It was career week. We piled into charter busses (because Japan doesn't have school busses) and set out. The trip there left my back in agony for the rest of the day. Something about that specific seat just killed it. When we got to the company, I was expecting a tour of the kind you always see students getting on TV; a walk around behind walls of glass, explanations of what the men in jump suits were doing, what teh machines did, how they were combating global warming by using such-and-such equipment and so much rereplenishable rsources... But they sat us in a room and showed us a fifteen minute video with animated hosts and pictures of uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. Then we walked down a single hallway and had to peer through small windows to try and see what was happening. All we could tell was that Coke and Aquarius bottles were passing by on conveyer belts. 楽しくない！

Well, Pepsi's better anyway. We did get free 150ml cans of soda and a few items with the Coke emblem in them. I get the impression that's the only reason we went. Afterwards we stopped at a park to eat bento lunches and play, but it started raining. I rode back in the school car which had flat hard bench seats and, maybe not surprisingly, my back felt a little better when we got there.

The second years had to go to work for a week. Everyday they would go to a store or business that they had chosen and had been approved and... well, cleaned. LOL. They were supposed to be observing what went on all day, but when I asked one of them how it went, she said "It was boring! All I did was clean!" Apparently there wasn't much for them to do, especially at a convenience store, so they were set to cleaning all the time. I was laughing. I would never have tried a convenience store. I would have tried to get approvement for a vet clinic or construction business. Something that involved movement or animals.

Speaking of animals...

I have a new love in my life! Her name, as of 12:40 this afternoon, is Isis. She's a very Egyptian looking cat without being a Mau. She comes from the street, so I don't know what she really is, just that she has the large ears and black rings around her eyes, which is kinda hard to tell from the picture... When she's not attacking my head she's really sweet!