The Weekend

The long weekend began on Thursday night. I had been craving sushi from Karato for months. Earlier that day I practically starved myself so I could eat mounds of it. And sure enough, I ate seven plates full! It was everything I imagined with would be, though. Ah, that place truly is ichiban.

Friday morning we headed to Shimosho culture day. A few of the students invited me to attend since I had been there four days in a row at the end of last month. Laura goes there, too, and Becky used to. But none of us go/went freqently, so some students were really confused as to who we were exactly. Still, I am glad we went. Here are some of the students who invited me and their teacher. Can you spot which one is the teacher??

柿、Japanese persimmon

Saturday night Becky I. and Laura came to my apartment for the evening. I have witnesses now to attest that my town is much colder than Shimonoseki and that my apartment is indeed an ice box. Look at this gorgeous pizza my microwave oven baked! And my apartment is looking uberclean. Note the red wine in the photo: this is a "spicy" wine from Hokkaido, made through an ecology experiment in vinyard agriculture. It is very different and very good. The owner of the bottle shop I frequent was very hesitant to let me buy it. He kept saying, "Oh, it's spicy. Women don't like it. Ah!" I will have to let him know that it was quite enjoyable. A white version exists, as well. I do not think it was "spicy."

And another one bites the dust...men. I understand the reality of me and a nice guy living expensive phone calls and train rides away. There is no hope for anything beyond a friendship. It would be pointless and emotionally unresponsible to think anything else. I sleep in a dream world but I like to live life in as much reality as possible. I am not a fling or bootie call kind of girl, eiher, which means that my perpetual state of singleness is going to last even longer. My reality is that I have been single for a really long time. Thankfully, time and singleness have not turned me into a complete cynic. But they are turning me into an unassuming person about guys and people in general. Being like that has saved me a lot of overanalysis, worry, and heartache over nothing. Plus, I did read that He's Just Not That Into You book awhile back, which which has kept me from continually making excuses for men. (As a side note, every single female needs to read that book.) I have met some cool men (and some real crazies) over the past couple years, but nothing can develop due to the transient circumstances of my life and their lives right now. It is all quite emotionally exhausting.

On the future front, I feel God is preparing my heart to come home this coming July. Even I think it sounds a bit hokey and cheesy to be throwing that "God told me" stuff out there, but nonetheless I believe that is what is going on. I will either end up at IU Bloomington or Seattle. I am starting to apply and have narrowed things down to there and two schools in Seattle. Most Masters programs give out little to no financial aid, so if I cannot pull any aid from Seattle, which is highly likely, IU will the winner (providing I get accepted), mostly due to financial reasons. I am not completely giving up on Seattle, though, since it has been on my mind for year, so I will apply and see what happens. All of this is a bit scary, but I trust that everything will workout the way it is supposed to; it always does. I am hesitant to turn in my recontracting papers yet and probably won't do it until the last minute just in case, and also so I can prolong the crushed faces of my office members.