Gobble, gobble

I am feeling about 10 times better than I was at the start of the week. Not quite HAPPY yet, but certainly not as bleak as Monday.

Yesterday was another one of those weird Japanese events... a mid-week holiday. Not that I'm complaining! I went out to Kawashima on the train with Julie and Smitha for a Thanksgiving dinner. Wish I was American, there's something terribly civilised and friendly about a day devoted to eating, and playing parlour games, and watching American football (the latter was sadly lacking). I suppose also, there's something terribly privileged about it as well.

Kelly has the largest house of any ALT in the ken, and yesterday it was pretty full with about 25 fellow JETs, who had all come with various food and drink, to sit, eat, talk, laugh and play charades. What fun! The turkeys had been bought specially from a company that specialises in importing foreign food (yeah, whole frozen turkeys don't exist in this country), as had the stuffing and gravy. There were mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, El's yummy cream vegetable pasta thing, a few pasta salads, bread, cheese, wine, apple crumble (no custard! for shame!) a brave attempt at Yorkshire pudding, and lots of red wine. My poor tummy's tied in knots today over such rich food, it's used to gentle Japanese cuisine! We played charades, which was a lot of fun, and at about 9.40, it was time to jump on the train back west. Sadly there were no taxis, to I buttined up my coat, pulled on my hat, and started the 30 minute walk home.

It was a beautiful clear crisp night, and the stars were gorgeous. At one point, I lay down in the middle of the road to look at them better, and had to laugh at the thought of one of the locals walking by, and seeing this foreign girl lying in the middle of a dark road for no apparent reason. It didn't happen.

Back at school today, and my one class is cancelled. So time for study. Have also made the decision to go to Belfast over New Year to see Jane. Good stuff.

The picture is me, along with Kiwi Amber, and Canadian Julia, both first year ALTs, and both very lovely. The other one is Beej chewing over life's little idisyncrasies with what's left of the turkey he so expertly carved. :)