Visa!

So, the school has been a bit slower lately. It's been a nice lull before, I've been told, everything picks up like crazy in July and August. It's meant that my darling deary and friends have had a bit more free time to show me things and hang out. Even though my darling deary has decided to pick pretty much every piece of fruit on the surrounding towns and preserve them in a multitude of ways. It's a good thing the annex has a industrial kitchen, because he has well over twenty pounds of two different kinda of fruit. He's lucky he's so cute.

But the school is definitely gearing up for the busy season. My buddy got here last week (I'm ridiculously proud of myself because I drove most of the way to the train station to pick him up by myself without getting lost ... I may have brought three sets of directions with me). So many friends! And another teacher who used to work here before will be here for the month of August. But he'll be living in the annex with us while he's here, so I'm a bit nervous about that. I don't like sharing my space with people I don't really know. I've been assured he is a nice guy and I'm sure it'll be fine, I just worry too much.

Oh, I went down to immigration to have my visa changed. I now have a year-long dependents visa, so that's a relief to have everything all happy and in order.  And the immigration office is at least an hour and a half away, so we made a day trip of it and adventured our way around for a bit (partially in search of somewhere that sold a plant that Dylan needs for his preserving). Nothing terribly thrilling, but it made for a good day.

Yesh. That is all for now.

I would love to tell you all of exciting stories of adventure and wonder. But the school has been pretty busy lately, so little time for play. Dylan is on day 9 or so of work. But we've been going climbing pretty often. And yesterday we went out for fried rice, then to a bar-type place thingy because some guy that Dylan's friend knows was DJ-ing. I'm having fun, it's just a little bit more of a subdued fun than the first couple weeks. But I'm an old lady, so that's right up my alley!

I took the day off from life today. I didn't go have meals with students, I didn't see anyone other than Dylan. Heck, I didn't even go outside. It made the day easier to handle. I just need to manage to try and not go on the computer too much tomorrow, to avoid being too bummed out. Stupid internet.
Although I feel that I am not as opposed to being sad as most people are. I don't feel taking a day to be sad about sad things is necessarily a bad thing. I'm generally more inclined to avoid all those feeling type things, so I try and remind myself that it's ok (kinda of like how I have to remind myself that telling people I like/love them is good, not a sign of weakness). Because my default plan of letting everything build up and build up until I have a sobbing melt down doesn't seem like a great idea.

Anyway, happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you and I miss you.

Oh right.

Ok, so that feelings thing didn't work out terribly well. So much so that I stopped writing here at all. I am trying to work on it on a more face-to-face, person-to-person level though. But if I'm still so bad at it that you've missed it, rest assured, if you read this blog it is almost certain that I think you are amazing. Baby steps. But it has slapped me across the face how important it is to make sure that the people you love know it. I'm working on not taking those things for granted.

Enough of that.

So, I'm in Japan.

I did my year of Criminology. It was crazy fun to be back in school. Because I'm a nerd like that. The worst part was actually having to be around hoards of 18 year olds who didn't have the same passion for school that I do. Chances are that you've heard my rants about little kiddies talking to each other through class, ignoring the lecture that was taking place in front of them, or people who go to discussion group without having done any readings or having gone to class and sit there not saying a word the whole time. But now I'm less sure than ever about what I actually want to do as a career. I want to learn more about every subject I took, so it anti-narrowed my focus.

But, Dylan being in Japan and me being in Ottawa wasn't that much fun. So, as much as I absolutely loved Ottawa, I caved. I left behind my lovely friends, new and old, and packed up my life yet again. I haven't given up on school, but I figure that it will be much easier to have a long distance relationship with my university than with my husband. We live on the school grounds of the private English immersion school where Dylan works, outside of a small-ish city. I've been told that it's 13km from the school to the top of Mt Fuji, so I have a pretty nice view from outside my front door (I'll try and get a picture for next time). Every week there are new students, meaning that there is always something going on. It's a bit of a drive into town, but it means I get to learn how to drive on the other side of the road! Japanese streets are terrifyingly narrow! I've been joining Dylan at the climbing gym. Meeting all the friends Dylan has been making. I'm happy or at least getting pretty close to it.

Oh, and my sister got married!! I made a pit stop in Victoria after leaving Ottawa, before coming here to be her maid of honour and watch her marry her other half. I'm still amazed at how good she looked. I was there the whole time she was getting ready, so I shouldn't have been that surprised. But she looked perfect. And they were both adorably happy. I'm still not sure I understand it, but marriage can be beautiful when done right.