Almost There

Ah, relief. We're settling into a three day weekend here. Monday is National Foundation Day here in Japan (think 4th of July, minus the BBQ and fireworks), which is a national holiday, hence no work. On tap, we've got some Euro-trip planning, surrounded by general lethargy. After that, we've got about 2 weeks of work left, following which I can say goodbye to work until April. And it will be a hearty goodbye, at that. This has been a trying few months in the classroom.

We've been getting a steady diet of snow here recently, though were you to stroll into Kanazawa any time after noon, you'd never know it. About the only time anything accumulates around here is at night, and as soon as the sun struggles it's way over the horizon, things melt.

My poor bicycle. I bought this bike when I graduated high school. It cost a pretty penny, even prettier considering I was an unemployed 17 year old at the time. For the last year or so it's been stuck, chained to the fence behind our apartment. At some point the lock froze shut, and I've lacked both the will and means to get it moved. I'm pretty sure it will be unridable when I eventually do get it freed, and won't be surprised if the derailures (spell check is broken and I really doubt I got that right) explode the first time I try shifting gears. So it's a shame to see it exposed daily to the elements here, which can't be doing it any bit of good. It'll be a good project at some point.



As you can see, we got a few inches of snow overnight. It continued to snow well into the day, though as I mentioned, you wouldn't necessarily know it at the moment. You'd be hard pressed to find any patch of ground with more than an inch of snow on it, if that. Despite the dumpage, the sun seemed to find it's way onto the scene more often than not. If it were only a few degrees colder, the lovely winterscape would last longer.



While it's probably for the better that the snow never seems to pile up, part of me still wishes there was at least some consistant ground cover. There's a lot of concrete here, and white is nicer than grey. No matter though; the falling snow creates a nice atmosphere even if it doesn't last long once it hits the ground.

There's some sort of parable there that I can relate to my current frame of mind. The snow keeps falling onto an unreceptive ground. I keep on teaching to an unreceptive audience. Neither I nor poor mother nature have much to show for our efforts. We're both just waiting for the spring, and it's just around the corner. All I can do is prepare the good seeds for the next season.