i looked around the room last night and once again was reminded of how lucky i am here. those friendly faces sitting around my livingroom made my heart feel warm. who would have thought that in moving across the entire globe i'd end up with such a wonderful group of people in my life? before moving to japan i remember asking a friend of mine who was currently on JET whether she knew many people and whether she saw people every week. i suppose i was picturing being in a small town, not speaking any japanese, and having the closest english speaker be about an hour drive away. i couldn't have been more wrong.

it's beautiful here today and yesterday was, too. i've been a hermit in my apartment since the weekend, trying to recover from the flu that absolutely everyone has at the moment. sunday night i was feverish and nightmary and only had the worry of having to call in sick on monday morning going through my head, over and over again. the thought of it stresses me out so much, i don't know why. maybe because i fear that they'll think i'm lying.
in the early afternoon i was lying under my comforter, hugging the heater, with an ice-pack stuck to my forehead. my apartment was in slight disarray as my snotty kleanex's were everywhere, along with mikan peels and half-filled mugs of tea. my doorbell rang and i grudginly dragged my pitiful self over to the hallway and answered it. it was k-san, from the board of education. i'm not exactly sure why she was there (said something about telling me about fixing my balcony door the FOLLOWING day), but i got the impression maybe she was checking up on me. well, between the unbrushed hair and teeth, the fact that i was wearing my pj's, and the 3-kleenex box's full of snotty tissues on the ground, i'm sure she got her dollar's worth. however, since i WASN'T counting on her surprise visit, i didn't have the chance to de-quailify my apartment. yosuke was doing his usual "cockeldoodledoo" to which i completely ignored and instead told her meaningless things in japanese. damn quail.

another musical weekend which i'm rather sick of writing about except two interesting things to note: one, the snow in tokamachi was still piled two metres high in some areas and two, evan ripped off pam's skirt during the performance to reveal see-through tights and dark underwear. she improved something about "and now i'm walking around in my knickers!" it was hilarious.