Today was a pretty warm day – the weather has been alternating between sun and rain, but it’s always warm.<\/p>\n
I had only one class in the morning, and two in the afternoon. The classes were pretty uneventful – one student turned in her homework on a paper folded into the shape of a heart. Inside she did a pretty good job on her assignment, and even said that she loved me. Yikes.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard rumblings about a staff softball game, which is supposed to take place during midterms next week. I think I’ve been drafted by some team – but I’m not sure. That’s how communication sometimes works around here. I catch words and phrases in Japanese, or somebody asks me a vague question in English. My prediction is that I’ll be on the softball field next week swinging away.<\/p>\n
Back home I was still up for grilling – I fired up the grill out on the porch. The grill smokes quite a bit early on, but eventually it gets going. I’d like to find a way to cut down on the smoke – I’m sure it makes the neighbors nervous.<\/p>\n
As for the food – I grilled shrimp on skewers, and then soaked thin-sliced pork in some sweet ginger soy sauce and grilled those. I had all of that with a big green salad and a tall glass of cold water. Oh, yeah. <\/p>\n
The downside of the grill is that once it gets going it still has plenty of power to cook more – I feel like I’m wasting valuable energy by throwing my stuff on for fifteen minutes and then I’m done. <\/p>\n
In the evening I spent some time studying kanji, and then called up Kuniko and chatted for a while. She sounded a little down – I think she’s pretty tired. There’s an outside chance that she’ll be able to come visit me this weekend. I’ve got a English staff party on Friday night. Mr. Hayashi had invited her to come to a second party afterwards at Amuse in Kakogawa, but she said that she probably couldn’t make it. Maybe it’s better for her just to stick close to home and rest up – we’ll just have to wait and see how she feels.<\/p>\n