today, for example.

i woke up late, late being 7am instead of 6 or 6:30. i slowly pushed myself out of bed, helped by listening to the live broadcast of opb radio (travel with rick steves). i folded up my futon, half the bedding going in my closet, the other being stacked into the form of a couch. i turned on the heater, decided on cold cereal for breakfast, and then pulled out my clothes. i finally decided that it was cold enough for leggings under my pants, slipped those on along with an under shirt, my new turtle neck and a sweater. i munched my breakfast, including nearly gone grapes, and checked my e-mail and all other forms of communication. after stalling for as long as possible, i dawned my coat, scarf, hat and gloves and headed out into the cold. nearing the bottom of my hill i opted for the bus rather than tormenting my nearly frozen fingers with a twenty minute push of my bike up my tedious 'mountain'. the bus was of course over crowded with students. those of us waiting at the stop smashed ourselves in, my glasses fogging up, greeting the warmth of seventy-five closely packed bodies. i noticed we had left one boy behind, forced to wait for the next bus. coming onto school grounds i am greeted by those instructors that are there to monitor school uniforms. they happily pause to say 'ohio gozaimasu' to me, then return to their task of judging skirt lengths and loose ties. after changing into my indoor shoes, which now take the form of my closed toe berkies, i am stopped by one of the sweet front office girls. she drags me into the office and in broken english and japanese asks me to pose as santa and write a to her six year old son (she wants it in english since santa is american). i cheerfully obliged, asking her first to write what she wants in japanese so i can know what to say. next stop is of course stamping my hanko on the teacher registrar books, but on the way i remember to buy a strawberry mochi as they will be gone in moments. this is by far my favorite mochi. decadent to an extreme. after the four story march up the outdoor staircase, in my office i am greeted by warm air. the constant shivering days of the past weeks have ended, and the school has decided to pay for kerosine to fuel out dangerous looking stove. this is extremely important to me today as i knew that i had no classes. my day would spent at my desk. and because of this fact what i was paid for was taking an hour nap, checking my e-mail, catching up on the anarchism wikipeida entry i had started before, grading about five papers, eating lunch, snacks, reading my newly started book (you shall know our velocity) and finally writing this blog. beyond these tasks i was called by funatsu-san to confirm the change of location of my december 26th obligation, as well as a trip to the post office to change the pick up of my package to the high school and buy boxes for shipping christmas gifts home. this evening i will leave school at 4pm, fifteen minutes early per-usual, and stop at the grocery store for the week's food. i have an appointment with the mormons at 6pm, which i will have to trek out into the cold again for. and hopefully i'll finally get things organized as far as gifts go.

this is my life, in case you wanted to know.