Man, I'm tired. Enjoyed a fantastic weekend of skiing up in Hakuba on Fri-Sunday. We (Danielle, Jaclyn & I) drove up Friday night and stayed in the Olympic Village, in a pension near Happo-One. Saturday was fabulous skiing-I was totally enjoying one of my "up" days on the roller coaster of "learning how to ski", until about an hour after lunch when I got my ski tips stuck together going down a narrow road, had a ski come off and then proceeded to land on the upturned edge of it with my butt. Can we say "OUCH!!!"? (Actually, that's not really what I said, but reality isn't appropriate for print). Anyhow- I now have a 6x3 inch dark purple bruise diagonally across the left side of my rear end. Yay. The rest of the day wasn't quite as fun with a throbbing butt. :(

Saturday night (after some advil) we went out for drinks and dancing- it was a nice little bar with tons of candles, incense and a guy playing Bongos. I've never before come home from the bar smelling better than when I left!

Sunday we woke up to really wet falling snow- loaded up our gear and got in our boots and headed to Happo in hopes of getting a few runs in before the snow turned to rain- no such luck. It was complete slush by the time we splashed into the parking lot. Decided $40 was a bit too much for a pathetic couple of runs and the predictable ride home soaking wet. Did a U-turn and headed back home for naps, mac & cheese, and movies.

This week I'm seriously busy at school- only two more full weeks left of the school year, and I'll be gone at a conference in Yokohama for three days next week. I'm working through all the final oral interviews for every-single-student-in-the-school, then will pretty much be finished and ready to enjoy the closing activities & graduation when I get back from the conference. At the same time, I am also trying to plow through my Econ course (correspondence with Indiana Univ. back home) and complete some cover letters to send out. AND trying to get excercising again- I know it would help my stress levels, but the spring wind here is KILLER... oh how I miss my Chicago gym!