I am in an academic mood. Not only did I finally register for Macroeconomics- the next checkmark on the list of pre-requisites for admission Social Studies Education programs, but I also signed up to take the Praxis I exam for teaching students. What a blow to the "vacation" week *that* will be- the only open test appointments are at 7:00 A-M on the west side of Indianapolis (read: not the side my parents live on). I am not convinced I can wake my brain up that early- but in lieu of alternatives (must have passing scores in order to apply to grad-school in teaching/can only take it in the US/will only be in the US once in the next year) I will Do My Best. I've been pouring over the information online at a couple of programs and have decided I also need to take the GRE, so I'm dusting my Kaplan guidebook off and gearing up for a new study season. Ah.. its probably about that time.

For the curious out there-so far I am spending a lot of time daydreaming about attending school at Indiana University (Bloomington) and University of Colorado (Boulder) but I haven't ruled out Minneapolis, Ball State.. or heck, really anywhere except the schools that don't have programs for post-baccalaureate teacher liscensing. I.E. the jerks at schools like Madison (tragically) who would require me to essentially start at the begining and earn another entire undergrad degree because the $80,000 and four years of sweat and tears for the first one just Wasn't Enough.

I don't think so. And I SO wanted an excuse to live in Madison again!! I haven't decided yet whether to do a Masters program in addition to liscensing... but I suppose I'll end up going for the whole shebang. I am not interested in starting over though. This time the goal will be a degree with which I can actually DO something (I think the current one only qualifies me to THINK things). Recommendations always welcome (rationale for the current choices available upon request-for now you can be safe in boiling down the above two choices to mountains versus residency...he he).

Happy Birthday to Tom!

In other exciting thoughts- after three-ish months of paying to have broadband internet service (being online 24/7) it finally occured to me that I can play the radio on my computer. And "occured" wouldn't have happened had Yukari not asked me if I could (or could not) do it using my current service (Yahoo BB). Well, I can- and it totally rocks! I can get live radio from anywhere in the world! Excuse my ignorance- I'm sure many of you have been enjoying this service forever- but now I can listen to NPR or any other station I want to hear- not just the dorky Tokyo radio station for foreigners which insists on playing Hawaiian music all Saturday (aaaaauugh!). But now I'm listening to Classical from Seattle, NPR from Washington, Rock from London- in a dizzying cycle--it is soooo cool! And for those of you who've also figured out this simple joy- you check out Tokyo InterFM- and appreciate just how happy I am!

A little boy stunned by the number of strangers trying to take pictures of his cute-ness at Hachimangu Shrine over the weekend.  

Hope you enjoyed the photos below. I had a great weekend exploring my surroundings here in Monzennaka-cho (the area I live in). It was a beautiful weekend weather-wise, which made wandering even more wonderful (sorry, I got started with the W's and just couldn't stop). I found a terrific park near me on Saturday- now I have two choices for great running destinations: I can either head to the river and watch lit up buildings and bridges or I can jog in to, around, and from the park and graze on the grass and trees while I'm there.

My job has gotten substantially crazier in the last week- Ben, the Algerian (a.k.a the Other Foreigner) who is my psuedo mentor- was gone from the office for an afternoon last week. That was unfortunately all it took for me to be assigned the random English speaking customer who called out of the blue. Of course, I can speak English, so regardless of my ability to actually *serve* the customer... I got the call. Make that calls- the client, let's call him Herb, spent that first day calling to check on the status of his tickets no less often then every twenty minutes. This being the first time I'd ever booked tickets from start to finish on my own- it was really stressful. On top of that- he wanted tickets for three people going from Johannesburg (that's South Africa folks) to two cities in Europe. Since my company focuses on tickets originating in Tokyo (since that's where we ARE)... it threw everyone for a loop. Oh- and his passengers wanted to depart the-next-day, thankyouverymuch. Long story short, I have now booked tickets for 14 of his clients/coworkers (yet to be determined), all originating in Johannesburg and flying to Europe and Asia within the next week. Not a one has a thing to do with Japan. Added to the info that Herb seems to only have one phone/fax number that is answered by a machine and three credit cards whose names match neither his nor the passengers... I'm starting to worry that I may be aiding and abetting something... very, very bad.

I'm sure Herb is fine. It's just so appropriate that this is my first real customer. Every time I get freaked out because I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do to book his tickets I want to whine "I'm not even supposed to HAVE this guy!!". But then I look around me at the others grinding away and I sigh..whimper... and plug away. So far, Herb seems to be satisfied enough with my work that he keeps sending me more names. Since we're making a bundle of money from his business, who am I to complain?!

makes me shake my head though. Ben leaves for a 2 week vacation tomorrow. Things could get really interesting.

The park in Meguro that we discovered this afternoon.  

It's almost Shichi-Go-San (7-5-3) Holiday here- the kids those ages get taken to be celebrated at the local shrines. They look so special! 

One of the paths near my home where I run and walk and generally just sigh in contentment. 

My view when I finish work. I'm not in Nagano anymore... 

Friday morning was beautiful blue- this is the river I walk along to get to the subway station in the morning.