Weak week

So since my last post I have done almost nothing. I have really been making an effort to do as little as possible. Not that I spent much more than I had planned over my vacation last week, but saving some money would do me very well right now. I am already trying to decide where I want to travel to for my next vacation in August, and I am thinking this voyage may involve a plane ticket. I still have no idea where I want to go just yet but I am beginning to do some research. If you have some suggestions feel free to share. I am thinking somewhere within a 4 hour flight from here.

This week at school went fairly well. It was only a four day week but coming back to work after a vacation is sometimes a bit depressing. I don’t think I was the only one who was a bit crestfallen. I hope you like that word (crestfallen). I found it in this book I found called ‘Thesaurus’ by some guy named Webster. If I am going to be an English teacher I might as well make the effort in other areas of my life… So there is my effort for today readers. Maybe I will actually go back and proofread some earlier posts as I have falsely promised I would do several times before…. but probably not.

Outside of school I have been laying low in my apartment for the most part. I guess I do have plenty of time to make some changes to this site, but other things just seem so much more entertaining. I have been reading a good bit, and I am slightly addicted to the ShowTime series Shameless, and the Wizards making the playoffs have made me somewhat interested in NBA basketball. I know some of you may be disappointed by my reversion (no thesaurus needed for that one) to watching American television, but sometimes the only thing I feel like doing after dinner sitting and watching some TV. It seems like I will have to find some new hobbies, I am almost caught up with Shameless, and the Wizards haven’t been looking too good in there past few games. I have managed to catch a few ASP WCT (surfing) events which have only made me want to go back to the beach. I may have to try to incorporate some more surfing into my August vacation, but we will see. I just want to go somewhere nice and cheap. Maybe Thailand or Malaysia. Again, suggestions are welcome.

This weekend I just hung out at home mostly though. Saturday night I chilled at home and made something nice for dinner, before going to bed early. I had made plans to go walk around in Nara with a friend the next day and didn’t want to waste away the day sleeping. We didn’t end up meeting up until about 12 since they were busy with some Mother’s day activities, but we had a good afternoon. We walked to some places in the park I had not yet been before heading into town and looking at some different shops. The deer in the park have their antlers now. In the past, when I had been there, the deer all had their antlers sawed off. Now is the season for antler growing, and some of these deer have the beginnings to some nice racks. I wanted to get a picture of me holding this bigger buck by the base of the antlers (standard trophy hunter pose)  but there were so many people around him taking pictures I would have felt bad jumping in the middle. Some people may have taken it the wrong way… well they probably would have taken it the right way, but they would have been offended by it… Maybe next time.

After walking around the park for a while we went and walked around an area in town with a bunch of little shops, which sold all kinds of things. Some cool things, mostly handmade jewelry type stuff. I guess it was an art district of some sort. I saw few cool bars which looked like they served some decent beer, which has been very difficult to find. It doesn’t seem like there is much of an interest in drinking good craft beer here. So these places were a bit of a surprise to find. They were closed though, so I had to take note of where the places were and will have to investigate further some other time.

We did find a pretty good restaurant to have dinner at. It was on the main street with all the shops, but the entrance kind of looked like it was going down an alleyway; not very obvious at all, but since we were looking for the place we were able to find it. It ended up being really good. We ordered some Mexican type food and some other things. Some of it was very good, some of it wasn’t. We were stuffed by the end of it. It was a nice end to the day’s adventure.

Today, was pretty low key as well. I woke up earlier than I had planned this morning and was unable to go back to sleep. I guess that is what happens when you don’t really do anything to tire you out. I killed some time with a run to Starbucks before calling home to wish my wonderful mother a happy Mother’s day. Apparently Mom has many more children to take care of these days. Between all the baby calves, piglets, and now a newborn donkey, it sounds like my parents have their hands full. Which is ironic because my parents (especially my father) used to joke that they were going to name the farm “No Kids” since it was supposed to be their spot to relax in solitude after we grew up. I always thought they could come up with a more creative way to say the same thing, but my Dad has never been one to beat around the bush. I think they are content with these children though. I guess it is less stressful now when they can easily sell these children at an auction when they start acting up and not be judged…

The rest of my day was pretty boring though. Been reading and watching this surf tournament going on in Brazil right now. I made a run to the grocery store as well, and took a little time to study some Japanese. I hope I can catch on to this language a little more soon. The main thing is I just have to put in more effort with it.

I have to sign off for the night now. My eyelids are getting heavy staring at this computer. I hope to have some better stories for you in the next post, but I doubt I will. I am really just trying to save some cash so I can have some REALLY cool stories for you a little later down the line. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a good week everyone! And if you have any recommendations for some cheap places to vacation in SE Asia let me know! Thanks for reading!