Opening Act
Hello, my name's Colin and I'll be your blogger for the week. This is my second turn at blogging here and, as was the case last time, I'm not really sure what I ought to write about.I had planned on getting started yesterday, and in fact had a pretty good story all set to share with you folks, but midway through writing the post I learned in talking to some of the people at my BOE that the story (which involved a giant mikan, a waste treatment plant shaped like a boat, the Karatsu City education budget, and the state of modern Japanese civil society... use your imagination) may not, in fact, have been all that true. Which kind of spoiled the effect I was going for. So I played some video games and watched The Fellowship of the Ring instead.
Last time I blogged I at least had the advantage of school being in session, whereas now that it's summer holidays, my days are a fairly uneventful routine of sitting around in the BOE, reading the news, playing shogi matches with my fellow Karatsu ALTs, and going slowly insane. Well, in truth it's not all that bad — always remember, it could be worse! — but it is a reminder of how soul-draining sitting around in an office full of drab bureaucrats can me. Which makes me think maybe I ought to give a bit more thought to my plans to go look for government work in Washington D.C. after I finish here.
There is of course another load of new people arriving tomorrow, which should hopefully stir up a bit of excitement, assuming they manage to stay awake long enough to make it to their welcome party tomorrow evening. I could try and fake some sage advice for the impressionable newcomers, but my (late) arrival here is pretty much a blur by now and I don't expect the new people'll have internet hooked up to read this for another few weeks anyhow. Instead I leave you with a short comic one of my friends from high school recently did, the inspiration for which may be familiar to some of you readers out there. Enjoy!