ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!?

          Happy New Year, faithful reader!  And no, this blog isn’t dead.

          I know I haven’t written anything in a really long time, but it certainly wasn’t because of my inherit laziness.  Technology bytes sometimes, and in my case my old laptop “Joe” ran out of juice, literally.  So, I was word-processor-less for a couple of months, and during my recent trip home wanted nothing more than to shirk all responsibilities, including this blog (so I guess I’m not entirely blameless).

          I will try and update this blog with the posts I had been working on before Joe’s untimely demise (seriously, the computer was barely over three years old!), but it may be better to cut my losses and start with a clean slate for the New Year. 

          Since I last updated this blog, here’s what happened:

• September: Began teaching full time again, but this time at elementary school.
• October: Trip to Nara-ken (finally!) and Halloween in Osaka.
• November: Annual WAJET Koyasan trip, Thanksgiving trip to Kyoto and Mie JET Thanksgiving dinner.
• December: WAJET Mid-Year Seminar, WAJET Christmas Party, HOME.
• January: Just started, but so far back to Japan, added kindergarten to my rosters of schools, and have to decide if I’m staying another year or returning home in August.

          Yep, it’s that time of year again; to stay or go.  I said when I started JET a year and a half ago I wouldn’t stay more than two years.  Now I’m six months away from my two-year, self-imposed deadline and not sure what to do.  A part of me feels that two years is a good amount of time to be here in Japan (while still adhering to my deadline), and going home this Christmas reminded me of how much I miss HOME.  I love Japan, but I don’t consider it to be home; every day I still feel like a tourist to some degree.  On the other hand, I’ve only been teaching elementary school for six months, and I feel as though I’m in the same boat as I was last year: Do I decide to stay in this job for six months or eighteen months?  Do I want to delay grad school for another year or bite the bullet and get ‘er done, so to speak?  Well, if I knew the answer I wouldn’t be posing these emosophical questions now would I.  If anyone has any good arguments for either decision please let me know, because I NEED IT.  I feel like making this decision is much harder now then it was last year, so I’m honestly at a loss for what to do.  >_<

          But back to bloggitry business, I will do my best to post a more comprehensive post on the past months’ events as soon as I can, and get back to a regular schedule (a New Year’s resolution….?  Haha, yeah right).