My Birthday, Recontracting

So my birthday was a little over a week ago.  I turned 29.  It's crazy to think about how I decided I was going to try for the JET when I was, what... 27?  And I'll be done with the program when I'm half past 30.  It was a hard decision actually but I decided to stick around a 3rd year so I can study for the JLPT (Japanese Language and Proficiency Test) Level 2.  I have a year and a half to do it.  I think I can!

There is this girl at Niitsuki who I teach and she is the sweetest girl ever.  She is the only student who remembered my birthday and made this card for me.  I met her when I she was a 1st year, and now that I've decided to stay for a 3rd year I'll watch her graduate in a little over a year.  Sometimes the students do the coolest things.  I'm glad I decided to stay for this.

On the other side of things, there's a bar that's a 30 second walk from my place (that's right, 30 seconds!).  Stray Sheep.  It has an awesome ambiance and can't complain with the travel time to it.  I went there on my birthday with Kevin and Frisa, and the owner, Toro-san, told me to come back again Saturday for a b-day party there.  We did, and he bought me a cake.  Those things cost around $25-$30!  I love that bar.  I'll miss it when I finally leave.


So the final year and a half of my stay in Japan is on!  Soon I need to start planning things for the entire rest of my time here.  Budgeting out the money I want when I go back home (the yen is getting weaker... NO!), where I want to go for vacation, and how I'm going to study for the JLPT Level 2.

I just found out my friend Diana, who I "met" back in middle school, is now engaged.  Time has passed so quickly, it makes me a little sad.  It's also not like I have anything going on in that department either haha...

In other random news, the other day, while eating lunch with my 4th graders, I looked up just in time to see a kid vomit his tasty school lunch back onto his tray.  I wasn't hungry after that.

誕生日【たんじょうび】 (tan/jou/bi) birthday