On Our Way Home

After weeks of procrastination I finally bought some plane tickets back to the states for next month. We'll be back on the east coast from March 8th-March 23rd. We're members of United Airline's Star Alliance, their frequent flier program. I scored in getting tickets not with United, but with All Nippon Airlines, which is a vastly superior way of travelling. The planes are newer, i.e. all seats of private TV's, cleaner, and the stewardesses are much friendlier than the craggy 50-something ladies that frequently service American airline companies. Additionally, free booze is available throughout the flight, and it's good Japanese booze, not Budweiser.

One of the coolest features of ANA is that they have on board cameras mounted on the plane. So during takeoff you can watch a camera from the nose of the aircraft, and again on approach to land, which is really wild. During the flight, one of the channels on your personal screen is devoted to a camera on the underbelly of the plane that is looking straight down, so in effect, everyone can have a 'window seat' and see what we are flying over. Good stuff.

We have a 3 day weekend this week because Monday is National Foundation Day in Japan. Sort of like their version of July 4th, though minus the fireworks and BBQ's. In Japan nearly all the national holidays fall on Mondays, which is great because it means lots of 3 day weekends. When I was working at my other job, they cleverly got around having to pay us for these holidays by giving everyone Sunday/Monday days off, so even if there was a national holiday, we already had the day off. Scoundrels.

Next week is basically our last week of classes, though I have to go a few extra days to make up for the time I missed last week when my body was invaded by space worms, which seem to have died/gone back to space, as my stomach has more or less sorted itself out. At any rate, it's mostly just giving tests at this point, and correcting them. I have been really busy this term, and looking back through my calendar I see that basically every day I have had students in my office at the end of the day for extra help, plus I was tutoring two guys who are hoping to study abroad next term. I volunteered to help these guys (they aren't actually in any of my classes) out of the kindness of my heart, but word on the street is that we get gift certificates for several hundred dollars to bookstores in Japan; that is a nice surprise.

So I'll breath a sigh of relief when this terms finally winds down. Looking forward to heading back to the states for a few weeks as well. OK, time to get my day started. I slept very late this morning, and the clock reads 12:25 as I sip my 'morning' cup of coffee.