It's the end of the beginning

It appears I am slacking on the blogging.

I have a very early morning so this won't be a big post, but here's a quick update:

Our three-week period of sorta-work-sorta-vacation-partying-all-the-time is over.

Tomorrow begins the second of three terms in the Yamasho school year. There will be an opening ceremony in which I'll give a speech to the entire school using English and Japanese. It's a half day, so after the ceremony I believe we'll be meeting with our supervisor and perhaps the members of the English club.

And then it will have begun. My real routine will be established. While I will miss the fun times, the non-stop doing stuff has been exhausting, and the kind of exhaustion from real work is much cheaper than the going-out-all-the-time plan. So I'm ready for regular.

Plus, September features two three-day weekends. In a couple weeks I'll go to Nagoya to meet with a bunch of the Meijo University students who I worked with at OSU.

Also, my bicycle is doing well, but I'm secretly thinking about casually shopping around for a cheap used car, perhaps one another ALT in the area is selling. None of the new area ALTs seem to have cars, and of the people we hang out with, only an ALT's boyfriend and a non-JET teacher in the area do the driving.

Yes, I would survive with no car, but it would make like much simpler when it comes to buying things that do not fit in my bike basket, traveling to various area places that are just too far to ride comfortably, etc.

I have not yet made up my mind, but I'm looking into it. There are a lot of benefits to riding around. For one, it's physical activity that counts toward exercise some of the time. Second, it's cheaper to get around on a bike, of course. Third, I wouldn't have to worry about trying not to drive the wrong way down one-ways or other such mistakes. And finally I wouldn't have to worry about passing the Japanese driver's test after my international drivers' permit expires in a year.

So ... no decision. Feel free to vote in the comment section. What say you?