It's raining, it's pouring...

I woke up last night to the sound of pouring rain, and the realization that my freshly laundered clothes which were hanging out to dry were probably pretty wet. This is the first real rain we've had here in Takaoka, and I'm atually really enjoying it. It's cool and pleasant soothing to the eyes. I do need to get a new umbrella, however. My predecessor left me his, but when I opened it up this morning, I realized it's actually the crappiest, most beat up umbrella I've ever seen. I was actually embarrassed to bring it to school. Thanks, pred.

Still no internet on the home front, but good news-- I have an appointment to get it installed on September 10th! Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm going to have use a few hours of my very precious paid leave to go home early to have it installed, but it will be oh-so-worth-it. I'll finally be able to upload my pictures, use skype, read the NY Times, and check my email at will... I will probably not get any sleep that night, haha.

Ooh here's something exciting-- I went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon to try to find the nearest post office (which I did), and then I kept biking to explore for a bit more. Turns out there's this awesome park only a few minutes away from my apartment! It's beautiful; lots of trees and grass with walking paths, a river and a couple bridges, two big play structures for little kids, flower gardens and a gardening center, and a big soccer field. I was so happy to find a nice, peaceful natural area so close to me! I will be going there a lot, I'm sure. It's really well-kept, and it seems a lot of people go there. I was there around 5:30pm, and there were little old ladies working on the flower gardens, lots of little kids running around, some teenage boys playing soccer, and a lot of people walking their dogs. Very pleasant over all.

Also, did I mention I'm less than a 10 minute bike ride from the biggest mall in the prefecture? I probably did. But I'm so thrilled about it I'm mentioning it again.

So, as you might be able to tell, I'm becoming pretty accustomed to good ol' Takaoka. There's pretty much everything I need only a short bike ride away, and I can easily take the train to other parts of the ken (prefecture) when I want to see new places. Pretty sweet deal I've got going on, actually.

Alright... I guess I should get back to work. And by work I mean I think I'll go wander aimlessly around the school and coerce the students into speaking English. (I don't really have to do much coercing; they're so cute and they love to talk!)

Until next time,
Mandy