Me, Getting Ready for the Holiday Season

December 17, 2012

---Riding this Week---

This past weekend I spent a lot of time at the barn again. (See how well I'm doing at getting ready for Christmas?) I went for my lesson on Saturday and had people running up to me and congratulating me as soon as I walked in the door. In my confusion I was told that I got in to the riding school! So I was really excited about that. Since it was raining, the lessons were really small, and I was asked to join another double-length lesson, so I ended up riding in four lessons that day (this is where the exhaustion began).

It also turned out that the first riding school lesson would be Sunday morning at 7 a.m. and as I live an hour and a half away I ended up waking up at 4:45 in the morning (><). I actually have no problem waking up early to ride, but that Saturday night some friends and I went to see the Hobbit (!) and it didn't finish until about 12:30 in the morning, so I didn't get much sleep. For the lesson I was assigned a horse that I'm fairly bad at but love riding because I always learn a lot. However, I did end up breaking my crop :/// Then, Sunday evening was the monthly circuit so I ended up being one of the first people at the barn and one of the last ones to leave (I'm not complaining here so much as bragging). I was hoping to do well at the show since it was the last of the year, but I had a refusal on the approach to a bending line in the corner. Thinking back I should have ridden deeper into the corner off of the diagonal line and had a much stronger ride in to the fence. At least now I know for next time I have a corner fence.

In conclusion, despite being exhausted and incapable of doing anything at work today other than reading about diplomatic relations and writing this blog post, the exhaustion was totally worth it.

December 20, 2012

---Biwa Club Renewal Open---

Biwa Curry!

On my lunch break yesterday, I went to the Biwa Club Roadside Station in Tomiura with a co-worker for the renewal open! I finally got to try out the biwa (loquat) curry! It was really delicious, and had small chunks of loquat in it. I also tried the loquat hot tea, which had a nice floral, citrus flavor that wasn't too strong.

Strawberry-blueberry Cake

Mont-Blanc

Just after ordering, we ran into a group of guys who work for the Diet! They knew my co-worker because of a project that she has been doing at work, and one of the guys bought us cake! I tried this “Strawberry Blueberry Cake” which was so insanely delicious. It was a fluffy chocolate cake with whipped vanilla frosting between the layers of cake and a sort of jelly layer on top with chunks of strawberry and blueberry inside. My co-worker had the Mont-blanc cake, which also looked pretty yummy. To finish it all off (what meal is complete without two servings of desert??) I had the loquat soft-serve ice cream, which was sugary, loquat-y, and a little bit too cold to eat on a time constraint. When we were about to leave, the Diet members called us over to their table because they wanted to meet me and find out what it is that I do. They were pretty confused at first when I told them that I wasn't an ALT, because, you know, the only foreigners who come to Japan are ALTs. Before returning back to work 10 minutes late (which is apparently okay if you've been roped in by Diet members) I did a little Christmas shopping in the souvenir shop. Merry Christmas everyone, by the way! I wonder if this post will make it up before then っふっふ。。。

December 26, 2012

---End/Beginning of the Year---

It didn't. I'm back at work today after Christmas break and I'm so sleepy from the long weekend. Christmas break doesn't actually exist in Japan, but there was a national holiday on Monday, and then I asked off specifically for the 25^th and my office was nice enough to oblige since I'm a foreigner and all. So today will be a three day week at work, which is pretty exciting. And starting Friday is our new year's holiday which lasts until the 3^rd, so after the break I should have lots of exciting things to talk about (unless I get trapped under my kotatsu)! Tonight we have our division bonenkai which is a party to say “good riddance!” to this past year (The last party where we had shabushabu was a bonenkai for the city's English teachers and supervisors). So my division is getting together for some good drinks and good food to say goodbye to this year.

---Getting Ready for the Holidays!---

Over the weekend I rode a bunch at the barn, and managed to mistake the day that the riding school lesson was (granted it was the front desk that told me the wrong day. Totally not my fault!). But then I ended up coming back for a 7 a.m. lesson the next day instead. Let me tell you, two days in a row of waking up at 4:45 in the morning is a little rough. On Christmas Eve, I came home from the barn, took a quick nap, and then headed over to a friend's for a Christmas party. There was only three of us (out of the eight JET kids in Boso) that didn't go home for the holiday, so it was a quiet party, but we attempted making some holiday food and huddled under the kotatsu. The next morning I woke up to being pretty much unable to unbend my right leg... I must have pulled something in my calf and somehow managed to not notice the day before. It was probably exacerbated by the lack of central heating and general warmth in my apartment. So, I spent most of the following (Christmas) day under the kotatsu decorating the mountain of sugar cookies I had baked ,

skyping my family, wrapping Christmas presents to send back home, preparing my nengajyo new year's cards for the mail, and reading George Morris's, Hunter Seat Equitation in Japanese translation. I was oddly productive for not leaving my apartment the entire day.

In any case, happy new year! Maybe this will make it online before the new year! (see how I easily just slide those deadlines right back there)

My New Year's Cards

Here's some random fun facts about New Year's Cards: 
*New Year's Cards have numbers on the back of them and at the end of the month the post office holds a drawing and you can win random prizes! 
*New Year's Cards always feature the Chinese zodiac animal for that year. This year is the snake. My birth year is the year of the snake so I am called a 年女, which basically means woman of the year.