It's cold. There I said it. Are you happy Australians in your god damn summer?! I saw snow for the first time last week and I must be honest - at first I thought it was ash. Once I realised it was snow I freaked out (good way), put my rubbish in the pile and drove to work. It was a pretty pathetic fall though really - it wasn't until that night when I went to a bar in a nearby town to see some friends (and one of my second year students?!) that it began to properly snow and it was amazing! Just like on tv! I don't remember how I got back to my place-of-sleeping but the stroll to my car the next morning was WONDERFUL! I had a blast! The snow covered everything in a beautiful white layer that, despite being cold to touch, warmed my heart! I made a snow ball and threw it at my car because I didn't have anyone else to throw it at. I imagine my car enjoyed it just as much as I did though.
I'm not really used to such cold temperatures. The coldest I remember being was in New York where I just didn't have the right clothing the entire time (Miami sort of doesn't require warm clothing ... clothing at all really) and froze my ass off almost everyday. I'm not overly fond of such cold weather and so in the face of such devastatingly cold weather here in Japan I don't cope overly well. I feel that the snow balances out the cold weather (in terms of my appreciation) but when it doesn't snow and it's just frost I feel cheated. I feel nature is giving me a test and I'm only just passing. Nature is Year 12 maths.
So I woke up yesterday after a particularly shivery night and when I eventually made it to the shower I turned it on to find no response. TURNS OUT.... my pipes had completely frozen. I say completely as not a single source of water would yield me the life giving liquid. I was dry people. Drryyyyyyyy. Fortunately I had boiled some water the previous night to indirectly melt chocolate to make rocky road so I could brush my teeth but I mean COME ON!
Strategies for surviving the cold?
- Wear layer, upon layer, upon layer of clothing.
- Not overly practical as then I have a lot of washing. Washing = sucks.
- Buy a whole lot of thermal clothing and wear layer upon layer.
- My current plan.
- Leave heaters on in all location within my apartment.
- Expensive and with the possibility of dying it's not a bright outlook.
- Maintaining a constant level of drunkenness to forget the cold.
- Doable but I gotta drive and I don't think everyone needs the rude awakenings of drunk-Kris' brutal verbal diarrhea.
- Putting my mind into the body of an alien species to explore their alien (and presumably warmer) world.
- That's not something that people can do. Yet.
- Setting myself on fire.
- I would need to buy more clothes. And the the whole needing to go to the hospital thing wouldn't be good for my wallet. And the smell of burnt hair? forget it.
- Hibernate
- I have to work! And don't bears induce constipation or something? Doesn't sound pretty.
- Going to Hell
- Not ruling it out!
- Manning up and dealing with it.
- Ha.
Lately there have been a lot of end of year parties these days. I went to one for my Japanese language class which I began two weeks ago and that was nice. I also went to one for the ALT's in the Otawara and surrounding areas and met like 20 people I had never met before. They're all really nice and it's exciting that there are people in my area I can hang out with. One of the girls even works in the same town I work in (now there are TWO foreigners there!). Last night I went to another end-of-year-party for one of my schools. It was a lot of fun! The teachers want to take me skiing and after a discussion of the school uniforms of the surrounding area they decided they wanted to dress me up in the boys uniform. Sounds like fun! The other school have their party on Christmas which isn't really convenient for me.
I'll do a post for Christmas next! If you have any tips in keeping warm let me know and I'll give it a burl.
Merry Christmas :D
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