Spring Semester

A

ck! Spring Semester starts today. I was so adamant about making sure that I would not do any work over the break after I finished grading. I wanted a real break. I didn't want to do anything work related. I had to go into the office on Monday and Friday last week; for whatever reason, some people think teachers don't deserve a break. "Oh, why aren't you in your office? You don't have classes." Or "It's winter break, so I know you'll have time to do this for me."

*sigh*

Still, I made sure I did NOTHING work related for about eleven days, so I actually feel pretty rested. But I didn't prepare anything for class today! *Gulp* This is not a good thing, as I don't like to go to class unprepared. Maybe I'll talk about what I did over break. Let's see. I saw all of "Yoshitsune", the year-long NHK Taiga Drama series. That's about fifty 45 minute episodes. I also saw "Last Christmas" which made me cry. Me! Cry! Except he ending was a bit corny. I thought Yuki was really going to die. If she did, I think I would have cried for a week. And if this was a movie instead of a J-drama, I think the writer would have killed her. But it's IS J-drama and so she was alive and they even... oops, don't want to give too much away to those still planning to see it.

I also watched "Umizaru" which translates into "Sea Monkeys". Haahahhaha. It's actually a drama on the Japanese Coast Guard. It was kinda of corny too, although Nakamura Toru actually did die... well, I mean his character dies, and that was rather unexpected. You can't have a good drama unless someone dies. Boone died in "Lost" as did his sister, Shannon. I'm waiting for someone to die on "Battlestar Galactica". Admiral Cain doesn't count. (She seemed so strangely familiar. It was killing me for awhile, until I finally realized she's Ensign Ro from StarTrek: TNG.) I started to watch "Shinsengumi" but the place where I rent J-drama from doesn't have tape number 2, and I refuse to skip two episodes. There should be a lot of foundational information so I don't want to miss it and get confused later. I also rented "Fukigen-na Jiin" but ended up returning most of the tapes unwatched as the drama proved to be quite insipid.

So between the football games, J-drama and a few movies, I actually had a relaxing break. It is now time to go back to work...