Andy Williams is the Background Music of My Christmases

What a productive weekend! Finished my homework, studied Japanese, scrubbed down my entire bathroom, mopped my apartment floor, sewed a couple of things, did laundry and dishes, and still managed to have fun, like watching TV and movies. Tonight might be the first school night in Japan that I get a full eight hours sleep. It's the little things in life, really.

Christmas is coming! I'm starting to miss certain aspects of being home for Christmas, or having Christmas in the US in general, but I'd still much rather be here in Japan. I have a small plastic tree that my boyfriend and I decorated with red and silver ornaments. There are four presents under the tree right now, all for my boyfriend from me. Lucky guy. :P

He and I are trying to make plans for a short trip to Gifu after Christmas and before New Years. I want to see some snow and have a short vacation with him. We're also planning on going to Hokkaido mid-February to celebrate our two-year anniversary, but we'll see what happens. He's been so busy that we haven't been able to make any reservations yet. (God knows I can't make any by myself -- I can't speak enough Japanese, which is frustrating.) So, everywhere may be all booked up before we get a chance to make a reservation. Oh well, things will work out for the best.

I'll be spending New Years with my boyfriend and his parents. When my boyfriend told me we'd be making mochi, I pictured some big, traditional family effort and got excited, but then he told me we'll just be using a machine to make the mochi. Not as exciting.

I'm bringing up my New Years plans, though, to talk about spending time with his parents, who don't speak any English. When I saw them three months ago, they expected me to understand Japanese more than I did, and the more they tried to get me to say something, the further I retreated into my shell. I could understand almost nothing that they said, not only because I was still a beginner, but also because they're rural people that speak in Nagoya-ben and very colloquially and lazily. It was so frustrating to be expected to understand the mush that was coming out of their mouths. What's worse, I felt like they were making fun of me every time I couldn't understand them. My boyfriend says they weren't, but I don't trust him. He's Japanese; he has to be polite. Anyway, I didn't mean for that to turn into the rant that it did. I planned to say that I'm going to work extra hard these next three weeks so I can have a better chance of understanding them. I think my Japanese has improved a lot already since I've been here, but I really want to impress them even if they don't deserve it. (That's the bitterness talking.)

My hands are so cold. I'm making an effort to not turn on my heater unless I need to. This past month, I've been turning on the heater instead of adding more layers, but I just got the electricity bill, and it's more than I care to pay.

I'll leave it at that for now. I'm going to drink something warm and read a book until it's time to sleep. Good night!