At least I didn't gain 20 pounds this season...

Another year has past and here I am one day ahead already. This is truly great, I feel as though I am light-years’ ahead of all of my peers. I was the first of the whole lot to put my New Years Resolutions into practice and I was the first one to welcome the actual New Year, you ungrateful group you. I've got 15 hours of productivity to beat you all with!
Well, how was your new year? Productive and exciting I am sure. I spent the night with a bunch of Cambodian folks. Nice folks them Cambod’s. They cooked and entertained me with Cambodian culinary and karaoke skills. The combination was a complete success! One of the most astounding features of the group was the simple fact that they all spoke English so well…I really wish that they were all my students; because if they were every class would be like a…really easy English as a foreign language class (I challenge you to come up with a better analogy).
So what do all of you want to accomplish in the New Year? Loose weight? Get your pectorals into shape for the beach this summer? Whatever it may be, good luck. My own resolution is a big secret. It’s life altering though, I’ll tell you that.
“What else is new?” You may be asking…well to be honest, not a whole hell of a lot. I have been doing a lot of sitting lately. But it hasn’t been just any ole sitting, oh no. It’s been stuff like sitting in my room on the floor and sometimes in a chair. Why even right now I am sitting in a different location, I’m in my office! I’ve also sat on a few buses and trains lately. I took a trip to an exhibit of “The Art of Star Wars,” and lived vicariously through most of the people I knew in high school. They would be so jealous if they knew all that I had seen. For instance: the Gold Bikini from Jabba’s palace (you know the one that 9 out of 10 young men fantasized about while growing up between 1982-1989), I also saw the original Millennium Falcon and that big Cruiser ship at the beginning of Episode IV. It was pretty cool. Jealous? I hope so because that was the main reason that I even went. It was pretty neat-o though. But I didn’t get to sit for that one, had to stand the whole time.
Where else have I sat lately? Hmmmm…well I sat all crossed legged while enjoying the Japanese holiday of Oshogatsu, or the New Year’s celebration. We sat around for a few days and ate lots and lots of Naba. This is an interesting and tasty dish which is made by taking all sorts of meat and vegetables and cooking them at the table in an earthen dish by boiling them in a type of stock. Sounds bland I know, but it is pretty delish in all actuality.
Other then those few things I haven’t done too much. Oh wait; I recently looked over at the calendar and saw that Christmas has pasted since my last post. Well that doesn’t matter…it’s an old calendar and I am pretty sure that God had the date moved so that I wouldn’t commit the awful crime of spending it away from my family and friends. But just in case you all didn’t get the memo, happy Merry Christmas (as commonly said in Japan, silly folks, they think that the holiday is actually “Merry Christmas”).
Did you know that they have KFC in Japan? Did you also know that it is widely believed that fried chicken is thought to be the traditional meal over here? That wouldn’t be all that bad…it would save a lot of people the trouble of making whatever it is that you usually eat on Christmas. Plus it would be good for the colonel, and what’s good for the colonel is good for the country. You love America right? Well eat your KFC.
For the most part people don’t really celebrate Christmas, including me this year, as a result of only 1% of the population being Christians. But the holiday mentioned earlier, Oshogatsu, is used as the big winter holiday and it was traditionally a day in which families would celebrate their birthdays together. This is to say that it didn’t matter what day you were really born, everyone celebrated his or her birthday on this day. A nice little “hey you made it through another year in your life,” kind of celebration. Nice thought eh. Well I will tell you one thing about the holiday, you eat enough cabbage to keep you regular throughout the entire celebration, if not the entire month. Whew.
Well…I think that I shall run and sit at yet another location. I hope that all is well for those that read this, for the rest I’ll just say we’ll deal with you later…I bet they won’t even see it coming. Take care and enjoy the holidays, or what’s left of them. Love ya!