Tornado!

Well...these four days were a bit of a bust.  It rained like crazy, which meant rice planting was really slowed down.  Golden Week, this long string of vacation days, is when most farm folks do their rice planting.  It's an all day process, and if it looks like it might rain, they just can't do it for fear of...something.  I really don't know how it all works.  All I know is, my girlfriend's family needs to do it, and she helps, and with all the delays and uncertainty, I barely got to see her all weekend.  But, hey, I like rain, so I was unusually calm.  And I got a chance to regain a bit of my strength.

I can't say that for some of the other people in my area, because something very strange occurred on Sunday.  A tornado dropped in the town next to me.  I should have known something weird was coming when the hail started falling.  We get hail maybe once a year around these parts, but this stuff was pretty big.  Looked like popcorn was falling...but it sounded like marbles.  I felt sorry for any poor sound trapped out there.  Shortly after that, my girlfriend sent me the news: a tornado suddenly formed over the northern part of the big city south of me.  Now, being a Floridian, I wasn't really surprised by it.  I mean...I'm used to the sky trying to kill me. But then I thought about where I am.  The country of soft houses.  Remember a while back when I talked about how a storm had my little apartment creaking?  Imagine what an F2 tornado could do to a neighborhood of similarly built houses.  Yeah...it destroyed so much.  Even killed a kid.  This country just can't get a break from weird occurrences...

I went back to school the next day and found that no one else had really reacted either.  It was more of a, "Eh...stuff happens" kinda feel.  Actually, that's exactly how it was after the earthquake.  Tough folks.

Meanwhile, at Plum Valley, we seem to be settling in.  The New Girl is finding her stride, Gyro is struggling with 5 classes a day, but he seems to be accepting his fate, and Odd Sensei is pushing through her troubles here and at home.  The one problem is that one particularly loud and outspoken student seems to have a problem with The Other Girl.  Maybe he's just a jerk, but he's been vocalizing his disgust with her just a little too openly.  I'm a bit unsure how to handle this, because I want to help, but I also know that she's gonna face crap like this all through her career, so she's gotta learn.  Even so, if that kid steps too far...I might have to knock him down.  Verbally.  What?  I'm not gonna deck my student!

Here's lunch for today...

Very Japanese.  We got fish, boiled spinach in sesame marinade, rice, milk, and a soup with tofu, carrots, potatoes konnyaku and pork.

I think my lack of energy is shortening these blog entries...

J