Where The Wild Thoughts Roam

  This is the in between.  There are about five weeks left before I move to Osaka. This time last year, I remember being in a miserable relationship, thinking of the best possible way to end it. I remember telling myself that I would not see another Christmas at the same company after the one that was coming.  But it is also poignant to think of where I am right now in relation to where I am going. I am still too far off to think of saying goodbye to the people I've met here. But it seems there isn't nearly enough time to get things ready.  It's been a whirlwind to think about how much has happened since I decided to start job hunting. The entire process, from start to finish, took about three months. I knew it would be a good time to start looking because of the hit to recruiting the pandemic has caused. At the same time, it is still rather breathtaking to think about the circumstances that have led me to this job.  There was the interview at the other PLS scho...

A few months ago I wrote about the kind of job I would like to be working at by next year. So far things have been falling into place so that this can happen, and so here I would like to write about the kind of partner I would like to have.  Part of the reason I am moving out of Nagano is because I would like to position myself to meet my husband. For all the largeness of Nagano, there really isn't much going for it in terms of people. Don't get me wrong, Nagano will always be special because it was my first home in Japan and it opened up all kinds of new opportunities in terms of learning how to be a good teacher. But dating? Not quite. It's kind of a hole. I chalk it up to the cold weather, but people here are quite distant and extremely conservative. Even the foreign community here is quite set in their ways, and to someone like me, it can be a little discouraging to see how slim the pickings are here.  Dating apps are only really good for setting up hookups. Considering...