It's Christmas day, I'm at my desk with no actual work to do, but I have to sit here or take an annual leave day. Since there's no particular thing I have to do, and since I live in the carpark, I might as well sit inside and use the internet.
I went to Maebashi and saw 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' on Tuesday. It was a public holiday so I rode my bike the 26kms for something to do. While i was in the shopping mall I ran into Geoff, an ALT from maebashi, and his 'new' Japanese girlfriend. Then Alison, an ALT from Kiryu, and her 'old' Japanese boyfriend (they've been together for a while, he's not actually old).
The movie was ok, I don't want to comment too much since I know people who want to see it and they should make their own determination. It was worth a look, but the ticket was horribly expensive. It cost 1800 yen, that's $18 GD - 18 Gaijin Dollars. Marcus and I were talking about money and realised we both adjust yen to dollar values by calculating 100 yen to the dollar, even though he's American and I'm Australian and the exchange rates are nothing like that. Marcus suggested we call the revised figure 'Gaijin Dollars', gaijin being the fairly derogatory term for foreigners. So now we adjust values by shifting the decimal point 2 places to the left and giving figures in $GD. It makes it easier to get your head around prices.
So anyway, that's $18 GD - which at current exchange rates is around $29 Australian! So it's much better not to think in terms of Aussie dollars when spending money here.
I made trifle yesterday and brought it into work just now. I'm not sure how it will go, I didn't have much choice of ingredients, the custard is really runny but I think it'll be ok. The office manager seemed excited, she hasn't heard of trifle before. We don't have school lunch today, it's bring your own or order from the udon restaurant. I am going to cook a small pizza in my x'mas present to myself. I bought a new toaster oven for $29.80 GD (keeping up?) since I got sick of the exceptionally slow toast setting on the microwave.
It's awesome, I hated being without a toaster oven, microwaves just don't cut it. Should've bought one months ago.
I have a block of Cadbury Old Gold I'll share with the teachers as well. I prefer Nestle Club, but you can't get that here, and this is imported from Australia so it's appropriate.
