I'm back!

First of all, I'm sorry that I went silent so unexpectedly. The reason for that is as banal as, let me say it, the Japanese - at some point my dear 4 year old Toshiba called Antonia (my computer) refused to cooperate. It was about time she had some problems, really, as apart from some minor memory card surgery & downgrade of an operation system, performed by my dear 恋人 and a battery change, it never really needed any serious professional assistance. Thankfully, it didn't go bust in flames and the cacophony of cracking noises, so maybe nothing that serious happened. After a week of showing some signs of tiredness, one day it just failed to start the operating system at all, keeping it on the opening page and not loading anything. I was forced to retreat to using my small one (thank goodness I'm so interactive to have 2 computers!), the beautiful red Vivienne Tam edition of HP Mini, which was never designed to be the main computer, and the processing speed of which leaves a lot to be desired. But anyway, we'll see how that goes. I might be forced to use fewer images, I'm afraid, as uploading even one image seems to drag forever. And it doesn't really help that most of my previous photos are imprisoned in my old computer anyway.

So how has your Kyoto Ryuugakusei been lately? Not very well. The school holidays seem to drag FOREVER (almost two and a half months, from February 1st till April 11th), the weather was mostly grey, unexpectedly cold and plain boring, and it didn't really help that most foreign students could afford to go home for riddiculously long time when I had to stay here, in my room, after the sudden realisation came that despite saving for so long I were not in a finacial position to use the holidays to travel around Japan. Getting to know the Japanese people and their 'personalities' better simply added to the general disappointment, resulting in a massive seasonal depression. But it's getting better gradually. I'm expecting my dear Polish friend M to come and visit me very soon, and the classes are just about to begin (this time I'm going to fight to be in the highest possible level, as the last time I was placed in one much below my abilities that just wasted my time, really). The weather seems to get gradually warmer too, and that reduces the stress of exaggerated heating bills. And the Italians came back, finally! I'm so happy to have them around, especially F, my lovely Energetic one. The future looks much brighter now.

Not to mention that I have so many new ideas for the blog, and possible posts, some series, even, and plan to continue it even after finishing my year abroad! I hope that my grumpy experiences with Japan, the Japanese, kanji etc. will be of some use! :)

Till we meet again! (and I promise we will, this time regularly)

Kitano Tenmangu shrine, Plum Garden,  28/02/2012