Hajimemashite!

Well, I'm back. After an extended absence from blogging, a few friends' comments on the scarcity of information about me and what's going on over here have finally got me back at the keyboard. For those of you who might be stumbling across this for the first time, I'll refer you to the profile.

After a stretch of warm weather, Hiroshima has cooled down a bit. I've got the heat back on and my warm coat out again. The past few weeks have been fairly relaxing. Not as productive as I'd hoped, but then again, rest is not necessarily meant to be productive. My schedule for the new year comes out on April 7th, but I already know I'll have four (rather than ten!) university classes this contract. The reduction in commuting hours will be a great relief.

As for what I've been doing to occupy my time.... I've been spending as much time as possible with my girlfriend. Things are going very well. Just past the two month mark, although having known each other since I got to Hiroshima just over a year ago helped build a solid foundation beforehand. Yesterday we had lunch at an Indian restaurant, checked out the Childrens' Library (I can read some of the easier books, but my vocabulary needs a lot of work), and had coffee.

I've also been working on my syllabus for my Communication I/A class (speaking) at Hiroshima University. I want to try to start connecting my teaching with my other academic work, particularly with the environmental studies aspect. I found that my students respond best when a lesson is directly connected to their lives, so I'm trying to work out a course that will get them thinking and talking about their own environment. I've been thinking as well about how to green up my second-semester writing course as well, although that will have to wait until the summer.

I have slowly been working my way through Thomas Pynchon's latest book, Against The Day. I found that reading it a chapter a night was a good strategy at first, but given that it's over a thousand pages long, I'm picking up the pace after I post this message. It's good, if you like wacky, historical metafiction, but the sheer size and scope of the stories can be a bit overwhelming.

I've spent a lot of time listening to podcasts as well, which I'm finding to be a great way to get access to news and other information in English. There is a high risk of infoglut, so I've limited myself to an hour or two of listening per day to go with my breakfast and morning coffee. Here's the shortlist:

--NPR has a couple of environmental news podcasts which I'm finding good, concise, and informative. They do focus on the U.S. quite a lot, particularly the ins-and-outs of the coal industry's struggle to clean up in the face of the changing political sphere.

--The Green Planet Monitor is a good balance to the NPR programs, which are (understandably) focused on American political news. A fair bit of their reporting seems to be about Canadian NGO projects in developing countries, but it keeps the focus on the people using the program rather than the foreign workers.

--Deutsche Welle's Living Planet is more like the NPR programs than Green Planet Monitor, but with a European perspective.

--The Nature Stories Podcast is put out by the Nature Conservancy and features short audio documentaries of people involved in an environment. It's really stimulating my interest in environmental autobiography and narrative.

--The Poetry Foundation, Poets.org, and PBS' News Hour all have regular (if occasional) podcasts of poetry. Of these, the Poetry Foundation's is the best, with good readings (usually by the author) and some intelligent and accessible commentary from the host.

--The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Philosopher's Zone is a really stimulating interview show about philosophy and its connection to everyday life. I've been profoundly impressed with how strong the philosophy community is in Australia, based on this show and the couple of Australian-trained philosophy majors I've met.