Some days just don't go the way you plan...

Wow! I am happy to have survived today!

It started out innocently enough. I woke up to a nice, warm house thanks to my timed heater. Unfortunately, it took me much longer to get ready than I thought it was going to take. My bus was scheduled to leave at 6:24, and I did not leave the house until 6:28. It was still ok, though. My destination was the train station, because today I was visiting a new school in a town about 40 minutes away by train. So, since the next bus was not scheduled for another 1o minutes, I decided to walk. In cold weather, walking is often better than standing still.

When I reached the next stop, there was still quite a bit of time before the next bus was scheduled to come. So, I decided to walk on. Once I was well past the bus stop, I heard a familiar vroom behind me. Yes, you guessed it, I turned around and there was the bus! And I was nowhere near a bus stop! I briefly considered throwing myself at its mercy, but decided there was a strong possibility of getting run over instead. So, I waved goodbye to the bus as it drove away with its warm goodness.

After my long trudge, I arrived at the train station. For some reason, I had more difficulty than usual buying my ticket. I think it was because someone was standing behind me in line, and I felt like I was holding her up. This caused me to forget how to communicate!

Finally, I had my ticket! I walked around the station waiting for the train, and happened to pass a mirror. I discovered that something had gone very wrong with my hair! It looked decidedly weird. Unfortunately, I had my arms full of purse, teaching bag, and suit jacket, and so I could not do too much at that point. So, I went to get something to drink. As I was looking for change, I dropped my lovely suit jacket on the yucky floor of the station!

Once I got on the train, I dropped my unopened can of coffee on the floor of the train! Then, my cell phone disappeared from my pocket. When I moved my coat, I heard a clunk as it, too, hit the floor.

By this point, I was not feeling too happy or optimistic about the day.

Thankfully, the train ride was fairly uneventful. I had about 80 papers to make comments on, so I worked on that the whole ride. I hope the poor students will be able to read my handwriting!

Finally, I made it safely to school! School was actually one of the best parts of my day! All my classes were great, and the students were very eager and engaged. It was a great day! I was able to eat lunch with some students who seem to enjoy English, too. The teachers were really wonderful, too!

Then, it was back out into the big, bad world. I took a local train back home...the local train is kind of like a bus on railroad tracks. It was just one car. Once home, it arrived on the other side of the tracks from where the station was located. In order to get to the station, You enter a covered walkway, climb a flight of stairs, cross over the tracks, and go back down a flight of stairs. I had made it up and across, and was heading down, when I decided to try skiing on my knees. Yes, I slipped on a step, landed on my knees, and skidded down several steps. It really hurt both my knees and my pride. I had to answer many questions of "Daijoubu?" - basically, "Are you ok?" I think I forgot and answered in English, though. Oh, it hurt though! I skinned my knees in three places, and bruised the front of my ankle.

The day was not yet done, however. I was going to meet some teachers for dinner and walked out of my house to go meet them. Everything looked wet. Sadly, it was not just wet...it was that sneaky ice pretending to just be rain. I slipped a little bit as I was walking, but then thought I had things under control. I was that surprised then, when I hit a surprise icy patch and was down before you could say, "Boo." I'm not sure why you would want to say "Boo," but if you ever did, that how fast I hit the ground. I don't think I hurt anything that time...it is getting hard to tell where one injury ends and another begins!

But then, the day ended with a very nice dinner with three teachers, so all was well and good! We ate many delicious foods and had a good time talking!

By the way, I would like to note that I made it through November without any accidents. The random wild wind does not count as an accident, as there were no injuries involved! Perhaps it was the NaNoWriMo project...it is hard to get hurt when most of your spare time is spent working on a project at home.