Went to a lovely Christmas party latst night. Met up with a few other ALTs for bring-some-everyone dinner. I contributed some greay rye bread from my bakery (with balsamic and olive oil, of course), and there was pasta, salad, salsa and guacamole, and even Scot-made shortbread.
We had a gift exchange as well, and Nami and Brian supplied a huge bottle of sake as the gift chooser. The group decided it would be best to finish the bottle before spinning it. The gift spun for me was decent - a glow in the dark orb thing that made for good pictures. One of the girls got a small handbag that had the words: “Pornography - a little alcohol will do you no harm”, and there was Maraiah Carey Christmas CD among other things as well.
I borrowed a Murakami book from Annie at the party and started reading him again (different book than before, and I didn’t finish that one). I hate his characters. HATE them. But his writing style is capturing. I think maybe I feel so strongly because the things his characters think and say are the things I’d find in people around me if I could speak to them. I’m worried that’s what I’d encounter if I connected well with someone. Or maybe, he somehow works out a way to embody all the things I don’t particularly like about the culture into his protagonists. Cold, distant, stoic, defeatist, ideal-less, (hell, opinionless), plain. Or maybe some of those characters’ traits are too often reflected in my own trains of thot? I dunno, prolly a mix of everything. At any rate, I’ll give this book a proper go and see how I feel at the end.