Earthquake Diary 114

 I do not know when it happened but part of the banking along the river by my condo has collapsed or at least weakened enough that it has been covered with blue tarps. This is across the river from the park that is essentially next to my complex. If I turn left when I leave my property and walk a couple of hundred paces, I can see this. However, I usually turn right and go up to the bridge so that I can go to Yaotome for the subway or Izumi Chuo for shopping or soccer.

Speaking of the bridge, I discovered that the sign that had been on the old bridge, the one they tore down and replaced a couple of years ago, was laying in a pile of small concrete drainage ditch liners. It is very good condition considering that it must have been laying there for a least a couple of years.

Yesterday when I tried to post, blogger was down or at least I could not access it. I had to leave home after that and did not get back until evening when I was too tired to think about anything but supper and bed. Classes finally started this week at both my universities so I taught eight classes, walking almost 10 kilometers a day to get to the schools and to move around the classrooms. The first week of classes is always stressful: meeting about 150 new people, problems with equipment and classrooms, students not yet buying books, etc, etc, etc. This year because of the earthquake both schools have shortened the semester from 15 weeks to 13 weeks. Of course for part time teachers, this means two weeks less income, but the main thing is that it has been 3 and a half months since the last time I was in a classroom and that certainly has the effect of making me more tire. Once the routine gets underway, it will become normal and I will be back to enjoying teaching and interacting with the students.