Meet at 6:20 or 8:09

I haven't gotten tired of my job yet which comes as a little bit of a surprise to me as two weeks ago, when the gloss was starting to wear off, I thought I was well on my way to a routine burnout. I made it through though. I may just be happy because the school lunch was very good today and I got to teach the first year class, which I always enjoy. The teachers keep telling me what the first-years can and can't handle, but, frankly, given their zeal, I think they are much more capable then a group of slack-jawed, hormone-slowed six graders who think I'm just a clown.

The Fukuoka Sumo Tournament is on and Asashoryu hasn't lost yet.

I've got that Japanese test coming up in December and am pretty concerned about it, although I have been doing well on the grammar practice tests that I have. Japanese grammar is nice because it's so reliable. Complicated like nothing else, but reliable. Unfortunately, the one thing I excel at in the scheme of Japanese, the kanji, is only about 50 out of 400 point of the test. The rest is grammar, listening, vocabulary and reading. The listening part is the thing I am most worried about because you have this sort of conversation to listen to:

Tanaka san: What time should we meet?
Haneda san: I work until 5:45.
Tanaka san: 5:45?
Haneda san: No, wait. A half hour after that.
Tanaka san: Hm. I work until 6:40
Haneda san: 6:40?
Tanaka san: Sorry, 6:20.
Haneda san: Why don't we meet an hour after I get off work.
Tanaka san: How about an hour and twenty minutes?
Haneda san: Great!

Frankly, I still don't know when they're meeting even if they were speaking in English.

Also, the passive tense in Japanese, though incredibly tactful, makes no sense to me. Who's doing what to whom? Am I involved? Why is the subject of that sentence assumed? Because I have no idea what's going on.

Also, it's ridiculously cold here. I think the water in the toilet will freeze before winter is over.