I haven’t had time to post anything in a while because I’ve been working on an application to the JET Program for the millionth time. What it is is a teaching exchange program where people move to Japan for anywhere from one to five years to teach in Japanese schools and live in their communities. It’s been my goal for a long time at this point and every fall I submit my application and am inevitably disappointed, and yet I endure. Last year I made it to the final selection phase but bombed my interview hard, so hopefully this year will be different. If I do go it will be a really amazing opportunity to take a ridiculous amount of photos and post them here.

I have managed to go out and photograph lately and I’m happy to report that it has fully become fall. About two weeks ago it was still in the high 80’s and completely dry but now it’s raining basically every day which is much more in line with Oregon fall and winter. On the last hot day I kept running into the enormous webs of what I’ve learned are European Garden Spiders. They cast these incredibly long anchors and build really elaborate webs in the center. I felt awful for knocking them down accidentally as it was their last desperate push to beat the coming deluge. I got some good photos of one of them wrapping up a fly. As I’ve gotten older I’ve lost any fear I have of spiders and now I just think they’re really fascinating. I secretly want a jumping spider as a pet. Also, one of my favorite mushroom trees fell over during the rains but it will likely only mean more mushrooms to marvel at.

Fall means that my Sunday excursions become a completely solo affair. In the summer every access point to the river is absolutely swamped with people, which is understandable, but I prefer when it’s quiet and solitary. This last week I saw three other people on Elk Rock Island whereas normally there’d be close to fifty or one hundred. I love the days where it’s likely raining and the clouds hang over the trees like a crown. It makes it seem like the world doesn’t exist past what I can see. I spend those days wondering what it would have been like to exist before people. Anyway, I’ll keep up more now that I’m finished with my application. I do have The Japanese Language Proficiency Test coming up next month but that doesn’t weigh on me nearly as much as the Jet Program.