Feeling a bit blah!

I'm feeling a bit blah. It's rainy outside....has been for 2 days. I normally like the rain but this has been kinda weird....not at all like November. I've still been wearing sandals! So when it feels rainy it just feels humid not at all the way I like my rainy days. Not sure any of that made sense...maybe I'm rambling! Ok...to cheer me up (and probably you after reading that) I will put up this picture I took earlier in the week-this garden is across from my apartment building.

Oh and one day when I came home I found a lovely envelope addressed to me and inside was this lovely card that my customer made for me-I've never received a card from a customer before!!

Hmmm.....what else? Oh the other day I received my fall copy of "The Portico" which is my University's (University of Guelph) alumni magazine. It was so cool to see all the research my university does and inside I found a picture of a prof that I once gave a presentation with at a national conference . Anyway, I took the magazine to work to show a couple of students and I talked about it with my boss. I asked him if Japanese universities do this and he said no and then said it probably is because people don't donate money to universities. I was surprised. Then he said most Japanese don't donate money to charities. I was less shocked by this but I never knew why they didn't. He said it is because it doesn't help them with taxes. So if they donate money they don't get a receipt for tax time. Wow! I swear I learn new things all the time even though I have been here 10 years!!