Adventures in Banking

I've been mising my bank book for a few weeks now, and so today I decided to get a replacement, before the New Year's break. After filling out the forms came the time to sign, or rather stamp, and I realized that I didn't have my hanko with me; I told them that I'd be right back and rushed home. Upon my return home, I began searching and tore my whole room apart several times looking for it, and on the thrid go round I stumbled across my bank book. Book in hand, I rushed back to the bank and explained what had happened, but he still wanted me to stamp the forms that he had prepared for getting a new bank book. It seems the the act of carryiing out a transaction supersedes the relevance of it. But, I explained that I wasn't able to find my hanko, and we expressed various amounts of dismay at the fact after which he asked me to tell him if I wasn't able to find it. I'll be looking, but I'm not holding out much hope.
In other news I'm going to Osaka tomorrow for New Year's break, going to visit some friends and friends of friends. I'm really looking forward to getting out of Ube.
To explain my desire to get out, let me relate a story. One of our students is moving to America, to do research at a university. The University of Alabama. In Tuscaloosa. Now, imagine you met this person, and he said, "I'm moving to America", to which, naturally, you would reply, "Oh? Where?" And, upon hearing his answer, your recation would most likely be the same as that of a Japanese person who heard "I've been living in Ube, Yamaguchi." I am looking forward to a change of scenery.
But, speaking of Alabama, I had a doctor in my class recently and we were doing a lesson on health advice. In part of the lesson, he had to pretend to give advice to people, and I asked, "What would you say to this woman, who can't seem to find time to relax." His reply was, "I would tell her to try to drink a little alcohol after work."