"Amanda-sensei, do you like type?"

Yesterday at Ashoro it was my final visit for the school year. It might even have been my final visit ever, as they are stopping the train service through to Kitami. During my class with the second-years, we finished early and being the lovely, kind women that I am, I told the kids to relax. So, of course, they started to gossip about me. Finally, having worked up enough courage (not to mention the requisite English), one of the genkiest "naughty boys" (naughty in the sense of cheeky and excitable, not future yakuza-rejects) asked me the question above.

Naturally my response was a little confused.
"do you mean... Do I like typing?"

Much hilarity ensued. Sugawara-sensei looked sheepish and explained that they intended to ask what my "dating type" was. I raised an eyebrow, mainly because I can.

"It's a secret!", I insisted, to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from both boys and girls. I think nihonjin got a bumper crop of the nosiness gene. anyway, I continued:" but I will tell you this, a university degree is the absolute minimum" (which is sorta true although i will make exceptions for self-made men. However it's really an age issue here... as in; No, teenage boy, you truly have no chance, not ever, that would be weird nuh-uh, ew; only not as potentially damaging to their psyche).

Well, this would not do. They insisted that I had to at least tell them one thing...So I thought about it... And thought a little more... And was vaguely stymied. I managed to come up with :"he must have good taste in music", which is true and which elicited a chorus of "I love you"s from the boys (they are so easy to please)... But I started to wonder why it was so hard for me to answer the question.

I mean, if you'd asked me ten years ago what my type was, I would have been able to answer you in a second. Totally. Snap fingers, whoosh! Just like that. Skinny poetic types. Bam. Easy answer.

of course, I've dated a few more people since then. And mostly they've been pretty different, although there are a few vaguely common strands... They are usually "alternative", non-mainstream types, intelligent, good with computers, good taste in music, and usually way too tall for me (no hard, really).

oh and psychosis. The last few years, i seem to have attracted an endless stream of losers, users, psychological abusers, pathological liars, commitment-phobes and arseholes (except the one, who knows who he is). So apparently my type is: psycho arsehole. Although I like to console myself that at least they have mostly been hot psycho arsehole, with one exception, and I'm not saying who, so you can all worry, hahahaha. Ahem.

anyway, I think it's best that I no longer trust my instincts (sorry, Sprite), or possibly enquire about Jewish nunneries.