It's that time of year...

Where I begin to turn to Ryan Adams...and all that that entails. It's rather unfortunate that, as of yet, he will not be making to Japan. However, if anyone hears otherwise you had better let me know!
Anyhow, parent observation weeks are officially over! Thank God! I went and got tacos an a delicious little drink after work, I ran in to Yuka and Yuki, that was great! We are going out again in celebration tomorrow night. Hurray!
In my last class last night, I had these two 13 year old boys, they're totally my favorite, anyway. They get on these kicks were they say the same answer for every question, like
Me:" why is the grand canoyon famous?"
K &K : Because it's big.
Me: Ok, why is the Golden Gate Bridge famous?
K & K: Because it's big.
This goes on for like one more question and then i change the topic to the Tokyo tower, we talk for bit, then as kind of a joke, I ask "how big is the tokyo tower" obviously expecting.. "Its big" but no... One of them responds with.." It's 333 Km". Totally random.. who just knows that? Kaito, thats who. Crazy kids.
There's going to be a hairstyle change this weekend! It's about change. I'm so bored with the fact that I have to wear drab working clothes all week, I think i'm going to be as outrageous as possible this weekend. (Mom thats for you).
God, rereading this makes me sound about as interesting as a 2x4.
I'm reading 2 books right now. Thats impressive, yeah? I can't believe I have never read the Chronicles of Narnia. They are so good! My kids seemed pretty excited when I gave them the first section to read . I have two classes that are going to read them. some 10 year olds and 2 17 year olds.
By the way I got to eat three Thanksgivings. I even got to eat turkey, which was clearly not expected, but very well appreciated. And I helped bake a pumpkin pie. It was even kind of good. Brenna and I had to make it super fast. We had one hour until we had to be where we were going and it takes 55 minutes to bake and we hadn' t even started. by the way did I mention we baked it in the microwave? Yes, the microwaves in japan have an oven function. I haven't the slightest idea how to make mine work, but it's there.

Ok, I'm going to go read now.

Goodbye Blacky

I left today for Hiroshima and Blacky was alive. When I came home...he was almost gone. He was just there, floating on his back not moving unless Orangey or Brownie bumped into him and even then he would only flap his little fins. It was a very sad moment for me...being that Blacky was my favorite of the three. =(

Anyway. As I said I went to Hiroshima again this weekend. Last weekend I went, with the intention of only being there for one night, however I ended up staying the whole weekend. Instead of coming back Sunday morning, I came back Monday afternoon. Crazyyyy! I had a glorious time with Niko and Keriann, just hanging out and doing all the touristy things like going to the castle and the A-bomb museum and the Garden. I loved the garden, I thought about going again today,just to sit outside and read, however it was much too chilly. Today I decided to go to the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. The collection was much smaller than I was expecting and many of the works were from Japanese artists (which was to be expected) I liked them more than I thought I would. It wasn't stereotypical "Asian Art". I did, however, get to see a Dali, up close and personal. It was a huge painting, a variant of Persistence of Memory. It was amazing.

I love art.

Then I came home and made guacamole. I'm determined to start cooking meals for myself. Tomorrow I'm going to try to make eggplant and tomato grautin. We'll see how that goes.

Hisashiburi

I'm sorry for the length of time that has passed with no update. I'm doing well, I've been busy. Last week we had Saturday off in lieu of a holiday. My friend Ayako, Patrick and myself went up to Kyoto, we also met some other friends (Keri, Jo, and Candace) -- I'd just like to say that I feel like i'm typing a 5th grade essay about my summer vacation-- we had a great time.

We were so hard core! It actually took us a while to get out of the station. A) we had to make reservations and what not, then we were hungry and then we just flat couldn't figure out where to get out. We finally made it out and hopped on a bus to Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) it was beautiful. However I did have a little mishap with the bus...I went to pay the 220 yen but all I had was a 500 yen piece. I screwed up and instead of putting it in the change thing I dropped it in the pay hole... Not good. The bus driver had to give me all my change back in 10 yen pieces... yep, thats 280 yen in 10 yen pieces. Awesomeness. He could have kept it, honestly. It was totally worth it though the place was beautiful! We went to many other temples and shrines on Sunday as well. Everything was gorgeous, I'm not kidding. We met up with Jo, Candace and Keri on Sunday night and had dinner. Have I mentioned yet that we literally had pasta for every meal except 1? Cause we did. It was good, but very unjapanese.
On Monday we totally overslept and didn't checkout on time which resulted in like a 50 dollar fee. Whooops. But then we saw Patrick off, and all the girls continued on. We only went to one more shrine, as we got there we saw a scooter wreck. It was so scary! They sideswiped each other and one stopped but the other flipped. It was awful. I think he ended up being ok, he was ok enough to sit up to wait for the ambulance. But on a lighter note, this place had 4km of vermilion torii gates. it was amazing! I bought a kimono-ish thing, for 5 bucks.
hopefully if you click this link, you'll be able to see my pictures. That other website sets a limit to how many pictures I can upload per month. Lame...

http://greenville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008185&l=275f7&id=152400334

Anyway. This week I had follow-up training. I thought it was going to be boring, but it was sooo much fun! It was good to see everyone again as well as meet awesome new people. Loved it! The place was pretty isolated so we were comparing it to the hotel in the Shining, minus the snow. At lunch we were talking about who would be the one to go crazy... we decided Kurt, one of the trainers...then during my personal interview with him, he leans in and says "do you hear voices" It was hilarious! I did hear the voices so it was ok, but had I not heard them I would have taken off running. They had fish for 3 out of 4 meals (dinner, breakfast, lunch). I was really hungry the whole time. It still makes me gag to think everyone ate that fish. Yuck.

Ok, time to hop in the shower, I'm going to Hiroshima! bye now!