Kelly in Japan

Spectacular spectacular

// September 30th, 2009 // Uncategorized

Six days late, or one day early, as you will …

Lots of exciting stuff going on these days. Last week was “Silver Week,” and we went down to a beach in Mie Prefecture with some friends from neighboring cities. It was just as awesome and relaxing as I’d hoped, and I came back with a great tan (and a few mosquito bites).

We played beach volleyball, grilled yakkinikku almost every day, and chilled. The sleeping arrangements left a bit to be desired, as they basically consisted of a blanket on a hard wood floor, but we took lots of naps on the sand to make up for it. The old owner was awesome - he kept giving us crazy raw mollusks and even shared some imperfect pearls for free. He took the girls on a scary truck ride (haven’t ridden in the bed of a truck in 10 years) to a scary jetty (walking on bamboo logs between crayfish and oyster pens) to a scary boat ride (driving that thing through the waves like it was a jet ski, as we hung on with no life jackets). He would have taken the boys, too, but they were all too cool to tag along. Too bad for them. I ate my first raw oyster on the trip - actually only a bite because the oyster was as big as Caspian’s torso and the edible part as big as his face.

Caspian himself spent the week at a kennel recommended by one of Kory’s teachers. The place was seriously amazing - think Doctor Dolittle in Pippi Longstocking’s kitchen with decor by Willy Wonka. There were turtles, geese, cats, dogs, and fish when we dropped him off. They fed him shredded chicken and asked how many times a day he needed to be walked! He came back with a visibly fat tummy, and I daresay he was a bit disappointed to return to his dry dog food. :)

The annual speech contest was the Saturday after we returned, and I stayed late the remainder of that week to help our two students prepare. One placed sixth in the first (regular) level, and the other placed first in the second (advanced) level. So I have to keep working with the second girl to prepare her for the next contest in October.

Swine flu has officially arrived at our school. There was an emergency meeting this afternoon after seven of the third-graders came down with a fever. All third-graders are being sent home early today. I’m glad I don’t teach any of them!

I’ve read quite a bit lately. I can’t remember if I recapped on the blog, but I reread all Twilight novels before the vacation. Kory checked out the first few Artemis Fowl books and the first three Earthsea books for me from the library, and I went back through those again. In the way of new books, I read Magic or Madness, which my mom sent in a care package, and half of Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci Volume II, bequeathed to me from a friend of a friend who was leaving Japan. All good!

In any free time at work, I’ve been trying to study Japanese. I also took a practice GRE test. The math section kicked my butt to the curb. Guess I’d better study some equations as well as kanji!