Deciding to Stay Undecided

A teaser of my blog to come within the next few days =)

So, I know you are all wondering what I (or the principal) have decided to do regarding the whole pre-k/kindergaten combo disarray. Last week, my team teacher and I talked to the principal and I told him my thoughts on the idea. I told him that Sarah and I both prefer staying in our classroom and that with 1st and 2nd grade in one room, the students need two teachers. With all of our students being English Learners and phonemic awareness being a major part of our core curriculum, having both us of in the room is vital to student success. The principal said "okay" and we ended it there. He said he wanted things settled by Friday but no decisions have been made as of now. The pre-k and kindergarten classroom has calmed down a bit, a few of the pre-k students got transfered to the preschool room and one of the kindergarten students came to my room. It seems things will be left undecided and no action will take place...for now.

My feelings have went back and forth since being presented with this proposal. If I do have to make the decision, I will take pre-k over having the 1st/2nd combo alone. This would be the best choice for me, living in Japan and dealing with everyday life. I am happy things are staying the same, which was my first choice =) I will keep you posted if/when a final decision is made.
For now, thank you for your advice and prayers!

In the meantime, my students are making sure I get my daily dose of laughs. I took this picture after collecting homework from my students on Friday. The top page is a spelling list with directions CLEARLY listed: "Copy the list on tablet paper." Below the list is what the student turned into me!!!!!!!! =)

Gotta love teaching =)

I was able to do a lot of fun things this past weekend. Rocky (Japanese teacher) took me to a salsa lesson on the military base Friday night. Then, Rocky and Lori (kinder teacher) took us on a waterfall hike Saturday (hence, teaser picture). I have tons of amazing pictures which I'll be posting with details over the next few days. I'm waiting on a video from salsa dancing before I post =)

My friend who was stationed here last year, gave me the email of a few of his friends who are currently stationed here. I've been in contact with them and they invited me to a pajama party next weekend, should be interesting. Any chance to get on base and I'm there, stocking up on groceries!

Military life on this island continues to intrigue me. A few random things I learned about Military life on Okinawa:

• Military people drive cars with a "Y" on the license plate which stands for "Yankee"
• Marine bases are all "Camps" Ex: Camp Kinser, Camp Foster, etc.
• Okinawa Measures 67 miles long by 2 to 17 miles wide, and covers a total area of 454 sq. miles (I'm getting a little claustrophobic).
  
• Okinawa accounts for less than one percent of Japan's land, but hosts about two-thirds of the 40,000 American forces in the country!
• After World War II, Okinawa remained under the control of the United States for 27 years, ending officially in 1972!!!!!!! That wasn't THAT long ago!
• If you are a Marine here, you can only have a car if you are married WITH children! (Guess there were too many marines gone bad).
  
• On base, as the American flag is lowered at sunset, the national anthem is played and everyone stops (including cars) to pay a moment of respect to fallen soldiers. I witnessed this for the first time a few nights ago, it was an awesome moment.
  

That's all the learning I can take for one day, I'm off to bed and am thankful the last Monday in September is over!

XOXO

Kristen

High Hopes

I was able to spend some quality, alone time, watching the sunset at the beach this evening. If you look closely you can see an airplane (on the right) leaving the island. Every few minutes another plane would fly by. This is my favorite picture, it truly captured the moment. Seeing the planes fly by made me think about home, my future and the experience I'm gaining from being on this beautiful island.
My aunt reminded me of this song, which my dad would sing to my siblings and I when we were having a hard time with something.
I can often hear my dad singing this, especially when I'm having a rough day:

"Next time your found, with your chin on the ground
There a lot to be learned, so look around

Just what makes that little old ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, cant
Move a rubber tree plant

But he's got high hopes, he's got high hopes
He's got high apple pie, in the sky hopes

So any time your gettin' low
instead of lettin go
Just remember that ant
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant

When troubles call, and your backs to the wall
There a lot to be learned, that wall could fall

Once there was a silly old ram
Thought he'd punch a hole in a dam
No one could make that ram, scram
He kept buttin' that dam

cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes
He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes

So any time your feelin' bad
instead of feelin' sad
Just remember that ram
Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam

All problems just a toy balloon
They'll be bursted soon
They're just bound to go pop
Oops there goes another problem kerplop."

I used to get so mad hearing this song when I was frustrated, but now I kinda like it =)

The Surprises Keep Coming...

Today was "Grandparents Day," a highly recognized holiday in Japan in which grandparents are honored. We celebrated by inviting the grandparents of my students to our classroom for a small party. My students sang a grandparent song to the harmony of "You Are My Sunshine." They also recited a poem, played bingo and had cookies and tea with their grandparents. It was fun and the grandparents seemed to enjoy themselves. Happy Grandparent's Day to my grandma's, love you lots =)

Here is a video of my students singing to their grandparents.

Important news first: Four students in my class have swine flu! Two additional students are sick but we are unsure if they have swine flu or just the regular flu. We have been wiping everything down and having all students wash their hands before snack and lunch. It's making me a little paranoid, I don't have my health card yet. I planned on going today to get it but today, tomorrow and Wednesday are Japanese holidays so the office is closed. Hope I don't need it....ever while I am here!

Another school note; at the end of last week, the principal approached my team teacher and I and asked if one of us would leave our classroom to teach pre-kindergarten for the rest of the year. Right now, kindergarten and pre-k are in the same classroom and it is chaos because the two age groups do not do well together. Since there are two teachers in my room....
That means there will only be one teacher in my room, teaching both 1st and 2nd grade.
I will be observing pre-k tomorrow and will decide what to do by the end of the week. I guess pre-k's curriculum is eqiulavent to our kindergarten curriculum in the U.S. and there are only 8 pre-k students. We will see how it goes. Please pray that I make the right decision for myself, my students and my career.
Weekend: Friday night Rocky (the Japanese teacher) took Jessica and I to a see a jazz band play at a coffee house. I had a few cocktails and then we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was a nice, relaxing evening out.
Saturday I slept in, did laundry, cleaned the apartment and went to a travel agency (see below). I ate at "Dragon" which is a well known Chinese food restaurant. It's a hole in the wall restaurant that serves large portions at low prices. Everyone raves about it and it definitely lived up to it's reviews. After Dragon, I ate ice cream and watched the sunset on the beach. All I can say is that watching the sunset here is AMAZING! The weather has started to cool down over the past few nights, so there was a warm breeze. People were barbecuing and the smell of barbecue filled the air. It reminded me of camping on family vacations while growing up. I was able to sit right by the water which was very therapeutic. I truly felt at peace, thinking about happy memories in the past and where my life is headed in the future. I enjoyed the moment and promised myself that I would make this a weekly ritual while I am here.

Sunset Beach

A few things (besides the sunset) that pleasantly surprised me this weekend and made me smile with joy:

1) I found a lady that does eyebrow threading and got my eyebrows threaded! The office secretary at school gave me the number of her friend who does threading. I was excited about this because I thoroughly researched threading in Okinawa before coming here, and came up with nothing. Apparently, this is the only lady on the entire island that does threading. She does it from her home, so people only find her by word of mouth. Plus, she is only 10 minutes from my apartment!

2) I went to a travel agency on Saturday and got price quotes for a Thanksgiving trip to Tokyo. I found a package that includes round trip airfare and 3 nights in a hotel in Tokyo for $530!! Great price. I will book the trip next week, definitely something to look forward to. I would be leaving here Thanksgiving morning, arriving in Tokyo two hours later and come back to Okinawa Sunday night. Woohoo! Mt. Fuji and Tokyo Disney are on my top 2 things to do in Tokyo!
I also got a price quote for a trip to Vietnam to visit my friend who is teaching there but airfare is $900 from Okinawa to Vietnam....crazy! I'm deciding where to go on my 3 day weekend next month.

3) The kindergarten teacher bought me groceries on base! I had a long list which I kept adding to and she was kind enough to buy my groceries while I was at church on Sunday. I now have my flour tortillas, Italian dressing, peanut butter, gatorade, granola bars, shredded cheese and a Brita water filter. The water here is high in calicum because of the coral in the ocean. I was told it's safe to drink but when I drank it, I would get a stomach ache. I don't drink soda so I've been living on iced tea and going through a lot of water bottles. Now that I have my filter, I can indulge in water.

Now I know why I needed a water filter!

I received emails from a few family and friend who I haven't heard from in a while, so it was nice to get in touch with more people from home. I've had a tremendous amount of support and prayers from everyone and that is truly helping me get through each day. I received my first package in the mail! Thank you Courtney for all the goodies with little notes, I love them all! It felt like Christmas, getting to open the package and each little present inside. THANK YOU!

XOXO

Kristen

Over One Month Of Island Living

My students at recess. They formed their own game, rules and played all on their OWN! I didn't have to say a word and they all lined up and listened to one another while playing. Now, if I could just get them to do this in the classroom!

Today, I gave my first phonics test to my 2nd grade students. I admit I was a little nervous, anticipating their scores. It was a fairly easy test, I reviewed with them practically giving them the answers the entire week. The writing section of the test went great, the oral language section of the test didn't go so great! Most students knew their short vowels, long vowels, silent vowels, blends and spelling of words I called out. They however did not know how to correctly pronounce sight words which I had them read to me individually. The average overall test score was a 76%. I expected higher and was a little disappointed. All of my students speak English as a second language which is very evident in their oral language skills. Bringing these students to a proficient level in their oral language skills will be my biggest challenge, I definitely have my work cut out for me.
*My difficult student had a hard week again. The principal had to carry him out of my room one day after he refused to leave the room during lunchtime. He shuts down randomly and just sits there, not doing or saying a thing. He likes math and anything hands on but refuses to do ANY writing. Today the principal told us to give him time and to just ignore him. His behavior is beyond the language barrier and seems to be more social or psychological. We will see how it goes.

Tomrorow is Friday, thank goodness! This week at school went a lot better as far as students getting into a routine. I'm still having students off task but it's getting better as time goes on. The hardest thing is still having students just give you blank stares and not doing their work. It's hard to know if they don't' understand or are just not paying attention.

Last Saturday I spent a few hours at school cleaning my classroom and the school building. They didn't have any cleaning supplies for us when we got there so we had to use wet wipes the students brought to wipe the windows, we shared a mop and since the males were cleaning the air vents we worked without the AC on. The ladies in the office kept me laughing as we were working. They said I look like barbie and are going to start calling me that. haha.
Later that afternoon, my roommate Jessica and I headed to the beer fest! It was something I had been day dreaming about all week so I was a little overly excited to be there. The fair grounds, where it was located is only about 5 miles from our apartment but after 30 minutes of trying to find parking and not being able to communicate with any parking attendants we drove back home, got a taxi and finally arrived! We had to wait in a small line where they checked our ID's (or in our case passports), the legal drinking age here is 20. There were food booths with tons of food choices, beer booths with two choices of beer and a stage with a band playing Japanese rock music. The beer was cold and delicious, especially considering it was extra hot and humid out.

It was PACKED but that made it more fun!

Enjoying beer and good conversation
Leave it to the Americans! American military guys....need I say more?

Japanese love their rock music!

Our taxi dropping us back at our apartment (no, we didn't take a taxi because we drank too much, we took a taxi because there was no parking!=)
It was nice getting to relax and hang out in a different environment. It was just the medicine I needed! After the beer fest we went to dinner at a cajun restaurant named "Sauce." The staff spoke English and the food was great! My meal included: bbq ribs, fried shrimp, cole slaw, bread and potato wedges. After dinner our taxi dropped us at home and we called it a night. I had so much fun. I wish the beer fest was every weekend! My aunt just emailed me a list of beer gardens in Japan so maybe it will be a weekly thing =)

I had dinner twice by myself this week while Jessica was out. I made two delicious dinners that actually tasted like home cooked meals! I'm starting to get the hang of this cooking thing.
Beef, salad, asparagus and a glass of Gatorade.

Chicken, rice, corn and a movie =)

I'm getting more and more used to living in Japan, however, no matter how used to it I get, there is always new, surprising events that take me by surprise. I just started missing American food. Yes, I eat American food here but it's not the same.
Some random things I'm missing (besides people):

-Oatmeal
-Protein bars
-Tortillas
-Magazines
-Big cups
-Cheese
-Pans with handles (the pans in our apartment have no handles...makes cooking interesting!)
-Fresh fruit
-Talking on a regular phone without it cutting out & sounding far away
-My soft bed at home (my bed here is really hard, even with my mattress pad on it. I know it's good for me though because it's forcing me to sleep on my back instead of my stomach, a habit I've been trying to break for quite some time).
-SHOPPING, I've yet to find a huge mall (another habit to break)
-Working out (I keep saying I'm going to do it but I haven't worked up the courage to go running yet...the humidity is insane, I do have my students stretch with me every morning =)
-Driving fast
-Last but not least and probably the thing I'm having the hardest time with: Not being around people who move at a fast pace. I know this is so Southern California of me but it's been a hard adjustment to be on an island full of people that are slow paced. I feel like I'm always a few steps ahead, ready for the next thing. It's definitely making me more patient!

One last thing to add. Our car broke down on the way to school yesterday! A few days ago when we were driving, the battery light came on and the AC stopped working. We told the principals wife but nothing was done. School is about 30 minutes (10 miles) from my apartment so not too far. Yesterday on the way to school, the radio went out and then when I pushed the gas the car didn't have any power. I got into the slow lane and was able to pull into the first driveway I saw, right as the car died. Since we don't have cell phones, I walked to the gas station/convenience store, which was a short walk away and called the school. The principals wife picked us up and we made it to school 30 minutes late. Later, the principal told me the mechanic said a belt had broken and they were fixing it. In the meantime we have a loaner which is newer and nicer than our car so I don't mind driving it at all. I'm glad our car is finally getting fixed....or maybe it won't and we'll get a new car =)
Tomorrow night, Jessica and I are going to a jazz concert with the Japanese teacher from school. Sunday before church, I'm going to a craft fair on base with the kindergarten teacher. I'm looking forward to relaxing at the beach all day Saturday. My first official month here is completed, I made it so far =)

XOXO

Kristen

2nd Week of School is Completed

The sky here is amazingly beautiful, I could stare at it all day (and I often do)!

This week went by super fast, it was so nice to have Labor day off to run errands and relax, why can't we always have four day work weeks?
On Sunday, the day after going to Okinawa World, I slept in for the first time since I've been here. I mean, a deep, good sleep in! I woke up at 9:30 am and Jessica was at church so I stayed in my pajamas while I skyped with family and friends until 1:30 pm. It was so relaxing and such a nice change from having to wake up and rush to be somewhere right away. After skyping I gave the apartment a thorough cleaning (haven't done that since I got here and anyone that knows me, knows I need a clean house in order to stay sane), did some laundry and got ready for church. Jessica went with me and it was once again a beautiful mass, I enjoyed every moment. After mass, we took advantage and ate pizza at the food court on base. We chatted and just enjoyed being in an atmosphere surrounded by so many other Americans.
Living by so many military bases and being on base at least once a week has made me wonder about military life....what their daily life is like, what their jobs entail, how they are able to be so far from home and away from their families for so long, etc. Some of them look so young, it makes me sad, knowing they are giving up their life to serve our country, yet most of us have no idea what they sacrifice so that we can enjoy simple pleasures in our lives.

My second week of teaching went by fast...but I would be lying if I said it was easy. It was still exhausting! Just when I thought my students were catching on and getting into a routine, they totally threw me off. Tuesday was surprisingly good, Wednesday and Thursday were not so good. How they go from following class rules and staying on task one day to completely ignoring class rules and doing whatever they want the next day is beyond me. I know it's only the second week and we are working on it...but it's taking all the patience I have.
The bento truck, aka lunch truck started at school this week. The truck drops off student lunches which are to be delivered to the students....delivered by who? You guessed it, us teachers. So, now when lunch starts, we are to go to the office, pick up the lunch orders for our students, get a class list, see which food students ordered and give students their correct lunch order. After giving students their lunch, we have to walk back to the office to get our lunches, heat up our food (with all teachers sharing one microwave) and eat, all within 25 minutes. Today while in the mist of delivering lunches to my students, one of my first graders decided to cry her eyes out because she got a medium bento and wanted a small one! Let's just say that by the time I am eating my lunch, I am more frustrated than relaxed. Sorry, just had to let that out. My team teacher and I finished our planning for the next 2 weeks so we will see how things unfold.

This "walking stick" spider was on the ceiling right outside of my classroom, my students LOVED it!

I headed straight to the beach after work today for a much needed relaxation time. The beach we went to was 10 minutes from school and 10 minutes from home. Seeing how close it is makes me think I'll be stopping by there on the way home from school pretty often. I was only there a few hours but was able to lay out, take a dip in the water and just sit in silence!!!
This beach, like most beaches here is sectioned off into a swimming area. Huge nets are up to keep jelly fish out. Most people have tubes and just float in the water. Weird that there are no waves to body board/surf in. It's kinda like a pool in the ocean...just an area in the ocean to swim in. There is one area with beach chairs and umbrellas but you have to pay to sit there. The sun is so hot when laying out, I think investing in a beach umbrella might be a good idea.

These helicopters flew over the beach area while I was laying out. They were VERY loud but looked really cool. I've been hearing a lot of military planes flying around here the past few days which is usual. The beach was fairly empty, with a few Americans but mostly Japanese people. This little boy in his Mickey Mouse swimsuit (tail included) was adorable, and he actually didn't seem to mind keeping the hat on!

We left the beach and headed to Mc Donald's for Friday night dinner. Jessica and I are trying to make Mc Donald's an "every other Friday night dinner" ritual. I had a Big Mac meal again, this time I added a mint McFlurry...delicious. I wasn't brave enough to try the chicken teriyaki or shrimp sandwich, but I'll work up the courage one of these days! When we left, I was the one driving, we got in the car and Jessica got confused and thought she was driving (we sometimes still have a hard time realizing our car is right hand drive) she accidentally put down the emergency brake, as she tried to push the brake pedal down, in the passenger seat! All before I had even started the car.....we sat in the car laughing for a good 3 minutes before leaving and then laughed the entire way home. I laughed so hard my stomach is now sore, I needed that laugh and it's been a long time coming.
This is inside McDonald's. Notice anything different?
There were a few sinks throughout the restaurant to wash your hands at (great idea considering swine flu is spreading like crazy here!). The lady in the booth is studying! Each time I've been to McDonald's here, at least a few people are studying. I guess McDonald's here is like the Starbucks of the U.S.
Not sure if I mentioned this already, but my principal told us last week that he wants us to come in on Saturday's once a quarter to clean the school building. Men will clean the air conditioning vents and women will clean the windows. Tomorrow is our Saturday for the quarter so I'll be at school cleaning for a few hours. Luckily, there is a huge Orion beer fest this weekend, so I'll be heading to that tomorrow night to try and relax and have some fun. Pics and weekend update to come soon.

Wish me luck as I'm cleaning the school building tomorrow =)
My love and thoughts are with you all!

Okinawa World

Last weekend our knowledgeable tour guide, Rocky, (aka the Japanese teacher at school) took us to Okinawa world.

Entrance to Okinawa world

This is a shisa lion dog which is usually located at the front of a shop or building entrance. These statues are EVERYWHERE here. To the Japanese, they are guard dogs that protect and bring good luck. There are usually two shi shi statues together, a male and a female. The male has it's mouth open to bring good luck in while the female has her mouth closed to keep the good luck in. The male's open mouth is also supposed to scare evil away. This shisa is at the entrance of Okinawa world.

More shisas

Okinawa world is a touristy theme park based on Okinawan culture. I spent the day exploring the Gyokusendo cave, shopping in the glass shop, glass blowing my very own glass, seeing a snake exposition and watching a traditional Okinawan dance performance. The cave was our first stop. It's a 5-meter long limestone cave that was formed about 300,000 years ago. Inside the cave, the stalactites and stalagmites were dripping wet and the entire inside to of the cave was wet.

Inside the cave

This was an amazing sight!
Considering stalactites take 3 years to grow 1 mm, this one must be old!

The cave also contains Okianwan liquor called "habu sake" which is distilled in the cave. The liquor is made from habu snake and is fermented for 5 years!! Since the cave is cool and humid, it's the perfect environment for fermentation....who would have known the humidity would be so beneficial for something!! The snake is usually taken out before the bottles are sold.

Habu sake being fermented with habu snakes inside!!

After leaving the cave we entered a room filled with bottles of habu sake, with the snakes still inside them! Really gross but I bought some bottles of liquor to take home for all of you to try...bottles without the snakes inside that is!

More snakes...
Look at all the snakes in sake!!After leaving the cave and saki area, the first thing we saw before stepping outside was this HUGE spider! The picture doesn't do justice, it was even bigger than it looks, ugh!
Next, we looked inside the glass shop and I decided that since the designs were so amazing, I wanted to make some of my own. The shop had a list of things you could chose to make. You could also chose the color you wanted but if you picked red/orange it was more expensive. There were so many beautiful items in the store, I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make. I was finally able to decide on something and told myself I can always come back and make more at another time. I paid inside and then headed out to make my creation.

I chose to make some candle holders. It was very hot out and being by the fire made it even more hot. I felt bad for the poor guys helping me, they were sweating like crazy! Luckily, Rocky was filming and translating for me so I somewhat knew what I was doing.

Yum, glass sushi!

After glass blowing we ate lunch at an authentic Okinawan restaurant known for their award winning beer. It was light and delicious, very similar to a BJ's blonde. Oh, and I had Okinawan noodles for lunch which were delicious as well =)

Here are some Okinawan donuts. I was able to try some of these donuts in Little Tokyo (in downtown L.A.) before coming to Okinawa. I had a sample of these ones just to compare it to L.A's Okinawan donuts and the ones in Okinawa are much more fresh, other than that, not much of a difference. Walking around the park, viewing Okinawan culture

Sorry it's sideways. He is playing this on a broomstick, very cool!

Okay, kinda random but these dolls were in stores throughout the park! I thought they were hilarious and had to take a picture...I might actually buy one when I go back because they always make me laugh!!

Only in Japan (not exactly sure if there is a meaning to this shirt or not)

This is called "Dr Fish" and it's a tub filled with fish which you place you feet in. The fish are supposed to eat the dead skin cells off your feet! We passed by this one a few times and an American family was actually doing it one time. Definitely not something I could do considering I hate things touching my feet and don't even walk around the house barefoot (since we're supposed to take our shoes off inside, I bought a new pair of "indoor" sandals to wear in my apartment).

The last thing we did before leaving was go to a snake show. It was all in Japanese so I couldn't understand anything! However, they let everyone in the audience go on stage and take a picture with this snake. It was very hard for me to do this because I really dislike snakes. When the workers told us it was going on our necks, I got even more freaked out. Luckily, it was only on my bare neck for a seconds....but then the tail hit my arm a few times....YUCK! Can you tell I was a little scared?? Danielle didn't even know I was holding her hand until she saw this picture! haha. And it was touching me!
Jessica and I being shi-sas, I guess my mouth should have been opened to bring good luck in and scare evil away since I was the male.

It was a long, full day of fun. After leaving the park we ate at an all you can eat "grill it yourself" buffet. I was definitely tired and happy to sleep in on Sunday morning! Okinawa world is like Okinawa all wrapped up into one park, the perfect spot to take visitors, I can't wait to go back!

As Close To Home As It Gets

It was so nice to have Labor day off! With the day off, I applied for my alien card (yes, I know I'll hear the jokes about this one) and went grocery shopping (without the help of a Japanese person). Tomorrow is Wednesday already, this week is flying by! I will update about my weekend adventures soon but I wanted to share this story with you. I have shared it with a few of you already and thought I'd blog about it since it's had such an impact on me.

Last Sunday night, a teacher from school signed me onto Kadena Air Force Base to go to mass at Holy Family Catholic Church. Apparently there are no English speaking Catholic churches off base so this is my best option. I was looking forward to mass the whole week. When I arrived to church, I was comforted by the scenery and that fact that the church looked like our churches at home. During mass I kept thinking about how awesome it was that I was literally across the world, yet the mass was exactly the same. I enjoyed every moment of mass. It was about half the size of Sacred Heart, so it wasn't too small but not too big. Since it was on base, the congregation consisted mainly of American families, whom it was nice to be surrounded by.
At the end of mass, the priest asked if anyone was there for the first time and to stand up is so. I stood up and introduced myself, said I was from Southern California and am in Okinawa teaching off base. There was one other lady who was also new. After I introduced myself, an older man brought me a little goodie bag and welcomed me to Holy Family. After mass I signed up for an email list so the church will email me the weekly bulletin. I was able to talk to the priest and told him that I have to get signed in every week in order to attend mass. I let him know that I'm hoping to join some groups and meet other people so I can get signed in regularly to attend mass.

The priest told me that there is a position open for teaching bible to teenagers and if I willing to take the job, I would get my own card to get on base anytime. I told him that I'm already working full time but if it's in the evenings a few times a week I might be able to do it. He said he would type up the job description and send it out. I'm not sure it will work out, but at least I know he is trying to help me.

When I got home from church, I opened the goodie bag that was given to me. There were a few items in the bag consisting of a cloth rosary, a Kadena Air Base coaster, pen and a keepsake coin. One side of the coin said "One Prayer at a Time" and the other side said "God, Grant Me Serenity, Courage and Wisdom." I couldn't help but smile, knowing that this was truly a gift from God. "One day at a time" has been my motto this past month and here God was telling me "One prayer at a time."

I hope things work out with this church because I felt more at home there then I have this entire trip so far. It's weird that I was alone and across the world, yet felt so at home.

I just wanted to share this short update with you. I can feel the power of your prayers, thank you!

Randomness...

First random thing...Google maps showed me how to get from Okinawa to Los Angeles by doing the following:

Full-screen

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean Entering United States (Hawaii) for 6,243 miles!!!

(I would eventually proceed to take the 5 south to the 210). LOL, that made my day.

Okinawa Beach

I went to the "big" 100 yen store last week. 100 yen stores are very popular here and they are everywhere. There aren't any malls here, just big stores that have everything in them, kinda like Super Wal Marts with food, clothes, electronics, etc inside. The "big" 100 yen store is supposedly one of the biggest around here, it is huge with a great variety of items. It's a great place to buy cleaning and school supplies.

Japanese LOVE fake eyelashes!

It's been about a week since my last update and I have a lot to blog about! Everyone has been asking about how the rest of my school week went so I'll start there.

My first full week was very tiring but by the end of the week, I really felt like my students were getting into a good routine and that things were starting to settle down a bit. It's still very hot and HUMID and I still sweat while eating lunch without the AC on and during recess watching the kids play on the blacktop (they have no grass to play in, very sad!).
The burning question... YES, my "difficult" student came back to class! Tuesday he sat by the principal's office up until lunch time, then decided to come to class and just sit at his desk...not doing a thing. Wednesday he came to class the whole day but again, didn't do any work, just sat there. By Friday he was doing most of his work and even raising his hand to answer questions. He made the class put their heads down 3 times on Friday for speaking Japanese. He is coming around, slowly. I decided that I was being a little too strict with my students and that in order to keep sane I needed to ease up a bit. I am trying to be more open with my students and realize that they are 6, 7 and 8 year olds. I was able to have some fun with them on Friday and laugh a lot more. I am confident that I will be able to be myself and have fun with them as time goes on. I stayed at school until 5-6pm almost everyday last week. By the time I got home I would spend a few hours online (Skype, email, facebook), cook dinner, shower and it would be bed time already! The week flew by because of how busy I was. Once I get into the routine I don't think I'll have to stay at school as long to do my lesson plans.
Oh, I can't forget, I got my daily hug from my student that loves hugging me after school everyday. I'm going to try to get a picture of her hugging me...words can't describe her chubby little face as she wraps her arms around me and looks up at me with a grin so big her eyes are closed =)

Just some random notes of observation on daily life in Japan that I thought you'd be interested in:

I ate at Mc Donald's here for the first time, actually pretty good! Not as greasy but an interesting menu selection! I stuck with the big mac!!

Politics: Last week before the elections ended there were cars and vans driving around playing recorded speeches of people who were running for office. They had really loud speakers which you could clearly hear from any building you were inside of. Kinda weird.
I saw some silent protesters in front of one of the military bases. There were about 5 of them standing with signs in Japanese, protesting the American military presence here in Okinawa. I was told many of the protesters come from mainland Japan and are people that aren't actually Okinawa residents. Most Okinawan people seem to like the American military and even say that without American military their economy would crash. When you see how big the bases are and how little the island is, it makes you think that residents here would not like the bases. The bases are huge with big roads and lots of green, open fields. Everything on base makes you feel like you are in the United States, the food, people, culture, everything except the fact that you still drive on the left side of the road and your wheel is on the right. Today when I was on base I accidentally drove on the right side of the road for a second because it felt so much like home!

I live in Okinawa City, right next to Kadena Air Base.

Trash: trash is very much organized here. We have to get our trash bags from the store in back of our apartment complex. The trash bags are different depending on what type of trash goes into them. You separate trash depending on if it's burnable or recyclable, . We have a poster showing what types of trash go into the different trash bags, which all go out on different days of the week. So, you can't just throw your trash away, it takes some getting used to. I'm very impressed by students, even the young ones know how to separate their trash and throw it into the correct trash bins!

Poster above our trashcan

Cars: there are countless scooter's here. Most cars and scooters go through red lights and squeeze in between spaces you didn't think would be possible. Making a U-turn in our car feels like we are going to flip over. Our car is so small, it truly feels like we are driving a bumper car at times. I've seen a few nice cars but it's not the Japan car scene I expected, I think I'll see more of that in Tokyo.
I definitely did not leave being directionally challenged in the states (everyone calls the U.S.A. the states here). Jessica and I switch off driving to and from school but I always seem to take us on an adventure, luckily Jessica isn't directionally challenged like me so we always find our way.

Streets: The streets and buildings here look VERY similar to the streets and buildings in downtown L.A., minus the trash and homeless people. Although the buildings are very old and rugged, it's rare to see trash and I've only seen one homeless person.

Food: I quickly learned that a bento is a boxed lunch similar to a home-packed or take out meal. It usually contains rice and some sort of meat. Japanese parents pack way healthier lunches for their kids compared to American parents. My Japanese students bring bentos with rice, meat and veggies for lunch everyday, while my American students bring...you guessed it, sandwiches and chips!
Japanese rice is delicious! Waiters in restaurants bring us forks within the first few minutes of eating with chopsticks. I guess we are just that obvious. I have been eating all my rice and salads with chop sticks and am not having trouble with them at all. All that practice eating sushi over the last few years has paid off!
Taco rice is a popular dish here. They say it's "everything in a taco on top of rice." In reality, it's lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and meat on top of rice. It's very yummy and filling. Soba is another popular dish here which is delicious as well. Soba is Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour, served chilled with dipping sauce or in a hot broth as soup. I cooked rice in our rice cooker the whole week! It's a small rice cooker but it gets the job done. I ate rice at least once a day the whole week (the carbs helped me get through the day!). I usually just added sweet & sour sauce to the rice and ate it that way. One day I cooked broccoli to eat with it and another day I had chicken with it. I'm still eating Ritz crackers and Skippy peanut butter as my staple snack =)
I found 2 boxes of granola bars in my classroom last week. I asked my students if they knew who it belonged to and they all said no. I later found out the kindergarten teacher who lives on base bought them for me. She remembered that I asked where I could get some and then bought them for me on base. It was a thoughtful treat!
Yen: I got paid on Friday and it was weird getting paid in yen. I have the basic rule down though, you just move the decimal place over 2 to the left and you get what your yen is worth in dollars (ex: 1000 yen= $10.00). I had to wait a few hours after work to get my paycheck because the office lady was in a meeting and I guess didn't have our paychecks ready, I was able to finally get it though. I always pay with dollars on base or at other places that accept dollars. I haven't spent that much money. Most of my money is spent on food.

Rice and beer, yum! The green things on top are goya, a Japanese fruit which is a bitter melon. It is the most bitter thing I have EVER tasted..it's supposedly good for you. I could only eat one bite of the goya.

Gas: I got gas for the first time at a self serve station (which is rare here). I couldn't figure out the machine so I asked another lady and she just pointed in the direction inside the gas station. I went in and explained that it was my first time getting gas and asked how to do it. The Japanese attendant didn't speak English but came outside with me and pointed at all the buttons I needed to press. They only have diesel or regular so I just looked at what other cars were pumping to see what I needed. It worked out fine =)

American Village: The American Village is an outdoor and indoor shopping center with restaurants, shops and a feriss wheel which are all supposed to be American like. While eating dinner there last week, a little boy about 4 years old came up to my roommate, her friend and I and asked if he could take a picture with us. His mom had broken English but she did manage to say "he wants pictures with you individually." LOL, it was so cute, we each took a picture with the little boy. We saw him a few more times throughout the night and he looked so happy waving at us with a huge smile.

Jessica, her friend Danielle and I eating Soba at American Village. We had to pay at a machine in front of the store, then you sit and they serve you your order. We had yogurt at Yogurt Land after!

I braved the washing machine last week by pressing all the buttons until the water came on, haha. It seemed to work okay. Since I don't have a dryer, I left my clothes out hanging to dry overnight and had to run out there in the morning to take them down when it started raining!

View from my back balcony while it was raining, luckily I didn't have laundry out drying =)

Drums: The last few weeks there has been groups of people walking around playing drums together. The Japanese teacher at school told me that each city has their own group of people that will be competing in the Eisa festival, which is an Okinawan ceremonial dance using drums. Last week, a group came down the street right in from of my apartment, I was able to get a short video. You can't see anything but you can hear the drums, it was very cool! The actual competition is next weekend, I'm looking forward to going!

I'll update again soon, love to you all!!