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