Gymkhana Races & Family Fun Day

Last Sunday my friend Charles (who I met through Rocky) invited me to a racing event called Gymkhana. Gymhana is similar to an autocross event in the states. He warned me that it was a long drive and an all day event. I told him I didn't mind (I didn't want to sit home alone all day on Valentine's day) plus it sounded similar to drag races at Irwindale speedway which I always enjoy going to. Charles told me to pack snacks, water and bring sunscreen. I filled up my backpack, Charles picked me up and we headed up north to Nago. Charles picked up another friend on the way and we hit some bad traffic, two hours later we arrived to the race track.

It wasn't exactly a race track but a huge empty lot. The drifting event was still going on when we arrived so I got some cool videos!

The weather was cold and it drizzled for a while. Luckily, Charles brought towels which I covered up with. I didn't know what to expect from the races and didn't realize until I got there that Charles was racing his car. I basically sat and watched all the events for five hours. I had my Ipod and I was staying warm so I was content.

There were about 20 cars racing in the event Charles was in.

Here is Charles in his Subaru.

Each car had a number assigned to it. The cars went on the track in numerical order, when one car was half way around the track, the next car would start. The point was to see which car could get around the entire track in the shortest time. They had about 4 hours to take turns going around the same track. Whoever had the best time, at any point in the 4 hours, would be the winner.

This is where the cars would park in between runs (right next to where I was sitting).

This entire car had stickers of cartoon characters on it! The driver of the car was even wearing a cartoon character shirt!

I got this video of fire coming out of this car!

Here is Charles in his car, ready to race.

Charles told me that this group of racers get together once every other month. The track changes every time. Here is a picture of the track on the day I went. Notice the heart shape for Valentine's day =)

The black dots are where cones are set up, the cars have to go around them.

Charles going around some cones. If you hit one they add five seconds to your time.

I rode in the car with Charles on his last run. It was SO much fun! I started laughing when we took off because it felt like I was on a roller coaster! I didn't want to distract the driver though so I tried to stay quiet. I guess I was good luck because it was his quickest run of the day!

Here is the video I took from inside the car.

Charles ended up coming in 5th place, not bad. After the race, a few of the cars did a mini-drag race (just for fun). Since Charles has a car that is all wheel drive so he smoked the other cars!

Overall, it was a fun day. I was glad I was able to experience the Japanese car scene. I got home at about 8pm that evening, bought some Yoshinoya for my Valentine's dinner. It was not very good at all! It was the first time I had it while in Japan, so it's a good memory to have.

I had this past Monday off for President's day. I Skyped some people, bought some fresh veggies and fruit at the fruit stand, went to the beach and ate Yogurtland while reading a book. It was a relaxing, much needed day off (but still cold out!).

This week, one of my students turned this in with her President's day homework packet. I get what she did but most of her answers were still wrong!

This past Friday, we had family fun day. We didn't have go to school that day. Instead, the entire school (grades pre-k thru 12) went to a nearby park where we played games. Teachers arrived to the park at 9 am (we got there at 9:15 after getting a little lost) and students came to the park with their parents at 10 am. It was a HUGE park that had beautiful bridges, fountains, running paths and flowers. Our school had reserved an inclosed dome at the park.

Thankfully, parents were responsible for their child so I didn't have to worry about watching my students all day. The teams each had a mixture of grade levels. Each classroom had to pick two games and teams would rotate through.

Here is the high school teacher who was running the event and my principal.

My student Yuto looked as adorable as always.

A group of my students, ready to play!

The first game Sarah and I planned consisted of teams holding hands while putting a hula hoop under their legs and over their heads. They couldn't let go of each other's hands while passing the hula hoop. It wasn't the best game but it was fun.

Another teacher had these cool baskets for her game.

A couple of my students attempting to pass the hula hoop.

For our second game, students had to put a stuffed animal between their legs, run to the hula hoop, drop the stuffed animal in the hula hoop, pick the stuffed animal up and run it back to their team. This game was very cute to watch and the students enjoyed it.

Family Fun day ended by 1:30 so we were able to leave work early. It was nice to see my students out of their uniform and in regular clothes. The day went well and everyone seemed to have a good time. We won't have another day off until spring break in April which seems so far away right now!

I had an uneventful weekend. Rocky and I went to dinner at Mike's Tex Mex Friday night. I was craving chips and salsa and satisfied my craving. Saturday, Rocky drove me around to a few Karate dojos to try and find a karate class. All the dojo's were closed and are only open during weekdays so I'll have to try again. Karate was founded in Okinawa so I'd like to take at least few classes while I'm here =) Rocky also took me to a stand that sells tomatoes on the side of the road. I bought a bag of seven, beefsteak tomatoes for only 500 yen (about $5.00). They are absolutely delicious, I've been eating them like apples!

I was able to get a Little Black Book at church on Sunday, so I can read scripture and reflections from now until Easter. I'm going through a children's Bible with one of my reading groups at school and it's neat to see that the stories I'm reading with them are the same stories that are being read in mass on Sundays right now. Cool correlation.

The week before last, I started tutoring on Monday afternoons.. A girl in fourth grade came to our school after Christmas and is way behind in her school work. The fourth grade teacher tutors her a few days a week but the parents wanted her tutored everyday, so the principal asked me if I could tutor her for an hour on Mondays. The fourth grade teacher talked to me and said the student would just bring in her work that needs to be completed. Last week, the girl only had one worksheet to do and then read to me for the remaining 45 minutes. She read very well and didn't really need much help. I told her teacher the book was too low and she needed a higher book. So, this week, she had a harder book but still didn't need too much assistance. I feel bad that the parents are paying me and I'm not doing much.

I'm thankful this is the last week of February. It has still been raining off and on and if it's not raining, it's very cold outside! I'm ready for the weather to heat up so I can get out and explore.

Paul John arrives one week from Wednesday so that is something to look forward to! Not much else going on over the next few weeks. I'll keep you updated when something exciting happens =) By the way, it just started POURING outside, ugh. Rain rain go away!

XOXO

Kristen

Valentine's Party & Dragon Baseball

The rest of the week went well. My cold got better after lots of soup, Gatorade and orange juice. Tuesday evening is my regular running night but I thought I'd just walk since I was not feeling 100% yet. When I got to the beach it was very windy, more than I have ever seen in Okinawa. It was foggy, the sand was blowing in the air and there were actually waves in the ocean (a very rare sight). It was beautiful. I started walking and realized I couldn't just walk, I began running. I usually step up on a little two foot, concrete wall to run. The wall separates the sand from the running path along the beach and is only about two feet wide. I like jumping up and down on the wall while I'm running, keeps me from getting bored and gives me more of a workout. I must have underestimated the wind, right when I got one foot up on the wall, my other foot slipped and I fell! The wind literally knocked me down. I saw that my hand was bleeding and could see blood on knee, through my pants. I didn't look back or stop, I just keep running (off the wall). I completed my run and then stopped to cool down and inspect the damage, not bad but there were definitely some cuts that needed to be cleaned. I watched the sunset and headed home. My cuts are now scabbing but a bruise came up around my knee. I just hope for no scars. Maybe now I'll stay off the wall for a while =)

It was a busy rest of the week in class. We celebrated Valentine's day on Friday with fun activities and a party. My students were supposed to have P.E. first thing in the morning but the P.E. teacher was absent. My students got exited when I told them I would lead them in P.E. It was very cold out so we did some exercises and played games inside.

Our school had a "Bento Contest" to celebrate Valentine's day. The principal sent letters home informing parents that one student from each grade would win a prize for having the most creative bento. My students didn't seem excited about this until Friday morning when they brought their bentos in. They were VERY detailed!

Heart shaped sandwiches in a heart box.

The Mickey face and ears are rice balls (called onigiri in Okinawa) which is rice in the shape of a ball, wrapped in seaweed. Sometimes, there is salmon or other fish pieces in the middle of the rice ball. This was the 2nd grade winning bento!

My personal favorite, rice balls with seaweed decorated like a baseball and soccer ball. So cute!

Pink, heart shaped rice. I'm not sure what the little ghost things are made of.

Guess who brought heart shaped pizzas.....my American student! With chocolate covered strawberries and grapes =)

Heart shaped egg and meat with flower shaped carrots.

I'm not exactly sure what this is but it looks cute.

It's a little blurry but if you look closely at the hot dog, there are Hello Kitty stamps on it!

I made heart shaped Jello for my students =)

This student came up to my desk, slipped me a note and ran away.

The note said "Thank you for awas (always) thech (teach) and thank you four awas (always) reed (read) the Bible." It was SO incredibly cute, I had to get a picture of him with it! I now have the letter in my room as a reminder to smile =)

My students did Chapel Friday morning and read a little skit about how God made us unique and for a specific purpose. I really stressed that we each need to use the gifts and talents God has given us to inspire and help others. Funny thing is that in Church on Sunday the homily was about the same thing! God is trying to tell me something =)

After P.E. and Chapel, we played a math game in which each table received a group of candy hearts. Each table then answered groups of questions such as "How many ways can you group these hearts?" and "How many hearts will it take to be the length of one ruler?"

It was a fun game, of course my students favorite part was that they got to eat the hearts after!

Second grade was in charge of sorting and delivering Valentine cards from the school mailbox to different classrooms. After we finished that, we had our own party. Each student brought in not only cards but lots of candy! I gave each student 2 gallon size ziplock bags to keep there candy in and that was still not enough!

Here they are with their bags overflowing with chocolates and candy. We only had 30 minutes left in the school day but I allowed them to each pick out ONE piece of candy and eat it.

I came home with a large paper bag full of gifts. Gourmet Japanese chocolates, donuts, lotions, soaps, cards, etc. I'm not a chocolate fan and I try not to eat sweets so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this...I guess one piece every once in a while won't be too bad, right?

This little note from one of my students made me smile, I have it posted up in my room now =)

Saturday, I went to Chatan Stadium to watch a spring training baseball game. The teams were the Dragons and Lions, both are from mainland, Okinawa does not have a team. The game was at 1 pm but I got there at noon, just to make sure I got a seat.

Here is the outside of the stadium.

The only food there was this lunch truck outside the stadium. They sold hot dogs and rice balls, nothing looked appealing.

I wasn't sure which team to root for but the signs around the stadium all promote the Dragons.

Here are the Dragons warming up on a field next to the stadium. There were a good amount of people taking pictures. It was funny to see the players practicing on an open field with no security around.

View of the players warming up from the stadium.

I was surprised to find the stadium fairly empty with only 40 minutes before game time. More people did show up but it was still only about 50% full.

The windmill in the back is along the path where I go running.

The Lions warming up on the field.

The Dragons with their mascot (not sure what it is exactly).

The only non Japanese player came in as a relief pitcher.

I guess it's universal, kids still love watching baseball from the fence (and putting their fingers in it!).

It looked funny to see 122 written on the centerfield wall, 122 feet is nothing....except it's not measured in feet here, it's measured in meters which makes much more sense.

I loved how the umpire would yell "Out!" and "Strike!" in Japanese. Even though it's a different language, you still knew what he was saying!

The biggest difference in the game was that there were no food vendors walking around, yelling and selling items. Also, the crowd was very quiet! They clapped a few times but were not loud at all. Something I thought was really funny, people would move away from foul balls instead of trying to catch them! You just don't see that in America. It was a fun game, I'm planning on going back next Saturday. Apparently it's a more important game because this time you have to buy tickets.

It was a good game.

The Lions were leading 1-0 until the 8th inning. Dragons ended up winning 2-1. I recorded the big play of the game:

Today is Tuesday and I am back at work after a long, 3 day weekend. On Sunday, I went to some Okinawan drag races. I have a few really good videos to post from the races (in another post). It will be a short week because we don't have school on Friday either. It's family fun day so the entire school goes to the park with their parents to play games. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, hopefully I get on base for mass. Hope you all enjoyed Valentine's day, I was thinking of you =)

XOXO

Kristen

Day 100 & Cherry Blossoms

Today was our 100th day of school! We celebrated by reading a 100 day book, doing 100 different exercises, writing about how to spend $100, making jello with 100 gummy bears swimming inside of the bowl, creating a trail mix of 100 different snacks and adding up dice to see who could get to 100 first. Overall, it was a fun day! I love being a teacher on days like today when the students are excited to learn =)


On saturday, I went with Jessica and a few of her church friends up north to Nago to see the cherry blossoms. Saturday was the closing ceremony for the cherry blossom festival, so even though it was raining, I didn't want to miss my last chance to see the blossoms. The cherry blossom "season" and festivals are only three weeks long. There are various cherry blossom festivals up north, all of which had their closing ceremonies on Saturday. I have been seeing cherry blossoms all around the island, some in the streets in front of my apartment and some along the beach where I go running. The cherry blossoms in Okinawa are all pink, I have not seen any white ones.
The area we went to was different then where I had been a few weeks ago. This festival had food and shops but no games or playground area for kids. Most of the trees were bloomed and looked gorgeous! A lot different than the first time I went to see them. There weren't as many trees as I had imagined but it was still a sight worth seeing. We when first arrived, we went inside a building to watch a traditional Japanese singing and dance show. We then paid to walk through the Nakijin-Jo castle ruins where the cherry blossoms were located. Luckil,y the rain lightened up while we were watching the show, I didn't have an umbrella and had to use my jacket hood as protection. The castle ruins area was small but had a great view of the ocean. After strolling around and taking a few pictures, we went into the castle ruins museum. Everything was in Japanese so it was a bit frustrating not being able to read anything. There was some neat photos of Okinawa in the 50's and 60's along with Okinawan tools and artifacts. It was a fun day, I'm glad I was able to see the cherry blossoms on more than one occasion.







Sunday it rained all day, as soon as it stopped, I went out running in the cold. Probably not a good idea because now I am blowing my nose and sneezing every few minutes. Tonight I bought some soup and orange juice and have been drinking lots of gatorade. Hopefully I will get better within the next few days, before my long weekend begins!

Monday at 7 am was the super bowl for us here, the radio kept making announcements "Super Bowl Party, Monday at 7 am." HAHA, military stationed here actually had the day off for the super bowl!
The weather was in the 70's today and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 80's! I hope the cold weather is gone for good. We will be celebrating Valentine's day on Friday, more pictures to come =)
If I don't get to talk to you, happy Valentine's day to you all. My life is blessed by your love =)

XOXO
Kristen

P.S. I couldn't even finish this blog before it started raining outside, thunder, lightening and all! So much for being hopeful about the nice weather tomorrow.