The 3rd Quarter Begins

I know this is kind of off subject but here is a picture I took of Mt. Fuji on the plane ride from Okinawa to Tokyo, when I was going home for Christmas. I was very impressed with the view.

Exciting news of the week: I completed my 2nd quarter of teaching and am now into the 3rd quarter! Friday was a half day so teachers could stay and work on their report cards. Since I use an electronic grading book online, I had all my grades ready, I just had to enter them and add my comments (which took no time at all). The grades of my students went down slightly the 2nd quarter but nothing extreme. My student who had a few F's in the 1st quarter was able to bring her grades up a bit. She had no F's this time and only one D. Overall, the language/phonics grades were still the lowest. We continue to work on that everyday. I feel like we still have so much to work on with only 4 months left in the school year. It feels unreal that we are in the 3rd quarter already!

On half days, the staff usually has a potluck. I love the potlucks because I get to sample various Japanese dishes. Although I tried to fill up on salad and veggies, I sampled Japanese apple pie (a little sweeter than America's version), a Korean egg dish (spicy) and Filipino meat sticks, which were my favorite! During lunch, I was able to talk to a few of my coworkers that I don't get to see very often. It was nice visiting with them and getting a different perspective about Okinawan living.

Friday night I joined a rosary group at church. It was a small group of 4 but they were all very friendly and welcoming. I enjoyed praying with them, if I could just get on base more easily, I could join them more often. They all offered to buy me food at the commissary if I'm ever craving something special.

After church, I went to Kathi's for dinner (American military family from San Diego that Jessica's friend was a nanny for). Kathi baked homemade veggie lasagna and peanut butter cupcakes. I very much appreciate any food cooked in an oven, so it was a nice treat.

Saturday, I went running at the beach. I'm so happy to have gotten back into my regular workout routine. There is a baseball field in the area where I run and I had been seeing signs for Japan's professional baseball team posted at the stadium. After running, I stopped by the stadium, eventually found a person who spoke English and found out that Japan's professional baseball teams are playing their spring training games there. The teams are from mainland Japan, Okinawa does not have a professional team. I had been asking local Okinawan people about professional sports and where I could watch a game and none of them knew or seemed interested in knowing. I was very excited to find the information about the games (and I did it all on my own, without tips from the locals)! I will be going to two games next weekend and one game the following weekend =)

More news that made me smile: On Saturday, I found a fresh vegetable and fruit shop! It's a little shop that sells veggies and fruit for a fairly cheap price (even cheaper than on base). One of the things I've been missing in Okinawa is fresh veggies and fruit, so I was thrilled about finding this shop. It's only about 10 minutes from my apartment and has a great selection. I bought bananas, oranges, potatoes, fresh spinach, tomatoes, red onions, mushrooms, eggs and green peppers. I've been cooking veggies with every meal this week, a few times I just had a big plate of veggies for dinner. I'm planing on going back to the shop every weekend to stock up for the week.

I babysat for Lori Saturday night. Lori dropped the girls (Izzy is 5 and Carolyn is 8 and in my class) off at my apartment at 4 pm. I called Lindsay and we video chatted. She was able to talk/see Izzy and Carolyn which they thought was very cool.

I took the girls to American Village. I planned on meeting Kathi there for dinner but we couldn't find her, we ended up eating sushi at a sushi go-round and playing games at an arcade. Kathi later showed up at the arcade with her kids, come to find out she was at a different sushi restaurant. I took the girls to YogurtLand and dropped them off at home later that night. It was a fun night out.

The girls in front of the American Village sign

They even found a ride on the roof of the arcade!

American Village is known for it's ferris wheel. I haven't been on it yet.

On Sunday I took a book to the beach and read for a few hours. It was a beautiful day but started to sprinkle a bit. I finished reading in the car before going to church. I signed up for Holy Adoration from 10-11 pm this Friday night, I've never done it before so I'm anxious to see how it goes.

This week, it has been raining off and on and been cold (in the 40's and 50's). My class has been a little better as far as behavior this week. Of course now I'm making them sit out during recess if they move their clip too much. This week, I've been planning activities for the 100th day of school. Day 100 will be on Tuesday February 9th. Since the first day of school, we have been counting up to the 100th day. I've made it a really big deal so my students are excited. I found some fun activities and am anxious to see how they turn out. Three more days and we will be at day 100, wow!

Today it rained all day so I couldn't go on my run. I'll have to make up for it this weekend. Saturday I'm going back to see the cherry blossoms, hopefully they are fully bloomed! Happy February =)

XOXO

Kristen