Getting into a Routine

I always have to include my favorite sunset pictures of the week!

My current thrilling news: My friend Rachel arrives to Okinawa Tuesday evening (tomorrow!) and will be staying with me for a month! The day seemed SO far away when I first arrived here! I'm looking forward to spending time with someone from home and getting to show off this beautiful island. This weekend, I cleared out some closet space and washed a set of sheets and towels to prepare for her arrival. She will be sleeping on an air mattress that Lori lent me. My bed is continuing to hurt my back so I may end up on the air mattress with her!

Things have finally started to slow down this past week and I feel that I am getting into more of a regular routine. I'm at school from 7:45am-3:30pm, Monday-Friday, get home around 4pm, browse the internet for a few hours (skype, facebook, email, blog), make dinner/lunch, shower. maybe watch a dvd and it's already time for bed. Unfortunately, the one American channel we are supposed to get on our TV does not work, so I have to keep up with news by reading on the internet. We do get one American radio station which plays Fox News, broadcasted from Kadena Air Base. I'm very excited about the fact that they play Dr. Laura when I'm driving home from work everyday!
We go grocery shopping once every two weeks and rarely spend money during the week, except on gas which we get about once a week. I've been able to save enough money to pay for my Thanksgiving Tokyo trip already. This week, I was able to go to the beach twice after school to lay out and watch the sunset.

There is a mall with delicious pastries, across the street from the beach. I went to the mall, stocked up on pastries (the chocolate filled croissants are the best, and I'm not even a chocolate lover!) and bought some sushi. I have never done this before, but I ate the sushi on the beach! It was delicious and cheap which made it even better.

Kinda random: You can't really tell from the picture but the apples here are the size of grapefruits!
We have open house at school Tuesday (tomorrow) night from 7-8:15pm. We received no guidelines about what is required, so I will just display student work and handout our grading scale/specialty schedule. So far, all of the parents of my students are very friendly. I have had to talk to a few parents about student behavior issues (just minor things) and they have been very cooperative.

I have a meeting with the mom of my "difficult" student tomorrow. Today, I brought him to the side table to help him with his work and he just started crying. I told him he wasn't in trouble, I was just going to help him and he sat there for 45 minutes not doing a thing. He is failing everything but math. I found out that his mom is Russian and his dad is Japanese. His mom does not seem to understand any English and never looks at me, even in the direction of my face when I try to talk to her. A translator will be there for tomorrow meeting, thank goodness. Hope it goes well, I really want to help this child.
Things at school are going better. My students did significantly better on their second phonics test. I did grade it easier and really drilled them on the test material. I'm really focusing on their oral language skills by having them repeat and spell lists of words with me everyday. It's still challenging, but I'm realizing I can only teach one thing at a time. There is no way I can teach everything in the curriculum, especially with English Learners. A little stress has been relieved, realizing that it's okay if I don't get to EVERYTHING. It's better that my students thoroughly learn the basics before moving on. So far, I am still in my classroom and have not heard anything more about being moved to pre-k. At this point, I like where I'm at but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I got moved.

In math, I'm teaching my second graders about American money. I have a bulletin board set up with dollars and coins, their values and their names. We go over the bulletin board and sing a money song during calendar time after each morning. My second graders were asking a lot of questions about dollars, they wanted to know whose picture was on it, why his hair looked funny and what things on the dollar meant. I asked them if they've ever held American money and they all said no. Luckily, I still have dollars in my wallet, so I brought a few dollars out and passed them around.

It was an awesome teacher moment, seeing my students stare at the dollar bill in awe and pass it around with caution. One student even said "I'm too scared to hold it!"
Here they are holding a one dollar bill =)

A typhoon is supposed to be coming our way this week! The buildings here are made to withstand typhoons and most of the typhoons that hit Okinawa are very minor. I'm hoping one hits us so I can experience it =) The weather has been very humid still during the day but has cooled off significantly in the evenings. Today it was raining off and and all day. When I walked into my classroom this morning all the desks and papers were literally wet from the humidity. I had my sheets up drying on the clothesline yesterday and had to run outside to take them down when it started raining. Luckily they were dry enough to finish drying inside.

Car Update: I realized I never gave an update on our car that broke down a few weeks ago. We have Guppy back and it seems to be running fine. Apparently, a belt had broke causing the breakdown. They replaced the belt and now the car is running fine. I'm pretty much used to driving on the left side of the road now, every once in a while I'll drive on the wrong side of the road for a second before catching myself.

Here is the picture of us in front of Guppy, while we were waiting to get picked up after our car broke down. There of course was a vending machine within 20 yards, so we enjoyed juice and coffee while we laughed about this adventure:

I finally got a pedicure this past week, my first since being here! Pedicures are one of the things I keep up with regularly so I'm so happy I was able to get one. Japanese nail designs are very extravagant and detailed. Because of this, it costs $50 for a pedicure! The mom of one of my students owns a nail salon that only charges $35 for a pedicure so I went to her salon.

It was an adventure to get there, but after 2 hours, we finally found it! It was a cozy, clean shop with comfortable reclining chairs and a big screen TV, which they played American movies on. They gave us American magazines and served us iced tea and cookies. Excellent service!
My students aunt did my pedicure and told me that my student was sleeping in the car the whole time! When I was getting ready to leave, she had just woken up and came inside. I thought it was really weird....in the United States, parents would be get arrested for letting their kid sleep in the car for hours a time!
I caught up on my celebrity news in magazines while sipping tea and watching a movie. They worked on our feet for 2 full hours! It was so relaxing, it didn't feel that long at all. I chose a very simple nail design but I think next time I will brave a more detailed design. They took a picture of my toes after they were done and put it on their website. Since you do not tip here, the price of the pedicure was really not that much more than in the states. I will go back here every month. I enjoyed the American movies, magazines and tea as much as the pedicure!

Here is the picture of my finished toes from the salon's website:

Check out their website:
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sweetnails2008
You will see how detailed their designs are and that my design really is a simple one!

I went to "Obligatos" a Mexican restaurant Friday night. It was okay, not as good as Mexican food in SoCal but the margarita helped make it a little better =) I was excited to find out that they sell large, homemade tortillas in the restaurant. I will be going back to buy packs of tortillas (check that off my list of things I miss!).
On Saturday night, we attempted to find a cafe that I looked up that serves gormet pancakes. We couldn't find the cafe and ended up at "Mike's Tex-Mex" which we heard was better than "Obligatos." So, we ate there and it was delicious! There is no tax on food here and since you don't tip, eating out isn't really expensive at all.

Saturday night, I went to the pajama party on the Marine base. We didn't get there until 10:30pm and the visitor pass we got said we could only stay on base until midnight. My friend asked about it and they told him that was the latest we could stay. I guess they had changed this rule before and he was not aware they just changed it back. Needless to say, we went to the party for an hour and it was quite entertaining people watching.

Here I am getting a dance lesson at the pajama party, as Jessica snapped pictures of me so she could get out of having to dance! =)

Jessica and I at the pajama party

I once again enjoyed mass last night. At church, I found out about a women's group that meets twice a month. They meet for a few hours on Monday nights for bible study and dessert. I hope to go sometime and hopefully meet more people that can sign me on base. At one point in mass, I was thinking about being so far away from home and imagining all the military people that are alone here. It made me realize how thankful I am for being taught about and exposed to religion. My dad never let us miss church, he made sure we knew going to mass was a priority and nothing came before that, I am so thankful for learning that lesson. I don't know what I would do here if I didn't have my faith, it's an amazing thing.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, in the morning we have class pictures, in the evening we have open house and I'm leaving straight from open house to pick up Rachel at 9pm!

Happy fall (I hear it's finally fall in SoCal =)

XOXO,

Kristen

Exploring Nature in Okinawa

Last Saturday, Rocky (Japanese teacher), Lori (kinder teacher), her two daughters, Izzy and Carolyn (Carolyn is in my class), Dennis (a 3rd grade student from our school who Lori was babysitting), Michael/Sara (the couple from Georgia), Jessica and I went to Taa-Taki waterfall. It's about an hour and a half drive up north from my apartment (I live in Chatan Town). It was a beautiful morning and I was excited to get some exercise in.

Here we are starting the hike

We trekked through the water most of the hike, it didn't get more than a few feet deep. Luckily, Lori lent me a pair of water shoes.

Perfect picture spot! You can barely see the water but it's there.

Izzy, Dennis and I leading the way

After an easy 20 minutes of hiking, we arrived to the waterfall...BEAUTIFUL!

I was the first to brave climbing under the waterfall....liberating!
Sitting under the falls. The water was cool but felt perfect!The area in front of the falls was deep enough to swim in.

Jessica, Dennis and I....he looks a little cold!Roommate pictureI wish I was wearing my swimsuit instead of my hiking gear!

I can't get enough of the sky here! View of the sky, from the waterfall area.We ate a picnic lunch, swam under the falls and laid out to dry off our clothes. It wasn't really a hike, hike, more like a nature walk. It was beautiful nonetheless and I can't wait to go back before the weather cools down.

After the falls, we quickly showered and headed to Camp Foster, where Lori signed us in to go bowling. I got a 103, woohoo. Sad that it was the highest score of the night. haha.
Jessica and I putting on our game faces.

Friday night, Rocky took us to a free, salsa dancing lesson, at camp Foster. I told him I liked salsa dancing and found out that he is a salsa instructor! One of the best on the island at that! I was a little nervous about the lesson, unsure of the style of salsa in Okinawa. Since the lesson was on base, it was mostly Americans with an American instructor. The style of salsa the instructor taught, is very similar to the style I learned in the states. The men rotated around the room so we got a chance to dance with a variety of people during the lesson. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a nice little workout and the people were all so friendly. I will definitely be going back, being there made it more evident that I have a lot of practice to do!

Sorry if you got your hopes up for the salsa video I promised in my last blog...I didn't like the video so I decided not to post it. I will post a video when/if my moves improve =)

Looking forward to October 1st tomorrow =)

XOXO

Kristen

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!