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

The Completion of Anita's Visit

I don't have any interesting stories to begin this blog with, so I'll get right to the last few days I explored Okinawa with Anita.

Since the Monday we got back to Okinawa was a holiday, we went out salsa dancing again on Sunday night. When Monday's are a holiday, there are usually big salsa dancing parties on Sunday nights. Rocky and Charles took us back to Naha to try a different salsa club. I finally found out where all the military people hang out! It was a fun night. It was nice to practice salsa with Rocky and Charles, good practice.

We left the salsa club around 1 am and went to a pool hall in Naha to get some food. Mmmm, nothing like Japanese pool hall food, haha, NOT! Charles and I played a game of ping pong .We didn't stay out until 7 am this time, we got home and in bed by 4 am.

We slept in on Monday and decided to do some sightseeing. There are thousands of castle ruins in Okinawa and I'm still not sure which ones are the "best" to see. I found a sight with castle ruins in my guidebook, so I thought it was worth a try. At one point, we had to stop and ask a lady on the street which way to go. Luckily, we were not too far off track. The only information in English that I found about the castle is that it was constructed in the 15th century.

It smelled like camping which made me very happy.

A few minutes after arriving to the park, it got very cloudy and overcast, made for a great picture!

Nice view from the top!

We asked a couple walking by to take a picture of us...we weren't quite ready but good candid shot.

There were benches placed throughout the park, quiet and relaxing spots to rest.

After the castle ruins, we ate at an all you can eat pizza buffet. The pizza here is a lot different, super thin crust, not a lot of sauce and almost always has corn as a topping! I mostly stuck with the salad.

That Tuesday I went back to work. It was nice to see the students but they are so shy, only a couple of them ran up to give me hugs. The others smiled and started at me, waiting for me to hug them. As the week went on, the students had a harder and harder time following directions and staying on task. By Friday I was getting really annoyed.

Tuesday night I took Anita to sushi in American Village and Thursday night we went to karaoke with Rocky, Jessica and the kindergarten aide. We paid 300 yen each to sing in a private room for one hour. Anita and I had fun attempting to sing but I'm not sure if the rest of them had fun listening to us =) Karaoke is huge in Okinawa so it nice try it out.

Friday night, I took Anita to my favorite restaurant in Okinawa, Capital Steakhouse. It's within walking distance of my apartment and has the best food I've had here so far. A chef cooks your order on a grill in front of you. I've always had the shrimp dinner. All meals come with grilled veggies, soup, salad, rice, tea/coffee.

After dinner, Anita agreed that Capital is the best place to eat in Okinawa.

Anita and I explored the area around my apartment later that night. Our friend picked us up and drove us to the beach area 2 miles from my apartment. We hung out at a few bars, one karaoke bar and one martini bar. I had no ideas these bars existed, I'm glad I found them. Good spots for future visitors! One interesting thing that happened while we were out; military commanders, sergeants or some high up rank (they had fancy, pointy hats and were in uniform) would come into the bars, walk around a few minutes and leave. Someone in the bar told us that they are high ranking (something or others) who browse around the bars on weekends, making sure the military people that are out, are allowed to be out. I guess depending on your status/rank, you cannot be out past a certain time or be certain places. Interesting.

Sampling some authentic Japanese sake, the worker at the store told me this sake was good and that Americans loved it. It wasn't as good as I expected but decent enough.

We entertained ourselves with bubbles in the karaoke bar.

The next day (Saturday), we drove up to Nago to see the cherry blossoms. I invited Rocky and he came along for the ride and helped navigate. I wanted to eat at a restaurant called Pizza in the Sky. I was told it's a restaurant with a great view, that serves pizza. What more could you ask for? We decided to eat first, then see the cherry blossoms. Luckily, Rocky had been to the restaurant before, I would have NEVER found it. We went up windy, narrow dirt roads. It felt like we were in a scary movie at some points. After a few wrong turns, we finally found Pizza in the Sky, only to discover that they didn't open for another 45 minutes. We saw a little house turned coffee shop next to the restaurant and decided to get some tea while waiting. Anita and I shared a tea and Okinawan fruit drink. Rocky said the fruit drink is very healthy and is loaded with vitamin C.

Here's Anita getting her daily dose of vitamins.

We shared tea and the fruit drink, both were delicious.

The owners gave us this Okinawan appetizer. It's leaf's that are filled with a sweet, sticky potatoes. Good to try but I wasn't a big fan. You eat it by unwrapping the leaf and biting the potato part on the inside.

Rocky and Anita enjoying drinks while waiting for Pizza in the Sky to open.

View outside the coffee shop.

We walked over to Pizza in the Sky about 15 minutes after they opened and were told that it was full, so we'd have to wait a few minutes. UGH! We chose to avoid the wait by sitting outside to eat. It was surprisingly a small building but was very crowded

The famous view from the restaurant, I guess the drive and wait were worth it =)

This is the menu, a fan! Japanese on one side and English on the other. We each ordered a personal sized pizza. Each pizza came with corn, pepperoni, sausage and green peppers.

Rocky eating his pizza with chop sticks! *He didn't didn't eat the whole pizza with them. The pizza was good, the view topped it off. We left satisfied.

After eating, we drove up a rode lined with cherry blossom trees. This was the first official weekend of the cherry blossom festival and there were only a few tress that were fully bloomed.

The festival had lots of games, food and activities for kids.

We got a few good pictures.

The kids walking around were so cute and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

A worker tried to talk us into buying these huge cotton candies, no thank you! Anita told him that she would get way too hyper.

Mochi dipped in powdered sugar and filled with fruit, yum!

Okinawan donuts and pancakes filled with red beans. They looked just like the ones I had with my family in Little Tokyo.

Anita decided to go down the slide with the rest of the kids =)

After exploring the festival, we rested at home for a bit then went out to dinner. The parents of a student at my school run a restaurant out of their house. The mom grew up in Tokyo and doesn't like Okinwan food, so she cooks authenitic "Japanese" food. She opened up her restaurant to the teachers and a few parents from school. I was surprised to find that all the parents at the dinner were parents of my students!

Here are the kids playing outside before dinner. Five of them are my students, they were surprised but excited to see me. They looked adorable out of their uniform and in "regular" clothes.

This dish is teppanyaki. Teppanyaki refers to dishes cooked using an iron plate. This particular dish had cabbage, squid, soy sauce and a few other unknown items in it =) You eat it in small portions so it stays warm. The taste wasn't bad.

We also sampled yaki soba (fried noodles) and onigiri rice balls (rice in the shape of a ball, mixed with meat or veggies, this one was mixed with pieces of carrot). The noodles were my favorite, very light but bursting with flavor! We also had pickled ginger.

One of the moms gave us the same sweet potato dish that we had tried earlier in the day. I think this one is filled with yams.

It was fun getting to interact with some of my students and their parents on a more personal level. The parents were all so friendly and drinking, A LOT! Maybe thats why there were being so friendly =)

I drove Anita to the airport the next morning. We were both sad to say our goodbyes but know that we will see each other again soon. We created memories that will last a lifetime and I'm so thankful for her friendship.

XOXO

Kristen

Anita's First Weekend in Okinawa

Before I get to the details of my fun times with Anita;

I "officially" became a teacher today......one of my students threw up in my lap this afternoon!!!!! YUCK YUCK YUCK!

With 30 minutes left in the school day, I had my reading group go back to their seats because one girl started crying while she was reading. I had to ask her to focus a few times while reading, so I thought she was just upset about getting in trouble, which is very typical for this student. When she started crying I had her come next to me, put my arm around her and asked what was wrong. Before she could say a word, she leaned over and threw up, all over my jacket, down my pants, in her hair, on the carpet and all over the tile. Luckily, it was clean up time, so Sarah took over as my student and I headed to the bathroom. After cleaning up, my student said she felt better. Meanwhile, I had to mop up the throw up (how much I now appreciate public school janitors!). I was able to come right home and wash my pants. I forgot my jacket at school so that will be waiting for me tomorrow =(

To top things off, when I finished cleaning, my class was walking outside for dismissal, when passing the same student, I asked her how she felt, she stopped and threw up AGAIN! This time it didn't land on me and there was a trash can nearby. Poor thing. I was sick to my stomach on the ride home from work, smelling the throw up on my clothes the whole way home. Now that I'm all cleaned up, I can laugh at the story and truly feel that I've been welcomed into the teacher-hood! =)

Anita's First Few Days in Okinawa:

Anita left Okinawa on Sunday afternoon, it was a sad goodbye but we had a wonderful time together. After a good nights sleep Friday night (1/15) we woke up Saturday morning ready to explore the island. We headed up north to Nago. Our agenda; The Aquarium, Pineapple Factory and the Butterfly Garden. Since I've already been to these places a few times, I felt like a pro not getting lost on the drive up!

Our first stop was the aquarium. We decided to skip the inside of the aquarium and stuck to exploring the outside area (which is free). I saw a group of Japanese men standing around so I asked them if they would like me to take a picture of them. They happily accepted, then this gentlemen asked Anita and I to take a picture with him. His friends all laughed as they took pictures of us with several cameras.

We watched a really cool dolphin show. The backdrop of the ocean and Japanese music during the show made it even better!

It was a chilly day out so we made sure to sit in the no splash zone.

The ocean water was actually still warm.

You probably recognize this photo spot from my pictures at the aquarium with Rachel. Even though it was not sunny and warm like the last time, it still made for a beautiful picture spot!

After about an hour at the aquarium, we drove a few miles down the road to the Butterfly Garden. The sun was hidden in the clouds and the sky was gorgeous!

This time, in addition to red hats, they had blue hats for us to wear. I didn't know that blue attracted butterflies too, hmmm.

Since I was wearing long pants, tennis shoes and long sleeves, I was much less scared of the butterflies crawling on me this time around!

We spend a few minutes at the garden then traveled a few more miles to the Pineapple Factory! My personal favorite =) We sampled the wines and food, Anita bought a few things. This was the first time I didn't buy anything! The pineapple champagne is hands down my favorite, I will definitely be buying a few bottles to take home again =)

This Pineapple Factory worker had a full on mullet! We had to get a picture!

On the way back from Pineapple Factory, I had to stop by the Busena resort to show Anita my favorite spot to watch the sunset. By this point, it was almost 5 pm and was very cold (well, in the 50's anyway). We stayed about a half hour and took a few pictures. The sun ended up hiding behind clouds before setting, so we didn't get to experience the full sunset. Still beautiful nonetheless.

We arrived back to my apartment around 7pm, took a nap from 8-10pm then headed out to a salsa bar. Rocky was helping work in his friends salsa bar that night, so we met up with him around midnight. In Okinawa, people don't start getting to salsa clubs until after 11 pm and the clubs stay open until 7 am! We stayed at the first bar for an hour, then Rocky took us to a different bar in Naha (about 30 minutes away). Rocky brought his friend Charles who grew up in L.A. but moved to Okinawa for work, four years ago. Rocky and Charles are both very good salsa dancers so it was nice to have them teach us some moves.

Anita, Charles and I at the salsa club

We got back to my apartment from the salsa club at 7 am, just as Jessica was getting up for church! It was a fun, tiring night out!

We had a few more adventures the during the rest of the week. I'll post those pictures within the next few days. I just got in from running and I'm sore, tried and ready for bed and it's not even 9 pm! Ugh, old age (or maybe it's the throw up) =)

XOXO

Kristen