Much ado in the past week or two...

Right, now the first month of teaching has passed.

I'm really into the groove of this thing, although elementary classes continue to be a new adventure every time.
In JH, my one class of first years (re. grade 6 in Canadian years) are so damn quiet still. They know how to speak but just don't. So frustrating. Ahhh well

Sports day (えんどかい) at the JH and 1 elementary school was lots of fun. I got to get to know the students out of class and had fun playing with them. (pics in my photos) Although I did get a horrid sunburn, I'm so glad I was ever so sporty for two days of the year. I'm also learning that I'm a lot better at volleyball than I originally thought. Curious..........

In adventure news, Jill came down to visit (see My Photos) for the long weekend, and we did some serious Tokushima siteseeing. We went all over Mino - to Takiji the waterfall temple, the Forest of Health and Contact, Sunkus and my house.. ohhhhhahhh. Then we went to see the Zorb in Ikeda, Kazurabashi no hashi in Nishiiya and dinner and karaoke with the Miyoshi-gun English teachers. We also finally found Kamo no Otsu, the 1000 year old camphor tree in Mikamo, the town next to mine. It was beautiful, and the obaachan who looks after it told us some stories while we were there. Woo hoo. It was nice to catch up with Jill first driving in the mountains experience. As I'm sure Jill can attest, I get a little crusty when I'm scared and driving.

I still haven't entirely figured out how to use my oven.... and as you know Saori's birthday was this month. I tried to make her a cake, but instead of cooking my oven decided to beep angrily at me instead.... so I went to Julie's house in Mikamo and we cake-baked together. Bliss. They were so cute, and tasty, and Saori really liked them. again, pics are in myphotos

Yukino's getting big, and I discovered the secret to calming her down - watching tv. If I do anything in the house she want to play EXCEPT when I sit in one specific chair to watch tv. She curls up on my lap and falls asleep on me as soon as I sit there. Its like magic.

I also got my DVD player. I'm so happy! Yay for Hong Kong region-free imports. I watched copious amounts of Golden Girls last night, and I'm bringing the player to English conversation class (eikaiwa) tonite so we can watch so shows or a movie.