Really Exciting Stuff!

I have a pretty slow day at school today – as far as my schedule has been lately. There are only 5 shortened periods today in order to give the students lots of last minute practice for tomorrow’s chorus festival. There were three English classes today, all of which I made an appearance in (I say appearance since I only went to 10 minutes of two of those classes). I am also camera-less at the moment since my battery is dead and the charger is in transit from the states (it failed to make the last trip back with us) and Bryn’s camera has been acting silly lately…so I apologize for the lack of pictures! I just thought I would give an update about the really really exciting stuff Bryn and I have been up to. You think that the ride on the Navy destroyer sounded exciting…just you wait!

First some random things from Amino JHS…one of the 2nd grade classes has a plastic tub with some crayfish in it. I always take a look at them when I am in that classroom, and most of the time they are mating, haha. Just random! Also, like I mentioned earlier, I often only go to a class for 10 or 15 minutes for whatever reason. Whenever I leave, I say “bye!” as I leave the room (as you do…). Lately, a lot of the classes have started responding with, ”bye! I love you!” Nice. Everyone can use a little bit of love every now and then!

While we were in St. Michaels for the wedding, we went to the Build-a-Bear store in the mall and made a stuffed rabbit for Toru and Kana’s new baby. Last night Bryn and I went to Toru and Kana’s house for dinner to show them pictures and deliver the bunny. Toru has been taking cooking classes and made us really nice pasta! Japanese men don’t cook or go into the kitchen at all as a general rule, so this is pretty impressive. Their little girl, Kaede, is so cute (Japanese babies are way cuter than western babies if you ask me). She’s only about a month old and is super-tiny! It was fun to see them and catch up.

If you’ve never clicked on the link to Robyn’s blog on the right, you should right after reading this one. She is taking a page from Julie and Julia and cooking her way through the Edmund’s cookbook (think Joy of Cooking in New Zealand). That has little to do with anything other than that I am going to talk about cooking next. A few weeks ago Bryn and I decided to re-create the thai chicken pizza a la California Pizza Kitchen (if you’ve never had it I highly recommend it!). Our version turned out REALLY good and it’s so easy! Last week I got the brilliant idea (although I’m sure it’s anything but original) to use some Vietnamese rice paper wrappers and make thai chicken spring rolls…also so easy and soooo good. Yay for attempting to be inventive!

Sally and Mark (we went to their wedding in New Zealand and they came to ours) are coming to Japan at the end of this week! (yay!) We will go meet them in Osaka on Friday night and tour around Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe for the weekend, then they are coming back to Tango with us for a few days. Bryn and I have two of everything (plates, bowls, etc…hey, there are only two of us, why do we need more?!?) and decided that if we will have house guests we better have enough plates, cups, etc to go around because eating in shifts is no fun. We found some ideal stuff at the 100 yen store over the weekend, so, Sally and Mark, you are in luck! You don’t have to eat out of the pot! (Same goes for our future visitors as well!) Yay!

While we were on the hunt for dishes, we found some new curtains for the bedroom. The old curtains were dark and very thick, so they let no light in at all. For me, dark equals sleep, so if there is no light in the mornings, I don’t wake up. Also, waking up to light is just nice, so we wanted something that would let in some morning sun for summer. The new ones are quite good, so I packed away the black ones until next winter.

I got an email from the place where I rent my car the other day. Apparently the maker has a new policy to try and keep low mileage on rental cars, therefore it looks like I am getting a replacement sometime next month! Fingers crossed that’s the only policy they changed and they haven’t tripled the cost or something…that would not be cause for a “yay”…

The last little piece of news I have for you…I only have 28 days of school lunch left in this term! YAAAAAAAY!!!!! I wonder how many happy pigs will be on the menu between now and July 16th (a happy pig on the menu equals a very unhappy Liz). Speaking of the number 28…for those of you who don’t know for whatever reason (and a friendly reminder for those of you who do…) it’s almost my birthday (June 28)! Please send all packages and cards to:

Liz Thomas
102 Aaban Nawate C
Migochi 737-1
Yosano-cho, Yoza-gun
Kyoto, JAPAN
629-2313

And remember international mail takes time.

Haha, just kidding. You don't have to send me anything...emails or Facebook messages will do ;)

That's all for now!