Hi there. It's a chilly Wednesday afternoon here. I am still putting on my coat to get from the heated teachers' room into the hallway and through the part of the school with no walls (and thus no heating) into the (usually) heated classrooms. Today, one class chose not to heat their classroom. (English was right after gym class.) I looked at the thermometer. It was 15 degrees celcius. (58 degrees F.) It felt much colder, though!! Japan uses celcius, not ferenheit. To calculate the temperature, use this lovely site.

I've discovered an Irish pub in Hiroshima that's fairly new. It looks very inviting with lovely woodworking and delicious-looking menu items at good prices. I hope to eat there soon!

In movie news, "The Two Towers" has just started playing. I am still reading
Book 1: Lord of the Rings. Also, if you haven't heard of or seen "Shaolin Soccer", go rent it! It's hilarious!!! For anime fans--have you heard of the movie "Spirited Away" by Miyazaki? It is the most recently released Miyazaki film. However, the original title is VERY different from "Spirited Away." It is called "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi." The main character is a girl named Chihiro, but her name is changed to "Sen." An old woman who re-names Chihiro magically lifts away all the kanji (Chinese characters) in her full name except one, which is usually pronounced "Sen" by itself. The rest of Miyazaki's title has to do with the many gods in the movie and traditional Japanese lore. The English title "Spirited Away", while catchy, has almost absolutely nothing to do with the movie. I wish they could've come up with something closer to the original title. Of course, this is coming from a girl who went to a 24-hr Sci-Fi marathon and helped re-name a movie "I Come in Peace" instead of the original title "Dark Angel." If you didn't understand any of my ramblings, just go rent "Spirited Away" if you can. It's a wonderful Miyazaki movie and has a lot of Japanese eye candy culture in animated forms. (Past Miyazaki movies include Princess Mononoke, Totoro, and Laputa.) Enjoy!

After much debating, I have decided not to go to the Tokyo conference next week. It would've cost me at least $400 to go, and I don't think it would've been very helpful for the new directions I am interested in going, so I decided I could receive better council in Hiroshima from friends and advisors.
After returning to Ohio, I hope to re-adjust and cope with "reverse culture shock" while researching ESL education and other closely interactive jobs with children/ adults from other countries. I enjoyed teaching ESL to adults while at KSU, though I hope to work with children--elementary or early middle school age. I have really enjoyed helping teach the middle school students here on Etajima. Who knows, maybe i will become a teacher...?

President's Day was the 17th. I found out. Also, I did sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in front of my school, and I did thorally embarrass myself. Actually, the singing bit was okay (or so I think); however, me and my stubborness decided to give a speech in Japanese before I sang, explaining Presidents' Day. On top of usual class preparations, I hastily threw something not very interesting or anywhere near grammatically correct on paper, which of course I wrote in Japanese and couldn't read very well while being nervous in front of the whole school. Mrs. Koretsune (English teacher) picked up my ashes and transformed all of the scrunched up faces into clear appreciation. So then I sang. And I was done. And now I don't want to sing "the national anthem" for a long, long time.

I had a nice, relaxing day on Sunday. I did a little shopping in Hiroshima as well. I bought a CD with 25 different countries national anthems so I could sing the Star-Spangled Banner not necessarily acapella on Thursday in front of everyone at Kirikushi JHS at the morning assembly. When I was in high school, I always wanted to be the person who got to sing the national anthem at sports games and whatnot, but that was a little impossible since I wasn't in choir, and, well, I'm not fabulous at singing. Since then, I've found several excuses to sing the Star-Spangled Banner in Japan, including during karaoke parties. My latest excuse is President's Day. Hmm...wonder when President's Day is, anyway...? I think I'll need to find that out before Thursday.

We made it on the bus, but barely. We also had to take a taxi to make it on time. Anyway, we had a blast in Nagasaki!!! During the Lantern Festival, there were tons of events to go to including acrobat shows, musical performances, and Chinese exchange student karaoke!!!

10 Kinds of Lanterns at Nagasaki's Chinese New Year

1.    spherical (red, pink, yellow)
2.    traditionally painted cloth
3.    shi-sa (1/2 lion, 1/2 dog)
4.    kirin (mythological creature)
5.    ram (It's the year of the ram.)
6.    tiger
7.    zebra
8.    squirrel
9.    panda
10.   temple gate

I still have a cold. I'm leaving for Nagasaki on bus early Saturday morning with Hiroshi. I'm really looking forward to seeing the lantern festival in Chinatown there. I'm not very good about getting up early, especially on the weekend, but the bus leaves Hiroshima around 7:30. Wish us luck!

Wow. It's already February. January just flew by, and I'm sure the next couple months will too. We are planning a big international club event for mid-March, as well as hosting a neighboring international club at the same time. We have to work on publicizing the event and getting a few contestants to come along as well. Before the event is graduation for the junior highs (which might mean a graduation party to plan) and after that is spring break and sakura (cherry blossom) season. April marks the beginning of the school year and my last 3-4 months of teaching in Japan!

Presently, I also have a cold which makes me want to crawl back in bed for most of the day, but today we made peanut butter cookies with a special needs student (fork and all!) I am looking forward to picking up my pictures, contemplating getting some kerosene for my heater and then crawling into bed...oh, wait, I'm teaching English conversation tonight from 7 to 8:30. Darn. Well, after that, then.

The English teacher, Mrs. Koretsune made it to school 2 hours late. She was stuck in traffic; there was no accident. What caused the wait? About a centimeter of snow on the ground.

Yesterday the 7th graders (the youngest grade) ran directly outside for their lunch break to take advantage of the snow. Gloves or no gloves, everyone participated in a huge snowball fight.
As for me, I lent my gloves to a 7th grader, and I made a little snowman.