Diving in...

Today was a great day! It was filled with fun times and laughter. My day began with an early rise at 5:45 with NO alarm. My body doesn't seem to care for this time zone! I thought I'd make good use of my time by beginning to glance through my curriculum. After some time I saw that my japanmate was also awake so we began to browse our curriculum together. I've started to get quite excited by some of the fun activities I will get to do this year with my Pre-kindergarteners. Really though the curriculum is much like Kindergarten. We finally decided to get ready and head to school where we were meeting a group of the other teachers and staff to go to Shakey's for lunch. So Japanese huh? lol I don't know about you, but when I think of Shakey's I think of pepperoni pizza and mojo potatoes. Here, a bit different, with curry, a pasta with what tasted like seaweed, pizza toppings like squid, wasabi, and pineapple with chocolate. Luckily, there were some more normal things as well. :)

Next, we went back to school and discovered a large storage room filled with curriculum, supplementals, and manipulatives that had to be about 10 years old. Alison and I were thrilled as we walked around and found so many fun things that are crucial to our teaching. They looked at us like we were a bit crazy, but excited that someone actually wanted the stuff! It really made my day, as I had started to think I wouldn't have access to many of those things. We managed to make it out of the room with just one bump on Alison's head. Walls tend to jump out at you in Japan! hehe Following our treasure hunting we were called upstairs to sit at this conference type table to discuss the apartment selection for a fellow teacher coming from the States. I felt so important in this large gathering of people! :) Upon making a decision it was time to discuss the class supply list. WOW, I get to use FAT pencils this year. I had a whole discussion with Mr. Elofson, the principal, about how these pencils simply would not work with my handy dandy pencil grips I packed in my ridiculously expensive boxes! He said if I stay another year I could teach first grade and use big kid pencils. I guess I'm not allowed to come to a new country and completely change the entire way the school works! Keep in mind this entire conversation was filled with more laughter than one could handle! :) At this point, I was close to shutting down since it was now getting to be 6 in the evening and once again we were the last ones on campus, some things never change! So we called it a day and went grocery shopping again with Mr. Elofson and Chikako, his wife. She is the master shopper, so while we shopped Mr. Elofson sat a read about how to build a webpage, which supposedly I am to help with! haha that should be interesting! After we finished shopping we went for dinner at a place that serves taco rice. The meal was followed by a dish of zenzai, which is sweet beans (basically cold pinto beans in a brown sugar/maple sauce) an shaved ice, with mochi balls at the bottom. Now we promised to at least taste this and enjoy the experience, which is all that was done, as I decided beans and ice do not go together. The mochi balls were discovered toward the end so we had to taste these too. If you've seen I Survived A Japanese Gameshow you know what it looks like to eat these things. It was hard and tasted like rubber play doh! NOT okay! But REALLY funny nonetheless! lol I laugh just thinking about it. And now, here I am stealing Internet from our neighbors and dreaming of my bed! All in all, a classic day of new people, new discoveries, and good times....oh and how could I forget the rain! It most definitely poured for about an hour or two today!