Festival Fun...

Yesterday was another somewhat productive day in my classroom. I'm working with what I have and am realizing, once again, how different everything is here. I met the Kindergarten teacher, Lori, whose husband is in the military. They live on Kadena (Air Force Base), a few minutes from school. She was very nice and let us know we could use her address for cheaper shipping, but she also has some education store contacts in the states that have arranged to discount prices and will ship to Japan. So exciting!
Last night, Alison and I needed a pick me up so we went down to the American Village and had some baskin robbins ice cream. I had quite possibly the strangest flavors ever...Cream soda (with these weird little balls in them) and Popping Shower (mint ice cream with pop rocks). We walked around a bit then sat and listened to a group playing live music. Of course it was all in Japanese though one of the songs said "from Japanese to America." yeah, haven't quite figured that one out yet. hehe Between songs one of the guys was talking to the crowd in this gentle yet passionate voice. I decided he was either dedicating a balled or witnessing! The weather is so nice at night! I felt like I was on vacation, walking in the downtown area with lots of people, listening to music. Strange to think we can do this whenever we want for the next year!
When we arrived back at the apartment we heard some drums. It seems this is the time for the Eisa (drums, dancing, and chanting) groups to call for the ancestors and next weekend is a festival with food and drum competition. We had heard the drums the night before so last night we decided to follow the sound down the back alley of our apartment (not a ghetto alley :) ) We walked past these men with glow sticks marking the way and around the corner where we found the Eisa group. We stood with several others watching. We were the only white folk, taking pictures no less! lol When they started heading our way we took off back to the apartment laughing about how random this was.