shasshin

this just in...

rockin photos from Ivy:





and from Amanda:


jeremy reuben tim ross ivy me timmy

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It's cold inside

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It's ridiculously cold in Toyama, and there's no escape. Neither our house or the schools are heated. I bought my ticket to Hong Kong last Friday. It's going to be sweet...can't wait to flee south for the winter- right now in HK its in the upper 70s :) Too bad I'm only visiting Kim for 3 days :( While teaching the 3rd years the other day I was starring out the window and noticed the mountains surrounding the valley are all snow-capped now... just a matter of time. The snowfall is so heavy in this region that they're building bamboo enclosures around all the shrubberies and trees here to keep them from getting crushed under the weight of all the snow (!) crazy. I wear my coat and scarf to class now. I feel sorry for all the students who have to wear their skimpy uniforms, especially the girls in their skirts. The sun came out briefly yesterday for our day trip to Kanazawa. I've befriended a woman who works in the office at my junior high- she helped me buy th...
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The real work begins...

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It's been 'bout a week now and I feel I'm due for another update. NEW CAR! \(^o^)/ Totally unexpected... after work monday we were at the fukushikaikan discussing bills and whatnot with the supervisor, and outta nowhere he asks us if we would be interested in taking an old ALT's car for FREE. The catch: shakken's due at the end of October (shakken: yearly required auto check-up that costs b/t 1000-3000 bucks. A lotta people just end up dumping their cars since it can be cheaper to just buy a new one!) At that time we gotta fork up the money for the check-up, insurance, and rental fee OR just dump it to find a cheaper one. Here's Ivy's first behind-the-wheel in our new Toyota Fun Cargo. thats what the car is called, a fun cargo. And what luck! my International Drivers License arrives the very next day :D perfect timing. Later that night Ross stopped by to show off his new car which he coincidentally got the same day. It's a honda civic! jealous. Later ...
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Winter Break Itinerary

Dec 24th-Dec 26th: KOBE (visiting yuki for xmas) Dec 27th-Dec 29th: Return to Toyama for work :\ Dec 30th-Jan 2nd: TOKYO/CHIBA (visiting host family for New Years) Jan 3rd-Jan 7th: HONG KONG (visiting Kim) Jan 7th: putz around tokyo for 9 hrs before my bus leaves for Toyama Jan 8th: back I've never been more in need of a vacation. Seems like every time there's a big American holiday my workload triples. On average I teach 24 classes a week- but normally I only have to plan lessons for the 8 elementary classes on Tues and Weds. This month my JTEs asked if I could plan all the lessons for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years at the junior high too. The lesson planning itself isn't that bad, but the actual teaching all day without any breaks is really draining (especially at the elementary schools. There's just not enough 'genki' in me to keep up with 5 classes of 40 kids a day). I was also asked to host a few Xmas parties- one for all the students of a local tutor and...
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