誕生日おめでとう！

Another quiet school week this week. It was great to be back at Tsukida. I'm really close with the two English teachers there and I was so happy to be back! This week I'm switching back to Matsugae, but I like this school as well, so I'm still sure it'll be a great week!

On Thursday, Kikumi had a movie night in her bar. It all-you-can-drink during the movie and we watched Gone Girl with Japanese subtitles. I was the only one who had already seen the movie, but I was happy to see it again! Patrick came out as well and we had a good night. Friday I also saw Patrick, Kikumi, and Shinki. We all went to Patrick's apartment and I cooked dinner. Kikumi and Shinki had to leave for work right after dinner, but I stayed with Patrick a little later. I helped him clean a little and we just hung out on his balcony and talked for a while. It was a really great night.

Saturday I didn't have anything to do during the day so I took the morning to run errands. I ran into Patrick one last time on my way to the post office, which turned out to be good. He had a bunch of bags with him that I could help with. After my errands I spent the rest of the morning cleaning. I'd let my apartment get a bit messier than I'd meant to, so it was really nice to get everything back in order. I also went through my clothes and other things to make sure I know exactly what I have to pack up since my return home is coming up pretty fast! Around 7:00 that night I headed out to 牛さくら (Gyu Sakura), a yakiniku restaurant, for Kazuki's birthday. About eighteen people came for dinner and he was so excited because he said it was the biggest birthday party he'd ever had. We had a great dinner and even surprised him with a cake at the end. Some of us went to Bob's Bar afterwards. It's a small place that barely fit us, but thankfully Caol had rented out the whole place for the party. Bob's does unlimited karaoke for only ￥200 and it was tons of fun! I left a little early to get some sleep, but it sounds like no one stayed out too much later after I left. It was a great party!

Sunday I slept in and was pretty lazy throughout the morning. I headed over to Megan's apartment in the early afternoon for movies. We watched stuff all afternoon while periodically making popcorn or running out for ice cream. It was a really relaxing way to spend a Saturday.

This week will be another quiet one. Bec's birthday is on Saturday and we'll have a picnic at the castle, but other than that I don't have much planned. My next big adventure will be camping on July 4th. Although I haven't been traveling much, I've been really busy making preparations for back home and hopefully I'll have some good news soon about what I'll be up to once I'm back in the States!

No 花 to 見

The weather is getting nicer as we move towards summer and school is winding down. Last week was mostly games in class or finishing the last page or two of the textbook. On Wednesday I met the English teachers from Shinozaki for a farewell party for one of the teachers. Either this week or next week she is moving up north of Tokyo to be with her husband. She hasn't gotten her plane ticket yet, but work officially ends this Wednesday and she'll be leaving soon. We had a small party for the English teachers to say goodbye to her. We went to a small restaurant that the teacher had always wanted to try. It was really good, but had some strange food like chicken sashimi. It was only my second time eating it and although I'd never eat raw chicken back home, it was delicious! It was really to see all the teacher again, especially since I won't be going to Shinozaki anymore.

I saw Caol and Leah for yakiniku on Thursday and saw Lisa on Friday for dinner at the Spanish restaurant. After dinner on Friday we headed over to Orange Door. I promised Kikumi I would tend bar for her that night and it was great fun! Juha also came out to join us and we played games and sang karaoke until pretty late.

I cleaned on Saturday morning and Megan came over around noon. We worked together to cook some food and headed out to Kokura Castle for a picnic with some other JETs. We met Leah on the way over and there were probably ten people already there to meet us. It was supposed to be a flower-viewing party, but the flowers were still only buds. I'll go again next week and hopefully the flowers will be blooming then! After our picnic, many of us went to karaoke and then out for a late dinner. Some people continued to go out after dinner, but I was pretty tired from the night before, so I just headed home.

On Sunday, Megan and I met Caol for lunch before doing some shopping. I didn't need anything, but I helped Caol and Megan find things they needed. We ran into our friends Kazuki and Leah throughout the day and walked back and forth between Riverwalk, Uomachi, and Cha Cha Town. They finished shopping around 5 PM, so we all went our separate ways. I went home and made dinner before heading back out and meeting Patrick. I hadn't seen Patrick since we went to Okinawa together, but the weather was so nice this weekend we decided to go out and take a walk. It was really nice to see him and talk to him and it was a great end to the week.

This week I'll finish school and start going to work at the Board of Education. Closing ceremony is on Tuesday, although I'll still come to Ishimine on Wednesday for a goodbye party with the chorus club. Thursday I'll also be traveling to both Tsukida and Matsugae, my new base schools for the next school year. Work will be a bit busier, but the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week and with the busier schedule means more time outside, so I'm excited!

Getting Ready for English Camp

Last week was a nice, easy week at work. I felt a bit under the weather, but I was still able to go to all my classes and talk with the students. One of the upperclassman girls came to me last Wednesday with a DVD full of English concerts and asked me if I knew the songs. It was all pop music and we had a good time singing the songs together in the hallway. I was even able to make her a CD of popular American music.

There are also two upperclassmen girls who come to talk to me during their free time after lunch. The teacher gives them a topic to start a conversation with (i.e. school trip, favorite singers, Japanese and American culture) and we talk about it English. I really enjoy it and it helps them a lot with their English. I feel bad, though, because over the summer there will be an English camp that I'm helping run. They both wanted to come, but only one student from every school was excepted. Even though I have no control or even input into that decision, I felt bad only one of them was accepted. I'm hoping that after summer on a day when both girls don't have club activities we can have our own little English camp and watch a movie or play a game in English.

The JET ALTs are doing a lot to get prepared for this English camp. The camp will be three days and two nights a little outside of the city center. We'll have fake passports for them where they can collect stamps and write about their experience and phrasebooks to help them with any English they might need. The camp will be total immersion in English and we have some fun stuff planned like curry making, a treasure hunt, and tower building. We have some mandatory activities we have to do like teaching other subjects in English. I'm in charge of teaching math and my friend Dave is working with me. I'm worried the students will be skeptical at first, (who wants to go to English camp to learn math?) but I think we can make it interesting and fun! We have a meeting on Sunday with the parents and students who were accepted to pass out the materials they will need, such as the phrase book so they can study it before the camp starts, and give a brief outline of all the activities. I'm excited to meet students from all the schools around Kitakyushu!

Along with school, I also had a great weekend. On Friday I went to my friend Kikumi's apartment right after school. She had been at the public offices all day getting her last name changed and finishing the last of the paperwork for her divorce. She didn't want to be alone, so I came over to keep her company while she got ready for work. We went out to dinner at a great Korean restaurant before heading across the street to clean her bar and get ready to open. Her regular bartenders were unavailable that night, so I was helping her out and another ALT friend of ours, Vixay, came in to DJ. It was a lot of fun and as always is a great Japanese practice.

The next day I went out with Vixay and some of our other friends to T・Joy, the movie theater in Riverwalk. We saw X-Men: フューチャー＆パスト (Future & Past) before getting some donuts and playing around a bit in the arcade. Sunday morning was spent watching the soccer game between Japan and the Ivory Coast. After keeping the score in Japans favor most of the game, the Ivory Coast scored two goals in less than two minutes towards the end of the second half and came out victorious. Japan will face Greece at the end of the week and we're all hoping for a win this time!

Sunday night I went out with my friends Kyoko and Miki. Kyoko and I work together at Shinozaki and Miki used to work at Shinozaki, but was moved at the beginning of the school year. She's now a school nurse, which is what she wanted to be, so the transfer was good for her! It was nice to sit and talk outside of school and we're hoping to do it again soon! Next Monday all the female teachers from Shinozaki are going out and even though I'll be at Ishimine that week they want me to come with them. I'm really excited! This week should be nice and easy again, which I'm grateful for. I've also started my countdown to summer and coming back home to visit! My plane leaves in a little over a month! As much as I love Japan I'm excited to see everyone back home and get away from this heat for a little while!