New Year's Run

My first run of the new year. I also added more pictures to the previous slide show, the order is newest to oldest. Meaning at the end will be Christmas.

Germany 2011 Pt.2

More Germany- Now from Jill's area.

Christmas Eve

At the Bracketts, with baby Joy!

Orchestra

I feel very cultural today.

After church this morning Jill and I went to a community orchestra concert. They played Beethoven and it sounded beautiful. The instruments were mostly played by local students (one of which being a student at YMS) and the chorus was almost entirely older Japanese people.

Life since Pi Day

I am the worst host ever! I forgot all kinds of things, but luckily I have some great friends who are easily contacted. Davia called Jim and Martha to ask them to bring a cake cutter and server. We called James (not Brackett) to bring flower cutters. And then upstairs from the party was Karen who brought down an extension cord and scissors. It's like I wasn't planning on a party at all!! But it in the end it went very well and there were plenty of people to wish Jill and James best wishes on their wedding.

6 days, 5 school days, 4 student days until SPRING BREAK!!

I realized I never reported on my great Pi day party. It went very well, surprisingly well actually. There were many more people than I was expecting, honestly I only thought 10 people would show (my friends humoring me!). But instead there were probably about 30 people there with lots of round food. We then played Pi-ctionary and everyone had fun trying to guess all the pictures of words that begin with pi-. I say it all the time but I have some really great friends here and there are some truly wonderful people I am still learning to know.

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday was spent looking for someplace to live. Nothing really said "This is home" to me so I am going to keep looking. I'm hoping that better things will come along, I'm not in any hurry to find something right now. This is where I am going to live for at least the next two years, possibly more, so it needs to feel right to me.

Sunday I got to spend the day with my two best friends in Japan. I had brunch with Monica and Ben to start the day. The remainder of the day was spent sitting around Jill's house, mostly talking but also creating the website for her wedding. If you want to see what I put together for her you can go HERE.

Today, Monday, I completed my first 5k since my knee surgery. I was VERY slow but I wasn't last, so I accomplished my only two goals- finishing and not being dead last. It was fun to try the race and there were quite a few people from school there.

My Day

My day started about an hour late. I slept in and only had 20 min to get ready for school. Needless to say I was a few minutes late meeting my ride. Actually my ride was also late and when I wasn't there assumed I had already left for school. I ended up taking a taxi to the school and was about 20 min late. As I walked into the school who do I happen to run into first thing? Yup. You guessed it. I ran into my brand new principal. Of course it was him who else would you run into when arriving late to a new job? I immediately apologized. To which he asked "What for? You just got our of a cab so something must have happened." He didn't press for details and appeared completely understanding. Everyone at school was completely understanding, they were more concerned for my welfare than anything else.

This evening my friend invited me to join in salsa night at the A-club. It was fun, and a little odd. Taking a salsa lesson in Japan from a little Japanese couple. And then after the lesson we went to the Italian restaurant where I had kung pao pizza.

My day began badly but luckily improved throughout.

In Japan

I arrived into Yokosuka last night and am still very jet-lagged. The trip was actually very uneventful, especially considering my usual traveling adventures. It was nice when I got through the gate to see two of my favorite people waiting to greet me. Jill and Monica were both there with open arms. I am just amazed at how lucky I am that I left Phoenix hugging my wonderful family and immediately stepped off the plane into the hugging arms of my wonderful friends. Things here haven't changed, but then I haven't had a chance to get into the school yet where there will be new teachers and adminstrators to meet.

Now I get the start the fun of finding a new home, car, furniture, . . . And while I did get into the BOQ to stay for a couple weeks the entire base is booked after Sept. 8. So I am not too sure where I will go from here if I haven't found my new home yet. I am not really in a huge hurry to find a home since none of my stuff will be here until mid October.