Hey folks!
Happy (belated) Fourth of July! I hope you all had fun celebrating with family and friends over the weekend. We planned on doing a 4th of July/ Thank You for Volunteering at the Car Rally dinner with friends, but I was unable to go due to an excess of vomiting and a crying-induced headache. According to Jonathan, much fun was had by all and they had a great weeknight get-together. Jonathan did not get home until 11, so I am glad they all got to hang out. I will be seeing everyone I missed at the Southern Sayonara (Goodbye) Party this Friday, so I think I made the right choice staying home after the terrible day I had.
On Sunday we went to a big event put on by our Japanese teachers. After the event I got very sick from the heat, noise, and number of people I had to interact with, so I went to bed early (5PM) in order to be well rested for Monday. My good intentions were for naught because Monday did not go well at all. I was definitely emotional after getting sick twice during first period. Also, it was my first time puking up stomach bile which became my new least favorite way to be sick during this pregnancy. It was so bitter and acidic that I just crouched on the floor in the bathroom and cried for 20 minutes afterwards. One teacher walked in while I was crying and I utilized the handy Sound Princess to keep her in the dark about my breakdown.
Once I pulled myself together enough to go back to the staff room, I took one look at the English teacher's face and started crying again in front of the whole staff! If it had not been so horrible I would have laughed at the awkward situation. All the female teachers started cooing and soothing me, asking me if I wanted to go home or at least lay down in the tatami room, and I was just crying and babbling in English (only 2 out of the 15 teachers present understood any English) about how tired I was and how much I wanted to just not be sick anymore. The 8 or so male teachers in the room did their best not to look in my direction and pretend to be working! I felt so bad for them, but at the same time could not stop crying.
After I convinced everyone that I would be fine if I could just be alone for a minute and calm down, I went into the bathroom and proceeded to cry for another 20 minutes. After that, I put on make-up (I almost never wear make-up to school, but this was an emergency!) and went back to my desk. Apparently I was convincing enough about my emotional stability because the teachers asked me to teach 3 more classes that day.
You may ask, "Why didn't you just go home? Why not take a sick day since you were clearly not feeling well?" I had 2 reasons for not going home. My first reason was that I have been sick at school before (many times) and I would probably be sick again before the baby comes. I made sure to teach the rest of the classes sitting down, drink a lot of fluids, and eat crackers when I could stomach them, but I would probably feel more miserable if I went home and knew they had expected me to be there but I had gone home. As it turns out, one teacher did need me for the 9th grade recitation tests. She would not have been able to grade all of them by herself and it would have taken 2 days to finish grading them if I had gone home, but since I was there we finished all of them yesterday. My second reason was that my car was in the shop and I would have had to walk 7 minutes down the road to my house in the direct sun or get a ride home from one of the teachers. I just did not feel like asking for a ride home or passing out in the sun.
In other news, Jonathan is happy and healthy. He still loves both of his jobs and he is excited about becoming a dad. He has been doing a lot of cleaning. Did I mention he fixed our washing machine? Did I mention our washing machine was broken for 6 months? Jonathan took the top apart and found the problem with the sensor - it was rusty! He cleaned it up, put it back together, and now the washing machine works again. I have been trying to keep up with laundry since it is the one chore I can do that does not make me queasy.
Well that is all for today. Sorry about all the graphic posts, but this is my life right now. I have now lost 7kg since March. Lovely. On the plus side, I can feel the growing pains from my uterus growing and stretching out the ligaments in my lower abdomen. Also, the baby is the size of a lemon. Cute!
xo
Laura (and Jonathan!)
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Laura at School
Hello Family and Friends!
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a great fall and beginning of winter!
Sorry it has been so long since we last posted, but we have been extremely busy and extremely lazy in turns. I am back at elementary schools, junior high schools, and the kindergarten this semester, and I missed these kids so much!
Jonathan is loving his 2 jobs, and will be continuing them for at least a few more months, probably through June.
I wanted to post this cute link to the website for my Monday school, Natasho Junior High School. There is a picture of me taken today teaching the 8th graders a lesson about a blind boy names Aragaki Tsutomu.
http://natasho-jhs.blogspot.com/
Also, below the picture of me teaching you can see my students doing fun stuff and the giant pile of snow in front of the school! We had between 1 and 2 feet of snow over the weekend, and Japan looks like a winter wonderland. On the down side, Jonathan has to walk to the train station since riding his bike would be too dangerous on the ice.
We think we will be staying in Japan for another year! So our plans are to be here through July of 2012. We love and miss you all, but we are enjoying our life here at this point in time. Who knows what the future can hold?
xo
Laura (and Jonathan!)
Well, we love you and miss you all!
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a great fall and beginning of winter!
Sorry it has been so long since we last posted, but we have been extremely busy and extremely lazy in turns. I am back at elementary schools, junior high schools, and the kindergarten this semester, and I missed these kids so much!
Jonathan is loving his 2 jobs, and will be continuing them for at least a few more months, probably through June.
I wanted to post this cute link to the website for my Monday school, Natasho Junior High School. There is a picture of me taken today teaching the 8th graders a lesson about a blind boy names Aragaki Tsutomu.
http://natasho-jhs.blogspot.com/
Also, below the picture of me teaching you can see my students doing fun stuff and the giant pile of snow in front of the school! We had between 1 and 2 feet of snow over the weekend, and Japan looks like a winter wonderland. On the down side, Jonathan has to walk to the train station since riding his bike would be too dangerous on the ice.
We think we will be staying in Japan for another year! So our plans are to be here through July of 2012. We love and miss you all, but we are enjoying our life here at this point in time. Who knows what the future can hold?
xo
Laura (and Jonathan!)
Well, we love you and miss you all!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Mid-September feels like home
Hey hey hey!
So it is now mid-September in Fukui and we are starting to get more bearable weather. Jonathan is mourning the end of summer and I am rejoicing in the beginnings of fall. Now that the weather is getting a little more pleasant, we will be going out on bike rides and walks around town in the evenings and weekends. On the downside, it gets dark so much faster now! It is dark around 6:00 or so I believe. So our bike rides and walks will have to be done with flash lights and reflector sashes, lol.
I forgot to tell you that Jonathan successfully completed his summer beach challenge! He visited all 21 beaches in Takahama, Ohi, and Obama towns! Congratulations, Jonathan!
Well, school is school and work is work. One elementary school had their sports festival on Saturday the 11th, so I spent all day Saturday cheering on our 1st-6th graders and most of the evening relaxing with coworkers over some beers and food. My other elementary school has its sports day this coming Saturday the 18th. I get tomorrow off, then go in to work on Saturday, but get Sunday and Monday off. So it should be an interesting weekend. Monday and Thursday are national holidays, so I have a 3 day work week next week.
Jonathan is loving his new job. He enjoys working with adults and dealing with the unique challenges that come with having only 3 months to prepare workers in their 20s and 30s for life abroad. I am enjoying watching Battlestar Galactica, but I would rather be having dinner with Jonathan. I will have to see if he gets Monday and Thursday off too...
Jonathan and Grainne biked 45 km on Sunday morning. After that, Melissa and I met up with them at a beach in Oshima and we all had a picnic! Maybe when winter comes along and the newbies are more settled in we will see them a bit more, but for now we are happy to have each other and our good friends from last year. We miss you, Asa, Christine, and Felipe!
To our friends from high school and college who may be reading this blog - we love and miss you too! I hope that when we come home we can all meet up and talk and laugh and learn from each other like we always do.
Finally, to our families - We love you so much and wish we could be there for birthdays and holidays. We decided to seize this precious opportunity to live abroad and improve our language abilities, and it has opened up so many opportunities for both of us! But that does not mean that we do not wish we could be there with you and for you for the good times and the bad. Hopefully when we come home, we can make up for lost time.
I guess this was a more touchy-feely post than normal, but with birthdays coming up, I guess I just realized how much I miss you guys! We are going to miss Thanksgiving for the second year in a row, but we just cannot afford to come home as often as we would like. Send us an email or a facebook message or even a letter in the regular mail if you can! We have an Indiana area code phone number that you can call to leave us messages, so just let us know that you miss us or give us a call if you need to talk.
Love and peace,
Laura (and Jonathan!)
So it is now mid-September in Fukui and we are starting to get more bearable weather. Jonathan is mourning the end of summer and I am rejoicing in the beginnings of fall. Now that the weather is getting a little more pleasant, we will be going out on bike rides and walks around town in the evenings and weekends. On the downside, it gets dark so much faster now! It is dark around 6:00 or so I believe. So our bike rides and walks will have to be done with flash lights and reflector sashes, lol.
I forgot to tell you that Jonathan successfully completed his summer beach challenge! He visited all 21 beaches in Takahama, Ohi, and Obama towns! Congratulations, Jonathan!
Well, school is school and work is work. One elementary school had their sports festival on Saturday the 11th, so I spent all day Saturday cheering on our 1st-6th graders and most of the evening relaxing with coworkers over some beers and food. My other elementary school has its sports day this coming Saturday the 18th. I get tomorrow off, then go in to work on Saturday, but get Sunday and Monday off. So it should be an interesting weekend. Monday and Thursday are national holidays, so I have a 3 day work week next week.
Jonathan is loving his new job. He enjoys working with adults and dealing with the unique challenges that come with having only 3 months to prepare workers in their 20s and 30s for life abroad. I am enjoying watching Battlestar Galactica, but I would rather be having dinner with Jonathan. I will have to see if he gets Monday and Thursday off too...
Jonathan and Grainne biked 45 km on Sunday morning. After that, Melissa and I met up with them at a beach in Oshima and we all had a picnic! Maybe when winter comes along and the newbies are more settled in we will see them a bit more, but for now we are happy to have each other and our good friends from last year. We miss you, Asa, Christine, and Felipe!
To our friends from high school and college who may be reading this blog - we love and miss you too! I hope that when we come home we can all meet up and talk and laugh and learn from each other like we always do.
Finally, to our families - We love you so much and wish we could be there for birthdays and holidays. We decided to seize this precious opportunity to live abroad and improve our language abilities, and it has opened up so many opportunities for both of us! But that does not mean that we do not wish we could be there with you and for you for the good times and the bad. Hopefully when we come home, we can make up for lost time.
I guess this was a more touchy-feely post than normal, but with birthdays coming up, I guess I just realized how much I miss you guys! We are going to miss Thanksgiving for the second year in a row, but we just cannot afford to come home as often as we would like. Send us an email or a facebook message or even a letter in the regular mail if you can! We have an Indiana area code phone number that you can call to leave us messages, so just let us know that you miss us or give us a call if you need to talk.
Love and peace,
Laura (and Jonathan!)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
September is here!
Hello folks!
September is here and work has started for both of us. Some days I teach 7 classes per day and others I only have 1! Which is not really any different from how things were last year, hahaha. I am only at 3 schools this semester, Ohi JHS on Mon, Tues, and Weds, Hongo Elementary on Thurs, and Natasho Elementary on Friday. This schedule suits me just fine. I teach an Eikaiwa (English conversation class) on Tuesday evenings, take Japanese lessons on Thursdays and fill my other evenings with language exchanges and dinners with friends.
Jonathan has started his new job, and he is liking it a lot! He works Mon, Weds, and Thursday teaching English to engineers in Obama, and he is keeping his old job tutoring kids at the Kumon center on Tuesdays and Fridays. So now when I come home from work, Jonathan is not home! :( I guess it is nice to have a little time to myself, but I do miss Jonathan. Up until now I had the early evening free on Tuesdays and Fridays, but now that I have 5 evenings per week to myself, I need to figure out something cool to do with my alone time. I have started watching Battlestar Galactica during my new free time since Jonathan does not want to watch it. Maybe I will start taking a nap! He will usually get home around 8PM, so we still get plenty of time together in the evening, and we both have the weekends off as well.
We had a mild typhoon pass through yesterday, but there was very little wind and rain. From what I hear, Tokyo got a lot of crazy wind and rain and we were spared most of the bad weather. This year's typhoon was nothing like last year's and I hope we don't have many more come through during the fall.
I cannot really think of anything new other than the fact that we are back to work. I will try to post at least 2 more times this month to keep you updated. Send us an email is you miss us!
Laura (and Jonathan)
September is here and work has started for both of us. Some days I teach 7 classes per day and others I only have 1! Which is not really any different from how things were last year, hahaha. I am only at 3 schools this semester, Ohi JHS on Mon, Tues, and Weds, Hongo Elementary on Thurs, and Natasho Elementary on Friday. This schedule suits me just fine. I teach an Eikaiwa (English conversation class) on Tuesday evenings, take Japanese lessons on Thursdays and fill my other evenings with language exchanges and dinners with friends.
Jonathan has started his new job, and he is liking it a lot! He works Mon, Weds, and Thursday teaching English to engineers in Obama, and he is keeping his old job tutoring kids at the Kumon center on Tuesdays and Fridays. So now when I come home from work, Jonathan is not home! :( I guess it is nice to have a little time to myself, but I do miss Jonathan. Up until now I had the early evening free on Tuesdays and Fridays, but now that I have 5 evenings per week to myself, I need to figure out something cool to do with my alone time. I have started watching Battlestar Galactica during my new free time since Jonathan does not want to watch it. Maybe I will start taking a nap! He will usually get home around 8PM, so we still get plenty of time together in the evening, and we both have the weekends off as well.
We had a mild typhoon pass through yesterday, but there was very little wind and rain. From what I hear, Tokyo got a lot of crazy wind and rain and we were spared most of the bad weather. This year's typhoon was nothing like last year's and I hope we don't have many more come through during the fall.
I cannot really think of anything new other than the fact that we are back to work. I will try to post at least 2 more times this month to keep you updated. Send us an email is you miss us!
Laura (and Jonathan)
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