Sick

Sigh. I'm still sick. I thought I was getting better and then maybe I caught another cold last week. I'm a bit worried now as I've been sick longer than normal, I have a very deep, but productive cough, and one of my ears has been plugged up for more than 2 days, which makes me fear I may either have a serious congestion or sinus problem or a pending ear infection... neither of which are good. We don't have health insurance, and won't until our visas come through (yes, we're STILL waiting!), so please pray for me. Thanks.

*Correction* We found out tonight that we actually have our visas! We were under the impression that they were only temporary until the permanent ones came through, and also, the same with our foreigner cards - without which, we could not have insurance or be set up with automatic pay. Technically, they ARE "temporary", but also "permanent". Go figure, haha. Thankfully, after recovering this information, it was arranged to have our insurance set up for us tomorrow. :-)

Merry Christmas 2007!!

We got a package in the mail today; I knew what it contained - Jeremy did not. I could barely contain my excitement as I handed him the scissors to open it. Piece by piece was removed until the gift was revealed, and a pause followed by the smile I had been waiting for... AGRICOLA is here! The game I bought him for Christmas last year. It hadn't been printed in English yet, and was awaiting production, so I pre-ordered it as his gift. It arrived in the mail to his parent's house a month or so ago, and we were both excited it finally came, but sad that he actually still had to wait for his gift, but thanks to Jeremy's mom we have it now! Whoo hoo!! Here are the pictures from earlier today, and the new profile one is one from a few hours ago when I was able to pry him away from the rule book and go with me to the beach. :-)

Party!

We had a great night last night! We went over to our friends', the Tamura's, home for their joint 30th birthday party (they both both had birthdays earlier this month). What fun! They had a Mexican buffet theme - Jeremy made some yummy fresh salsa and I made some rice pudding. Others brought chicken, taco meat, taco fixings, spanish rice, guacamole, more salsa and chips, and some beans. It was wonderful - our first taste of Mexican since being here. :-) Afterwards, we all enjoyed playing sports games on their Wii, challenging each other and finding out our "ages" (Jeremy was 46 and I was 66!). Haha. Then the last six of us became giddy at the late hour... bouncing birthday balloons all around the room until we tired ourselves out. I was tired out long before after playing with their cute daughter in her room. For some reason, she adores me! She calls me "Kuriskin", and so I was affectionately dubbed by the rest of the clan whenever she's around. :-)

Today, we're going to a sports festival, and a Japanese buffet for lunch with our co-teacher and friend, Carla.

*edit* Apparently, the festival was cancelled again (rained out yesterday) because there were no students there when we arrived at the school this morning. So we drove around Hagi a bit and ended up at the "Hagi lookout", a park-like area on a mountain overlooking the city. I took a video there that I intended to put on this blog, but accidently deleted it at lunch thinking it was a picture. I was sad. Jeremy promised we'd go back and I could take another, haha. The buffet was fabulous! Expensive though, around $15 for a lunch, but well worth it if you come with a good appetite. There was something for everyone. :-)

Happy

I just wanted to say what a wonderful husband my man is! I'm so thankful for him! As I commented before, I've been sick the past few days - and he's been doing ALL the cooking for us! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And it's tastey! I think he should cook more often! I don't know if it's just because he loves me so or if he thinks my germs need to stay far from the kitchen. :-) He bought me chocolate the other day... !! and always does the dishes (because I really don't like doing them!). He often does the grocery runs (because it means cola for him), and he even lets me have the computer for longer than I should, lol. In return, I let him buy board games. ;-)

*sniffle*

Ack. I'm sick. I knew sooner or later something would affect me as I work with children every day... I took special note of the runny nosed, coughing kids at the preschool on Tuesday, but atlas, they got me anyway. Now my job it is to try and keep Jeremy healthy!

Sunday

Here are some pictures and a video clip from yesterday. :-)

Jeremy's "tiny" slippers he wears at church every Sunday. They are the biggest they have!


We didn't get any pictures of the history lecture we went to, or of my student who presented it, but these are from the building it was in. It is the 200 year old home of the wealthy Kobuta family, Samurai lords. For some reason, the old street was very popular yesterday - there were many tourists walking about, in and out of several of the old homes and museums, taking pictures and buying souvenirs.








Here is a picture of Carla singing with Sonomi at the jazz club. They were singing "Jesus" something - I recognized the song, but couldn't say the title or lyrics, haha.


And Sonomi and her band (the guys have been playing together for over 20 years!). All the songs they sang were popular jazz hits, and all sung in English. We had a lot of fun! A video of their band:

The week is over. :-)

We have a busy day tomorrow, though! Church in the morning, then we're going to one of my student's history lectures near the museum, and then to our friend, Sonomi's, band's concert in Yamaguchi City. Unfortunately, we have been told it is likely we'll have bad weather tomorrow because of an approaching typhoon. Usually just a lot of wind and rain, as none of them hit Hagi directly because we are on the western coast. It's actually a very nice place to live, overall. We're not near the areas that have volcanoes or earthquakes or bad typhoons... we're not inland so the temperature is pretty mild year around and there's always a nice sea breeze. The land is flat, so we don't have to ride up any hills or mountains going to or from work. And the scenery is gorgeous as I've mentioned before. :-) Not to make you all jealous... hehe...

Not much new for us, as usual. Classes are going well, students are passing tests, oh! all the local schools' the Sports Festivals are going on this month, so many students/schools have been very busy practicing and preparing. It's one of the biggest events of the year. We haven't been to one yet, but they are going on every weekend so we still have plenty of chances. The I hear the last week of September is Kimono week... I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I think it involves another parade. We get the first day of that week off work (not sure if it's another holiday or if it's related). Oh! At the last staff meeting we found out we'll be having a Halloween "week" this year! We have to come up with a costume and wear it every day to school so all the kids can enjoy it, not just the classes on Friday (the 31st). Have any ideas on what we should be?