January 25- 31, 2010
Eric went to work today although he did not feel up to it. Fortunately he doesn't teach on Mondays, and since he wasn't feeling well he didn't get dressed up in a suit and tie... he wore a "track suit" (more about that soon). Fortunately once they saw him in a track suit and wearing a winter hat and a face mask and they heard his cough, they sent him home.
The work dress code in Northern Japan (I have no idea if it's the same in the bigger cities in the Southern regions) is so bizarre. Classroom teachers are expected to wear a suit and tie, which seems appropriate because the students uniforms are pretty formal as well. However, if you choose not to wear a suit for whatever reason, it is perfectly acceptable to wear a track suit, matching top and bottom, with a t-shirt and gym shoes. However, showing up to work in jeans is a huge no-no. In the summer when Eric arrived and before the students were on campus he was told to wear Khaki shorts and a polo, but never ever jeans. I understand that part to some degree, but I don't see how glorified pajamas are more acceptable than jeans!
By Tuesday Eric finally seems to be doing better. When he got home from work yesterday and today we did nothing but rest and watch movies and play games. I am really hoping he will feel much better tomorrow, I hate seeing him so miserable :/
On Wednesday Eric's supervisor was finally back to work! He has been out for quite some time to mourn the passing of his father in law. Eric is quite happy to have him back! I have been very busy with Organic Chemistry lately!! I am taking it online through ASU and it started right when we got back from Thailand. I am loving being back in school, even though it's only 1 class. It's also the best online class I have ever taken, the lectures are recorded in the live version of the class and there are TONS of online resources that our professor has created. The other day I emailed him with a question because the virtual office hours (via live video chat) for that day were in the middle of the night for me, he responded and said he couldn't answer it in an email and he was sure other people had the question too so he would make a video about it and post it. Isn't that awesome!!
On Wednesday night we went to Goshogowara to the travel agency inside the mall to pick up our early birthday present from Eric's parents! Next weekend we are going by train to Sapporo for Yuki Matsuri! I am sooo excited! I have been putting more thought into mapping out this short trip than any trip I've ever taken before :)
On Thursday Eric visited another school in the area rather than teaching at his regular school. He taught at the handicapped school that is about 40 minutes away. The best part was that he got to sleep late AND come home early!! Thursday night we went to tutoring at Toshiya's house for the first time in over a month! We realized how much more we need to study!! But we are still learning a lot as well!
Friday was a nice quiet day! I talked to quite a few people on skype during the day, in fact for most of the day and then Eric and I had movie night!
Saturday was an official Ladies Day! Our friend Rachel was kind enough to host a baking and Dinner party. About 8 of us Aomori girls got together and shared our favorite recipes for baking and then we made dinner together as well. It was a good thing we planned on eating at Rachel's house because by the time dinner rolled around we had all had so much sugar our sobriety may have been questioned had we been out in public. It was a really fantastic day from baking, and girl talk, to life decisions chats, to building human pryamids and learning a "delicious dance" from our Chinease friend Yuan. It was awesome! I met Yuan today, I'm sad I hadn't met her sooner! She is here from China as an Coordinator of International Relations and she lives less than an hour away from us. I had her make a short video to say hi to my sister in Chinease and at the end she did a silly dance saying Delicious in Chinease. After happened we all had to know what she was talking about so she taught us all the phrase and the dance... here it is. (I might get beat up for sharing this! JK!)
On Sunday Eric and Genny and I headed to Fujisaki (where Fuji apples come from, more later) for a kite festival. Let me remind you that we have TONS of snow and it's very cold outside, and someone intentionally planned an all day outdoor event here! It was tons of fun and we dressed well for it, so it was quite enjoyable. When people in Japan do anything, they like to do it big... I think they should really adapt the motto "Go Big or Go Home" and it was no different with their kites. Some of the kites we so large they came in on service trucks, most of them were as large as the cars. We were standing around the barrel of Sake and were approached by a few Japanese men holding a giant kite! They asked us to hold it and take photos, and we did and it went on and on. Eventually families came up and posed with us and our kite, and the news crew came in and took video! I'm pretty sure we made the evening news, but we don't have TV so I don't know for sure. After the photo shoot ended, they had us attempt to fly the kite. Running with a kite this massive is hard enough, but there was deep snow too! I offered to take photos while my friends flew the kite :) It was a good decision. The weather was so clear and beautiful! In fact it was so clear that they weren't able to fly some of the larger kites. They tried to get them up using a snow mobile, but they wouldn't stay up and I think out of fear that they would crash and get damaged, they didn't fly them. Here are some photos from the day:
At one point during the day the sky was this clear ^ and blue!! Can you believe it! We had a sunny, clear, Winter day!
The work dress code in Northern Japan (I have no idea if it's the same in the bigger cities in the Southern regions) is so bizarre. Classroom teachers are expected to wear a suit and tie, which seems appropriate because the students uniforms are pretty formal as well. However, if you choose not to wear a suit for whatever reason, it is perfectly acceptable to wear a track suit, matching top and bottom, with a t-shirt and gym shoes. However, showing up to work in jeans is a huge no-no. In the summer when Eric arrived and before the students were on campus he was told to wear Khaki shorts and a polo, but never ever jeans. I understand that part to some degree, but I don't see how glorified pajamas are more acceptable than jeans!
By Tuesday Eric finally seems to be doing better. When he got home from work yesterday and today we did nothing but rest and watch movies and play games. I am really hoping he will feel much better tomorrow, I hate seeing him so miserable :/
On Wednesday Eric's supervisor was finally back to work! He has been out for quite some time to mourn the passing of his father in law. Eric is quite happy to have him back! I have been very busy with Organic Chemistry lately!! I am taking it online through ASU and it started right when we got back from Thailand. I am loving being back in school, even though it's only 1 class. It's also the best online class I have ever taken, the lectures are recorded in the live version of the class and there are TONS of online resources that our professor has created. The other day I emailed him with a question because the virtual office hours (via live video chat) for that day were in the middle of the night for me, he responded and said he couldn't answer it in an email and he was sure other people had the question too so he would make a video about it and post it. Isn't that awesome!!
On Wednesday night we went to Goshogowara to the travel agency inside the mall to pick up our early birthday present from Eric's parents! Next weekend we are going by train to Sapporo for Yuki Matsuri! I am sooo excited! I have been putting more thought into mapping out this short trip than any trip I've ever taken before :)
On Thursday Eric visited another school in the area rather than teaching at his regular school. He taught at the handicapped school that is about 40 minutes away. The best part was that he got to sleep late AND come home early!! Thursday night we went to tutoring at Toshiya's house for the first time in over a month! We realized how much more we need to study!! But we are still learning a lot as well!
Friday was a nice quiet day! I talked to quite a few people on skype during the day, in fact for most of the day and then Eric and I had movie night!
Saturday was an official Ladies Day! Our friend Rachel was kind enough to host a baking and Dinner party. About 8 of us Aomori girls got together and shared our favorite recipes for baking and then we made dinner together as well. It was a good thing we planned on eating at Rachel's house because by the time dinner rolled around we had all had so much sugar our sobriety may have been questioned had we been out in public. It was a really fantastic day from baking, and girl talk, to life decisions chats, to building human pryamids and learning a "delicious dance" from our Chinease friend Yuan. It was awesome! I met Yuan today, I'm sad I hadn't met her sooner! She is here from China as an Coordinator of International Relations and she lives less than an hour away from us. I had her make a short video to say hi to my sister in Chinease and at the end she did a silly dance saying Delicious in Chinease. After happened we all had to know what she was talking about so she taught us all the phrase and the dance... here it is. (I might get beat up for sharing this! JK!)
On Sunday Eric and Genny and I headed to Fujisaki (where Fuji apples come from, more later) for a kite festival. Let me remind you that we have TONS of snow and it's very cold outside, and someone intentionally planned an all day outdoor event here! It was tons of fun and we dressed well for it, so it was quite enjoyable. When people in Japan do anything, they like to do it big... I think they should really adapt the motto "Go Big or Go Home" and it was no different with their kites. Some of the kites we so large they came in on service trucks, most of them were as large as the cars. We were standing around the barrel of Sake and were approached by a few Japanese men holding a giant kite! They asked us to hold it and take photos, and we did and it went on and on. Eventually families came up and posed with us and our kite, and the news crew came in and took video! I'm pretty sure we made the evening news, but we don't have TV so I don't know for sure. After the photo shoot ended, they had us attempt to fly the kite. Running with a kite this massive is hard enough, but there was deep snow too! I offered to take photos while my friends flew the kite :) It was a good decision. The weather was so clear and beautiful! In fact it was so clear that they weren't able to fly some of the larger kites. They tried to get them up using a snow mobile, but they wouldn't stay up and I think out of fear that they would crash and get damaged, they didn't fly them. Here are some photos from the day:
At one point during the day the sky was this clear ^ and blue!! Can you believe it! We had a sunny, clear, Winter day!
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