Went to a thrift shop with Mom, my sister, my aunt, and two high school aged cousins. I bought a pair of slacks and a soft brown sweater for $8 each. I hate clothes shopping and spending money on clothes, so I was quite proud of myself. The rest of the family went crazy in the store, and I grew bored fairly quickly. My cousin Brian went for the ( Read more... )

In Kentucky, 75% voted to ban gay marriage by a state constitutional amendment.

And the Presidential election isn't looking good. I've managed to live abroad for most of W's reign and was hoping for him to be out of office when I return in July 2005.

Today was my first full day at Saga Kita High School, though classes don't start until the week after next. I've taught at a lot of schools in my time here (when I leave it will be eight schools in three years!). In Japan, schools are divided into type, you have academic schools, technical schools (engineering, machinery...), commercial schools ( ( Read more... )

I woke up at three in the morning to a whistling sound...the wind. Michael says that it sounds like a typhoon, so I go and turn on the weather channel. Yep, there's a typhoon passing right over us. It sounds pretty bad so we leave the bedroom/living room since they have glass doors along the outside wall. We sit in the dining room and play some ( Read more... )

I had a great day today. I met two of my former students this afternoon. During the year I formed a casual English speaking club and these two students came to every meeting. They also helped me out when I held an English camp for the younger class at this school ( Read more... )

I just did a three day, two night English camp. It was held by University students who are studying to be English teachers for junior high school students. There were about twenty-five university students, two university exchange students (one from Poland, one from Taiwan), five ALTs (assistant language teachers, I'm one of them), and only ( Read more... )

It has been in the 90s all week, with a heat index of over 100. Saga has this terrible tendency to be cloudy and sunny at the same time. No breeze, high humidy, no grass or trees to cool things down. I don't like biking in this heat so Michael and I stay at home until late evening on the weekends. It's boring. I would like to go to a park to ( Read more... )

It would seem rather silly to create an account and not post something. So, here it is.