I ate at McDonalds!

The most unprofessional news crew ever.

Kelly, a tourist in denial.

James the Hedgehog.

Kanami, one of my favorite witches ever.

I haven't written in a while, so I will quickly run through my last week or so (if that's possible for me).

>The Halloween party was fun. But no one actually dresses up here, they just put on Halloween-esque accessories, so my basketball player costume wasn't that impressive. But the hot dog roast and apple pie a la mode made my day!

>Classes are ok. I am beginning to like the adult classes more and more, even if they are rushed and stressful. I enjoy the pressure and feel like a real teacher. Not to say I don't enjoy my girls. I need to invest more time into planning each tutoring session, because each group is at a different level and one lesson plan isn't cutting it.

>Kelly came down this weekend and we visited Kyoto on Saturday. Thank goodness we went with laid back attitudes and short to-do lists, because we got terribly lost and everything was so hard to find. My preconceptions were really off base. Kyoto is indeed an actual city with buildings, people, and traffic. It was not a street of shrines, temples, castles, and souvenir shops. Darn it. As soon as we arrived, we were interviewed about our experience in Kyoto....maybe that was a hint that we were running behind schedule? We did succeed in accidentally finding a McDonald's, visiting 3 or 4 beautiful shrines/temples, and checking out a cute craft store where I picked up my first deck of Japanese playing cards. :) I plan to get one in every city. Of course, Kelly's stay was all too short, but I enjoyed the adventure and staying up way too late to talk about college and our future trip to Thailand. ^_^

>Today I visited Johanna and Kyoko in Yoa again. I went to their church for an outreach event (we watched Night at the Museum and ate really good sweets). I didn't plan on staying long, but they invited me to eat, so I said ok. I'm so glad I did. I forgot how much fun it is to hang out with them. Kyoko speaks perfect English, and they act like sisters, and they always teach me good inside facts about Japan and teaching. We went out to a barbecue place (which I expected to be like Dinosaur BBQ...silly me). There was a stove/grill right on the table. They bring you an [almost] entire cow and you grill it up. It was fantastic. Then we went shopping/exploring at their huge mall and I bought a Disney puzzle and an ice cream cone at a place much like our Cold Stone. mmm.

Now I am home and terribly behind on lesson plans, but of course blogging is more important. ;)