the weekend review...

After much anticipation... and more than one attempt to post this... here it is!

Friday: I had a great day! I was back at Tachikawa... that school is like my second home... being there just feels more natural than Amarume. Shhhhhh! It's a secret!
After school, I took a nap and got ready for kendo. But when I walked over there with all my gear... there was no kendo. Boo! Was quite bummed, but that did mean I got to spend some time getting ready for a party that a fellow teacher was having.
Lauren and I showed up sometime around 9:30... and left around 11. It wasn't that the party wasn't fun... it's that we've grown out of those kind of parties. Sitting around drinking and trying to make mindless conversation isn't as much fun as it once was. So... we ditched as soon as we could politely do so... and another girl ditched with us too... she needed to get home in the morning and my town has a station.

Saturday: Lauren and I got up around 9 to go watch basketball... there was a big practice tournament in my town. My team's pretty good and there were a bunch of teams from around Shonai and then there were teams from other places in northern Japan as well. My boys did fairly well... tying a team they should have beaten (grrrr.. they led th WHOLE game!!!). Then I saw my Tachikawa team... last week one of the boys told me that Tachikawa was a really weak team... but I only half believed him. Apparently he was right, because their team only came to help... to watch and to keep score!! Poor babies... gotta love that... how precious! Around 1 we left... because we had ALT sports day!

Saturday afternoon, in beautiful weather, we had an ALT sports day. Played ultimate and soccer. Now, I'm not a huge fan of ultimate... but I actually had fun. Soccer was fun as well... but I didn't get to play my position... bummer! After the soccer, we headed to an onsen (we were stinky... and sore! a nice hot bath will fix that!) and then on to the indoor events... pool and bowling. I was realy off on the pool... but I did manage to win one game. Ian shot the 8 ball in... and boy did I relish my victory... I jumped up and down and said "I won, I won!" I couldn't help myself. After that, Lauren and I had a date with Orlando... so cut out early.

If you get a chance, go see Kingdom of Heaven... I really enjoyed it, not just because there was beautiful scenery. It makes you think about things today... a little bit anyway.

After the movie we dropped in on the music party that was completely packed!! So we stayed for a little while (15 minutes or less!) and headed out again... only hitch... one of my shoes had managed to go missing. Now, this may sound crazy... but there were a LOT of shoes and we scoured them over and over... I seriously thought I was losing my mind... until someone came back inside... with MY SHOE!!! He'd worn two different shoes out... baka!! But at least I wasn't crazy. :-)

Sunday: I woke up early to head to a baseball game. My Tachikawa boys were playing baseball from 9 in the morning. So I headed up there... I got there a bit after 9. But was excited to see baseball still happening... I got to see about an innings worth of baseball and then it started to rain... first it was pretty light, but within minutes it turned into a MASSIVE downpour! Eeeek! After about 10 minutes of waiting for it to let up, the officials called the game! I was so bummed...grrrr... So I headed out to run some errands... and then headed to Lauren's to watch a bit of TV and then we headed to lunch.
We had lunch at the S-mall... where I managed to see TONS of my old students. One had a part-time job at one of the stores... I saw some of my old girls... and I saw Toshiaki!! Now, Toshiaki is special... last year, I played the Black Eyed Peas during class... and instead of just sitting and doing his work... he busted a move right in his seat!! It was hilarious. So, I caught up with him and it sounds like high school is going well for him! Yay!
After that, we had some time to kill before Lauren and I headed to dinner at Kim and Peter's. So, we karaoked!! We figure that if we do all the things we love enough times before we leave... we won't miss them aas much when we go home... or something like that. :-)

Anyway... there's the weekend!