Kouyou

Just to let you know, I did try to post more recently than this, but for some reason the page didn't post and I lost everything I had typed and got a bit discouraged.

So now it is Autumn in Niigata....or Aki, as they call it here....the leaves are yellow and orange and red and just suteki here in the mountains!I taught my final Halloween lesson on Monday at Yasazuka, and everyone had fun, but I was kind of tired of halloween by that point.

Let's see things that I probably didn't get posted since last...Halloween night, actually Saturday, was spent at an open mic night Halloween party in Joetsu. Some of it was awesome and some of it was...well, it encouraged me to get up on stage at the next one and pull out my fiddle. The next one is in December. I've been getting along well with the new English teacher who is my neighbor, Shiga-sensei. We are the same age as me, and the same height, and yesterday we even both wore similear clothes...khaki pants and dark sweaters. We claimed we were twins. For the 1st grade Junior High students we made cookies together and cooked spaghetti for dinner. It's been pretty fun, and I have alot more input and work to do now that she's at school, but that is so much less boring than before so I'm happy. I worry sometimes because I tend to try to be constructive at home playing the fiddle, using the sewing machine, cooking stuff, cleaning...and the walls are real thin...I try to plan for when she's not there though....but either way at least we're still young and both tend to stay up a bit later.

This past weekend I was just too worn out and working on a cold to go all the way to Niigata for Peter Pan practice, so I stayed home. I did get together with Victoria though and we went to Mr. Books to rent some movies. We watched Big Fish one day, and then Cold Mountain, which made us both cry and me incredibly homesick. This month is a bad one for homesickness. Oshima has all the makings of NC and Kentucky put together in landscape, maybe even in spirit too, but it's still Japan and they don't have Jack O Lanterns, and they don't have Thanksgiving dinner, or Christmas Holidays. Now don't get me wrong, they have Santa and trees and xmas cards at Jusco department store, and they know some about Christmas (the christian roots, I'm not sure everyone knows), but it's not a national holiday like back home...but New Year's is. It does seem like there are alot of 1 day holidays scattered throughout the year though which is a nice relief sometimes.

As for events, it seems the earthquakes aren't quite over yet. We had another good one on monday, and a little tremor last night. They aren't really that intereresting anymore, just kind of annoying.

I'm at the Elementary today and I'm about to go to my first English conversation club. There are only 4 members so it should be easy to do all sorts of stuff. Tomorow I have kindergarten, and hopefully I won't get beat up again.. geez those kids are rough...but it's hard to explain that they can't do that when you don't speak the same language. Though tomorow I'm going to try wearing a big apron like the other teachers so there will be no more attempts to look at my underwear (of course underwear is just sooo funny at this age).

I took another look at Stephen's web page, one of my Laurens homeboys....he has been busy and up to really cool reenactment stuff..check it out: banjochicken.blogspot.com