I have tons of things to write... all the time... I just wish I could have them instantly processed into this journal the minute I think of it. Unfortunately, they haven't thought that one up for me yet.

I have been insanely busy as of late. Pretty impressive considering that in the last month.. I've only been at school for four days. After getting back to school last Thursday, I had two full days of classes, then we had this Monday off, again! No, I didn't infect the school with SARS somehow. Saturday was the area sports championships day. All of the students who are on a sports team here at school (and their coaches.. the coaches are the teachers) spent the day competing with the five or so other schools in our area. The students not playing were here at school in study halls and working on things with their (non-athletic) clubs. Jaclyn, Danielle, and I hit the road and attempted to see as many games as possible.

We saw the girls volleyball in Azusagawa, first. Coincidently, Misato (my school) was matched against Horigane (Danielle's school). It was so much fun to cheer for the two teams. Our team came out really strong right away, but then let Horigane beat them in the first game. Fortunately, they came back and won the next two... so Misato won and Horigane was done. Two interesting notes: they play to 25 points here, and they are allowed 4 hits. Strange, eh?

Next we headed back to Misato to watch some kendo. Kendo is a Japanese martial art practiced with full armor: a face mask, hard torso shield, and arm guards. The opposing individuals swipe at each other with bamboo swords. And they yell... loudly and like they're going to kill their opponent. That's about all I know about kendo.. but it was cool to watch and the kids were impressed that we were there.

Third we drove out to Toyoshina to watch the guys and girls tennis teams. It was starting to rain.. and both Misato teams were getting their butts kicked, so we didn't stay too long. We all thought it was odd that each team picks their uniform style and color totally randomly... the schools don't seem to stick to any sort of school color scheme like back home (here the volleyball team was in black/gray, the tennis ladies were bright orange, the tennis guys were black/gray, the girls basketball wore royal blue/white, and the boys were in red/white!).

Finally, we watched the Misato girls basketball team just clobber Danielle's Horigane team. We couldn't quite believe we were looking in the right spot when we saw the score as we arrived: 91-0 (Misato). Just as we began to look around for another scoreboard... Misato scored and the numbers changed to 93-0. The final score ended up being 186 to ZERO. When in the final minutes the Horigane girls got the ball across the center line (heading towards a shot) for the first time in the game... everyone watching (regardless of school affiliation) just started screaming. Alas, they never scored. And their psychotic AET, Danielle, nearly jumped over the edge of the balcony she was screaming so hard!

My students were all really psyched to see me at the games, and it was fun to see them outside of school. We were exhausted afterwards.. but it was definitely a good afternoon of entertainment.

On Sunday, the three of us spent hours in Jaclyn and my gardens. We planted (I bought some basil and lavendar to replace the seeds that never grew and some extra flowers and flower seeds) and hauled rocks all day. I'm still trying to get my yard to look a bit more normal.. or just a bit less embarrassing. Motivation came earlier last week when my neighbor peeked over his fence and mentioned that "they" (meaning the other neighbors but he's about the only one who ever sees my yard) "couldn't complain" (about my yard) because "they" knew it is the Board of Education's responsibility, and not mine. Yah!!! I wish he'd just go ahead and complain, maybe then I could get some help with it (background: my yard is a disaster... a JET 5 years ago or so created a massive patio and garden, then everyone after her ignored it... so what's left is a jungle of weeds with a rock mound in the middle... kind of like an overgown cemetary. Everyone is constantly telling me how beautiful it used to be and how the community helped her build it in one day, but to date.. no one has offered a hand in cleaning it up. And apparently no one helped out when it was going to hell from neglect. So that's my mission). Anyhow... Danielle attacked the rock mound (Tom actually started doing it about a week ago).. and we just destroyed it. Now it just looks like someone dropped a dirt bomb on my sideyard, then dumped a pile of rocks on top of that. I'm sure its something of an improvement?? Perhaps not... anyway, I'm still working on it.

My veggies are all going strong. I have several cucumbers, a pile of growing, green tomatoes, and lots of happy bean plants (no beans yet thought). Unfortunately, the Board of Ed. decided to come spray weed killer last week (maybe someone complained?) only an hour before it started raining out... so the spray leached into my wanted plants... killing half of my cucumbers, most of my sunflowers, and perhaps my watermelon and a pepper plant. Gah. Some help!

Now I'm back at school. I've had loads of classes in the last two days...I can't hardly see straight between planning lessons, reading & responding to journals.. and making small talk or playing games with all the students who hang out in the English office between class and after school. Ontop of that... Jaclyn and I had our first adult English class of the season last night. They asked us to do an intense "serious" course, with textbooks and homework. Now, I will be the first one to admit, loudly, that I AM NOT A REAL TEACHER!!! That's right folks, no training here... Anyhow.. there are some serious expectations that the two of us need to meet for the next 7 classes (now only 6) and I was sweating bullets before we started class last night. The best part is that my text book is 75% in Japanese!! You would think the teacher would be the person who'd understand the text best, wouldn't you? Not here. I think class went all right, so far no one's asked for a refund. I figure that the worst that can happen is that they won't ask me to do it again... and that would be FINE with me. My new mantra these days seems to be "You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be perfect...." and somehow it's helping. But don't expect perfection,... because you're not getting it!!