Thailand is fabulous. We are on day 4 of our trip... now headed out from Bangkok and our luxiourious resort to the jungle out east. Last night we had 2 hour thai massages... I just sank into the floor. Have been totally enjoying the thai food and we haven't even gotten sick! Its hot, but not a single drop of rain. We're having a blast!!

Ahhhh!!!! Last day of school, last night in Misato... for almost two weeks... I am a bit stressed trying to get my act together. Tomorrow and Friday I will be in Shiojiri (a few towns from here, also the home of the evil Drivers Lisence Place and the almost as evil Driving School... more below) for a two day AET training meeting. My supervisor and I are presenting a workshop on team-teaching. I had full responsibility for planning since next week is mid-terms and on top of that all of the teachers were required to be observed by the principal and other school higher ups... they've been out of their minds busy. So, I had one of our classes with the 1st graders video taped and we will be talking about our (rare) ability to actually share most of a class (as opposed to JETs who are shoved in a corner and dusted off for a couple of minutes of pronounciation practice, etc.). Unfortunately, I have to stay for the rest of the conference, too. Six long workshops, all the exact topics from last year.. most of the same people (minus those who went home and plus the newbies... same atmosphere though the names just change). We are required to stay in the nasty hotel at the center even though the Japanese English teachers who come are not (Jaclyn and I tried to get out of it last year but were harassed with constant phone calls to our school and Board of Education asking if we were sure we hadn't made a mistake and could make it back to the center for the second day... I decided to give in this year and save myself the hassle). We also have a curfew, have received an e-mail requiring us to wear suits (I refuse on account of my going directly to Thailand from the conference and just on stubborn-ness), and spent the two days last year being berated by the organizers and keynote speaker for being immature, responsibility shirking, messy post-college students on a free ride. Needless to say, I am dreading this meeting and for some reason feel as if I'm not being treated as a professional. Probably out of line but... (yeah right).

On to the more fun stuff!!!

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving went really well. It was exhausting- we cooked from about 1pm to 11pm on Saturday and from 1pm to 6pm on Sunday. It all got done though, and I have pictures to proove it. It was a great time had by all... which could have been slightly related to the amount of whiskey in our pecan pies. (hehehe)

Driving Lesson: Did I say fun stuff? Yeah, I'm sure this topic will be fun one of these days (perhaps if I ever GET my lisence) so I'll just leave this here for now. Last night was my first (and hopefully only) driving lesson. It was mortifying, stressful, and completely and utterly annoying. First of all, there are the transportation issues, but I crabbed about that last week so I'll let you find that yourself. Here's how it went: I am all checked in at the front desk and have my file. The 5:38 bell rings and a happy voice tells us its time for all of us 5:40 appointment people to find our cars. I leave the building with 10 or so others and try to find my car- #1 according to my computer generated slip. There are a lot of cars. Everyone else has found theirs and I get nervous so I run back into the building and ask where the hell my car is. They show me on a map and roll their eyes as I'm leaving (ok, I could just be projecting here...). I run back out into the parking lot and find my car because next to it is standing a little man who looks annoyed and like he's waiting for someone. I've already lost face... we get in the car and do a tiny bit of small talk. He tells me to start the car & back up. After waiting for the woman in back of me to move, I start backing up and am in the middle of straightening out the car when he grabs the wheel and starts reprimanding me for the way I hold the steering wheel. Apparently, in Japan it is against the law to turn the wheel in an underhand grip instead of overhand. He is shocked the test folks didn't say anything to me about it. We practice holding and turning the steering wheel. We're 5 minutes into the lesson and I already know the next hour is going to hurt (but I suppose I should have guessed that at $100/hour). So then we drive around the corner. Oh- have I mentioned that this is a closed course? We're practicing on this course that is supposed to be a duplicate of the course at the testing facility- except it isn't and I'm totally confused. We've done a full lap when he says "Aizu". I figure he wants me to look in my mirror, (Japanese pronounciation of "Eyes"?) so I do. He says "Aizu! Aizu!!". I madly look around, both sides, in all mirrors and he's just yelling louder. Finally he crams on the break and as we jerk to a halt in the middle of the road he reaches across me and yanks on my turn signal. "Aizu, Aizu!!!" "You don't know how to turn on your turn signal???" Uh, ok... I'm really peeved at this point and of course his personality type isn't one to let me defend myself and we go do another lap. This time when he starts yelling "Aizu", I get only briefly confused and sort of manage to get my blinker on before he breaks on me again and we have the same conversation. Try #3 is a total disaster because though I have figured out what he's yelling, I don't know why, since he hasn't told me where and which direction to turn. I have no idea which blinker to turn on and he crams on the break again and just shakes his head. I'm practically in tears and utterly confused. He opens his glove compartment, gets out a book and shows me pictures of how in Japan, if you want to turn, you must turn your blinker on about 5 miles ahead of time, look behind you, and then three seconds later move over to the absolute rightest most right section of the lane. Then he asks me scornfully if we don't do this in America? Well, no, sir... we don't have to get over in the lane (though we may actually have more than one lane in which case we'll change lanes, but... and EYES MEANS EYES!!!!). Gah... so, the rest of the lesson went pretty much like that. We'd somewhat managed to speak the same language by the time I finished... but I don't think he sounded too hopefull when he wished me luck on the test. I wonder if they put bets on who will be back for more lessons?? Oh brother... it was terrible. Please Lord, let me pass so I never have to go anywhere near Shiojiri again!!!

Exhale.

So I leave for Thailand on Saturday morning. That thought has been sustaining me through 2 months of driving crap, 3 weeks of no classes and utter boredom, and two weeks of very little "going right". I am incredibly in need of a vacation. We will be in Bankok a couple nights and are also visiting the old capital city of Ayutthaya, going hiking in a junle national park, and spending two days on an island doing NOTHING. I will be a very, very happy and relaxed camper.

So hopefully I haven't spread my stress... to show that I still have my sense of humor, here are two students' journal entries for today. They both made me laugh- out loud. Its all about the little things.

Dear Ms. sherman
Today it was sunny, but it was very
cold in the morning. So I put on my
mother's gloves. I felt warm, and I
think I'll use gloves tomorrow again.
From Saki

Dear Ms. Shaman,
I studyed English.
I'm difficulted.
From Keisuke.

I've been very busy these past few days. Saturday I followed Jaclyn and Danielle all the way over to Shiojiri for their weekly 3 hour Japanese lesson JUST so I could go to the Shiojiri Driving School so I could register for lessons and make an apppointment. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I needed the form from the DMV that said (in bright red) that I had failed (you can't practice until you fail... which is logical, right???). So I had to blow 3 hours riding around pretending I couldn't have been sleeping, instead. Made up for it at Starbucks in Nagano City. Sunday was rainy: I waited until a pause and went out and ran 6 miles. It felt much better than my hot run during the Apple Marathon. I pretty much didn't do anything else all day. Monday was rainy: I went to school and taught very little (finals are coming up). Then Jaclyn and I jumped in the car and drove all the way over to the Shiojiri Driving School so I could register for lessons and make an apppointment. They were closed... grrrrrrrrr. Apparently Monday is their day off (and I am completely jinxed). I managed to get my hair cut, instead. Yesterday (Tuesday) it poured: I watched the rain dump all day. Couldn't run. After school, I jumped on a train and raced all the way over to the Shiojiri Driving School so I could register for lessons and make an apppointment. Made it in less than a half hour, which is faster than we could drive. They were thankfully open. Registered, made my appointment. Missed my return train by TWO minutes... was forced to wait another 50 for the next one. My train from Matsumoto (where I would change) wasn't scheduled to leave for a half hour after I would get there. Total: one hour and 45 minute return. I talked Jaclyn into picking me up in Matsumoto. I almost cried in relief.

Whew! Today, the rain has finally stopped. I am having a good day of school and though I have to stay late to practice interviewing students (they are taking a proficiency exam on Sunday), I'm hoping to squeeze a run in before dinner and Shodo tonight. Tomorrow is likely to be totally normal, then Friday brings the all school Halloween assembly at Jaclyn's elementary school (at which the entire 1000 students and teachers will be line dancing at one time... because that's what we do in America on Halloween in November... ) and then I'm off for Tokyo. Tom & I are celebrating Thanksgiving on Sunday with a real turkey and all the appropriate fixings. We've invited everyone we know... last year it was a wake up call to just how much work goes into T-day dinner. This year we've gotten smarter and we'll be cooking on Saturday AND Sunday... (did I say smarter?). Most of the credit for actuall planning, food procurement and recipe collection (not to mention house cleaning and 90% of the guest list) goes to him... I'm more of just the un-paid labor. ;)
(extra thanks to Mom & Dad for the video taped football, Jaclyn for the Peanuts' Thanksgiving Special video, and Danielle for the video of last year's Macy's T-day parade...we're doing it in style!!)

So-because we'll be in Thailand for Thanksgiving... let me take this space to say-- Happy Turkey Day to You!!

You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish, if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
- Abraham Lincoln

woo-hooo!!! Check out the link to the Marriott Hotel Tom & I are staying at in Bangkok. We plan on spending the rest of the trip in $8 a night bungalows, etc... but Tom has racked up mega points with Marriott through business travel, so we're crashing at the Marriott when we first arrive... for free!

Today a strange man with a knife wandered into our school. It was ok, because he was actually one of the P.E. teachers (who IS actually a bit strange). We had a "stranger in the building" drill which then turned into a "dangerous stranger in the building" drill once the teachers "realized" that he had a knife. It was interesting, and apparently scared a couple of the students a little- even though we all knew about it in advance. As good a thing to practice here as anywhere, since Japan has suffered a handful of attacks on schools in recent years (most by outsiders, not students as in the States). We all safely exited the building from various exits and assembled on the ground outside (I would say field... except there's nothing but dirt). Then everyone was counted and after the pseudo-drill was finished a police officer from a neighboring town talked to the students about the drill and different situations. Everyone was very well behaved- there was no laughing, not even any talking as we exited the building... I was impressed, as usual.

This week the nights have been quite cold, so last night I even set up my kotatsu (you have to scroll down for the picture), a cool table that doesn't exist at home, but should! The top of the table isn't connected to the legs, so you can put a blanket underneath it. Then, the table plugs into a wall and has a heater underneath. When you turn it on, the heater heats (obviously) and everyone can sit with their legs underneath and be at least half warm. I've never seen a kotatsu that wasn't a low style Japanese table... so when you're imagining this, you have to imagine everyone sitting on the floor. Anyhow, I started increasing my daily intentional Japanese studies, so turning the kotatsu on was critical in order to keep focused. ;) Only a month until my test and I doubt I will study much in Thailand...

I had a great weekend! I got a lot of sleep in, Tom and I hung out, and Jaclyn, Tom, Danielle, Angie and I all ran parts of the Apple Marathon! The race is organized by the Misato Tourist Association, which I didn't realize existed. Tom ran the half marathon (really fast), Jaclyn and Danielle ran the 5k, and Angie and I ran the 10k. It was a bright, warm day for the first weekend in November so the scenery was beautiful. It was a lot hotter than we'd all imagined it would be and were all wishing that there had been more water on the race course. Other than that, I think everyone had a great time. Many of my students and Jaclyn's were also running and were astounded by the fact that we actually have friends! Tom won the crate of Fuji apples for the international men's division again (all two of them), but this year Jaclyn took it home for the women (all four of us). The rest of us were satisfied with our finisher's prize of a Misato Apple Marathon 2003 towel and two beautiful apples.

Since I saw my Vice-Principal with camera zoomed while I crossed the finish line, I was expecting to see the shot at school today. I was shocked though, when I saw not only that picture, but also a picture in the Shimin Times (the paper for the villages in this area) and the Nagano Prefecture paper!! I'm a bit embarrassed... ! Check it out!