It's Friday, I'm in Love

 

I've been pouring over Love Shopping Miami's shoe selection. They're all so awesome! I'd buy most of them and I could, cause they're super affordable.

I'm really intrigued by Birch Box subscriptions. For $10 a month they send you samples of beauty products (skin care, makeup, hair care, etc.) tailored specifically for you! I love this idea since I'm always leery of purchasing expensive new products I'm not sure I'll like or use. They only ship within the US, so this will have to wait a bit!

I'm hoping the Harajuku or Shibuya H&M has this dress! I need it for hanami! Though I'll probably need a jacket with how cold it still is.

This website is hilarious! Check out Pinterest, You Are Drunk right now! There are so many ridiculous things on Pinterest, I'm glad someone agrees with me. A rainbow hamburger and sofa made out a bathtub? These are not my kind of DIY.

These black and white landscapes by Christian Villacillo are simple and beautiful. More motivation to save up for a new camera.

A Rilakkuma font!? Rilakkuma is my absolute favorite Japanese character. I collect all the lazy, pancake loving, little bear's merchandise. Puglypixel just posted about a FREE Rilakkuma font which I'm downloading right now.

End of the School Year

Uh-oh. Here come the excuses!

I haven't been posting much due to this awful illness I've had. I've always been super sickly, but Japan just brings out the worst in me! I'm stuck with a lingering cold, but at least I stopped puking? I'm also proud of myself for getting away with not wearing a mask though it was suggested to me multiple times.

I was really busy the last couple of weeks with the end of the school year. I had my last classes with my 3rd year students. They're all pubescent and off to high school now. They were in their first year of junior high when I started work here, so they've been with me the whole way. I'm really going to miss teaching them, but I'm lucky that I'll still see them on a daily basis in the high school.

The same day as my last 3rd classes, my school participated in an interesting exchange program. I'm unsure of all the details, but through government and university sponsors 40 university students from 24 different countries had the opportunity to come to Japan for three weeks. The goal of the visit was to educate them on Japan's future nuclear plans as well as tour areas affected by the March 11 disaster, volunteer and meet the people of Fukushima. Basically, I think Japan wants the rest of the world to know that life is going on normally here. Fukushima is not a "ghost town" as some misguided CNN reporter wrote (and later corrected). As part of their visit, they came to my junior high school and the students put together little activities for them. They did calligraphy, card games, origami, janken games and even a crazy version of musical chairs. It was really fun seeing them so excited and it was great talking to lots of new people who spoke English!

The next meeting of the Aizu Book Club is at Sean and my place again this weekend. The Night Circus is the book this time around and I've done a great job of reading 30-some pages... yikes. I really need to hustle. I've been more worried about the hors d'oeuvre! Sean asked for mini-pizzas so I'll be making these as well as more mini muffins (in cranberry this time). Mini food is the best!

Graduation #3

My school's graduation ceremonies were held March 1st as the Japanese school year runs year round, from April to April. In anime there are always cherry blossoms accompanying graduation ceremonies, but we had snow instead. This was my third graduation now so the novelty has pretty much worn off and I was just cold and miserable sitting through the two hour ceremony. There isn't much of a sense of celebration; it's pretty solemn. The best part is seeing the students afterward, taking some pictures and signing some year books. Brings back all the nostalgia of when I graduated, uh, eight years ago! Remember when everyone thought it was cool to write HAGS in your year book? (HAGS = Have a great summer!)

I have high hopes for lots of the graduating students. A couple of my favorites are studying English and international communications and one is even going to a college in the U.S. I hope I had some small part in helping them get to where they are now.