Dear Judith,
We just got home this afternoon from Tokyo, and it was fantastic! Amy, Rhonda, and I arrived on Wednesday night into Narita, then just barely made it to our hotel in Tokyo in time to keep our reservation.
We stayed at a backpacker's hotel. It was cheap and clean, though none of us ever got a great night's sleep. Our rooms were very small, but sufficient for the amount of time we spent in them.
We woke up early on Thursday morning and headed to Ueno Station where one of the most amazing things happened: Rhonda and I got Starbucks! I've missed it very much. I mean, Java Joe's is nice, but I haven't even been there for over a month.
We left the station and saw our first signs of autumn. Rhonda and I played in the leaves for a bit which was simply lovely. We went to Ueno Zoo and walked around, seeing all sorts of wonderful creatures. Unfortunately, Ling-Ling, the Giant Panda died on April 30th from heart failure.
After leaving the zoo, we went to my favorite shrine. There, we saw the fire of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A man went to his uncle's house in Hiroshima after the bombs were dropped and found an ember still burning. He kept it burning in his house as a reminder of the violence. This temple has been keeping it burning since he died as a memorial to those who were killed by the bombs.
On Thursday, we went to Tokyo tower and a park around there. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, full of beautiful fall trees. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observation deck. Unfortunately, it was foggy so we couldn't see too far but it was still a nice view.
On Friday, we went to the Hie Jinja shrine and temple. It was stunning. We ate our first real meal in Harajuku for dinner, and wandered around for awhile. We tried to find the SDA church and looked around for about an hour and a half. We finally found it, just in time for vespers.
That's where we met Jasmine, a British woman who's teaching English at the SDA Language school in Harajuku. She invited us to the church in Nagayama with the youth group and we gratefully accepted.
We woke up early on Sabbath morning to meet her at the church. We walked to the station together and took a very long and expensive ride to Nagayama with about half of the group. Sabbath school was nice, and church was conducted in Japanese. We met the rest of the youth group and everyone was so warm and accepting. We left them to go see the Imperial Gardens with plans to meet back up for dinner.
The Gardens were closed by the time we got there, so we went back to Harajuku and saw some Cos-Play, but not much. We found the guys and went to a really cool restaurant where we laughed the evening away.
We woke up very early this morning in order to catch our flight back home. The experience was great, the new friends were awesome, and Tokyo was breathtakingly beautiful. I'll post pictures later.
Miss you and love you!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Reconnecting
Dear Judith,
Sorry that I haven't written in a very long time. I keep meaning to, but something always distracts me. Work has been fun. We had two new kids yesterday. The little girl was adopted from Haiti, and she's adorable.
Today is the last day of elementary before Thanksgiving break, but I still get to work tomorrow. Then, at around 2:30, Amy, Rhonda, and I will leave the preschool, go to the airport, and get on a plane for Japan! I'm so incredibly excited to experience something new. After living in Saipan for 4 months, things start to feel a little mundane. That's not to say that I don't still love it, because I do, so very much.
My friend Angie, the kindergarten teacher, flew home on Friday. We plan to meet up with her in Narita while she waits for her connecting flight. I miss her though. She's one of my favorites.
Sabbath was a nice day. We had church and then a potluck at Susupe Beach Park, by the Grand Hotel and SCS. Ken and Crystal brought their new puppy, and she's so cute! Everyone was in the mood for a hike, except for me. My ankle was hurting and I didn't want to hurt it more before I go to Japan and walk everywhere. Everyone else hiked down to Bird Island and Amy and I went to Wing Beach. It was my first time and it was pretty cool. There were less sea cucumbers than at Pau Pau, which was nice because I hate them!
Anyway, I should start packing. I miss you and hope that life is beautiful for you!
Sorry that I haven't written in a very long time. I keep meaning to, but something always distracts me. Work has been fun. We had two new kids yesterday. The little girl was adopted from Haiti, and she's adorable.
Today is the last day of elementary before Thanksgiving break, but I still get to work tomorrow. Then, at around 2:30, Amy, Rhonda, and I will leave the preschool, go to the airport, and get on a plane for Japan! I'm so incredibly excited to experience something new. After living in Saipan for 4 months, things start to feel a little mundane. That's not to say that I don't still love it, because I do, so very much.
My friend Angie, the kindergarten teacher, flew home on Friday. We plan to meet up with her in Narita while she waits for her connecting flight. I miss her though. She's one of my favorites.
Sabbath was a nice day. We had church and then a potluck at Susupe Beach Park, by the Grand Hotel and SCS. Ken and Crystal brought their new puppy, and she's so cute! Everyone was in the mood for a hike, except for me. My ankle was hurting and I didn't want to hurt it more before I go to Japan and walk everywhere. Everyone else hiked down to Bird Island and Amy and I went to Wing Beach. It was my first time and it was pretty cool. There were less sea cucumbers than at Pau Pau, which was nice because I hate them!
Anyway, I should start packing. I miss you and hope that life is beautiful for you!
Monday, November 3, 2008
My Busy Weekend
Dear Judith,
It's Monday evening and I'm relaxing while Rhonda makes me biscuits. I started a new tutoring job tonight but they didn't feed me. I made a chill playlist on my Itunes and I'm feeling good, despite the weekend I had.
Amy and I needed to change the theme in our classroom from bugs to food and giving thanks, so we decided to spend the night at the preschool on Saturday night and work while watching episodes of Lost.
However, on Sabbath afternoon, I found out that Twyla (the dental hygienist) had got 21 tickets to Managaha. Rhonda and Nicole both planned on going, and I really wanted to as well. I talked to Amy and we decided to see if we could finish up a lot of our classroom stuff on Saturday night and then go back on Sunday afternoon and finish. The plan was to leave for Managaha at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
We got to the preschool at 7:00 p.m. Saturday and got to work immediately. Since we had done little to no preparation during the week, there was lots of cutting and contact papering to do. Time went quickly and before I knew it, it was 11:15 p.m. We kept working, planning, organizing. My back was sore from bending over the miniature tables in my classroom. My hands ached from holding a pair of scissors for 4 hours. The hands on the clock kept turning, seeming to have a mind of their own. Before we knew it, it was 5:00 a.m. and we were both delirious. Deciding the ten hours was enough for one night, we left the preschool. I dropped Amy off at her house, warning her that if Megan had locked the deadbolt on my front door, I would be back. She gave me her extra key and I drove towards home.
Of course the deadbolt was locked and it's so rusty that my key doesn't work on it. I walked back to Subee, shoulders slumped, exhausted. Driving back to Amy's, I was angry at my roommates for locking me out, but after praying, I realized that there was no reason to be upset. I had a bed to sleep in and everything was worked out.
I crawled onto Amy's bed with her and was asleep in about 2 minutes. I awoke about an hour later and drove home. Rhonda and I got ready for Managaha and were out of the house by 8:15. We picked up Nicole then followed Twyla to the dock. Sean, Barbara, and Elijah came too, which was a real treat for me since I never see them. We laid out on the beach and I got a sunburn, though not a bad one.
We got home and Rhonda and I moved downstairs, then I went back to work for a little bit. French and Rhonda had to sing at the church for the evangelistic meetings so I waited in the car listening to episodes of a podcast that my friend, Donnie, started at Southern .
The three of us went and did laundry and tried to buy plane tickets for Christmas, but that was unsuccessful. The dryer didn't dry any of my clothes and we got home around 10:00 p.m. I hung up all of my wet clothes and put my damp sheets on my bed, which was so uncomfortable that it would have hindered my sleep if I hadn't been so exhausted.
I woke up this morning for a regular Monday, except that I tutored a different kid, which I think was a blessing from God because I probably wouldn't have had an adequate amount of patience to deal with Ricky.
It was a long weekend and it will be a long week, but still...there's no place I'd rather be. I love you and miss you Judith!
It's Monday evening and I'm relaxing while Rhonda makes me biscuits. I started a new tutoring job tonight but they didn't feed me. I made a chill playlist on my Itunes and I'm feeling good, despite the weekend I had.
Amy and I needed to change the theme in our classroom from bugs to food and giving thanks, so we decided to spend the night at the preschool on Saturday night and work while watching episodes of Lost.
However, on Sabbath afternoon, I found out that Twyla (the dental hygienist) had got 21 tickets to Managaha. Rhonda and Nicole both planned on going, and I really wanted to as well. I talked to Amy and we decided to see if we could finish up a lot of our classroom stuff on Saturday night and then go back on Sunday afternoon and finish. The plan was to leave for Managaha at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
We got to the preschool at 7:00 p.m. Saturday and got to work immediately. Since we had done little to no preparation during the week, there was lots of cutting and contact papering to do. Time went quickly and before I knew it, it was 11:15 p.m. We kept working, planning, organizing. My back was sore from bending over the miniature tables in my classroom. My hands ached from holding a pair of scissors for 4 hours. The hands on the clock kept turning, seeming to have a mind of their own. Before we knew it, it was 5:00 a.m. and we were both delirious. Deciding the ten hours was enough for one night, we left the preschool. I dropped Amy off at her house, warning her that if Megan had locked the deadbolt on my front door, I would be back. She gave me her extra key and I drove towards home.
Of course the deadbolt was locked and it's so rusty that my key doesn't work on it. I walked back to Subee, shoulders slumped, exhausted. Driving back to Amy's, I was angry at my roommates for locking me out, but after praying, I realized that there was no reason to be upset. I had a bed to sleep in and everything was worked out.
I crawled onto Amy's bed with her and was asleep in about 2 minutes. I awoke about an hour later and drove home. Rhonda and I got ready for Managaha and were out of the house by 8:15. We picked up Nicole then followed Twyla to the dock. Sean, Barbara, and Elijah came too, which was a real treat for me since I never see them. We laid out on the beach and I got a sunburn, though not a bad one.
We got home and Rhonda and I moved downstairs, then I went back to work for a little bit. French and Rhonda had to sing at the church for the evangelistic meetings so I waited in the car listening to episodes of a podcast that my friend, Donnie, started at Southern .
The three of us went and did laundry and tried to buy plane tickets for Christmas, but that was unsuccessful. The dryer didn't dry any of my clothes and we got home around 10:00 p.m. I hung up all of my wet clothes and put my damp sheets on my bed, which was so uncomfortable that it would have hindered my sleep if I hadn't been so exhausted.
I woke up this morning for a regular Monday, except that I tutored a different kid, which I think was a blessing from God because I probably wouldn't have had an adequate amount of patience to deal with Ricky.
It was a long weekend and it will be a long week, but still...there's no place I'd rather be. I love you and miss you Judith!
Charlotte
Dear Judith,
The books were arranged perfectly on the table, and five pencils, sharpened beautifully, stand upright in the pencil cup. The floor is swept, the windows clean. She brushes her hair and pulls on the wrinkles in her shirt, looking up when she hears her name.
"Charlotte, it's time to go," her mother says, leaning on the door frame. "Are you alright, honey?"
"I'm fine," Charlotte briskly replies, hoping that her mother doesn't notice her unsteady gaze and weak voice. Her mother eyes her suspiciously, then, shrugging her shoulders, grabs her keys and the two descend the steep cement staircase, Charlotte nearly tripping on the last step, the one that always seemed to reach for her, hoping to keep her from leaving her apartment, from entering the world, from growing up.
The drive to their destination is short, much too short for Charlotte. She is off her seat before her mother has shifted from Drive to Park. Looking out the windshield, she sees a woman saying goodbye to a little boy. The woman looks up, smiles at the car, and runs inside the building behind her. Charlotte falls back on the seat, closing her eyes and wishing that she could just disappear.
The front passenger door opens and the woman sits down, buckling her seatbelt and looks back at Charlotte. She smiles, but Charlotte notices that she never loosens her grip on her verdant satchel. Charlotte wonders if maybe this woman is as nervous as she, but quickly dismisses the thought. "There's no reason for her to be nervous about meeting me," thought Charlotte.
Within a minute, they were back at the apartment, climbing the stairs and entering the living room. Charlotte usually loved the pink glow of the spacious room, but today, she resented it. Removing her shoes, she slipped into the room and sat down. She started rifling through her backpack, hoping to look busy enough to delay conversation, if only for a moment. The woman entered the room, looked around, then shut the door. She smiled again at Charlotte, inspiring her to take a deep breath and begin their task.
Conversation felt awkward as Charlotte began her homework. It was easy enough that Charlotte knew she could do it on her own. The woman sat and watched her, however, and that made concentration difficult. Quickly, she began the next page, horrified to see that she didn't understand it at all. Looking up, she asked the question she had been dreading for a week.
"Can you help me? I don't understand it."
"Of course," the woman replied and proceeded to explain the suffixes and prefixes that confused the ten year old girl.
Charlotte was beginning to feel a little better, until the woman asked her to read out loud. She wanted to curl up and die everytime she misread a word, but the woman didn't seem to mind at all.
When the story was over, the woman surprised Charlotte by asking about her hobbies and interests, and the most amazing part was, this woman actually seemed interested. Charlotte soon grew comfortable enough to ramble on about the kids in her class, and the woman never seemed to lose interest.
Before she even realized it, the hour was over and the woman picked up her bag, asking if she could get a ride home. Charlotte's mother asked if she liked her new tutor, a question which she simply nodded to. The three of them walked down the stairs and Charlotte again caught her foot on the last step, but this time, she didn't mind so much. In the car, on the way to the woman's house, Charlotte smiled at her earlier trepidation.
When the woman got out of the car at her house, Charlotte called out to her. "See you next week!" The woman turned, grinned and nodded. Charlotte noticed that her tutor no longer held tightly to her bag, and her smile was genuine. She leaned back in her seat, and laughed quietly to herself. All the nervousness was gone, and Charlotte began to look forward to their next session.
The books were arranged perfectly on the table, and five pencils, sharpened beautifully, stand upright in the pencil cup. The floor is swept, the windows clean. She brushes her hair and pulls on the wrinkles in her shirt, looking up when she hears her name.
"Charlotte, it's time to go," her mother says, leaning on the door frame. "Are you alright, honey?"
"I'm fine," Charlotte briskly replies, hoping that her mother doesn't notice her unsteady gaze and weak voice. Her mother eyes her suspiciously, then, shrugging her shoulders, grabs her keys and the two descend the steep cement staircase, Charlotte nearly tripping on the last step, the one that always seemed to reach for her, hoping to keep her from leaving her apartment, from entering the world, from growing up.
The drive to their destination is short, much too short for Charlotte. She is off her seat before her mother has shifted from Drive to Park. Looking out the windshield, she sees a woman saying goodbye to a little boy. The woman looks up, smiles at the car, and runs inside the building behind her. Charlotte falls back on the seat, closing her eyes and wishing that she could just disappear.
The front passenger door opens and the woman sits down, buckling her seatbelt and looks back at Charlotte. She smiles, but Charlotte notices that she never loosens her grip on her verdant satchel. Charlotte wonders if maybe this woman is as nervous as she, but quickly dismisses the thought. "There's no reason for her to be nervous about meeting me," thought Charlotte.
Within a minute, they were back at the apartment, climbing the stairs and entering the living room. Charlotte usually loved the pink glow of the spacious room, but today, she resented it. Removing her shoes, she slipped into the room and sat down. She started rifling through her backpack, hoping to look busy enough to delay conversation, if only for a moment. The woman entered the room, looked around, then shut the door. She smiled again at Charlotte, inspiring her to take a deep breath and begin their task.
Conversation felt awkward as Charlotte began her homework. It was easy enough that Charlotte knew she could do it on her own. The woman sat and watched her, however, and that made concentration difficult. Quickly, she began the next page, horrified to see that she didn't understand it at all. Looking up, she asked the question she had been dreading for a week.
"Can you help me? I don't understand it."
"Of course," the woman replied and proceeded to explain the suffixes and prefixes that confused the ten year old girl.
Charlotte was beginning to feel a little better, until the woman asked her to read out loud. She wanted to curl up and die everytime she misread a word, but the woman didn't seem to mind at all.
When the story was over, the woman surprised Charlotte by asking about her hobbies and interests, and the most amazing part was, this woman actually seemed interested. Charlotte soon grew comfortable enough to ramble on about the kids in her class, and the woman never seemed to lose interest.
Before she even realized it, the hour was over and the woman picked up her bag, asking if she could get a ride home. Charlotte's mother asked if she liked her new tutor, a question which she simply nodded to. The three of them walked down the stairs and Charlotte again caught her foot on the last step, but this time, she didn't mind so much. In the car, on the way to the woman's house, Charlotte smiled at her earlier trepidation.
When the woman got out of the car at her house, Charlotte called out to her. "See you next week!" The woman turned, grinned and nodded. Charlotte noticed that her tutor no longer held tightly to her bag, and her smile was genuine. She leaned back in her seat, and laughed quietly to herself. All the nervousness was gone, and Charlotte began to look forward to their next session.
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