First Week

Hello Everyone,

We're sorry we haven't posted until now, but it has been a busy past week and we won't have internet service in our apartment for a while yet.  Life has been good for the most part, besides feeling sleepy a lot and disoriented being in an unfamiliar place with strange roads going every which way without road names.  We're starting to learn our way around a little, at least knowing how to get to our schools and to the church building from our apartment.  Our buddies here who have been helping us have been wonderful, and we are so thankful for all the furniture and stuff that the other AETs left for us.  We've had some "fun" times riding on our bikes to get places.  Laura got soaked riding home from school yesterday, and then afterward had a nice cup of hot chocolate and found a rain suite in a closet, so next time she will have that on hand, just in case.  

The training is done and the 6 of us got certificates and are now beginning to teach.  Our focus is teaching conversational English, so we have to be creative to make it fun for the kids and have activities where they use the new words and phrases we teach them.  We have enjoyed our schools so far and the teachers are very nice.  The school is set up differently than in the U.S.  The teachers are all in one room together with their desks and with the principle, vice principle, and head teacher in the front of the office.  The classrooms are more like the students' classrooms instead of belonging to the teacher.  The kids are so, so cute (especially the little ones).  We also have kindergarden and nursery classes that haven't started yet.  The 5th and 6th graders aren't as interested in learning English because they think they're too cool, but we are going to try to keep it fun and interesting for them.  

We're excited for Laura's mother to get here in May.  Laura has already met lots of really sweet Japanese women from the church and who have helped us who also speak some English, and all of them are waiting to meet her mom.  We should find out soon when she will arrive.  I think she will enjoy her experience here and she will like her AET buddies, who will help her with transportation and finding the things she needs for her apartment.  

Life is different here and it takes some getting used to, so we are so glad we have friends here who keep helping and encouraging us.  We are really excited to get involved in the church activities coming up.  Today they had a pizza lunch and we talked about what to do for our Bible class.  After church, we went with our friend Kristin out to the countryside and saw rice fields and went to a farmers' market.  It was really beautiful out there with more wide open spaces compared the compacted city life.

Ok, we are about to go each sushi for dinner.  We love sushi now and realized that raw fish won't kill us, but it's actually really healthy.

Talk to ya'll later!  

Love,

Allen and Laura