wow

i was just reading some old blog entries and its so strange to read about when i first moved to france. i remember everyhting like it was yesterday, and now its over a year later and so much has changed. i get caught up in the present, and its strange for me to think of the past...what ive done in the past 2 years even. there have been some moments i never want to forget, that are almost impossible to describe... like when i first moved to france and walking along my road and just realizing that it was my home for the next 8 months or so. part of me wants to go back to that. i want to return to france. i love it there... but here is good too. its a lot different... its like comparing apples and oranges... i think back almost 9 months ago to when i moved here. i didnt have the same excitement of that when i moved to france, but this move was so much more intense and stress inducing. i came to japan not knowing any japanese. i came here not knowing what to expect....and looking back i cant beleive how much i have learned and changed in those 9 months.

i am so thankful for the experiences i have and had in the past few years. they are experiences that not everyone gets to experience. its strange to come to the conclusion that i can live in 3 different countries and be happy. be able to survive.

i love the people i have meet here in japan. some of my good friends are people i met here. even if they come and go... sometimes its nice to spend time with people who understand this (moving around the world) part of my life.

i also want to take the time to tell all my friends that im sorry about my slacking in emailing and letters and calls. please be patient with me. do know that i love you all. i miss you and theres not a day that goes by that i dont think about the "good old days" or random times we had together. i like when i randomly remember something and it puts a smile on my face thinking about that and part of me longs to go back to that moment...

wow this is a serious blog. i better but some entertainment in it....

bike riding laws in japan /les lois du velo au japon

i read the other day that it is illegal to: jai lu l'autre jour que c'est interdit de faire:

ride a bike at night with no light - $200 fine faire le velo le soir sans lumiere
ride a bike in the rain while holding an umbrella- $200 faire le velo dans la pluie avec un parapluie
ride a bike and talk on a cell phone- $200 faire le velo et parler au portable
cross the when when the walk sign is red -$500 traverser la rue quand le pieton feu? est rouge

having 2 people ride on a bike together (unless they are a baby or kid in the special chair) 2 personnes au velo, sauf les enfants

drunk riding - i think it was like $2000 or $5000 i forgot... either way, a ton of money faire le velo apres avoir trop bu


i am guilty of the first 4...uh oh.... however, in my defense, everyone else does the fist 3 things, so i didnt know that it was illegal... je suis coupable des premiers 4....mais, tout le monde fait les premiers 3, je savais pas que c t interdit..

after living in athens, actually waiting at the red light for the walker light to come on is horrible... everyone waits...noone crosses till the little man is green...sometimes i just want to go...but i dont want people to look at me and think the foreigner doesnt respect our rules....so i wait...with no cars coming...even when im late..


ok im out.

hahah

i dont want to hear it... just turn your head... i cant figure out anything and my blogger is in japanese.... so thats how its just gonna have to be. but anyways, those are pics of me and renelda, and then 3 person one is with our friend simien. the rocks with a rope are famous. and these pictures are taken in mie.

enjoy!

lets try that again....

pictures!!!!! whooohoooo

i did it!!!!!!!

i just got back... i stinkin did it. i ran about 19 miles. in the wind. wow. i am tired and it hurts to move now, but still good. while writing this, i just had a flashback to senior year at OU.. the sunday evening after my first marathon, i had to go to star gazing class with the one and only stanley steamer. i was so sore and had to go up to the 2nd floor. good memories of good friends. actually i think it was cara who drove me to class...(wasnt it?) so stan, will you please come to japan april 16, the day after my marathon, and help me climb the stairs to my school...maybe you can sing and dance for the kiddies...

well i need to go get ready to go to my friends house. i dont want to move.

on my run today, these 2 junior high school or high school japanese girls laughed at me while i was running. at first it annoyed me, but then i saw how short their skirts were and they were riding a bike and it was windy.... whose laughing now

i listened to 3 hours of podcasts while running. i feel well informed now. it was the news... how many of you read the news for 3 hours today??? hhaha. the funny thing is, the last time i did my long run i listened to the news and for the rest of the weekend, i was full of random facts. (some of my news is the health and science news) did you know there is a fungus that some frogs are breathing in and it gets stuck in their lungs and its impossible to cure?? and its contagious? and its expected to wipe out many different reptile species at a significantly fast pace... and scientists dont know where it came from.

ok ok ok...time to get rready....3 2 1

good things come to those who wait...

its been awhile. i know. sorry. life has been kind of crazy. lastt weekend, i went to mie prefecture to visit a friend. we had some fun times and got to do a lot. ill put some pictures up later-not tonight as its already 3am and i am running 19 miles tonight...im just blogging because i am waiting for my laundry to finish washing so i can hang it to dry so i have a towel to use tomorrow. anyways, back to the point. i went friday night to my friends place. about 10 min after i arrived, we went to the onsen-hot spring and hung outside in the hot pools of water-with no bathing suits. pretty relaxing. and fun to be outide in cold cold weather but in the hot water. they had so many different little pools of water and we tried almost all of them. we stayed till about 3am then went back to her house. we chatted then went to bed.

saturday we got up, i ran 10 miles (renelda, my friend, biked alongside. talk about a nice friend!! then we cleaned up and went to a city named Ise (ee-say) there we saw many famous things. there are these rocks with roped tied around them and they are really famous. i ate ise ramen. and it was really rainy, but renelda's friend had a car! bonus.

then we came back and we made nabe (nah-bay) its like a hot pot of vegetables and we put chicken inside. basically boiled vegetables-party style. our other friend simien came over and we had a good old time eating and playing settlers of catan and dutch blitz until 3ish.

sunday we got up, went to japanese church, came back took a nap and then went to bilingual church. then it was time for me to go back home.

this week was a long week. i ran and worked out a lot (i made a few new friends at the gym) and i worked a lot. thursday and friday i stayed late. ive also been watching some videos on teaching strategies and this sunday im goign to a seminar. at least its interesting to me.

hmmm what else can i update you all on...oh yeah-i stopped eating cakes, cookies and candies... i have 7 weeks until the marathon. i have to be serious now. so i stopped. 5 days now! today i had no problem passing up donuts and cake. ive been eating vegetables and fruits a lot. and drinking a lot of water.

which brings me to my next story....just becasue it looks like chicken-doesnt mean it is chicken. thats right. read it again. i bought some "chicken" at the grocery store the other day and tonight i went to cook it with some onions, tomatoes and garlic, and when i took the first bite, i relized that i dont think it was chicken. i have o idea what it was- so i looked on the package-i couldnt read it- thats not a good sigh-i can read the work chicken in japanese.... so i gave up and didnt eat it.

ugh why oh why did i decide to put my laundry in the washing machine at 2:30??????? crazy girl.

well im off to try and get reay for bed. long day tomorrow. lets hope it doenst rain!

pics

hokkaido snow festival

ok so heres a problem to start my post. my blogger webpage is now in japanese and i cant figure out how to change it to english....so lets hope i can get this posted. if youre reading this, feel free to congratulate me for figuring it out.

so last weekend i spent sunday and monday in sapporo, hokkaido. hokkaido is the north island of japan. its cold there. lots of snow. there was a snow festival with huge snow and ice sculptures. it was awesome. sunday afternoon we (my friend anna and her roommate) arrived at the hostel. it was so nice and comfortable. well worth the $34 a night. we dropped off our stuff and went to lunch at a ramen restaurant. so good. then we went into town and walked along the streets of the snow festival. look at the pictures. it was incredible how big some of these were and how detailed they were.

then we went souvenir shopping... i cant come back empty handed in this country. then we walked along a street with ice sculptures and stopped at an ice karaoke building. annas roommate, katie, and i decided to sing a little song. i sang a song in japanese... between me being so stinkin nervous and so stinking cold, my song left much to be desired. however, i impressed the socks off all the japanese people watching me by singing a japanese song decently.

then we had a gourmet meal at a local crab restaurant. so many types of crap and such good food. it was a really quiet restaurant though... after we stuffed ourselved full, we walked back to the station an headed back to the hostel.

monday morning, we woke up and ate and relaxed a bit, then we headed out to satoland, which was a huge field coverend in snow, consisting of sled rides, snow maze and food vendors. its was also snowing like crazy and freezing cold. i sucked it up and was a trooper. then we went back into town and went to starbucks and wandered around hat shopping for a little while. then we headed back to the hostel and relaxed and read for a bit then we went to dinner, had some good japanese beer made in sapporo, and then off to karaoke we went. so much fun just being crazy.

we came back tot he hostel and i went to bed shortly after because i had to leave at the crack of dawn the next morning to catch my plane at 8. (i woke up at 5-i think i have seen 5am about 2 times in the past 2 years...) i got back and went to work.

work has been a little crazy this week with all the trial class parent wanting to see the foreign teacher.. im putting on quite the show. i had approx 4 or 5 extra classes this week. tomorrow however, we dont have our regular classes till 7pm and we do trial lessons from 2-7. bring it on.

valentines day was nice. i ate chocolate. one of my students brought me chocolate. so cute.

tonight i had one of my favorite classes, they are 4 boys (but only 3 were there tonight.) heres one reason why they are my favorite:

before they left, i told them they had to say one sentence in english (thinkign they would use the form of what they learned today)) heres what i got.

1. Jen is a good teacher
2. jen is beautiful
3. jen is a great teacher.

haha i gave them chocolate. yeah for 7th grade japanese boys knowing how to be a good suckup.

tonight, i am trying to be productive as i am leaving again for the weekend. this time i am going to mie prefecture (preffectures are like small states ) and its the one next to mine (aichi) i will go to an onsen (public bath...in japan-if you dont know- the public baths, or onsens, are separated into men and women, and then you pretty much go into the hot water and soak. no bathing suit. only a birthday suit. )

well im off to try to post ome pictures.

its haunted

my computer just shut off again while i was looking at caras blog. it has a green circle in the middle of the screen when its off. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................... this cant be good. i thought i wouldnt have problems with a mac, thats why i bought one-however i am beginning to think i could have jut bought a cheaper computer if i wanted problems.


im about to head out for my run. a little bit longer to make sure breakfast is digested. its gonna be a long one! ahhh.

oh man

just finished greys anatomy. i only wish it was on everyday. i like alex. hes my favorite person on the show.

tomorrow i have to run 17 miles. awesome. then ill pack and get stuff done and then sunday morning i leave for hokkaido!!!! im going to the snow festival. im so excited! its gonna be great!

i went to yoga and step class today and ran 3.5 miles.

i also had a open trial class today. it went really well. i felt good about it. they had a good time. alright!! lets hope they want to come to my school.

ok off to bed, gotta big day tomorrow.

does anyone know why my computer just shuts off sometimes?? jordan-do you know?? ill just be typing emails or watching shows, and all of a sudden, my computer shuts down. then when i turn it back on, it makes a ringing sound. i dont know.

100 miles!!

wow! since january 10th, i have run 100 miles. thts less than a month! wow. crazy. and thats running 5 times a week. (i take off wednesday and sunday)

the next 2 months of work will be stressful. we have trial lessons to get new students. and parents want to see the foreign teacher. whooohooo jen. dont screw it up. i cant wait till june. nothing happens in june.

at least im feeling better. tuesday i felt bad. i had a bad class and then i came home and went to bed. woke up and felt much better. now i just have a cough.


i work at 1 today and get off at 8. go to the grocery store and drug store. if im feeling super motivated, ill do pilates. we'll see.

its warm here. i have my window open! (mostly to air out the room, not so much because its that warm) but regardless, i love this spring like weather.

ok off to work

tuesday tuesday

its tuesday and about time to go to work. its seriously like spring here. so sunny and warm. i love it. however, it does make me worry a little about the snow festival im going to this weekend ( http://www.snowfes.com/english/index.html ) hopefully there is snow. but actually i dont like snow a ton, so if theres no snow, i think ill still be ok.


last night i made curry. i think i am such a good cook. haha i would cook more if i didnt eat dinner at 9 30pm every night.

i have a cough. i dont feel sick, so i dont know why im coughing. i thought it was from running outside saturday, but i think it would be done by now if it was that... oh well...

im really in the mood for some conversation hearts. but ill settle for gobstoppers instead. also cupid pops. if anyone see them at walmart and loves me, they can send them to me. they are red and green i think and theres gum on the inside. if not, no big deal. i shouldnt be eating so much junk anyways.

i got stopped by the police yesterday. they were checking out if i stole my bike. haha. they were checking everyone. but the problem was, i never got around to registering it in my name. so it loooked suspicious. plus is a hand me hand me down. so i dont know whos name it is registered in. and to make matters worse. this morning when i was looking for the papers, i couldnt find them....i might have accedentally thrown them away. uh oh.... hopefully they turn up one day soon,

well off to get ready to go to work.

and i will run 1000 miles...

its sunday night. back to the grind tomorrow. it was a fun weekend. i started it by sleeping in till 12 30 and then going for a 15 mile run saturday afternoon. then i showered and went to my japanese friends family's house. i met her brother at Ohio University then when i came here, he introduced me to his sister and then i went to their family's house and met their parents and middle brother. fun times were had by all. lots of mixed english and japanese. great times. then this morning i went to church, went to lunch and went to my pastors house and hung out. then i came home and watched greys anatomy. man it was good. what a perfect end to a great weekend.

february will be a busy month for me. i cant beleive its already february. i also dont understand why the 1st r is in february. who actually says feb Ru ary? i dont. we should take it out.

well im off to read my bible and study japanese. i hope you all had a good weekend!

when i grow up

what do i want to be when i grow up? i dont know. as a think about my future, i have no idea where my life will be going. its strange to have so any options that all sound good. fortunatly i dont have to decide anything for another year or so (as im in japan for at least 18 more months or so.) but its strange. i always wonder if my life will always just be this tour around the world or if ill eventually end up somewhere.

here are this weeks options.

1. move to france and try to work or go to school
2. move to new caledonia and try to work or go to school
3. go back to school to get my masters
4. join the peace corps
5. stay in japan longer
6. be an orphan parent in africa
7. teach english in spain or italy



I am excited to see the plans that God has for my life

funny things

i think ill start today off with some light reading. i learned a couple months ago that just becuase the japanese call mount fuji- fujisan- this does not mean they are calling the mountain Mr. Fuji. (for those of you who dont know, san at the end of a name means mr. or mrs. ) however, after a mountain, it means mountain. it kind of makes me sad, i liked it when i thought japanese people said mr. fuji.

today my doorbell rang, and i let in 2 guys with strange pole like things. they told me they were here to inspect the smoke detectors. i figured noone would lie about this just to get into people houses to attack, so i let them in. we chatted in japanese and one of the men actually went to Ohio before. wow. small world.

i bought new shoes yesterday.. i hate them. i couldnt find any womens new balance running shoes, and i found out my feet are a tad too big...that they dont sell size 9 womans running shoes (at least at the stores i went) so i ended up with a pair of mens asics. i hate them. i ran today 45 minutes... my feet were in pain. so next fun adventure is to see if i can take them back... i hope.... at least i ran inside.

i got an email on my phone today from a man who wants to be my friend. hes not really a young man, but he hopes ill email him back. i asked my coworker to translate becuase i thought i was missing something. apparently i got junk mail on my cell phone email acct. haha

what else.

this week has gone by fast.. my friend spent the night last night and we went to dinner and talked. it was nice.