golden week

i am on my 9 days of vacation. its been nice so far. weather is good. life is good. not so eventful however. the good thing about golden week is no work. the bad thing about golden week is most people have vacation so it costs an arm and a leg just to leave my apartment (well maybe not to leave my apt, but to go anywhere outside of a 2hr radius of my apt)

anyways, yesterday i had a good old time at church, then lunch, then starbucks with my friend maki who is cool. then i met two friends and we walked around a park and just laid in the grass. so nice and relaxing. then we went to oasis 21 and went to dinner. all around good time.

today i lounged around. and when i say i lounged around, i mean it. i slept in, then read for like 3 hours then talked to friends online then i finally got my butt outside to enjoy the good weather. i went on a 7.5 mile run. it was beautiful. no knee pain. it was so enjoyable. it really reminded me how much i like running. sometimes i can get caught up in the "i have to go run" mentality, and forget that i actually do enjoy running (maybe some people dont understand me... hhahah ) then i came back and did some yoga stretching and showered.

i need to clean tonight and write some emails. then tomorrw im gonna go meet maki to see a movie in town and then wednesday i head out to kanazawa and thursday is the marathon. im really looking forward to this one. i was nervous for a while since my knee was hurting, but i am really looking forward to it!

ive been seeing my students all around town. 2 of thm at the 100 yen store. (dollar store) 3 of them at the park. i know ill see a bunch more by the time this week ends.

oh...i made another video. im sure you'll enjoy this one. its me....bored....

how to clear a room. tips from a 4 year old

friday was my all boys teaching day (and 1 girl) and heres how it started. my young class (the same one with the boy who drew a pink beard 2 weeks ago) was starting out well, when all of a sudden, the most wretched horrible rank smell filled the room. they are like 4 years old. how can a smell this bad come from a kid so small. we ran to the door, opened it and took big breathes of fresh air. i turn to face the class of boys holding their nose, yelling "smelly" in japanese and i asked the question of "who did it?" they all denied it. i have my suspicions.... maybe the boy who had to use the restroom about 10 minutes later...

the smell didnt leave, which led me to think it wasnt just a fart. we finished the rest of the class with the door and windows open. english word of the day: smelly.

already 1 week has passed since i ran the marathon. so heres my update. i didnt do as well as i wanted, but i finished. it started out great. perfect weather, i felt great, etc. the first 13 miles= beautiful. cheeriing fans happy people. but at miles 13 that all stopped. the second half has hardly any cheering fans, or many fans at all. the last 7 miles or so are along a river that goes in the opposite direction of the finish (if you turn around, you can see it getting further behind you as you desperatly try to move forward) and then you turn around and run back. physically it was rough, mentally it was even worse. the one thing to make it end on a high note was my friends family came and the little 8 year old boy ran the last kilometer with me. he was on the sidewlk and yelling "Go Jen!" so cute. so needed. i finished. 4:46. not so great. i was aiming for 4:26 or less. maybe next time. however i did have to finish in under 5 hours and maybe 2000 or so people didnt finish (i dont have the exact results but there were still a ton of people behind me) i got a finishers towel. i couldnt walk, i felt like a 99 year old woman. but i finished.

next one= may 3rd. kanazawa japan. i know, its crazy.


i also turned 24 this week. and my 4th wisdom tooth is growing in.

i had a birthday dinner last night. (after a fabulous time hanging in the city with thankles sullivan aka kayla.) at my favorite restaurant in town with 10 good friends. it was a fun time had by all. then we went to the bus station that has a big grassy area and played hide and seek (however this grassy area is a romantic place for japanese couples at night. we may have interrupted a few busy couples) we also played freeze tag and a little red rover. such a great time.

i only have 1 one week till my 9 day vacation. YES!!!!!!!! i cant wait. i have no huge plans, just little things to get done. such as:
1. email people
2. send letters to people
3. deep clean my apartment
4. buy a book shelf
5. attempt to organize my life..or just my room
6. run a marathon
7. hang out with friends
8. watch some movies
9. ok so i dont have 9 things yet.....

alright, well thats about all i have for now. maybe if youre lucky ill post some pictures sometime...but not tonight!

im SO going to see this movie when it comes out.

http://www.marathonmovie.com/home.html


the marathon is soon! Sunday at 8:30 (US time sat 7:30pm france time 12:30am) i am really excited. i cant wait. im surprisingly not nervous. thats good.

i also signed up for another one may 3. so i think im addicted!

teaching tips from jen

if you have a crying 3 year old on your hands, have an easter egg hunt for 40 minutes.. little kids dont get bored of hiding and looking for eggs.

if you have a group of junior high school boys, and you want them to practice present past and future tenses. give them an example they'll never forget.

i fart everyday
i farted yesterday
i am farting right now
i will fart tomorrow


he farts everyday, she farts everyday, they fart everyday. etc.

they love it.



another fun story.. i was teaching about body language today in a high school class. how the greetings and thanks have different motions in different countries. when i told them that in france, the french kiss cheeks as a greeting, on boy said something in japanese, everyone laughed. he grabbed the dictionary. showed me the word... i laughed so hard. the word was "revolting" hahah they all agreed it was a terrible way to greet someone.

tomorrow is friday!!!!


oh yeah.. everyone free your schedule.. im coming to the USA in august. columbus ohio, aug 10-19. be there or be square. the ticket is mine! whoohooo...

what color is your beard?

yesterday was an interesting day. on every other friday, i will be teaching all boys and 1 girl. this makes for an interesting day. heres how it went yesterday.


my first class was a class of 4 kindergarten boys. usually 3 are good and one is a little bad. yesterday we were coloring paper easter eggs and while one boy was asking me "i want red markah (marker) please) i turn around to the kinda bad kid and he has drawn a pink beard on his face. yes pink. yes a beard. and to top it off, he had this smug look on his face... "what are YOU gonna do???" i knew i needed to calmly tell the kid he was wrong, take away the marker and ignore it so he wouldnt think it was ok to do again, but looking at this 4 year old with a pink beard, i cracked up. really i laughed so hard. the other kids laughed too and then i forgot about it for the rest of class... till it was time for his mom to come. i thought for sure she wouldnt be too happy... i mean her son had a hot pink marker beard.... however, she looked at me and smiled... she said tanoshii so! looks fun. whew. if only i had my camera

the second class of yesterday was 6 second grade boys (keep in mind, they just turned second graders this week) and they are a crazy bunch. but i asked one boy where he lived and he confindently responded i live in sassugai (really we live in kasugai) so everyone laughed and the rest of the class, everyone changed where they lived to sassugai.

the third class of 7 first graders went along just fine. no moustaches, they are just funny kids. i like this class. if i ask them if we are friends, they say yes!

the fourth class is 4 sixth grade boys. i love this class. they are so good. they like to sing and they are a crazy bunch. yesterday we did a guiding class which involved one boy blindfolded and the other boys giving dierections to the candy outloud. it actually worked well.

the last class is made up of about 6 junior high boys. they look much older and they are so tall! everytime they speak japanese i give them the "look" and to this they promptly respond. "im sorry jen!" one boy kept folding his paper and making noise and was distracting everyone, so i mimicked him and asked him what he was doing... my mimicking casued another boy to look at me and with a serious face say "jen, do you need to go to the hospital?" we all started laughing. later he was doing this trick where he makes a pencil look like it goes through his head.. i asked " hey yuiki-do you need to go to the hospital?" they all laughed so loud, i thought i was going to have to just give up teaching.

i love these kids. they crack me up and make a friday of work go by super fast!

if you were to draw a marker moustache, what color would it be?


today is my last long run before the marathon. im heading out in about 10 min or so. im looking forward to it! it looks nice out and im going to wear my new running clothes i bought yesterday! whooohooo!


speaking of yesterday, i went to mika's (my first japanese rroommate when i was at OU) and i spent the night at her familys house. i got to speak so much japanese. it was so much fun! i love her family! then we went to breakfast yesterday. (i think i wrote before about how this area in japan has something called morning set-which is- if you order a coffee, you get free toast and a hard boiled egg. ) well this morning set was coffee, french toast, salad and a pineapple slice!!!!! all for 480 yen. this is like $4.25!!!! cant beat that.

today after my run, im going to a festival with betty, my boss, in inuyama. fun times should be had.

tomorrow is easter!!! happy easter everyone.

and to all those who i havent emailed back, be patient, i am hoping to be more motivated now that its nice outside and i dont mind as much about getting up and out of bed in the mornings!