my back and leg

I went to a new doctor. i have a herniated disk. but he gave me some medicine and told me in 2 week i should be back to normal. now, i will admit that i'm a bit skeptical about how exactly these pills will push my spine back into place, but who am i to know how to fix the problem. so i will go back in 2 and a half weeks. until then, no excercise at all. its going to be a long 2 weeks. im going to just lay around and go to work. wow so fun. but if it will get me back to running.....

last weekend was a good weekend. really good.

this week seems to be dragging by after having 2 weeks in a row with only 4 working days. oh well, from now until the end of the year we have a 3 day weekend every 2 weeks. 1 in october, 2 in november, then i have 3 weeks off in december.

to all my US friends who read this, ill be in ohio from dec 16-23. florida dec 23-30. ohio dec 30- jan 4. lets meet up.

well thats about all for today.

green polar bears? japan? nagoya? yes i saw them

Polar Bears with Algae-dyed Green Fur
Japan Green Bear

A polar bear, its fur stained with algae, stands in its cage at Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, central Japan, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. Three polar bears at the zoo changed their colors in July after swimming in a pond with an overgrowth of algae, prompting many questions from visitors concerned about whether the animals are sick or carrying mold, a zoo official said. (Kyodo News, Shuzo Shikano) *



i read an article about green polar bears. a closer look informed me that the green polar bears were in japan. an even closer look informed me that they were in nagoya. so i went to the local zoo with some friends after our camping trip was cancelled. i took some pictures of the green bears.

tuesday = holiday

no work on tuesday! fall equinox day or something. im excited. i love days off! last week was pretty rough. i had no voice, yet parent observations were happening.

i've been playing the harmonica again.

if you could take a 1 month trip to anywhere in the world and money wasnt an issue, where would you go and what would you do?

point card queen

Japan is the point card capital of the world. seriously. i can get a point card for anywhere. and i do. as soon as they ask for my point card, and i dont have one, i ask to make one. i dont even know what happens with the points. i just know i keep getting points for something....one day.... so i have 3 different drug store cards. 1 grocery store card (this one is my favorite. i get coupons for 1000 yen off when i get 1000 points) i have a shoe repair store point card. tiger cafe (my favorite restaurant started a point card system this past weekend.....) a book store card....once again... no idea what that one does. hair salon point card.

i like point cards. maybe one day when i leave japan, or learn enough japanese i can get some really good things. or discounts. or something.

until then, i'll just keep getting point cards.

parent observations. second grade

today was day 2 of parent observations. my class is a good class and fun and energetic. i teach them real english. found out that they really do remember things when useful. example.

they were asking "do you" questions.

kid 1 " do you like picking your nose"

i look around to see the parents reactions... they didnt understand. i am cracking up with the rest of the students

kid 2 "do you like poop?"

Me: no i dont....how about you?

kid 3 (at this point....im wondering if i should let this kid go..... i'm not sure what he's going to say) "do you like monsters?"

whew...safe. the rest asked about dog/cat food, cabbage ice cream, natto juice, and aliens. just another normal class



tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day. im so not looking forward to it. but i am really really looking forward to the weekend! beach- here i come!!!!!!!

my summer vacation video

the pictures i put up before this blog

on saturday, my friend came over and he taught me how to make vietnamese summer rolls. it was a lot of fun and they were really good. in fact, i just ate some leftovers for lunch. then after that, we went to a cafe. i had no idea what to expect. however, when we arrived i found out it was a cat cafe. with cats running aorund loose in the cafe. when we went to the counter to sit down, there was a cat sleeping next to the menu. it was so great. our drinks had cats dawn on them in caramel, and there was a whole other room to the cafe where we could play with the cats. it was so great. there were little kittens and big giant cats. so fun! i think i had a permanent smile on my face for the next 24 hours.

then i went to the dr. i am getting better. he said i could start running... slowly and a little. well thats better than nothing. ill take it. so i jogged 20 minutes today.

then saturday night i went to a family from church's house. i like hanging out with them. always fun! uncle rico even made a video of my summer vacation for me.

sunday i went to church, lunch, hung out with some friends then went to my friends bands show. they were really good!

now off to start another week...

a fun saturday!

misc pics from the trip

meeting up with friends

so in bangkok i got to meet up with some friends of past and present. turns out a friend from high schools younger sister lives in thailand. we arranged to meet up! it was so good to see you again anita! also stephen and natcha were around so i got to see them too! we all met up and went to dinner. it was so fun and i really enjoyed catching up with anita after all these years!

pool day

so one day we wanted to just chill at a pool. unfortunatly, our hotel didnt have a pool. no fear...we asked our hotel staff to find out for us if other hotels let non-guests use their pool facilities. 3 staff people calling and a few hotels later, they found out we could. for only 6 dollars we could swim at a hotel near our place. so they gave us directions and we planned to go the next morning. donning our new bikinis, we were off the next morning with the goal of relaxing by the pool.

we got to the really nice hotel. went up the 10th floor pool area and to our surprise, the staff there, told us we didnt have to pay. we walked in and then ordered drinks and relaxed, swam and laid out in the nice sun! so fun so fun!