Elliot and I took a few days to explore this relatively untapped, and off-the-beaten track, wine country. Healdsburg is about an hour and a half drive north of Berkeley--but you feel like you're much farther away. We managed to find a cute studio on Craigslist for the weekend--by far, the best deal around! We had a kichenette, deck, TV, internet, comfy bed, bathroom, a hot tub under the stars all to ourselves. It was on Chalk Hill--a great location, and about 5 minutes to nearest winery. And that's exactly what we did about 15 minutes after our arrival. Friday afternoon we [View Full Entry]

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"Hey mahn! Ya mahn." This is the local conversation here in Placencia. Thats right, there's really nothing to talk about. It's so chill, there's no need to ask, "What's up?" because the answer would be the same every time...nothin much, just chillin. After jumping through some hoops to get here (an overnight stay in the dirtiest city ever, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, then an hour boat ride, and then a two-hour local bus ride)--we're finally here. And it was all so worth it. After finding a nice hotel, right off "The Sidewalk" and a foot away from the ocean. "The Sidewalk" is [View Full Entry]

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Outside our hotel in Antigua, at 4am, we met 2 affable Italians who were also heading to Copan, about 5 hours away, right inside the Honduras border. We jumped onto different minibuses (theirs was 45 minutes late) but we met again at the rest stop (along with a bunch of other foreigners) half-way to the small town of Copan Ruinas. After arriving to the town and choosing a small hotel, we walked around, ate, and stumbled upon the Italians et al (Kathy from Sonoma, Yanis from Nice) and ate again. In the morning, Elliot and I had some breakfast at a [View Full Entry]

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Those are the words of one of my favorite bands Manu Chao. Esta verdad! We arrived early in Guatemala City (5:30am to be exact). Sleep-deprived and groggy-eyed, Elliot and I headed straight to an orphanage, Casa Guatemala in the heart of el ciudad. From California, we had lugged about 25 extra pounds of goodies (Spanish/English books, crayons, Giants notebooks, pens, hair clips, soap, bandaids, Neosporin, socks, toys, etc) for these kids. Let me tell you, 80$ goes a long, long way at the Dollar Tree. The experien [View Full Entry]

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Hello! I just wanted to put up a quick blog for all my international friends to whom I do not speak enough. To all those still in Japan--I miss you all very very much. Chris. Eric. Kennard. Ono. I hope you are bearing though the winter all right, putting enough kerosine in your heaters and using your kotatsu like crazy. I also hope you are enjoying Japan and teaching those wonderful kids, and soaking up every last drop of culture and people and Japanese oddities that you can possibly (and sanely) handle, because there's nothing like that life in Japan. So, [View Full Entry]

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As most of you already know, I am indeed back home in California. Before I arrived in San Francisco on August 2nd I spent my last several days touring Tokyo with a wonderful friend, Casey, and her friend Lisa. Casey and I met exactly one year ago at the JET Program Tokyo orientation; although we haven't been able to see eachother, as she was placed in Hiroshima and I in Miyagi, we were able to stay in touch with Skype. This opportunity for us to reunite in Tokyo came about mostly because Lisa had a temp job with the Canadian Embassy [View Full Entry]

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So much has happened this last month or two. I’ll try to keep short and sweet, but you know how that goes. June, The Visits I had three wonderful visitors since my last blog...my awesome cousin from Toronto and then my parents. With my cousin, Moira, we kept busy the whole weekend—attending my students’ sports competition, hanging out in Ishinomaki, going to Sendai and Matsushima, eating fabulous food, and drinking lots of wine. At first we thought we hadn't seen each other in 8 years, but then realized it'd been only 3. Ha. A day after Moi left, my parents arriv [View Full Entry]

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First I must apologize to all the friends I did not call or see—but August is just around the corner so I’ll see you soon! My flight left Narita at 4:30pm on Wednesday, April 26, and got into SFO on Wednesday, April 26, at 9:30am. Kinda freaky huh. It was an easy 8.5 hour flight over the Pacific (sidenote: I'm pretty much convinced that if you pre-order a "special diet" meal that it's way better than the crap you'll get otherwise. Plus, you get served like 10 minutes before everyone else). Elliot, the gentleman he is, met me at the airport [View Full Entry]

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"Sakura" are cherry blossoms. And now that they have bloomed, it's really spring. On Saturday I went to Ishinomaki to meet up with some other gaijin and take part in what is called "Hanami." Literally, this means "flower" (hana) and "see" (mi). My idea of the meaning of hanami was seriously walking around and checking out the flowers. And that sounded fun. But then, we arrived at this place with tons of cherry trees and also tons of tarps laid out on the ground with tons of groups of Japanese people sitting on them. These people were not walking around checking [View Full Entry]

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For me, the idea of leaving junior high made me break out in a tap dance. But to these kids, it's the end of an era, a rite of passage. Today was Wakuya Junior High school's graduation. This event is much different from what I did in junior high, high school, even college. When I came to school Monday, I was surprised to hear that there was graduation practice in the gym--every day. Consistent with other aspects in the culture, there was a right way (and the only way) to do certain things; every maneuver of the ceremony was gauged, timed, [View Full Entry]

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