I made it!

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Training is finally over! The last day was the hardest- five hours of just going through administrative crap.

Monday was a holiday and I was invited to a barbeque hosted by one of the schools in the Kobe area. Rich and I joined Luke, Maya (fellow Austinite), Luke's friend Ian, and another teacher whose name I can't recall but bears a striking resemblence to Steve-O! We joined the school staff and students for some grilled flesh, sing-a-longs, and even a bit of Twister.

After the bbq, I went on a bit of an adventure with the boys (Maya went to a festival).. There are some abandoned train tracks that you can hike- the trek takes you alongside a river and through mountain tunnels. Let me just say that I'm certainly glad I was with four boys... Who knew that tunnels and cell phone lights can make some of the best shadow puppets? 😉 It's hard to be too scared when you're laughing to the point of crying.


On to other things:

So far I have two days of work under my belt.. My very first lesson was with an 80 year old man who spent over an hour and a half telling me about when he worked as an interpreter for the US army (in the 1950's I think). The other lessons weren't quite as interesting.

I spent most of my second day folding flyers to pass out and goofing off with some of the other teachers. There's apparently a surplus of teachers right now, so they're having a hard time finding where to place us. I'm sure things will pick up soon though.

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Photos

Mmm.. grilled meat
At the Sanda BBQ

Twister fun
The guy in the striped shirt is actually the school director!

Boys on the trail
We're actually lost at this point..

View inside the tunnel
Creepy, no?

Pretty view
Along the tracks

Shaka shaka shaka
We stopped at McD's for dinner and I discovered this.. you toss the fries into the bag with some extra seasoning and "shak" them to coat.