My Halloween classes all went very well this week! I wore my costume to school yesterday and all the kids (and the teachers) loved it! It was the scariest costume any of them had seen in person (because Halloween here is seriously scewed!  It's way more cute than scary).  No one knew it was me until I started talking.  All the kids kept asking who I was. lol

I told all the kids that I would be handing out candy at my apartment and that they were welcome to come "Trick-Or-Treating" on Halloween night.  I had to repeat over and over again that if they didn't wear a costume, I would not be giving them candy.  I even went so far as to write on the board "no costume = no candy".  Most of the kids already knew where I live but I wrote my address on the board for them.  I ended up with about 30 kids which is less than I hoped for but more than I realistically expected.  I still have lots of candy left over...especially since a few of the kids gave ME candy! lol  I think about 6 of them gave me candy, and one girl gave me a bouquet of fake roses. lol   All but 4 kids came dressed up, and the 2 out of the 4 didn't even want candy.

The first 3 kids to come to my door were the little guys that live in my building.  The youngest is 4 and the oldest is in grade 6.  They were all dressed up and very excited! The youngest one was a bit nervous of my costume at first, but once he realized it was "just me", he was alright.  They went to my place and the other Canadian's place (Mai-Linh lives on the second floor while I live on the first floor).  They were so cute! It was their first time trick or treating and although they only had two doors to go to, they are already looking forward to next year.

Mai-Linh came over and helped hand out some candy and we watched Hotel Transilvania. 

Today I finished preparing my presentation for the Skills Development Conference next week and made all my copies for the people that will be participating in my workshop.  I think I'm ready! I'm nervous, but looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor's to get my foot checked again.  Hopefully it's healed enough that I can lose the crutches and the half cast. My foot still hurts, and walking is a bit of a pain, but hopefully things will continue to get better from here on out.  I'm sick of being so slow and awkward.  I'm really looking forward to getting to the point where the heavy blankets don't hurt my foot and I can lie in whatever position I want without my foot screaming at me because it's in a bad position.  Sleeping shouldn't be this hard.

Thank god this is a long weekend! Tomorrow I refuse to get out of bed before 7am! Then Sunday and Monday I can sleep as much as I want! (or as much as I can...?)  Then Tuesday the taxi will pick me up at 6:45 to take me to the Board of Education and from there all the Iwaki ALTs will hop a bus to Fukushima city for thee Conference.  The last 2 years the hotel rooms have been so warm that none of us "foreigners" have been able to sleep well, if at all...so I'm not anticipating sleeping much there either.

Energy drinks are becoming my best friend...

Woke up at 5 this morning and got ready for work.  Today, instead of going to school to teach, all the ALTs in Fukushima Prefecture went to Fukushima City for the annual mid year conference.  So Sam and I had a taxi waiting on us (he was quite early) at 6:50 this morning to bring us to the B.O.E.  From there we took a bus (just for us) to the conference.  The ride went great until we hit Koriyama...and then it was bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic for almost the entire rest of the way.  Instead of taking 2 hours to get to Fukushima, it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes.  So we were a bit late getting to the conference. 

On the way there we saw 2 beautiful rainbows.  One of them was so close and so bright that I could almost make out where it "landed".  It came down infront of a mountain and although you could see the mountain through the rainbow, it was like seeing the mountain through colour tinted glasses.  The colour of the rainbow affected the colours on the mountain.  It was amazing!!  I've never seen anything like that before :)

THe conference itself was ok.  The first lecture went by rather quick, which is a good thing because I was starving!! I don't even really remember what it was about but I have handouts, so I'll read them all later. lol   Kim and I went to Fukushima station for lunch and went to a burger place called Freshness Burger.  I had a Classic WW cheeseburger. (classic double cheeseburger). I also got a large fry to go with it.  The burger was DELICIOUS!! It was also almost too big to fit in my mouth! lol  And the fries were more like potato wedges! And there was ketchup and mustard and garlic sauce and relish! It was amazing! I ate the whole thing! Soo good!

Then we stopped in at Jupiter (a forgeign food store) and I picked up some American Chocolate food stuffs. lol YUM!

The afternoon went by in a bit of a blur.  I had a headache, so although I participated and even presented a bit, I wasn't really paying that much attention.  Again, there were handouts and I took some notes.  I didn't learn anything new from the afternoon seminars.  Then the final lecture was dull. It was good stuff to know, about creating events and activities in your city, but nothing that I really plan on doing myself. Or I should say, nothing that I plan on initiating myself. If someone else wants to, I'll help, but I don't want the responsibility of putting together and funding and planning an event.

Finally it was 4pm and time to go home!  I ended up in the same seat I had going there. The bus was small and cramped and us poor TALL foreigners did not have an easy ride. On the way back, D got sick and asked the bus driver to stop at the next pit stop, but we had just passed one and before we got to another, poor D had the bus driver stop (we had to ask him a couple of times because he was nervous about stopping on the highway) so D could jump out and be sick.  He climbed up the cement embankment to get to the grassy hill so he could be sick and void at the same time.  I'm thankful, for his sake, that it was dark and we couldn't really see him.  The driver didn't want anyone else going outside because we were on the highway and it was dangerous but P went out with some tissue and S went out just to help while I stood on the bus step wanting to help but not really able to.  I had a plastic bag I gave to D, just in case he needed it, but he made it back ok.  I hope that he feels better tomorrow.

I got home much earlier than I had thought I would and now I'm getting stuff together for my trip to L.A.  Tomorrow is my last day of teaching before the trip.  I'm at my base school tomorrow but over at the Junior High instead of the elementary school.  When I get home tomorrow I need to pack everything into my suitcase and then I'm all set!! I have to be out of the house at 07:05 Thursday morning to catch the first of 3 trains to the airport. My flight leaves at 14:55.  I arrive in L.A. at 07:45 which will be 01:45 for me.  It's like arriving in at LAX airport only 40 minutes after leaving my house in Japan! How is that for JET LAG! lol  damn, it's going to be a REALLY long day!  I hope I can at least doze ont he plane.  =P

Feel free to skip this post if you don't want to here my somewhat angsty musings.  For some reason I have a hard time getting the cuts to work right, so I'm not going to bother trying tonight.

I'm trying to update more often but sometimes I just can't think of anything to say.  Seems like lately all I want to do is complain and I'm pretty sure most people don't want to sit around and read that all the time.

I find I just don't have the energy to do much lately....well not just lately, it's been a while now.  I have such a hard time getting up in the mornings to go to work and I often fall asleep at my desk after lunch for 15 minutes or so (though, not today :)  )  and yet, despite being tired all the time, I have a hard time getting to sleep at night.  My back has been really bothering me lately, enough that I'm doing my physio excercises twice a day now instead of just once and my neck and shoulders have been sore since Canadian Thanksgiving day weekend (although they are getting better now) and I've been getting lots of headaches.  So I'm thinking stress is a major factor.  But I don't really feel all that stressed. But what else could it be? 

Today I had stomach pains all day and barely ate anything.  I had my usual breakfast but only ate a bun with peanut butter for lunch and I made a fajita omlette for dinner. I t's after 8pm and I'm tired but not enough to actually be able to sleep.  And before you say that's too early, I have been going to bed around 9pm since I got here over a year ago.  lol

It will be 8 months on Friday since the eathquake on 3/11 and there hasn't been a big one in my area since the end of August.  There have been one or two medium sized ones (M5) but the last M6 or M.something (tsunami warning included) was around August 20th.  So you'd think I'd be feeling a sense of relief at relative normalcy returning to my life.  But there are still the odd smallish earthquake and every now and then they come in little groups.  When that happens (like this week) I start waiting for a big one and then when nothing happens I don't know what to do with myself.  At least after a big one I knew that I had at least a week before I had to worry about another one. Now I either don't think about it at all or start wondering when the next one will come.  Not IF, but WHEN.  And I know that there might not be another big one while I'm here, but then again, it could happen tonight.

How many earthquakes have there been since 3/11??  The other day I was talking to ninja007 and once again made the realization that, "Holy Shit, I lived through that" and  "I survived".  That thought has hit me in the face a few times in the past 8 months and each time it's like the first time.  At least the nightmares have stopped :)  The town beside me got hit by the tsunami and then after that it burned down.  My Base school is hoping to be up and running again by Februray.  It is located practically on the beach and got hit and damaged by the tsunami. 8 months later there is still no running water at the school and electricity is limited.  So only one grade (gr 9) is currently able to use the school.  I'm getting very good at using Japanese porta potties (squatt toilets). We are hoping that the school will be ready in time for the end of the school year in March so that the students can have their graduation ceremony in their school gym (fingers crossed).

Despite all this negativity I am still happy here. I love my apartment (although it desperately needs a good cleaning), I love my job (97% of the time) and I still love Japan.  I have already decided to stay for a 3rd year.  I'm going to Chikako's place every weekend for about 3 hours to study for the JLPT which I will be taking on December 4th in Tokyo, and I really hope to pass this time around. If not I'll be taking it again in July.

On an happy note, Chikako is taking me to a concert (classical trumpet) this Sunday and then we are going out to dinner :)  I'm looking forward to this! Also Next Tuesday (the 15th) is the Annual Mid Year Conference for Fukushima JETs in Fukushima city and then on the 17th I'm off to L.A. for the Final Farscape Convention!  (and a wedding).  I'm really looking forward to seeing all my Scaper pals and having some fun.

Well I think this post is long enough.