I'm not too great at keeping up with this blog thing. Ha.

Yesterday it rained all day. As someone from Utah, I am still amazed when I see it rain like this. It wasn’t particularly hard, but it’s just so constant. There was no pause or let-up from the time I left for work (about 7:30am) until about 4. Quite incredible, really. The play area on the school grounds was pretty much one huge puddle, so the students spent their free time inside, reading and whatnot. The 6^th years ate lunch early and went somewhere or other with their umbrellas. Not sure when they came back, but I bet their feet were wet!

It’s become cold here. I’ll need to get a proper coat soon. For the time being, I’m already wearing a few layers, and am keeping a blanket in my car. Hard to think that just two months ago it was sports festival time and the world felt like an oven!

School’s going all right. Just plugging away as best I can each day. I find I very much envy those ALTs here whose schools have an English room. Neither of my schools has one, but it sure would be convenient. When a school has an English room, the ALT for that school can decorate it however they want – with stuff from their native country, or holiday stuff around the time of whatever month’s holiday. The best part would be being able to prepare for each class at least a few minutes ahead of time (already having stuff written on the board and whatnot), and having more space for English-related materials!

One of the 1^st year teachers at my big school is getting married soon. A few of the teachers pitched in and got her beautiful flowers in congratulations. Apparently flowers are rather pricey here, as are weddings. Even if you’re a wedding guest, it will be expensive for you! One of my co-workers is going to the wedding of a friend of hers, and she was telling me a little bit about it. Each guest is expected to give a certain type of gift, or certain amount of money, depending on their various circumstances (age, income, and many more things that are cultural and apparently hard to remember, let alone explain). None of the “gift registry” ideas I’m used to. It makes me want to try to find out more about weddings here.