...to this blog. I know my promises aren't worth much nowadays, given the fits-and-starts nature of this little endeavor, but I'd really like to update this thing much more often. So here we go. Perhaps a recap is in order.
1.) Christmas--Juli and I went home to the rambling hills of Maryland for the holidays. All told we spent a little over three weeks basking in the modern marvels of central heating and double-paned windows, luxuries that Japan has stubbornly refused to embrace. Going from an apartment that regularly hovers around 43 degrees to a house with an actual "room" temperature was like entering a parallel world where comfort is regarded as a basically good thing. It was great to sit around with the family watching movies without having to wear layers or turn on a kerosene heater. And oh did we watch movies. My dad got a 42" plasma TV which came with a free Blu-Ray player and 10 free Blu-Ray discs. I was a bit ambivalent about the whole HD format war, but I've been thoroughly swayed. The video quality is astounding--even when upscaling regular DVDs. I also managed to go see Juno, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood at the theater.
Not all our time was spent lounging around, however. Corey found some terrifying paper mache lion and lamb masks at my parent's church, so we made a short film and I took loads of pictures. Here's an excerpt and a photo:
Of course, we also spent lots of time with my grandparents and our friends. It was so good to see everyone again--it's always strange to see how much things have changed or stayed the same over the course of a year. Oddly enough, we met Clinton's wife Jenni for the first time--they're a perfect match. Clinton made me a fabulously creepy clock from a wooden box, cut up doll parts and doll house furniture. And he gave me some Michael Jackson trading cards from the mid-80's. What a sweetheart.
It was a bit difficult to leave, emotionally, of course, but also physically because we had three suitcases and our new internal frame backpack stuffed to the brim with clothes and supplies to tide us over during our third year in Japan. I brought back four pairs of shoes and several pairs of pants--goods that would be literally impossible to find in my size in Sendai.
2.) Winter Camp--The day after we returned to Sendai we headed up near Akiu for Izumi SHS's annual English winter camp. Juli and I were selected to be camp counselors and give a few fun, haphazard lessons. We had a great time, got to meet a lot of enthusiastic students (not necessarily the norm for Japan), and spend time with some ALTs that we don't normally get to see. My group of students called themselves "Jackko" and performed a skit titled "Love or Horror," an improbable mash-up of Titanic and The Ring, complete with creepy ghost Sadako turning into an iceberg to sink the ship. Oh Japan.
3.) Mid-Year Conference--We were a bit stressed out about mid-year over Christmas break as Juli and I were both chosen to give presentations, mine on "Effective Use of the Textbook in Academic SHS" and hers on job-hunting post-JET. Everything went fairly smoothly though, despite a few glitches. After the conference on Friday we went out with some other ALTs to celebrate Eric's birthday with bowling and a trip to a really excellent organic dinner buffet. Andy and Maria stayed at our place that weekend and we somehow managed to watch almost the entire third season of The Office, make amazing homemade vegetarian burritos (including tortillas from scratch), and meet up with a real estate agent to check out some potential new apartments. And I took some spontaneous portraits of everyone:
Well, I think that about catches us up. Like I said, no promises, but I'm really going to try to keep everyone up-to-date on our whereabouts and happenings this year.
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