Two twins Three triplets Infinite realization

Because this post is so serious, I figured I'd give you a funny photo

This is me pretending I found out I have a 2 year old daughter in Japan

Not one of my students, girl's daughter of whom I met a couple of weeks ago

The weeks have been going by faster than they have seemed to in the past. My articulation, ability to understand Japanese, ability to understand broken English, and just feeling like I actually belong (more-so than I have) in Japan amongst such a great group of people is setting in with my thoughts shifting from my current home to my new home. But, even though I was so excited to receive my new job in Hiroshima, excited to meet new people, excited for new experiences and even more ecstatic about more learning, I had a realization yesterday that was even more confirmed today, I'm going to miss my kids.

The greatest aspect about starting a new adventure is that it is simply new. The worst thing about starting a new adventure is, at some point and time it is going to change. New relationships become stronger ties, meeting new people becomes easier, but at some point and time people must say goodbye.

Yesterday I had two amazing little children. Not because they are smart, not because they are the cutest, but for some reason, I love them and I understand them. I taught them last year during one of my baby classes for a couple of months, but because it was one mom with two children (twins) she was getting a bit tired every week because she was also bringing her four year old daughter to Amity as well. Did I mention she is about 27 and smaller than my mom? I swear, the woman looks like she could be my age or younger and she is toting around twins and a four year old, and you know what, she loves it. So ever since I met these two children I've always loved them, because I see how much their mom loves them. Quick side note, to all of you people who don't ever want to be parents, I pity you. Trust me, I get where you are coming from now, there's no way I want to be a dad, but that's at this MOMENT...when I get married and have kids, man, that's going to be something. Cause if I feel this way about kids that arent biologically mine, how much more am I going to love my own children. I seem to recall saying this about a year ago for a certain group of youngsters in the states to. Understanding goes a long way toward building relationships, no matter the age.

Yesterday was my second class teaching the twins. They had me last week and the girl cried the entire 40 minutes, the boy on the other hand only cried for about five and then chilled out. This week I had higher expectations, or I expected them to flip with the boy crying the whole time and the girl being calm, hey, they are twins, yin and yang I thought.

What happened yesterday has never happened to me before. I felt a bond with these children. I was there teacher but I felt like their parent. After they calmed down, especially the girl, bless her heart, they were very attentive and they did something that none of my students ever did: they asked questions the entire class. Granted, it was in Japanese, but I was answering them in English. We were learning colors so they kept asking what this Disney characters name was, if this "emotion" face went with this character (I have baby Mario and Luigi faces to demonstrate "I'm happy" ect... and I put them on my actual Mario and Luigi characters, it works like a charm). I sat them down next to me and the entire class we just went through,

"Yes Fuka (FOO-KAH) this is honey (Pooh), and his shirt is red. ""

"Red?"

"Yes red."

"Zoo desu (ZOH-OH DEH-SU)?"

" Yes Fuka, but it's "elephant" in English"

"Eferant"

"Yes good job."

To go from wanting mommy and screaming in my ear to being genuinely interested in everything I was saying, guys, it was an epiphany, I love kids and I love hard. I know I have another couple of months, but they are taking my class next school year (which starts in April) and just thinking of handing them over to another teacher when we connected so much yesterday, part of me doesn't want to.

That realization got confirmed today when I had my triplets. Yes, triplets. Although, instead of the mom darting out immediately to try to get them comfortable with the class on their own (which I totally prefer this and crying to the mother staying and them being ok, sometimes trial by fire is what these children need, at least for 40 minutes, especially since they'll be starting with me soon), she stayed, along with their older sister (whom I also taught last year a couple of times, she's 7, and she's a sweetheart).

There were two girls and one boy and they are also 3. One girl, in Japanese kept saying, "I don't want to be here he's scary!" and the other two were holding their family close. I backed as far away as I could, put on my smile, sat Japanese style (look it up on the internet, I dont feel like explaining it) and slowly brought out Mario and Luigi, along with their "happy, sad, angry etc..." faces. One girl was still hiding and the other two were just as wary even though they weren't crying. I knew not to get close, not to touch them, let them come to me. Suddenly they heard a sound strangely familiar "HEY! HELLLOOO!" and I looked around and said,

"What? Who said that?"

"HEYYYY GUYS! HELLO!"

"Huh, who is that? Who's that?"

"HELLO!"

All of a sudden the voice of Mario and Luigi brought them from out of their shells, just a little bit. They were intrigued, yet, full of pause. They were curious and yet cautious, there was no way they were going to drop their guard for a second, not with this big 6'2 man in the room who probably wanted to take them away from their mother forever. Slowly, I go through and say:

"How are you?" in my Mario voice (for those of you who haven't realized it yet, it was me doing my baby Mario and Luigi voices).

"I'm happy!" said Mario.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the girl who said I was scary smile through her tears and quickly hide behind her mother. Got her...

I went through all of the feelings then I took a chance; I pushed the faces closer to the triplets and said, "touch happy" The boy stepped forward and then thought, "to heck with it" and hit happy, the middle sister followed suit, and finally, the younger sister came out from behind her mothers legs while peeking her nose around her outer thy and inched forward. I said,

"Come on, you can do it, I promise you'll be ok."

*BAM*

SUCCESS!!!

From that point on it got better and better to the point where the mom was able to leave out of the room and I taught the kids the "OK" sign while asking them in English, "Are you ok? It's ok." They nodded their heads in approval. We blew bubbles, played with a squeeky hammer, and learned our colors. We played hide and seek with the color cards and just laughed and laughed and laughed. It got to the point where I said, "Ok it's time to say goodbye" and the boy in Japanese asked me, "Why?!" And I was like "Because it's been 40 minutes we have to go." The girl who was most scared of me spoke the most, they were all smiles and the boy even called me Sensei (teacher).

I am looking forward to starting my new class with all 5 of these children next month, but I am terribly saddened that one day I am going to have to say goodbye.

-Jeremy

GREAT NEWS!!!

Hello all, first of all, I would like to officially welcome John Budge to Amity in Tottori *round of applause*. He is my new co-teacher. John is from Minnesota, to which one of my students asked him, "How is the soda in MinnesoDA" hahahahaha!!!! John is a year younger than me and just as silly. He went to the University of Minnesota and got a degree in Japanese and International Relations. He knows Japanese, which is great because we are each others' wing men when we go out to meet all the ladies, hahahha. But really, John is a fun guy and we laugh at work a little more than we should (considering it's work and all).

Secondly, and if you are not sitting down (which I don't know why you wouldn't be, you are reading this on a computer right? I guess if you have an iPad or something..ohh...iPad..do want...) you may want to sit down for this next bit of news (especially if you are close family or friends).

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I have been accepted to teach primarily adults at my sister company AEON. I will be teaching in Hiroshima Japan!!!!!!!!! Now, I know some of you are smiling, and some of you are frowning, and some of you are smowning (smile and frowning). Here are the details:

I will be ending my current contract with AMITY May 29th. I will be coming home to Charlotte, NC on May 30th. But before some of you get too excited you must know that I will be coming back to Japan June 10th...of 2010...so I will only have about 10 days at home before I jet right back out here.

To my kids from Oakhurst: I love you, but I have to stay out here and I'm sure you all are going to be wonderful first graders come fall, I am sorry I won't be able to see you guys for your birthdays or your first days of school (well around there), I want to see every single one of you when I get back somehow.

To my friends: Guys, girls, you know I love you all too, and it is kind of surreal that I have been out here for a year already and I'm already talking about the new friends I have made and the new experiences that I have had and that I will be out here for ANOTHER year, but know this, the bonds of friendship are strong, and most of you I do not see everyday anyway so just think of it as a prolonged "It's been too long". I hope to be able to see most of you (within traveling reality) when I come back too, we are gonna party it up and say "Welcome Ba...GOODBYE!!" hahahaha

To my family: I am so happy to have you as my family and am even happier that you guys supported my decision to come to Japan 100% even if you didn't always like it. I am saddened that I will only be home for such a short time, but I am going to be 24 years old and I have a prime opportunity to have ANOTHER experience of a lifetime, so I know that you know, that I know, that you know that you are happy that I am happy and that you know this is the best thing for me.

So, that's the great news. On Monday when I asked everyone for a prayer request it was because I was headed to Okayama to do a 2.5 hour interview. Obviously, it went well and they offered me the position the next day.

The Specifics: I will be in Japan for another year at LEAST (I know it's not what you all want to hear, but it is possible that I will extend again). I start June 12th this year (training) and then my contract ends near the end of June next year (2011). I will be staying in Hiroshima Prefecture (think of it as a state) and I will be in the city of Midorii (which translates into English as Green...hahaha...I've lived in Green place before..Green Bay...hahhaa) which is 20 minutes by train outside of Hiroshima city (where I visited in October when I saw the Dome).

Whether you believe in God or not, this has to be said from me. God is amazing. I said (and you can go check this on my Hiroshima post), "I can totally see myself living here." When I had doubts about my next step as far as Japan or home, the decision to stay with AMITY and be almost guaranteed a bigger city with a better train station, but still possibly be worn out by the kids and the crazy schedule at times, or do I go home where I'm not sure what to start applying for because of this economy and because I was afraid I'd miss Japan so much...and then God offers me this. I mentioned to my head boss that if I were to switch to AEON one of my cities I would want to work in would be Hiroshima and he had the best contacts with the head office that runs the Hiroshima prefecture and by his own doing he got them interested in me and gave me a solid verbal recommendation. And it just so happened that they had a position opening in Hiroshima RIGHT after I finish my contract with AMITY. No bridges burned, no hurdles jumped, just God working everything out for the good of those who love and obey him.

So, what does this all mean? Well, this means that I am going to be in one of the most famous cities in Japan (or at least near it). This means that my Japanese is going to continue to get better and this MIGHT mean a Japanese girlfriend which by the looks of it, some of you are DESPERATE for me to find one so you can meet her, it's hilarious, you guys crack me up!!!

But this also means that I get to do what deep down in my heart I knew I still needed to do which was, stay in Japan, I just wasn't sure about the form or fashion, but obedience to God and constantly wanting His Will on your life does some amazing things for you, trust me, I know.

Fam, friends, kids, I love you, thank you for your prayers and your support this past year and I look forward to seeing many of you in June when I am home for a bit. Have a good one!

Jeremy aka omg-batman-he's-actually-going-to-be-teaching-adults-he's-flipping-out!!!!

Bye Bye Becs

I know I haven't posted in the while and I'm not about to go into a long drawn out explanation of why, just know that I haven't forgotten about you all.

It has almost been a year since I said goodbye to America (not for good, don't worry) to come to Japan. And now that it has been a year and I will be with Amity until May I am happy that I extended. But, one thing is about to majorly change. Becs is going to be leaving :( I cannot go into detail (because of privacy AND space, hahaha) of the amount of fun me and Becs have had.

She has helped me a lot this year. She has literally felt like a sister while she has been out here with me. I do not think I've spent this much time with any one person in my entire life save my immediate family. When you work together 40 hours a week for a year you tend to get on each others nerves, learn a lot from each other, and yes, love each other. I have to admit, my time out here would not have been the same and I would not have grown as an individual the way I have if it hadn't been for Becs.

She is headed back to California on February 3rd and she is setting her sights on volunteering and then in the fall going to graduate school. I wish her all the best.

In other news my kids are crazy. They are crawling between my legs, running and jumping into me, constantly asking me questions in Japanese (which is helping my Japanese) and overall just being the warmest most kindest people I've ever met. Some of these kids get on my nerves from time to time, but I must say that even my worst kids a year ago I have grown to love. With Becs leaving it's making me realize how short my time is here (as far as Amity because I plan on coming back out here in some other form or fashion, most likely a teacher, but more on that as it develops) and I know one thing, I'm going to miss these kids. Even Becs came close to shedding a tear when one of her students, who she hasn't even had for a year, told her, "I'll miss you.."


In other news, I haven't been studying my Japanese the way I should be, but I am retaining the little bit that I am continually picking up. It feels great, even in a limited capacity, to be able to communicate with people in another language. One reason, or excuse whichever you prefer, that I haven't been studying Japanese is because of The Wire. Yup, The Wire. If you are not familiar with what I am speaking of let me explain: The Wire is a TV show on HBO that only ran for 5 seasons. The creator of it is an ex-Baltimore Police Officer who decided to make a show about inner-city Baltimore and the drug dealing, corner boys, police officers, government officials and newspaper reporters. The show is almost an hour long for each episode and my goodness it has got to be one of the biggest spider-webbed kind of shows I have ever watched. The reason I love it so much is because it's not over the top unbelievable (editors note: watch Prison Break), but yet it entraps you with it's pure genius.

I also got a new game a little while back, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Wonderful game, but I won't get into it because this is not a video game blog.

Well, everything is GREAT, I love my kids, I'm loving the position I'm in right now, the sky is the limit and I really hope that after I am able to come back for about a month that I can have something lined up soon there after to be back in this great country again. All in God's time and His Will, I know...but for those of you who have spoken to me since I have been out here, you know how at peace I am and how much joy I have...I just want it to continue.

Farewell Becs, and thanks for being my sister in Japan.

-Jeremy aka The big Little Brother in Japan

over a month i know!!!

Yup, I saw this in REAL life...and I almost cried...

So my faithful readers...or unfaithful now that I haven't written for over a month, I am back. Even if for a little bit.

No pictures this time around, but I should have some near the end of the year, cause I'm (get ready) GOIN BACK TO TOKYO!!! AND GUESS WHO IS GOIN TO DISNEYLAND *POINTS* THIS GUUUYY!!!

Since I have last written, I have been to Hiroshima. It was a fantastic time. So, quick story, because I know you are all waiting on baited breath for another story from *cue music* JEREMY IN JAPAN!!

So I decided to go to Hiroshima for a Sake Festival. This is an all day festival where cities from all over Japan showcase their Sake. And all I have to do is pay a measly 16 bucks and I can try as much Sake, from as many cities, as I want (supplies withstanding).

Before I even get a chance to go to the actual Sake Festival I am approached (as are five other friends that I am with) by a Japanese lady who asks us point blank, "Would you like to try some PREMIUM Sake for free?" And we are all kind of just dumbfounded, when finally one of us says, "Yeah sure, that'd be great." We follow her to a wonderful penthouse overlooking the city. Inside are about 8 businessmen all bowing to us and welcoming us. We look at the table before us, and there are not 1, not 2, not 12, but 16 bottles of PREMIUM Sake. We start tasting. And tasting..and tasting some more. We start using words like, "tastes like springtime" and "crisp with a hint of winter air" to make ourselves sound more professional like we actually knew what the heck it was we were talking about. I found out something during that hour we spend sampling Sake; I really enjoy the taste of Sake, sweet Sake to be exact. After about 9 tastes, I stopped. My friends told me, "You suck!" and i told them, "We havent even STARTED the actual SAKE festival yet." In the end, I turned out to be the smart one. I offered my opinion on the 9 Premium Sakes that I tasted. We all sat at a business table and offered up our opinions. I felt like a person on the Board of a large company talking about how we can better improve our product for the consumer. I felt important in my, "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" T-shirt. I felt like an intellectual. Later on, I would definitely feel a lot more...haha

As the Sake Festival proceeded I decided to drink Sake based on the number that was on the menu. Me and an English friend of mine started doing famous football players numbers; 92 tasted pretty darn good.

That night, I was so hungry that I bought a spicy chicken sandwhich, french fries, and a quarter pounder. I am eating this on the way to another nightclub/bar when an English girl, who looked asian, asked me "Is that Mcdonalds? Can I have some?" and I said, "Seriously?" and she says, "Yes" and I gave her some, she enjoyed it.

I ended up at a bar where I ran into my friend that I saw at the beach party. Which was very odd considering he didn't live there and earlier that day I ran into my favorite Nihongexican (japanese mexican) who I hadn't seen since the awesomely massive and massively awesome beach party. Needless to say, it was a GREAT day!

I also got to see the Dome, but I did not go to the peace museum. I'm not comparing the two events, but I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel and I must say, I did not want to start my Saturday before the Sake Festival with a visit to a museum that might be as emotionally heart tearing as the HM was in Israel. I settled for the Dome and even that brought me to tears. I understand it was War and I know what the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor (we went almost every year my dad went to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii), but I still wanted to go up to all the Japanese people in Hiroshima and say "I'm sorry."

After being in Hiroshima for only 2 days I realized it's been one of my favorite places in Japan, and I would NOT mind living there. Here's one last story on why I love this country so much.

I was trying to find my friends at a bar the night before Sake fest. I didnt know exactly where they were but I knew around where they were. I stopped three Japanese women and asked them in Japanese where I certain building was. In English one of the women said, "Go to the next traffic light and make a left." I was baffled. Not because she spoke English entirely and with good grammar, but because of the English word she used. Who says TRAFFIC LIGHT anymore? After she said it her friends started whooping and hollering and saying "YAY!" and clapping and laughing. I said back to her, in English, "You're English is AWESOME!" Those three girls literally were celebrating for about a minute. And it just gave me another reason to smile.

I less than sign three Japan. (for those of you that dont get it, type the "less than" sign and a "3" and see what you get).

-Jeremy

Hey ya'll!!!

I clean up rather nicely. What you all think?

HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS!!! Ok, they aren't dominating, but we are 2-1, and if you are from Charlotte...well, I'm sorry. ごめなさい! (I'm sorry).

Anyway, it's been a minute since I've written on the blog so here is a quick update of what is going on in my life.

September has been a pretty busy month. We had to get somewhere in the ballpark of 116 points (if we get one extra lesson with a current student we get a point) and we had to get 9 new students. Basically, we had to get lessons from students that we did not currently have. Whether they be parents of students we have, or brothers and sisters, or someone entirely not related to any of our students, we needed to get 9 new students to sign up in about a month and a half. It sounded pretty far fetched considering I have been here for almost 8 months (WOW) and we haven't reached our new student goal in one month ever. But today folks, we did it.

I personally will have four new classes come October. One of my three year old kids is switching the time of their class, I got a new parent, and I have two new baby classes (yup..BABY classes). It's actually not so bad. It's great teaching the parents, especially when they are hot moms (in fact, I one of them tomorrow, SCORE!).

September has quietly been one of the busiest months I've had. In the past four work days I have taught 30 classes. Seven, seven, eight and eight. Tomorrow I only teach six, but good gracious, if I thought my check was good last month, I can't wait to see what my check will be this month. It's probably not going to be more, but it's going to be at least half as good as far as over-time is concerned.

I am almost done with the 7th Harry Potter. I'm about half-way through it, and I'm excited. The reason I am so excited is because when I get finished with it, I will have my life back. Harry has pretty much commanded my lunches, nights, and weekends. Sure, I've devoted ample time to Pokemon and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and also dancing, but still, Harry constantly looms over me, and he will be gone in a couple of weeks. Which is kind of actually really in a horrible way....sad. *tear*

I am going to Hiroshima in a couple of weeks (PUNCH THE AIR!). I am going for *drumroll* a Sake FEST!!! I've never been to a Sake Fest before, but I hear it's QUITE the fun time. I also get four days off next week, so that's even better. And, I'm going to be in a famous city as well. So I plan on visiting the dome, and most likely the peace park too, but by and large, I'm going to be hanging with my friends at the Sake Fest.

I've got a new invigoration for learning Japanese. If any of you are wondering why, just remember I have Yellow Fever, so, that alone will give any man a reason to learn another language (and for those of you who didn't catch that, you deserve not to, so I'm going to let it go...woops..there it goes).

I went back to Osaka a couple of weeks ago, had another four day weekend, so I decided to go back out to a city I didn't really get to have a lot of experience with. I am so glad I did because I got to party with three of the Black Eyed Peas, Will I AM was DJing, and I met this awesome chick who speaks really good English (and she's cute..yay, new friend!). There had to be at least around 500 people there. There were two warehouses and four DJ's. It was a blast and it only cost me 20 bucks to get in! Dude...LOVIN IT!

So I have some pictures, not all of them are from the same time, but you should enjoy them none the less. I hope everyone is doing well, cause I'm doing amazing. My kids are really starting to feel like my KIDS. It's crazy how tight you get with the little ones after seeing them every week (give or take absences) for about 8 months. Wow...8 months...and think..I'm just getting started. にほんだいすきです！！！！ (I LOVE JAPAN!!!)

-ジェレミせんせい (Literally: Jeremy Teacher)

My name looks so cool in Japanese!!!

Random quick story. Had a kid, who is smart as a whip (whatever that means) and we were going over countries and what you call people from those countries. I asked him what you call people from Iceland and, jokingly, he said "Ice Cream!" Thought that was hilarious! Ok, back to your regularly scheduled lives.

It's been a (Japanese) Minute (dunno what that means really..)

Why am I posing next to this strange object? Read on to find out (Pictures HERE)

Hey all!!! I am still alive and kicking. Well...I don't really kick, but I'm peddling. So I'm alive and peddling. Woo hoo!!!

Ok, first of all, Summer vacation was way to short. It was the longest set of vacation that I would have for the year, but it was still way to short. I went to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. While in Osaka, I went to Universal Studios Japan. THAT was fun! I won my first awesome stuffed animal because I knocked down the three bottles with the bean bag ball. Yes, I knocked all of them off of the platform and I won *drumroll* COOKIE MONSTER!!! yeah!!! I had a good time. I road Spider-Man (in Japanese), I watched Shrek 4D (In Japanese) I saw Peter Pan (IN JAPANESE!!!) and I ate food (in English, because...well...wait...nevermind). I had a good time. Osaka and Kobe were not as fun as Tokyo, and this is possibly due to the fact that I went alone and didn't really have a plan. I kind of winged it. Good thing was, I did make a new friend in Osaka who offered to show me around more next time I was in Osaka. She (badabing!) was nice.

Well, summer seminars are over, and now begins the month of September. And even though we have to get more new students, even though work is still kind of a stressful environment (ok, not really), and even though I still have a devil child I want to chuck through a solid immovable wall...guess what?! IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!! YES! In one week it is going to be football season and yours truly has a pass that he bought on the internet (only for international users, sorry guys) that let's him watch all the games, even after they've aired, in pure unadulterated unfiltered HD and he even can have multiple games on the screen at once. Dude...can you say stoked? Cause I can. STOKED!!!

So, quick story. Funny story. I'm teaching two four-year-old's and when we teach new vocabulary, we teach it twice, and then we do a small activity where I get the children to say the new vocabulary 3 times fast. For example, if the vocabulary is "apple" I say "apple" once and they say "apple, apple, apple" as fast as they can (good for the memory). Well after that, we are supposed to do something fun. Do a little dance, roll our tongue, make a boom boom clap beat on the floor (yes, I actually do it, and they like it). Well, one of my kids wanted to act like Parukia (he is a Pokemon, and he's really strong). Sometimes I do Superman or Batman with them, but he wanted to do Parukia. So I said (because I didnt really want to think of an idea) "Sure Nao, go ahead and be Parukia." So we went ahead and did our three times fast and then I looked at him and said, "OK BE PARUKIA!!"

Picture this.

A kid get's a big burst of energy.

You don't know what he is going to do.

He shakes his head from side to side as the energy is building up.

He utters some inexplicable language that neither makes sense in Japanese or English.

He runs as fast as he can (or so it seems).

He slams into the wall, falls down, and is OUT.

That was Nao's impersonation of one of the most powerful Pokemon in the Pokemon Universe.

I did not understand. But what I did do, was..

Laugh...LOUDLY!

It was hilarious. The boy didn't hurt himself, but he acted as if he hit the wall too hard, fell down and then was out. He acted like Parukia. I didn't get it. The next time we did three times fast he falls down and acts like he is getting choked to death. I just looked at him, smiled, and laughed.

It's incidents like that that (1) get me through my day when it is sometimes dragging for whatever reason and (2) it reminds me why I took this job in the first place (besides all the yellow fever I seem to be catching ;)

I'm still as happy as ever here, but I am definitely looking toward my life AFTER Amity (notice I didn't say after Japan, I'll let you chew on that). But that is such a far way away (not until May) so I am enjoying the moments I have here at Amity.

Ok world. I hope all is well with everyone. And remember, perspective is not EVERYTHING, but it's at least 110%...at least. Be cool.

-Jeremy aka the winner of having the most fun at Todd and Machiko's wedding (my ex-coworker and her husband who works at AEON, the adult sister school of AMITY in Tottori).

It's been so long!!!

No one told me that I had this on my head, I was trying to look sophisticated...hahaha pictures here

Hello world!! I know it has been a VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRYYY long time since I have last posted. I apologize, but yet I'm not to sorry. Life has been crazy busy the month of July.

The first weekend I went to an enormous beach party with 100's of people. I was able to get Saturday off (and so was Becs) and we danced the night away Friday and Saturday and during the day Saturday I just enjoyed being on the beach with friends. It was some of the most fun I've had in my entire life. I met a bunch of new people (included two mixed babies, one of which was Mexican and Japanese and the other which was Caucasian and chinese...oh gosh I love this country, they were girls obviously ;) I made new friends from Okayama, Tokyo and other parts of Japan. It was quite the experience, but since it was indeed a party, I will stop at the fact that it was "fun" and not go into too many more details (and it's not because I don't remember, haha).

The second weekend in July was possibly better than the first; I did something that I've never done before. Check that; two things that I've never done before. I went Canyoning, which is basically going into the bowels of a mountain where there are rivers and waterfalls and ziplining, splashing, and exploring in nature. It was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life. That was until the next day when I, Jeremy White, went White Water Rafting. Yes people, White Water Rafting. I never knew that such an activity could be so fulfillingly fun in a way I had never imagined. I went with other foregin friends and we had a blast. We were going through the rapids with our Australian guide (Mezza, who was cool as heck) yelling "FORWARD TEAM! BACK! GET DOWN TEAM! ALRIGHT TEAM GREAT JOB PUNCH THE AIR! YAAAAHHHH!!!|" It was genki (energetic, fun) a time as I think I've had in Japan. And that was the other great thing, I was doing this IN Japan!!! There were about 5 other boats all with Japanese people (we were the only foreign group that day), and they were awesome. At certain times Mezza would let us know that it was ok to jump out of the boat and just let the current take our bodies downstream. This had to be the one of the most fun parts of rafting for me. I would just do a backflip off of the boat, land in the water, float down the river and yell "I'M FLOATING DOWN A RIVER! IN JAPAN! WOO HOO!!!" and then I'd start singing some Frank Sinatra "Fly me to the MOON!!" It was so peaceful (and yet not, because it was WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!).

At random times when we weren't in a rapid, I would sneak over to some of the Japanese boats and pull someone off of their boat and into the water. Mezza encouraged this because he said most of the Japanese people keep their feelings bottled up during the work week and for a lot of them this is a time to let loose. That was definitely the case as they had no problem with me pulling them out of their boats and into the water. Everyone got a good laugh. That is something I must do again before I die. And if you havent (and you arent nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant, don't have chronic back pain and are in possession of all your limbs) I suggest you do it, it's a memory that will stay with me forever.

The following weekend my family came into town. We went to Matsue and visited a 400 year old castle, we saw the birds, that I saw the month before, and we took a boat ride. I love my family, but goodness it was very mentally draining getting around Japan when I am the only one who can read and the only one who spoke a decent bit of Japanese. Every time I turned around I heard "Hey Jeremy what's this? Hey, what do you think this is for? Hey why do they have these? Hey jeremy..Hey Jeremy..Hey jeRemy, hey..." AHHH!!! Ok I'm exagerrating a little bit, but it was mentally draining. We went Karaoke, we went out dancing, and we even went out to eat the last night they were here to a place where WE get to cook in front of ourselves (yeah, those Japanese restaurants where they cook in front of you in America don't exist...but you can cook in front of yourself with raw meat here).

Overall, the family visit was great. I got to show off my Japanese skills, I constantly corrected my mother who was butchering the Japanese language (Love you mom) and I got to be a tour guide. It honestly doesn't feel as if I'm 6800 miles away from home. The only downside is that I heard it took my family 5 days to recover after they got back to the States, ehck.

Then, the last week of July began hell weeks. At my company we have a season called Summer Seminar Season. This is where my company makes most of their profits throughout the year because children that go to the shcool can take four or five extra lessons during their Summer Vacation to get more practice. In addition this sets up Amity fincancially for the rest of the year. Read between the lines because I'm not about to talk bad about my company. Anyway, scheduling more classes means more classes that I have to teach. Usually in a regular work week I teach around 27 classes a week, give or take a couple. During the last two weeks I have taughtover 65 classes. I had a lot of days where I had 8 classes scheduled (do the math, that's a class every hour except my lunch break where I get an hour, so yes, all day I'm teaching). But, even though the season isn't over yet, the brunt of it is finished, AND today is the first day of my 9 day vacation. I will be going to Kobe Japan and traveling aorund that area to Osaka and Kyoto, so plenty of pictures will be taken and plenty of relaxing and having fun will also be done.

One funny story before I close this out. My kids are hilarious at school. One example of this is yesterday I had a boy named Kodai. He is 9 years old and extremely smart with his English. He can't have a conversation with you, but his listening skills and his understanding of grammar, past, and future tense and his vocabulary is wonderful, even better than some of my high school kids (actually, most of my high school kids). Yesterday we did a warm-up where I asked him to make an adjective and noun combination starting with "A". And I gave an example, "amazing apple." He didn't totally understand at first, but most of the word combinations he gave after we started were adjective and noun combinations (some were verb and noun, but still starting with the same letter, so he was doing good). We got to "S" and he said "Super Sunflower" and I proceeded to talk in a super hero narrartor voice and say "SUUUUUPER SUNFLOWER!!!" and he started laughing and I started laughing and he said, "Teacher Teacher!" and he acted like he was the Super Sunflower and he did his super power and then proceeded to sneeze uncontrollably. He was trying to tell me that the Super Sunflower's power was making people sneeze. So everytime I would say, "SUUUUPPEER SUNFLOWER!!" he would start sneezing. Hahahahaha!!! Gotta love these kids.

OH! Announcement!!! Football seasons starts soon! That is all (GO COWBOYS!!!).

-Jeremy aka the drained person who is now happy and resting on his glorious 9 day vacation.
Enjoy the Videos! Karaoke!! (not with the fam though)

Oh! And I have decided to extend for four extra months. Will I be here past the end of May? I am not sure, all I know now is that I am definitely staying here an extra four months (past February 2010). So if I decide not to extend again and come back to the states I'll be in the States at the end of May 2010, that's an "if". But, let's take one thing at a time.