Friday, October 07, 2005

Friday of a Three Day Weekend


This morning I saw the grade 10's leaving for Stony Plain off at 7:30 AM; they are probably still in the air as I type. The first picture below was taken as everyone was milling around before getting on the buses in front of Stony Plain Hall/Board of Education building. In the foreground of the picture are many mothers who came in too see their kids off, many leaving on their first trip overseas. Also, one can spy on the left hand foreground Mrs. Usui (with sort of the grey jacket and black pants talking to someone), who was their because of her position on the Shikaoi Board of Education. Below this, a picture of Saito-sensei and Yamamoto-sensei who will be staying at our house in Stony Plain. Both speak very good English and have been to Stony Plain before. Below that is a picture of Fukiko and Mutsumi-sensei that stayed at our house at the end of September and just arrived back last week. I am having supper with Fukiko and her family tonight. Lastly, a shot of me having eating my school lunch (kyushoku) with my grade one and two's at Kamihoronai Elementary School today. And while I could go into quite some depth about kyushoku cuisine - I will not. The teacher is Sato-sensei. A man as interesting as he looks. I would consider him an amazing teacher in any country or language because he truly loves kids, (and sort of shows this through a rough kind of respect). We get along great and he is an exceedingly interesting man to talk to being conversant in English and fluent in Spanish (he taught in South America for three years). His class is so cute too, they are more than content to jabber away to me in Japanese.






The last bit of news is bitter sweet. A very good friend of mine here, Yuki, is going to be moving into the board of education office. Sadly however, Yamaki-san has been reassigned to another departmentnt of the Town of Shikaoi. The side picture is of her working along side me. I'm surprised sometimes that she didn't turn around and swat me with annoyance because I constantly pepper her with various questions throughoutut the day: where was I suppose to be when; whom to ask for; can she please get so-and-so on the phone. She was exceedingly helpful in getting me set up in Shikaoi. Including one very long session I remember well, trying to explain to me in Japanese the complicated recycling program they have here in Shikaoi. She will be missed.

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