The Long Road to Tsumei Sho

Got a taste of how the roads will be for most of Dec. Jan. and Feb. this morning on my long solo drive out to Tsumei Sho Gakko. I had noticed before I went to bed last night that it was snowing. It looks like it kept snowing all night. There was a lot of snow when I got up. The road in front of my house was an even layer of white. Another thing that really factors into road conditions here - once you get out on to the country roads - is the winter wind. It must really drift in the winter, but today, because of the lack of traffic on the back roads, it simply iced over. I left extra early and got to the school on time; but quite white knuckled and my life expendency drasticly shorter. Between the wind and the ice I wonder if its possible to be blown off an icy road? It is easy to see the difference of roads in Albertan that are sanded and salted. Anyway, the snow is not quite gone as I am back at the office writing this, but it is much warmer in the sun, and the wind doesn't blow so hard in town.

Today at Tsumei Sho, we pretty much had the whole morning for an extended English class. We also made Halloween cookies, even though I will admit the season has passed. I'm glad we did because the kids loved it. I always like standing back and watching them be totally engaged and engrossed by such simple things. The kids were very creative, making varieties Japanese cartoon characters, kind of like our Simpson's and Family Guy. We also had alphabet cookie cutters and made each of the kids names, I helped the two grade one'ers because they don't quite know all the romaji letters yet. It took forever to cook the things because of the oven we had. It's not like any sort of oven we have in Alberta, indeed, it's hard to call it an often at all (in my opinion); it's a kind of tiny table top convection oven/microwave that I really can't comprehend (or operate). I have included an image of the school nurse/secretary/lunch lady carefully watching the cookies like a hawk (the cookies were all radically different sizes, so they all cooked at very different speeds).

Tomorrow, it's off to Obihiro for shopping before the roads become impassable and I am forced into hibernation. Iced coffee is good.



Update: Today, when I saw my two classes of grade fours outside, I was immediately pelted by snowballs. It seemed like hundreds, but that was probably only the first volley. Feel free to leave comments; should I consider this a sign of things to come? Even hiding behind the teacher offered no protection. Too bad I was wearing my inside clothes and had no mitts else I really would have given it to them.

Kids 1 Blair 0

Who am I kidding? They're great!