Monday, February 11, 2008

Thank You!

2.11.08

Although I was awfully tired when I woke up this morning, I knew there was a lot that had to be accomplished. I had received two package receipts while I was at work last Friday so today I had to take the bus to the central station to pick them up before Lauren, her mom, and I went to Odaiba. I was thoroughly surprised by the sizes of my packages when the postman came walking out from the back room carrying my two boxes. He asked me in Japanese if I would be okay carrying them out of the post office. I just nodded and said it was fine. I couldn't wait to get back home and see the myriad of goodies from America.

My mother and my grandmother couldn't have timed their packages better; I had planned to do a mini lesson on Valentines' Day in all my classes this week. Their packages full of Valentines' Day goodies were a hit with all my students as well as myself. Today, I ended up passing out American Valentines, Hershey's Kisses, and stickers to all of my kids. Even my boys let out cries of approval--unfortunately in Japanese--when I offered them Valentines' Day stickers. When I passed out their Valentines' at the end of class they politely bowed and said "Thank you".

Classes were fun today.

In other news, Lauren and I stayed up late last night looking for places to spend we have off in April for Japan's Golden Week Holiday. We were thinking of going to Guam but decided we wouldn't have enough to do when we got there besides spending all our time on the beach. Instead we're thinking about going to Hachijyo Island. There seemed to be many interesting things to do and see: waterfalls, circular stone walls built by convicts during the Edo period (1600's to late 1860's), silk kimono weaving, glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, snorkeling, seeing sea turtles, the possibility of renting a bike to ride around the island, and of course the warm weather. :)

Random Shout Outs: Thank you Mom and Mom (M&M?) for the packages! I love everything you sent. However, since Lauren is not particularly fond of peanut butter, I'm sorry to report that I will have to eat all of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups by myself. It will be very difficult but I have confidence in myself. ;)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sheila,

Hi sweetheart! I'm sorry I've been so lousy with keeping in touch over the past two months. I went home for Christmas break and relaxed and returned to Buffalo in January to get swept up in the hustle & bustle of a new semester and new job.
Your pictures and blogs are delightful. I love hearing about the progress of your students and completely agree with the need for helping them learn to read in order to help their progress with English! If you didn't have an engineering degree I'd swear you were a literacy teacher ;) You have inspired me to travel with the gift of teaching. I am hoping to get accepted into a DODDS school (department of defense schools) and travel around the world!
Hope all is well!!! Happy Valentine's Day<3
xoxo,
Tricia

p.s. I miss our early morning trips to Amy's place for .99 breakfasts!! mmmm YUM!