makeover

So I had some spare time I could have spent studying Japanese but often occasionally I need to set studying aside and do something of upmost importance completely random. For example, give my blog a makeover. I must say... my blog needed a makeover and now it looks pretty snazzy!

Yesterday Andy and I hosted a party to celebrate the beginning of  the Summer Olympics! It was really fun! Parties are a wonderful way for us to invite acquaintances over to get to know them better and provide a fun and free enviorment for parties. I decided to make some kind of food/dish from six different countries to help celebrate the international event. So out of my Martha Stewart kitchen teeny-tiny Japanese sized kitchen I made: Fish & Chips in honor of the host country for the Olympics, Baked Pasta (Italy), Fried Rice (China), Pineapple Boat Fruit Salad (Brazil), Chocolate Chip Cookies (USA!), and a friend brought a huge Sushi Roll to represent Japan! The party was a lot of fun! (Check out facebook for pictures!)

We are really enjoying the hot, muggy, very humid summer! In all honestly I would rather be sweating glowing all the time rather then shivering cold. July is flying by and I can't believe August is just about here. I hope you all are enjoying your summer too!

no excuses

It has been over two months since the last blog post and I have utterly no excuses as to my absence. I will try to provide an overview of the last couple months!

Getting Settled:

May included borrowing a teammates car for a road trip to Osaka to visit the IKEA. Although overwhelming at times it was very helpful to have a “one stop shop” for many needed items! I spent the next week playing “Bob the Builder” as I assembled my new furniture! J

Rodriguez Bed and Breakfast

For most of June I felt like I was running a bed and breakfast as we had more days and nights with company then without! It was fun to host a group of people from a supporting church and have a few other people come for a short visit throughout the month! Although, it does feel good to “get back to normal!”

Volunteering

I have now become an asset to the community where I live by volunteering at an elementary school. Once a month I lead the after school activity! Every day there are a variety of programs for the students I happen to lead the “English” day. I plan a fun learning game that teaches the students some English. I have a good time and based on countless requests to play BINGO again next month I think the students are having fun too!

Language Lessons….

I have officially begun language lessons. I have private lessons with the sweetest Japanese Teacher. She is very encouraging and my brain hurts. But hey… today I read my first work in Japanese all by myself.

Miss Jenny is back…

I now work one day a week at an international preschool! I get to teach the 3-4 year old class. Oh. So. Cute. Picture little Japanese children all wearing their little uniforms and matching backpacks. (I would post pictures… but not allowed!)

Summer is flying by…

“Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.” – Coria Kent 

Moving Made Easy.

I love Japan. (Disclaimer: I don't have pink or rose or whatever shade of glasses on that makes situations look unrealistically perfect - for there are many things that are utterly confusing very different to me about this place - for example the language!) But I DO love the efficiency! Japanese people do many things incredibly efficient. And since I am someone who appreciates thrives, understands and strives for efficiency in practically every area of my life I fit right in. My moving experiences is a case in point. These are the steps that it took to move in Japan.

1. Call a moving company. (We don't have a car and I have never seen a pick-up truck here in Japan so moving ourselves was not an option!) 

2. Moving company representative comes to our appartment. He looks at everything that he will be moving. He quotes us a moving price.  

3. Husband (who speaks Japanese) negotiates the moving price to make it a "good deal." 

4. Moving company representative leaves us with an estimated amount of boxes that we will need to pack-up all of our belongings. (I used all but ONE box that he left us. I would say his estimate was right-on!) oh, he also left us with packing tape! 

5.  I pack everything up. 

6. Moving company arrives on moving day and QUICKLY loads up everything. 

7. Drives to our new apartment and QUICKLY unloads everything. 

8. It was a smooth moving experience! 

9. Pictures to come of the new place soon. I promise. 

Transportation and Transitioning.

I got a new bike. It is nice to have a bike because it enables me to get around with ease and greater flexibility. Now, I have learned a few things about riding a bike in the city. Let me share with you three important tips life saving tips you must know when riding a bike through a city of 9 million people! I of course, have learned these points through careful study sheer life threatening experiences.

1. No formal rules exist in regards to which side of the sidewalk one should ride or walk on. To gain a proper mental picture imagine people walking and riding in all directions all over the sidewalk and you have a picture of “rush hour biking.”  

2. The proper procedure when you need to pass someone who is walking in front of you is to ring the bell that is attached to the bike. This communicates to the person walking that they should move out of the way to avoid being run over step aside and let the biker pass.

3. If you are a white American women, with brown hair, and blue eyes and you try to implement the procedure mentioned above then be warmed. The person may turn to see the bike that is coming then instead of moving over he or she becomes a frozen statue as they stare at the foreigner who looks ridiculous trying to maneuver around a new city! Is caught off guard at the American lady riding a bike and does not move out of the way. Thus, almost gets run over endangers both the rider and the walker.

There you have it three important tips life saving tips for riding a bike in Nagoya.

Now, about the transitioning part of this blog post. We are moving on Wednesday! In three months of marriage I will have moved three times. I informed Andy that we do not need to keep this pattern up for the rest of our married life! Thankfully, he agreed. We will be moving to our new apartment with no plans to move again any time in the near future! I will be sure to post an update regarding the move (including pictures of the new place – for by that time I will have located unpacked the camera cord so that I can upload pics!)

Happy Easter friends! The King has risen.  

Special. Expensive. Treat.

Last night Andy and I threw together some salsa took on the adventure of making a batch of salsa. We had carefully brought to Japan one lonely bag of tortillas and we decided that last night was the night to use them before them became stale. The menu was set: fajitas, rice, tortillas, chips and liquid gold salsa. We set out for the store with the task in mind to buy ingredients to make a small batch of salsa. I will spare you the details... but one homemade batch of Salsa cost well over $20.00! Needless to say, liquid gold salsa is rarely on the menu at this house! I am not even going to try and add up how much the entire dinner cost us. (I think it would have been much cheeper to go out!) Anyway, eat some chips and salsa for me!

Bullet Point Catch-Up!

Wow. I can’t believe it has been over a month since I made a blog post. Much has happened and is happening! I like love to make lists I thus I will summarize my life since the last blog post with a list of what I have been doing.

·      I have visited five different states in three weeks! (some of them twice… I guess because I like them so much!)

·      Discovered my purse had been stolen. (Before I left America)

·      Experienced a minor inconvenious as I worked to replace important cards and identification that had been stolen while at the same time changing my name!

·      Re-packed, re-weighed, re-arranged, every bit of belongings that I brought with me to Japan!  (And repeated this process many times!)

·      Said good, sad, hard, sweet, bittersweet, good-byes to friends, family and dogs!

·      Moved to the other side of the world.

·      Moved into our own apartment! YAY! YAY! (Did you notice I am excited?!)

·      Cleaned a little of the apartment disinfected every inch of an apartment that used to be known as “an ideal bachelor pad.”

·      Working on “settling-in” and finding a “groove” or a “new normal!”

·      Loving the adventure of life right now.  

Over Coffee...

Countless hours of my life go by while drinking coffee or meeting for coffee or having coffee in hand or with a coffee mug sitting on my desk or grabbing a cup of coffee on the run. It is almost certain that nearly every blog post that I make will be written with the delightful smell of a freshly poured cup of coffee near-by. Thus “over coffee” felt like a fitting title for this blog. I like to celebrate life. I like to drink coffee. I think that both should be done together. I hope you are able to enjoy a cup of coffee as you peruse this blog from time to time. After all it would be in some way a virtual way for us to meet over coffee! 

So put on a pot of coffee and check back here from time to time to catch stories of my life!