Daily Life

Recently, I feel like I've really settled into a routine.  I work Monday through Friday until 4 or 5pm, depending on whether or not I have English club that day.  Sometimes I have a lot of classes in one day, but usually I only have a few and I have plenty of time to study or read.  My tutor comes over every Tuesday night and afterwards we go to taiko for an hour.  On Thursdays, I try to make it to taiko practice as well.  On the nights that I don't have any taiko practice, I'll use my time after school to run errands, catch up on the Daily Show or The Office, workout at the local gym, or meet up with a friend for lunch.  Here are just a few snapshots from life in Kitami. Enjoy :)

Super fresh fish at the grocery store! I was shopping for groceries when I heard a bell ring and saw people rush over to this area.  Naturally I was curious and went also.  They were chopping the fish up right in the middle of the grocery store and I think they were selling the parts as they did it. 

As I described in one of my earlier posts, I don't have a real oven, I have a microwave-oven, or a "moven." Even after decoding the buttons it's taken a while to figure out.  However, these blueberry breakfast bars are definitely the greatest success that I've had so far! Unfortunately, they were so good that they were gone less than a week later. 

To help combat the winter blues, I've taken to occasionally buying fresh flowers for myself to enjoy.  The most recent flowers were yellow tulips.  Although I don't think tulips are the best smelling flowers, they are certainly fun to watch open and close as the day starts and end.  And they're yellow, which is probably the happiest color in the world. :)

Flowers on my dining room table with my sliding doors behind them.

I joke that I have a "fan club school," but I don't think that description is too far off.  When I visit this high school, students are always so welcoming and excited to see me.  This is a letter that a second-year female student wrote to me and gave me the last time I visited.  To summarize, she is saying that she wants to be friends with me, but her English is so bad so she would like to practice and study it more.  Also she wants to take a picture with me the next time that I visit.  It's so sweet! 

Peace,

Kim