tabs

 photo home1_zps4d192f6a.jpg  photo recipes1_zps4c065c0e.jpg  photo about1_zps9481e111.jpg  photo contact1_zps647fd1f8.jpg

10.24.2009

There is a typhoon passin' by and...

it has been raining for a week straight! I just opened my balcony door and soaked my tatami mat because the rain is currently falling horizontally.

I don't like it. I'm out of books and it's too dangerous to ride my scooter to the bookstore in this weather...looks like I might actually study Japanese!

We'll see......

10.20.2009

Japanese

I am still hoping that one day I'll wake up and just start speaking Japanese, but I don't know if it will happen that way.
Do I really have to study?!

The new phrase I learned is: "Ita-daki-mas". I is pronounced 'ee'.
You say this phrase before you start eating food that someone has placed in front of you, usually the person who puts down the plate will say "Dozo", which is a really polite way of saying "Please, go ahead", and in response, the receiver says "Ita-daki-mas", while putting your hands together, as in prayer, and slightly bowing your head.
Feel free to try this next time you go out to eat at a Japanese restaurant, the servers will love it! And after you are finished eating, say "Gotchi-so-somma-deshta", which is super polite, and means "Thank you for the meal", or something along those lines.

See people, learning Japanese is easy, right?!

10.19.2009

IE Island

Hello! Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary by visiting IE Island last weekend and staying at a nice resort. We took a 30 minute ferry ride from a port near his apartment to the island and the resort picked us up from the IE port. We rented bicycles once we checked out our place and explored the island. IE is a fairly small island that is known for it's production of peanuts...the island is even shaped like one! We climbed Mt. Gusuku and were able to see the entire island from the top...it was a pretty spectacular view! We had an amazing dinner at the resort that night, and also a great breakfast the next morning. We didn't swim in the ocean because the weather was kind of cool, but we did put in some time in the jacuzzi and Ben put in quality time in the sauna while I used the massage chair. It was a very nice, relaxing, short trip. I posted some picture on facebook of the vacation, here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2659532&id=1933097&l=0135388dac

Ben left for Thailand on Sunday and was suppose to be home on Halloween..we were planning on going to his friend's Halloween party. But now it looks like he won't be home until the 1st of November, so I might just go to the party with Maki (secretary at my school) and her fiance.

I heard some pretty crazy news the other day: Thomas, my boss from the country club, no longer works at the country club!! I never thought I would see the day!
So Thomas, for your shout outs to me in the employee e-mails, here is my shout out to you, in my blog: Lincolnshire will never see a greater food and beverage manager than you! You knew how to keep your employees happy, and truly knew how to teach us. I cannot look back at my college years and not think of LFCC, it was such a huge part of my time at UofI! I may have dreaded working, as any college kid would, but I knew that all of my friends would be there, including my boss, and the thought of the countless amounts of essays that were probably due the following week could be forgotten about while I was working. We were such a huge, dysfunctional, Lincolnshire family, and we have you to thank for bringing us together. I met some of my closest friends there, and even have Lincolshire to thank for bringing me and Ben together! Who knows where I would be right now if I didn't work at Lincolnshire....
I hope you always keep the "Best Boss of the Year" award, but it should really say "Best Boss of a Lifetime"! I can't wait to find out what is next for Thomas Wilsey and Sidney, so you better keep me posted!
"Now you're gone, I realize your love for your employees was strong, but we miss you there and now you're gone..."
Hahahaha I really hope you read my blog, Thomas.


That's all for now,

Knee-Cole.

10.08.2009

It's already October?!

Let me start by saying time is flyyyyyyyying by!! I cannot believe I have been here for practically 4 months!! The weeks go by so fast and the weekends even faster. Ben and I haven't been able to make it off the island again, but instead had two canceled trips! Our first one was canceled due to the Marine Corps: Ben's Marines were having a very busy week/weekend and he wanted to be a good leader and stay with them throughout the weekend. Whatever.
We were still able to spend all day Sunday exploring the northern area of the island, which was a lot of fun. We did some hiking and swimming. We took a ton of pictures, and here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2651211&id=1933097&l=b7add6845e
You should be able to view them even if you don't have a facebook account.
We tried to plan another trip off the island last weekend, but it was canceled partly due to the weather (a typhoon was in the area) and partly due to the Marine Corps, yet again.

My Japanese is coming along at a snail's pace and it takes a lot of discipline to sit down and study. It is too easy to get by with the little Japanese that I know and the little English that most people know...but I am still determined to learn Japanese! Ben leaves for Thailand next weekend, so maybe I will be more motivated to study when he is gone. I do feel motivated to learn Japanese by my need for friends! It is very hard to meet people when you do not speak the same language, so I have still not had much luck making new friends. Of course, I am friends with the staff at FES, but they are all male....which is fine....but it would be nice to have a few girl friends. I get along great with the school's secretary, Maki, but she is planning a traditional Okinawan wedding ceremony and is very, very busy.

School has been busy. I am teaching 2 additional private lessons now and 1 additional outside class at the Naha airport. I really like both of the adults that I started private lessons with, and the lessons at the airport went well this week. I am teaching the air traffic controllers, and they have a lot of personality! These additional classes have made my schedule a little hectic right now, but I am sure after a few weeks I will feel comfortable fitting them in and having less planning time.

We make a pretty big deal out of Halloween at F.E.S. and it has been fun decorating the school with pumpkins and skeletons. The kids love it, because they don't have anything like it in their Japanese schools. Grant (my boss) wants the staff to wear costumes the entire week of Halloween, and even some of the students will come in costumes. I am excited for my students to be able to celebrate such a fun holiday--too bad they won't be able to experience trick-or-treating.

The weather is cooling down and I actually have my A.C. off and my windows open!! It's about 10:30 at night right now, and the temperature is 81 degrees. I am excited to be able to sleep with my windows open.

That's all for now.....send me e-mails!

Nikki