David and I are coming home for Christmas!!!

Well, I'm still alive. Nothing really exciting has been happening, so I haven't had much to write about. We did picnics all last week at work for our preschool kids and that was... fun? The kids really enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a nightmare getting them back to school on time afterwards. Hahaha. So, as such, I'm really glad we're back to our normal routine. The kids are really starting to warm to me, which is nice.

So, I guess Baskin Robbin's is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. David and I went for an ice cream date last week and we both got the special sundaes. They came with a mug to take home, which was nice~ The mugs are quite cute. I got the oreo mint ice cream and David got chopped chocolate. Yum yum~!

At Aeon last weekend they had an Okinawa fair on. There were presentations and I think a raffle or something. And the grocery store was carrying some popular Okinawan foods. They even had サーターアンダーギー (Sata Andagi). It's like an Okinawan donut. Made of flour, eggs and sugar and then fried. Yum~ I was so excited to see it that I bought it right away! When I was in high school, there was an anime where the main characters go to Okinawa and eat it. And it was a funny show, so I'd always wanted to try it. It was pretty good! I'll bet it tastes better fresh out of the oil, so I'mma try it whenever we get down to Okinawa.

A few nights last week I brought home baked goodies on my way home. The first time I brought home fancy cream puffs from Beard Papa's and the other night I brought home chocolate marble bread. I always grab a coffee to go with them~

On Friday I got off work early, so David and I met up in Sendai on our way home. I decided that I wanted to take my wonderful hubby out for dinner, so we decided to try New York Kitchen. It's in the station in the restaurant area downstairs. It wasn't bad. I got omurice and David got hamburger doria. We both got the salad and drink set, too. I might try the pasta next time. The sauce on mine was a little too sweet. XD

Oh, and this was awesome! There's a clothing store I really like in the local Aeon called Axes Femme. It's full of lovely, feminine clothes. There was a tunic I've had my eye on for about 2 months and it finally went on sale! 50% off! Scoooore! So of course I snapped it right up~ The print on the front is pretty.

And, I guess I'll make the announcement now:
David and I are coming home for Christmas!!!

We're gonna buy the tickets as soon as we have the money saved up. (I.e. Probably not until September, since we both need to save from a few paychecks first.) But, I just thought everyone would wanna know. :D

And now, I should check on David. The poor thing has bronchitis. His throat really hurts. He's on like 4 different meds, too. At least he went to the doctors yesterday like I asked him to. Here's hoping he gets better soon.

So big that I took a screenshot of my ipod for some random reason.

Not much going on this week~ I'm currently sick with a cold that just refuses to go away. I had to wear a mask the past two days at work. Not a sexy look, but don't wanna infect the kiddos. ...Although, I think it was one of them who gave it to me... Oh well.

Everyone wears masks in Japan when they're sick. Also during major allergy season. You'll go on a train and half the people on it will be wearing masks at any given time. True story. I had to master the art of wearing the mask without fogging up my glasses. That took a bit of time to work out so it covered my nose and mouth but not my eye and whatnot. Gah. It's easier to wear in the warmer weather, that's for sure. In the winter it was like insta-fog no matter what I did. Hahaha.

So, we were shopping a few days ago and I noticed that there were a few average sized watermelons for sale at the grocery store. I took a look at the price and holy crap! $30 for a watermelon of average proportions! Ridiculous! Looks like we won't be having watermelon again this year~

Oh, and the 10th was a big day! So big that I took a screenshot of my ipod for some random reason.

But no, legit. The 10th was my first payday! Woooooo!!! It felt so freaking good to get a paycheck again! It was awesome to have my own money! I made more than I anticipated, too, which was nice. So, as a treat, I bought a few new pieces of clothing, I bought David a new computer as a late birthday present and I ordered a magazine from Amazon, too. I saw it when I was in Tokyo with Yenni. She's a Cumberbabe like me and pointed the magazine out to me when we were shopping. So, I made a mental note to order it from Amazon the next time I made an order. Wooo~

Lots of glossy photo goodness. Woo~ I've also started going to the local Starbucks again more regularly. I've made friends with Azusa, one of the baristas. She's a sweetie. She likes to practice her English with me, which I think is cool. A few days ago I went in and ordered the tiramisu frappuccino and then asked for her おすすめ or recommendation for a snack to go with it. I ended up with a warm glazed donut, with whipped cream and caramel on it. Yummm~

So, I got up at 7:30am for no reason.

So, the weather's been reeeally nice so far this month! Thank god~ I am so done with winter. David and I decided to stay home for Golden Week, which was nice. Got lots of rest and we've been watching Doctor Who. David told me he wasn't interested at first, but then he started loading the episodes before I even suggested it, so woo hoo~ Now, if only he'd be so eager to watch Sherlock...

Anywho~ On Monday I got up early to go into work. The trains were a bit busier than normal that morning, but I didn't really give it any thought. I walked off to work and took the elevator upstairs only to discover the door was locked. Odd~ Everyone is always there by then. So, I looked at the little schedule hanging on the notice board. Monday was a holiday. Oops. So, I got up at 7:30am for no reason. Damn~ But, no matter. It was a lovely day, so I walked over to the local park and took a seat on a bench near the pond. I had my kobo with me, so I sat down and just read for about 2 hours. It was gorgeous~ Almost a little too hot, but there was a really nice breeze to counteract that. The gardeners have been busy the past week or so making the park all beautiful and the smell of spring flowers was everywhere. Oh man, it was amazing. I've never really stepped into a park and been engulfed in floral scents before, but it was really nice! When I finally left, I thought my arms felt rather warm and I didn't realise until I got home that I gave myself a sunburn on my forearms! And on my scalp along my hair part. Damn!

At work Chiga and Midori have been handing out the monthly newsletter to all our parents. They asked me to write a little spot for it. I guess the parents like to hear from the foreign teachers and hear about the customs and holidays and whatnot. Mike and I are going to alternate every other month. Here's what I wrote for May~

Hi everyone! I'm so excited that it's finally May! At home we have a saying that "April showers bring May flowers". In May many people start to work on their gardens and there's flowers everywhere! My mum has a garden filled with roses and it's lovely! She loves to garden! In Canada we celebrate Victoria Day at the end of the month. It is a holiday, usually around the 24th of May, celebrating old Queen Victoria of England's birthday. Everyone gets a long weekend and we all celebrate with parties, barbeques, parades and fireworks! It's brilliant! I'm really looking forward to the nice, warm weather that May will bring. Have a wonderful May everybody!

 On top of that, they were handing out the Scholastic book flyer. Oh my god. I haven't seen those since I was in grade 8! Nostalgiaaaa~ It was hilarious. I flipped through and I noticed that they're still selling Goosebumps and the Horrible Histories! I used to love the Horrible History books~!

Ai-sensei recently brought me in some cold prevention syrup. Her mother makes it, apparently. David had a really bad cold recently and after she heard me mention it, Ai-sensei decided to give us some as a gift! I think it's Karin Syrup? I'm pretty sure that's what it said. The Front of the bottle says: Jam Obasan or Jam Auntie. Cute, eh?

I popped into Starbucks on my way home today~ It's payday today so I thought I'd treat myself with my first paycheck. They had a memo board in front of their handoff area where all the partners wrote a little blurb about their favourite drinks and whatnot. A few of the girls in there practice their English with me whenever I go in and they included some on their cards!

David and I are both off on Sunday, so we may go on a mini adventure, but we're not sure yet. We're gonna at least go into Sendai. But, we'll see. And tomorrow I go back to the dentist and Utako-sensei is gonna continue my root canal work. Woo~

Wow. Ok, I didn't need to know that, thanks.

On my first day back from Tokyo, David was off, so we went out for dinner. It was really nice~ I had missed him a lot while I was away. We decided to eat that this bakery restaurant in Aeon. They have a bread buffet which is included with your meal. Heaven~~~~ We both got the dinner set which included a started salad and drink bar. I got the beef stroganoff and it was sooo good~ Yummm! And I ate a crap ton on bread too, since it was included and I love bread.

So, on the 21st we had an Easter Party event for my school. Families could sign up to attend if they wanted. It was on the Sunday right after my Tokyo trip~ I was excited to get back to work, but nervous since I'd never done an event like this before with this school. Midori had sent me an email the night before asking if I could get to the school for 8:15am. Which meant, I was up and on the train at 7:13am. Ouch. It was a reeeeally early morning! And to make it worse? It was snowing. Like, reeeeally snowing! The chunks of snow flying out of the sky were huuuuge! It was insane!

After the party, I took some pictures of the my school, since some people were asking for them. It's seriously like stepping back into a kindergarden class! I mean that in the best way, of course~ I actually squealed when I saw the Clifford poster the first time. (Chiga and Midori laughed at me. Hahaha.)

On Monday I went to work for my first preschool class sans Mike. It went pretty well. I get along with all the other teachers and the kids are mostly pretty good~ David had packed me lunch (and he packed me lunch all week!) which I thought was adorable. My week went pretty well. Baba-sensei brought us all in coffee jelly on Thursda, which was really nice! I've actually never tried it, so it was neat! I ended up meeting David in Sendai on our way home that night and grabbed a coffee while I waited.

Aside from that snowy weirdness last weekend, it's been all lovely weather! It was so clear a few days ago that I could see the roads on the mountains. They're still snow covered, though~

So, on Saturday I went to the dentist. I was debating going, since I'm suffering from a cold. It's not bad, just a runny nose, but I wasn't sure if I should still go. David convinced me to keep my appointment and when I got there Utako-sensei gave me a lecture about going to the dentist when you're sick. But, since I wasn't puking or feverish we decided to plunge ahead. Now, on the upper left side of my mouth, my back molar had a massive cavity. It didn't hurt me or bother me at all, but I knew that one day I'd need to get a root canal. It was just too damn big to fill. And apparently Utako-sensei decided Friday was the day to do it. I had no warning! She just said she was gonna take a look and then she was telling me about injections and whatnot.

Now, the injections thing was funny. There I was, lying pseudo-upsidedown in the chair and she announced that she was going to start giving me injections. She gave me three. The first went into the front gum, then the back on the roof of my mouth. She informed me that the back one might hurt but it didn't. More a pinch than anything. And then she paused and asked me to make a fist and wiggle my feet. I gave her a confused look, but did as I was told. While I did that she asked me if my pulse felt elevated or if I felt queasy or anything. When I answered that I felt fine she told me to just keep breathing and if I felt sick to raise my left hand so she could call an ambulance. Thanks~ That's exactly what I wanna hear. So, the third injection went right into my tooth, apparently. Don't know how, but ok. And she made sure to inform me that this one had to be done suuuuuper sloooooow. If she just shot it all in at once it would cause me heart palpitations or whatnot and I might have a reaction. Wow. Ok, I didn't need to know that, thanks. So, for about 3 minutes while she's pushing this in, she's asking me to wiggle my hands and feet and breathe and is my pulse normal and do you feel ok and oh, nervousness if fine and let me know if you need an ambulance ok we're done rinse please.

o___o

It was intense. So, anywho, she started drilling my tooth away and I have to say that it's the worst smell on the planet. Like burnt spaghetti mixed with cinnamon dolce syrup then burned more. Horrid. This whole time I didn't feel any pain whatsoever. Utako-sensei kept asking me if I was ok and she kept saying that I was doing exceedingly well for a first time root canal-ee. She actually took out the nerve/root whatever without me even noticing. It was crazy. The injections didn't really numb my face, though. It felt like everything in that area was tightened and heavier. Weeeird. Anywho, after all that things got better. She ground down for a while, then announced that she was going to fill it with some yellowish medicine and stopper it with some plastic filling thing and that next time she'd fill it properly, barring any crazy infection. Anywho, she prescribed me some painkillers just in case I felt anything later and sent me on my merry way. And the total cost? 2,400yen for that visit + the medication. Cheeeap~

After getting home that afternoon, I didn't really have any pain. David had wanted to go see Iron Man 3 that night, but when I went to go meet him after work we discovered that the movie wasn't playing at the time we originally thought! It suuucked. And also and this point I was starting to suffer from a bit of a heasdache. So, David indulged me and I grabbed a Starbucks drink. The current seasonal drink is Tiramisu which was yummy! The girls at the Bux all said hello and seemed happy to see me, since I hadn't been in in about 2 months. I told them about my new job and the asked how I'd been. They're so sweet in there~

On our way home we passed by a display of razors. It seems that Schick is teaming up with Evangelion again for their marketing. I snapped a photo, since Angel and Jake would get a kick out of it, and made a mental note to pick up a pack for Jake when I get paid. (They had special figures included as gifts.) And the promo art is hilarious for people who've seen the anime. Gendou, the dude in the front, just looks so damn weird with that smile and the spikey hair. Hahaha. It's hilarious.

So, on Saturday, we finally went and saw Iron Man 3. It was reeeeally good! I liked it! I won't post any spoilers, but Stan Lee's cameo was hilarious and the ending 'teaser' was pretty funny. It was weird, though~ David and I laughed at a bunch of parts and the other people in the theatre didn't really laugh at all. Like, when we saw Stan Lee we burst into giggles and everyone else was silent. And there's parts that are like serious, but are funny thanks to Tony diffusing the tension and no one would laugh! It was strange, but I guess some things don't translate well into Japanese or whatever. Anywho, when I bought our tickets they were having a promo and gave me free folders as a gift. Score~

Oh, and just for giggles David and I picked up some Dragon Ball Z pops recently. David only grabbed a can because I told him to, but he didn't wanna drink it. So, I drank both. And both were disappointing. The Coke Zero was pretty bad and the Cider tasted like carbonated banana medicine. Yick. At least the cans were cool~