Elle's Adventures

To be more precise, this blog hosting site sucks (blogger). When I signed on a few years ago, I was under the impression that I could make as any posts as I liked, and stick in as many photos as well. All was well until a couple of weeks ago when I tried to put in a whole heap of new photos, when blogger told me that I had run out of space and would need to start paying a monthly fee! The fee is only a couple of dollars, but a couple of dollars that I need! Plus I don't have a credit card, makes online payments a little tricky. When I was in Japan the second time on exchange, I always took the time to resize my photos before posting, but this time around I just don't have the time, so I only edit them. If I had known that I was limited by space I would've taken the time :( My predicament is deciding whether to give in and pay up, or simply start another blog with this site and continue there again for free. The annoying thing for me is I like things to be ordered and to...

One of my favourite bands lately has been Queens of the Stone Age. I remember listening to them back in High School, the first song I heard on Rage was the song "Go With the Flow". It was usually late at night, and it gave me butterflies in my stomach. I love songs like that. At the time I had heard of the band "Eagles of Death Metal", (one of the members is also in QOTSA)but no one I knew had the album, and then I guess I just forgot about them. Only recently I got three of their albums and they are great! This song has been stuck in my head for the past three days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx005f_cAVI Unfortunately this video is bad quality. This song is called "Solid Gold", and I think if this had been the first song of theirs that I had heard, I wouldn't like them. I'm sure you can tell why. But now that I know what the band is about after listening to other songs, I actually think this one is quite catchy. I just wish it would ge...

We love cooking! As you can tell, we have lots of rice and noodle stuff, it's so great! I will never get sick of rice, unless it is risotto - gross. Some of the shots here are from restaurants, like the bottom left Indian Curry from Nagoya, and the two naan bread shots, from an Indian takeaway not too far from my home! The far left, second from the bottom was the best tonkatsu I have had in my life, from a restaurant with a nice atmosphere. I'll take anyone who wants to go, only a ten minute drive from here :) *I would have made my own collage, but with no time, I deciding to go for a crappy internet one! A very, very creepy looking love hotel. This one has free food and drink!! They must be desperate for customers... View from the front balcony. More photos soon, this isn't all of them! xx

Sorry, it has been so long since my last post. I can't believe the last time I wrote on here was before I left Kiso! Well in any case, I am now living in Kani City, located in Gifu Prefecture. It's still quite small for a 'city', but now I am actually in some kind of civilisation and I am really enjoying it! I actually have a choice of supermarkets, and places to shop for clothing. Plus, there's a McDonald's just down the road, only a five minute walk away :) I've only been there twice, so I think that is a good effort for me. The two schools that I am at now are very different from Kiso. For one, there are many more kids (which I was expecting). They are also more eager to speak to me, which I am enjoying. But it also means that there are other kids more willing to speak their mind; rude boys to be exact. Half of the time they are lovely and practice their English with me, other times they are asking me inappropriate things. I don't care, they'r...

I had a great night last night. Originally I had organised to go out to dinner and drinking with a teacher from Fukushima Elementary. He is also leaving Kiso for Yokohama, I suppose to be closer to his girlfriend. Yesterday I got a phone call from him to say that he had been speaking to the Fukushima Junior High Principal (who is retiring) who invited the two of us for dinner at his house. It ended up being a lovely dinner, prepared by his wife and daughter. I was lucky enough to be given a beautiful hair brooch thingy made out of old kimono; the Principal's mother's kimono actually, so it was very special. Izumi was able to choose one for his girlfriend too. We both left at about 9.30pm for Chikara. Luckily Brooke and the people she was with were still there; I had heard from Yuki that they were going to be there so I was hoping to say goodbye before I leave Kiso. It would've been nice to get there a bit earlier to talk more...and when I was a little bit more sober, oo...

A lot has happened lately. For a start, after my meltdown about having to leave Kiso, I was offered another job in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture. I will be teaching at three Junior High Schools, with occasional visits to Kindergarten and Elementary. A bit of a pity that it won't be a half and half mix like the past six months. However, after accepting the job I was offered an interview by another company in Nagano. They said that it was possible to find Dede a job, which of course is a very important thing for me. I ended up interviewing with them, and was extremely impressed by the system that they use to keep track of children's progress. I was all set to accept, but the downside was that the job they had considered interviewing Dede for had been filled, and that there was nothing at that time available for him. On the drive home this played on my mind a lot, and that night when they offered me the job I was so, so upset to turn them down. Unfortunately the reason did come dow...

A couple of days ago I received the bad news that my contract in Kiso-machi will not be renewed again. Apparently I had too many sick days off so the BOE were worried about me. I wish I had known that my getting sick would have had a negative impact on my chances of another job in the same area. I just can't believe that that was the only reason I can't work here again. When you go overseas you are bound to pick up bugs and illnesses you have never had before. Like I said, if I had known this earlier I would have gone to school feeling terrible. I thought that I was doing the right thing and now spreading the cold around. As I was driving to Kaida today (for the last time), I started crying. Thinking about all the lovely kids and the things they have said to me in the past week. The kindy kids asking me to come back and play soon, the kids at Ueda who have to move to Fukushima Elementary this coming school year. Those kids said they were scared about moving to a whole new s...