an american weekend

as the title to this blog infers, it was a weekend full of people speaking english! and american food! so refreshing :) friday night we went to the kindergarten teacher's house on kadena air base.. it was her daughter izzie's fourth birthday. her older sister, carolyn, is one of my students. it was a strawberry shortcake theme.. just look at the cake and cupcakes! and the cupcakes were funfetti!!! oh how i've missed that cake mix :) and dinner was PIZZA.. american style haha. the joy of being on a military base. the birthday party was fun... the house was PACKED and a lot of school kids and co-workers were there so that was nice to hang out with them outside of the school atmosphere. the preschool teacher told me a lot of poop stories through the years haha.. if you ever want to hear them ask! they are hilarious!!!

saturday night we went back to the kadena air base to go to a squadron party.. or as they like to call it, a bat passing. like i mentioned in an earlier post, laura's husband is a fighter pilot in the 44th squadron and their mascot is a vampire bat. these parties are themed, and this one was "okipulco" (okinawa + acapulco). the food was delicious! shrimp, beef, fruit, amazing salsa.. basically stuff i miss in the states. the evening started with live music in the backyard. everyone was super nice and the girls and i were laughing saying how crazy it was to only be able to hear english being spoken haha. during the "official business" of the bat passing party, one female fighter pilot (there are two in this squadron) was leaving for alaska, so she was given some gifts and words were spoken on her behalf. AND THEN the bat came out.. yes a real bat.. in a jar. whoever hosts the party has the bat, so the bat needed to be passed on to the next lucky party planner who has 44 days to have the next party. tonight there was also a vampire bat in a frame, so they had to vote which one they wanted to keep. since most of fighter pilots are guys, the bat in the jar was chosen to stay. i looked at it up close and i'm not thinking the jar is filled with formaldehyde.. there are pieces of bat floating around.. kind of gross haha. philip.. you would have definitely enjoyed the last part of the evening :) there was flip cup and i played a game of beer pong (i got four in a row phil!).. they are basically like a bunch of fraternity guys haha. and not in a bad way.. they like to have fun... and it was fun!today is going to be very low key. church and then lunch at the rose garden is always great fun. i'm excited for you to eat at the rose garden when you come dad! it's american style food so you won't gag from sushi or anything like that :) i have my first FULL week of school tomorrow so i'll let you know how that goes! hopefully it won't be too tiring haha.love you all and hope you all are doing wonderful back in the states. keep me updated with your lives!!!