it's already november!

the months seem to be flying by!! the last week of october was a good one. class went well.. my kids led chapel on friday so they were very excited and we have been practicing for the last couple weeks. we did noah's ark and had animal masks, a cardboard ark, rain cloud and sun, a dove on a ruler, and some costumes to help tell the story. after the skit they recited a bible verse and then sang "rise and shine".. so cute :) i could tell they were nervous haha.. they were talking VERY fast haha. but heck.. they are in first grade.. i give them mad props for their performance. i'm very proud of them! :) friday was also a half day so teachers could finish grades. we had a yummy potluck (found a dish i'm going to make when i come home.. get ready!) and great fellowship. that night i went to the halloween carnival at the church i've been attending. it was nice to see some of my students there dressed in their adorable costumes. and it was nice eating some halloween candy and a snow cone.. kind of crazy at 8 o'clock at night (for the snow cone NOT the candy haha) but the temperature feels like it is still early afternoon, so it's okay :) got home and decided to watch a scary movie since it was halloween.. decided on ringu (the japanese original version of the ring). it was funny to actually understand things they did that are part of their culture. but it definitely wasn't a funny movie! scary just like the american version (but a little creepier) and on top of that.. there was a thunderstorm while watching it!!
saturday i hung out at one of the shopping malls browsing clothes and shoes. i ended up buying make-up instead haha. that night i hung out with laura and two of her friends that are also military wives. went to the amazing transit cafe and had great food and fun conversation.
sunday was church and tried a bakery for lunch.. YUMMY. bought some pitas too.. excited to have those for dinner soon! low-key evening.. watched a movie and cleaned the apartment.
i miss you all and hope you had a fun and safe halloween!!!

relaxing and fun weekend.. just what i needed

school can be tiring.. i have hyper first graders every week!!! love them to death though.. but it's good to have a break to re-energize :) on saturday i talked to the fam on skype and then went to the beach to relax for a couple hours. in the late afternoon i went to laura's to get ready for the squadron party. we had pizza and cheese sticks (YUM) and watched some big love.. dad.. check it out.. you would get addicted like entourage addicted :) since laura and eric's place is on-base i got to use my hair straightener from home!!! oh how i've missed it. seriously.. i'm not even exaggerating haha. even though with this humidity, my hair doesn't stay super straight for long. oh well.. at least i got to see it staight for a little bit.. brought back some good memories haha :) we had fun getting ready for our model look.. we were deal or no deal girls and eric was howie. the bald caps were too expensive so laura used some panty hose.. hilarious!! the party was fun. it was at the single guys' two story apartment and it was an amazing place. their balcony alone is probably the size of my apartment times two or three haha. and it overlooked the ocean and city.. absolutely gorgeous.
haha.. his panty hose ripped during the party.. just pretend you can't see his hair :) i stayed at laura and eric's house and got to sleep in a soft bed like mine at home! i've missed my bed. we watched college football in the morning and stayed in our pjs until i went home at 4 haha.. i don't care.. it felt good to be lazy! :) they have a phone plan set up where they can call the states, so i surprised mom and dad by calling them.. it was funny to actually use a phone instead of my computer haha.
so yes.. it has been a very fun and relaxing weekend. did some laundry when i got home and caught up on some tv shows. i'm going to bed early tonight :)

this week in class...

yesterday it rained in the morning and a beautiful rainbow was outside our classroom.. i let my kids go on the balcony to see it and they had fun talking to the fourth graders through their window and waving to the rest of our class being dropped off for school.. the little things amuse them :)

nene is VIP (she gets to be line leader and my helper for the week. she also makes a little poster to hang on the chalkboard for the week and the kids get to ask her questions one of the days) and she brought in a scrapbook that her and her mom made about the abcs. it is so adorable.. each letter has a theme and her mom wrote questions for her to answer or draw.. cutest idea EVER. but anyway.. i was touched that for the letter m, she had it for miss rachel! so i took a picture of it to show you all! :)

today i was getting things together for our chapel skit next week (we are doing noah's ark), and the kids got SO excited when i showed them the masks they'll be wearing! aren't they adorable?!

at lunch, jed took out a crunch bar and him and leo started singing the "chocolate song." apparently this song is played on the television when chocolate is advertised. it made me smile thinking about all the commercials i know the songs to at home.. no matter where you are in the world, tv jingles can still get stuck in your head :)

.karaoke.

so i thought it was about time i told everyone about my first japanese karaoke experience! :) the group (part of laura's english class, laura, eric, eric's sister nancy, and me) started off at dinner.. authentic okinawan food that was amazing! they were nice enough to explain to us what every dish was.. plates just kept coming and coming! my favorite dishes were the sashimi (thin slices of raw fish), fresh tofu, pig kabobs, umibudo! (seaweed that looks like a cluster of mini grapes.. umi means something from the sea and budo means grapes). there were so many other foods that were good, but it is hard to describe them all and remember everything i ate.. but it was all good! :) we sat outside under a tin roof and it was so relaxing! and great company.. they are all so hilarious! we laughed over english slang and phrases and some japanese as well.

then we walked over to the karaoke room (it is part of the restaurant). in japan, groups have individual party rooms so you are just singing with the people you know, which is good haha. it was so much fun! toru really gets into karaoke! we sang some japanese songs, whitney houston, spice girls, sir mix-a-lot, maroon 5, elvis, beyonce, grease, green day, and so many more! we were literally singing for two and a half hours!! great memories and hilarious moments!!!

fall fest!

today was the fall fest.. praise the lord it didn't rain! the kids paid for tickets to use at booths with games for prizes (bean bag toss, balloon darts, pull a sucker, cake walk, unwrap a gift musical chairs, and look for a lifesaver in a plate of whip cream), booths with activities (tattoos.. my booth!, stoning wall.. one kid sticks their head through a piece of plywood while other kids throw wet sponges at them haha, bouncy house, and "universal studios".. kids dress up, get their hair done and face painted for pictures), and to use for the food area (barbecued hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken on a stick called yakitori, tons of drinks and snacks, and snow cones).
i enjoyed seeing my kids and being able to talk to the kids from other classes as well. i got to talk to a few parents too which was nice.. they are all so sweet!
i also talked to the parent who wants me to help her with conversation english, so now i finally have a date and time that i'm going to be meeting with her... i'm excited!!!

the balloon darts was a favorite

the bouncy house!

ayana and nene stopped by my booth for some tattoos and hugs

english fun

laura teaches a conversation english class every thursday night for a couple hours and i had the wonderful opportunity to teach it for her last night (her sister-in-law is visiting). i had so much fun! there were four women and two guys (one is a cute old man!). laura informed me beforehand that aigi (the older man) loves to joke around and all of us were laughing the whole entire night! he is hilarious. when we first sat down and i introduced myself, aigi said that he was nervous to talk now because i was so beautiful haha. all of us were joking with him keeping tabs of everytime he said beautiful to me.. "rachel.. you have such a beatiful voice" "rachel.. your little hands are so beautiful" hahaha.. we could not stop laughing at how fascinated he was! when toru, the other guy, was talking about his weekend, aigi told him, "enough about your weekend.. who has another question for rachel??" toru nicknamed me supermodel haha (i had to inform him that supermodels are a lot taller than me haha) and even introduced me like that to his wife after class when we were saying our goodbyes haha... they make me smile :)
during the whole two hours, i didn't even get to the book work that laura left me with. after everyone was introduced, the rest of the time was spent asking me questions. it was funny because i would say something "shocking" to them, and two people came in late, so they would ask the same questions and it was hilarious to see them have the same reaction. their mouths dropped when i told them that i recently turned twenty two. one lady was funny.. her voice got quiet and she goes, "my youngest daughter is older than you." i informed her that her daughter was my brother's age, and it made her feel better haha. they literally gasped when i told them that it took me fifteen hours to drive from oregon to california haha. it makes sense because laura was telling me that when she went on a class fieldtrip that took a forty minute car ride to get there, that is seen as a LONG distance and they actually stopped to get out and stretch, get food, etc.. their forty minute car ride is equivalent to me going to seattle or something.
they were very interested in hearing all about oregon and california. a couple of them have actually traveled to both states, so that was fun to reminisce. they LOVED when i told them all the celebrities i've seen in california. their favorite was meg ryan.. a lot of gasps and hollers. aigi let us know that he named his cat after meg ryan :) we of course also talked about disneyland and tokyo-disney :) we all had a lot of things in common!
they were also very amused that i don't live on the base and shop at japanese grocery stores. they were laughing when i told them i just buy stuff that looks and smells good.. sometimes i have no idea what it is haha.
i also found it very interesting that when they were asking questions, a couple of them asked me about my ancestry.. when i told them that my mom's side is swedish they were all like, "yes yes.. i knew it! i knew you had european in you!"
it was fun getting to know them and they were all so sweet and such great company. the group is going to dinner and a karaoke bar tomorrow with laura, eric, and eric's sister, and they really wanted me to come so i'm excited to hang out with them again! especially at a karaoke bar!!! i'll take pictures and probably some videos too :)

paper airplanes

so today was the paper airplane contest. the kids had a blast!! before we began, the students had to share with the class what their airplane name and who the pilot was... entertaining fo sho. jed had the winning airplane out of the kids. he actually even beat me a few times! he would get so excited when his plane flew longer than miss rachel's! and then he would get a funny grumpy face when i beat him haha. after the competition, i had the kids write about their plane and how it did in the contest.. so cute to read! sometimes they say the funniest things.. i'll have to post some later :)


the first graders standing next to their planes after they threw them