Quiz time

My friend sent me an email talking about one of her students. This is what she wrote...

"Is very big. He is always playing and twisting it in lessons and I always wondered if it was hard. So I touched it and the first time I think he was a bit shocked (as I was standing behind him talking to his friend) [....] but then after I'd helped someone else his friend said I could touch it again so I did. It was hard."

What is she talking about? Guesses in the comments sections please...

Yet another weather related post

Sadly there seems to be little else in my life at the moment other than snow, so here is another "gosh there is a lot of snow for December" entry...

I woke up this morning, a little late...again, and after gobbling down some breakfast went to start my car, only to find it had disappeared under 3 inches of snow! So to commemorate the first digging out of a car this winter, here is a nice picture of my poor buried automobile.

...ok, it appears blogger doesn't think you should have the privilege of seeing my very snowy car. Will try and get that sorted out.

ha-ha! success!

Really rather chilly

It is only 8.45am, but I have had quite an interesting morning. I had slight trouble getting out of bed due to the scary temperature difference between under and outside my duvet. This had a knock-on effect thus creating a slight rush later, hence had to leave the house with slightly damp hair, as no time to finish blow-drying. I arrived at school 20 minutes later and went to the coatroom to brush my hair and try to make scary wind-blown haystack into a style acceptable for entering a classroom. Had some difficultly in doing this. At first thought the wind had created a very bad knot, as my brush would just not go through. So I looked in the mirror to find out how bad the damage was and, rather than the expected tangle, found to my surprise an icicle. My hair had actually frozen on the walk to school. So I went to my desk and waited to thaw. It is now looking very shiny and straight, so may write to Pantene and suggest freezing as a revolutionary new hair care procedure.

Test Weekend

This weekend was generally good, apart from the few hours on Sunday morning where i wasted four hours of my life staring blankly at an exam paper. To tell the truth, the writing and listening were ok, it was just the reading section that left me a little baffled. The problem was, it was stupidly long for the time we had. This is nicely illustrated by the fact that when the moderator said "you have 5 minutes remaining" some guy at the front yelled "Jesus!!" very loudly. Mike (who took the same level as me) reckons he has probably passed. I have absolutely no idea, as guessed most of the writing, so haven't got a clue how bad it was. There is always luck to depend on. I consoled myself by talking to Ryan who was taking level one, which is the mother of all Japanese tests, and therefore totally impossible.

Other than that, on Saturday we did a nice spot of shopping and went and met some ex-students who are at uni in Sendai for tea and went to a really swanky restaurant that turned out to only cost 900yen (4.50GBP) for a meal, dessert and glass of wine! bonus (^o^).

On Sunday, after the test was finished, we got a taxi back and met my bro and Mai, although briefly. We went and sat in a coffee shop while they talked and me and mike stared blankly at the wall trying to make our brains work. About 4.30, we got a shink back to Numakunai and I wrapped up all my presents I had bought whilst consuming the majority of a bottle of wine to overcome post-test confusion/stress/braindeadness.

Christmas is coming

Well, as you can see I was very festive and put up my tree. Despite only being two foot tall (and horizontal), I think you will agree it looks very seasonal.

and here was this morning`s weather....

Snow

Last night we saw the first "proper" snow fall. We have had the odd...whatever the snow equivalent of a shower is...but generally it has still been quite autumnal. Then last night at about eleven, I looked out to see the whole world had turned white. Sadly overnight it had obviously had a fluctuation in temperature, as by the morning the entire town was one big ice rink, so I had to slide to school.

It was nice to hear though that for once my town was not the coldest place in Iwate. Yesterday I heard reports of virtual blizzards in Morioka, Takizawa, Ichinohe and Kunohe, and yet not a flake settled in Numakunai. Normally, while in Morioka people are still wandered around in shorts and t-shirts, I have been shovelling my way out my house for weeks. Nice to see the tables have turned. wahahahah!

Now it has to be said this snow is unseasonably early. It is marking the start of December in style, and thus is about one month early. My theory was that this means the coldness will be dispersed over 5 months, rather than the usual 4, and thus it will never get really cold, just moderately chilly for a long time....why do I think I may be wrong?

Getting into the Christmas spirit, I made a Christmas cake last night. Of course, being in Japan I couldn't buy any of the ingredients I actually needed, and making in a microwave oven, it burned slightly on top, but it still made an exciting Christmas smell all through my house...and left me with most of a bottle of brandy spare, bonus! Tonight I am going to get even more Christmassy and put up my tree and wrap my presents up to go underneath it. Very exciting! \(^o^)/ You can all look forward to a sideways photo of it tomorrow.

I was entertaining the idea of making a bilingual blog, but now I have written more than I intended, think I may give up on that idea. Maybe tomorrow when I only have to translate "this is my Christmas tree".

Changes

This will probably be of little interest to anyone...except maybe Mike...

Sometimes at school, lessons are changed around a bit, and the changes get written on this board. normally it is totally empty, but just look at today's!!


again, sorry for the sidewaysness of the photo.