sarah and me 

mum and wendy 

 

 

 

marijke 

 

 

heading home...

SAYONARA SUCKERS!
MERRY XMAS & AKEMASHIE OMEDETO GOZAIMASU!!!!!

guelph1 

guelph2 

toronto 

ottawa1 

ottawa2 

this is my good buddy glen. i think we're becoming twins. it started out with the height, the nose rings, then it tinkered over to the same coat, and now, (coincidentally), the same car! (though, of course, his is a way better model...of car)

my new baby!!! she's faaaaaaast....(not that i drive it fast or anything).  

some pics from glen's last night

here are some xmas party pics from glen's last night. fun night, though resulting in too little sleep any getting my ass kicked by 5 guys in kboxing this morning. spent the rest of the day sorting my new car, and sending my suitcases off to narita. sigh...the biggest work is done...

johanna and the sphynx natasha 

kristen and pamela 

the inseperables  

got my assed kicked...

...last night.
as you can imagine, the guys who do kickboxing are normally very big, strong guys. last night we were primarily practicing grappling (taking down, tackling/wrestling your opponant) and i got my ass kicked (actually, my groin). one move we had to do repeatedly was tackle and pick up our opponant over our shoulder and throw them to the ground. this guy who was tackling me repeatedly slammed his shoulder into the same spot on my groin, 10 times. (well, then at least after i got to do it to him). afterwards we were sparring, doing 1-minute fights with all the guys. so one guy would be in the middle and take turns wrestling the rest of us. they had me go last so that when he was absolutely exhausted, that's when i got my turn to try to pin them. well, i suppose it's a way for me to learn if they're that much compromised and i have even a fraction of a chance...

one word answers (thanks natalie)

1. Where is your cell phone?: bag
2. Your hair? down
3. Your mother?:rational
4. Your father?:eccentric
5. Your favorite item? camera
6. Your dream last night? forgot
7. Your favorite drink?:coffee
8. Your dream car?:nonexistant
9. The room you are in?:bland
10. Your ex?: shoganai
1. Your fear?:future
12. What do you want to be in 10 years?: happy
13. Who did you hang out with last night?: coach
14. What you're not?: nightowl
15. Muffins?carrot
16: One of your wish list items?: debtfree
17: Time?: fast
18. The last thing you did? jeopardy
19. What are you wearing?: zara
20. Your favorite book?: swans
21. The last thing you ate?:banana
22. Your life?: exciting
23. Your mood?: excited
24. Your friends: amazing
25. What are you thinking about right now?: canada
26. Your car?: new
27. What are you doing at the moment?: thinking
28. Your summer?: perfect
29. Your relationship status?: free
30. What is on your tv? wierdos
31. When is the last time you laughed?:today
32. Last time you cried?: forget
33. School?: miss

lins n me out saturday night...
(oh and then we had a bad yet funny experience on the train home...)

john lennon, RIP

as a tribute, my 3-nen class filled in and sang the words of Imagine. it was moving. actually, most of them stared at me in horror/amusement as i sang out loud and they didn't.

HAHA

-22 in ottawa right now...
glad i've got myself a spectacularly warm new winter coat!

glen and kat 

school lunch was gross today

the rice was like goo. the fish was the most flavourless deep fried piece of goo i've ever eaten. the soup was onions and seaweed in broth. and the hijiki salad (white beans, seaweed and tofu) which i normally love, was rancid. gochisousama deshita.

cute natalie 

thanks guys

for coming over for dinner last night. had been a long time since i'd had one of those, and i used to have them fairly regularily. i'm happy to entertain all of you with my slightly clutzy behaviour (klutzy?)...and, believe it or not, i was sober when i look that last spill over the food table. really. i'm that talented.
i will post pics when i get home. (of last night, not of my spill).
tonight i'm going with jon to ikarashi motors to choose between the subaru and the nissan. hm. big decision.
(*O*)

well it continued to snow all through the night until about noon today, when it started raining instead. below are a couple of pics i just took on my ktai. in the top one in the mountains behind you can vaguely see the snow-covered ski runs at ninox ski resort.
today in class today we were playing criss-cross as a warm up game (ni-nensei), and i used a grammar point from their textbook "how do i look?" and made an angry (devil here) face. one of the loud boys in the back yelled out "my mother!" and both the JTE and i just pissed ourselves laughing, while trying to maintain a professional atmosphere in the class.
two weeks today i'll be at narita waiting to board...my plane to canada. whoo hoo!

view from the 4th floor at my school 

a couple of 1-nensei's 

i'm at shogakkou today and just took these pics from through the window of the teacher's room. it's still just dumping it down. the kocho sensei here asked me if i had put my snow tires on, i said, not yet, and he said "i guess you're not going home today!" how we laughed. on a non-related note, i dropped my slipper in the toilet by mistake. i don't have indoor shoes here because i'm only at this school once every two weeks, so i just wear the provided slippers. i dropped it in the squatter before i flushed. man, what's up with me and dropping things in the toilet??? 

my sister and the rock (aka marijke and jackson) 

the snow has descended

my weekend was busy, leaving not much time for relaxing. and now it's monday morning again, minutes before i'm about to sleepily walk into a class filled with hyper ten year olds and teach them the joys of learning how to say "i'm happy/sleepy/hungry". considering also teaching them "i didn't get much sleep this weekend so piss off".
on the way back from matsumoto yesterday, when we pulled into niigata ken from the south, we drove through a blizzard, with snow coating the trees and the side of the road six inches thick. once we got to joetsu it seemed to die down a bit, more sleet than anything. but then almost immediately when i reached the city, i might as well have been driving through siberia. the toll route was a foot thick in snow which hadn't been cleared, i was trying to negotiate my little k car going 30 km's an hour with no snow tires. i'm so looking forward to getting a new car! in the mean time, it looks as though i'm going to have to put my snow tires on - i couldn't even get into my driveway last night!

jon and me being immature on the train home