Hmm, I thought that having a blog would make it easier to keep you guys up to date on what's going on in Japan, but as it turns out it needs to be updated regularly in order for this to work :) so I will try to do it more often from now on.

Anyway, I’ll just give you a quick update on what’s been going on in my life. I returned back home for a good friends wedding. The wedding took place in an old farmhouse in France.

The wedding was great and it was good to see my friends and family after a long time away from home.

Things got a bit hectic at school after my return, as I had to plan several events at school. First there was the Halloween festival at the beginning of November.

The following week we had a school inspection for which everyone had to lend a hand cleaning the school. The week after that, there was the English drama festival that we had been rehearsing for daily since mid October.

At the drama festival each school presents a 30-minute drama in English.

Unfortunately we didn’t win one of the five prizes.

And finally last Friday we had my school’s annual speech contest where the first and second graders present the speeches they’d been working on since mid October. So this weekend is the first weekend since my return from Luxembourg to breathe a bit.

Since my return from Europe we passed the magical date where all of the students are required to wear their winter uniforms regardless of weather. From this magical date the teachers also start wearing long sleeved shirts and sweaters. But since the weather hadn’t changed considerably from October 31^st to November 1^st and since it was still sunny and around 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) I kept wearing my short-sleeved shirts. So since November 1^st I’ve been receiving comments about not wearing long sleeved shirts like: “Aren’t you cold?” or “You should be cold”.

Anyway, the temperatures have dropped and it’s now between 5 and 10 degrees (41 to 50 Fahrenheit) so I’ve started wearing long sleeves, which is necessary since it’s freezing in the classrooms and the magic date for turning on the heaters is another 2 weeks away, regardless of weather or temperatures. So till then the teachers and students will be freezing in the classrooms. Portable kerosene heaters on the other hand are being used to heat the teacher’s offices.

Lucky I am a teacher :)