Oops!

Hello all! I went to Nagsaki last week, so I haven't written in about a week. Sorry! I'll try and give you a list of the cool things that happened in the last week:

1. "Camping" with my host family. This meant renting a cabin for one night at the closest national park and eating as much barbeque, curry, roll cake and castella (another kind of cake, which Nagasaki is "famous for") as was humanly possible.

2. Meeting up with my old friend Kei who went the same university as me in Nagsaki for the semester that I was there. He's Japanese and will graduate next spring. We also got to meet up with some new students at Gaidai (the university). It was a really fun night just talking, eating and drinking.

3. Walking around Nagasaki by myself. I know this sounds lonely and the part where I was a little bit lost wasn't really all that fun, but for the most part it was really great to spend time wandering around the city like I used to. I found my way to Meganebashi, the oldest arch bridge in Japan, and I found an artsy little shop in Hamanomachi, the shopping district.

4. I bought two hats at the mall with my host sister, Shiori. They are the cutest hats I've ever seen in my life. Yes.

5. Visiting Nathan Johndro. Nathan lives in a city called Tagawa in Fukuoka prefecture. It took a while to get there, but I really got to see another side of Japan. Even riding the train made me feel like I was somewhere new. Of course, the best part was getting to talk to Nathan in person and walk around his city with him. Good times.

6. Having some other JETs over to my apartment to watch a movie. Okay, so the movie ended up being depressing and weird, despite the fact that it was in the ROMANTIC COMEDY section of itunes. Boo face. However, Anna, Katherine and I had a good laugh over it in the end. Mostly, it was great to have them over to my apartment for the first time. I'm sure it won't be the last. We're thinking of having a Halloween party here actually.

7. Three hours of taiko practice. Basically this group keeps getting more and more amazing. I got to watch some of the more advanced people practicing and now I'm really excited about the kind of songs we might get to do in the future!

Today:

8. Meeting the teachers at my second elementary school. One of them seemed especially nice, she sat down with me while I drank the HOT COCOA that they offered me. :) I'm obviously really excited to go there again (and not just for the hot chocolate).

9. I got to see my two year-olds today again at the nursery school and they really seemed excited to see me again! I have to say, it's so adorable when they call me "sensei" because they are still speaking baby-talk so it comes out like "sen~shei". It's hard to write, but it's so cute, trust me.

10. NO BUGS! It is getting cooler and the bugs seem to have left. My apartment is a happy place. :)