Busy Friday and Saturday

So, yesterday was the last day of school for the week and my first teaching day at the kindergarten. On Fridays I start the day at the city office and then go to the kindergarten and race to the chugakko. The office is pretty boring - not much to do there other than stamp my time sheet and cruise the internet. I have an email address there but I can only get the email there on Fridays so there's not much point in it. I can't access my webmail from there either so it's a bit of a communication black hole!
Anyway, the kindergarten was a ton of fun. I feel totally confident and able to do it - it's definately in my comfort zone! I did a half hour with the 3-4 year olds and a half hour with the 5 year olds. I stuck with the Happy and You Know It theme and they had a blast. Every one of them that I've seen since has come running and given me a hug!
After the kindergarten I went to the Chugakko and did two English classes. Ms. Koizumi and I are becoming a well-oiled machine! We spent some time planning the Halloween party too. It's going to be fun!
On Friday night we went back to the Chugakko for the Badminton tournament and Ian wound up playing although he hadn't intended to. He teamed up with Naomi and the two of them came second in the 'B' level. It was all really well organized and lots of fun! Ian played well and I played with some of the kids from the kindergarten.
I got up early today (Saturday) so that I could go to the Chogakko (Elementary School) production. It was a three hour event that involved each class doing multiple performances - music, drama and dance. I was really glad that I went - although I would have preferred it to start later so that I could have slept longer!
I spent a few minutes this afternoon looking through some of the supplies in the hall - getting things figured out for the Halloween Party. I found some stuff - but I'm still going to need to do a bit of shopping (darn!) After I got it all cleaned up I had a bit of a nap before dinner. I sure needed it! Ian and I went out to a choral concert this evening in Sobetsu. Ms. Koizumi's supervisor (she's a first year teacher and so she has a supervisor) was in it and he's the one who invited us and comped us the tickets. They did three sets of songs - the first one was fairly recognizable - some Brahms, Bach and Danny Boy were in there - and the second set was Japanese Pop songs. The third set was apparently some poems that had been set to music. It was really wonderful! They raffled off the plants they had for stage decor and I won one! Hiro went with us to the concert and she's coming for dinner tomorrow. We're going to make one of my favourite things - okonomiaki! Yum! She also told us about some farmers who will sell brown rice directly from the farm. We're hoping that we can make a connection to do that. It will likely be cheaper and it would be cool to get the rice right from the farm!
Anyway, you're all caught up now and despite the nap today I am really bagged so I'm off to bed! Today was my brother's birthday here - hope when it comes to your time zone it's a really great day Wyatt! Love you!