Chaos is drawing to an end... (for now!)

Well gentle readers, there have been many events in the last two weeks that have taken much time and energy from the assorted Fireballs. We are nearing the end of the school year in Japan and thus are dealing with the Grade 3 graduation and all the pomp and circumstance (Japanese style) of that. Because Chugakko 3 (our grade 9) is the end of compulsary schooling here it is a really big deal. Most students go on to high school and college or university so that they can get a good job but their regular public education only goes to the end of Junior High.
There has been much rehearsing and decorating leading up to yesterday - the actual graduation ceremony. We had a graduation party day on Tuesday that was lots of fun! The students spent the morning playing a basketball tournament (Taran's team won!) and then the afternoon was spent performing skits and songs that they'd been practicing for several weeks. Joisan's class did a game show with the grade 3's as contestants. Taran's class performed a very short version of Snow White and then they played Country Roads on their guitars. Hiro and I sang with them for that and we also performed a dance and another song with the rest of the teachers. I have a few photos I will post here and Taran has posted a video of Snow White on his facebook page if anyone is interested. I am hoping to get my hands on the dvd they made of the whole thing. The tv station films everything here!!
I know I've been promising photos for quite a while now and I went on to upload them to a photoshare this week and all my photos since Christmas morning are gone! I've lost my DisneyWorld photos, my ski marathon pictures, photos of the Yukigassen, pictures of Girls Day and the ice cave. Even the photos of Dave trying to deduce what the suspicious looking "thing" from Japan was! :( I cried and cried when I discovered the loss. I will endeavor to be more diligent about uploading pictures now so that this will not happen again.
The other thing I think I have not been totally clear on yet is that we are staying here for another year. We have made arrangements to rent our house to some fabulous people and I've received approval for another Leave of Absence from Cowichan. We will be here until August of 2011. Start planning your trips please! We want visitors!