My goal is to not allow myself any excuses and to make myself ride my bike every day possible. The ride to school in the mornings is very quick - only about 8 minutes - because it is all down hill! Of course that means that on the way home I get to struggle all the way... I did it Tuesday and Wednesday - very slowly but biking all the way. Yesterday (Thursday) it rained so I had a good excuse to let my body rest for a day. Today I start at the office, then go to the kindergarten and then the Chugakko and I'm biking all the way! My legs haven't been too sore so far (hot baths at night help!)
These two photos show the view from the back of our house. This is actually about 10 metres over from our back door. I will be hiking up the mountain with Naomi when the snow is gone.
This one shows the little stream that runs down beside our backyard area. It's all very serene and a lovely place to sit outside and just "be".
On Monday I went to Tatsunan and then out to lunch with Mayu. I had a bit of time in between so I went and took a walk near the river where the cherry trees are in full bloom. There was a nice little circut to walk that involved two bridges and both sides of the river. As I was finishing the walk there was a group of seniors setting up for what looked like a picnic lunch down by the river. It was all very beautiful.
Monday night I picked up Naoko and took her with me to Date. Joisan went to dance and a group of us (Naoko, Mayu, Yasuko, Rianna and I) went to karaoke. It was fun! I was way less self concious this time and found a couple of songs I want to work on. While I was playing the tambourine along with someone else's song I burst a blood vessel in my thumb and it swelled up so I could barely move it. The swelling was down by Tuesday but my thumb and the area all around it has looked dirty all week from the huge bruise.
As you can gather from the fact that I have resorted to reporting on my bruise, nothing too exciting is happening here this week. Although spring is definately here and there are some things in bloom, the cherry trees in Otaki are still bare. I don't mind though - it means that when the ones in Date are done I'll still be able to enjoy these ones a bit longer.
This weekend is a farewell party for Rianna (the AET in Date) before she goes back to Montana. They have not hired anyone as yet to replace her so I've been advocating for them to have Ian do it - at least for 28 hours per week. They don't always operate in logical ways here so I'm not sure if it will happen or not.
Ian is still working on getting the paperwork in order to officially work but he did do one day of volunteering with a local farmer this week. They really hit it off and spent a lot of time talking and visiting as well as working. I think Ian will be volunteering with him as often as he can.
We're still looking forward to having some visitors... anyone?!?
Sorry to hear about the thumb - hope it's better! But it was the phrase, "they don't always operate in logical ways here" that cracked me up, good one!!! That's an understatement, but I can tell you are becoming FOND of things nevertheless :)
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