Wondering When I Work, Huh?

The past few weeks have been full of food, fun, and my favorite…TRAVEL! Saturday before last, 29 of us packed into vans and cars to head down to Kumamoto. Kumamoto is the prefecture south of Fukuoka. One of the guys who lives in my building organized the trip and rented 3 cabins near the beach. When we got there on Saturday afternoon, the cabins weren’t ready so we made a makeshift wall of people and towels, changed into our swimwear, and headed to the beach. It was by the grace of God that the weather held up because thunderstorms were in the forecast for whole week (it’s rainy season here now by the way). The sky was overcast but it was hot and the sun would break through every now and then. After a short game of touch football, most of us made our way to the murkier-than-I-deem-acceptable water. Things were cool until the creatures started popping up everywhere. The first thing we say was a…um…well, we couldn’t figure out if it was a plant or an animal. The second thing was definitely and animal, but once again unidentifiable. Then there was the tiny starfish, tiny octopus, the weird bugs, and the jellyfish. The jellyfish was the icing on the cake that solidified my decision to stay out of the water. I can’t say that I’m too fond of being stung by jellyfish. That evening, the grills were fired up and the fun began. The Hawaiians pulled out the ukuleles and guitars and sang the night away while the Japanese ladies were inside cooking their hearts out. They even had breakfast ready when we woke up…AMAZING!




Monday, I was off to Tokyo for meetings (see previous post). Friday, I went to the next city for a Model United Nations party...SUCH A CUTE IDEA. Everyone was supposed to dress up to represent a country. Of course France is the easiest...a striped shirt, scarf, and beret...and I figured someone else would be France. I couldn't think of what country to be so I decided to be the United Nations (building). The costume went a little something like this...

Blue hat...be cause UN folks wear blue hats/helmets

UN Flag...I printed it and made a flower to stick on my hat

Black shirt and pants...it's a plain dark building

Mirrors...the windows are reflective look like this...I wrote "THE UNITED NATIONS of Benetton" and "NO I'M NOT FRANCE" on the mirrors so that people would not be confused

Flags at my feet...there are flags at the base of the UN building...I chose flags that are meaningful to me (S. Korea, Nevis, St. Thomas, Japan, Senegal, Germany).

I felt terrible Saturday, so I stayed in bed until 4. I recently bought a grill, so I got up and went to the store for some chicken, shrimp, and charcoal. The plan was to make some kabobs, but I needed to get ready for the “Prom” that was to begin at 8ish. So, I settled for some bratwursts and corn instead, and invited one of m coworkers over to help me eat it. After late lunch/early dinner, we ladies donned our prom dresses, put our cute shoes in our baskets, and biked to the station in hopes that it would not rain! The prom was nice. The theme was Disco Royale (Studio 54 meets James Bond I guess) and I thought that people would show up half steppin’ but everyone looked really nice. Only a handful of people dressed for the theme, me being one of them. It ended at 10ish, so everyone headed to their respective after party destinations. Most folks went to a bar that is owned by a former teacher from my program, but bars aren’t my scene. So, 4 of us headed over to a salsa club…no I didn’t suggest it! We had a really good time and the other 3 were dancing which made for a good time. When the crown died down, we all headed to the salsa place that I had been to once when I first got here. Everybody from the first place had migrated there. I don’t know if any of you remember me mentioning being asked to dance as part of a group by an instructor. Well, she was there and soooo happy to see me again. That place closed at 4 so the remaining two of us headed over to the Internet café to take a nap and wait for the trains to start running again.