Livin' Life...

A-Team!

My volleyball girls had a great weekend and both the A and B team won their last regular season games!  My A team girls are ready for the big A-team tournament on Nov 6 and practicing hard up until then.  I'm building some great relationships with kids and its awesome to just love on them and encourage them...can't imagine doing anything else!

B-Team!

I also had the opportunity to meet up with three Japanese families that used to live in Lux and attended ISL: Moe, Yurika, Masaki, and Yuki!  We all met for lunch and had a great meal, me learning about different foods and life here in Japan, and of course reminiscing about Luxembourg.  Two of the moms were so kind and took me to the grocery store so that I could be enlightened.  I often walk through the grocery wondering what in the heck a variety of things are, so it was perfect to be able to ask as many questions as I wanted and them be able to fill my head with useful information!  We all plan to meet up again in the near future!   I've also recently found out that there are a few other ISL kids in the area so we are going to plan a big get together...International Schools are GREAT! :)  

Oeshiki Festival

Festivals are everywhere around here and I had the opportunity to attend another one last week, a Buddhist festival called Oeshiki.  Of course it was at a temple, and there was a huge mando parade with lanterns, people dancing, and playing musical instruments everywhere.  Apparently there were over 10,000 lanterns...the streets were even closed and it completely took over the little neighborhood...pretty cool!  Of course, there were people EVERYWHERE.  I'm learning there are very few places that there aren't mass amounts of people!  

I'm keeping busy here...unfortunately I tweaked my back playing basketball Friday night, so am a little under the weather.  Coaching Saturday morning was rough, I felt like a grandma trying to move because my back was so stiff!  The mom's were great, one gave me some pain killers and another went out and bought me Starbucks, and then a third brought me a heating pad later in the day!  They offered giving me rides if I need it too, so its great to have that support!  I hope that its not anything too serious and I'm trying to lay low this week...which is tough for me!  Its definitely improving, but I know something is still up.  I've also been having people over to my apartment so its been fun to be hospitable and I'm learning the ropes about living here and everything that goes with that.  Hard to believe that I've been here just over two months...time sure flies!  I did book my ticket home for Christmas though, so I'll be home in less than two months to catch up with family and friends...Dec 17-Jan 3!  

View of Mt. Fugi from my school!  Of course it's zoomed in a bit! :)

I saw my first sighting of Mt. Fuji...from school so it wasn't too spectacular, but it was the first clear clear day here...I will be going mid-November for a Ultimate Frisbee tournament there so I'm excited to see it up close then!  Still enjoying hanging out with lots of different people doing a variety of things, dinners, game nights, festivals, so staying busy and having fun.  I'm still trying to get connected with a church and community, but know that takes time!  

Game night with some friends!

One of my 8th grade girls, Alex :)