Handa Here I Come

Hello again!! Tuesday morning we all got up and listened to a bunch of speeches from the Ministry of Education in Japan which were entertaining but altogether useless. Then I made an executive decision to skip some of the workshops to take a nap, but then went to listen to workshops about team teaching and senior high schools (which is where i am teaching) in Japan. We got done with all the conferences around 5 and then had to take our luggage down to be shipped to our contracting organization. Then me and some guys from my prefecture decided to go out and exlore tokyo a little. We took the train to harajuku to see the lolita girls and mountain hags (a term for japanese women who are hyper tan with their hair dyed blonde and crazy frosty make-up on. I love Harajuku, way too much crazy fashion. After that we went to shibuya which has the worlds largest intersection, seriously millions of people and bright lights everywhere. Then it started to rain so we went back to the hotel and called it an early night. Wednesday morning we had to be down in the lobby at 9:30 to catch the shinkansen, bullet train, to Nagoya. It took us about 2 and half hours to get there and I was greeted by huge signs with LAUREN on them, it was great. They really go treat us like celebrities here. The vice principal of Handa High and an english teacher, Kawai-sensei, were there to greet me. They tok me out for a sweet, as they called it, in order to welcome me. Then they drove me into Handa, which is only 30 minutes by train outside of Nagoya, the capital of Aichi prefecture. When we got to Handa we went staight to the school and they took me on a tour. The school is Huge...it has a swimming pool, soccer field, handball field, tennis courts, a baseball field, a track...it is three buildings connected by corridors...i couldnt believe how huge it was! After that Kawai-sensei took me to get pictures for my alien registration card and to the supermarket. It is surprising easy to tell what is what and my Japanese is getting better already. Right next to the school is a 7 Eleven, which is not only convient but awesome. I have already drank my fair share of Fanta, which tastes way better here than in the states. Then We went to my apartment and sorted everything out with the landlady, who took ALL my money...its way too expensive here! But my apartment is cozy and they put in new wallpaper, so it looks very nice and clean...and there is air conditioning thank god! its fricken hot here! anyways, after that i decided to wander the city and go back to the grocery store. I got lost. It took me about an hour to get to grocery store that is literally 5 minutes away. sad... but then i went back to the apartment took a shower and went to bed, yesterday was a long and hard day. This morning, thursday, i got to school at 9 and met the students in the english club, who showed me around the school. They are so shy, but so cute all in there uniforms and they giggle at everything...but they are really looking forward to me helping them with their speeches for the english competition in september. All the students are on summer break right now, but they come to school a lot to study and do activites, very different from us haha! But anyways i have to get back to my desk to eat lunch...a rice ball and yogurt, man i miss pizza! ps. this computer at the school is all in japanese so i have no idea what im typing and if its right, so good luck reading it!! love you all!