I am thinking about

I am thinking about what to do for my night class coming up next month.  I have a very limited amount of time to prepare my students for their trip abroad.  They need more vocabulary so I think teaching lots of vocabulary and making that vocabulary stick is very important.  They need lots of practice speaking.  They especially need a lot of practice with conversation but how to go about doing it?  If they have a set dialogue then they don’t have to improvise and improvisation is a vital part of conversational skill.  A circumlocution game or a game like Scategories may be the key.  With an increased vocabulary they should at least be able to one-word-shotgun their way through a conversation.

Russian Tea Cakes

Russian Tea Cakes
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Russian Tea Cakes
I made these myself. Just had to have some Christmas Cookies. Luckily, I was able to have a snowman cookie and a Christmas tree cookie with red sparkles on it at a friend's house. So Christmas has come and gone and I have only a few Christmas Cookies left. "Russian Tea Cakes", or as my recipe book calls them, "Sandies". These cookies were really simple to make. I mean, even I was able to make them turn out right! I wanted to make several different types of cookies for Christmas but I just didn't have the time. Actually, if truth be told, I really just wanted to EAT several different types of cookies. Ah well, next year, with better planning, I should be able to make many more cookies. Since you can refrigerate the dough, I should be able to prepare several different types in the month before Christmas and just keep them in cold storage until I am ready to bake them. That should work out all right.

Living here in Japan has made me begin to take more care and have more interest in my own culture and traditions. I miss things from back home. I realize that if I want to enjoy the traditions of my homeland, I will have to actively engage myself in them.

Kaki wo kajiru - Noelle eats a persimon

Autumn is the season for many fruits of the land, and of the the favorites of the Japanese, and Noelle, is the persimon or "kaki" in Japanese. They are hard to hold on to for her, being kind of slippery when peeled, but she loves to bite into them. Right now she really likes to feed herself as much as she can. She is not very good at it yet, getting food all over her face, in her hair, all over us, her high-chair and the floor. We always set her high chair over a bunch of old newspapers to catch the shower of food, bowls and other utensils that come down.

Snow in Ashibetsu

This just came in this morning from a former student. It's snowing in Ashibetsu! I think it is time for me to change the tires on our car to studless tires. In contrast to the weather in Ashibetsu, it is a gorgeous sunny day with blue skies here in Makubetsu. The weather brings me to another topic: tires. I had only just heard of "studless tires" right before coming to Tokachi. My father in law was using them on his car. Then when I came here, I learned that EVERYBODY uses special winter "studless" tires and special tires for summer. It was a new thing for me. The summer tires that most people put on their cars were like sports tires or racing slicks. Now way you could use those for winter. In Wyoming I had always used all-season tires and never changed tires during the year. If I weren't married with a child, I think I would try to use only all-season tires again rather than buy another set of expensive studless tires.

Choosing a Pumpkin

IMG_5637
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

I like this picture. Here I am looking at all the pumpkins trying to choose just the right pumpkin to bring home to display at my dad's house. I choose a nice round one that wasn't too small and wasn't too big. I didn't have time to make it into a jack-o'-lantern but still it was nice to have it. Halloween is on October 31st. I carve one or more pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns every year for Halloween. I put a candle in them and light them up at night for the people in the neighborhood or passersby. Did you do anything for Halloween?

Happy Halloween!

I didn't get to do anything for Halloween this year and I am a little bit bummed. However, the kids at Nukanai Elementary did make a jack-o'-lantern out of an expensive pumpkin that I gave them. We all got together the day before and made pumpkin pie and paper-craft turkeys for Thanksgiving. Here's a picture of their jack-o'-lantern on the left. Up until this year, and a few years at university, I have dressed up as a monster of some sort or another every year for Halloween. I never get very elaborate with my costume. The last couple of years I have been a vampire. I have tried to make myself look like Count Dracula the vampire.

Welcome to Wyoming!

We made it to Wyoming at last!
After changing planes several times and staying the night in Billings Montana, we finally made it to my home sate Wyoming!