Registered in K'grad

Our dossier was registered in Kaliningrad today, and we are now officially in line for a referral. There is still some uncertainty as to how quickly adoptions are moving in this region, but it feels good to be in line somewhere. Fingers crossed that all goes well in K'grad!

Kickin' Back at the Cottage...s

School's out! Summer's here! As I start packing my bags, I find myself mumbling a mantra: at the cottage. Are these words music to everyone's ears, or just mine? Without a doubt, it's my favorite summer phrase. My favorite summer days. While Jon and I don't have a cottage of our own - yet - we spend a great deal of time each summer at other people's cottages, catching up with various family members and friends. Here's the line-up of cottages in which we plan to kick back this summer...

In-the-Country Cottage (a.k.a. the Quilting, Cooking, Bocce-out-the-Back Cottage)

At-the-Canyon Cottage (a.k.a. the Boating, Beading, Listening-to-Lyle Cottage...in its diamond-in-the-rough recently-relocated splendor) 

In-the-Woods Cottage (a.k.a. the Bird-watching, Tech-talking, Make-Me-a-Mojito Cottage)

By-the-Sea Cottage (a.k.a. the Lobster-Eating, Maximo-Meeting, "Jo(h)n-You're-a-Jackass!" Cottage)

By-the-Lake Cottage (a.k.a. the Scrabble-playing, Bower-laying (Euchre!), Canoeing-with-the-Loons Cottage)

And some favorite 'cottages' of summers past include the Idaho, the Heidi-ho, the Cubby Hole, and the Eureka!.

THIS is the stuff summers are made of!

The Year in Review - Newbies No More

As all our fellow teachers out there know, the year really comes to an end on the last day of school - not on December 31 as most people seem to believe. As we near the end of this school year - our first in Japan - I've been reflecting on our year as 'newbies' and all the newness that has come our way... New jobs  Both Jon and I have enjoyed our new jobs and feel we've made positive contributions to our new school. We look forward to another year at CA and the professional challenges a new year brings (after all, I've got more pink study carrels to rid the library of!). New culture We've gotten just a glimpse of the Japanese culture (sumo, maiko, onsen, ohanami, and sushi-go-round jump to mind) and can't wait to experience more of this country's old traditions and new innovations. New friends  This is one of the things we like best about international teaching. There's always a great bunch of people waiting to embrace you as one of their own. New places We've taken some great trips - both inside Japan and out - to Shanghai, Hiroshima, Beppu, Kyoto, Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. As always, we're looking forward to our trip back to North America for our summer holidays, and our much-anticipated travels to Russia can't come soon enough. New favorites  Someone asked me what I like best about living in Japan, and I think I've finally narrowed it down to my top three. All fascinating bits of the Japanese culture aside (sumo, maiko, onsen, ohanami, and sushi-go-round again come to mind), my favorite day-to-day Japanese ingenuities are... 

my mama-san bike (both functional AND fashionable!),

my train pass (this is the card I never leave home without),

and our heated toilet seat! This, I must admit, is my all-time favorite. It truly is ingenious. Nothing feels better on a cold winter night... On a sticky day in May, however, nothing feels worse, as I discovered a few weeks ago. Luckily for me, the Japanese think of everything - this feature can be turned off/on as needed. 

That, in a nutshell, is our year in review. School's out on June 13!

Gion by Night and Dinner with Maiko

Jon and I spent Saturday night in Gion - Kyoto's famous geisha district - on an outing organized by a local tourist company. The evening started with a walking tour that took us through two of the five geisha districts, and what felt like a walk back in time. If you've seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, you might be able to picture the narrow streets lit up with red and yellow lanterns and the kimono-clad women quietly scurrying in and out of doorways. Our Canadian guide was actually one of the location scouts for the movie (most of which was filmed in Hollywood) and is married to an ex-geisha. Needless to say, he is well connected, and his situation affords other gaijin a glimpse of this intriguing part of the Japanese culture. The tour was followed by a dinner at a private restaurant during which two maiko - geisha in training - came to entertain us. They were beautiful young women (17 and 19 years old) and were fascinating to watch.

Click here for a slideshow of the evening.