Thursday Poker Face

I just got back from poker night. Wow, I needed poker night. My friend Lena has it at her place every once in a while, and this week, her Japanese host mom and some other new faces joined us. We just played for fun (using 1yen peices as chips - no real stakes), but probably for the better in my case. Today was good, but another post 6pm work day. I know my kids are doing an amazing job on the cultural festival prep, but I got a little annoyed when they decided not to use the heavy boards they asked me to get for them (that Nozaki and I bought at the home center and had delivered yesterday). But it's all cool...I guess. Right now, we're working on painting life-size figures (with holes for the faces) - our solution to not having 'prom clothes' for people to wear during the photos. We're going to have a balloon terrace (bridge over the couple's heads) with a background and fake flowers on the ground.

Here's some shots of the progress:




I'm going to Osaka for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert straight from school tomorrow (then capsule in Shinsaibashi), and have English Camp on Saturday/Sunday (volunteering to teach a workshop), so I might be "MIA" (missing in action) for a few days. Early call tomorrow morning, too... my baby brother is graduating from high school!! I really wish I could be there for the ceremony and miss him a lot, but I'm really proud of him and excited to at least send my best wishes from across the sea on his big day. So anyways, have a great weekend and more soon!!

One last note (I digress... as usual): I have realized it's becoming difficult to type at my typical, "furocious" pace (I'm told I'm a fast - albeit loud - typer... probably from the years of chatting to friends on AIM after curfew...).
Anyways, after much time spent designing worksheets, researching classes and, well, purusing Facebook on my Japanese laptop at school, I have become rather accustomed to the Japanese keyboard. As in most foreign counties, the keyboard uses different key locations for some letters. Yes, it still has romaji (roman characters) with an option to switch to Japanese kana...but I now keep hitting the wrong keys on my American laptop!! I also noticed I am writing letters differently than I normally do at times - crossing my "t" like I would if it were a kana character... interesting, but not great, sign...