11/13/11: Adventures of a 23 yr. old bachelor!

Top 10:

1. Cooking meals
2. Finishing Deuteronomy, Judges, I & II Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Job
3. Going to Ito Yokado with Mom for lunch
4. Teaching 3 lessons at UTSS on my own
5. Starting Field Hockey season
6. Teaching Mom's Koganei English class
7. Ordering Domino's pizza by phone in Japanese
8. Game Night @ Johnson's with young CAJ teachers/staff
9. Meeting up with Joel Barkman and eating breakfast at Jonathan's
10. Playing guitar for ICCS Sunday worship

Teaching at UTSS:
This last week I was able to teach three classes on my own at UTSS because Taizo-sensei had to be at Tsukuba University for a day and the both Ozawa-sensei and Kawakami-sensei were in Nara for a teacher's conference. The lesson that I had planned for Taizo's class went very well and I've included a few of the finished products of my lesson on Family Trees with the 2nd year students at UTSS. In the lesson we talked about the different members of a family (i.e. mother, grandmother, great grandmother) and then I had them create an imaginary family tree by cutting out pictures of famous people from Time and World magazines which I had brought with me to class. After creating their posters they had to give a short introduction of "their" family to the rest of the class.






For my other class I talked about superlatives: big--bigger--biggest and how they can be used in writing. Then I gave them a writing topic for the class: Unusual. They had to write about an unusual story or event and try to use superlatives in their writing. I ended up learning some new things, for example, I learned that one of my students had a twin sister in one of my other classes!

The following day I assisted Taizo-sensei in his class for 3rd year students and because there were two Indonesian exchange students that were visiting we did a little bit of a special activity. There was time for conversation with the two Indonesian students (who spoke English) and then we went down to the local mall (Wakaba Walk) and the students were sent on a scavenger hunt to find the different shops without looking at the mall maps. Then they had to go into a ¥100 shop and buy 10 items (there were two teams competing against each other) based on the list of items that Taizo had given them. ¥1,050 was given to each group so that they could go find the items. It was a great activity and I had lots of opportunities to talk with the students on the way.

At the ¥100 shop.

My group! The boys from left to right are:
Ko-ichi, Numa, and Tomoki. I have gotten to know the three of them really well, especially Numa.

The items that they found.

An example of me teaching at UTSS in Ozawa-sensei's classroom

The Meals of a Bachelor:

Breakfast #1

Breakfast #2

Breakfast #3

Breakfast #4

Breakfast #5

Mexican Haystacks

Home-made tomato soup

Spaghetti sauce on rice

Chopping the veggiesBoiling the carrots and potatoes

Frying the onions!

Mmm! Looking good!

The finished product!

Proof that a bachelor can do the laundry :)

My first telephone order of pizza in Japanese. Delicious :)

Crepes in the making!
Crepes are finished!

What happens if you don't put the top on the blender!

Making blueberry sauce for crepes.

My cooking feats so far:

• Nabe
• Crepes
• Pancakes
• Japanese curry rice
• Mexican Haystacks
• BLTs
  

Coaching Field Hockey:
This year I will be coaching the varsity girl's field hockey team at CAJ. I have 18 girls on the team and we started practice on November 10th. I'd appreciate your prayers as I get used to the responsibilities that coaching involves. It has already been a learning experience and the Lord is going to be teaching me a lot through this. I can't wait until we have our first games!

Setting up a Field Hockey Goal 101

Lay the pieces out.

Put them together and screw the bolts in.

Put the boards into place. The last step is to put the green netting on but I did it the following day and I didn't get a picture of it :)

Bible Reading:
I've read from Genesis to Job now and I am hoping to finish up the last couple books that I need to before I finish my Bible reading in January. I and II Chronicles is incredible. There is just so much to take in. I just recently finished Job and I love the character of Elihu. It is a such an interesting thing to me that he is mentioned so little. He shows up and then you hear nothing more about him. I will be taking on Isaiah and Ezekiel and Revelation soon so those will take some time and discipline.

Job Search:
I'm starting to look for jobs for next school year since my ALT job will be ending in March of 2012 and I hope to get a full-time teaching job at either an international school or full-time teaching English. I have applied for 7 jobs thus far and I hope to get in contact with some more schools and organizations in the coming weeks here in November and December. I'd appreciate your prayers as I look to see which doors God will open and which ones God will close.

Koganei English Class:
Teaching Mom's English class was a real treat! I was able to teach a class of about 12 students who are between the ages of 50 and 75. Mom uses a textbook that they go through and it just so happened that the topic I had for the next week was "Flowers." I will admit I had to do a bit of research to find out just what some of these flowers looked like. For example, did you know that a philodendron has large leaves? Did you know that the word philodendron can be broken up into two parts? Philo- and -denron. Philo=friend love and dendron=tree. Dendron is the same root word as the word dendrites that are part of the neurons in your body. Amazing isn't it?! I love teaching because you learn so much about all sorts of topics. Not only did I learn about the students but I also learned about my own mother language and about flowers as well!

Praises!

• For the my job at UTSS, substitute teaching, private tutoring, and coaching field hockey
• Having time to cook, learn photography, and learn guitar
• Being in Tokyo to spend time with Mom and Dad
  

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for a growth in my prayer life (I've been trying to pray in the mornings and it has been such a blessing. I usually spend about 15 minutes in prayer on the veranda before I start my day. Sometimes I forget but I hope to make it a regular habit)
2. Prayer for understanding of Bible reading
3. Pray for Christ-like witness in the workplace
4. Pray for full-time job for next year