red leaves, yellow leaves

These pictures are ginkgoes from our university. They are very troublesome in fall because of its nuts. But now, it has turned yellow and is very pretty. It makes me feel comfortable and calm me down. One big moment I really feel nice be a Japanese.

Talking about the colours of leaves, I wanted to see red leaves of maple trees in Canada. It's very famous and of course I expected to see them when I went there last year. It was still September. Although, it almost finished and I missed it!! I didn't expect Canada's winter came so fast...

Before I left Canada this September, I decided to see red leaves and pick some! I waited and waited for turning colours till just a few days before I left. But!! Leaves were just getting yellow at that time and finally I gave up. I picked some up and brought to the school. I laminated them and they are my treasures now.

Also I learned a trivia about leaves from my hostfamily. She is an artist and likes batik. When I did batik with her, I drew maple leaves and coloured with red without thinking. Then she found it and told me, "we don't get that red here. It gets cold so quick. Leaves fall off before turning red so ours are usually yellow." I imagined only red maple trees like on travel brochures. But now I know, it depends on the area what colour leaves get. It was North Alberta I went. If I would go to the east coast, I could see red leaves then. It's very interesting and the difference makes originality of the area.

What is "batik"? Check this website, the world of batik by Yuko Nakata.

http://www.batik-yuko.com/

about my new job

Today I went shopping to YumeTown Hikarinomori with my friend. We both had some things to buy and also it was a kind of a refreshment before we both start new part-time jobs this Friday.

I got a job at an English language school in Kumamoto city. Another friend of mine was working there but she had to quit because she got a full-time. Usually a full-time job starts in April but the office asked her to start working in this November. She introduced me to the school as her successor.

Now I'm anxious about my new job because I have no idea of it yet. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to working there with English. I wonder how I'll do but let's see. First of all, I have to learn a lot of the work!

Ramona

Do you know "Ramona"?
I know Ramona is a popular name but who I'm talking about is Ramona Quimby.

There are eight books of Ramona by Beverly Clearly.

Ramona is a little girl and likes some tricky things. In each books she gets into trouble but learns something from them.

Ramona has an older sister, Beezus. She is a smart girl and often helps her little sister.

I like both girls because they're so cute. And every time I read the book they reminded me a girl who had a little brother. They often fight but are good friends as Ramona and Beezus.

Another reason why I like Ramona series is author's description. I think her vivid description gives characters reality. Many times I felt like "I know, I know this Ramona's feeling!" Also she describes very details of Ramona's way of thinking. It makes me love her more!

Unfortunately I don't think we have this Ramona series in our library yet. I hope we can have them and many people can read and love Ramona.

If you're interested in Ramona, have a look at this Beverly Clearly site!

http://www.beverlycleary.com/index.html

a Fable

I'd like to introduce you a fable today. The fable is The lion and the mouse.

One day, a lion,the king of the jungle, was laying on the grass because it was too hot to hunt. .A little mouse was on her way with her dinner. However, she was so hurry that she didn't notice the lion. When she crossed his paw, he felt a tickle and found her. Of course he caught her and said, "you will be my dinner!" The mouse didn't give up. She asked him to let her go and help him out one day. He thought that would never happened but admired her brave, let her go away.
The next day the lion was hunting and stepped on a trap. A large net covered him and he couldn't get away from it. He cried and the mouse could hear his voice. She ran straight to him as fast as she could. Once she got there, there was no one to help him except her. She tried to chew the trap and finally he got free.
The lion thanked her and admired her as a little friend.
Its moral is,
Little friends can be great friends.

a girl who has a friend of blind

I'd like to write about a book today. It's "Lilly Makes a Friend" by Brenda Bellingham.

Lilly is a girl who likes Yodel. One day she went to school late and on her way to a classroom she found a boy, Davy. He was crouching over the sidewalk. She told him her name because he was a blind. Then she tried to help him but what he wanted..... was yucky worms! With this as a start, she tried to help him but seemed to get into trouble. When he wanted to play soccer with her, how she did?

I didn't know this book was about a relationship between a girl and a blind boy when I borrowed. I don't know why they knew each other but the story is interesting. The boy has interests toward everything. I can understand why he can put worms in his pocket! Because he doesn't have a sense of "yucky" looking. I don't know anything about blind people so it's good to read.

shopping&movie mood

This after school, I went to watch a movie with my friend, Yu. We took a bus to get there but missed a bus stop we should have got off so walked for about 10 min. to the theatre.

We watched the devil wears Prada. I knew this movie when I was in Canada but I didn't have a chance to watch it. Finally it just came to Japan last Saturday!

I was in a mood to go and watch a movie today. I don't know why(><) Also Wednesdays we, ladies, can watch with only ￥1,000! I could go home after classes before it rained, but I didn't. I didn't want to miss this chance.

The movie we watched started at 19:10 so we had enough time to shop before. I bought an umbrella. Yu bought a skirt for her friend's wedding. It was fun to shop. We had our supper there, too. Then! We noticed it was already just after 19:10!!

We ran into the theatre and thanks to many advertisements, we could watch the whole movie. It was not bad. The girl who worked at a "devil" was very cute and there were so many nice clothes in the movie. That was good.

When we went out from the room, I got surprised that so many people were there to watch movies. Because of Wednesday? or something interesting movie? I don't know.

Anyway it was a good day. The picture at the top is from Kumamoto down-town, Tsuruya. You can see Christmas light-ups everywhere now.

a confusion of a presentation

One surprise was given to me yesterday... My friend who went to Korea together last month called my cell and told me "tomorrow, we might have to make presentations!!"

"What's the presentation!? I didn't know it at all!! Oh, my god!!"

I knew it was my problem that I didn't know when I had to do it, but tomorrow!!?? That was too soon!

According to her, it was our turn to do presentations today(this Friday) for sure. However, last week we didn't have a class because of our school festival, so there were some other classmates who didn't (couldn't) do last week. We guessed today would be their turn and we wouldn't have enough time to do ours.

Still, we weren't sure we had to do them or not. ....Finally, we gave up(><)! and dicided, promised each other to get ready for them.

This early morning, I finished mine at last. I made it! I went to another class and advanced this blog. I was taught how to link my friends on my page and so on. It was fun to know new things.

At the beginning of the class which I was supposed to do my presentation. The professor told us to change the schedule and of course ours became next week!

I was happy about it but I got tired...(><)

My First Book Review

Finally! I can tell you about a book.

Its title is "Kitchen Table Talk". (by Kay Hetherly)

Its author is an American and she came to Japan. She found many interesting differences between the U.S. and Japan which people usually don't realize. In this book, she tells them with short stories.

I liked her short stories because they were very casual but something new to me. They gave me more ideas I didn't know before. Also her writing style is full with a warm, comfortable mood. While I was reading, it made me comfortable, too.

You can borrow this book from me anytime if you want. Just let me know!

the Blank for a month...(><)

I'm so sorry... I didn't write this blog almost for a month.

After I wrote the last my blog, I left Japan and visited Korea for ten days. It was for teaching practice. My major is English but I'm also taking the class of teaching Japanese for foreign people.

Actually this course was one of my biggest reasons I decided to enter my university. I wanted to study not only English but also teaching Japanese. That's why I'm here.

In Korea, I did my plan twice, the same one but to the other students. It was hard! difficult! But I think I did my best and it became a good experience to me.

Through ten days, I had a lot of chances to enjoy Korean beer! It's very cheap to drink in Korea. I went to drink five nights after all. Every time I met new friends and it was fun to talk with them.

I came back to Japan last Monday. The next morning when I woke up, I found my throat was strange. I caught a cold!! I don't know why.... Anyway my teaching practice is over.

My cold stayed for a week but now it's gone. I'm fine!
Now I have to write something about a book!!!!! I haven't done it yet.... During this week!