this post is for my family

This post is for my family. As you all know I won't be home for christmas this year, but here is what I'll miss about christmas at the lukasiewicz home.

Dad: I'm going to miss you yelling at me from the bottom of the stairs to get up, get ready, and get down stairs to help clean the house for family. I'm going to miss the 15 minutes it takes for all of us to open our gifts seperately or altogether (which ever one we decide on this year). I'm going to miss making faces at you to let you know that something rediculous has just happened in the lukasiewicz household and to make sure you're well aware of it also. I'm going to miss the random gift-o-neccessity that you give us from the bottom of your heart.
I love you dad. As you're opening gifts this year minus one of your children just remember that I love you and I'll be missing you.

Mom: I'm going to miss your rants as we're all cleaning for family on Christmas day after opening gifts. I'm going to miss your comments as presents are being opened. I'm going to miss getting the house ready for company with you. I'm going to miss your wise-cracks about dad. I'm going to miss your laugh when one of us kids says a wise-crack about dad. I'm going to miss hearing you talk about the christmas past when family showed up 4 hours late for dinner. I'm going to miss seeing your wonderful christmas decorations filling the house. I'm going to miss your colaches. Just remember that I'll miss my friend on christmas and I'll be wishing I was helping you roll the dough for colaches. I love you mom.

Matt: I'm going to miss the one time a year that I get to see my older brother. Random though: thanks for helping me with math all through high school. I'll miss seeing you and sophie. I'll miss the way you take on your oldest son qualities and make Trent do something other than watch tv as the rest of the family is cleaning for company. I'll miss talking with you after everyone has gone to sleep. I'll miss hearing about what's been going on with you for the past year. I'll miss having my big brother back for this one time of year. I love you and can't wait to see you again. I'm sure your japanese is much better than mine and i'm ashamed to say that seeing as how I live in Japan and you're in Nebreska.

Linz: I'm going to miss you getting upset that people aren't helping as much as you when it comes to cleaning and cooking. Thank you for being such a wonderful sister. You're the perfect role-model of a daughter and sister. I'll miss hearing your commands directed towards me like i'll actually listen to you this time. I'll miss seeing you in the kitchen with mom mashing the potatoes for the perfect supper with family that will soon follow. I'll miss seeing you and mike sitting at Grandma and grandpa's cirle folding table eating grandma's wonderful chili soup well after everyone else is finished b/c you two just showed up. I love you and I'm sorry I won't be there this year. Maybe I can make a dvd of myself making different faces and you guys can play it as your opening presents and cleaning the house. I'll make happy facial expressions for you to look at while opening presents and I'll make yelling, mad, and "oh shut up." faces for you to look at while you're all cleaning. I'm sure you'll love it.

Trent: buddy, I love you and miss you. I'll miss seeing how much you've grown in the past year. I'll miss seeing you in the computer room drinking Mt. Dew and playing xbox. I'll miss asking you to get off of xbox live so that I can check my mail. I'll miss being in awe of what a wonderful young man you're turning out to me. I have to say for a while there i was worried;) just kidding. I'll miss seeing what you're doing with your hair these days. I'll miss running into hastings with you to do nothing. I'll miss seeing you and mom and dad interact b/c it's so different than how us kids were when we lived at home b/c you're basically an only child and it's just interesting to me. I'll miss having to reach up, instead of down to hug you b/c you've grown so much since i left for college. You're a great guy trenner. I can't wait to reach up for a hug again. Be safe and keep growing in Christ. You amaze me buddy.

My family: I love you. May God bless you and keep you safe for when I come home in April. Dad, feel free to make faces as if I were there to see them. I'll understand even from Japan. Mom feel free to think of me while you and dad get up early to have coffee and oreos. You can even set out a cup of coffee and six oreos for me at my usual spot. Wait...better made it 5 oreos. i'm trying to cut back on sugar:) Matt, feel free to stay up and talk to yourself at the bottom of the loft stairs like i was really there. Linz, feel free to shout commands from the kitchen to me to help out or clean something I'm not presently cleaning. Trent, feel free to play xbox the entire time the family is cleaning for company and then go watch the borne supremacy after everything is done.

thanksgiving dinner

It's kind of late at night and I need to go to sleep seeing as how I'm a responsible young adult who every year (oddly around my birthday) seems to have a new revelation as to just how much sleep I need and feel happier and happier to give myself those additional hours of sleep. THAT was a looooooong sentence.

So here are some pictures from this weekend. I'll write more later explaining my past couple of weeks, but right now I just want to post these so you have something to look at. Be sure to tune in later for explainations.


Rusty, Jason, and Aaron.


We had a small chugging contest.
Jon, me, Travis A., and Robbie Dobbie


Robbie and I PRE eating all of this glorious food...


We foreigners know how to stuff ourselves!


Robbie and I won the fake smiling contest.


My thanksgiving table. These guys were a great fill-in family for the holiday.
Jon, Traivs, Robbie, me, Holly, Stone
Greg, Marianne, Denver, and Peter.


Fake smiles all around!!!

Just so you all know...
I'm thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I'm thankful for the gift God gave me by sending me over here to experience Japan. I'm thankful that I have the use of my arms, legs, fingers, eyes, toes, and every other part of my body. I'm thankful for my shelter, food, clothing, and education.

More to come...

Halloween

Okay people. This is my costume...Mistreated Doll. Notice the cotton coming out of my wrist and the unhappy facial expression. Tattered clothes and twisted skirt. Aside from the fact that I had to tell everyone what I was, I think it was a pretty fantastic costume. What do you think?


left to right: Becca, Catera, me

Sorry for taking so long...

Yes I realize it's been about forever since my last post and I apologize. Things have been busy and when they slow down I don't really feel like blogging.
But finally tonight I kick my butt enough to come leave a little note on my blog for those of you who still check it out.

Lately I've been to a Halloween party, surfing, training for a marathon, and I've started doing pilates. It's been kind of crazy. People are coming and people are leaving and it's tough keeping up with everything.

Two weekends ago the AET's had a halloween party. There were "E-Males", cats, Kendo players, dorky prom guys, cows, cowgirls, Harry Potter and his Mogule, and a variety of other ideas represented. I, being the creative girl that I am, went as a "mistreated doll." I had cotton coming out of my wrists, nasty hair, a dirty face, and torn hose. OH! And only one shoe. The night held a chili contest and a costume contest. I tied for 1st in the costume segment of the night. A good time was held by all. I'll get some pics up soon.

Like I said I went surfing for the 4th time a couple days ago and I have to brag on myself a little bit. I stood up for about 5-6 seconds and actually rode a wave before falling over. I also must tell you that I was the only person out in the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean without a wet suit on. You can either look at that as me being incredibly tough or incredibly stupid. BUT the fact still ramains that I was able to endure the chill of the ocean and still push through to achieve a personal best in surfing.

I'm going to end this little update b/c I just got back from running and I'm tired and want to take a shower before reading and going to bed.

But just so you all know...I miss you. I love my family and friends. God has been good. That's SO just like Him. It's amazing to look back at events that took place only 8 short months ago and have the ability to see what God was trying to show you and thank Him for being patient enough with you to help you through whatever it was you thought was so hard and impossible at the moment. God is constantly amazing me. I hope I'm returning the favor.

I miss you all and I pray God watches over you and keeps you safe.

The Little People

This little guy is possibly the cutest kid ever.


This kid JUST dodged the ever hurtful concho. A concho is a crotch shot for little kids. It's completely normal to take a knock in the "precious zone" from the one who, just moments before, was your best friend. Oh kids!


Here they are practicing for their sports day. This, if you can't tell, is tug-of-war.

So these precious little people are the ones that get 2 hours of my life, once a month. If you ask me I should go every week, but the powers-that-be think differently. I would love nothing more than to get to hang with these cool, tiny, humans at LEAST once a week.

The Enkai

Okay people this post will be much shorter than the last one.

So lately I've been having more and more of those days where you catch yourself and realize that life is just about perfect. Even when the off-days come and you just want to go home and sleep, I find that there's absolutely no room for complaints. I wake up and go to work where I get to hang with great kids. When 5pm rolls around I head out, ride my bike to wherever I need to go and do whatever I darn well please for the rest of the night. Hanging out with friends, studying Japanese, hopping on my scooter and getting groceries down the street. It's just great being here and finally getting to the place where I can't imagine things being better. I know days will come where I'll be ready to jump on a plane and head back to America, but life is good when where you are is where home is. Being out on my balcony (yeah, I've got a balcony on the 4th floor with a great view!)looking around at everything going on is wonderful. Even though there's nothing spectacular to see. It's just good.

That being said I had one great day this last Saturday. I had to be at work this Saturday at 7:00 am because my Jr. High had the annual sports festival. This is basically like the field days we american's have in elementary school with fun events like the 3-legged race and relays and races only it's for Jr. Highers. The days started off pretty boring, but around lunch time there were some events that teachers got to take part in. Two to be exact. One was tug of war: teachers and parents against the students. The other one was a relay with the teachers from each grade competing against each other. I had a blast! My team got last, but it was SO much fun.

Here are some pics of my students from the sports fesitval.


9th graders with Ms. Lacey's shades


One of my english club girls getting her announcing on. I was so proud of them. They are only 7th graders and they did a GREAT job of making announcements for each event all in English. Way to go girls!


This is one of the 7th grade classes. Gotta love the kids! This was taken after the festivities at the end of the day.


I thought Pocahontas was long gone, but come to find out she was just hangin in Japan as a 7th grade girl. It was funny, so I took a picture.

These are pics from the Enkai. An enkai is a really expensive party that all the teachers go to. It takes place in a Hotel conference room and there are speeches and food and drinks, and people getting crazy. Do I condone even getting a little buzzed? NO, I don't, but Enkai's are a part of a teacher's life over here and a great opportunity to build relationships with your fellow teachers. You all come together to talk and relax and just get to know each other outside of the school setting. At school you constantly have to be professional and enkai's are where teacher's let their guards down. I can't deny it's a great time to find out who actually CAN speak english. They relax and sure enough english just starts coming out. I work with really fun people, but I rarely get to see it and they rarely get to see it in me. After the enkai was over, a 2nd enkai took place at a karaoke place.
Here are some pictures from that.



One of the two guys singing here is my 2nd grade English teacher. The guy in the striped shirt is the 2nd grade PE teaching assistant.
They were getting into the music as you can see.


The man standing up "conducting" is my vice-principal.

I had a great night. Mostly because of the karaoke-ing. At first I was really shy and didn't want to sing. I'm perfectly happy bursting out in song in the privacy of my own home, but not in front of people I know and certainly not people I work with and have to face in the near future. HOWEVER, there was one teacher that, oddly enough, doesn't speak english, yet knows every single word to Jon Bon Jovi's "It's my life" WELL, this teacher wanted me to sing it with him and I really didn't want to because I know how I sound. I didn't want to leave him hanging though so I stood up with him in the room surrounded by my co-workers and was just about to pee my pants when the room started clapping and cheering b/c they were about to hear the white chick sing. This actually helped me to "feel the mood" and in no time Mr. Sato and Ms. Lacey were belting out the words to "It's my life" with all the heart and soul only found in the church choir on Sunday mornings. This guy was good. I couldn't believe that he knew every single word to this song and I had an absolute blast singing it with him. After that the gloves were off and I was ready to go a second round of whatever Jon Bon Jovi song Mr. Sato had memorized. I can't remember what else we sang, but there were at least two more. Oh to connect with fellow Japanese teachers through the awe-inspiring lyrics of Mr. Bon Jovi. With all of my heart Jon; I love you.

Story time...I dare you to read every single word.

Okay, so here's the skinny on what exactly went down in Tokyo...

Day 1, arrive at Ueno station and walk around a little while in Ueno park only to see that the museums we want to go to are closed on Mondays and so we make an executive decision to return on Wednesday to see them right before we leave.


Tokyo Tower was on the way to our hotel so a special photo session was in order.

We then decide to head to our hotel, get checked in, drop off the bags, and head to the Harajuku area. This is the part of town where the youth of Tokyo hang out, shop, and dress like Little Boepeep because they appreciate her taste in fashion.

After haning out there and shopping (looking around at things) we decided to splurge on supper and eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a blast there just eating and talking and watching old 80's music videos on the televisions.

After that we decided to go walk around a part of town. So for about an hour we wandered aimlessly through the busy streets of Tokyo near a train station. Just walking around in Tokyo makes you feel like you're actually doing something. Along the way of course we had to do Puricura. This is just a place where you can go get booth pictures taken with friends. They're a ton better than the ones in America. Here, after you take the pictures you get to decorate them with words and shapes and designs. It's fun stuff.

Day 2 We took our time getting up that day and checked out of the hotel around 11am and headed straight for Disney Sea.


We spent 10.5 HOURS there and had a great time.

So we booked a hotel for the first night, but decided to wing it for the 2nd night because we were pretty sure we could find a place cheaper than 6,000 yen a night PER person like the hotel we stayed at the first night. So we start looking for a place to stay at the capsul hotel we found in a travel book Janet had. Unfortunately they were booked for the night. Our plan A was to find a capsul hotel and we really didn't think this would be difficult, but it was. Luckily we had a plan B. Plan B was to go to a Karaoke place and just buy a karaoke room from midnight until 5am and pay 1,000 (a little under 10 bucks) yen a piece. This sounded adventurous enough to all of us and we were up for it. However, there was one last capsul hotel to check on before resorting to plan B. Well, little did we know that God had something a little cheaper than a karaoke place for us to stay. I should tell you that none of us wanted to pay for another hotel and we were pretty sure all the capsule hotel's would have been full for that night and so we were fully expecting to have to pay 1,000 yen for a night at karaoke which was great b/c 1,000 yen is way better than 3,000 yen which is what the capsule would have been. So we were thinking 1,000 isn't as great as free, but it's way better than 3,000. here's where the rambling takes a turn for the better...
We were standing on the sidewalk looking at this capsule hotel, trying to figure out which floor of the building it was one when three japanese people walked by us. They walked a little slower and they were almost past us when the woman piped up and started speaking english to us. They asked us if we needed help and where we were from and if we needed to find a place to stay for the night. We answered all their questions and just kept on talking. Well, after about 20 minutes of talking, the old japanese man said that they all had this friend that lived near by and that we were welcome to go to her house, so they could help us find a place to stay for the night by calling some hotels for us. The three of us looked at each other trying to decide if the other two were cool with going with them. Luckily I was with the two coolest Americans ever and they were just as cool with it as I was, so off we went with our 3 newest friends in the world. Come to find out, they all work together and the woman's house were walking to is Korean and is a friend of all three of them. So we arrive at her apartment and sit and talk for a while. They can all speak a little english so we sit and talk until about 12:30 that night. To try to make an already long story a little shorter, we end up being invited to spend the night there and once again we all look at the other two trying to find out if the other two are cool with it using only our eye contact to have a conversation to make sure the other two with cool with spending the night. So 3 americans, 3 japanese, and 1 korean all get ready for bed in a tiny 2 room apartment. We get the bedroom and the four natives get the living room. All that is seperating us from almost complete strangers is a sliding door kept slightly open as to let cool air into our room. So we all lay down and try to get to sleep, but there's one problem. The japanese woman has had a little too much to drink and starts to cry. The other three try to calm her down b/c they know this must sound horrible to the three strangers they've invited to spend the night who are probably well awake, and after some time finally get her to stop crying and go to sleep.

The next morning we all woke up, said thank you, left a small gift, took a picture together,


(I'm standing by the Korean woman, Janet is by the young guy, and the older Japanese woman is behind Rebecca b/c she's still in her pajamas. The older Japanese man had already left for the day.)

exchanged phone numbers/email and headed out to start the 3rd day.

Day 3 We headed straight to Kabuki Za Theatre.

Kobuki theatre is old, traditional, representational, Japanese theatre. It was 900 yen for 2 hours of not knowing what in the world was going on on the stage. Fortunately they had english translation ear pieces to listen to while the play was going on. SO for two full hours, we stood in the nose bleed section (you get what you pay for) and listen to the actors whine on stage while listening to the story line with ear pieces. I loved the whole thing and wish I would have brought binaculars. We viewed the whole play at around a 50 degree angle from about 40-45 yards away. I'm seriously glad I went. It's part of old Japanese culture so it needed to be seen, even though most Japanese people really haven't ever seen it. Oh well. It was fun to me.

Then we headed back to Ueno park to go through the museums. The first one was Janet's pick and it was an interactive museum where you got to walk through life size replicas of Japanese houses and shops from back in the Edo era. Really cool. The second museum was my pick. It was the National Museum of Western Art. They had a special exhibit from Dresden, Germany. Good stuff.

Then, it was back to the train station to head home. I had a great time with Janet and Rebecca in Tokyo, but I was glad to finally sit down again and relax on the way home. I had a great time with the two coolest americans in Japan.

Well, you've done it people! You've read the longest post in history. Sorry it wasn't the most fasinating reading you'll ever do, but you can't win 'em all.

Tearin up Tokyo like Godzilla my nilla !

So this past monday, tuesday and wednesday I went to Tokyo with Janet and Rebecca.
We went to Harajuku (the part of tokyo where the youth of japan go to buy their little bow peep outfits and generally just shop. It was pretty fun. We also spent an entire 10.5 hours at Tokyo Disney Sea. We had a ton of fun, took lots of pics, but only saw Pluto. I think mickey and the rest of the gang were takin the day off. Those costumes must be sickly hot to have to wear all day. I'm sure there's some sort of law against making people wear furry costumes in the dead of summer in Japan and if there's not, there needs to be. Poor poor Pluto:(

I'll post more pics from the trip. I need to get more from janet and rebecca.

Party time people!

These pics are from my city's annual festival. It went on for two days. Friday and Saturday. There were parades, people dancing in the street, competitions, and lots of food. Everyone and their dog was selling something. It was basically like a county fair with no rides. But the fact that the entire city attended made up for the lack of rides.

New Transportation!

THIS, my friends, is my new scooter. It is not new technically, but it's new to me, so it's my new scooter. I've had it for about 3 weeks now, but have just now gotten around to posting a picture of it. My friend travis and I bought them from our church's missionaries who recently bought a car and have a child, so they didn't have much use for scooters anymore. We were both pretty excited as you can see by the expressions on our faces. We are now able to join the ranks of our other friends with scooters. I'm the only girl with a scooter here which I think is kind of sad. I'd like a girl to scoot around with sometimes. Luckily my friends janet and rebecca are getting a car today. A car isn't as fun as a scooter, but at least I won't be subjected to the weather when I hang with them:)

By special request...

Out of a special request I have posted pics of my school. This is Kasahara Jr. High school. It's summer vacation here, but kids still show up every single day in the sweltering heat to practice their respective sports.



This is the teachers' room. No teacher ever has their own room b/c that would keep them separated. Plus this makes the day social for the teachers as well as the students.



This is my desk. I'm the only one in the teachers' room with a fan at my desk. They're nice and understand that I just can't take the heat and humidity like they can. They've lived in this humidity all their lives and I'm pretty new to this level of warmth. They have no AC in the school. We like to open windows and get the air moving. Plus the prime minister asked the people of Japan to do their part in conserving energy so this helps of course. While it's really uncomfortable sitting in a room with no AC in the dead of summer, I think it's pretty cool that the nation can actually reduce the amount of energy they use as a collective whole. Everyone actually does play a role. Another cool thing about it is that they don't look for a medal or blue ribbon for doing their part and helping out. They just do it, expecting nothing in return.

Interactive Forum

These are pics from the Interactive Forum. Four students from my school had to participate in an english conversation contest. Each student must have a 5 minute conversation with two other students and are judged on speaking abilities. Two students from 8th grade and two students from 9th grade from each school in Mito (town where I live and teach) compete and I had a blast working/training my four students. They were totally brave for participating.

church clean up day

These are masks that were found in one of the church closets. We thought they were gross, creepy, and old, so of course we wanted to put them on and take a picture. We're supposed to be cleaning, but dressing-up is way more fun.


damon, kelly, rachel, and rusty. sweepin the drive way.



Here we(other AET's, missionaries, and one exchange student) cleaning up the weeds in the church's flower bed. Well actually I didn't weed. I took a picture of some girls weeding, then suggested we all pose together so it looked like I had actually done some work. You at least have to give me credit for being honest:)



These are the four super missionaries that left about 3 weeks ago. They were fun, funny, and had great hearts. I'll miss them. Stephanie, Laura, Patrick, and Josh...you are missed by us all!

Daigo Festival and the Carp Bridge

These are pictures from the Daigo street festival and Carp bridge.
The Daigo festival was crazy! These big carts full of people are pulled around these little town's streets. Each cart is a different team and as these teams meet each other while roaming through streets and alley's they will stop and have a drum-off(each cart is loaded with 3-4 drummers sitting inside all playing the same beat). As the drum-off is going on the carts are rocked back and forth as the drummers INSIDE the carts are keeping up the beat. Which ever team goes the longest without messing up the beat wins. These drum-offs last anywhere from 10-15 minutes. That might not seem like a long time, but believe me it is when your job as the supporter of the team is to jump up and down along with the drum beats and clap and yell. The winner of the drum-off is also determined by how loud the supporters and team members cheer and how long they can keep up with the drummers. The team I and some friends joined were winning every drum-off until we met the purple team. The purple team was loaded with the Japanese version of energetic, hopped-up-on-suger, teeny boppers. Needless to say, we lost the lead when these chics rounded our corner. I had a blast though!





These two pictures are specifically during the last drum off between all the teams. After roaming the streets they all meet up and get in a line. Each carts supporters stand in front of their carts and all teams start drumming at the same time. After about 20-25 minutes of this drum-off the festival is over and somehow everyone knows who won even though no announcer formally declared a winner. The over-all winner was not my team (blue team). Oh well.



This was some guy on the blue team. His job was to carry around this long poll with a lantern on the very top of it. He did a good job.








This is the carp bridge. The Japanese have a special day for boys and a seperate special day for girls. Girl's day hasn't happened here yet, but boys day has and these are pictures from the bridge where carps (carps represent boys for some reason)are hung in celebration of the good ol' male race. It was a beautiful day out. Sun shinning and carps blowing in the breeze. You all should really check it out someday.





These are just two little kids that I saw at the bridge. Pretty sure they're completely adorable. Yes, that really is a little girl eating soup with two sticks. I wouldn't be surprised if she was still in diapers, but she's fully able to eat noodles and water with sticks. Chopsticks are easy to use I know, but come on!
Have you ever seen a cuter little boy? I haven't except for my little cousins, little brother(when he was a baby), and close friends' babies of course.