Well, this last weekend was one of many emotions. We found out earlier in the week that one of the other participants in the teach abroad program was going home. We barely knew each other when we boarded the plane at Sky Harbor Airport, but in these few months here in Japan he had become one of my closest friends. Knowing that our time with him was short, we wanted to get together as much as possible before he left. So on Friday after school we decided that we were going to hang out and watch a movie in our apartment with some other friends that live in Shirasagi with us. Andre came up a bit before everyone else got there and he came bearing gifts. Two giant crabs! Now Audrey and I, are not what you would call sea food lovers but we were ready to give it a try. Boy are we glad that we did because they were so good and fun to eat! We had many a laugh as we struggled to get through those legs without the aid of a cracking mechanism. Once we were all cleaned up we made brownies and put on a movie. It was a wonderful night with friends and while we may not get to see him for these next couple of months we sure look forward to spending time with him when we get home. The next morning Audrey was up and out the door by 6:30 (so much for sleeping in on your day off) and headed to Kobe for a debate contest. One of the English teachers at Audrey's school wanted to start something new at Kotogaoka and had been very interested in debate for a while. A few months ago she took Audrey to a workshop on teaching debate with hopes of putting together a debate team at their school. They then chose four girls who speak English well to be a part of their team and and began the tedious task of preparing them for a multi city debate in Kobe. The contest itself was a wonderful experience for Audrey. She was not only a coach for her team, but also a judge at the contest. She was assigned two matches and really enjoyed hearing how well some of these students spoke English and was amazed by how developed their vocabulary was. Unfortunately, her team did not make it past the 1st round, but even after losing they were not down on themselves. They seemed to really cherish their experience and look forward to competing again next year. It was a long day for Audrey as she did not get home until after 8:00p.m. but she feels very fortunate to have had this experience as she learned a lot through coaching her team and watching some of the other teams debates.
Kind of strange how they stare at you while you eat their legs!!
The debate crew and their fearless leaders.
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