Sunday, January 27, 2008

here's to yuri!

meet yuri, one of our good friends in BEST club. he is quite possibly the most 'japanese' students we know, in terms of adhering to and teaching (yes, often to us!) cultural norms of his country. sounds serious right? :D you should also know that yuri has an amazing sense of humor and loves learning to tell jokes in english. in one week yuri will be boarding a plane bound for australia where he will study abroad for 10 months. we're going to miss him!!! here's some shots with him and of our last BEST club meeting of the semester.

a fun picture from a game we played.


in other news, BEST club members have done a great job taking care of Whiskey, the Rood's hamster. he really seemed to enjoy hanging out in Mamo's pocket! :D

we can't wait to see you Friday, Roods!!!

Monday, January 07, 2008

a bit of home...

this past weekend we got together with some friends from iowa!!! they all attended U of I (some for just a year long English program and some to get their degree) and they will soon join the workforce in japan! :D hanging out with them brought back so many memories of our home in iowa city and the bible study we did with them, these friends are a huge reason we decided to come to japan to work with BEST club... yay for Japanese international students!!!

erina, jen and sachie

kyle, erina, yuichi, tamami and sachie. we made kimchi nabe, a spicy soup with cabbage, tofu, mushrooms, pork, onions and bean sprouts that you cook at the table (on the burner) and serve with rice. its one of our favorites, especially during the winter!
memories....
hanging out with sachie and akiko (we missed you this weekend!) in iowa city

a christmas party at our house in '06 with the gang