The big switch...

Hello!
Today I decided it was time to make the switch from xanga to blogspot! I'm tired of the inappropriate advertisements with yucky half dressed girls... certainly not anything I want connected to my blog! The only way to get rid of them is to pay for xanga premium so I finally decided that it was time to switch! I hate learning curves and I'm not so sure if I will like blogspot, but almost all of my friends have it so I thought it would be the best choice.

Anyway, I just thought it was about time for a blog, even though as usual there's other things I should be doing...

I realized today that I have been able to experience a whole lot of 'firsts' here in Japan, and a lot of them happen to be natural phenomenon!

I got to experience my first earthquake a few weeks ago! I can't remember if I blogged about it, but it was a 2. something! Barely noticeable, but I still felt it!

On Tuesday we had one of the biggest storms I've ever been in! It rained so hard and for a really long time! There was also huge thunder and lightening to go with it and it was pretty crazy! The thunder was so loud and apparently the amount of lightening we got was really rare! Along with all the rain came floods which was kind of scary! Hirao wasn't hit too hard, but the river was really full and also the parking lot of one of our main grocery stores got flooded! It looked like a lake! I went on a bike ride after the rain stopped and took some pictures... take a look here!

As if that wasn't exciting enough, yesterday we got to see a solar eclipse! I don't know all of the details and statistics, but apparently it was a rare experience and Asia was one of the best places to be to see it! I heard that there were some people who planned a trip to Japan years ago just because they wanted the best view of this eclipse!
It was pretty amazing, and I'm glad I got to see it. Here's a picture that I stole from my teammate Bobby...


It's hard to believe that July is already coming to an end! I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to August! (Except for the weather!) Almost all of my classes are on hold for August and I can't say I'm too disappointed about that. Yes, I'll miss my students, but I will have plenty to keep me busy! We've got Friendship English Camp (FEC) coming up in the first week of August... right around the corner! Then I will be staying with a Japanese family for a one week homestay! The next week I'll have free... gee, what am I going to do with a whole week with no plans?! :) It's going to be so nice to do some major catch up during August! The last week of August I'll have another homestay and then it'll be back to "normal" life again!

I'm really looking forward to my homestays, even though I am a little bit nervous about being so far 'out of my element'. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about Japanese culture and cooking and of course the extra language study! I'm sure it will be a good two weeks, and I'm also sure August is going to fly by just like July did!

I should probably get going and get back to work on my plans for FEC... thanks for taking the time to read my random thoughts!

Does anyone know of a good website to get creative templates??

Oh, and let me know if I don't have your blog on my list on the side!