February 11th I'll be 26!!!

Update 101 or something like that. . . :)



Me and my roommate. . . we aren't in a sauna but she was cooking.

I can't belive that I've almost been in Japan now for 2 years!!! I came February 22nd, 2007. My roomate, Bernice, and I actually met eachother the first day we came to Japan. We came in at the same time and were in the same group traveling together from the airport. We also ended up having training together at Nova. Its been a good 2 years. The first year and second year were completely different though. I'm really glad I stayed for the second year. A lot of stuff I would have missed out on and I've learned a lot while living here. I also am glad I was able to work as and ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in a Jr. High School. It was really worth it. I wish I had done that from the beginning now. My Japanese would be a lot better if I had.

Just to let you all know. . .I am heading home, Oregon, in May sometime. I haven't purchased a ticket yet but that is in the works. And actually if you want to know what to give me for my 26th b'day coming up I'd love money to help pay for that ticket since it will be around 1,000 dollars to fly me home. You can just send it to parents (make it out to Helen Lewis ) in Oregon. The address is

Helen Lewis
405 Central St.

Silverton, OR 97381

It would be a lot of help too.

Yes, I am turning 26 this year. . . feels a bit weird but good. I enjoy getting older. I feel like my body is an older person's body (maybe because it's sooo soft and squishy :)) sometimes. 26 doesn't feel much different then 25 except . . . I feel like 25 is still sooo young sounding where as 26 is only 4 years away from 30. . .which I look forward to also. 30 does sound old though. hahahhahhahha. Well, 25 was a great year and I'm sure 26 will be too. I plan to be in the US for my 27th so that should be nice :)

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love you,


Melody

More Christmas

Hey everyone!!!

here are some more pics of me from Christmas vacation. Here is me opening a gift (Mom :) ).

These were awsome slippers from Joy and Brian





My gifts to them (Japanese rice cakes from Disney Sea and a movie)



A normal day in the Barker house :)



From December 22-24th I stayed at my friend's, Yukiko, house in Aichiken. Here we are in the local mall :)



As my students would say, " 2 megane" which is English and Japanese. "megane" means "glasses" in Japanese. Hehe.



We sat and listend for awhile. They mostly played Christmas music and anime tunes :) "Ponyo, Ponyo"



Us at a park near her house



They had this huge tower in the center of the park and at the top you could look around at the city.



Yukiko, she's pretty cute :)

Christmas and New Years

Hey Everyone!!!

Sorry it has been forever in updating but here are some pics from the last few weeks here in Japan. I've had a nice break for the holidays. I spent 3 days in Aichi with my friend, Yukiko, who I met at NOVA. I also spent around 2 weeks with my friends, Brian and Joy, who live near a Navy base in Kanagawa. Enjoy

Merry Christmas morning!!!! Actually Brian had to be on his ship by noon so we had a special Christmas breakfast and then headed to the base.

It was a yummy breakfast

Merry Christmas dog.

Now that's an ugly ornament

Yeayyayayyay for ipods

(sorry mom. . . . no pics of me opening. I'm sorry. . . )


That night Elizabeth, a friend from church, Joy, and I all baked away for the next day.

Here is Beth making her grandma's rice pudding

Me making crust for the pie. . . much easier with a box crust then having to make it by scratch

The final product :)

The next day we all just hung out and played games and cooked up dinner

Beth and I freezing in the Barker's house

Brian and his foster dog.

Playing games

Time to cook the turkey

I've never stuffed a turkey before. . . it was very interesting. . .

Oh, we had sooo many problems with Joy's stupid oven too. . . . it's different then the ovens back home where for some reason you have to light it each time you want to use it and it doesn't always catch for some reason. . . . so we though we'd lite it when we put the turkey in but apparently we hadn't and an hour and a half passed by before we realized this because the oven would be warm but it wouldn't heat up all the way. In the end we turned the gas off and on again and that did the trick. But their oven really is a pain.

We didn't have a thermometer that worked so in the end we cut it to check that the meat was cooked. . . none of us died so apparently it was :)

New Years Eve we went bowling. . .actually the day before new years eve we went bowling because Brian had to work on New Years eve so we celebrated it early. It was a lot of fun.

Joy and me watching "Penelope" on the real New Years Eve. She fell asleep off and on from 10-11:30 and ended up going to bed at 11:30pm. Oh, well. . . I stayed up way past that time. . oops.


Well, my 2008 was a good one. . . a lot has changed and gone by in this one year. Strange to think that my time here in Japan is coming to an end too but if all goes well I'll be back before too long. Please keep me in your prayers and thanks for all your emails and updates. It means a lot ot me while I'm over here in Japan. Blessings and God bless.

Melody