Halloween Costumes

The Roberts Halloween party. First year of attendence, which was awesome. The costumes on here were ones that I made. Found and adjusted for Gizelle, but the rest were made. Well... mostly. Dave's costume was just awesome and therefore cannot be left off the blog.

I did not make this one, although I was the mastermind behind the Tim Gunn idea.

Cheese's costume- Astrid, How to train your dragon, and her friends Hiccup costume we had to throw together.

The Winners for the night. Gizelle and Prince Edward.

the changes

Well the return from Japan was successful. I enjoyed my time there so much, that I am missing it with every Japanese person who comes through my register at work. I miss the kids there, and Sachiko and Hiroshi. I miss the streets, the smell, the sweet disposition of everyone there, and the church members. Someday I am making it back there.

These days I find my self in the All Star Movies food court here in Disney World, Florida. I work the registers mostly, but occasionally find myself wiping down tables, or serving up some spaghetti and meatballs. Thankfully, in two weeks, I am onto new things. I will be working at a full service/table service restuarant at... well that is yet to be determined. I will be moving in a couple weeks as well to the Patterson apartment complex, after I move to another apartment here in Vista first.

Japan day 2

So today I taught my first class. Taught is way to strong of a word to be using here, I think the word helped will do just fine. I helped with two classes; one of second graders, and one of fourth graders. So many people told me that once I met the kids, I would want to take them home with me, and that is not a lie. Those kids are so cute. Even with them all speaking in that foriegn tounge I call Japanese. I don't think they liked me much, and I did feel rather lame, but at that time I was pretty okay with it.
It was a mix of emotions as these kids would all speak Japanese to each other, and then to me suddenly English. I started out as feeling so out of the loop, to being the master of English they could turn to. Talk about your ups and downs.
I don't quite know what to think yet, as there are times the thought is "What the heck was I thinking coming over here?" and the rare thought of "This is an opportunity people don't typically get to have." I pray that as the week goes on, and time goes on after that, I will feel like I did come out here for a reason, and that I won't want to leave when it gets to the end. As for now, I sit mixed.

Japan day 1

So I figure with this new adventure I am taking on I should keep my fans posted of my everyday doings. I only got in yesterday night, and with my best friend Jet Lag tagging along, I didn't really have a chance to do much. However, this morning was a bit different. I got myself up for church a good 3 hours earlier then I needed to, which, for anyone who knows me, knows that a half hour usually suffices for my morning routine. Then after driving a good half hour or so I made it there. Now, here is an experience I don't think I have truly experienced before. Everyone knows good ol' Joshua is out on his mission right now, and I really think missionaries do a lot of good, and today that was proven to me more then ever. The 2 missionaries in my ward both speak English as their first language! Oh my heavens what a relieving thing that was. So they taught an English speaking class, and tranlated sacrament for me. It was awesome. After that, I came back and Sachiko and Hiroshi (my host family) took me around their area. It has been a very fun time! I am growing away from my initial "what the heck was I thinking?" thoughts.
Tomorrow I start teaching at Sachiko's school. I am really looking forward to that as all the kids I am teaching are between 3 and 11. I'll have more to add when that happens

the First Day

Well well, what to say. School has officially begun. The first day experience was like none other... not. It was just like every first day I have had in my lifetime. It starts out with me heading out early convinced I am going to get lost, and in doing so pack everything I would possibly need (and happen to not need on the first day) into my bag making it extremely heavy and not the funnest thing to lug around. Then after wandering the campus a good while and finally finding my first class, I find a bench to sit on for a good twenty minutes before class starts. When the time finally comes for me to enter the classroom, the real feel of first days sets in. The eery silence that everyone sits in before the teacher enters. Its the kind of silence that everyone wants to break, but can't because if you are caught being the only one in the room talking, it turns from an eery silence to an awkward conversation that the whole the class only moans, nods and sometimes throws in a pity laugh into. There is the ever popular "Man, it is quite in here!" phrase that is muttered by the somewhat outgoing people in the class, but again that gets meerly a groan and then nothing. Thankfully, after these few almost painful minutes, the teacher/professor/instructor enters, and breaks up the awkwardness of the silence. Now in any other school the "overseer" we will call him stands in the front of the room, possibly writes his name on the board, tells you what to expect from the class, and sometimes, pulls out a get to know you game. It happened to be no different here. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but that is precisely what I got. A get to know you game? In college? I thought I got a little old for that in middle school, but no here we are once again. I can only imagine the over twenty year olds enjoying that much less then I do. The best part about those games are that you say your name twenty plus times, and three remember it. From there I get three more classes of this same situation over the space of two days. But they are over now, and I am on to bigger and better things. Like the homework.

the Update

Well, hello everyone. Its been quite sometime since I have updated this lovely thing so here I am to save the day. Alrighty, so lets start out with the apartment situation. My dear friend Abbi and I set out a while back to get a head start on the housing search. We were looking for the apartment we could get the lowest rate on. We found a lovely place that if we had two other roommates we could get a pretty good deal on it. We put the deposit down and had a few prospects for roomates and we thought we were set. Then life happened, and now we are down two roomates and a higher rent then we had ever intended on paying. Now now, don't get worried. We decided to stick it out a semester, and go from there.

As for the working situation, I found a way that makes it so I never have to go back to that dreadful Dimple Dell. I got a catering job through UVU. Doing it through the school is awesome cause its super close to my apartment, it works with my class schedule, and I get all of the school holidays off. Plus, I get to wear a bowtie, you can get better then that.

I move out the 22nd, and school starts the 27th. I think that about wraps it up. Hopefully when I get there I can take some sweet pictures and get them on here.... which will probably end up being like November. So until then...

the Lake

Due to the excessive awesomeness of this trip, I decided to break it up into four different posts for your enjoyment. I was a little slackerish this year as I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked to. However, thanks to the loving desire of my little cousins and brother, I did in fact get some pictures. They each took turns with the camera and went a little crazy, they came up with some sweet pictures. I posted some of my favorites, but be assured, there are plenty more. The pictures of the tubers are the few I took, but the rest are labeled for your convenience.