Day 24: Really beautiful art deco mosaics in the entrance of the school. I was trying to be artsy with the flash, and it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Doesn't really do the mosaics justice.
Day 25: First grade students during lunchtime. The one in the middle with the glasses is obsessed with me. Whenever she sees me, she screams out my name and scares me half to death. These girls ask me to eat lunch with them quite often and I enjoy talking with them.
Day 26: Calligraphy done by third grade students. In Japan, it's tradition to write a New Year's calligraphy on the 2nd day of the year, so it was the student's assignment over the winter holiday to write this. I teacher told me what it said, but I forgot.
Day 27: The tiniest paper crane ever, given to me by Go, a third grader (his nickname is potato, for reasons I don't know). I told him I want him to teach me origami, and he told me he only knew how to make cranes. The next day, he showed me some new origami he'd made - dogs, bears, various other animals. I'm pretty sure he's teaching himself every night just so that he can teach me!
Day 28: Firemen in front of our apartment building looking up at something.
Day 29: Ok, so it was 11:30 at night, I'd just come home from a friend's place, and remembered I hadn't taken a picture for the day. At least you get to see my cute Rilakuma phone case! And yes, that's our bathroom.
Day 30: A little puppet I made. You pull the string and the arms come out.
The Robinson clan is settling in to the long winter here in Sapporo, and man, is it cold! As you can see in the above picture, I deck myself in gloves, a hat, scarf, and other necessities so the long walk to the subway isn't quite so frigid. In fact, we're all pretty well-equipped for the winter here, although I'm still on the lookout for snow pants for Ethan.
Speaking of Ethan, it seems like he is really flourishing here, as I've never seen him so content with school before. I give credit to Hokkaido International School - it's a great education and I think Ethan is really getting the help he needs there, since math has always been his weakest subject. I just received his report card for the first half of the year, and although the math grades are not exactly where I'd like them, his confidence in the subject is improving, so I know the grades will follow. The class size is small for his grade, and I think that's helped him to feel like he's not lost in the crowd, since he can be a bit on the quiet side (like him mom). I'm proud of him - he's playing guitar, going to aikido classes, writing, drawing, and learning Japanese. I'm just going to put it out there and say that Ethan's the coolest kid I know!!
(can I take credit for some of that?)
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