Im staying for another year !!

So im staying another year in Japan! Are u suprised? Probably not. let me get u up to date on the whole decision.

When I signed my contract on tues 30th of Jan the friday after I found out my school couldnt keep me on for another year :( I love my school ! things that make me love it: Sitting at my desk today (only had one class today) I got loads of chocolates and homemade cake and cookies from my students. Valentines day and all !!

anyways so I found out and was kinda suprised and pissed off as you would be. I spent a lot of time crying eating chocolate ranting and raving ! Very Jane Eyre style without the attic I have no attic. anyways ...

Leif has decided to leave :( I will miss him but it turns out his leaving is a bit of a blessing in disguise as I am now going to be his succesor! I will be based at Kawamoto high school and will visit my school 2 days a week and still get to go to my special needs school hurrrah . also I have asked can I continue to live in my town which they said should be no problem,

What does this mean to your Life Lena you may be saying or may not, but in any case I will answer

- I will have to drive 3 days a week to Kawamoto which is 20 mins each way. this isnt really bothering me Its a pretty drive and I have a pretty car. Also leif made me a few tapes for my car which were being played at double speed but now my radio seems to have fixed this problem! maybe I should buy a new I pod one that works!! Also the pool is in Kawamoto maybe Ill start going again.

- I will probably have to teach more and plan more. emm, I dont know about this one im so used to my school now and its ways and have plans made for the classes i teach. emmmm will see , maybe i should be like im only here 3 days a week, u make the plans ill teach them !!

- Leif and Karin are leaving, im so close to these two its kinda scary. I see them all the time! What will I do when they are gone !! On the up side loads of my other friends are staying yippy Ashley Greg Robert Darrell..... also on a side note im hoping that Karins successor is a hot single Irish / Kiwi / Scottish / Welsh/ English/ Aussie/ American / Canadian ... Man ! who likes to make me cake

-New supervisor new kyoto sensei and koucho sensei(principle and vice) I was worried about this but been talking to leif and he has a sweet deal they give him lots of days in lue and things so not such a big deal.

-Cost , I will have to drive more, hope they will pay me expenses, go to more work parties, buy more omiagi , buy more prizes for students !

- Learning names of new teachers and students! I dont know them here anyways and im making Leif make me a super duper pack with everyones names etc. hehehe!

So I think those are the main things, maybe I wont be online all day any more. what a shame but ill probably have internet at home by then but at this rate !! who knows.

Also since i have decided to stay I have bought some learn Japanese stuff to be all good !!

like this cool nifty Canon electronic dictionary , dispite a few hiccups of not been able to work it which im working throughI love it ! it has not only got eng - jap- eng it has a eng- eng and a thesaurus , german , italian , korean , spainish, french travel dicts, and loads of other features i dont know about yet !

also iI bought some textbooks these are beginner which i am afraid to say I may be forever ! I put in one of the cakes made for me in the photo too !!

I went to okayama and Shikoku with Brooke and Karla at the weekend it was great, such madness , it is a post for itself and i dont think I will be able to give the true madness weirdness of this weekend across but ill try , just remind me to do it !Here are two shots from the weekend ,me and B on a water ride and me and Karla on tea cups !!

bye for now my lovely people

love lena

by the way Happy Valentine's day!!

oppps

As like most programs and web thingys on my work computer blogger has defaulted into Japanese I cant fix the fact that I posted 3 times right now ! As i still havnt mastered the whole Japanese language thing!

Im back....

It is me I swear, I know I know u all think im the worst blogger ever. I have heard rumours of 2 people worse than me so there, hahaha, anyways, here is an update on all things well some things that have been happening recently and not so recently.

So i told u about Shanghai which was great met loads of the same people as last year and some new interesting people. The Gaelic games are in June this year instead of sept/oct. which is ok but ill have awaji soccer tournament , Chugoku cup soccer tour, kawamoto tubing and the beer olympics in June 2 hope they all dont clash ! Ill just have to suffer through all the drinking and sport as always ! Here is a team pic !! arent we lovely!

As of today the number of my classes have decressed from 10 to 7 a week. on my offical sced. I was going to more classes than this but they have gone too. So I should be updating my blog more, well should.

recap on recent events:

BEFORE XMAS

Halloween - Greg, Ashley, Leif and me dressed up as ABBA it was wonderful. We arrived late and starting the pub crawl late but still game in the top 3 groups !! Our team name was the bad santas and that we were!!

On the first weekend of December the sheilas and superstars (soccer teams names) went to Awaji shima to play in the biannual soccer tour, we did great! really did! I cant remember our results but we were definately a force to be reckoned with. Boys came home with the plate trophy and even took this memorbale photograph!!

I went back home to Ireland for Christmas it was great. first week I spent in Cork at my sister Jeanette's house sleeping wandering into the city to do some shopping coming back. It was great. I really dont even know if I got Jet lag. Christmas dinner was delicious got some cool pressies. Got to see all my family. New Year's eve was the madest of all my nights out me and my best friend Sinead dressed up as the 70s band the lumatics!! u should look them up on I tunes they are great (well thats what we told everyone on NewYears eve actually as far as we know there is no band called the lumatics) anyways we were illuminous and lunatics , did u see what we did we put the two words together genius I know! (took me a while to learn how to pronounce it )

If u want to see more pics of this crazy night , go to

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?PhotoAlbumId=3158389591&PhotoId=3158412113

while u are at it sign up for Bebo and chat with such amazing people like me and emmm , marie McGill my sisters , Friends from home and all the people I made sign up last year who never go on any more!

well I better go do the whole I am at school and im a good ALT thing. shiver shiver. think ill just go to the bank for the last 45 mins of school then just go home ! hehe, talk to u all soon and if u are going skiing at the weekend sure ill see u there! (trying snowboarding for the first time !! god help me)

Im back....

It is me I swear, I know I know u all think im the worst blogger ever. I have heard rumours of 2 people worse than me so there, hahaha, anyways, here is an update on all things well some things that have been happening recently and not so recently.

So i told u about Shanghai which was great met loads of the same people as last year and some new interesting people. The Gaelic games are in June this year instead of sept/oct. which is ok but ill have awaji soccer tournament , Chugoku cup soccer tour, kawamoto tubing and the beer olympics in June 2 hope they all dont clash ! Ill just have to suffer through all the drinking and sport as always ! Here is a team pic !! arent we lovely!

As of today the number of my classes have decressed from 10 to 7 a week. on my offical sced. I was going to more classes than this but they have gone too. So I should be updating my blog more, well should.

recap on recent events:

BEFORE XMAS

Halloween - Greg, Ashley, Leif and me dressed up as ABBA it was wonderful. We arrived late and starting the pub crawl late but still game in the top 3 groups !! Our team name was the bad santas and that we were!!

On the first weekend of December the sheilas and superstars (soccer teams names) went to Awaji shima to play in the biannual soccer tour, we did great! really did! I cant remember our results but we were definately a force to be reckoned with. Boys came home with the plate trophy and even took this memorbale photograph!!

I went back home to Ireland for Christmas it was great. first week I spent in Cork at my sister Jeanette's house sleeping wandering into the city to do some shopping coming back. It was great. I really dont even know if I got Jet lag. Christmas dinner was delicious got some cool pressies. Got to see all my family. New Year's eve was the madest of all my nights out me and my best friend Sinead dressed up as the 70s band the lumatics!! u should look them up on I tunes they are great (well thats what we told everyone on NewYears eve actually as far as we know there is no band called the lumatics) anyways we were illuminous and lunatics , did u see what we did we put the two words together genius I know! (took me a while to learn how to pronounce it )

If u want to see more pics of this crazy night , go to

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?PhotoAlbumId=3158389591&PhotoId=3158412113

while u are at it sign up for Bebo and chat with such amazing people like me and emmm , marie McGill my sisters , Friends from home and all the people I made sign up last year who never go on any more!

well I better go do the whole I am at school and im a good ALT thing. shiver shiver. think ill just go to the bank for the last 45 mins of school then just go home ! hehe, talk to u all soon and if u are going skiing at the weekend sure ill see u there! (trying snowboarding for the first time !! god help me)

Im back....

It is me I swear, I know I know u all think im the worst blogger ever. I have heard rumours of 2 people worse than me so there, hahaha, anyways, here is an update on all things well some things that have been happening recently and not so recently.

So i told u about Shanghai which was great met loads of the same people as last year and some new interesting people. The Gaelic games are in June this year instead of sept/oct. which is ok but ill have awaji soccer tournament , Chugoku cup soccer tour, kawamoto tubing and the beer olympics in June 2 hope they all dont clash ! Ill just have to suffer through all the drinking and sport as always ! Here is a team pic !! arent we lovely!

As of today the number of my classes have decressed from 10 to 7 a week. on my offical sced. I was going to more classes than this but they have gone too. So I should be updating my blog more, well should.

recap on recent events:

BEFORE XMAS

Halloween - Greg, Ashley, Leif and me dressed up as ABBA it was wonderful. We arrived late and starting the pub crawl late but still game in the top 3 groups !! Our team name was the bad santas and that we were!!

On the first weekend of December the sheilas and superstars (soccer teams names) went to Awaji shima to play in the biannual soccer tour, we did great! really did! I cant remember our results but we were definately a force to be reckoned with. Boys came home with the plate trophy and even took this memorbale photograph!!

I went back home to Ireland for Christmas it was great. first week I spent in Cork at my sister Jeanette's house sleeping wandering into the city to do some shopping coming back. It was great. I really dont even know if I got Jet lag. Christmas dinner was delicious got some cool pressies. Got to see all my family. New Year's eve was the madest of all my nights out me and my best friend Sinead dressed up as the 70s band the lumatics!! u should look them up on I tunes they are great (well thats what we told everyone on NewYears eve actually as far as we know there is no band called the lumatics) anyways we were illuminous and lunatics , did u see what we did we put the two words together genius I know! (took me a while to learn how to pronounce it )

If u want to see more pics of this crazy night , go to

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?PhotoAlbumId=3158389591&PhotoId=3158412113

while u are at it sign up for Bebo and chat with such amazing people like me and emmm , marie McGill my sisters , Friends from home and all the people I made sign up last year who never go on any more!

well I better go do the whole I am at school and im a good ALT thing. shiver shiver. think ill just go to the bank for the last 45 mins of school then just go home ! hehe, talk to u all soon and if u are going skiing at the weekend sure ill see u there! (trying snowboarding for the first time !! god help me)

thank god i updated i was annoying myself!!

I am busy im not joking. I had 5 classes today and i have to prepare for kids class and I have taiko. but I know there is no excuse I should be taking care of my loyal fans few as there may be!!
So what have i been at well , this will be a quick summary because I really should be doing work!

Where were we oh yea Titias 70s party that was great love donna for her great cossies!! the week after this party we went to a Japanese friends hat party I wore a princess hat very special

this pic is before the party but u can get the picture!! went to the welcome party for all the new JETS that was great singing all night drinking Irish dancing!! the usual. but probably the most exciting thing that has happened recently is that I went to shanghai for the 2006 asian gaelic games (i went last year too) and dragged along some wingmen, Jeanette came over from Ireland and so did Eimear. It was great to see them wish I could have spent longer with them. Leif , Cat and Marie McGill came from Shimane and my friend Maeve who lives in Hokkaido and Linda a new friend who lives in Osaka came too. WE all shared a apt room together in a 4 star hotel !! it was great. lot more comfortable than the usual futon and JET party situation!
It was a great weekend, I played on the Japan Ladies B team, we were not bad at all. actually pretty good!! Had a taiko concert on Sunday it went well but made a few mistakes as usual!! gotta go get ready for kids class enough dossin!! ill post up pics soon !!

70s party last weekend

We went to a seventies party at the weekend. It was great. Donna made our cossies. She made mine of pink furry material. very FUNKY!
The party was at Titias house. She is very lucky to have a really cool house! and she has an ocean view!! Donna the maker of some of the hit costumes in the pics is in the first picture wearing a very FUNky red/ purple dress with boots she made and That is her own hair !. Darrell in the photo with me is wearing a beautiful one piece funky disco suit!! the last photo here is of all the cossies Donna made, She is so talented.

We are going to a hat party at the weekend. Im planning on making a damsel hat!! One point or two that is the question!! Post ur answers !! ill post pics if I can get someone to take them . ALso if you have more cool hat ideas let us know!!!

what I have been doing with myself for the last 2 hrs

Taiko concert!

Check out leifs blog for a video of me playing taiko !! link is at the side of this blog !!

me and Ashley

So me and Ashley both had school festival at the weekend so we had yesterday off. We went to Aquas the biggest aquarium in this part of Japan. It was really cool we saw white whales that blew hoops and waved and bowed they were cool we also bought cool glasses !! We got some strange looks while we were wearing them !!
Ashley is the new ALT in Gotsu High School taking over from Koren. She is cool !
U may not be able to see in the pic but those the sunglasses part of the glasses lift up they are really cool ! Im trying to decide if I could wear them on a day to day basis !!
Please comment and let me know if you think I can get away with it!!
Oh and side pictures are cool!! U should all start doing it !! See how many times I wrote cool in this post!!! Its cool to do that!

so what have I been up to

This is me dressed up in a kagura costume it was so so so heavy. I went to Gregory and Justins welcome party and there was kagura on next door so they let us try on the costumes very cool. Sorry its on its side but sure its fun to turn ur head to the side!














This is my teams poster from our school festival Greg took pictures so ill post them up when I get them as this photo is really crap !! Its a drawing of famous Japanese Anime!! And it won first prize but we lost over all to the white team!! but we won the sports and decoration so no complaints here!!























This is some artwork that was on the wall of leifs school !! I m worried about him and his students now!

Erin and Koren I miss you both soooo much. Thanks for sending me on the pics today koren.
Korenie winnie just got a job teaching 6th grade science math and PE in Canada where she is from and Erin chan is going to London soon to work as a social worker! Arent they both so beautiful! They met up when they went home and cried about how much they missed me . Well thats what I think and im sticking with it !! Koren your pics are freaking me out with all the foreigners in them I dont know !! and those cute drinks!! ok ill stop rambling now. Keep me up to date on whats going on love you both Lena chan xxx

some pics to liven up a boring blog

so this is two pages from a notebook thing i do with one of my girl students, we write to each other about different things like music and ourselves, This is a famous model person she really likes.
Just thought it looked really cool!

I know I know u all hate me , and im the new offical crapest blogger, didnt leif would beat me on that one !!

so yea i have been away from blooger for a while now, well not completly I have been checking out your blogs but havnt really had to time to update mine, well kinda had no time. I got slgithly addicted to Shimane Jets and Bebo!
But also I have been busy in school , I know shock horror! They have me correcting, filling forms emmm and just general stuff and like my internet time went from 8hrs a day to like 4 !! but its summer now and im in school so hopefully this will get me back on the blogging horse as they say.
SO whats new with me since MAY !! , well I went to English camp ! , and Tokyo (leifs bday) got my Japanese drivers licence , joined the beer olympics and lost , but it was a team event so not my fault - well all my fault, drinking and running skills were great but the hitting a baseball after spinning and drinking and flip cup just were not our events !! What else taught Irish dancing at an international festival at Alicias school with Rebecca chan. Went to another soccer tournament actually 2 , team did great was so happpy.

SO I have been in Japan a year and have planned to stay another! , but coming / going home for xmas . but going to China before that to play in the Asian Gaelic games and meet Jeanette my darling big sis!! also called jenny bottle !

At the moment loads of JETS are going home! im so sad , some of my bestest bestest friedns have already gone, Koren who is well known in the blogging world is gone and i miss her so much (she sold me all her oven stuff so i I will have to drown my sorrows in cookies and cake! thankx babe) Also Erin is gone, my fellow townsman, miss u loads and loads and loads ,
both of you are in Canada now, or as I like to say Canadia , and eating good no wait great food bitches and are going to meet up soon where u will talk of only me and how great I am and how much u miss me , go on admit it u know its true !!
As there is people leaving there is also people arriving ! , two guys to my town , met one he is cool , going to recruit him to teach me to surf !

oh another thing I went to Hiroshima last weekend to see leif s band play in a club they rocked so hard , It was an Amazing night!!!
ok gotta go will post soon I swear !!
love u all , ( lobu lobu )
Lena !!

so i had a mad last days!!

went to kobe on Wednesday morning for a conference for all the ALTs in the south of Japan that are staying another year, as you could imagine putting all of us JETs together in a hotel really makes a mad mad fun party. It really was great , i dont have any pictures as I was having too much fun to take any

more b day pics

My birthday !!

so it was my birthday on Saturday , great fun, we started out in my apartment and ate loads of good food and drank lots .. played kings perhaps the best drinking card game in the world !! I got 2 cakes and loads of pressies !! im so happy. we went to Karaoke where the madness continued! , we were put into a smaller room first while waiting for the big room to be ready the room that is all covered in velvet !! very cool! lots of singing and messing, so here are some pics Koren took! she is a legend!
also you can see more pics if you look at my linked blogs !!

tagged !!

tagged by erin !!
I got Tagged! Now I am It....

4 Jobs I've Had in My Life:
ALT
worked in Campland in the bay Market
Nursing home nurses aid
Printing company

4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over Again:
Snatch ,
empire records
shrek
harry potter 4


4 Places I Have Lived:
Shanagolden co. Limerick Ireland ,
Yakami , Onan cho Japan
Ocean beach San Diego
3 lucerne , connaught ave

4 TV Shows I Love To Watch:
CSI
Simpsons
veronica mars
charmed

4 Websites I visit:
www.shimanejets.com
www.bebo.com
msn messenger !!
everyones blogs


4 Places I have Been on Vacaction:
Philippines
Thailand
canary islands
Balaric Islands

4 Bands (or people) I Can Listen to over and over again:
No doubt
Repeat after me
electric limozines
ALanis !!


4 People I am Tagging: emmm Jen , Emily , Koren, Carole

building in kyushu!

Saw this building on our way back to Shimane from kyushu , Hope u can read what is written on the side of the building!! It is a part of the male body !!! need a clue !!

may!!!

May - loads of these carp are hanging up around the place !! these ones are in my town in front of a waterfall , mindy the mini had to get in there of course!!

go to this and sloganize !!

SO mine is

I am only here for the lena !!!
I really like it , u have to use this everytime we are in the same room , go on , its my birthday next week!!

im a loser i failed !!

You Failed 8th Grade Science

Sorry, you only got 5/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

still on the car front, how about practicing driving without leaving ur desk !!!

let it be known that this game is highly highly addictive - oh and hitting the walls kills u too!!

I have a new car !!

I got a new car

















Actually i didnt, it just a replacement car from my garage while my car is getting shaken - NCT / MOT thing, but actually my relacement car is the one behind the VW beatle, did i fool u probably not!

how evil am I !!! - 52%

You Are 52% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Touch rugby tournament

So we had a Touch rugby tournament last week. It was really great; Rod organized it for us, he is great! We stayed at a kind of campsite place, but most of us stayed in really nice chalets, really nice. The tournament was in Shikoku, the island to the east of us. We had to take a massive bridge to get to the island; the journey did not that long maybe 6hrs, not sure. 6 hrs at home would be ages.
On the Friday night, we got there kind of late so we didn't do anything special. On Saturday morning we all hit the pitches - which were next to the chalets very convenient. Looking great in our new jerseys, with my name in Japanese and no 77 on the back of mine!
So touch rugby is great, a little awkward to get used of if u haven't played it before. I tried to get fit before the tournament - swam a bit, but believe me when I say I was not fit at all! I was in bits from the 3rd game! My ass and the backs of my legs were in PAIN and stayed that way for the weekend.
Touch is great though, every team has 6 players on the pitch one has to be a girl, if a guy scores a try he gets on point and if a girls scores they get 2! Our team had a lot of players who had never played before including me! But we had a few who were great.
We had six games on Saturday. We did ok, one 2 or 3 not sure. We played more games on Sunday. On Sunday we lost our first game and won the next two then lost the last one. In the end we ended up getting second place in the loser's bracket! We got prizes just don't know what they are yet. In the last game we had fun while playing so if you had the ball you had to do a little dance! We actually got some tries from doing this strangely enough.

On Saturday night there was a big barbeque it was really good I ate way too much and had trouble drinking for about 2 hrs cause I was so full, also had trouble moving. We built a big pyramid of beer cans, great fun. After the barbeque we played a drinking game in our chalet it was great. For a nice bit of the game I had to keep my chin on my beer can! After the game Crystal decided we should all play spin the bottle! Everyone kissed everyone even the boys kissed each other (on the cheek but still) it was really funny, when our party started to fizzle out we went to the other chalets to see if there was anything going on, made a few friends sang some songs, ran away from guys thought were cute in the dark not so in the light! Typical mad night! It was a great weekend all round good fun. The crowd that went were great really up for a laugh and didn't take the game so seriously so that made it easy for the beginners to play.
so That was my weekend, sorry haven't been posting much recently , school year has just started and I have a lot more classes than I am used to also im kind of a little addicted to Bebo.

philippines, sorry for being so late to update

hello all ,im back believe it or not, to tell you all my tales from my spring break in the Philippines, it was so excellent, I hope u got a postcard, if u didnt i probably tried and didnt have an address, pam for example i didnt think the pointy house on the north ring road would suffice!
So I went to the philippines for spring break!- wasnt really like the spring break college students in US have in Florida! but not far off it! Well you can judge for urself !

I left on the 25th of march -

hold on a sec better get u up to date on the events before the 25th , so in Japan the school year begins in april and before this they do a big shuffle of teachers and civil servents- police, city hall workers etc, The teachers / civil servents chosen can be moved anywhere in Shimane- (Shimane is about the size of Cork , limk kerry put together maybe a little bigger) they can be moved to a city , countryside or an island!! like being moved from college road Cork to one of the blaskets !

Its mad, I lost 8 teachers in the process, including 2 english teachers and my principle- Nitta sensei my supervisor and cool teacher Sayoko are gone and im really sad, they have both been moved to Matsue the main city in Shimane! I miss them both! i got 2 eng teachers instead, Takeda sensei - new supervisor and emoka sensei - leifs old supervisor,! ill try keep you informed on how that goes, also my desk got moved, I am in a different office now- smaller one only 6 teachers, was in a big one with 17 teachers, its not a bad move, happy out, have a computer at my desk now, incidently the staff one i was on all day anyways was moved to my desk hehehe,

Lori and Brendan went home on the 19th of MArch i was sorry to see them go especially when lori was like ill see u at Christmas, that felt horrible , really hit home how long it will be till ill see her again , Oh i recontracted for those who dont know - im staying for another yr, im happy and my shcool is great, and im in a great place for travelling so why not!

Ok back to the Philippines It was amazing really like paradise in the movies!
got the Shinkansen - fast train from hiroshima, thanks to the great Leifu san for driving me and Karin u r a legend !

I travelled in the Philippines with Karin and Travis ALts here from Colorado and Germany ! We got upgraded on our flight to the Philippines to Business class, twas pretty fancy , so comfy , as we were late though we got stuck with the Japanese menu - no steak for us, Travis - pic in Business ! see the way i said business and not business class its what cool people do - learn! hehehe

When we got to Cebu we went to the upperside, we stayed in a hotel that was reall cheep maybe 4 /5 euros each im sure i can be corrected, actually our accomadation for the whole trip was really cheap and we stayed on the beach in huts, really nice,

so from Cebu we took a slow ferry to Bohol island , being the cheapscapes we are we went in economy section and were the only foreigners there, but it was really nice we got beds, and it wasnt really hot as there was a breeze blowing through, we made a friend on the trip who gave us a lift to the resort we wanted to stay at. Me and Karin on our beds -pic below!



Travis on his bed on the slow ferry!

After wandering around trying to find a good deal on a room we ended up staying in a crap hole for the night - but a very cheap crap hole! we woke up the nxt morning to a construction site. moved hotels the next day, got a great deal on a place, on the beach with 2 pools - i know why do u need a pool when there is a sea right there!

Our few days at Alona beach were spent on the beach and relaxing, sleeping! went to an a really small island one of the days on a little boat to go snorkelling. It was such a pretty island and we went to the little restaurant there. It was really beautiful!

One of the other days we went and explored Bohol island , we started by going to see Tarsiers , these really cute little primative mammels, so cute, ET was based on these little animals. they can turn there heads 180 degrees around and have enormous eyes! at the sanctuary place we went for a little hike , it was kinda scary as we came across massive i mean MASSIVE spiders!! I nearrly walked into one! scary !

After this we went on a boat ride which was really beautiful and saw waterfalls, at the end of the boat ride there was an all u can eat buffet it was soo yummy! We went to see the chocolate hills also , they didnt really look like chocolate, as it isnt the main part of the dry season yet but they will soon ! I still tried to eat them!

We climbed on of the chocolate hills, it was so hard ! so slippy and steep ! had to hold onto grass for dear life! it was fun though looking back on it!

We went out every night at Alona beach It wasnt really much of a party area, there was a couple of bars, 2 that kept going after 12 and had only couples and sleazy dudes in them!

It was strange for them to see two girls and one guy travelling together. The staff at our hotel thought me and travis were married and that Karin was Travis s sister !! Me and Travis had planned to have a public break up - a very nice break up like " you are too good for me" making each other sound great , but due to the lack of any potentials we didnt bother!

Karin got herself a local boy who was all about her, he played her songs and everything, she was not interested though, The staff in those two bars got to know our names during the time we spent there, also at one of the bars some of the girls knew how to say thank u in Irish very strange , they had learned it off Irish guys that used to live there!

Alona beach was so beauitful really like a paradise you would see in movies! Only problem with the place was the coconuts, we were walking back to our hotel one day , Travis was walking in front of us and he turned around to ask me something and a coconut fell right in front of his face if hadnt turned around to me he would have been hit with this massive coconut so scary ! All we could do was laugh about it and drag the coconut back with us!

It was a great trip, was really beautiful , The philippines is so religous there are slogans like "Your reason on earth is to love and serve god." Even in the airport and on the back of little motarbikes/cars.

Twas strange to be in churches sightseeing, been a long time. In one of the churches all of the statues were covered with purple cloths and there was huge queues to see a statue of Holy Mary. If anyones knows about this let me know, has me baffled.

SO that was my trip long read hopefully the pics will entertain enough. Thanks for sticking with reading this !

To see more pictures from the holiday - go to my bebo account!
Blogger wont let me put up more at the moment but ill try tomorrow, home time !

Ireland are legends, last saturday , Ireland won the triple crown, in rugby !

I watched the match at Molly s in Hiroshima, great fun, the matches were not on till , 2 3o in the mornin, the first match was France v Wales, France won so they went on to win the six nations cup , was a great match , but i actually couldnt watch all of it, was wrecked so i slept for about 30 mins of it on the couch in the bar, then the eegits I was with made the hot barman in Mollys wake me up for a laugh , i nearlly had a heart attack , i didnt mind cause it was not a bad sight to wake up to !! anyways then the Ireland v England match came on , Ireland play as an Island in rugby, so there is a different national anthem - shoulder to shoulder , great song, so we were all up singing it , there was not that many people in the bar maybe 25 as it was like 5 in the morning at this stage , there was about an equal amount of English and Irish there , so slaggings were flying and abuse, an Irish couple couple were stirring shit , was kinda embarresing for the rest of us, Match was really exciting and really close , I had forgotten how much I miss watching rugby , really got me on form for playing tag rugby in school today (which was a bit of a flop oh well ) and got me in the mood to play with Shimane next month, really need to get fit before hand!! after the pub a load of us went to Karaoke to the wee hours , like 7 in the morning , the hot barman was there and one of the english guys was hot too, i really need to make more trips to Hiroshima, so that was my saturday night

I wrote a really long post monday about all my antics ove the wknd it was so long it would not put it in and i lost it , so annoying, well i will try get you up to date , bye bye lena

my sisters

so these are my three sisters, arent they beauitful , eldest Jeanette is on the right, Lorraine in the middle is next after Jeanette, and on the left is Emily she is third oldest , then me i should be on the left so , then Antoin my little bro who is like 6 1 or so , he is 15, This was taken on New Years eve this year, its kinda sad not to be at home and missing out on nights out!

This is dedicated to the ?) on my chat box !

Sorry i have neglected my blog recently , but im not to blame its BEBO s fault, its a nosy people heaven, (just wrote loads and deleted it by accident i hate when that happens )
SO its cold here, really ass cold, it was -1 this morning when i dropped lori and brendan to the bus (sister and cousin ) they are off to a ceramics filled town, !! mental i know, then i meeting them in Hiroshima at the wknd for ST PATRICKS DAY yeah baby!! Its going to be nuts, madness, and im so in need of it, drink drink dance dance dance , talk in irish slang and maybe even in Irish,
my friend louise is coming down from up north for the wknd too, u can see her in my posts about shanghai gaelic games,
im looking forward to the wknd then on the 25 th im off to the philipeans away from the snow !!!! drink drink drink dance dance sun sun sun, im writing a classic, euro pop song if u are wondering i think its taking shape, just need a funky , i get knocked down/ i madiahe i madiaha , type beat now adn ill have my eurovision entry ,
k gotta go to class and watch somelike it hot, i lead a tough life!!
byebye

Iwami

This is a live camera of my town , can u believe it, check it out !!

GOLDEN TOUCH (Razorlight)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

graduation

so my 3rd graders graduated today , very sad cause they were so nice and nuts, my kind of people , here a pic with one of my favourites, she said a speech at the cermony too, I told her it was excellent even though i couldnt understand it, but it did sound like she rocked.

Ireland winter Olympics

so the winter olympics could be coming to Ireland , check out this web site and ull see,

SO I went to Okayama

Ok all these pics are crap , if i make them bigger, theyll get crapper. I could also go back to the start of the process and fix the pics but im lazy ,

so the first pic is of naked asses from the festival , sorry so dark my phone has no flash and the festival is at night, We had to stand for hrs outside waiting for the festival to start, soooo cold, one of the girls got frost bite on her feet poor babe. Anyways the festival is MAD , thousands of men with a tonged piece of loin cloth covering there man hood , fighting for 5 sticks, one of which will earn you 10,000 dollars, lots of the Shimane ALTS took part, they did not get a stick ! They are still shocked from the whole experience! our boys were in the worst spot of the crowd so they were majorly squesssed, one of the boys thought he was dead twice, actually before the fight for the sticks the competitors had to do ceremonial things like run into freezing water twice and stuff like that, It was mad!!

we did some sight seeing while we were there too, Titia and Sayoko at Okayama castle and the last pic is of Erin letting me into her house, AKA the gate of the castle ,

I still havnt recovered from the festival completly , got in at 4. 30 in the morning on sunday , good times and was up at nine, nasty, but it was great fun , the boys dont regret it either they just said they would never do it again,

snowy town

A lovely winter scene for you all i took last week on the way to school, the amount of snow in this pic is nothing to how much we had before christmas !!

This is Pam , another one of my best friends that is excellent at emailin me and i m terrible at emailin back sorry babe. The dude with her is some new famous person who i dont know, thats what happens when u are out of the country!

Ok so I thought i d put up some pics of some of my friends i miss, if ur pic is not here, its cause i did not have one to hand sorry! This pic is of laur or la on the left also known as blatman , (for she is blonde) and on the right batman - Sinead, also known as my soul mate, I m known as Robin cause im the small one!!

Here is paul and me at my 21st, we had swapped head thingys if u are wondering.
Aisling and Katie, Ais was one of my house mates in 3 lucerne, along with the lunatics in the next photo and sinead and Tara and Kate. totalling 8 of us madness, so makes it really stange to live on my own now. Katie other girl in pic, is a nutter, love her and miss her loads , she didnt live with us , neither did paul , but they could have with the amount of time they spent there!!
Michelle, Aleisha, La (again) and me , Mich and ALeisha are cousins and best freinds and house mates and excellent - i mean unreal singers and guitar players. Love and miss them both loads and loads ,

Naked man festival

Im going to the Naked man festival in Okayama at the weekend, It should be excellent, Koren has an extensive description on her blog, follow the link.
The festival is a little deceiving , as the men are not actually naked they are wearing sumo type nappy thingys as can be kinda seen in the picture!!
Thousands of men partake in the festival including some of the Shimane jets, Should be a good time!!!

So here is my team on the top left, with our big poster of our little poster , makes sense if you think about it, It was the coolest one, the other teams ones were crap , cue abuse from other ALT s,
Team again on the left, great team , It was a really rewarding camp, all the kids were great and Mad! Katie and Evan are the other ALTS in our group , our team put on a play , kind of blind date with famous people as contestants, i was king kong , we had hermoine, harry, jack sparrow.... we got the best script prize the best thing about that was that it was the students that wrote it ,
Other pic is of some of the ALTS looking cool on a climbing thingy , well we were trying to !!

more camp pictures !! thanks Koren

so we all had to make a poster of someone else at the camp, This was made for me !! there is even a ribbon on it !! What i dont like and you cant really see is nato , its a japanese food , i dont know if i like it or not , never tried it , but the descriptions are enough i think !! sounds scary.

camp in gotsu

this is a picture of all the ALTS at Koren s camp , looking lovely id like to add, im in the middle in the front!!

koren will kill me if I don't update soon !

Well , lets play catch up, went to special needs school last tuesday, on the 31st , that was great, had only one class so could go home at 10 in the morning, then went to Koren s English camp for 3 day s and 2 night s, it was really good, her students English is in a different league from mine , these students could actually speech to me weird huh,
last weekend went to maddy and nicks birthday , ill try steal photies and put them up , if cant see just go to koren s blog !!
oh I have been skiing twice, hit my head really badly the last time so a little scared now, I was on the intermediate slopes 2, I'm a legend !!
went to an open mic on sat night , great fun, Leif and jen played loads of songs they were savage so so good, I sang with them for hey yea by outcast with mindy and titia , kinda messed it up but everyone was drunk and it was the end of night so think they enjoyed it anyway. It was cool to be in the crowd and be all I know them , this must be how groupies feel , does this mean I am a groupie !!
did up a quiz about me on bebo , I'm under Lena in Japan in that 2, just set up a link to it ,
don't worry if u did bad it was kinda tough. Jeanette on ly got 57 and she is my sister , joking Jeanette, there was trick questions in there!!
Going to a prom at the wknd, a 1950s one , Erin and I are dressing as sluts, trying to convince Karin and Sayoko to go in similar attire !!!
Going to the Naked man festival in Okayama next wknd , should be excellent , the name should explain a lot !! Well actually they aren't fully naked , they are wearing sumo style cover thingys , oh it will be a good wknd!
ok going to go try steal photies for u all ,
miss u and love u , Valentines day lessons are depressing !!

Another day another post

Hey all , its me , nothing has really happened this week , I've been pretty bored, spent excessive amounts of time on the internet doing things you do when you are bored like, randomly google everybody you have ever met and check out the people with similar profiles to you on blogger id like to say there is a lot of freaks out there,
I have watched soooo much telly its scary since I came back to Japan , watched the whole 1st season of Veronica mars with seana and I just finished lost season one.
Seana and Grainne missed their flight home, so may have to pay thousands, just got a quick email from them so don't know the whole story yet. Poor things ,
trying to study Japanese a lot but just not happening , I can do maybe 2 hrs and then I'm wrecked for the rest of the day. I probably wont be updating my blog after today for a week, as I'm in my special needs school next week and at korens English camp,
I'm teaching tag rugby , dad will be happy I'm getting use out of the tags etc,
Taiko is excellent going two times a week at the mo until Japanese class starts up again, I'm not as advanced as Leif he played in a concert at the weekend and rocked saw a recording of it. The
group is great they are pretty advanced and they are really happy leif and I joined we are the first foreigners on the team apparently there was a foreigner who tried it but didn't stick with it. Taiko drumming is really cool, I nearly know one song, who would have thought I would be in a Japanese drumming group.
anyways I'm rambling on and on well slan go foill agus chuir suas comments

helllo all ,
so let me see, seana went traveling yesterday to the kansai area so I wont see her anymore, it was kinda really depressing saying goodbye, it was great when her and grainne were here , love them both, while seana was here we watched all the veronica mars first season and half of lost first season , addicted, oh and loads of movies, it was really nice, lived on jam and toast and tea, emmmm, I'm really hungry , 52 mins till lunch ,
two of my teachers are sick today so I had and have to teach on my own today , which is fine, god bless bingo and word search ,
I'm in loads of pain today after skiing on Saturday , but also could be from crazy dancing on Saturday night, you know the way,
I'm going to go out skiing again this weekend , if I can afford it, it was really great though , thank u koren, Carole, Jen, John, and everyone else for giving me pointers and help,
I'm so hungry ,
snow had kinda nearly gone over the last week , seana was annoyed she didn't get enough pics on her first week of it, well after I drove the girls to the train yesterday ,I was driving home and it began to snow , not too much has fallen yet
tried to think of a funny memorable ending to this post, but it requires too much brain power which at the mo , I used cant spare, Mondays morning don't you just love them ,
slan agus beannacht,