Tuesday, April 12, 2005



Haven't written for a few days as I have been soooo busy.
Monday was a packed work day with no free time and yesterday I had the day off to go and do JiXiang's Japanese visa. She has a three year visa now.

Sooooo......
Friday I went home as fast as possible, forced everyone to eat dinner quickly, and we headed out to Seto River to go Cherry blossom viewing in the dark.
In the dark?
YES and it is really neat. During Cherry blossom time the city sets up lights to shine in the trees and it looks wild when you are walking under them. Five years I have been in Japan and this was my first time doing it. Dont know why, just lazy I guess. Well it is very neat and relaxing. There were tons of people all spread under the trees having dinner picnics with their families, friends and co-workers. Some were still in their suits. Everyone was in such a good mood. It was a great feeling. To make it even better the weather was sooooooo wonderfully warm.
As I was walking under the trees I realized that I was going to miss this about Japan. We dont do this in Canada.

On Saturday we headed out to the day care that I pass on the way to work. Talked to the lady about taking JiXiang. She said it would be no problems. This was a big relief. The cost is just what I thought it would be, so there were no surprises. Then some of Li's friends showed up to check out JiXiang and commander Li for some card playing and beer drinking. Small grrr.

On Sunday Grandma, JiXiang and I left Li behind and we headed out to Rengeji park to check out the cherry trees there. It was cloudy but very warm, so it was a beautiful walk. The trees were amazing and I took tons of pictures. Sooo beautiful. There were people spread out on every piece of available grass having picnics and just relaxing.
I love this time of year.

Now for the big important news.
No, Li's visa has not come yet, and as you know we have NO idea when it will come. Now, my job here is secure as well as our apartment arrangement. The only problem was Li and his job. His contract runs out next month and we were not sure what to do about it. If he could not extend the contract, Li would become an at home dad, something that he accepted with a small look of fear in his eyes. On Monday he talked to his boss about the possibility of extending his contract. We were not expecting it to go through as things are not busy at his work right now. Things wont really pick up there until September and we pray that Li's visa has come by then.
Well yesterday Li's boss said yes and Li has made a commitment to him that he and I plan on keeping.
Li has agreed to stay in Japan until the end of August this year. Sorry Mom and Dad but that is what we are committing ourselves to. Even if the visa arrives tomorrow (which it wont) we will not leave until September.
On a positive note Li will have a job and we wont be leaving until early September, which is a much cheaper plane ticket than in August.
We are just going to have to save, save, save money!

On a negative note, N and I came to the conclusion that my computer has died COMPLETELY. Sniff!! I think a lot of my problems were due to the fact that my XP was put over top of Win 95 which is ANCIENT! So I broke down and had a few negative heart flutters pressing the buy button for Win XP International Pro. BLOODY EXPENSIVE! But necessary.
I will get it in a week or two and then the thousands of pictures that I need to put on the web page will be added.
Hopefully by then I have bought my new digital camera and video camera so I can add some video on there for you all.

On another positive note..
Last night Li was heading into the toilet for his daily meditation and requested an English book from me.
My mouth DROPED!
Li never wants to study.
I jumped off that couch sooooo fast and flew to my teaching texts in record time. I grabbed the first book I saw and silently handed it to him. He was laughing at me the whole time. He headed into the shitter and I started scouring my texts for more reading material for him. You could hear him reading to himself.
After he brought the book over to JiXiang and he started reading to her. She thought that was the coolest thing and was squealing and giggling and talking away with her daddy.
I think this sudden change in attitude toward English study comes from me mentioning that if he put in a bit of study effort here, he might not have to go to school in Canada and that would save money.
I dont know where the motivation comes from - the saving money or the no school? Hmmm.
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Posted by (Top)Andrea::4/12/2005 :: 0 Comments:

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