Morning, Thursday, July 7

Good Morning! I am still in my apartment, before school, at the time I am writing today. I can hear the cicaidas "singing" like crazy wherever I go. They are very loud, but amazingly "restful" as long as I don't have to try to compete with them to be heard. Many people have wondered how we are doing with our first typhoon of the season. At this time, our Typhoon decided to take another course. It is over on top of Taiwan now instead of going by us. We will probably be getting some rain and "stormy" weather on and off for the next few days as a result, but really, we are fine! It is very dark and rainy-blue out over the ocean as I type, but the sun is still shining here.

The kids are supposed to have a "pool day" for their afternoon classes today. I have my bathing suit on at the moment. We don't have any way to predict what the weather will actually be like by afternoon. We are all going with a "wait and see" attitude. We only have one more pool day, on the last day of school, and I decided that if I am going to go to be with the kids I should probably just make today the day. Time will tell if it can actually happen, or not.

Coming back after having a Monday off has been rather different. This week has FLOWN by. The kids are really excited this week and the volume levels are much higher than they had been in earlier weeks. Some of this can have to do with the fact that they are all trying to talk over the cicaidas too? I think they are just excited - then factor in a possible typhoon? Yeah, that's a recipe for some jumpy kids. :) They are doing pretty well, however.

Exactly one week of school left! I feel like some of my kids still really need the time to grow. I hope they are making progress, but at least I'm giving them some practice.

My itchy-ness seems to have returned. While the rash isn't visible where it was before, I still seem to itch - a lot. Sleep has been hard to come by the past couple of nights, so I went back onto the higher doses of Benadryl and made another oatmeal mixture yesterday.

I have spent the past two days alone, in the afternoons, exploring the Yomitan area and enjoying just being a part of the culture.