My keyboard (synthesizer) that I mailed to myself just before I left Oregon arrived-hurray! I immediately plugged it in to check that it works okay, of course, and it seems to be fine. From the look of the box, it didn't have to endure too much abuse, and it got here in a little less than a month (the Post Office said typical shipping time for parcel post is 4-6 weeks). Perfect timing again, because this afternoon I'm playing at my first church function, a monthly youth group function (high school and j-high combined, I think).
School continues to go well; I just realized that some people still may not know much about my school. It's a small private school with student enrollment of about 30, most of whom are Japanese, but we do have a few children of missionaries and other internationals who live here. I teach English to all the levels, but focus on high school and junior high. Most classes have about five students. I teach the elementary level just once a week, and preschool three times a week, half an hour each session. Two of the preschool students are Anglo and two are Japanese. It's fun to watch them communicating, because a couple of the more advanced kids are already showing their bilingualism pretty strongly. In class a few days ago, I was reading an activity book to them ("How many cats do you see? Count the frogs." etc.) and when I pointed at the ladybug in the picture and asked one of the Anglo boys what it was, he said it was "tentomushi", but he didn't know the word in English. So, I learned a new Japanese word!
