Dad's in town, basketball with friends

I can't sleep. I'm elated and overwhelmed by the fun day I've had. Writing as I am snuggled up in my warm bed on yet another winter cold night. It is Sunday. My dad is in town on business! Today we spent the day together. We met at 8 at the train station, had breakfast at Denny's, and walked to church (along the lake). We had so much to talk about you wouldn't believe it's only been a month and a half since I was home visiting.

"Daitai" and "Chanto" - Understanding Japanese work ethic

In my last post I discussed starting a part-time job at a restaurant and a presentation at town hall. The presentation went really well. The only difficulty was that although the audience was made up of Intermediate to Advanced English learners, my topic has some really complex English words. I knew this beforehand and I budgeted an extra 30 minutes longer than my practice speech so that I could speak slowly, articulate, and explain big words. (Think a lot of hand gesturing) They probably did not get all of it, but we were able to engage in a fascinating discussion about where the world is headed environmentally, and whether or not the current problems are too big to tackle. I ended up