Busy Little Bee

I am amazed at how quickly time has passed in the past couple of weeks. And how busy both Matt and I have been with work, school, and life in general. I've been delaying posting much because in my organization- obsessed mind I wanted to be chronological and upload all of the China blogs in order before posting on our newer adventures, but they have proved to be a bit time consuming (and Photobucket a bit finicky), so I am trying a new approach. From now on, the China posts will be interspersed with tales of life on Okinawa.

In the last few weeks, since my return to solid foods (and sushi!), I have taken on a couple of new projects. The first is an independent study of Japanese literature for school. I'm reading works spanning the start of the Meiji era to the brink of World War II. This is a very interesting time in Japanese literary history because it marks the advent of Western influence on Japanese culture, which had maintained virtual isolation for many centuries. The second project, which has turned out to be quite delightful as well as time consuming is volunteering as a preschool teacher for the Okinawan MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). I have a class of ten two-year-olds that keep me busy on Tuesday mornings as well as throughout the week when I work on plans to incorporate lessons with crafts, games and other activities. You can be sure that some of my experiences from both of these undertakings will be making their way to these pages.

Finally, you may have seen on the news that we are having some issues on the island concerning the behavior of a few Marines. I don't feel it would be appropriate to discuss them on the blog, as there are a lot of questions still unanswered and their conduct is not representative of the majority of Americans on the island nor my experiences here thus far. Because this is so close to home, I have a lot of strong feelings about my observations on the situation and how it is playing out in the Japanese and world media. I'm recording them privately and might publish them at a later time; however, if you would like to discuss the issue with me, send me an email and I will try to answer your questions the best that I can.