What a week!

Mike and I in front of Tokyo Tower. We took this picture by putting the camera on the ground but propped up with Mike's shoe! 

Wow what a week I had! It was full of exciting trips and changes! Let me start with the beginning. On Wednesday, I got a call from our school secretary asking me if I had checked my work email and I told her I hadn't. She said Mr. K (our principal) had emailed me regarding a kindergarten position that Yokota West needed to fill right away. When I got in touch with him, Mr. K told me that they needed another kinder teacher because enrollment was higher than they anticipated for just two teachers (that's what you get at a DoDDS school.) If I was interested, he said I needed to go through my transcripts and make sure that my credentials showed 9 hours in ECE as well as 9 in Elementary. Even though I had already set up my other class and felt like I had myself situated, I really couldn't pass up the opportunity and waited on HR to give me the word if I got the job or not. 

In the meantime, Yokota had the annual spouses day on Thursday morning. Because I was part-time at this point, I was able to take a ride in the Huey Helicopter around Tokyo. Guess who flew me??? That's right, Mike flew me over Tokyo and back. It was only a 40 minute flight but it was SO cool to watch Mike fly AND see Tokyo at the same time. We flew over Tokyo tower, the emperor's place, Yujo park, and lots of other cool sites. I took lots of pictures and videos as you will see below. None of my friends were on the first flight but Mike and his buddies worked it so that I was able to sit in the jump seat and wear headphones so that I could hear them talk. I could also communicate with them but I didn't want to interfere with any of their radio calls or make Mike look unprofessional so I kept quiet. It was just an awesome experience!

I was able to make it back to work in time and was working on some paperwork when in walked Mr. K. He told me that everything had worked out with HR and that I was officially the new kindergarten teacher. He also told me to stop was I was doing and start setting up my new classroom. Man oh man do I have my work cut out for me! I just finished setting up my first class and it was all cute and ready go. When I got to my new class, (which is downstairs and in its own pod) I was totally shocked at how much there was to do. All the classroom furniture was piled sky high in to one corner. With the help of the maintenance guy, we were able to move out old stuff and organize the new furniture so that the classroom could kinda sorta resemble a class. Within 2 hours of me getting into my room, I had parents lined up outside my door wanting to meet me. One parent asked if she could see my room! A couple others said they were worried about their child adjusting because they were already "attached" to the teacher they thought they were going to have. These kids hadn't even started school but had met the two teachers when they did home visits. Ugh. Anyway, I'm not taking it personally and fortunately, I've already had two years of experience with kinder parents to know how to handle their qualms and issues. A lot of the parents I met were really nice and excited so hopefully we all just hit the ground running and are able to transition easily. Me especially! On Friday, Mike didn't have to work but I did so I went to my classroom and tried to set it up as best as I could. I'm still working on it. It's a work in progress as I like to say. The classroom itself is pretty cool. I've got my own parking space right in front of my room. In the room itself, I've got my own bathroom as well as one for the kiddies. I also have an office and a kitchen. And I'm talking a full blown kitchen with a stove, oven, dishwasher, fridge and microwave! Ha!

Friday night Mike and I drove to Tokyo and stayed at The New Sanno Hotel. This hotel is only for military and DoD civilians and it's a branch of the navy. Gosh was this hotel nice! They had everything in there that you could ever want, an awesome gym and pool, a really fancy restaurant and couple causal places. They had a bank, a NEX (like a PX or BX), a beauty salon...I could just keep going. For all that you'd think it would cost lots of $$$ to stay there. Welp, they only charge $42 per night! In downtown Tokyo! Insane right??? Seriously, anyone that visits us, (and I hope some of you readers do) will be going to The New Sanno. It's just awesome. When we checked out, I made reservations to stay there on our one year anniversary which is next month! We'll eat at the fancy restaurant that time. After eating dinner at the hotel, Mike and I walked around Tokyo and took pictures. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to get away and relax. I had a lot on my mind with setting up my new class (still do actually) so I really needed to leave all my worries back at home. The Huester was with our neighbors (shout out to Kim and Brett, Jane, Gary and especially baby Mallory for watching Huey!)

So now that I have you all caught up with what's happened this week, I will leave you with a glorious assortment of pictures and videos to peruse through.

Mike with Tokyo Tower in the background. 

With my green tea frap and my new green coach purse that I got as a promotion gift from Mike. 

I had to take a picture of how many of the gas stations look in Japan. The gas is dispensed from the ceiling! 

Doesn't he look so Japanese?