Chris’ Blog

Here’s a picture of a spider I found in the shower. There’s nothing to get a proper scale in the picture, but his legspan was about 15 cm.

I’m looking forward to returning to Canada…

Well, our sixth week has come and gone. This week we departed from our Bible studies and did “Creative Life Planning”. The intent is to help you determine a direction, especially with regards to a career for you your life. I was surprised to find that I got as much or more out of it than the students ten years younger than me. In the end we make a vision for our life (or an aspect of our life, but I went for the gusto) and from there we determine goals in order to fulfill the vision.

At the end of the week we attended another church and gave our final preformance of “Jesus Loves Me”. Every week the students perform it in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese. Christine and I also taught a college age Sunday school class.

Monday we went to an elementary school. We spent one class teaching them about our different countries. We were representing Canada, USA, Ecuador, Germany, and UK. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to teach them the “Logdriver’s Waltz”…

The second class, they taught us how to play a traditional Japanese instrument. That was a lot of fun, although I don’t think I could have handled a whole day. There was one small snag, however. Because we stayed overnight Sunday, I packed extra shirts for Monday, but didn’t bother to take extra pants. On Sunday I realised that there was a hole in the crotch of my pants. Actually, Christine noticed, and very discreetly informed me (by screaming, then grabbing my knees and pushing them together). Sunday was mostly standing, so it wasn’t a problem, but on Monday when we had the music lesson we had to sit on the floor, on our knees. Well, halfway through my first lesson, two of the Japanese boys sitting across from me must have noticed the hole and almost fell on the floor laughing. I then became aware of an increased amount of whispering and giggling between the children around me, but when it comes to playing traditional Japanese instruments, the show must go on, so I just kept playing.

We celebrated our fifth wedding anniverserary by taking a walk through the forest. We reflected on our past five years and what is to come. It was very memorable.

This weekend we went to an amusement park called Fujikyu. With the world’s tallest roller coaster (at least at one time), it was a lot of fun.

We also visited a Japanese Budhist temple. It was quite different than those in China. People would wash themselves in smoke and buy fortune papers then tie them to a string.

Finally, after a week of being in Japan with raining and overcast days, we are able to see Mt. Fuji for the first time.

The first think I thought when I saw it was, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

We`ve arrived in Japan at the Yamanakako Bible School. Including myself and Christine there are six students, so a very cosy environment. We are right next to Mt. Fuji; however, the recent weather has not allowed us a view yet. We took a walk near the local lake and I got a picture of a Swan boat and a cool Japanese car.

After living in Shanghai for three years, we have decided to return to Canada. We won’t be returning directly though. We will go to Japan to attend a Bible school for seven weeks. After that we fly to St. John’s where we will meet Admiral Floridale before driving to Edmonton, where we expect to arrive around the middle of July. That is a long time in transit, so if you are a thief and are thinking you would like to break into our home and steal all our stuff, please don’t. We live at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa.

Well, I just returned from a business trip in Germany. I was in Hamburg, Hannover, and Würzburg. It was nice to get away from the loudness, busyness, and smellyness of Shanghai for a while. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to do any sightseeing, but I was able to find the worst place in the world to work at:

It’s Sixt car rental in the Hamburg airport. It’s obviously part of some pyschological study: they place workers in a completely orange environment, spaced just far enough apart that it is difficult to talk with your fellow co-worker, and see how long it takes them to go crazy. Maybe Sixt is sponsored by AstraZeneca.