Hello!

Well, it’s turning all Christmassy here. It’s very exciting!

On Thursday I sat in Coco Ichiban and listened to Mary’s Boy Child whilst devouring Japanese curry. On Friday I was bemused to discover tiny plastic sushi dangling off the branches of what I think was a Christmas tree, sagging under the weight of various decorations. And yesterday I bought an actual box of mince pies from Kaldi. However, at nearly ₤7 for a small tray, it will be a rare luxury indeed. Not like when I lived with Matt and Stu. My goodness we used to eat a lot of pies during December.

This week has been a very quiet one at school. Students have been sitting more tests. In the mornings, I’ve been helping a teacher who is writing letters to immigrant families from Malaysia (who speak English) about all manner of things from student enrollment procedures to the complex terms and conditions of direct debit arrangements. She translates from Japanese to Portuguese, which is her first language, and then from Portuguese to English. By that point, I can’t for the life of me work out what she’s written so I end up just writing what I think the procedure probably is, based on my limited experience of these things. I’m sure it will be fine!

On Thursday afternoon we had a fire drill which helped to break up the monotony of the day. It was really good actually. They made a whole afternoon of it. It started fairly normally with the alarm sounding and over 1000 students marching out of the building. However, after that, we all sat down on the grass and a team of fire fighters raced into the middle of us and set a huge tray of flammable sustance alight. The blaze was fantastic. They demonstrated how to put it out using a fire extinguisher and then some of the students tried. After this, they disappeared off to smoke out a classroom and one by one we had to navigate our way through it. It was absolutely gripping! Do they do this sort of thing at secondary schools in England?

In my spare time, I’ve been enjoying watching the Ashes at a sensible time (sorry to all of you back in the UK who have to settle for the highlights program). On Sunday, Nils came over and whispered 319-1 to me just before the start of our church meeting. Suddenly felt especially inspired to worship God! We have our Christmas service coming soon. I’m really looking forward to it.

So, keep warm everyone and have a good week!