Mary Newton

Fashion Passion 2007

Zara and Meg made this video showcasing the dances and costumes they will be wearing at Yosakoi Sasebo 2007!!! I love it, ladies! This is what I'm missing out on because I left Japan -- it's fun to see the dances we learned at Yosakoi boot camp so fantastically performed!

Miss yall!!!

Bottom Biting Bug

Zara introduced me to this amazingly silly video. Oh Japan :D

No Yosakoi No Life

Finally, 6 months in the making, we have finished our Yosakoi video. This video is a compilation of the four of us (Meg, Zara, Ana, and myself) dancing our various Yosakoi dances all around Japan. Locations include Omura, Hirado, Okinawa, Yakushima, Kyoto, Osaka (or, over Osaka, rather), Hiroshima, Miyajima, the waterfall, karaoke boxes, a train, Sasebo, mikan fields, and a salsa dancing club in Fukuoka.

We made this as a gift for our two Yosakoi dance sensei. We're silly, but what's new? :) Enjoy!

Pepsi Ice Cucumber

What a week I have had! I will get to that tomorrow (probably), but for now, let me share with you Pepsi's newest flavor: ice cucumber. Zara made this sweet video of us trying it today. Haha...it has a weird after taste. Bring back Crystal Pepsi!

Enjoy!

Let's Enjoy Cooking -- the VIDEO!

Finally, without further ado, Meg, Zara, and I present to you our latest teaching video!Please leave us comments!! And, if you have any good ideas for our next video, please enlighten us! :)

I would like to thank Meg and Zara for all their hard work -- we work so well together! I love yall! =)

Omura High School

Meg made this AMAZING video using pictures and video from her high school. We know the quality isn't great (for the videos), but really, it's the computer's fault. :)

I think this video is great because it shows how life for senior high schoolers is while they are at school. The video will be showed to junior high school students as an introduction to the school. We hope you enjoy it! :)

Have A Very Mary Christmas -- From Your Family

From Mary's family in Texas (Hook 'Em Horns) we would like to wish Mary a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  Since this is the first time that Mary will not be with us for Christmas, we have secreted this message onto her blog to tell her how much we all miss her.  And, although Japan is far away, we wanted to sing her a Christmas song.  We would not want to embarrass her with our singing, so we have provided her with one (which we dedicate to her) from Tony Bennett . . . one of the greatest crooners of all time.  So, although we cannot be there with you, Miss Mary, this song contains some of our sentiments.  Love from everyone in Texas!

Put Me Where the Heat is And I'm Happy

Yesterday was an interesting day for many reasons and it all started on the way to school.

I jumped on my bike as usual and peddled about 5 feet before I determined that the back wheel was flat...again. I just got them pumped up last Thursday, so I was sure that it was more than just being worn down. So, I rode to school with a (really) flat tire. I had to walk my bike up the hill. After school I took it to the bike shop and the lady fixed it. There was a "punk" in the tube and watching her fix it was fascinating! I wish I knew that much about bikes -- and cars too, actually. So, the bike is in better shape than it has been in a while and it's so much easier to get around (you should have seen how fast I got up the hill this morning!).

My students are still testing, so I don't have classes again (here) until Friday. I have pretty much the rest of the month planned out, including an awesome Christmas lesson. I'll have Christmas music playing the entire time, I'll give a short history of Christmas, and then they will get to choose whether to make a Christmas card or a letter to Santa. I have templates made for all of these things...and I had fun drawing Christmas things while listening to Christmas music on my iPod :D

Last night I went over to my JTE's (from the handicap school) house for dinner with her and her husband (the pastor of the church I go to). They are some of the sweetest people I have come across since I have been here! They are quickly becoming my adopted Japanese parents. They told me that if there is anything that I don't understand I could ask them about it; if I ever feel homesick, I can come to their house to relax; if I am sick, they will bring me food, etc. How sweet is that? I made a banana nut bread last night to bring as my thank you for the delicious meal and they loved it! I'm so glad my Mom taught me how to bake and cook! =) They have a very nice house and their Christmas tree was so comforting to be around (and it's beautifully decorated).

Also, I have cracked and have made the move back down to my living room to sleep. It's too cold upstairs where my bed is and the AC (which I have set at 27 C / 80 F) is the only thing that makes being in my apartment bearable. There is still some cold because of the lack of installation. Oh well. I bought a kotatsu plug the other day, but it doesn't fit in the plugs on my kotatsu!! This is bad because this is the only kind of plug they had at Jusco (two prong holes, but my kotatsu takes THREE!). Oh, a kotatsu is a heated table, just in case you didn't know. When I get it working, I will show pictures of how happy I will be with my legs (or whole body for that matter) under it. =) School, on the other hand, is cold. If I understood correctly this morning, they said that they won't plug the "sutobu" (stove -- the heaters) in for another week. Gah...at least I don't have to leave the staff room much because it's pretty cold in the hallways! However, I did see pictures of Hokkaido this morning and there is already inches of snow. I am so glad I got placed in the south and not up north. I think I would die. Makes me appreciate the warmth that I have because no central heating and no installation in constant snow has to be 100xs worse than what we have here. =)

Finally, I will leave you with this clip from a Japanese variety show that I found totally humiliating, yet hilarious. I seriously couldn't stop laughing! I'm just glad it didn't happen to me! hahahaha.... what is wrong with this country?! 0:)

Let's Go Shopping!

Yesterday, Meg, Zara, and I made an awesome video for "shopping in English." Meg is going to have a lesson on this topic (or, she has had some already) and we felt like some visuals would help the students learn and retain the information more effectively. So...we were our silly selves and made a rather good movie -- or at least, Meg and I couldn't stop laughing. Haha! That and we're getting better at putting these things together. Oh, we have too much fun. We will definitely be doing more of these!! If you are teaching English and want to use this for your class, at least leave me a comment and let me know!! Thanks:) And now, the video. Many thanks to my lovely ladies for all their hard work! We make a great team! Enjoy!

SUMO!

I had an amazing day yesterday in Fukuoka (a city I definitely need to explore soon!) with friends and SUMO galore! Instead of writing too much about it, I decided to make a short video with the pictures and film I took yesterday.

The trip was well worth it and props to all that organized it! Ana drove us in her car, Stella, and even though it rained ALL the way there and almost all the way back, we got to point A and B safely. Thanks for driving, Ana! It was great to be reunited with some friends (that don't live in Omura) and catch up with them. :) Ok, enough talking...enjoy the movie!! Leave me your thoughts! (I do have great respect for this sport...the music I chose to accompany the pictures and film is just funny and fit all too well...it's all in good fun.)