real break

We are in the middle of the summer break. Although we still have quite a lot to do, our life is relatively quiet.

Next week, we will be off to the continent Europe, driving across Holland to Germany.

The first ten days of the trip will be very quiet and slow, staying with my father-in-law. After that we will drive to the West to see several Anthroposophic architectures around. So the last half of the trip will be busy driving around.


One thing I am really hoping for the trip is to have a REAL break.

The REAL break means disconnecting myself from my ordinary life. To achieve this, I will not take my computer with me. The exist of a computer always disturbs the disconnection from the world. You know, internet always connect you to anybody all over the world. Once you have a computer and an internet access with you, you can not escape from the world you live.


I am addicted to a computer. Probably many people are. Now I can not imagine a life without a computer. As a communication tool, a computer is essential. It is incredibly inconvenient to live in England without a mean of internet shopping.

It is ok to use a computer as a tool to make our live more convenient.

But I think I am spending too much time to sit in front of the computer for doing something rather unnecessary. It is like a habit to turn on the computer whenever I have a spare time at home. Maybe even when I really don't have a time to spare, I am wasting a time for the computer.... That is a problem...


And I feel I am not really off as long as I am trapped with the computer.





For three weeks of this trip, I will be free from a computer.
The trip should force myself be away from the computer.




Of course I should be able to control myself to turn on/off the computer whenever I am supposed to do...., and not to use a computer more than I need. But this is the addiction...




I guess I am not the only one who has the addiction....



You too...?




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camping!

These two days are warm. I finally feel like summer although the highest temperature is only 20℃. In England the weather changes frequently. We rarely have sunny sunshine through a day. Morning sunshine often goes away after three hours.

So...if we have a slight opportunity to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, we should go out immediately before the gray clouds cover the blue sky.

So we went on a camping!


See this nice and quiet camp site with beautiful green lawn.


Good night!



This is a very nice camp site....just for ourselves.


Yes, this is our back yard.



It is also called the school campus. That is where we live. :D




Now the school is on the summer break, so the whole campus is our private park!!
YEAH!!

So my three boys slept in the tent.
I slept in my king size bed by myself. YEAH!!


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Germany

It is a summer break!!
Our summer break is just like Japan's. It is a six-week break from the 17th July to the 3rd Sep.

We are going to Germany from next week Monday.

Germany is my husband's country. We are going to visit my father-in-law living in a small town relatively close to Berlin.

You might be surprised, but it is the first time for me to see my father-in-law. We have been married for four years, and now we have two sons. But my sons and I have not met him yet.



My husband says the area he lives is such a beautiful place. The town is by a lake where we can swim.

Wow! I have not wore my swim suit after I have got a son.... It is a bit scarly...



...Anyway, our trip to Germany is a long way since we drive to Germany. The distance we will drive would be about 3000km return, and I am the only driver because my husband broke his left wrist last month. He can not drive a car at all.

Fortunately we have a friend in Den Haag, Holland, which is just on our way to Germany. We can have an accomodation there. It has been four years since we met the friend last time. Four years ago we had only one son, and she had none. Now we have two sons, and she has seven months old baby boy!! Isn't it exciting to see an old friend with the growing family!?




So, we will leave the house one week from now, and will come back in the last week of August. It is a 3-week trip.



Wish me luck for the SAFE trip...........


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cold

I think something wrong with my body. Probably it is not just about the body but my soul.

I have been always cold for these three months.


Don't say that England is a cold country. Of course I can't deny it, for today's highest temperature is 18℃. It is not summer, it is like a late autumn.

But I am not cold only because of the weather, I know something unusual thing is happening in my body.

One day I was in four layers of tops. Two cotton shirts, thin pure wool jumper, and extra thick winter jumper. I was still shivering. It was not usual.


I think the autonomic nerve is not working very well..... My body can't adjust the body temperature for some reason. Bad mental health can affect the autonomic nerve and that causes automatic ataxia...




The hypothalamus in the brain is in charge of the control of the body temperature. It works to produce heat when it is cold, and lose the heat when it is hot. But if the body needs to generate more heat, what shall we do?



My biology textbook says;
1. shivering - muscular activity generates heat
2. adding extra clothing - insulation reduces heat loss
3. eating more - eating stimulates heat producing by respiration
4. turn on the central heating! - Humans can control their external environment too.



.... Can I write number 4 as an answer at the exams...?


...silly English textbooks....








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graduation

We had a graduation for Class Eleven today.

Our school is one of the Steiner Schools for children from age 3 to age 17. Many of children started the school from nursery/kindergarten. That means they have been together in a same class everyday for 14 years. One of the features of the Steiner Education is that one class teacher hold the same class for 8 years from Class 1 through Class 8. The graduating class had a successful class teacher who completed whole eight years. It must have been a long journey for the class teacher to grow with her pupils.

The graduation began with a speech of the class teacher who taught them for eight years. She spoke about episodes from the activities or trips. The skit by graduating pupils came the next. That was a short play about our school teachers, picking up the teachers characteristics or habits to make a lovely comedy. That was followed by a slide show which the pupils made into a short movie. They went to Greece for two weeks as their final class trip. Lots of photos from the trip appeared one after another on the screen with some music. They were just like school drama.

Today their surroundings are so much different from before. There are so many problems nowadays such as drugs, media influences, internet, relationships and so on. The social environment is much tougher for young people. But still they have lovable youngster's souls. The short movie revealed it......

That reminded me why I love teenagers. Their energy, struggle, and stupidness! :D



When diploma is given to a graduate in Japanese high schools, generally they just call a pupil's name and the pupil comes up to the stage to receive the diploma. Both a school master and the pupil bow each other for the "ritual". It is a very formal way and shows typical Japanese tradition. I guess most of the school masters don't know the pupils at all.

In our school, it was delivered in more heartwarming way. The class guardians spoke about a pupil with concrete examples and episodes. The speech for each pupil was only a few minutes long, but it was filled with warm messages from the teacher. When they gave the diploma, the teacher and the pupil hugged each other.


Our graduation was not very formal, but it definitely touched peoples heart.







The slide show ended with a hand written message "we love you. bye bye."

We love you all too!








I always liked Japanese style graduation ceremony as well. :D




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The Second Life

Women have two lives in one life.
It might sound something strange for you, but I feel it from my life experience.

My second life started when I became a mother.

"Mother" and "non-mother" are different. After a woman gave a birth to a baby, she became a different person. Having a baby would change the mother's heart and the way of looking at the world. If you are a mother, you would know what I mean.

Truely it is a radial change for woman to have a baby. Totally different life is there and you can not go back to the life before the baby arrived.



I myself feel the difference in my occupation as well. I had been a teacher before I became a mother, and for four years after my first son's birth.

Becoming a mother changed my whole philosophy about my life. Applying for the new philosophy, I felt teaching job was not what I really wanted to do while I am a mother.

Here I would not say why and how come to this idea, for the explanation would take quite long ...


Anyway, I felt I needed to change my occupation. "What shall I become after a teacher?" was the next question. Then I reached a conclusion and now I am working for the new goal to achieve a new profession that is completely different from a "teacher."




I am finished teaching, and have started proceeding toward the new occupation.



I can easily imagine that it would have been much more difficult to change the profession if I live in Japan..., especially for women. So I really am happy living in one of the countries that allows people, both men and women, to change the occupation.


But it was myself who has decided to change my life. I would have done same thing or found the way to achieve my dream even if I was in Japan......


Anyway, I am enjoying my second life.



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Oven-roasted tomatoes

An organic grocery shop in our town brings their old vegetables and fruits to our school. They are bit too old to sell but many of them are still good enough to eat. So basket-full of vege/fruits are left on our campus so that anybody can pick what they want. The vege/fruits nobody wanted go to the compost.

The shop sells locally grown vegetables that are quite expensive. I bought THREE apples at the shop the other day, they cost about 2 pounds (=360yen). They were juicy and crisp, but the price was too high for our daily fruits.


Yesterday we found lots of beautifully ripe tomatoes in the basket. They were too soft to eat raw, so I roasted the halved tomatoes in a baking dish. This Italian recipe was extremely simple but the simplicity complements the tastes of tomatoes and herbs.




It was a bit over-roasted though... XD



recipe

ingredients
12 large ripe tomatoes
150ml extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme or rosemary
6 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

method
Slice the tomatoes in half horizontally. Put them on a lightly greased baking tray or in a very shallow gratin dish and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 175℃.

Mix together the oil, garlic, thyme and parsley. Drizzle 2 tablespoons over the top of each tomato, then bake for 2-3 hours. The tomatoes should be caramelised and crisp on top and quite shrivelled, with all the liquid having reduced inside them.

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writing English

My English writing skill is not really good as you see on this blog.

Generally it is easier to understand English than expressing yourself in English. When I read an English article, a book, or listen to a lecture in English, I can understand. But it is not that easy to explain what I have just read or listened.

So one of my recent training of writing English is following:
1. Read a paragraph. I often use my science text books.
2. Write what I understood from the paragraph in English.
3. Compare my writing to the original paragraph.

I realize how easily I lose the new vocabularies after reading. By writing myself, the vague memory becomes clearer and then I can memorize the new words.

Also I can see what mistakes I tend to make, and I can learn better expressions by reading the original sentences once again.

I really like this method now.
I learn sciences and at the same time I learn English a lot.


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studying English

I am finished reading John Steinbeck's "Of mice and man."

Since I decided to take English language GCSE exam, I keep trying to read English literature. It is not very fun for me to read pure literature, but I can not avoid studying English any longer.

I tell you....I have NEVER liked studying English since I started learning English when I was twelve.

Of course I had to study some English at middle/high schools and at a university. But I did it because I had to. I have never had a passion for the language.

I studied English again before I moved to California to study Anthroposophy at Rudolf Steiner College. I just wanted to study Anthroposophy which there was no place to study it seriously in Japan at that time.



My latest TOEIC score was 800. The score was from about 8 years ago when I was still in Japan.
Since then, I have not taken any English exams, nor studied English seriously. I know my English has improved quite a bit since I left from Japan, but I have no idea of how much my English has improved.



I have been just lazy.
I just wanted to believe that the experience living in English speaking countries would improve my English.


It is true, if you want to gain only everyday life English.
But it is not so easy to gain sophisticated English ability without serious study, especially for Japanese whose language is completely different from English.


Native English can make mistakes a lot.
It can happen easily to pick up those incorrect English usage unconsciously in our lives.


And the vocabularies we use in our general everyday life are limited. Especially if I don't wish to learn more vocabularies nor if I don't have much interest in learning English, I can just survive with those limited words without increasing the number of my vocabs much.



It is not ok.
Whenever I want to try something new in this country, the language barrier comes before myself.

On top of it, my complex for the English language makes the barrier even higher.


I want to use English as well as Japanese.
I am quite fed up with myself being struggled with the language.



I can't avoid studying English any more.
I really have to improve my English.


And ... I will.


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movie nights

My husband has had an operation on his broken wrist this Monday. Since my husband should not move much to heal his wound, he needs to sit down quietly without much movement.
The doctor's recommendation was a "couch potato."

Both I and my husband don't like watching TV. We don't even have a TV set in our house.

Soon my husband got extremely bored from doing nothing.



So we are having some movie nights these days to kill my husband's time.



First film we have seen was "Into the wild."
It is an American adventure movie, and non-fiction. I like non-fiction. I was not sure about an "adventure" though...

For some people, this guy could be a hero who was brave, physical and intelligent. He grew up in a rich but unhappy family. He didn't like to see people having a hatred for each other. After the university graduation, he left for Alaska to live in the wild by himself. He just disappeared without leaving any indication where he went.

He was brave and was a man of spilit. He was also a friendly and nice guy.
People he met on his way to Alaska loved him.

But ........ what if I was his mother...?

As a mother of two sons, I couldn't help thinking of his parents. His adventure was great, but at the same time it was so crucial for his parents.


Since I became a mother, I have gotten a tendency to put myself in parent's place to follow a story. In mother's position, this film was too sad....

I still think that this movie was quite well made over all.


The second movie was "The remains of the day."

A few years ago, I bought the original novel "the remains of the day." The author is Kazuo Ishiguro who is one of the most important modern English novelists. As the name indicates, he is originally from Japan, was born to Japanese parents in Kyushu.

As I live in England, and am a Japanese, I felt I had better read his work...




Frankly to say, it was too boring to finish, and gave up. The story proceeds very slowly. The progress of the story is subtle. Also my English reading speed was slow that made me bored even more.


Unlike the novel, the film finishes in two hours, it wouldn't be as slow as reading the novel.
...That was my expectation.





With a disappointment, the film was again boring both for me and for my husband.




This film was nominated for 8 Oscars.
...Surprising!

Actually the starred actor Anthony Hopkins expressed the butler's character well, and the English landscapes in the film were splendid. I again realized my fortune to live in this beautiful country.

But!!
I really think this movie is boring for those who don't love English people with a good understanding of their folk soul. People in this film are so typical English. I don't understand WHY English are like this...




Anyway, both movies show such beautiful landscapes. Landscapes in America and in England are such a comparison. "The remains of the day" is the story of post war, but the towns and other landscapes are still existing now as they were in the film. If you admire England, you would enjoy the beautiful sceneries in "the remains of the day."


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NHS

NHS "National Health Service" is English public health service. Thanks for NHS, we can have medical services for free. I think it is great that even international students can be benefit from this system. If you stay in England longer than six months, you don't have to pay for NHS medical treatments, which is great.


But the service is poor. As I wrote about the scheduling of my husband's operation the other day, everything takes time so long. Today after my husband was told to be discharged from the hospital, it actually took for them to release my husband for seven hours. Of course they had to do several things, such as some paper works and giving him some medications, but seven hours are too long to wait for patients.


Their hospital foods were awful. When I visited him yesterday, the staff was preparing for the meal. The smell of the food filled whole ward, and the smell was disgusting. Honestly to say, I was about to throw up from the smell.

The menu was chips, cauliflower, beef burger with gravy sauce and iced cream. It is not a healthy menu, isn't it? They are all from bags of frozen food. I guess they are not really "food". You know that the cheapest soy sauce are not made from soy beans. They are just mixture of chemicals. The food at the hospital must have been something like that.

How can the patients be better with these poor nutrition? These food can not give the patients any energy. They are almost poison with so much additives.

My husband is spoiled about food, since we are eating food home-made from scratch that are made from organic ingredients. This hospital food was shocking. I can not believe that it is the food for human....


Maybe I am too critical about them...






There are many NHS cancer patients who are dying as they wait for the operation. They are on the waiting list, but the date of the operation is half year ahead, and they die before the operation. There are lots of cases like this happening all over in England.


Free service is great.
But "free" might be the most expensive, as a Japanese expression says.


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