Garbage, Gunk, and Unlimited Government

No hablo espanol! But I'm trying to learn...two languages at once! My roommate is from Uraguay so I try to speak in Spanish with her sometimes, but it usually ends up with French. Haha! At the very least, she laughs at my r's that sound French, not English. And definitely not Spanish! She just asked me to talk to her mother on the phone in Spanish, but I froze when she said "Nice to meet you," in English and I didn't understand! I was expecting Spanish words and trying to find a meaning for them. :) I still only know a few words in Japanese, too, but I learn something new every day.

My second week of school went well. I'm really enjoying my class - and especially enjoying the fact that there's 9 of them instead of 900! It's been satisfying & exciting to get to share the day-by-day moments together, since I know that is how relationships are built. A highlight for this week was working on a Social Studies project, where students had to find pictures to represent concepts involved in Geography, Economics, Culture, History & Government. One student chose to paste a picture of Jesus as "Unlimited Government" (a government with no checks & balances built in, there are no rules to limit the rulers actions) This was unexpected since I usually think of unlimited government as a very negative thing, with leaders such as Hitler. However, it suddenly dawned on me to discuss that unlimited power is not dangerous in God's hands because He is perfectly good. That same power in our hands, as humans with a sinful nature, results in heinous evil. I love how Social studies, the study of humanity, can lead to a discussion of humanity's Creator. And I am SOO thankful to have the freedom to speak!

The weekend has been a good break from thinking about school things. Our staff took the school bus (air conditioned with comfortable seats!) on a road trip to Costco in Osaka. I never knew Costco was worth a 5 hour drive, but there were lots of things there that aren't so easy to find in regular stores. I also GREATLY appreciated the English labels, which was an IMMENSE help in knowing whether I was buying yogurt, sour cream or something else! :)

Today my roommate (Yisel) and I ended up giggling as we tackled the disgusting depository of algae, muck and garbage on our balcony. Water from the air conditioning unit has been nearly sitting stationary on our balcony, collecting germs and black gunk, but today as we discovered a DRAIN -- which had been buried by our garbage bags. Oh, the wonders of modern technology. We'll just have to find a new home for our garbage!