What’s going on

This week is incredibly hectic. Not only are we trying to pack, but we have a minimum of 2 engagements every day, and FIK is trying to get 12+ hours of volunteer work out of me (really guys, the LAST week we're in the country. not cool). This blog has taken a backseat to all the pre-departure activities. That said, here’s a quick run down of what we’ve been up to for the past few days…

On Thursday, one of our Kokko friends invited us over for a playdate/going away tea. Catie & Angela loved playing with Kaito's toys and the mom's all enjoyed a little time not actively playing with the kids.

 

Friday was Day 2 of parent observation days at FIK. Here's a photo of Catie and Anna contemplating their lunches. And then proof that Catie actually did take a few (very few) bites.

Over the weekend, we took one last trip to the mall on Saturday (I needed some last minute baking supplies before the big host family meeting here on Tuesday) and then had a fun day Sunday playing at Aiina with Anna & Mika. We attended a children's christmas music concert and then the 4 of us spent hours building elaborate towers out of different kinds of blocks in the play center.

 

This week has been filled with meetings- university, host families, etc. and going away  gatherings and a trip to Kokko. I didn't take photos of most of them, but here are a few.

The mountain was simply glorious today. Here is a shot from our front door and the view I always see after dropping Catie off at school. 

our apt is the corner unit, second down from the top floor in the orange building on the right.

Today Andy & I went out for a fancy Washoku lunch with Yuki at the very grand, Morioka Grand Hotel. here is a shot of 6 of our 8 course I'd try to explain what each dish is, but they probably wouldn't sound very good in English. Lunch was fun and the views of the city amazing! I had no idea the hotel even existed until today!

After school we headed up to say goodbye to Takamatsu no Ike and feed the swans one last time. One the way up a pheasant flew right in front of us! I'd seen the bird poster every time we went to the park, but I never thought we'd really see a pheasant there. It was cool! 

 

There were more swans than before and they were ravenous! We had a good time feeding them.

Catie running down to the lake

 

 

the gray swans were starting to turn white! They looked all patchy today.

Bye, Swans!!!

And last, Reiko picked up the photos the photographer took of us in the park a couple of weeks ago. Most of them were kind of funny. Here are 3...

I love this one!

The group shots were pretty goofy. The upper one isn't too bad, but most of them looked more like this...

I love the look Ichika is giving us!

 The big FIK farewell party is tomorrow after school, so hopefully I'll have some more photos to share after that.