Apparently people know that some of us Americans drink sweetened ice tea. Because two of my schools have started giving it to me. They pour a tiny amount of japanese tea in a small cup and then proceed to dump about three spoonfuls of sugar into this tiny cup. I've never had such sweet tea in my life! It's akin to drinking pure sugar. At least they're not giving me coffee anymore. Generally I ask for water, but they don't feel like that is being very hospitable, so they want to give me tea instead.

Today at Horikawa Minami Elementary School there was a teacher from Kentucky visiting. There are about 10 teachers from Kentucky in Toyama right now. I think last year some of the teachers from here went to Kentucky. They are here for one week. Of course they wanted me to meet her and talk to her, so we said hi to each other. I guess we sounded too friendly, because then one of the Japanese teachers asked if we knew each other. I couldn't help but chuckle. There's only a small chance I would even know a teacher from my home city, much less another state. She doesn't know any Japanese and she talked quite quickly, so one of the best English-speaking teachers at the school told me she couldn't understand anything she said. I told the teacher it would be okay to ask her to speak slower.

Teaching elementary students while sick is not so fun, because I can't rely on another teacher to talk a lot. However, the kids were genki (happy and energetic) enough to pull me through it.

Another weekend of rest and getting better is hopefully upon me. I just want to be better again by Monday.