Sapporo holiday

I know some of you have seen the photos of our most recent little trip away, so here are some of the stories that go with the pics.

Our Sapporo Photo Gallery

Sapporo, on the big northern island of Japan, was really quite fun! Unusually for us we were up and about early each morning (and early to sleep - missed dinner a few times)!! Saying that it did get dark at about 4pm and pitch black at 4:30pm.

Snow: Yep - there was lots of snow! An interesting powdery snow that doesn't compact - very difficult to make snowballs, and easy to become knee-deep when walking. Dan was more careful than me when walking as he was wearing shorts (well, what did you expect?) and material shoes. We both managed to stay warm.

The thing that is always forgotten about snow is the slippery, muddy, slushy mess it turns into after everyone's walked through it. But I guess that's all part of the fun too! Dan and I both managed to stay on our feet the whole time.

Drinking coffee while watching the snow: this was one of our favourite pastimes while in Sapporo. We went to a number of different cafes - on the street and overlooking the city. It was also fun watching huge chunks of ice slide off cars while they were moving..

The Zoo: beautiful and exotic creatures, although many were in small (by Australian standards) enclosures. The highlights were the polar bears and sea lions. They were very playful and seemed to be enjoying the cold weather. Some of the big cats were fun too - but seemed like they didn't really have enough room to stretch their legs. The lions and some of the other bears just appeared cold.

Festivals: our trip coincided with a German beer festival and the "Christmas Illumination festival" (Christmas lights). This was just a few minutes walk from where we were staying. We did enjoy nice beer and snags on a number of occasions.

Other things we got up to: exploring the city, investigating shops and going up a ropeway (time for another coffee?).

The hotel: really nice with the most comfortable bed we've ever slept in. The massage chair was quite nasty, but Dan seemed to enjoying it... but it did look painful!

So, all in all, a great time away. We kept busy but enjoyed the time together.

Summer vacation

I really feel a long way from home when I'm using phrases like "summer vacation" but that's what everyone calls it, so I do too!

Summer has been reasonably hot but very very humid! It's stopped raining now and the skies are often blue.

Today was my first official day at my new school and I had to give a speech to the whole school. I decided that I prefer using Japanese and English (even though no-one else does!) it's good for the students to hear English in different contexts and I'm so much more comfortable using English! I've spent a bit of time with some of the students and the student who I helped with the English contest said I did a good job! (Thanks JB for the editing .... and a few translations).

I'm enjoying it here so far. The student's English allow for much greater conversation and they have a bit more confidence to carry it through. It's also much closer to home... I can walk it in about 30 mins (probably less when I'm not tired and it isn't hot) or I can catch the bus (still a bit of walking, but it takes one hill off the trip).

The school has a big marching band which are playing while I'm writing this. It sounds great. Often when I'm here in the afternoons they're all practising - but different songs, all over the school! I have been invited to practise (play?) with them. If nothing else I can get a bit of regular practise without worrying about the neighbours. And no-one is going to notice an extra noisy musician here!

I know I called this a vacation, but actually it wasn't really - I had 3 days off, but otherwise went to work. I mostly visited junior high schools (I went to my old one a few times) helping students with speech contest practice or English clubs. I also visited a kindergarten (pre-school and kindergarten kids), the senior high school (my new school) and did other random work related things (conferences and meetings). I must admit that I'm looking forward to going to the same school everyday and doing more than just helping kids with their pronunciation (th, l/r) for English contests.

(It seems that instead of writing lots of smaller blogs more often, it's just a big long one every month or so..)

I took one day off and went on a day trip with one of my teachers. We went up north to the next island, had lunch off a roof tile and drove over the longest bridge in Japan. (I have to admit that I forget the names of the places we went to... sorry).

So, lunch off a roof tile? Yep! Noodles are cooked on a roof tile and are nice and crispy, then there is also some finely shredded egg, beef, and seaweed. It's a lot of food, so basically one tile between 2. You pick up some food, dip it in some sauce then straight to your mouth! Actually it was really good.

It was also nice to see water (no waves) but there was lots of people!! For some reason I was surprised how many people were there, but I should have expected it.

Guess that mostly covers the basics.. All going well - strange to think that's it's been a year already (although sometimes feels much longer).

Mushi-atsui (in Japanese: humid and hot)

July has been a rather interesting, busy and very wet month. The Japanese wet season goes for about a month (plus or minus - currently "plus"), and is mostly cloudy and lots of rain with a few storms. And humid. Very, very humid. It's quite pleasant while it's raining, but as soon as it stops, the humidity shoots right up. Now that we're nearing the end it's starting to get more hot, but less humid. I always have an umbrella with me, usually a very small one, but when I'm expecting rain I take the big one. Finally got a clear umbrella - have always wanted one, but it's never really rained enough, and I could never justify having more than one. Yesterday, I got caught in the rain - I had my big brolly, but the rain was going horizontally. Hmm, ended up rather wet! When I got home we realised that one of the windows and balcony door were open, so the apartment was a little wet too.

In news apart from the weather:

I'm changing schools for the next year. I'm going to a senior high school. I'm looking forward to it - it's closer to where I live, the students are a bit older and I will be helping with the English club after school. It was really sad saying goodbye to my teachers and students, but I'm looking forward to a slightly different challenge.

Our Aussie friend Cheng went home this week, we're going to miss him at our saturday card games (esp as he's an awesome cook!) but a new Aussie guy will be taking his apartment soon, so we look forward to meeting him.

Summer is festival time in Japan, so in anticipation I bought a yukata (summer kimono) to wear. It's surprisingly complicated to put on, and the shoes don't really fit, but it was fun to wear.

I ended up getting a distinction for my uni subject, and at this stage I'll be doing 2 subjects this semester.

Anyway, hope you're all going well and enjoying the cool.

The lounge

We succumbed to buying the piece of furniture that every house should have.  The humble lounge.  As nice as it is to sit on the floor, (or sit on something else which is on the floor) sometimes it's nice to sit/lie/sleep/lounge on a lounge.  We could do without a lounge for one year, but it got to the point that we decided it's time to be westerners again.  

And isn't it nice to have... I think we've gotten our money worth out of it and it's only been a week or two. 

Furniture delivery in Japan is a really good service.  For one thing - it's free!  It's expected that you want it delivered (and carried up the five flights of stairs).  They also assemble it for you (unwrap it, screw the legs on, etc) and then take the rubbish away.  

 

Spring stories...

Now that summer is here (hot humid and sticky) and I have got all my photos off my camera I can tell you about spring.  I have also finished my first subject of my graduate certificate, which gives me a little more time for writing.  

So, spring in Japan.  All Japanese people love spring.  They complained when it was too cold and now they're complaining that it's too hot.  (I even had one teacher today tell me how much he preferred winter over summer.... interesting, I remember he didn't like winter at all!!).  One thing I have learnt in Japan is to like what you have or otherwise you'll never be happy.  Apart from a few weeks in autumn or spring the weather in Japan is not that great.  As you can see (or possibly know) spring is about cherry blossom trees.  Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom.  They really like cherry blossoms - they have elaborate picnic drinking parties under the trees, the locals take photos of the trees and they even make cherry blossom flavoured soft drinks.  And yes, it tasted terrible!  The cherry blossom chocolate was ok though.  

At the end of spring is Golden Week, almost a week of public holidays.  Children seem to be rather important at this time and there are different festivals and activities for boys and girls over this time.  Lots of fish-flags are put up (our neighbours made a lot of nice that Saturday morning).  The picture is near our local castle where flags have been coloured in/painted and strung up over the water.  While you might think a week of public holidays is a good time to travel, guess again!  Every Japanese persons thinks so too.  So we had a very nice relaxful time close to home.  (That was also the week I did some serious work on my essay for uni).

The last thing of interest was "the mystery of the swollen eyes."   One night I woke up halfway through the night and discovered that one of my eyes had swollen shut.  It was a bit of a surprise.  At that time I thought I'd just gotten bitten by a mozzie (I'd had a few bites on my face previously and they swelled a little but were always ok by morning).  I wasn't quite sure whether to put cream on, so I just left it and went back to sleep.  In the morning both my eyes were swollen.  As always these things happen on a day off work, and after some debate (and the realisation that it wasn't going to go away on it's own) I decided to go to the doctor.

The incredible thing is when you go to a doctor in another country, there are some things you just don't have to explain.   Once they decided that I didn't have renal failure, and it was probably just an allergic reaction, I was able to go to the chemist (more stares and exclamations), get some antihistamines or something and it went down over the next few days.  Ready for me to go back to work!  But the mystery remains: allergic to what?  something I ate? mozzie bites?  my new feather pillow?  Incidentally I decided Dan could keep the feather pillows, and I used the opportunity to ask my employer (who organised my apartment) about fly screens.    

Speech Contest

Good news everyone!  One of my students won an English speaking contest!  YAY!!  The students had to memorise a short story (in two weeks) and present it at a competition.  One of my school had 2 year 8 students enter it.  I didn't get to help my students as much as I wanted (I was at the other school while they were preparing), but I was able to record myself reading it.  Their English teacher is fantastic and helped them lots!  

The competition was on Saturday at a local high school.  I was fortunate to have my teacher take me instead of having to figure out a map to find the place!    

Both the girls did a fantastic job!  They both worked really hard - they memorised it, thought of some actions and spoke well in front of everyone.  They were the only year 8 students there - everyone else was in year 9!  I was surprisingly proud even before we found out our student had won!  No-one told me how great it feels when your student does a really good job.  I'm sure I wouldn't have felt that good if I had won it! 

They were judged on: how well they memorised it, their pronunciation and delivery.  I noticed that the student who won also had a very natural rhythm (actually sounded a bit like me, guess she really did listen to the recording I made).     

The trophy, which is quite large, seems to be kept at the school.  I also gave them an Australia pen each (thanks Mum and Dad).  

There are a few of these contests around, and it was nice that I didn't have to judge this one.  

The students were able to choose a story out of 5 options.  This is the reading they girl who won chose to memorise:  

The Fox and the Stork

At one time the Fox and the Stork were on visiting terms and seemed very good friends. So the Fox invited the Stork to dinner, and for a joke put nothing before her but some soup in a very shallow dish. This the Fox could easily lap up, but the Stork could only wet the end of her long bill in it, and left the meal hungry as when she began.

“I am sorry,” said the Fox, “the soup is not to your liking.”

“Pray do not apologize,” said the stork. “I hope you will return this visit, and come and dine with me soon.”

So a day was appointed when the Fox should visit the Stork; but when they were seated at the table all that was for their dinner was contained in a very long-necked jar with a narrow mouth, in which the fox could not insert his snout, so all he could manage to do was to lick the outside of the jar.

“I will not apologize for dinner,” said the Stork.....

One bad turn deserves another.

School graduation (opps from a week or so ago)

We are approaching the end of the school year.  At first I thought it was strange that they start the year in April and have the summer vacation in August, but after talking to one of the teachers I agreed that it wasn't so surprising - Japanese people are very conscious of the seasons and believe that it's best to start things in the spring.  

So I'm saying goodbye to the third year students (year 9) as they finish junior high school and go to another school.  This has been a great class and I'll miss them!  

I went to their graduation ceremony on Friday.  It was interesting.  The staff were really dressed up - they looked like they were at a wedding of a family member.  The female third year teachers wore traditional Japanese kimonos.  The ceremony was very long (2 hrs) and by the end my but was aching and going numb, but every time I moved my chair squeaked!  I guess I should be thankful that I was able to sit on a chair.  For most of our ceremonies, the kids sit on the floor and the teachers stand or sit on the floor.  I was amazed how much crying went on.  The third year students sang a song as a class, but halfway through there were so many crying (boys and girls) I was amazed the song was able to continue.  Then I looked at the staff and they were all crying!  

There was a bit more ceremony and photos, but I still managed to get an early mark from work so I could go home before the staff drinking party.   Yep - students graduate and the teachers go out and party.  The party cost about (8000 yen or $120 AD with the current exchange) and was held in a private room in a big hotel.  Once we started on the beer and food, the speeches started up again!  While it was difficult for me to remain interested in the speeches, I had a good time talking with other staff (something I don't usually get the opportunity to do) and avoided the after party karaoke!   

You probably haven't heard much from me over the last few weeks because I've been trying to organise a distance education course with varying degrees of success.  I'm doing a Graduate Certificate of Education (Special Education).   Although I began organising this early, they lost (!?) my application so I've been finalising everything at the last minute.  It's week 3 now and I'm still waiting for/trying to access study materials.  I also just had a look at the assignment and thinking it's not going to be possible to do while I'm here in Japan.... information which would've been useful earlier.  Hopefully it will work out and I'll be able to catch up ok - it is only one subject for this semester.   

So you read the date backwards?!

09.3.3 is the 'used by date' on my milk carton.  If today is the 5th March, it should still be good for a few more days - at least until the 9th, right? Wrong!  My milk expired on the 3rd March, 2009. While I'm able to make the necessary adjustments most of the time, before breakfast is not one of those times.  On Tuesday I smelt the milk and noticed that it was on it's last legs, but used it anyway, yesterday I also used it, (it wasn't great, but it didn't kill me), last night I looked at the carton and read the date - yep, no wonder it tasted off!!  This morning I had an apple for breakfast!!    

Happy birthday Paul, glad it's not past your "used by date"!   

The joys of downtime

One of the frustrating things about my job is the downtime.  This week, for instance, I had 2 full days of classes, but for the rest of the week students are doing exams, so there are no classes and I will spend the next three days sitting at my desk in the staff room amusing myself...

So, catching up on a bit of paperwork, talking with other teachers when I get the opportunity, reading, studying Japanese.... and writing blogs!  

So, after an hour, I've finished most of my paperwork, talked with teachers, looked up some Japanese and started a blog... it's going to be a long few days!  :P

Now leaving the gai-jin zone...

Well, it's been a busy week .... or two!  Had a great time with Mum and Ben, we played lots of cards, did lots of walking, did lots of sight-seeing, ate lots of strange things and had lots of fun.  Mum also took lots of photos!! 

Mostly we stayed close to home, but we did go to Osaka and Kyoto (on the big ferry).  At Osaka Castle a tour guide latched onto us and took us all around the outside gardens and buildings, telling us all the interesting stories.  He showed us a building which was a giant money box - literally - it was a treasury, built to survive natural disasters (especially fire) and very difficult to break into.  It even looked like a money box!  He also took us to this garden, where Dan took this photo (promised I would give him credit for it :P )  

It seems the fires in Australia are big news - all the Japanese people who talked to us asked if our homes were safe.    

We also went to Kyoto.  Kyoto was interesting - we stayed in a traditional Japanese Inn, ate a very interesting breakfast (dried, salted baby fish, tofu in broth, half  raw egg, a variety of pickles, miso soup and rice - the staff were rather surprised when we didn't finish all the food), dodged oh-so-many bicycles while walking on the footpath, found a New South Wales street directory in a bookshop and set off an alarm by trying to look inside a gate at a palace.   Setting off the alarm was rather disconcerting, but we noticed that the gardeners didn't even bat an eyelid, and figured that it must happen quite a bit.  This was reinforced by the four other people who set off the alarm while we were there.  The poor emperor - I wouldn't want to live close to that!!  

Anyway, we've left the gai-jin zone and back to being stared at.  It was nice to blend in for a few days.   

Today...

Mum and Ben have safely arrived in Japan and have been keeping busy.  We haven't done much yet - we went out for dinner with my teachers, went shopping, played cards all night, and done a little sight seeing.  Today Mum came with me to school.  I'm not sure she knew what she was getting herself into... She was asked to introduce herself to all the staff in their morning meeting.  She made good use of her small amount of Japanese and everyone was happy to meet her.  She came to my special education class, (we told them how she was looking after my cats and gave one of them a haircut! and then played games!!) and to a year 7 class.   After that she made her way to the station and will explore the countryside on a train.    

I'm only working a few days while Mum and Ben are around - I'm taking a few days off this week (11th Feb - my birthday - is a public holiday!) and I'll have next week off too.  It's been a long few weeks so I'm really looking forward to it.  And it will be fun looking around Japan more.  

We didn't spend much time in Tokyo, I had to go to work on Friday, but Ben and I did have a quick look around Akihabara, and decided that we will be spending a bit of time there on their way home. 

Traveling around Japan has been getting easier - even Tokyo wasn't all that difficult.  Who knows where I'll get to next week, but for the moment enjoying spending some time with Mum and Ben.  

I have to admit that this blog is a week or two old, but it was true then and nothing much has changed... so here it is.

Well, another week over.. this one has gone a bit slower than most.  Our third year students (Year 9 equivalent) are in their final few weeks of junior high school and are basically just preparing for entrance exams to get into senior high school, so I haven't had many classes with them.  

I think I've had on average about 3 classes a day.  

It has been very cold and rather wet (no snow this week!).  One of the disadvantages of wearing inside shoes at school is that I'm forever putting on cold shoes!  Shoes are kept in lockers in the front foyer - with the door open.  My shoes have been freezing!  No sooner do they become warm than I have to swap them for the cold pair!  

I have applied to do a Certificate of Education in Special Education, distance education through Flinders University.  I don't know whether I've been accepted or not yet, but that's the plan for my spare time at school.    

I've often toyed with the idea of doing special education and my time here has reinforced some of those ideas.  At both schools I am involved with students who have disabilities and/or learning difficulties.  I'm often surprised by the patience I have for students who are struggling.  I'm also been surprised that students have been willing to work with me even though it must be a bit scary for them to learn from someone who doesn't really speak their language.  I love seeing even very small improvements or an increase of their interest.  

Did I mention that I don't like the mayonnaise here?  I'm forever scraping it off sandwiches!!  (Eating lunch while writing this).

This week has been rather intense for the teachers (with lots of students sick, students smoking and running away to name a few) and I feel rather like I did at my first job - not really knowing what's going on..  It's been difficult knowing what to do in these situations.  At at the end of the day thinking that perhaps it's easier for the teachers to just let me do my own thing at those times.  That me helping isn't really much help at all.   

With that in mind I organised a Japanese tutor to really get my Japanese better.  While I've improved while living here (mostly listening) I'm still not very good and I think getting a tutor will be the best way to improve this.  First lesson is not for a fortnight (as fits around life..) but I'm looking forward to it.  One of my biggest problems with learning Japanese, is that their teaching isn't very flexible and they want to give me all the situations I can and can't use what they've taught me.  And yet, in real life they don't talk like that anyway!  So, hopefully this teacher will be more flexible... one can only try.    

Hyakunin-isshu (Traditional card game)

I spent my afternoon playing a traditional Japanese card game, which is apparently played in January.     

Cards are placed on the floor (about 100 - plus or minus).  They are covered in writing.   Yes, in Japanese writing (it was a good thing I remembered that Japanese writing goes top to bottom and right to left - or I would've really been stuck!).  The writing was the second half of a poem/song that was sang/chanted.  Obviously we had to match the card with the song.  Much easier said than done!  

It was difficult for a number of reasons - 1.  it was all Japanese to me :P  2. I had difficulty knowing where they were starting to sing the part on the card.  3. The students were all faster than me (I guess if didn't take them as long to translate the random sounds to writing) and some of the kids even knew the ending to the song before they got to the card!    

I have to admit that it was fun, it was also challenging, frustrating, uncomfortable (sitting on my legs for an hour and a half) and cold (my poor feet were frozen by the end of it).  I felt like I had quite a distinct disadvantage.  But I was pleased to be invited and included and for someone who doesn't know the language, I felt I did ok, picking up 2 cards and being slightly slow at 3 more (I was reading the card - making sure when a hand sneaked under my nose and got to it first).  So sad to be defeated by all these ichi-nen sai (year 7) kids! 

                      

I did a little more research and this is what I discovered....

About 750 years ago, a famous poet, Teika Fujiwara, selected 100 excellent poems among the poems written by the poets from the 7th to the 13th centuries. Hyaku-Nin-Isshu is 100 poems by 100 poets in Japan.

There's more info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakunin_Isshu

Snow watching..

I guess, seeing as it was a Saturday morning, you all slept in and had a nice, quiet and relaxing morning.  Yes, I remember those days... Us on the other hand, were first disturbed before 8am, and then again at 8:30 and on and off all day by trucks with loud speakers on top.  It was probably just the communist party again, but boy was it annoying!  

But we were awake all morning, day and night to watch the snow...!  Our neighbours were probably laughing at us with just our heads poking out from the curtain.  We really were fascinated!  The snow changes direction so much due to wind, and it can fall different directions depending on where you're looking.  

Once again, looking like a silly gaijin, I took my camera and went for a walk.  It was really interesting and fun.  I wouldn't have been quite so cold if I hadn't forgotten to take my gloves, but the tingling has almost gone away and none of my fingers dropped off.      

*cough cough splatter splatter* (Wednesday 14th January)

Yep - you guessed it, both Dan and I have been down with a particularly nasty cold.    While we're at least on the mend now, both of us are still feeling a bit sorry for ourselves - well, at lest I am.  If I had been in Australia, I would have called up sick for today and yesterday, but while I'm in Japan I can only take sick leave if I go to a doctor and I really didn't have the energy for that!  

I found some pretty good drugs at a chemist and grocery store.  All I had to do was recognise a few Japanese words associated with colds to choose cold and flu tablets.  (Some of the translations are great too:  nose water, jam nose...)  

I guess as jobs go, this one isn't too difficult to stay with it even when I'm not well.  I feel like my head's stuffed with cotton wool and I'm talking through my nose, but I can't really hear my voice as my ears are blocked too.  I guess I haven't done too much wrong or someone would have told me to go home - no wait, this is Japan, you only have a day off work if you're dying.

I feel like I should be wearing a mask like all the other sick people, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  It's just way too strange for me.  I wonder if they are looking at me saying," if you wore a mask you'd keep those nasty germs to yourself!!"    

Hopefully in a day or two I will be fine, and until then I'll try to keep it together at work and do my dying at home.  

I also wonder if our neighbours are sick of our coughing too...  the walls are pretty thin and we certainly get sick of listening to their toddler running up and down the apartment.  Then again, some things you are better off not knowing!   

What colour do gaijin turn when they're sick?

I must have looked pretty sick on Friday because they did send me home!  I decided to go to the doctors (I didn't want to use my holiday pay for a sick day!).  

But 3 days off work did wonders and I'm pretty much back to my old self now.  

Snow on New Years Day

Hope you've all been enjoying the summer weather!  It's been quite cold here, but it was fun to have snow on New Years day!  (If you can't see the snow in the photo - look closer!  There was a cool photo of Dan in the snow with decent coverage of his hair, beard, jumper, but he won't let me post it.  He might let me email it, if you really want to see). 

I ended up getting the last week off work - not quite sure how that happened - but not complaining.  While we spent a bit of time at home relaxing and taking it easy, we also did a few little trips and investigated some places that visitors might like to check out.  

So, what is New Years like in Japan?

New Years Eve seems to be the lesser of the days - with people preparing for New Years day.  There were fireworks, but we couldn't see them from our apartment, only hear them.  Apparently fireworks is more of a summer thing though.  Going to the temple/shrine is very important.  Many people line up and enter at midnight.  But it seems anytime in the New Year period is ok. All the shrines/temples have paper lanterns strung around.  While many people asked if I had been to the shrine, they were surprised when I said 'no', but when I asked them, they said they were too busy...   

You don't give out Christmas cards in Japan, but New Years cards.  These all appear in your letterbox New Years morning.  They're like postcards, and generally all typed in Japanese, including names.  So, while I got a handful, I can only read half.  I will take them to work with me tomorrow and try and find someone who can translate them and tell me if I need to do something special (like thank you cards).  New customs are all very confusing!  

On New Years Day we went to my boss' place for 

a traditional Japanese New Years lunch.  The highlight was probably waiting for trains in the snow!  But we were privileged to be invited and included in a special family time.  All the traditional foods had special meanings  - prawns for long life (so that you live to be so old that yo

ur back is stooped like a prawn's back), fish eggs (my favourite!) for fertility, black beans for energy (yes, Daniel ate some of them!), smoked fish for men so they can be strong for working in the rice paddies... 

My boss is a lovely lady who is very interested in cultural exchange.  She often helps us understand Japanese culture and is always interested in our culture.  So as part of this she cooked 'natto' (very sticky fermented soy beans) and asked her friend to prepare a traditional tea ceremony for us.  Japanese people always want to know if I've tried natto and if I like it. Apparently it is very good for you, but considered as one of the foods that foreigners never like, (most kids don't like it either!).  Most women say that they ate it when they were pregnant, but no-one ever seems to say that they like it.  Well, I've now tried it, not over-keen on it, but can eat it.  

I'm back to work tomorrow, but I'm not doing much until Thursday when the kids go back to school.  

That's about as interesting as it's been - apart from trying to decipher the holiday bus timetable, reading and watching StarGate!  It has also been very nice to sleep in.  It's going to be very difficult to pry myself out of bed tomorrow morning at 6:30 in the cold and the dark.  

If you're bored, I added some photos to my photo page.   (The link is on the right hand side of this page).