英会話教室Pure English（旧ファングリッシュ）

Hello!

How are you? Fine I hope.
I have finished most of the moving. The computer is setup again and I’m back online! There is still some cleaning and organizing to do but everything is alright. We are a bit tired though, it’s been a bit difficult over the weekend. Mixing in moving and working isn’t easy. I think on Saturday night we were moving boxes until about 2 am.

I’ve only spent one night in the new place but it’s starting to feel more comfortable. The first night is always a bit strange, it kind of feels like staying in a hotel. Nothing is too familiar yet and you don’t know where most of your stuff is, haha. But it’s also a bit exciting to move into a new place!

Now I must go out to pick up a few small items that are needed for the apartment. I’ll probably go to Unidy to do some shopping. It’s handy and very close.

Oh, yesterday (July 1st) was also Canada day. I had to have one drink to celebrate Canada’s birthday! I wish I could have been in Calgary for one night to celebrate properly.

I hope you all have a great Monday night and a good week! I’m looking forward to Funglish class tomorrow.
-Paul

It’s Friday… oh my god.

That’s right it is, and that means it’s finally time to move. Tomorrow and Sunday will be filled with moving boxes, organizing stuff and a little teaching in the middle. Tonight I will begin moving some boxes and other items to the new place.

I apologize but I won’t be able to write anything for a few days. Hopefully I’ll have my new office up and running in the new apartment as soon as possible.

Yesterday (Thursday) I had some classes at Mishima and as always thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to all the students! It also didn’t rain so my luck with the weather continues. Woo-hoo!

I have just returned from teaching children’s classes at Bois Colombes. I think we all had fun learning together. Today we also received some new children’s textbooks which I am very excited about. I still have to do a lot of work to organize the curriculum and schedule, but I hope to begin the new curriculum this summer!

There’s a lot of things happening right now and I’m somewhere in the middle. If I can survive this weekend and upcoming week I think everything will be great. Now I will enjoy some coffee before beginning the move.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I promise I’ll try to make the next blog as soon as possible. Thanks so much for reading and take care.
-Paul

Hello, hello, and hello again, how are you doing?

Soooo, what did I do the last couple of days? A few things.

I was doing some preparation for moving next weekend. Then I had to go to get a haircut. I went to 11 Cut at Olympic shopping center. It’s interesting because I’m never 100% sure what they are asking me. I can catch most of it but there are always a few things that I can’t. In the end I think it turned out pretty good.

I also had to get some new shoes. I am a man, so it takes me about 20 minutes in maybe two different shops to find a pair of shoes that are acceptable. This has not been my experience when shoe shopping with some females that I know, and I generally try to avoid this kind of activity – ha-ha.

I also taught lessons tonight at the Mishima Culture Center. The students were great as always and we covered some interesting topics tonight. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

The weather was also fantastic today. Lately it has been raining on Tuesdays. I don’t know why but Tuesdays have just been rainy and windy. So today was it like a special treat! For part of our lesson we went outside the classroom. I like to do this sometimes as it allows us to use the surrounding area as the topic of discussion. It’s more interesting than a whiteboard and helps give a more ‘real life situation’ kind of feel to the lesson.

Anyway, I must retire for the evening. Thanks for taking the time to check the blog out, and I hope you have a lovely evening.
Bye-bye for now.
-Paul

Good afternoon fellow Shonan dwellers!

I made a light lunch today. The main part was French toast, which I haven’t made for a while. My boys love to eat it and it’s pretty easy to make. Of course we used maple syrup on top (Canadian habit).

Maple syrup is crazy expensive in Japan, so I have my family in Canada send me some every once in a while. I have a one liter bottle of goodness right now! I took a couple pictures to show you what the bottle looks like. If you ever go to Canada don’t buy maple syrup from a souvenir shop, it’s too expensive there. Go to a supermarket and you can find one liter bottles for about 10 dollars. That’s about 800 yen per liter. That’s your travel tip for today.

Now I have some house-cleaning and lesson preparation to do this afternoon. I’m not looking forward to the cleaning part but it must be done.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great lunch today!
-Paul

Hi there! How’s it going today?

This morning didn’t start out great as it was pouring rain. But by the time I was ready to go to work it had stopped. Lately the opposite situation has been happening to me so I was glad to be dry today. Maybe my luck with the weather is finally changing!

I taught children’s classes today at Bois Colombes and a good time was had by all. Some of the lessons today were about animals and I think the kids liked seeing the pictures on the flash cards. They became quite competitive about who could guess the animal’s English name first, because they then got to hold the card until the game was over. It was funny to see their faces when they got a card.

Afterwards I was lucky again and there was no rain! I was trying to think of something to take a picture of on my way home but nothing special came to me.

So… here’s a little game I came up with. I took a few pictures at random spots in Hiratsuka. These photos are along my usual route home from Bois Colombes. Maybe some of you can guess where the locations are. I didn’t take any photos north of the train station because the idea came to me when I was at the station. Good luck!

Now it’s Friday night and I’m wishing I had something to do. Where’s a good place to hang-out in Hiratsuka on a Friday night?

Thanks again for reading and I hope you have an awesome night. Take care.
-Paul