Bits and bobs

This weekend David's been in Nagoya with other representatives from international schools learning and talking about Child Safety. I, meanwhile, got to support my older two boys at cross-country yesterday morning. 

This is the middle school boys. There were about 125 runners in this race. Overall we saw nearly 450 runners from grades 6 to 12 in six races yesterday morning. One big difference to Australia is that they don't race according to age. Just middle school and high school. The high school runners were divided into the A race and B races (aka Varsity and Junior Varsity).

It rained for about 24 hours before the races began, it was only misting, however by the time they ran. The course is a hilly combination of asphalt  rocky trails and dirt (aka mud). Yes, school colours are yellow and blue.

We've been getting a lift to the venue with new friends who live close-by. The mum's a middle school teacher at CAJ. They've got four children living with them here, one's in high school and came third in his high school race, despite being only in grade 9 (the lowest grade of high school). So in the van we had four kids and three adults yesterday. Lots of fun and noise! The three runners of our two families rode with the team in the school bus.

We stopped for the essential conbeni addition to lunch (convenience store). Eating salad with chopsticks isn't too bad.

Then last night the boys all went to spend a few hours watching a movie and playing video games with the same friends who shared their car with our youngest and me. I had a quiet evening! 

It's great having friends who have kids the same age, live close by, and don't mind hanging out with us. Leaving Australia and all my good friends there wasn't easy. So I'm praising God for new friends where we are.

Today we went to church and have basically hung around at home the rest of the day. I've done baking for the week to come and more washing-up than I'd have liked.

It's been a refreshing weekend for me (not for David, who returns home from his meetings in a couple of hours and goes back to school for four days tomorrow). I'm thankful and looking forward to a good week.