Leap Year Day! Our friends Akemi and Hitoshi came for tonkatsu. I was tired and ignored them half the night but they had fun. The unfocused picture in this photo is of Jonathan's grandmother who died on Leap Year Day 44 years ago. Akemi drew a beautiful picture of her.
Italy news: We got our Visas! I had to do a little convincing so they would accept all my documents. They wanted an original, signed travel insurance policy which our insurance company would not give us. When I told them we were insured up to $300,000 they gave in. The woman at the embassy was actually on our side. She knows that Italy is very strict about things and since we still have to get permission to stay there once we are in Italy, she wanted to make sure we wouldn't be kicked out of the country once we are there. Bureaucracy!
We are counting the days to April 7th. Jonathan is especially ready to get out of Japan. I still can't believe I'm not going back to school in April to start my new classes. My students don't know I won't be there. Such things are very secretive here. They will probably find out when I'm not there on the first day.
Before I'm off to Italy, however, I have another school related trip to my hometown of Pella, Iowa. I'm taking 15 of my students to live in families and go to school there. It's my fifth trip. It's a great opportunity for my Japanese students to get to see life in a small, Iowa town.
This is Iowa not Holland. The young women on the right are the 2007 Tulip queen and her court. What are those head things they are wearing? They are posing in the Iowa State Capital Building library. It's amazing how this little town of Pella has kept their heritage. I have several Dutch friends in Tokyo. They are very rather amuzed. Pella seems more Dutch than Holland. Anyway, I'm off now to have pizza with the neighbors who are from Harmony, Minnesota. It's a little good-bye party for us.