Bienvenue au Canada!

So, I've made it safely to Canada!  I've been in the country for about 3 days.  Jet lag is still a part of my day and night.  I'm slowly adjusting to the time zones and getting used to some of the subtle changes from Japan to Canada as well as some of the bigger adjustments, like driving on the right side of the road.  :)  
For the first couple of days in Canada I stayed in Abbotsford, British Columbia.  It's what I consider my hometown.  Abbotsford certainly is not like it was when I was growing up, but it still is a nice place.  I have some good friends and family there.  
This is the view from where I was staying in Abbotsford.  

Friday evening I caught a plane from Abbotsford, BC to Calgary, Alberta, where my brother picked me up.  Alberta has a lot of wide open spaces.  

A residential road, I think we could fit 3 Japanese residential roads in this one!  :)

There are the familiar power lines...

Sure did miss Tim Horton's!  

Here we are!

Look at these lovely scenes.  

A family of Canada geese!

Interesting birds with blue beaks.

Look at that deep blue sky!  Note: no power lines!

All this visiting and seeing the country side has been great, but I also have papers to write for the course I'm taking in July.  It's great to be in North America. 

A few things here and there...

I was looking at my pictures on my phone today and realized there were a few that I'd like to share, unfortunately they are not really related to each other, so, this post may seems like a hodge podge of things.
My birthday was at the beginning of June.  The VanderHaak's kindly took me out for dinner to my choice of restaurant (I'm assuming within reason :) ).  I chose Indian as the cuisine and left it up to the VanderHaak's to choose the restaurant.   We went to Shanti.  It has really good Indian food!  YUM!

My dinner.  It was a potato type curry. 

 One of the great things I get to do is walk with Hana.  She's good stress therapists.  Maybe because I can do all the talking and she doesn't talk back?  :)  She's always happy to see me.  Sometimes I think it's because she thinks she'll go for a walk rather than it just being happy to see me.  When I take Hana for a walk, we usually walk along the Yanesegawa. Since it's warmer, she likes to go into the river.  I find all kinds of interesting things.  Sometimes I don't have a chance to take a picture, like the one time a bird, about the size of a duck, looks a bit like a duck, and maybe is in the same family as a duck, swallowed a fish whole!  Hana loves to sniff various places along the way.  She pretty much shows no interest in any of the other dogs or people that may be walking along the river.  One thing I noticed is that the grass along the river is starting to grow.  I remember from last year that the grass was very high when I came back from North America. Yesterday, when Hana and I were walking, I noticed some of the pretty flowers.  I only had my iPhone with me, so some of the pictures aren't that great.

It has been construction/renovating season the last couple of months.  Here when you work on the exterior of your building or if you are actually building a structure, you put up the scaffolding and then hang a cloth around the building.  I'm not 100% sure why, if it's an inside/outside thing, or if it's just to make it look nicer.  A few weeks ago, the apartment buildings by the river were all covered up.  From what I can tell, they were either cleaning or painting the exterior walls.

These views were from across the river.

A little closer up.

Neighborhoods can be distinctive, but most look very much alike.  Every once in a while you find houses that seem to just stand out.

Many of the houses tend to be the off white/cream color on the exterior, but these certainly are not.

One Saturday a while back, I took a short bicycle ride around the neighborhood.  I wanted to go down some paths I hadn't been down before and see what there was to see.  

Some paths were quite small.

There are lots of fields nearby.

There was some sort of restricted area. Not sure what that was for though.

Small paths.  I saw car/truck tracks, so they actually drive down this road/path.

Harvest time!

Tall grass!

I ended up at one of the stores I enjoy shopping at, Rogers!

So, there you have it, the hodge podge post.  :)

School Year 2013 - 2014

Today I took some time to reflect on this past year.  Probably because I was riding the train for a while and well, that is a good time to do some reflecting.  Also the last week or so I have had the question posed to me, asking, "How was your first year as MS principal?
My general answer has been, "Good."  It was a steep learning curve and I have to admit I enjoyed the learning.  I have by no means fully learned everything that needed to be learned, but I believe the 2nd year will start to have some familiarity to it.  There were some difficult things I had to do, but there were some blessings as well. 
During our wrap up meeting for 2013-2014, I asked the teachers if they could come up with 100 blessings they experienced this past year.  I'm sure if I asked for 1000 they may have been able to come up with that many, given some more time.  I have the privilege of posting the sheets where they put the 100 blessings (actually we only had 96) up on my wall in my office.  Every once in while when I'm sitting there reading through emails, or working on some project, I glance up at the list and remember that God blesses us abundantly, daily!  Sometimes I need to be reminded of the blessings, especially when I have to bicycle home in the down pour rain a third time that week, or a student made a bad decision that has costly consequences. 
I am privileged to work at Christian Academy in Japan.  Just getting to know the Leadership Team and being able to collaborate with them has made the year a good one.  The staff that I get to work with, seeing their dedication to the students and presenting that Christian perspective in all their subjects, is a blessing for me to watch.  I also enjoyed getting to know the parents of the Middle School students, seeing their dedication to their child's education.
I have been watching some of the graduation speeches given at various institutions recently.  One piece of advice that was given to graduates was to pursue a job that they love.  I love working in Christian Schools.  For the 32 years I have been an educator, I have worked in Christian schools and I believe it is truly what God has called and is calling me to do.  I love my job and enjoy the students and adults I work with. 
I also love the country that I am living in presently.  It is an interesting country with interesting culture.  Sometimes I think about the fact that less than 1% of the people in Japan are Christian.  That number 1% seems so small, but I also rejoice with the fact that 1% also means about one to two million Japanese are Christians.  They need prayer as they deal with various issues as Christians in a Japanese culture.  They, also with foreign missionaries are God's messengers to spread the Gospel to their Japanese neighbors. 
Yes, School year 2013-2014 has been a good year.  

Trinity Sunday

A friend of mine invited me to come visit Tokyo Union Church.  I thought today would be a good day.   I found out that today is Trinity Sunday, so the sermon was about the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit based on 2 Corinthians 13: 11 - 13 and Matthew 28: 16 - 20.  

Front of Tokyo Union Church

Inside during the service.  The pastor was behind the head but he was projected on the wall. 

It is truly an international church.  There were people from Africa, North America, Asia and Europe.  Those were the only ones I knew, there may have been folks from South America, Australia and Russia.  It was interesting. The service was all in English, except there was a soloist during the offering, who sang in English and Japanese.  I did enjoy the service, although it was a bit of train ride to get to the church. 
The church is just down the street from the Oriental Bazaar.  I popped in after church to see what sorts of gifts they had.  I was able to make a few purchases. 
I am always fascinated by Tokyo, the busyness and just how many people are walking down the sidewalk.  The street where the church is on, they have a Ralph Lauren, Dior, Burberry, Armani and many high end stores, the kind where they have a man in a black suit standing at the door.  If you walk down the street, chances are fairly high someone would be speaking English, at least that was my experience.
It was a good service and had a chance to walk down some of the streets of Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon.  I hope you had a good Trinity Sunday and Happy Father's Day!