12/23-25 Christmas!

I know what you're thinking: Christmas Day is on the 25th and Christmas Eve is on the 24th. So why did I include the 22nd and 23rd? Well, because a lot of people invited me places. So just bear with me while I go over everything.

On the 22nd I went to the Matsuyama Yamagoe Church with Japanese grandma June. She was singing in the choir and I was able to get a good picture. They had a huge potluck and I included some pictures of what we ate. June made " German potatoes" which were pretty good and had sausage in them. There was a mix of western and Japanese food which I felt was interesting. June handed me a gift that was wrapped because this would be the last time I would see her before Christmas. She told me that I didn't need to give her anything because I "am her gift."

I biked home and in the afternoon my official host , the Nose's (No-say), came to pick me up for a special dinner. When we got there, they had dinner ready including Pokemon donuts from Mister Donut (the international version of Dunkin Donuts). I played around in their house with their crazy kids Naoki and Tomoki. We played mafia, and whenever our heads were down for the night Mr. Nose would tickle Naoki and he would scream and plead for help. They brought over another international Matsuyama resident named Vicky, who is from India and plays the shamisen very well.

On the next day, the 23rd, I prepared a Christmas present of panetonne and gingerbread crackers for the  managers. They were very surprised.

On the 24th, I went to school. I had class with my German professor Dr. Rupprecht, then we had a Christmas eve party in his laboratory/office where he made stollen. My professor Dr. Tokuoka was also there, my crazy classmate Saku, and Talandila Kasapila, the manager of Malawi National Park in Malawi who actually trained with the US Forest Service in Lake Tahoe a couple months before this meeting.

After that I went to Matsuyama Baptist Church for their Christmas Eve service which consisted of more singing. When that was over, I went home and made the closest thing to a Christmas dinner I could. The dinner included the following:

• The most expensive ham the store had

• Mashed potatoes

• A premade salad

• Red vienna sausages for kids

On Christmas Day, I had no plans, except for the middle schoolers who visited Sacramento. They wanted to catch up again, along with their chaperones. So we met at the Matsuyama International Center (MIC) where Mrs. Chiaki works. They were very fun, like always. Later that night I tried the notorious Japanese "Christmas cake" which is just a strawberry cake.

The middle schoolers from our side left to right are: Wakana, Saki, Kanna, Ran, Nanami, and Soma. There were other middle schoolers who couldn't make it. Their names were Nanae, Hinano, Nozomi, and Keishin.