Where Has the Time Gone?

Over the next week or Two I will obnoxiously be posting about my time in Japan. Recently, I have been missing Japan SO MUCH and want to go back as soon as I possibly can. I can’t believe it’s almost been ONE YEAR since I moved back to America. Wow.

Anyway, I’m thinking; one day, one picture, one blurb for the next several posts.

Here is the first one;

First and foremost, my beloved little town. Before I moved to this town, I had no idea where it was. When I would visit family in Japan, it would always be Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. I had NO idea about my quaint little town, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki. Like all new things, living in a rural area had its ups and downs. I had also never lived in a place with such drastic weather changes in a year. Nevertheless, I acclimated and began my life. Some say moving to a new place is difficult, but honestly, I found that living in this town made me realize so many things that I had not realized about myself before. Coming from a big city, moving to Miyakonojo was very humbling to say the least. I wouldn’t have changed my little town for anything. From living in this town, I was able to explore Kyushu and experience so much more of what Japan has to offer.

xoxo,e

Ciabatta Bread

The other day I made ciabatta bread for the first time and heres how it went down. To my surprise, the bread was very easy to make. Though it didn’t come out as great as I would have hoped, it was decent. Here's how it all went down.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 C 2tbs. water

• 1/2 tsp honey

• 2 tsp dry yeast

• 2 C flour (I used bread flour)

• 1 tsp salt

First, I mixed the yeast, honey, and a bit of water together. I let the yeast activate for about five minutes. Then I added the mixture into the mixer with the flour. After all. of those ingredients were incorporated, I covered the bowl with seran and let the dough rise. After about two hours of letting the dough rise, I added more flour and salt. I let the dough rise for about 45 minutes more. Finally, I took the dough out of the bowl carefully as to not handle it too much and placed it onto the baking sheet. I sprinkled some oregano on the top and baked it. VIOLA!

In my opinion, I should have folded the bread and let it ride a ew more times in order to get more air pockets in the bread, BUT for my first time, it was okay!

xoxo,e

“For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 second of happiness.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

-Aristotle

Spare Time

What do you do in your spare time? Today, I found myself with a lot of spare time, and what better way to spend it than…..GOING SHOPPING!! Just kidding. Well, I did go shopping, but not clothes shopping, household supply shopping. It’s very strange to me. These days I enjoy going to stores and getting things like soaps, towels, cleaning spray, and whatever else you need to clean the house. even though most of the time we don’t even need it. it’s like I could spend forever at Target or Walgreens. For those of you who don’t know, Target is AMAZING, and Wallgreens is a also great, but a little less so than Target. As I was saying, today, I was walking up and down the isles at Walgreens and left with this stuff. Can you believe that all of this was $25?! I was shocked at how cheap the laundry detergent was….4/$8! Wow. And this toothpaste was buy two get one free. After leaving Wallgreens I was thinking about how those people who coupon do it! Those people are astonishing. Im talking, getting carts and carts full of stuff for a total of like $10 bucks. Seems challenging, but should I try it?….hmmmmmm. Nah, I could only imagine how much time they spend looking for coupons, sorting coupons for each store, and annoying store workers they do. But for now, I am happy with my finds today.

xoxo,e

Vanilla Bean Scones

Last week I made vanilla bean scones. Like I have said before, I am not the best when it comes to making things in the kitchen, BUT these turned out pretty good. I got the recipe off of Pinterest and have made them a few times since then.

Ingredients~

Scones

• 2C Flour

• 1/3C Sugar

• 1½ tsp. Baking Powder

• ½ tsp. Salt ( I use coarse sea salt)

• ½C (1 stick) Unsalted butter- cut into cubes

• ½C Cold, heavy whipping cream

• 2 tsp. Vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1C Powdered sugar

• Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean

• 2 tbs. Milk (I use oat milk)

After combining all of the dry ingredients in the KitchenAid, I threw in the butter and then streamed in the heavy whipping cream. Next, I added the vanilla extract and pre- heated the oven to 370°F. Once the dough made itself into a ball, turn the mixer off and separate the dough into two disk like shapes, about 1 inch high. Then, use a dough cutter (I used a plastic one with some oil on it so the dough wouldn’t stick) and cut the dough into sixths. I lined the cookie sheet with parchment paper (so the scones wouldn’t stick) and placed them in the oven. The recipe calls for the scones to bake for 16- 20 minutes. I usually cook them for about 16- 18 minutes or until the bottoms turn the slightest hint of brown. While the scones are baking in the oven, I wash the mixing bowl and prepare the frosting. For the frosting, you add your powder sugar, vanilla bean seeds, and milk. Let the mixer incorporate all of those ingredients until the frosting is a semi- thickish, gooey texture. After the scones are done baking, take them out, let them cool for a few minutes and then take each one, turn it upside down, dip into the frosting, and viola, vanilla bean scones!

Give it a try!

xoxo,e

Last Zoom

Last Tuesday was my last Zoom call with the children in my class. Nevertheless, I am glad the Zoom calls have ended because truthfully, Zoom calls and young children are not a good mix. Of course, keeping the connection between children, teachers, and peers are very important during these times, in my opinion, having children sit through multiple Zoom calls per day is not beneficial. Studies even show that web chat calls for young children should not exceed 15- 20 minutes. But, lets be honest, can you even get what needs to be done in a span of 15- 20 minutes? No. Don’t get me wrong, I made the best of the situation, but I do think it is much more important for young children to play outside, explore nature, and do things more cohesive to their development rather than sitting in front of the computer several times per day. Needless to say, I have been doing Zoom calls everyday since March and have learned a lot from doing so as well. Here are a few things I took away from teaching via webcam;

1. Some parents take their child’s education very seriously and are disciplined about having their child attend the Zoom calls everyday. Whereas, on the other hand, there are some parents who turn on the Zoom and walk away to where the child can now diddly daddly for the whole Zoom session.

2. In the beginning of this experience, it was new and novel, everyone got a kick out of seeing each other on the screen, but week after week, the numbers of participants dwindled.

3. Volume control is so important! Can you imagine 28 children trying to speak all at once?! It’s horrendous.

4. Some children have no interest at all and you see them in their Zoom box playing with toys, jumping on their couches, eating, etc.

5. Some days were easier than others. I found with my class in particular, Thursday morning Zooms were the toughest. The focus wasn’t there a lot of the time, they were just exhausted, and it was difficult for them to actively participate.

There were some fun times on Zoom, however. For example, we did a bunch of science experiments, and played a lot of games. What works in the actual classroom does not translate to something that works over webcam. I had to tap into the creative side and experiment with new things to do. Some ideas worked really well, but at the same time, some did not. It’s all about trial and error.

The activity I did for the last Zoom call was to create a “hat” out of materials you had at home. All I used was paper, markers, and tape. After everyone created their version of their “hat” we all did hip hip hoorays to celebrate our last Zoom and for the transition back to school.

xoxo,e