Classes on Base

On base they offer free cultural classes for families that I never had the energy or desire to take advantage of when pregnant. Since Alice arrived and with the enthusiasm of my parents and Amber we started attending. Here we are making our New Years Cards. I don't remember if those Japanese characters in the corner were written by Amber or a sticker. If I were her, I would probably claim hand-written. I am pretty sure that Mom wrote all her own characters, since this was not her first experience with calligraphy. Alice and I dabbled in the stamps.

In another class we learned to make sushi. Amber considered this a critical skill to learn while in Japan. I have to admit that being from a land-locked state that all of us girls were a little nervous, not so much in the preparation, but in the sampling of the final product.

The woman who taught us was thrilled to have dad there and kept him busy. She owns a fancy steakhouse in town and comes on base once a month to teach new meals.

Dad really enjoyed eating all the beautiful food. Mom chatted with all the ladies so they wouldn't notice that she didn't eat any. Amber had to talk herself into eating it for 5 minutes (that is a long time to hold food in chopsticks) and then drank plenty of water. I ate a handful of things and decided that we would go out and get milkshakes as a reward for our bravery.

I talked Ryan into going to a calligraphy class with me so that we could learn to write auspicious Japanese phrases. Jane was able to give him plenty of constructive criticism.

Our poor instructor was scared to death that Helen was going to get ink on herself because it stains. But Helen pulled through for us and even wrote her name.

I am throwing modesty out the window, and will tell you that our instructor said that this was excellent and that if I were to show it to any Japanese person that would think that a Japanese person had done it. It means friendship and is hanging up in our kitchen.