Update

So I haven't posted in a while. I've been waiting for time to upload pictures, but let's be realistic that might not happen in a while. My life so far has been opera, opera, opera. "Opera?" you ask. Yes Opera! My 4th grade students (in fact the whole 4th grade at my school has written and performed an opera. At first when I heard this I was very skeptical thinking the teachers would end up doing all the work. While it still was a lot of work (mainly managing 100 students, keeping them engaged, focused, and quiet) the students really took it all on. They wrote the story line, the music lyrics, made props, backdrops, helped with a lot of the blocking, and even came up with costume ideas. We were able to perform it at the Rose Wagner Theater in Salt Lake last night and were even in the newspaper. My class was the one they interviewed so all the students they quote are from my class and they even quote me!

In other news, Devin and I will not be going to Japan in the fall. Sadly, Devin didn't get the job he applied for but we know that things will work out and we're already looking on the positive side of things trying to find out other options. I will go back and teach at the school I'm at now (unless something happens -- like a baby. For those of you that didn't know we have been trying). I'm happy to go back to my school even though it's a little drive because I really enjoy it there and love the people I work with.

Devin will continue working for the company he's at (while trying to find a better paying job and one that he enjoys more) and focus attention on studying for the GMAT so he can hopefully get into BYU for a masters degree.

We will probably start looking for a new place soon, most likely around Orem because we go down there a lot, have friends/family in the area, and Devin would be close to school and I would be close to people who carpool to my work.

Well, anyway. That's the life of the Andersen family right now in a nutshell.

After 10 years, I finally did it!

As many of you know, I was a foreign exchange student for 4 1/2 months in Japan when I was 16.
What many of you don't know, is that after I got home from Japan in December 2000, I never even sent so much as a post card to my host family. I didn't even attempt to contact them once!
Things didn't exactly end well with us. We still were friends and everything, but we never really
got to know each other. I couldn't speak Japanese all that well, and they couldn't speak English at all (except for their daughter who could speak English somewhat well). It was a very lonely time in my life because I just didn't have a lot of friends, and I was really glad to go home.

After I got home I continued to study Japanese, and then after I served my mission in Japan, I felt
that my Japanese had improved a lot. However, I knew that I wanted to continue studying Japanese to the point where I thought my Japanese was good enough to impress my home stay family. I had wanted to contact them for years. I even (through a lot of research on the internet) was able to find their e-mail address over a year ago, however I still wanted to wait a little bit longer until I thought my Japanese was good enough.

Sadly, I don't think my Japanese will ever be at the level I think is good enough, so I decided last week to e-mail them to let them know that I was still alive.

Here is the e-mail that I wrote to them. (Obviously I wrote it in Japanese, but this is the english translation)

I have thought many many times about what I would say to you now that I can speak Japanese.
All the things that I wish I could have told you when I was living with you and your family, and how much time I have wasted knowing that for years I could have contacted you to thank you for everything you did for me.

First I want to apologize that I never really thanked you. I never thanked you for giving me an opportunity to come and live in your house, and to share experiences with your family. I never thanked you for taking me to Kyoto, or to Nara, or even driving me to the bus stop every day for school.

I never thanked you for making me lunch every day, or for the wonderful dinners that you prepared for me, or even for letting me make my favorite desert (ice cream and cookie shake) whenever I wanted.
I never thanked you for doing my laundry every week, or for letting me play the same piano song over and over and over, even though I am sure it was very annoying after a while. I never thanked you for letting me use your internet to talk to my friends, even though I am sure it was very expensive, and it probably cost you a lot of money (for that, I am very sorry)

I never thanked you for finding me my uniform for school, or for driving me to Takayama on Sunday so that I could go to church. I never thanked you for letting me participate in the festivals in the village, or for taking me over to see your neighbors and friends.

I never thanked Kana for her friendship, or for how hard she tried to speak English to me. I never told her how much that meant to me, and how much I enjoyed walking home from the bus stop with her as she would teach me Japanese and I would teach her English. I never thanked Kei for her friendship, or told her how proud of her I was when I saw her do so well at jump roping with her class. I never thanked her for showing me around Takayama city, even though we got lost.

I never thanked du (or ru, or however you spell his name) for being a okii, chiisai, debu, baka, inu, and I never thanked everyone that I met at school, in the city, and in the town of asahi for being so kind to me. I didn’t deserve any of it. I was a lonely, selfish, and depressed teenager, and if I could go back and do it all over again, I would.

So much has happened to me in the past 10 years since I have seen you, and just from reading your blogs, I have learned so much about what you have been doing. I will write you again soon letting you know what has been happening in my life for the past 10 years, but for now, I just wanted to say thank you, and that I am so sorry for the way I acted and the way I behaved in your home. One of my biggest regrets in my entire life is how we left at the airport in December. I don’t think I even said goodbye.

I want to thank you for all of this, for everything that you have done for me. If it is alright with you, please send me an e-mail back at gootar@gmail.com
i will be looking forward to it.

Also, if you happen to have Kana's e-mail, please send that to me as well.
I am still studying Japanese, so I don't know how ease this e-mail was for you to read, sorry about that.

- Devin (Tim) Andersen


Well, they were pretty surprised I think, and they sent me an e-mail back. I am going to
include the actual version that they sent, as well as the translation that I wrote for it. The reason for the actual transcript of the original format is because I wanted you guys to see how
funny it looked, and how hard it was for me to transcribe and then translate. Most of you
will just think this is jibberish below, but for those of you who can speak Japanese, have fun
trying to read it :)

Tim, ogennkisoudeAidafamilyhatotemouresiidesu. TooiUtakara10nentattaimaTimnoMailwomite, namidaga

afuremasita. NihongodehennsinsitakattanodesugaTimnopasokongaNihonngowouketukerukadoukawakaranaku

konnakatatideyominikuikamosiremasennga gomennasai (´□`) Timgawagayaniita4month. tanosiikotomo

ippaiarimasita(o^∪^o) natukasii, sutekinaomoidedesu. Timha, imananiwositerunodesuka? KanahaNagoyacity

noBankdehataraite(work)imasu. KeihaTakayacityniKuruma(car)dekayoisigoto(work)sitemasu.

papamomamamoDo(dog)mo, minnagenkideimasu. Timni, Mailsurunoni, nihongodemodaijyoubudesuka?

iroironakoto, takusanhanasitaikedo, nihongodeMaildekirebauresiidesu.

toriaezu, TimkaranoMailga, uresiku, kandousitakimotiwotutaemasu.

arigatou(^^) mata, Mailkuretarauresiidesu ! KnahaPasokonwomottenainode, Keiga, TimkaranoMailwo

KeitaiTeldeokurimasita. Kanamo, Timtorenrakuwotoritaito, natukasigatteimasita(^^)

Tim, gennkideganbattekudasai. mata, Mail, mattemasu !!!

Tim, we are so glad to hear that you are doing well.

My eyes filled with tears to get an e-mail from you after 10 years, and all the way from Utah!

We wanted to reply to you in Japanese, but we didn’t know if your computer could receive Japanese characters, so we had to send it in this strange and barely readable format, sorry about that. The 4 months that you spent with us were filled with so many fun experiences, it brings back such cool and nostalgic memories to think about it.

What are you up to these days?

Kana is currently working for a bank in Nagoya city, and Kei is working in Takaya (probably Takayama city) and she commutes from home by car.

Papa, do (the dog), and I are all doing great. Although we can e-mail you, is it alright if we do it in Japanese? There are lots of things that we would like to talk to you about, but it would be easiest for us if we did it in Japanese.

For now we just want to tell you how impressed we were with the e-mail you sent us. Thank you, and we would be so happy if you would e-mail us again. Because Kana doesn’t own a computer, Kei sent your e-mail to her via text message. Kana also seems very excited to talk with you and reminisce about old times.

We hope you are well, and want you to do your best! We will be waiting for your e-mail

- Aida family

I e-mailed them back and this is what I wrote (again, I wrote in Japanese, but this is the English translation for it)

I have been planning on talking with you for nearly 10 years now. Ever since I came home from Japan, I have been planning on one day, being able to tell you everything I always wanted to, I kept waiting and waiting until I thought that my Japanese was good enough. I still don’t think it is good enough, but if I wait any longer, I will probably never do it. I figured 10 years is long enough.

I think instead of telling you everything that has happened in the past 10 years very simply, I will start with what happened after I came home from Japan. I think it will be much more interesting and fun to e-mail you every few days with another story of growing up, until eventually I get to now. This way, you will get to know me slowly as I grow up through the stories, you will be happy during my good times, and sad with me when I was sad. There was so much I wanted to tell you, so many stories I wanted to share, and so many experiences I wanted to help you see. I think that if I didn’t do it this way, you wouldn’t really get to know me. We would send each other a few e-mails, and then that would be it, we would probably not say anything else to each other for another couple of years, and then it would be over. I have thought about your family many times over the past 10 years, and although I am sure you want to know how I am doing right now, if I am married, if I am in school, if I am working, how did I learn Japanese etc. I want to tell you all of that, but I don’t want to do it all right away. I want to show you how much I really do care about your family, by taking the time to show you who I really am, and not the teenage kid you once knew. For all that you did for me, I think you deserve that.

So starting tomorrow, expect an e-mail every few days from me, telling you what happened after I left you and came back to America. I promise it will be fun to read, and you will enjoy getting my e-mails. I don’t have a lot of time, but I will do my best to make it as much like a story as possible.

To answer your questions, - yes, my computer is able to receive Japanese kanji, so please write to me in Japanese. I can read Japanese just fine, in fact I can read much better than I can speak or write, so don’t worry about using difficult Japanese, it will help me learn. Please e-mail me any time with what is happening in your lives. Please send me Kana’s e-mail address as well. I am glad to know that kei is still living at home, and that Kana is in Nagoya working for a bank.

Well, I will write to you tomorrow. Until then!

- Devin (Tim) Andersen

So, we have started e-mailing each other. I have received one more e-mail from them, and

I intend to write them a lot to help prepare me to translate and write in Japanese more for when we move to Japan.

Other than that, we are doing great. Sarah and I are both working, and trying to save up our money. We are going to go to Sarah's brother's wedding in San Diego late next week, and then after that we will just be waiting to hear back about Japan. We are excited for Sarah's brother, as well as my brother Tyler to come home from his mission.

We are grateful for all of our friends and family, especially the Ferrero's and the Allsop's and all that they do for us. They are truly the best friends/family we could ever ask for.

Well, until next time, this is Devin Andersen, signing off!

Operation Makeover Day 1

Today I decided to make some changes and I am gradually going to be giving myself a makeover. I only say gradually because some of my "makeover" wants require money so it might take awhile to finish the makeover process. It's the first day of my "new self." Here are some things I've done today to revamp my life in all aspects (spiritual, physical, mental, etc...)
*Start the day off right with a prayer. This is such a simple thing but it makes all the difference.
*Have a good attitude about going to work. Okay so I need to work on keeping a good attitude, even when it seems like none of my students are listening.
*Exercise every day (check, I did 45 minutes today) -- Go Me!!
*Make a nice meal, but watch what I eat. Instead of dividing equal portions I generously heaped Devin's plate, while keeping my portion small -- except for a very large portion of green beans which I got a lot of and Devin got a medium amount. I ate all the green beans, but not all of the main dish.
*Drink water -- this may seem like a simple thing to a lot of you, but for me it's a real struggle. I am picky with my water and hardly ever drink it.
*Read scriptures
*Have family home evening and take time for Devin and I do just do something together. Tonight we snuggled while watching Angels and Demons.
*Say evening prayers.

Other things on the "makeover" list:
~continue to exercise daily
~continue to eat healthy
~continue spiritual strengthening (scriptures, prayers, FHE, etc...)
~get new exercise clothes
~Get a hair cut
~get my nails done
~make a new skirt
and other things that I can't think of right now :)

Wish me luck on my quest to "makeover" my life!

Japanese Hurdles

Some of you may know that Devin and I recently (last November) applied for what's called the JET program -- Japan Exchange and Teaching. Devin would be a CIR (coordinator of international relations) and I would be an ALT (assistant language teacher). Now to get the job there are several hurdles we must go through.

Hurdle 1: Application
The application is WAY TOO LONG! Yes, I realize this is a big job that lots of people apply for; but really... do you need 3 copies of a 20 page application plus birth certificates/passport copies, diploma copies, teaching certificate copies, official university transcript, plus 2 reference letters (that had to make 3 copies of their reference letter and seal and sign each envelopes). Do you need to know every teaching class I've ever taken? (being a teacher that's all I have taken) Needless to say the application was NOT my cup of tea.

Practically 3 weeks later hurdle 1 was complete and put in the mail!

2 weeks after that we received a small little slip saying they had received our applications but we wouldn't hear anything about if we even made it to the next hurdle until FEBRUARY!! That's almost 3 whole months from when the applications were sent.

Hurdle 2: Interview
We haven't quite reached hurdle 2... yet...but yes we will get to hurdle 2!!! Devin and I found out that he will be interviewed with the Consulate General of Japan. (I don't know about you, but that sounds like an important person). His interview is on Thursday February 18th and luckily he's able to interview in Salt Lake. Sadly, I did not get an interview; so we'll just have to see what happens.

Hurdle 3: (if we make it to hurdle 3) see if he made it
The next hurdle we'll have to encounter is after the interviews we have to wait until APRIL to see if he got the positions. April? Are you kidding me?!? That's another 3 months of waiting.

Well, we are very excited (and now nervous - realizing that it might actually happen) for all that is in store. Stay tuned for more Japanese Hurdles!

It's 12:41, Sarah is asleep, and I am not tired. I guess that's what the holidays do to you. You get a sugar fix, then you crash at around 2:00 AM and then wake up at noon the next day. The past few months have been a lot of fun for Sarah and I. The biggest news I guess is that I graduated from BYU a few weeks ago. YAY for graduating! To celebrate, Sarah and I decided to go down to st. George with our posse friends over the weekend. We had fun exchanging white elephant gifts... there are a number of jokes I could insert here, but I would risk humiliating myself too much. Let's just say that some of the white elephant gifts were not for children under the age of 40.
The guys went and saw the movie Avatar (which by the way, was AMAZING!) except I doubt that 67% of the people who watched the commercials before the show, really went out and purchased the products like the screen had claimed. The girls saw blind side which I heard is also pretty good. We ended the trip by shopping at the outlets, eating at the pizza factory, and then playing LDS drinking games before bed. Other than the fact that I almost poisened lynsie, we spent about $150 more than we wanted to, and I lost to David in an all out war of basketball knock out (it has several names - speed, tornado, bump it, knock out, - pick one) it was a pretty good trip.
Next to my graduation, the 2nd most important thing that has happened in my life recently (I say MY life, because I KNOW this is definitely NOT important to Sarah) is that I discovered that you can now purchase tim tams in America. If you don't know what a tim tam slam is... I pitty you. I am not even going to explain, I am just going to let you sit and wonder what it is, until you get so curious you will have to spend the 10 seconds it takes to open up a tab in your internet browser, go to google, and type in "tim tam slam".
For Christmas I received snow shoes. Sarah tricked me into thinking it would be Rock Band, but I knew that it was a trick after reading the tag on the box that said "to Devin, You 'Rock!'"
I thought "She is trying way too hard to get me to think this is Rock Band, there is no way that this is guitar hero", but I had no idea that it would be snow shoes. Now we can both go snow shoeing without me having to use garbage bins. I also got a nice leather jacket which I absolutely love. Sarah got some nice clothes, and two tickets to NYC to see her parents on their mission over new years.
The highlight of my Christmas was being able to talk to my brother Tyler on his mission. He is in San Fernando California, and he is coming home on April 7th, my brother Alan and I talked about going out to pick him up, and it should be a lot of fun. He sounds like he is doing really well, and he has matured a lot. I know that he will finish his mission strong, and will be a great RM when he gets back.
Sarah and I have been spending some time putting together a puzzle of NYC, we got everything done except the sky... which is ALL THE SAME COLOR! There must be over 200 pieces of slightly different shades of blue. It took us about 3 hours or so to put the other 550 pieces together, and now I estimate that it will take us at LEAST twice that long to put together the remaining blue pieces. Puzzles are so stupid, I want a t-shirt that says "I hate puzzles... and crosswords... and sudoku... and mine sweeper... and any other game I suck at."
The day after Christmas, I remembered that I was invited to a party at the Sommercorn's house. It was kind of interesting seeing a lot of my old friends whom I hadn't seen in a really long time. Liz, Melissa, Brad C, Jon C, Chelsea C, Hi C, NBC, PVC, MTC... okay, I just made those last ones up. Everybody had babies everywhere, I felt a little bad for Sarah, knowing how very aware of that she was. We played guitar hero for a bit. Well, actually, we watched Nate and Nathan (two little kids) play... which was... interesting, lets just say it's a good thing I didn't have my giant "FAIL" stamp with me. NOW THAT's what I would have REALLY liked for Christmas; A giant "FAIL" stamp, although I would probably be too tempted to use it on some of Sarah's student's papers. I would crush their little hopes and dreams with a giant wooden block of FAIL.
After playing guitar hero, we played a game called Wacky Six's. At least, I think that's what it was called. It seemed like a mix between Nerts, spider solitaire, and bloody knuckles. Sarah and I won after a few very close calls between Adam and Lynsie, and Liz and Matt. I felt bad for Melissa's husband Steve, he was doing so well at first, and then he was abandoned to fend for himself. I would be TERRIBLE at that game if I had to play without a partner. Of course I guess Bethany had it worse, she was by herself AND she had to look after little Eden.
Afterwards Adam, Lynsie, Sarah, and I went to Leatherby's for some icecream. I don't know if mentioning this is worth it, because it was kind of a you-had-to-be-there kind of thing, but when Lynsie came in, she was looking around for us, and her head was just barely over a 4 foot dividing wall. I popped my head up and scared her half to death... oh it was great.
Well, I might try and do this more often, or then again, this might be a one time thing. We will just have to wait and see.

Nothing New

Well, I don't really have anything new to report, but I figured it's been such a long time since I posted anything that I should. Really things seem quite mundane in our lives. But here's what happening at the Andersen household...

*Devin is continuing school and looking for jobs. He recently did a short job working for BYU with some Japanese junior high kids that came. It was really fun for him because all he had to do was chaperone and tour kids around BYU. But he got to go to all these fun places in Utah and speak Japanese which he loves.

*I am still teaching 4th grade. This past week has been SUPER crazy. It's the end of the term so I've been grading like crazy. My aide has been gone for the whole week so I can't dump my menial tasks on her. (Yes, I realize I'm spoiled to even have an aide). Friday was our class auction and class party. Let's just say Friday was completely nuts. With my class I do a money reward system so our auction let them use their money to "buy" things. It was hilarious. Devin came and was my auctioneer which was a huge life safer for me. The kids definitely don't know bidding strategies yet. It was so funny to see them bid $150 bucks for a bouncy ball. But what was especially funny was when there was more than one of an item. I had 2 girls going at it for some stickers that were American Girl - I had several packs of stickers. The first girl got hers for $50 and the second girl who realized there were more got hers for $25. Our class party was really fun, but low key - which was great for me as I tried to frantically update grades.

*Friday night was also my school's Fall Festival. The kids aren't allowed to wear their costumes to school so they have a "festival/fund raiser" and let them wear it then. The teachers weren't required to go, but Devin and I did. We got a $15 movie gift card out of it though. Can I just say how funny/weird the Board at my school is? They really wanted to make it mandatory for the teachers, but our principal stood up for us and made it optional. Then they go and give the teachers that did go a movie gift card. Hmm...good thing I went!

*We are still trying to get pregnant, but much to our dismay and our bank account it hasn't happened yet. We are finding out fast that babies are expensive and we don't even have one yet :)

Even with life's challenges it's still a great life and Devin and I feel extremely blessed in our lives. Devin and I are excited for the future and all that might change and happen. We are hoping to go to Japan next year and will probably be there for about a year. That both excites and scares me to death. I better start learning more Japanese fast!

Catch up

I haven't posted in a little while so this is the condensed catch up version. I like pictures so if you don't -- too bad.

Triathlon:
Devin did another triathlon with David and Adam. This one was at Yuba lake. We went down Friday night and camped then did the triathlon and hurried home after that. It was quick, but fun.

"Spilled milk:"
It's been pretty rainy recently and on our way home one day we caught this awesome picture of the clouds "spilling" over the mountain. It was cool because the way the clouds were moving really made it seem like "spilled milk."

Gardening:
Our Garden has been doing very well. We've been getting quite the giant produce as evidence of this carrot. Ruth and I got together and made homemade tomato sauce. I'm excited to use it and see how it is.
Birthday Celebrations:
We celebrated my birthday with my family and cousins by going up the canyon and having tin foil dinners. It was a little rainy so we got creative and used a tarp to create a little tent. On my actual birthday Devin took me out to dinner at an Italian restaurant up at the Gateway called Biaggi's. It was really delicious and we got some great deals thanks to the Dine o' Round (Thanks Katie for telling us about that). Then for even more celebrations this past week we drove to Park City via the Alpine Loop and Provo Canyon. We wanted to go the scenic route to see the fall leaves. I love the fall and it was SO gorgeous. Even though the above picture is blurry I still thought it was pretty cool looking at all the aspens.We stayed over night at the Silver King hotel, walked around Main Street, did some shopping, and had an all around GREAT time relaxing with each other. Below is the view from our hotel room window. It was a perfect time of year to see the fall foliage. The Silver King has some fun memories for me from when I was a little kid. My family stayed there several times and it's a pretty nice hotel. Devin was so nice to let me do something that I love...shopping. We went to the outlets and he was so patient as I went into all the stores I wanted to and tried on tons of clothes. I ended up getting a nice shirt, several pairs of earrings, and 2 new coats that were WAY on sale.
I had the whole week off for my fall break. This week has been so nice and I think it will be hard to go back to the school routine tomorrow.