A camping excursion!

Hey everyone! I’m back from my vacation! It was a wet and rainy one, so let’s talk about it in stages!

We went to a national park called Gros Morne. It’s a beautiful section of land on the west coast of Newfoundland, that I’d never been to before! However, to get there, it was a VERY long drive:

So for the long trip, we stocked up on supplies; donuts! Maybe you know this famous Canadian cafe chain, Tim Hortons! (My friend took many of these photos, so you’ll see me in many!)

It was a wet drive, but we wanted to make a quick stop at a famous tourist place to see Newfoundland’s provincial bird, the puffin!

We’d been trying to see puffins for a while, and when we got there, it seemed we wouldn’t see any… but we got to the end of the path and we saw so many!!

After this detour, we continued on our way to Gros Morne. There was a lot of beauitful nature on the way. In my area, there are NO mountains, only hills. So when I saw these mountains in the distance, I was shocked!

Finally, we got to the camp site, and the first step was to set up the tent. It had rained a few times, so we wanted to make sure we set it up before it started to rain again! Sorry I don’t have any in-progress pictures, but here it is!

There was also a HUGE sandy beach, also VERY rare in Newfoundland, so it was so special for me to see! You can see the Atlantic Ocean there (it was very cold!)

The next day, we got up and had breakfast. But I realized that I forgot a few things, so it made the process more difficult… But I made it work!

Then we spent the day walking around some local trails. Here are some pictures!

The next day, we wanted to go to one of the most famous places in Canada, L’anse aux Meadows. It’s famous as the site where the Vikings landed in 1,000 AD! It’s the first proven European contact with North America! It was another long drive away, but it was worth it!

Unfortunately, that’s about the most exciting parts of the trip. We saw that the weather for the next few days would be really rainy, so we decided it wouldn’t be worth it to stay in the tent for 2 days in the heavy rain. We returned home directly from L’anse aux Meadows, which was a REALLY long drive:

But we eventually made it home! It wasn’t a very successful trip, but I learned a lot from it, and had some unforgettable experiences! I’m looking forward to the chance when I can go camping again, maybe a bit closer next time!

Summer Vacation~!

Hello everyone! It’s summer time! … Almost anyway. Some days are still pretty cold, but we’re finally getting some days above 10 C! But it’s VERY rainy here, more rainy than usual!

Anyway, I did some yardwork a few days ago, and I was attacked by black flies. You can see their bites on my arms , and they’re very itchy, but they’re getting better. The black flies are still outside though, so I need to be careful haha!

Some of you may have noticed, but for the last week of June, I will take some days off for a camping trip with my husband and my friend! It will be the first time for me camping since I was a child, so I’m very excited for the experience! Of course, I’ll be posting photos as well.

But also for most of July, I will not work on Mondays (Canada time, Tuesdays Japan time), and only work 5 days a week. When August comes, I’ll be back to a regular schedule! :) Sorry if the change is invonvenient, but I’ll be back to normal in a few weeks!!

A loooong walk~

Hello again everyone! How is your May? It’s almost June, so hopefully that means nice summer weather!
As for me, this past weekend, I participate in “MS Walk”. It’s a charity walk to support people with the disease called “multiple sclerosis”, or “MS”. In Japanese, you say

多発性硬化症

Some of you know already, but I have this disease (it’s not so bad for me, so please don’t worry!) so I wanted to support research about it since I’m back in Canada. Hopefully I can make this a yearly tradition!

My friend joined me for the walk to support me. I also got a t-shirt. Unfortunately, it was too cold out to wear it, so I had to wear my sweater.

You can see that my spirits are high~! Hahaha

After about 30 minutes, we stopped at a McDonald’s to warm up a bit, and I got a sandwich. The breakfast sandwiches in Japan are actually much tastier, I was surprised!

After that, we turned off the main street and went through a nature trail. I was surprised, because I didn’t know about it. Here are some pictures from it; remember that this is in the middle of a city!

I’m glad I found a nice trail to hike when the weather gets warmer!

In the end, I walked over 8 kilometers for a bout 2 hours and 15 minutes!

It was a tough walk, especially at the end because it was allll uphill @.@ But I’m glad I did it!

I’m positive!

This is a confusing expression in English. Usually, when something is “positive”, it’s a good thing. But for a disease, if you are “positive”, that means you have that disease. And unfortunately, that’s what happened with me this week:

I caught coronavirus! :( I went to the hospital to visit my dad (He had knee surgery done, he’s okay!), and I must have caught it there.

Luckily, I’m okay, the symptoms aren’t so bad. :) I had 1 night of difficult sleep, but now everything is fine. Just gotta wait for me to not be contagious anymore.

When I’m 100%, I’ll be going to my dad’s house for a week or two to help him move around, so maybe you’ll see me with a different background than usual! ;)

Lesson learned… even though covid is less scary than before, it’s still around, and still a problem! Be careful out there everyone! <3

Spring has sprung!

Hello everyone! It looks like we’re finally out of the wintery weather (although I won’t be surprised if it snows again soon!), and things are starting to be a bit warm (that means about 10 C here!).

My father had knee surgery a few days ago, so I’ve been trying to help out as much as I can. He’s in the hospital now recovering, and when he gets out, I’ll go to my dad’s place for a little while to help out. I’ll still teach, but maybe you’ll see me in a different location! ;)

It was my step-mom’s birthday yesterday, and I took her to my favourite restaurant, Jungle Jim’s. Since it was her birthday, they gave her a free dessert, called a “Chimi Cheesecake”… it’s a deep-fried pastry with chocolate cheesecake filling. They’re quite delicious (and very unhealthy!)

She’s a very positive person, and she helps my father so much. I’m glad I was able to do something nice for her!

Dental Visit

So I went to the dentist on Monday for a checkup. This was a new dentist, so they took many pictures of my teeth. Here’s an x-ray!

One of my molars - the big teeth at the back of your mouth - had a cavity, and my first dentist recommended getting it filled. I went to another dentist (closer too!) to get a second opinion, and he agreed. So today, I had my cavity filled!

It was really painless, but it felt weird… when the anesthetic (the drug they use to have no pain) was used on my mouth, my teeth felt very strange and loose!

But in general, it was a very short procedure. How about any of you? Do you have much dental work done? Do you hate going to the dentist? (I don’t mind, I’m just lazy! @.@ )

Is Spring finally here?

Hello everyone! I hope my Japanese students have been enjoying sakura season! As for me, the snow is finally almost all melted! Although, of course, even yesterday we had some light snow…

As for me, I’ve hit the 150-lesson mark! So many lessons, and I’m happy you’re all keeping me busy after 5 months!! I’ve also been posting over on the new Facebook page, so go check it out if you haven’t already!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556965881363

I’m so excited to set up my new tent… I’m looking forward to doing a timelapse video to show the setup!

I’ve been doing lots of back exercises recently. Every day, I do some different kind of stretch, and, slowly but surely, the pain is disappearing…

Another small update this time! Hopefully more exciting stuff next time! See you then! :D

Happy April!

Hi everyone! Another update here, but nothing too exciting; That snowstorm really took me out of action, so the past few weeks have been focusing on physiotherapy and making lessons. So I don’t have many pictures of my life recently, sorry! ^^;

I’ve also been trying different strategies with Facebook advertising to spread the word around about my lessons!

The grass is starting to finally appear through the snow! I’m very excited for this summer because I’ll go tent-camping for the first time in a very long time! I’ll set up my new tent in the back yard to test it out , so you’d better believe I’ll have pictures of that process!!

See you all in class! :D

Another blog, another snowstorm!

Hello everyone! Are you tired of hearing me talk about snow? Because I am! Haha! This past weekend, we had a MAJOR snow storm, even worse than from a few weeks ago. It lasted for over 2 days, and this was the result:

My back and hands were still very sore from the previous storm, so my room mate and I agreed to call a company to take care of most of it for us. He came in a machine like this:

…but it was MUCH bigger. And thankfully, this was the result:

So then I had to shovel the rest, which still wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t so bad.

So now, my body is VERY sore. I started to go to physiotherapy. (“physio” comes from “physical”, which means “of the body”.)

Here are the stretches I was told to do every day:

I’m not sure if it’s working, but I’m trying my best to do them all every day!

And after the snow storm, it rained for a whole day, and it was VERY heavy rain. So the warmer weather melted a lot of the snow, and this is what it looks like now:

I hope this is the last time I will update you all on a snow storm D: I’m so tired of winter, haha!

“Putting my nose to the grindstone”

The title of this entry is an idiom! It means to start working at a hard pace! And that’s what March is for me. I’ve started advertising on Facebook (have any of you seen them?? :) ) and continued focusing on making new lessons. I’m almost at a big landmark; 100 lessons!

My plan is to have 20 lessons available from each level on the website, and when you make it past lesson 20, you can send me a request, and I’ll email the next batch to you! Some of you have already reached lesson 12 or 13 in your level - WOW! You’re really committed to English, and to helping me out. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you SO much! If you continue supporting me, I promise to continue working on English with you!

I’m thinking of starting to record some videos as well. Some short videos about English. Does anyone have any ideas, or points you’d like to see in a video? Let me know down below! :)

I’ll see you in class!

A difficult February!

Hello everyone! I’m sorry my blog has been quiet recently. We got hit with a killer snow storm; I’ve already shown some of you this picture, but here is what my driveway looked like the day after a 3-day storm!

So I had to shovel several times, and since then - about two weeks ago - my back has been super sore! @.@

In happier news, I was lucky enough to get some wonderful Chocolates from my students that I had in Japan! They were DELICIOUS, probably the best chocolates I’ve ever eaten from Japan!

I’m so lucky to have amazing students, both in the past, and right now! So if you’re reading this, you’ve made my life happier! :)

Finally, a bit of good news! I did some research on taxes in Canada, and I was able to get out of paying some tax! That’s why all of my prices are now 10% cheaper! It’s not a huge difference, but it saves you all a bit of money, and makes book keeping a little easier for me! :)

Now, it’s snowing again, so I need to go to bed and hope I don’t need to shovel so much tomorrow @.@

Let me know how the weather is in your area!! :D

Oh! I almost forgot! I’m dieting again, and I started January 2024 at 115 kilos. But now I’m at 105! My goal is to get back to 100 kilos by the end of March, here’s hoping!

Happy February!

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all been well! I’ve been okay. Some tough weather here recently, but some rain got rid of a lot of snow, so now there’s more room in the driveway. More room for me to throw more snow during our next storm :(

Not so much interesting in my life the past two weeks! I’ve been a bit sick, but I’m mostly recovered now. But here’s a peek at one of my favourite dishes to make: mini-pizzas!

First, I put pizza sauce (marinara) on English muffins!

Next is a later of spicy pepperoni!

Then I put (maybe a bit too much!) mozzarella cheese on top…

And cook it in the oven until the cheese is golden!

Interesting fact: Canadian stoves use Fahrenheit. Even though Canada uses the metric system in many ways (kilometers, food portions in grams, etc.), we also use the American Imperial measuring system for other tasks (height in feet, weight in pounds, etc.).

Also, I recently just posted my 80th lesson on the website! It’s exhausting making so many lessons, but I think they’re turning out nicely! Even if I miss some tiny mistakes now and then @.@

Almost done January!

Hey everyone! Sorry it’s been a while since my last blog. I’ve been a bit busy (and recently sick!) so not many interesting things have happened for me.

I made some cookies for me and my husband last week . They were very delicious, but they made me “fall behind on” my diet. “Fall behind on” means to lose progress, or have a setback.

Some were chocolate chip, others were chocolate chip with walnut!

I also put posters up around town on bus stops and at my local university. I hope I can get some local students as well as my lovely Japanese students!

So far, there are no new students…

I also created and launched the new Invite program, so if any of you know anyone who would like to learn English with me, check your email for the details! :D

As for right now, it’s -30 C here in Canada. So I’m gonna go to bed and try to get over this cold! See you all soon!!

The first big snow storm…

Hello again everyone! A few days ago, we experienced our first big snow storm of the year. It wasn’t very bad, but it was definitely the worst so far!

Here is the beginning. The driveway has my husband’s (new) car on the right, and our downstairs neighbours 2 cars on the left.

After a few hours, it looked like this, so I went out to do some very easy shoveling. It was light and fluffy, so it was no problem!

So I did that a few times, so that the snow wouldn’t build up so bad! But I had to go to sleep eventually.

I woke up in the morning, and the snowplow had gone through, pushing all of the snow on the street into the front of the driveway. This is always the WORST part of shoveling. Here, you can see what it looked like.

This stuff was much tougher, and heavier than the fluffy stuff I was shoveling earlier. And the driveway is VERY wide, so I had a LOT of work to do.

But eventually, I was done! I even did my neighbour’s side too!

Buuuut then soon after, the snowplow came by again, and pushed more snow back in….

Well, that’s the way Canadian winter goes. It’s very difficult, but I still love winter.

…But maybe I won’t after another snowstorm or two, haha! :)

Christmas and New Years!

Hello everyone! Happy New Year!! A little bit of a late update here, but I thought I’d show you all what my Christmas dinner with my family looked like!

Turkey, ham, and stuffing (stuffing is a savory bread mixture that is often cooked inside the turkey, and taken out after. Many people like it, but I don’t!)

Here is what most people would have had. Potatoes, carrots, and gravy (special pineapple gravy for the ham too!). Though my plate had no carrots or stuffing…

Here is another picture of me, my dad, my stepmom, and for the first time, my husband, Nick!

We’re wearing paper crowns from Christmas crackers, small tube that you pull apart and it makes a loud POP! sound. Inside, there is a cheap toy, a fortune, and a paper crown!

So that was my December 25th. After that, it was a lot of relaxing, and shoveling, as we had a bit more snow fall than we had earlier last month.

And of course, last night was New Year’s Eve, so here’s what my neighbourhood looked like!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2024! Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for being here with me on this exciting journey! I can’t wait to see you all more in the next year, and the years to come after that!!

Almost Christmas!

Hello everyone! How is your December so far? Remember all of that snow I showed you before? Well, it’s all melted now! It looks like it won’t be a white Christmas after all…

But I’ve wrapped all the presents I needed to! Some are for friends, and some are for family. After not being home for 7 years, it feels good to do Christmas shopping again, and give these to people in my life to put under their Christmas tree! (I didn’t put up my tree this year… next year for sure!)

And here’s another of my favourite holiday traditions; egg nog! It’s a thick, creamy milk type drink, with nutmeg and egg. It’s very delicious, and I never found any in Japan.

Behind, you can see a Canadian specialty; ketchup chips! They used to be my favourite, but nowadays I like Dill Pickle chips more!

Anyway, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and a very nice New Year! I hope I can continue to see you all in lessons, and to see more of you too!

(Remember the coupon code, “HAPPY2024” ! It’s good until Januar 14th!)

Group Lessons, and small price change

Hello everyone!

So I’m getting ready to add group lessons! I’m excited to offer it. However, while I was looking, I found I made a small error with the transaction fees for Stripe and PayPal, and the fee should be 5%, not 6%. It’s a tiny amount (about 30 yen per lesson), but it’s still a little bit annoying and too much money for you, my lovely students. So because of that mix up, and because group lessons will be added, I will have a 24%-off coupon that you can use once. It will be good for any lesson, man-to-man or group! (but not the bundles, sorry!)

I will send out an email soon with the news, but if you see the blog, you’ll have an early alert ;)

Small Snowstorm

We were hit with a little bit of a snow storm yesterday. It wasn’t too bad, but it was enough that I felt I should shovel the driveway. My husband and one of our housemates has a car, so even though I can’t drive, it’s important to keep it clear.

If I didn’t shovel regularly, the small layers of snow would freeze into a difficult surface to shovel in the future, so I’m gonna try to shovel every time it snows even a bit! Usually it takes hours and hours, but this time, it wasn’t so bad, about 15 minutes.

It’s going to be a loooong winter @.@

Getting Started

Today is November 26th, and I’ve just put my website live! It’s still very new, but I hope you all enjoy it as you can see it!

I’ve been working hard creating lessons during this month; I’ve created 50 so far, with more on the way!

The weather here in Canada is much colder than what I’d gotten used to in Japan; every day it’s below 0 C, and we get a liiiittle bit of snow every day. So far, it hasn’t lasted long, but that’ll change very soon.

For all of you reading this, please let me know what ideas you’d like to see added to the site! I’m excited to have you all on this journey with me, even if it’s a little scary!