I for "In the Mood"

These days, I'm in the mood of going out. It's really BEAUTIFUL outside! The trees I see on my way to work have turned colours to vivid red and yellow. I realized how much I love those colours. That's why I like fall. (By the way, I love spring, too. I like "in-between" seasons.)

However, I'm not active enough to go out without a plan. Some kind of plans are always necessary to make me move. Fortunately, I recently got some invitations to get me out to the city. Last Tuesday was Labour Thanksgiving Day in Japan, and one of my friends was participating a concert as an orchestra member. It had been so long since I went to the recital last, so I was happy to visit there to hear her (and the members') performance. It was great. And tomorrow, I'm going to another classical music concert, this time, with my friend. We are going to have lunch together before the concert, so I'm excited to have a chat with her to catch up. Additionally, I'm going to have another outing to my friend's place on Tuesday, and hang out with another on Wednesday the week after next. I have been a bit away from my friends lately, so I'm looking forward to spend some time with nice people.

In the office, I'm now working on ESL materials to teach basic grammar and phonics. These are for the new reading program that will be launched next July, and the purpose is not to make students learn rules by heart but to let them understand English language briefly so that they can read easy books. Teaching tools are mainly made on Power Point, so I'm getting better at using this software day by day. Except the sharp pain in my shoulders, I like creating something on PC. But the difficult part is how to introduce the teaching points "briefly." I'm doing my best to be in learner's shoes, but still, nobody is sure whether the materials are useful enough until we actually start using them. Moreover, it takes time to conjure one material. My boss understands my situation pretty well and let me work more hours. I need to go back to the planning chart again to schedule how fast I have to complete each task.

The town is already filled with Christmas decorations. I started to think about Christmas shopping, but I won't spill the beans about the gifts! Well, though no one who I'm going to see in December is reading this journal.......just in case. ;)