Over the break at the end of January I traveled to Vietnam and found this interesting photo on the side of a temple.  There were many different pictures illustrating the consequences of good or bad actions.  This one teaches that if you are unfaithful you will be reborn as a dog to learn loyalty.  I thought that being reborn as a dog would a punishment but actually it’s a lesson!  I am sometimes lazy so maybe I will be reborn as an ant to learn hard work!  What animal would you be reborn as?  If you think this post is strange, don’t worry I’ll be back to running again next time!

This past weekend, I took a trip to Tokyo to visit my brother.  We had a great time walking around the city streets, taking in the all the sights and sounds of a bustling metropolis.  My brother and I love to people-watch and drift in and out of shops at our leisure, but our most favorite thing to do is eat.  There’s no doubt about it, my brother and I are gluttons.  We ate our way through Tokyo, enjoying everything from Middle Eastern food to more traditional bowls of ramen.  I think one of the highlights of our culinary tour was our stop at the Dominique Ansel bakery.  Dominique Ansel is a New York City pastry chef who invented the “cronut” back in the early 2010’s.  What is a cronut?  It is basically a pastry that is a croissant and donut fusion.  It’s chewy, sweet, and beautiful to look at.  We were lucky enough to grab a raspberry and praline flavored cronut.  It was delicious!  I don’t normally like donuts, but these special treats are definitely an exception for me. I can’t wait to go back and get another one!

(Just look at that bad mamma-jamma… YUM!)

みなさんこんにちは。

先日、英検の1次試験がありました。ハローズからもたくさんの生徒が受験しました。

来週には結果がわかりますが、3級以上を受験した子は3月に2次試験があります。

1次試験に合格した生徒とは、毎回特別2次試験対策練習をしています。

みんな合格に向けてがんばろう！

What is your favorite time of year?

Personally, I’m ready for spring!!!! To me, it feels like winter has been here for way too long! I am ready to say “GOOD BYE” to these cold days and “HELLO!!!” to the warmer days of spring! Ever since October I have been longing for long warm days filled with sunshine, open windows, birds singing, flowers, and lemonade. No more cold, gray, snowy, or cold rain days for me! I am ready to just skip February and head straight to spring!

I was just looking through some pictures recently and I came across this photo of cherry blossoms I took and it really got me thinking about how much I love spring, summer, and fall. So COME ON SPRING!!! Get here soon! I miss you!!!

アメリカで行われる映画の祭典・アカデミー賞の発表まで、残り20日になりました！

担当している高校生にOscars ballot（アカデミー賞投票用紙）を配布し、

作品賞・監督賞・脚本賞・主演男優賞・主演女優賞・助演男優賞・助演女優賞

外国語映画賞・主題歌賞・長編アニメーション賞

の10部門を予測してもらいました。日本でまだ公開されていないものもあるので、

ノミネートされた映画の内容を簡単に説明したり、アカデミー賞の前に発表される

他の映画賞の結果を教えたりして、みんなで考えました。

誰が一番多く受賞作品・受賞者を当てられるのか楽しみです。