12 September, 2015

Re-re-entry shock?

Enough of health updates. Here's a post I prepared a couple of weeks ago but never got to finish off.

My daily schedule has significantly changed from what it was in Australia, mostly because of how close we live to school, but also the after school activities that the boys are involved in, and, of course, that David is working as a full-time teacher again.
The school is only 300m from our house. Our boys walk
to and from school on their own and enjoy their
independence. I enjoy mine too!


Many school days looked like this for me in Australia:

8am leave for school on bikes
8.45 or later I arrive home
Add in here whatever it was that I did, including meetings, preparation, writing, reading, email, internet work, physio, talked to David (who was usually around) etc.
Lunch with David
2.20pm David left on bike to pick up boys and everyone was home by 3.
Around 6pm eat dinner so that one or more members of the family could get to an evening activity (youth group, Bible study, kids club etc.) 
On Monday nights we ate dinner in the car to and from wrestling, so a portable dinner was made that night.

Now:

7.40ish David leaves for school on foot
Between 8 and 8.25 the boys walk out the door to school on their own.
I make my own schedule that often includes walking or riding or walking to a train to to go appointments or meetings or grocery shopping. I make my own lunch. (David made them in Australia, usually.)
Between 4 and 4.30 my youngest comes home.
Between 5 and 6 my older two boys come home (they currently have after school cross-country training).
Somewhere around 5 David arrives home.
Somewhere between 6 and 7 we eat a leisurely dinner.
No one is out in the evening on a regular basis. 

Our weekend schedule is also very different. We're at the same church each week, usually having the afternoon to ourselves and usually have Saturday free also, though we're often going to sporting meets. Basically we have more privacy in Japan, we're not speaking in public and visiting lots of different groups on weekends. 

But it isn't a schedule that you might imagine for a "missionary", many missionaries are as busy as we were in Australia on weekends because they're working in churches and with Japanese people when they aren't at work.

Our lives are very different here, different in ways that one might not first guess. I like it (except that I get to see less of David and don't get such good bike riding in).

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