Hanami and BBQ April 4th!

Hey everyone!

Long time, no blogging, eh?

How have you all been? Hopefully good!

Is everyone excited for the cherry blossoms? I know I am. I am crossing my fingers that we have good weather next week for our cherry blossoms viewing party/BBQ. If not though, that is OK, we will either have an umbrella party or go to karaoke instead (which will be equally fun).

You still have time to sign-up, so if you would like to join please let us know!

cross my fingers - 幸運を祈るよ

The new ryugaku website is up!

Thanks to some hard work on the part of Mr. Oonishi, I am proud to announce that we now have a new and beautiful ryugaku site! Please give it a look when you have some time! www.connection-ryugaku.com or you can click on the link at the top left of the page.

If you are interested, please take a look at our Banff trip that we will be taking at the end of February. Highlights of this trip include: English lessons, skiing and snowboarding, paintball, a helicopter ride and more.

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Also, in other news, Bryan dropped this bomb on us tonight:

"You can't lock yourself in a box and expect to achieve anything."

Very deep stuff, with which I must agree.

Vocab

on the part of (someone) - （だれか）のお陰で

to announce (v.) - お知らせする

to drop a bomb on (someone) (v.) - 爆弾発言をする

to achieve (v.) - 達成する

New Hugo Pics!

Monika warming to her role as "big sister."

Hugo learning how to count.

Vocab

to warm to (something) (v.) - 慣れる

role (n.) - 役割

Hugo!

All of us at Connection would like to send our congratulations to James and his wife on their new baby boy Hugo!

Hugo came into this world December 8th, 2009, weighing 3900 grams.

He has James' lips! ;o)

Recently...

Hello friends! Long time, no blogging, eh? Well, I apologize for that! Things have been very busy here at Connection.

First, Kyoko and Liam’s departure was a very bittersweet event. To say goodbye we had a very nice 40-person get-together at Bali Lax in Umeda. We had some very nice Southeast Asian food and some nice drinks as well to mark the occasion. We were all very sad to see her leave of course, but we hope that this opportunity will be a great one for her, full of excitement and happiness.

If anyone does not have her contact info and would like to get a hold of her in Canada to see how her and Liam are doing, please call or email us at the office and we would be happy to provide you with it. In other news, I am happy to say that we have some big things coming up.

December 19th, we have our 6th annual Christmas party at Jeudi Café in Kita-Horie. I am really looking forward to it. The café has a very nice atmosphere and good food as well. Also, famed rakugo performer and balloon artist Diane Kichijitsu will be there to entertain the crowd.

We also have a very exciting trip to Banff planned for the end of February. It will be an 8-day all-inclusive trip to Alberta, Canada to study English, go skiing/snowboarding and have a very good time. There will be information sessions for the Banff trip on December 20th and 27th and also January 9th, 10th and 11th, all starting from 15:00 at our Shinsaibashi location.

Many of you may have noticed a very happy, larger gentleman around the office recently. He is Bryan’s new bodyguard. No, no, I’m just joking. He is of course our new marketing manager and teacher James. James comes to us from New Zealand via Australia. We are very happy to welcome him to our family and to get to know him better so please don't be overwhelmed by his rugged good looks and ask him an exciting question next time you see him!

Vocabulary

eh? - ですね。

departure - 出発

bittersweet - ほろ苦い

get-together - だんらん, パーティ

to mark the occasion - 特別な日を記念する

opportunity - 機会

excitement - 興奮

to get a hold of -　連絡を取り続ける

to provide - 知らせる

coming up - 迫っている

annual - 周年

atmosphere - 雰囲気

famed - 著名な

to entertain - 披露する

crowd - 大衆

all-inclusive - すべて込みの、包括的な

information sessions - 説明会

to notice - 気づく

to get to know - 知るようになる、知り合う

via - まで

to be overwhelmed by - ～に圧倒される

rugged good looks - いかつい美貌