Our daily life at Mikuni International College

Our school building

Life here at our Mikuni is so busy but we love it! Many of you have asked about our schedule and what we do each day so here is an example of most week days:

6am-Geoff & I wake up, read scriptures, get read for the day etc.
7:30am-Geoff leaves for school with a van full of students for the first class at 8am & teaches class until 11)
7:30-12pm the girls and I are at home (I exercise & work on our business before the girls wake up & then we do breakfast, home school, dishes, laundry, cleaning etc. until we leave)
12pm-We join Geoff at the school and we all have lunch together with all the students and staff (we all take turns cooking for everyone)
1pm-Hana (and sometimes Aya) go to writing/computer class with the students
2pm-I teach my American Culture Class (So much fun!)
3-5pm Geoff works on class prep, administrative things etc. I work on organizing the school, finishing up home school with the girls, helping students with home work, cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, working on the school budget, planning upcoming activities etc.
5pm Dinner with everyone and clean up
6:30 or 7pm Take everyone home (on Monday nights we have FHE and on Saturdays we have movie nights so we stay longer on those days)
7:30pm I take Hana & Aya to the sento to get all 3 of us washed and bathed
8pm Family prayer & scripture study, Put the girls to bed
8-10PM Work on a few more things we didn't get done during the busy day, get ready for bed and relax a little if we can before bed.

Here we are in the study room gathered for FHE

On Saturdays we spend every other one driving to and shopping at Costco for the school meals for the next 2 weeks. It's a fun trip and I love getting to know the students better during the long drive. It's also fun to be at "real" stores as we live in the country and only have 1 small grocery store in our town. Then after we come back we have dinner and movie night with everyone, which is really fun.

On Sundays Geoff is in charge of conducting/organizing Sacrament meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood classes. I play the piano (though I'm working on helping some students be brave enough to do it!) give talks and teach lessons as needed and conduct Relief Society. The students are really helpful, conduct the music and give great talks and lessons when assigned too.  After the 3 hour block we prepare lunch and eat all together and then have free time the rest of the day.

And the reason we do all of this is because we love our amazing students so much! We want them to learn English well, be ready for college and grow spiritually so we have to be strict about schedules, homework and only speaking English at school but mostly just have a lot of fun with them.  We currently have 15 students, ages 17-21, 2 teachers (one is married so his fabulous wife is here with us too.) Geoff and I as the Principal and Vice Principal and our girls. Such a great experience for learning and growing for all of us here. Hana and Aya adore all of our students and are pretty sure they are all here to play and talk with them ;) I appreciate how the students are always so sweet with them and make them feel so loved and special. I was worried about how they would do since there are no other children here but they seem to be doing great with all of their older "brothers and sisters". I also love how our students just jump in and help with whatever is needed from shoveling snow to cleaning the school bathrooms, to making sure everyone is happy and included to setting up for the Sacrament. They are truly thoughtful teenagers/early 20 year olds! We love our Mikuni Family!  This helps a lot since we miss our families at home some much.

2 Ayas and 2 Hanas! Left to Right, Aya Nagano, Aya Biesinger, Hana Biesinger & Hana Ogawa

Playing in the snow in the school yard

Eating soft tacos

We have several amazing cooks in our school! This is the making of an awesome birthday cake.

On the ride to Costco. I thought it was hilarious to turn around and see Yuuichi covered in Hana's stuffed animals as she talked his ear off the whole way there! Good English listening practice for sure!

Some of our beautiful Mikuni ladies at an event we were invited to at a local hotel.

On the private bus that was sent to pick us up before the event at the hotel. Pretty nice!

This is in my American Culture class where I'm teaching everyone how to use google docs and Facebook.

Hana and Aya learning how to eat sukiyaki with Kisetsu. They thought it was pretty cool that you eat it with raw egg.

Some of our "Lodge Boys" (the school has some lodges as well as the apartments we live in. We call all the boys that live in the lodge "The Lodge Boys" and I've told them they need to start up a boys band :)

Basketball in our school gym.

The boys lined up for dinner (they always insist that all the girls go first!) Not sure what the dancing is all about but I love it!

Our Winter Semester students before the High School seniors joined us, along with our 2 awesome teachers.