Saturday, December 29, 2012
Mail :D
Ok, so there are fun postcards and stationary stuff here so if you want me to send you postcards now and again or letters feel free to email me your address and I'll write you stuff ^-^.
Spirited Away
Ok, so I wasn't really spirited away in the same sense, but today I had a surprise visit and outing, so close enough ^-^. I unfortunately slept in, thanks to me 2nd alarm not going off, so now I have to wait until Wednesday to take my trash out -.-........for those of you who don't know in Japan you don't put your trash outside, you wait until designated trash days where you take your trash to a dump site where it is picked up and taken to wherever. So I can only take my trash out on Wednesdays and Saturdays.....seeing as I live alone it's really not too bad and I can go without the second day....but sadly I have a relatively full bag, and now I get to wait and hope it doesn't start to stink xppp. Anyhoo, that aside I was just sitting in bed trying to decide what to eat when the door bell rang, so I scrambled up and tried to look as awake as possible and it was the delivery guy with my snow boots that I ordered. Less than 2 minutes after I closed the door and took the package in the doorbell rings again and it's Sadea-san (the older lady who helps me run the adult teaching class at the community center) and she wanted to go out and eat lunch and chat and stuff. So I quickly threw on clothes and such and was whisked away to a nice small restaurant and then to her house for some mini potato-things and coffee and tea. The mini potato things are really cool, they are the size of a half dollar to a quarter and look like, well, mini potatoes, and you can easily peel them with just your fingers. And then you eat them and they taste kinda of sweet, not quite as sweet as a sweet potato, maybe more similar to a red potato in a way. Anyway, it was a lot of fun hanging out and she showed me pics sent from the first ALT to her of their family and kids, and we just sat and chatted ^^.
The day before that I was asked to join a last-minute get-together with two of Kita Elementary's teachers, Kamimura-san, Chika-san and their friend at a nearby restaurant. It was a lot of fun, their friend teaches English in a town nearby and can speak it really well and he was talking about watching the Little Mermaid in English and having to look up the phrase "take it from me" in the song "Under the Sea" because he wasn't sure what it meant.......it's always fun to have phrases like that pointed out, because you don't really realize how many things are said but aren't easily understood by foreigners until you spend a lot of time with foreigners.....though I guess here I'm the foreigner lol, but ya know what I mean ^^. Anyway, it was a lot of fun hanging out, I got to eat some of a 'century old egg' which wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, definitely expecting a more fermented nasty taste, but it didn't really taste all that bad. And the oyster sauce (kakisa-su) fried rice at that restaurant is really really good ^-^. Anyway, this is a short post, but more are on their way shortly, figured it's easier to separate the subjects and put them in different posts rather than one giant blob. So on to the next post ^^.
The day before that I was asked to join a last-minute get-together with two of Kita Elementary's teachers, Kamimura-san, Chika-san and their friend at a nearby restaurant. It was a lot of fun, their friend teaches English in a town nearby and can speak it really well and he was talking about watching the Little Mermaid in English and having to look up the phrase "take it from me" in the song "Under the Sea" because he wasn't sure what it meant.......it's always fun to have phrases like that pointed out, because you don't really realize how many things are said but aren't easily understood by foreigners until you spend a lot of time with foreigners.....though I guess here I'm the foreigner lol, but ya know what I mean ^^. Anyway, it was a lot of fun hanging out, I got to eat some of a 'century old egg' which wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, definitely expecting a more fermented nasty taste, but it didn't really taste all that bad. And the oyster sauce (kakisa-su) fried rice at that restaurant is really really good ^-^. Anyway, this is a short post, but more are on their way shortly, figured it's easier to separate the subjects and put them in different posts rather than one giant blob. So on to the next post ^^.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Looooooong time no post
Sorry for the lack of posting, been busy and lazy and neither of those things lead to updates on a blog. Anyhoo, I'll probably have to blog stuff in chunks to catch everyone up, and winter break is almost here so I should be able to spit them out rather quickly. Ok, so I don't have my camera with me so I'll do the posts that don't really need pics first.
~ The other day I was greated by a Kindergarten student running up to me yelling ''Mary-sensei, diasuki!'' which means that he loves me. So that was a sweet way to start the day, and then the teacher let me color and decorate my own xmas tree with the class which was sweet of her, though I still hit a bit of a language barrier with this teacher so it's still a bit rough at that school, but hopefully it won't be for too much longer, I'm getting quite a bit better at Japanese.
~ People in Japan like soulfull early 90s, late 80s music, especially 'xmas' music, like ''Last Christmas'' and ''Winter Song''....I find this rather amusing, the teachers were talking about how popular the songs were though I maybe only ever heard them once or twice prior to coming here. Though you can probably imagine how surprised I was when they said, ''We're going to sing and listen to xmas music today'' and then those songs came on. Also, I saw some stickers with Alphabet letters and a picture for each letter, like A and a pic of an apple....and the letter X had and xmas tree lol. ....well this is a short update, more will be posted this weekend and I'll try to get pics up. I gotta get ready for an office party type thing with the JHS teachers....so I'll report on that and the rest of the stuff later.....also I may have to start designating some posts to just food lol, I've had a lot of fun cooking ''American'' dishes from scratch.
~ The other day I was greated by a Kindergarten student running up to me yelling ''Mary-sensei, diasuki!'' which means that he loves me. So that was a sweet way to start the day, and then the teacher let me color and decorate my own xmas tree with the class which was sweet of her, though I still hit a bit of a language barrier with this teacher so it's still a bit rough at that school, but hopefully it won't be for too much longer, I'm getting quite a bit better at Japanese.
~ People in Japan like soulfull early 90s, late 80s music, especially 'xmas' music, like ''Last Christmas'' and ''Winter Song''....I find this rather amusing, the teachers were talking about how popular the songs were though I maybe only ever heard them once or twice prior to coming here. Though you can probably imagine how surprised I was when they said, ''We're going to sing and listen to xmas music today'' and then those songs came on. Also, I saw some stickers with Alphabet letters and a picture for each letter, like A and a pic of an apple....and the letter X had and xmas tree lol. ....well this is a short update, more will be posted this weekend and I'll try to get pics up. I gotta get ready for an office party type thing with the JHS teachers....so I'll report on that and the rest of the stuff later.....also I may have to start designating some posts to just food lol, I've had a lot of fun cooking ''American'' dishes from scratch.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Jr. High School's culture festival was fun, I got some applause for telling the students that I knew the opening dance to Haruhi lol. It was a lot of fun seeing the students do relay races and little skits on the stage...though I wish I brought my other camera's memory card that way I could have recorded more of it. Some of the teachers joined in on the skits (dancing and lip syncing and singing to songs, and one played the guitar) so that was a hoot because the teachers and the students really got into it. If you want to see pictures or anything from that day ask me and I'll email you some pictures, but I don't want to post stuff openly since I don't have their permission to do so.
Yesterday I got to go to a band concert with one of the Elementary schools (though all of the schools in Sanpoku went to the same thing) and I got to see the JR High band students perform with some older band people. It was really good, and the students really enjoyed it for the most part. After the JR High band played a few songs with them the other band played songs and then marched some stuff and had a small color guard and all. It was rather interesting how they kept segueing back into the James Bond theme (James Bond seems to be rather popular here)...but they'd play Bond's theme, then go into something like Live And Let Die, then back to Bond and such...it was well done and very fun to watch and listent to, and I was tapping my toes in rythm of their marching because I'm a dork like that lol. Though it was sad, one of the director people came and tried to talk to me and I couldn't figure out everything that he was trying to say to me, so I flagged down a teacher for him to talk to and from what I could tell he was just inquiring about me....I understood some of what he was saying, but not enough to respond properly :P oh well, one of these days lol. Oh and I tried to get some of the Jr High students (mostly boys) to guess the password so they could come into the room to get their shoes and this is how it went:
Yesterday I got to go to a band concert with one of the Elementary schools (though all of the schools in Sanpoku went to the same thing) and I got to see the JR High band students perform with some older band people. It was really good, and the students really enjoyed it for the most part. After the JR High band played a few songs with them the other band played songs and then marched some stuff and had a small color guard and all. It was rather interesting how they kept segueing back into the James Bond theme (James Bond seems to be rather popular here)...but they'd play Bond's theme, then go into something like Live And Let Die, then back to Bond and such...it was well done and very fun to watch and listent to, and I was tapping my toes in rythm of their marching because I'm a dork like that lol. Though it was sad, one of the director people came and tried to talk to me and I couldn't figure out everything that he was trying to say to me, so I flagged down a teacher for him to talk to and from what I could tell he was just inquiring about me....I understood some of what he was saying, but not enough to respond properly :P oh well, one of these days lol. Oh and I tried to get some of the Jr High students (mostly boys) to guess the password so they could come into the room to get their shoes and this is how it went:
Me: *with arms out blocking the Jr High kids from coming in the door and smirking* What's the password??
Students (mostly boys): *look of complete horror and confusion and one boy mimics me and puts his arms out with a confused look*
Me: What's the password. You know, Password?
Students: *still confused and panicked looking* *boy who mimicked me and put his hands out gets this look of 'I get it'...on his face.....then comes forward and hugs me w/ a big smile on his face* *other students look really panicked now and also in awe and some 'oh is that what she meant?'*
Me: *confused and giving myself a mental facepalm* well...that's not....ok....good enough....you can come in
Students: *now look happy and relieved*
Me: (.......maybe I should explain what passwords are next time I have class with them......)
The fall colors are coming in, but it's been really rainy so I haven't had a chance to get out and take pictures, and when it's not rainy I'm usually stuck at school until it's dark out....so maybe this weekend I can get out and take some pictures....I just hope the rain and wind haven't knocked down too many of the leaves :p. Oh, I made No Bake cookies, they turned out ok, I used Skippy so they weren't as tasty as they are with Jiff, but I didn't want to use Jiff b/c I can't find it here and I wanted to take the cookies to work to share with people, and I didn't want them to taste how they'd be with a peanut butter they can't really use.....I figured that that'd be a litttle mean.......but one of the teachers asked for the recipe and so I wrote it out and wrote down metric conversions of the measurements and drew pictures and we got it all sorted out so hopefully she has good luck, I warned her that the cookies sometimes don't freeze up right, so she may need to put them in the refridgerator.
I've been playing an interesting version of dodgeball at one of my Elementary schools, you have this big rectangle area (like that of a volleyball/basketball court) and two teams, and the typical no crossing the halfway line....but when you hit someone they go to stand around the perameter of the enemies half and if they get the ball and hit one of the opposing teammates they get to go back to their side....and whoever doesn't have anyone left on their side (in their court) they loose.....so it's really interesting and as the game gets going if your team knocks out enough opponents there are times where you're just running around trying to avoid the ball coming at you from all sides of the small court area because the other team is on all sides of your perameter......anyhoo it's really fun, esp because if you get hit you can still play and not be paranoid about dodging the ball :D.
Some monkeys came back to the one elementary but left before I could see them (and I brought my camera with me that time -.-) but it was funy b/c the teacher asked me if I wanted to hunt monkeys with him and he had the long stick they use to close high-up windows in his hand and another teacher was pulling out an airsoft gun lol, they were all serious and I was trying not to laugh ^^. But yeah, sadly they went back into the woods before I got a chance to take a pic and see them try to scare the monkeys off. Though in a way I'm glad b\c it's a family of monkeys and I don't really want to be around an angry family of monkeys o.0......I can't remember what else I wanted to post so I guess I'll either post it later or remember it at very inconvenient times and/or forget about it.....anyhoodle, hopefully I keep this trend of posting more often, eh?
Students (mostly boys): *look of complete horror and confusion and one boy mimics me and puts his arms out with a confused look*
Me: What's the password. You know, Password?
Students: *still confused and panicked looking* *boy who mimicked me and put his hands out gets this look of 'I get it'...on his face.....then comes forward and hugs me w/ a big smile on his face* *other students look really panicked now and also in awe and some 'oh is that what she meant?'*
Me: *confused and giving myself a mental facepalm* well...that's not....ok....good enough....you can come in
Students: *now look happy and relieved*
Me: (.......maybe I should explain what passwords are next time I have class with them......)
The fall colors are coming in, but it's been really rainy so I haven't had a chance to get out and take pictures, and when it's not rainy I'm usually stuck at school until it's dark out....so maybe this weekend I can get out and take some pictures....I just hope the rain and wind haven't knocked down too many of the leaves :p. Oh, I made No Bake cookies, they turned out ok, I used Skippy so they weren't as tasty as they are with Jiff, but I didn't want to use Jiff b/c I can't find it here and I wanted to take the cookies to work to share with people, and I didn't want them to taste how they'd be with a peanut butter they can't really use.....I figured that that'd be a litttle mean.......but one of the teachers asked for the recipe and so I wrote it out and wrote down metric conversions of the measurements and drew pictures and we got it all sorted out so hopefully she has good luck, I warned her that the cookies sometimes don't freeze up right, so she may need to put them in the refridgerator.
I've been playing an interesting version of dodgeball at one of my Elementary schools, you have this big rectangle area (like that of a volleyball/basketball court) and two teams, and the typical no crossing the halfway line....but when you hit someone they go to stand around the perameter of the enemies half and if they get the ball and hit one of the opposing teammates they get to go back to their side....and whoever doesn't have anyone left on their side (in their court) they loose.....so it's really interesting and as the game gets going if your team knocks out enough opponents there are times where you're just running around trying to avoid the ball coming at you from all sides of the small court area because the other team is on all sides of your perameter......anyhoo it's really fun, esp because if you get hit you can still play and not be paranoid about dodging the ball :D.
Some monkeys came back to the one elementary but left before I could see them (and I brought my camera with me that time -.-) but it was funy b/c the teacher asked me if I wanted to hunt monkeys with him and he had the long stick they use to close high-up windows in his hand and another teacher was pulling out an airsoft gun lol, they were all serious and I was trying not to laugh ^^. But yeah, sadly they went back into the woods before I got a chance to take a pic and see them try to scare the monkeys off. Though in a way I'm glad b\c it's a family of monkeys and I don't really want to be around an angry family of monkeys o.0......I can't remember what else I wanted to post so I guess I'll either post it later or remember it at very inconvenient times and/or forget about it.....anyhoodle, hopefully I keep this trend of posting more often, eh?
Friday, October 26, 2012
stuffs
Ok....long time no blog...sorry for the delay, anyhoo, let`s see.. Here's a basic highlight reel, feel free to ask for more details on anything, just post a comment asking for more info and I'll post more........
Well the third grade class got to ask me questions and tell me something about themselves a while ago, and to help them remember how to say certain things in English they wrote down hints and pronunciation and words on their hands so they`d start talking w/ their hand held out as if they were holding a slip of paper, but lo and behold they were reading off of their hand lol. One kid actually had a slip of paper and a few kids were brave enough to not write anything down, but the majority of them had stuff written on their hands (and one kid had stuff that extended onto his arm a bit lol)
Oddly enough it seems that people in Japan understand that syrup goes on pancakes, yet the ratio of available pancake mixes to syrup is way off balance, there is a lot, a whole lot of pancake mixes (a good chunk of them like Bisquick that can be used for other things too) but very little pancake syrup, and the syrup usually comes in very tiny bottles that are expensive....just something that makes me wonder as to why it's so off balanced when they seem to agree that syrup on pancakes is a given and you can find it in restaurants but not stores -.-......
One of the elementary school got two sheep to take care of. They are young sheep, brother and sister, and just old enough to strike out on their own....they were kind of terrified at first, though who wouldn't be after going on their first truck ride and then the first contact w/ a lot of people were 1st-3rd graders that were squealing with glee and making a lot of noise and quick movements.....but the sheep have since calmed down and seem to enjoy the kids, especially at recess where a bunch of them clean out their pen and gather food for them to eat and there's always a group that goes hunting for the specific tree leaves that the sheep really like to eat lol. And if I am out there with them a few of the kids start singing ``Mary had a little lamb`` in japanese lol.
The soccer tournament I played at was a lot of fun, I ended up playing in 7 or 8 45min games (half field), though the last one was shortened to 30 min (thankfully b/c everyone was exhausted by that point). The ride down was long but a lot of fun, we sang disney songs and had fun in conversations and ran around a sports store and such.....and on the way back we were all groaning and moaning every time we had to get in and out of the car b/c we were all so sore lol ^^.
Had Sport`s Day at one of the Kindergartens which was fun, I got to participate in tug-of-war with the parents and grandparents, as well as a relay race :). The students were very happy to have me there and it was a lot of fun to watch, and it was great how they had activities for the parents/grandparents/siblings that way the kindergartners could cheer on their family while they took a break^^.
I got to make a recording for a test w/ my JTEs (Japanese teachers of English), which was interesting and I only messed up once lol, though it was with the one teacher that I tend to mess up more around, but oh well, if I started out too gracefully they`d get surprised when I flubbed up, so at least this way I can be amazing for not messing up ^^....but in all sense it wasn`t a big flub...the 1st JTE had me repeat the # of the question before saying the question a second time, and the 2nd one didn`t want me to but I did on one of the questions, so not a huge mistake lol, but enough of one to where we had to re-do it and such. One of the other mess-ups that I have had with the 2nd teacher was in class where he asked me to tell the students to clear their desk so that we could start the lesson in the textbook....a simple enough command ``clear your desk`` but what tripped me up for some reason was that their textbooks were on their desk and he just wanted the worksheet to be put away, and when I said put away the worksheet I got confused looks b/c that wasn`t something they`ve heard...and so the JTE told me ``no, tell them to clear their desk, like I always do``, which added to the confusion b/c he doesn`t say that that often and I couldn`t remember when he gave an order to put the worksheet away but didn`t use the phrase ``put your ws away`` and used ``clear`` instead of ``put`` but doing that doesn`t make any sense b/c ``clear your ws`` would mean to erase the stuff on it and wouldn`t really translate to ``put it away``......anyhoo all of this was running through my head while I gave him a confused look and he kinda sighed annoyingly and said, ``ok, clear the worksheet`` and they put their worksheet away -.-, which still leaves me at odds with that phrase, it doesn`t make much sense to me, but it`s the one that gets the students to put their worksheets away so I guess it works?? idk I`m still kinda confused by the whole thing, b/c you`d think he would have been ok w/ me saying ``put your ws away``....anyhoo so that was a rather odd and confusing mess up, but like I said, at least it now gives me a bit of room to where he doesn`t expect perfection of me lol.
I went to the Culture Festival at one of the elementary schools (I was unfortunately informed after the fact that the other elem. had one the same day -.-), and that was fun, I got to meet some parents and see some of the student`s art projects and see a comedian they invited in.....though the other school`s students just used the next time that I taught there to show me stuff that they had displayed at the festival, so at least I got to see some of the stuff from both schools ^^..........let`s see what else......the Junior High`s culture festival is this weekend, as well as an outing with the teachers at a restaurant....so that should be fun......and that`s going to be it for now, I`m tired of sitting around :p so off to do something else, prob go get some food to cook for dinner.......
Well the third grade class got to ask me questions and tell me something about themselves a while ago, and to help them remember how to say certain things in English they wrote down hints and pronunciation and words on their hands so they`d start talking w/ their hand held out as if they were holding a slip of paper, but lo and behold they were reading off of their hand lol. One kid actually had a slip of paper and a few kids were brave enough to not write anything down, but the majority of them had stuff written on their hands (and one kid had stuff that extended onto his arm a bit lol)
Oddly enough it seems that people in Japan understand that syrup goes on pancakes, yet the ratio of available pancake mixes to syrup is way off balance, there is a lot, a whole lot of pancake mixes (a good chunk of them like Bisquick that can be used for other things too) but very little pancake syrup, and the syrup usually comes in very tiny bottles that are expensive....just something that makes me wonder as to why it's so off balanced when they seem to agree that syrup on pancakes is a given and you can find it in restaurants but not stores -.-......
One of the elementary school got two sheep to take care of. They are young sheep, brother and sister, and just old enough to strike out on their own....they were kind of terrified at first, though who wouldn't be after going on their first truck ride and then the first contact w/ a lot of people were 1st-3rd graders that were squealing with glee and making a lot of noise and quick movements.....but the sheep have since calmed down and seem to enjoy the kids, especially at recess where a bunch of them clean out their pen and gather food for them to eat and there's always a group that goes hunting for the specific tree leaves that the sheep really like to eat lol. And if I am out there with them a few of the kids start singing ``Mary had a little lamb`` in japanese lol.
The soccer tournament I played at was a lot of fun, I ended up playing in 7 or 8 45min games (half field), though the last one was shortened to 30 min (thankfully b/c everyone was exhausted by that point). The ride down was long but a lot of fun, we sang disney songs and had fun in conversations and ran around a sports store and such.....and on the way back we were all groaning and moaning every time we had to get in and out of the car b/c we were all so sore lol ^^.
Had Sport`s Day at one of the Kindergartens which was fun, I got to participate in tug-of-war with the parents and grandparents, as well as a relay race :). The students were very happy to have me there and it was a lot of fun to watch, and it was great how they had activities for the parents/grandparents/siblings that way the kindergartners could cheer on their family while they took a break^^.
I got to make a recording for a test w/ my JTEs (Japanese teachers of English), which was interesting and I only messed up once lol, though it was with the one teacher that I tend to mess up more around, but oh well, if I started out too gracefully they`d get surprised when I flubbed up, so at least this way I can be amazing for not messing up ^^....but in all sense it wasn`t a big flub...the 1st JTE had me repeat the # of the question before saying the question a second time, and the 2nd one didn`t want me to but I did on one of the questions, so not a huge mistake lol, but enough of one to where we had to re-do it and such. One of the other mess-ups that I have had with the 2nd teacher was in class where he asked me to tell the students to clear their desk so that we could start the lesson in the textbook....a simple enough command ``clear your desk`` but what tripped me up for some reason was that their textbooks were on their desk and he just wanted the worksheet to be put away, and when I said put away the worksheet I got confused looks b/c that wasn`t something they`ve heard...and so the JTE told me ``no, tell them to clear their desk, like I always do``, which added to the confusion b/c he doesn`t say that that often and I couldn`t remember when he gave an order to put the worksheet away but didn`t use the phrase ``put your ws away`` and used ``clear`` instead of ``put`` but doing that doesn`t make any sense b/c ``clear your ws`` would mean to erase the stuff on it and wouldn`t really translate to ``put it away``......anyhoo all of this was running through my head while I gave him a confused look and he kinda sighed annoyingly and said, ``ok, clear the worksheet`` and they put their worksheet away -.-, which still leaves me at odds with that phrase, it doesn`t make much sense to me, but it`s the one that gets the students to put their worksheets away so I guess it works?? idk I`m still kinda confused by the whole thing, b/c you`d think he would have been ok w/ me saying ``put your ws away``....anyhoo so that was a rather odd and confusing mess up, but like I said, at least it now gives me a bit of room to where he doesn`t expect perfection of me lol.
I went to the Culture Festival at one of the elementary schools (I was unfortunately informed after the fact that the other elem. had one the same day -.-), and that was fun, I got to meet some parents and see some of the student`s art projects and see a comedian they invited in.....though the other school`s students just used the next time that I taught there to show me stuff that they had displayed at the festival, so at least I got to see some of the stuff from both schools ^^..........let`s see what else......the Junior High`s culture festival is this weekend, as well as an outing with the teachers at a restaurant....so that should be fun......and that`s going to be it for now, I`m tired of sitting around :p so off to do something else, prob go get some food to cook for dinner.......
Sunday, September 16, 2012
So quiet in the peanut gallery ;)
.I'm kind of surprised you've all been quietly waiting >.> I kinda took a while to post again.....anyhoo ^^.....Ok....let's see what all has gone down since my last post .....I bought some flowers b/c the yard is rather bare, though it still is since the flowers are on my little stoop and not in the yard....but that is beside the point, they still help add color to the front of the house^^. Umm, I ran into some of my elementary school students while I was shopping, it was very amusing. They were with their parents and when they saw me their jaws dropped and had a "holy crap it's my teacher, but outside of school" look of disbelief on their face lol. But after that initial shock of running into their teacher outside of the school they cheered up and gave me huge smiles and said hello :). There was a beach BBQ party the other day which was pretty fun. It was nice to meet up with people and just relax on the beach ^^. After the party two people crashed at my place, Phylicia and Cat, and then we went to Murakami to see the Castle ruins, which were on top of a small mountain and you had to walk up...which wasn't too bad, but once you reach the top there's a sign that basically says "congrats you reached the start of ruins and you have a lot more hiking up and down and around the mountain if you want to see them all. Since it was really hot and humid and tired (and Cat and Phylicia wanted to head out to a festival in Niigata) we decided the bits of the ruin at the start were good for now and that we'll go there again later. After they headed off to the city I went back home and then ventured to the small town just north of mine to take some cool pics of the sunset :), pictures can be found on facebook and I'll load them to flickr later (but flickr is being difficult so idk when that'll be).
Ummm....what else.....not really too much that I can think of...I tried to find some soccer shoes but to no avail, one store told me they can order some (only two brands in their catalog went to me size) but it was going to cost like $100 something so I told them I'll keep trying.....I was told to check out a bigger city, but I might try amazon and another website first....Ummm, oh there was an earthquake drill at one of the Elementary schools while I was there. Basically the alarm sounds they hide under their desks and then once it's clear they go to the gym and do role call and that was it for the drill, but they also had an earthquake simulator outside. The simulator is like the size of a small moving truck, where the back part is rigged to shake around, and the students get into the special section and sit at some chairs by a table and then it shakes like an earthquake and then that's it. They all seemed to really enjoy it, and hte teachers kept trying to get me to go do it too, but we literally ate lunch 20 minutes or so before this happened and I wasn't about to loose my lunch. The teachers all had a good laugh when I told them "No earthquakes after lunch", but they agreed that yeah, it wasn't the best time to be rattled around in an earthquake simulation thing lol. But yeah, the kids had a blast and it was fun to watch^^. Oh and my Junior High kids had a good laugh at my expense...one day I was just not with it (most likely b/c it was a late night and I was woken up in the middle of the night by a cat yowling outside of my window -.-). I went to go to class ahead of the teacher b/c he forgot something so I started to go to the 3rd floor...but the 3rd year students are on the 1st floor, I remembered this halfway up the first flight and turned around....and then I couldn't remember whether it was class A or B, and both classes didn't have a teacher in them yet, so I walked into class A. After me standing there for a few seconds and saying hi to them one student says "This isn't English class". So I hang my head and reply "Really" and then dramatically slump toward the door to play up the moment (I figured I should at least get a good laugh/story out of this) but then perked up just before the door and cheerfully went back to the front of the class saying "Naah, It's English class now, you're stuck with me." Which they all cheered (this made me feel loved ^^), but then I told them that sadly I couldn't change their class around like that and went to my real class. Walk into my class and the teacher is already there and gave me really confused look, so I told him (loud enough for the students to hear) how I went upstairs, to take the senic route, then to the wrong class and such...which got everyone giggling but as far as I can tell no one thinks less of me for doing this.....and I'm glad that I did this toward the start of the year rather than in the middle b/c then I wouldn't have much of an excuse lol. ......anyhoodle that's all that I can think of for now, so adios. ^^
Ummm....what else.....not really too much that I can think of...I tried to find some soccer shoes but to no avail, one store told me they can order some (only two brands in their catalog went to me size) but it was going to cost like $100 something so I told them I'll keep trying.....I was told to check out a bigger city, but I might try amazon and another website first....Ummm, oh there was an earthquake drill at one of the Elementary schools while I was there. Basically the alarm sounds they hide under their desks and then once it's clear they go to the gym and do role call and that was it for the drill, but they also had an earthquake simulator outside. The simulator is like the size of a small moving truck, where the back part is rigged to shake around, and the students get into the special section and sit at some chairs by a table and then it shakes like an earthquake and then that's it. They all seemed to really enjoy it, and hte teachers kept trying to get me to go do it too, but we literally ate lunch 20 minutes or so before this happened and I wasn't about to loose my lunch. The teachers all had a good laugh when I told them "No earthquakes after lunch", but they agreed that yeah, it wasn't the best time to be rattled around in an earthquake simulation thing lol. But yeah, the kids had a blast and it was fun to watch^^. Oh and my Junior High kids had a good laugh at my expense...one day I was just not with it (most likely b/c it was a late night and I was woken up in the middle of the night by a cat yowling outside of my window -.-). I went to go to class ahead of the teacher b/c he forgot something so I started to go to the 3rd floor...but the 3rd year students are on the 1st floor, I remembered this halfway up the first flight and turned around....and then I couldn't remember whether it was class A or B, and both classes didn't have a teacher in them yet, so I walked into class A. After me standing there for a few seconds and saying hi to them one student says "This isn't English class". So I hang my head and reply "Really" and then dramatically slump toward the door to play up the moment (I figured I should at least get a good laugh/story out of this) but then perked up just before the door and cheerfully went back to the front of the class saying "Naah, It's English class now, you're stuck with me." Which they all cheered (this made me feel loved ^^), but then I told them that sadly I couldn't change their class around like that and went to my real class. Walk into my class and the teacher is already there and gave me really confused look, so I told him (loud enough for the students to hear) how I went upstairs, to take the senic route, then to the wrong class and such...which got everyone giggling but as far as I can tell no one thinks less of me for doing this.....and I'm glad that I did this toward the start of the year rather than in the middle b/c then I wouldn't have much of an excuse lol. ......anyhoodle that's all that I can think of for now, so adios. ^^
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Sports Day
Ok, so for Sports Day the entire school is split up onto either the Red Team or the Blue Team.....which immediately brought Red vs. Blue to mind and thus I had quotes from the show constantly popping up in my head....not that that's a bad thing lol. Ok, so most of the events are relay-race based where the kids have to do things like walk on balance beams then grab a bag off of a string with their mouth and spin around w/ their head on a baseball bat, and such things....or the handing off of a baton to the next runner....or a combination of everything. I got to participate in a short relay race of teachers vs students...but I think the teachers didn't finish the race and only ran most of it to get the kids riled up?....I'm really not entirely sure what went on with that >.>. Most of the time I was just a spectator sitting by myself, so I felt like a bit of a third wheel since all of the other teachers had something to do, but I didn't want to ask for stuff to do because they were all really busy and since no one is fluent in English it would take up time they didn't really have to explain things to me. So I sat there and watched. A college student (from Sanpoku) came over to say hi to me and she spoke English very well, so I asked her about the different things on sports day and about Sanpoku and such...but I had to shoo her away because she was sitting in the teacher's tent with me which is, for teachers. I was a little sad about that...but they were afraid that other people would flock to the tent (where it was nicely shaded) to get into the shade and use talking to me as a cover-up. Which is understandable that they would worry about such things, but other than her and the occasional teacher or student and one of the special guests, no one really said anything to me. It was really hot that day, but overall I enjoyed myself. I'd say that my three favorite events of the day were: 1. a game where groups of three students held up and carried another student wearing a hat, and the various groups tried to steal the hat of the guy being carried in the other groups. 2. a game where the family members had to throw in beanbag things into a basket on the backs of some students while the students tried to run away and prevent the beanbags from getting into their basket. 3. a duel nicely synced up to some music where two students pretended to have one of those standoff sword duels where they eventually both charge and pause then one of them falls over...when the one fell over the fireworks went off which added a nice dramatic flair to the whole thing lol^^.
As fun as sports fay was I was glad when it was over, it had been a long week of introducing myself over and over and trying to figure out what all of my duties are, and I was ready for some R&R. The enkai, or office/teacher party was a lot of fun, and right after sports day. I almost missed the bus because not all of the teachers were taking one, and I was under the impression that everyone was riding the bus...and the bus was more of a giant van and didn't look much like a bus, so when they said the bus will be here I was looking out for an actual bus. Needless to say one of the teachers luckily asked me just in time if I was riding the bus, and yelled out the window and told them to wait for me. Once we finally got to where we were going it was a nice restaurant/onsen thing. For those of you who don't know what an Onsen is, it's like a giant heated pool area, this one had an inside and an outside section...the outside section was built to make it look like you were in an actual hot spring w/ rocks and a mini waterfall and all. First you shower and wash up, and then you go sit naked in the giant heated pool/hot tub thing....same gender of course. It was really relaxing and very nice and I kind of wanted to soak a bit longer since it was such a nice night out, but we couldn't stay in long because our food was waiting. The restaurant part was more traditional styled where you sit on flat cushions on the floor, with a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table and the food is placed on the lazy-Susan for people to spin around and get their food. It was more Chinese styled food, served in smaller portions so there was a lot of selection. There were chicken based dishes, some hot some cold, some shrimp, spicy curry, and other stuff that I have no clue what it was. And at an Enkai it's all you can drink beer, and people refill your cup before it gets empty, so if you're not careful one can get drunk rather easily. Luckily I ordered something other than beer, and had a glass of beer that I took very small sips from, and water...so drinking 3 different things (one of which you have to re-order from the server when you want more so it can't be tipped off) made it so that I could keep a better eye on how much of what I drank....and having three things meant that taking small sips from all three equals the drinks not getting topped off as much and having water as a selection meant I could toast with it and drink as much as I wanted without worry lol....plus drinking water when drinking anything alcoholic is always a good idea. Anyhoo, all in all it was a nice way to wrap up a sort of exhausting and long week :).
As fun as sports fay was I was glad when it was over, it had been a long week of introducing myself over and over and trying to figure out what all of my duties are, and I was ready for some R&R. The enkai, or office/teacher party was a lot of fun, and right after sports day. I almost missed the bus because not all of the teachers were taking one, and I was under the impression that everyone was riding the bus...and the bus was more of a giant van and didn't look much like a bus, so when they said the bus will be here I was looking out for an actual bus. Needless to say one of the teachers luckily asked me just in time if I was riding the bus, and yelled out the window and told them to wait for me. Once we finally got to where we were going it was a nice restaurant/onsen thing. For those of you who don't know what an Onsen is, it's like a giant heated pool area, this one had an inside and an outside section...the outside section was built to make it look like you were in an actual hot spring w/ rocks and a mini waterfall and all. First you shower and wash up, and then you go sit naked in the giant heated pool/hot tub thing....same gender of course. It was really relaxing and very nice and I kind of wanted to soak a bit longer since it was such a nice night out, but we couldn't stay in long because our food was waiting. The restaurant part was more traditional styled where you sit on flat cushions on the floor, with a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table and the food is placed on the lazy-Susan for people to spin around and get their food. It was more Chinese styled food, served in smaller portions so there was a lot of selection. There were chicken based dishes, some hot some cold, some shrimp, spicy curry, and other stuff that I have no clue what it was. And at an Enkai it's all you can drink beer, and people refill your cup before it gets empty, so if you're not careful one can get drunk rather easily. Luckily I ordered something other than beer, and had a glass of beer that I took very small sips from, and water...so drinking 3 different things (one of which you have to re-order from the server when you want more so it can't be tipped off) made it so that I could keep a better eye on how much of what I drank....and having three things meant that taking small sips from all three equals the drinks not getting topped off as much and having water as a selection meant I could toast with it and drink as much as I wanted without worry lol....plus drinking water when drinking anything alcoholic is always a good idea. Anyhoo, all in all it was a nice way to wrap up a sort of exhausting and long week :).
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