Happy Holidays to everyone!
I'm currently sitting in the main office for all of the ALTs in Sapporo. There are only a few of us here, but it's nice to have a group of fellow foreigners to spend the day with. It's been interesting for us experiencing our holiday seasons in a new country. There is Christmas in the air, not really Chanukkah, but it's not quite the same. Japan loves such Christmas hits as Mariah Carey's, "All I Want for Christmas is You," and Wham's, "Last Christmas." (And you hear those songs EVERYWHERE, in all of their glorious incarnations, be it the actual song or the elevator music versions.) And it's a Japanese tradition to eat fried chicken on Christmas Day. So hit your local KFC, and you're sure to see a line of Japanese people waiting to dig into their "Durum Sticku Set-to," or translation, "Drum Stick Set."
Tonight I have something called a "Bonenkai." I've been to a couple of enkais, which are essentially work parties. It's a funny experience because most of the time the other teachers don't really talk to us ALTs and the enkais are the few times that a word is even uttered in our direction. Many of the teachers do speak some English, or at least about as much English as my Japanese. At my first enkai with my base school, Hassamu, the geography teacher, Nakai-sensei, came over to me and literally guided me over to every teacher and forced to have a conversation with me. It was hilarious. And I felt so bad for the teachers because they started freaking out saying, "I don't speak English! I don't speak English!" And, of course, they're saying these words in perfect English, hehe. And I always try to tell them, "It's okay. Speak to me in Japanese." (Of course, these words are in Japanese as well. This is a phrase I've got down.) It's fun to see your teachers at an enkai, because normally they work so hard. They put in so many hours and at an enkai they can finally relax, eat up and, more importantly, drink up! This may sound like a horrible sentence, but drunk Japanese people are hilarious! My head JTE becomes really bossy. She was ordering me to eat all of the left over food and finish all of the beer, so I could order another one. I secretly hid my glass, so she wouldn't see that I still had a full glass.
And now to a small introduction to my teachers. Honestly, I still don't even know all of my teachers names. The students have been trying to teach me, but there are like 45 names...oh well, I'm trying my best.
First, the JTES:
Miki-sensei, my head JTE
She goes by Takahashi-sensei with the students, but there are 4 Takahashis at my school, so it it keeps it simpler to call her by her first names. She is amazing! I love this woman. She's so much fun and is open to experimenting with new activities. I always feel like I screw up around her. You can tell that she's so comfortable as a teacher. Not that she's bored or anything. It's just she's been teaching for a while and you can tell that knows how to carry a classroom.
Kawamura-sensei
She's awesome. I've never seen a teacher put so much energy into a class. And she carries the same amount of energy the entire day! It's amazing to watch. And the poor woman has a hurt leg, so she has to use a crutch to get around the school. But that doesn't stop her. She wants to go to America, but she doesn't have the time right now. She's always gives me chocolates from her secret stash in her desk, hehe.
Nakagawa-sensei
I've probably become the closest to Nakagawa-sensei. She's a little bit younger than the other teachers and she's lived abroad in the States. We talk about practically everything from politics, to the NBA, to Italian movies. She's a substitute teacher, so she'll probably be leaving at the end of the school year. She came at about the same time as me, so we also bond over that as well. She's also confided in me a bit more because she has lived abroad. Sometimes talking about traveling is seen as a sign of pride, so she's hesitant to share too much with other teachers. But she's still a lot of fun, and is always open to trying new things in the classroom. She's also cool because she loves the song, "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."
Kuwamura-sensei
She has probably some of the most fun classes. I love her 3rd grade classes. The students are hilarious and she's so comfortable with them. It's always a great time. However, I gotta say, I have trouble reading her sometimes. I can't tell if she always likes what I have prepared for class or not. This is not to say that she's not a great teacher, she is. I just wish I could read her better. Guess I better improve my Japanese!
Kazuhiro-sensei
Another Takahashi in the office. I regretfully say that I've had the hardest time working with this JTE. We just can't get a flow together. I don't know what it is. He doesn't really let me try any activities. Or when he does let me try something new, he will cut off my activity very quickly. If you've read my previous entry, now you'll know who I'm talking about. He's a good guy. Maybe we'll eventually find a better way to work together.
Other teachers:
Nakai-sensei
I love Nakai-sensei! He's a geography teacher who speaks amazing English! He caught me off-guard when he broke out in English with me on my first day. I'm used to sitting quietly in a staffroom and he just started up a conversation with me. He and Miki-sensei want me to start teaching them some basic Spanish phrases. Nakai-sensei especially wants me to teach him some Spanish because he's from Osaka, and the dialect there is known for rolling the Rs. He's been so nice to me.
In my first week at Hassamu, all I did was introduce myself over and over to each individual class. I'm an assistant, so I always go to class with the main JTE. Well, I follow Miki-sensei into class on one of my first days, and she turns to me and says, "Sorry, I have to go. It's an emergency." I'm like, "WHAT!!!" Well, I was that way on the inside. I tried to maintain my composure, but me and the students were basically looking wide-eyed at each other. They were 1st graders, so they're the students with the smallest English vocabulary in the school. And I'm the person with smallest Japanese vocabulary in the school, so my one thought was, "Oh, no." Then, suddenly, Nakai-sensei walked in the door. Now, the students have always had him as a geography teacher, so when he suddenly starts speaking English, they're all shocked. It was basically one collective, "EEEEHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" He totally saved me. He's been so nice to also invite me to the teachers' basketball games. He asked me if I'd teach his 5-year-old daughter English, to which I gladly agreed. I might even throw in a few Spanish & Italian words here and there.
Yonezawa-sensei
She's the home economics teacher and she sits right next to me. So, occaassionally, we'll have chats in the morning. She doesn't really speak any English, but we manage. Her daughter recently got married to an American and is living in California. She asked me if I'd help her learn some English so she can speak with her son-in-law and his family. She tries to phone them on Skype quite often. I told her that's how I call my mom, as well.
Watanabe-sensei
She is SOOOOO Nice! She sits right across from me. Watanabe-sensei is the Japanese language teacher. She speaks about as much English as I speak Japanese, but she always asks me how I'm doing. And she would check to make sure that I had bought boots for winter. I'm trying really hard to learn more Japanese, because I would really like to talk with her more.
Mizuma-sensei
He's hilarious! He used to be an English teacher a long time ago. And his wife is an English teacher, so he speaks quite a bit of English. However, and I don't know how much sense this will make, but he speaks English using Japanese grammar. It's pretty funny. Something in Japanese that people will say when listening to you is, "So, so." That's literally the romanization spelling of the Japanese word for "Yes," or "I understand." However, the word is also used in other contexts in the Japanese language. However, it wouldn't work in other English contexts. (Sorry, I know this is really confusing.) So, he tries to literally tranlate his usual Japanese response into English, but it sounds kinda funny. So whenever I'm explaining something, he says, "Oh, yes. Oh, yes," in a very emphatic manner. It always catches me off-guard. He's the P.E. teacher at Hassamu and absolutely loves basketball. He's probably considered the loud-joker of the teachers.
Hayashi-sensei
He's the art teacher. He's very cool. Hayashi-sensei has traveled around Europe. He doesn't speak a word of English, but I usually get the gist of what he's saying. (I actually prefer that teachers speak in Japanese to me. I'm trying to learn!) Some of the students invited me to the Art Club and I think we both surprised each other when we showed up. After a few visits to the club, he came up to me at the end and said, "You are a part of our circle." It was such a wonderful moment. And later, he came up to me with a little script in English and presented a Merry Christmas poster that the Art Club students had drawn.
Okie dokie, well I'm off to do some actual paper work. Love you all out there and hope to all of you are well!!!
Side-note:
If anyone is trying to reach me, I might be hard to get a hold of for a little while because I'm going to Tokyo, Niigata and then Taipei. I should be gone for a few weeks, but I hope to be in touch throughout the time. If I don't get to talk with you, I hope all of you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful NEW YEAR!
-cel
Monday, December 24, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Well...(Part 2)
Wow, it's been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too long since my last post. I apologize to anyone that's been checking back here and waiting for a new blog. I feel as though I'm using the same excuse over and over, but it's still true. The schedule is slightly crazy here. There was really no chance of me updating my blog during September, because I was bouncing from school to school every week. It was a little hectic, but amazing! I felt bad because I really fell out of the loop with the other teachers here as well. However, October was a lot fun, but also a new adventure because I finally started working at a junior high school, which is where I'll spend most of my time. I spent one month at a junior high named Sakaeminami. And it was wonderful. It was a lot work, but I really enjoyed it. I'm currently uploading a bunch of pictures from Sakaeminami to my MySpace account, and will attempt to upload the same pictures to my Facebook, once that website starts working for me. However, if you can bare with me, I will try to put up pictures in a future posts.
Yet, I feel I should give a brief intro to my everyday life and the people I encounter here. And yea, Celeste finally got a camera!!! So, hopefully, this blog will be slightly more entertaining!
This is my lovely apartment building:
And this is the backside of my apartment.
I live in an apartment complex. All of the ALTs live in these apartments, so we often venture to each other's places for dinner and/or movie nights. My place has become quite the gathering place. So I must do my best to showcase the hostess skills I picked up from home. It's a lot of fun actually. Apparently I've been deemed the "Mommy" of the group. I live on the fourth floor of my building, which is a little odd to get to because the building is 10 stories high, but the elevator only goes to 3 floors.
Here is the lovely ominous hallway. I probably didn't use the word ominous correctly, but it feels nice to use big words, so I'm going with it. It looks a bit like something out of a movie. And I like it because the ceiling is short, so it makes me feel tall, haha. However, some of the other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers)have to duck when walking through here. Ah, the benefits of being short in Japan...
This is the genkan. The place where people take off their shoes before entering someone's home. From what I understand, in Japan, the home is an extension of the bed, so everyone must take off their shoes. And in Western countries, the home is an extension of the outdoors. (Hmm...I worded that really poorly. Oh well! Please excuse my English. It's really gotten bad since I've been here. Haha. And, yes, I'm an English teacher. Go figure.)
BTW, I had guests over.
And here are a few pictures of my apartment. The people in the pictures are Mark and Tarnjeet (who we usually just call Teej). Mark is from Boston and Teej is from London. They are both really cool people. Mark is handy to have around because he can speak Japanese. He also speaks Portuguese, so sometimes we'll compare our respective Romance-based languages. It's just a big jumble of Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
And this is the bento place I often go to get dinner because I'm too lazy to cook. Back home it was usually cheaper just to buy groceries and cook, but here it averages to be about the same price. And the people in the bento shop are so nice, but I'm sure they're probably sick of us gaijin, hehe.
My day usually starts at about 5:30am during the work week. I probably don't need to wake up this early, but I'm really slow in the morning, and cold weather seems to make me cranky in the mornings. So to counteract this, I do a lot of shuffling about in my apartment trying to bring all the things I need to get ready back into my nice, warm room. What can I say? I'm a Texas girl. We weren't always built for cold weather. I usually leave my apartment at about 7:20 to meet up with my friend Teej to walk to the subway together. We go to different schools, but it's the same general direction for part of our trips. I'm contracted to get out of work at 4:15, but recently I've been leaving school closer to 6pm. I am now an official member of the Art Club, so we have meetings after school a few times a week. It's amazing. There are only girls in the club and we usually spend our time talking, drawing and geeking out over anime. We don't ever really struggle to communicate either. If there's something we can't understand, we simply draw it, use gestures or simply look it up in the dictionary. It's really been great for me because they began teaching me about the school. Upon returning to my base school, I knew a total of 3 out of 45 teachers' names. Now, the students in the Art Club have taught me most of the teachers' names and have even told me some hilarious nicknames that they've made up for their teachers.
The next day after a very frustrating lesson. (Me and one of the JTEs [Japanese Teachers of English] have been struggling to work together. He's not a rude guy or anything. I just think our approaches to teaching are slightly different. I try to be more interactive and try to get the kids to have fun, so that they'll feel more comfortable speaking. I was happy because he finally let me try a game with the class. I was really excited, because this class is considered to be one of the best English-speaking classes in the school. The class was a little rowdy that day, which is good for ALTs because being rowdy means the students will speak more with you. So the game was going well, and suddenly the JTE ended the game. And for the next few minutes he stood there scolding the students. The entire mood in the classroom changed so suddenly. All of the students slumped down in their seats and the smiles were wiped away from their faces. The JTE was speaking in Japanese, and he kept saying my name. I hated it because I had no idea what he was saying. I really hoped he wasn't saying something that I didn't agree with. I hope he wasn't saying something like, "Celeste thinks this..." or "Celeste thinks that..." I don't know. Either way, I was so upset with him at the time. The students weren't misbehaving. It's a common thing amongst ALTs, apparently. We like the rowdy classes, and some teachers really don't. Oh well.) Anyway, after the class finished, a girl ran up to me and said, "My sister is in the Art Club. She says you are an 'otaku.' (Otaku=nerd) I am an otaku, too. When I hear this, I am glad." This totally made my day.
It's been snowing off and on a lot recently. I was at school when it first started snowing. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I couldn't stop just staring out the windows. The teachers laughed at me, but in a nice way. It's been an in interesting time for me trying to get settled into this new school. But I have the feeling that it will be that much more worth it in the future. Who knows? Just gotta keep pushing forward.
Okay, now for a short preview of future posts to come:
1) life in Japanese elementary schools
2) junior high school life at my "one month" school
3) returning to my base school, which is also a junior high
Yet, I feel I should give a brief intro to my everyday life and the people I encounter here. And yea, Celeste finally got a camera!!! So, hopefully, this blog will be slightly more entertaining!
This is my lovely apartment building:
And this is the backside of my apartment.
I live in an apartment complex. All of the ALTs live in these apartments, so we often venture to each other's places for dinner and/or movie nights. My place has become quite the gathering place. So I must do my best to showcase the hostess skills I picked up from home. It's a lot of fun actually. Apparently I've been deemed the "Mommy" of the group. I live on the fourth floor of my building, which is a little odd to get to because the building is 10 stories high, but the elevator only goes to 3 floors.
Here is the lovely ominous hallway. I probably didn't use the word ominous correctly, but it feels nice to use big words, so I'm going with it. It looks a bit like something out of a movie. And I like it because the ceiling is short, so it makes me feel tall, haha. However, some of the other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers)have to duck when walking through here. Ah, the benefits of being short in Japan...
This is the genkan. The place where people take off their shoes before entering someone's home. From what I understand, in Japan, the home is an extension of the bed, so everyone must take off their shoes. And in Western countries, the home is an extension of the outdoors. (Hmm...I worded that really poorly. Oh well! Please excuse my English. It's really gotten bad since I've been here. Haha. And, yes, I'm an English teacher. Go figure.)
BTW, I had guests over.
And here are a few pictures of my apartment. The people in the pictures are Mark and Tarnjeet (who we usually just call Teej). Mark is from Boston and Teej is from London. They are both really cool people. Mark is handy to have around because he can speak Japanese. He also speaks Portuguese, so sometimes we'll compare our respective Romance-based languages. It's just a big jumble of Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
And this is the bento place I often go to get dinner because I'm too lazy to cook. Back home it was usually cheaper just to buy groceries and cook, but here it averages to be about the same price. And the people in the bento shop are so nice, but I'm sure they're probably sick of us gaijin, hehe.
My day usually starts at about 5:30am during the work week. I probably don't need to wake up this early, but I'm really slow in the morning, and cold weather seems to make me cranky in the mornings. So to counteract this, I do a lot of shuffling about in my apartment trying to bring all the things I need to get ready back into my nice, warm room. What can I say? I'm a Texas girl. We weren't always built for cold weather. I usually leave my apartment at about 7:20 to meet up with my friend Teej to walk to the subway together. We go to different schools, but it's the same general direction for part of our trips. I'm contracted to get out of work at 4:15, but recently I've been leaving school closer to 6pm. I am now an official member of the Art Club, so we have meetings after school a few times a week. It's amazing. There are only girls in the club and we usually spend our time talking, drawing and geeking out over anime. We don't ever really struggle to communicate either. If there's something we can't understand, we simply draw it, use gestures or simply look it up in the dictionary. It's really been great for me because they began teaching me about the school. Upon returning to my base school, I knew a total of 3 out of 45 teachers' names. Now, the students in the Art Club have taught me most of the teachers' names and have even told me some hilarious nicknames that they've made up for their teachers.
The next day after a very frustrating lesson. (Me and one of the JTEs [Japanese Teachers of English] have been struggling to work together. He's not a rude guy or anything. I just think our approaches to teaching are slightly different. I try to be more interactive and try to get the kids to have fun, so that they'll feel more comfortable speaking. I was happy because he finally let me try a game with the class. I was really excited, because this class is considered to be one of the best English-speaking classes in the school. The class was a little rowdy that day, which is good for ALTs because being rowdy means the students will speak more with you. So the game was going well, and suddenly the JTE ended the game. And for the next few minutes he stood there scolding the students. The entire mood in the classroom changed so suddenly. All of the students slumped down in their seats and the smiles were wiped away from their faces. The JTE was speaking in Japanese, and he kept saying my name. I hated it because I had no idea what he was saying. I really hoped he wasn't saying something that I didn't agree with. I hope he wasn't saying something like, "Celeste thinks this..." or "Celeste thinks that..." I don't know. Either way, I was so upset with him at the time. The students weren't misbehaving. It's a common thing amongst ALTs, apparently. We like the rowdy classes, and some teachers really don't. Oh well.) Anyway, after the class finished, a girl ran up to me and said, "My sister is in the Art Club. She says you are an 'otaku.' (Otaku=nerd) I am an otaku, too. When I hear this, I am glad." This totally made my day.
It's been snowing off and on a lot recently. I was at school when it first started snowing. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I couldn't stop just staring out the windows. The teachers laughed at me, but in a nice way. It's been an in interesting time for me trying to get settled into this new school. But I have the feeling that it will be that much more worth it in the future. Who knows? Just gotta keep pushing forward.
Okay, now for a short preview of future posts to come:
1) life in Japanese elementary schools
2) junior high school life at my "one month" school
3) returning to my base school, which is also a junior high
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Well...Part 1
Where to begin? It`s been quite a while since my last blog post. And needless to say, a lot has happened, too. Allow me to preface this by apologizing to everyone for not immediately returning your emails, messages, and letters. This time is still an adjustment period for me and I'm sorry if any of you feel as though I've neglected you or completely forgotten about you. I'm still getting used to living alone and in a foreign country. Not to mention the fact that I barely understand the language. Haha. Anyway, I promise to try my best to catch up on all my correspondence. I just thought I'd post a blog to catch up everyone on what I've been up to these days.
Last week I started working at my base junior high school, Hassamu Chu-Gakko. The very first day was very nerve-wracking. I was almost late to work, I was sweating profusely, and I couldn't remember my introduction speeches! I had attempted to memorize some short introductions in Japanese, but all of the words kind of jumbled together. Normally, my Japanese pronunciation is fairly decent, but when the nerves are going, one's tongue suddenly can't pronounce one coherent word. I had to stand up in front of the school and introduce myself, which was admittedly terrifying! I didn't know what to say and hundreds of people were all staring blankly at me. Some student-teachers were also starting on the same day, so that helped calm me down a little bit. When we went on stage to introduce ourselves, being THE foreigner, I had to speak myself first. After I stumbled through my introduction and got offstage, one of the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English), Ueda-sensei, came over to talk with me. She asked, "Are you okay?" I let out a sigh of relief and said, "Hai." She then said, "I could tell you were nervous." Haha. Later, Ueda-sensei gave me a tour of the school. It's an older school, but very beautiful. I was surprised at how big it is. Right next door to the junior high, there is an elementary school. It so nice to walk home and here the little school children singing or practicing their instruments in music class. Right in front of the school there are some little ponds, trees and benches for all of the children to sit on. There is also a little greenhouse and small gardens that the students for use for their classes. I was only there for one week, and I must say that I was very sad to leave. However, I will return in November. It's just a little frustrating because just as I started feeling more comfortable with some of the other sensei, I had to tell them "See you!" (That is one of the most common English phrases that Japanese students know. Every once in a while you'll hear them change it up by saying, "See you tomorrow!" Or even, "See you next week.") My head JTE is, Miki-sensei. She is amazing! She is so nice and speaks English very well. She wants me to start teaching her Spanish. I told her my Spanish is very bad, but I will try to teach her what few phrases I do know. (Haha, most of which relate to food. Imagine that!) My desk is right in the center of the room, directly in front of Koucho-sensei (Principal) and Kiyouto-sensei (Vice-Principal). So, my first couple of days I felt as though I always needed to look like I was busy. Koucho-sensei was only there on my first day, and from what I understand, I will rarely ever see him. The Kiyouto-sensei is very nice, but doesn't speak a word English, so our interactions have been very limited. The truth is that many of the teachers do speak English, but there are very nervous about speaking it. Who can blame them? I feel the same way about my Japanese. However, some of the other sensei have been very brave and have tried speaking with me. It's been great practice for me because they will speak to me in English and I'll try my best to use every single Japanese word that I know (which is not a lot). The geography teacher, Nakai-sensei, is so cool! He is from Osaka, so he speaks Osaka-ben, which is basically a different dialect of Japanese. He told me that the sounds are similar to that of Spanish pronunciation. In Osaka, they roll their "r" sounds, so Nakai-sensei enjoys saying Spanish words with "r" letters in them, like "Buenos tarrrrdes." Haha. I just so happen to sit right across from the Japanese sensei, and I tried my best to speak Japanese with her. And I promised her that I would try to be a good student and study as much Nihongo (Japanese) as possible.
(By the way this is my base junior high school:
And here is a link to their website： http://www.hassamu-j.sapporo-c.ed.jp/ Beware, it's all in Japanese.)
For the rest of September, I will be going to two different elementary schools a week. I'm really excited about it because the children are very "genki" (excited/happy). They are also very cute!!! Going to elementary schools is also a great way to practice Japanese, because most of the staff doesn't speak English and it's fun to converse with the children because they are all still at the beginners level of Japanese---which just so happens to be my level as well! So on Monday, I ventured off to Yamanote Elementary School. It was wonderful! The staff is so nice and the kids were a lot of fun. Almost none of the staf spoke any English, but they still tried their best, which made me want to try even harder to speak Japanese. The principal introduced me at an assembly in the gym. It was so funny to sit there and have all of the little children stare at you with wide eyes and they mouths dangling open. I couldn't stop looking at this one little boy who was really short compared to his classmates. He was so cute. He had on these really thick glasses, and what was so cool about him was that he basically looked like an old man stuck in a little boy's body. I know that may sound strange, but you would agree if you saw him. He was also kinda lost in his own little world. He was really cool. I also couldn't stop looking at this little boy who was picking his nose like there was no tomorrow. It was hilarious. He was sitting directly in front of me and Koucho-sensei. And, of course, what did the little boy do after picking his nose? Well, I think everyone knows where I'm going with this, so I'll just move on. Since I mentioned Koucho-sensei, I must say that he was also a great person, as well. He always had a smile on his face. And what they call the, "Team Teacher in Charge," who was basically responsible for me, was extremely friendly. Shimura-sensei (the "Team Teacher in Charge") tried so hard to speak English with me and taught me a lot of Japanese words, phrases, and special words in the Hokkaido dialect. And, of course, once he taught a new phrase in Hokkaido-ben, he made me use it with everyone.
I was only at Yamanote for 2 days, so each day I went to 3 classes. I introduced myself with pictures and all, and then played games with the kids. Some of the kids spoke very good English! In fact, all of the students spoke very good English, but they were a little shy, which is understandable. However, they all became comfortable after I introduced myself and played games with them. I really enjoyed working at elementary school because I got to eat lunch with the students. They are so much and I just tried to use every Japanese word I knew on them. It was funny when they laughed and said, "Sugoi, Celeste-sensei!" as I picked up my chopsticks. They were amazed that I was capable of eating with "hashi" (chopsticks). One thing that's very cool about Japanese schools is that everyone is expected to play an important role in the school. This practice echoes the philosophy of Japan as a country. It is not about the individual, it about the collective. The community. During the lunch hour, the lunch ladies bring a cart of food to each classroom and the students serve the food to each other. They all run to their bags, put on aprons and begin passing out food. They all sit down at the same time, begin the meal together, and end the meal at the same time. Afterwards, they all have their jobs in cleaning up the room. It's such an amazing sight to see them working together.
This is also a great time because the teachers spend a lot of time visiting with each student. The position of teacher holds a great deal of honor here in Japan. Most teachers works very long hours and act very often act as surrogate parents to many of the children. Japanese people possess an amazing work ethic and therefore, many of the parents don't get to spend as much time with their children. So, teachers will step in and spend a lot of time just playing with the kids, in addition to actually teaching them. I'm not sure, but I wonder what some people's impressions of Japan are. I feel as though some people may look at Japan as a very stiff, somewhat cold country when it comes to showing affection. Well, I've only been here 1 month, and I cannot speak for an entire country, but the people I have met and worked with are very warm and kind to their students.
Definitely one of the highlights for me was visiting with the Special Education students. Shimura-sensei was giving me a tour of the school and we decided to stay awhile in the Special Education class. I am capable of reading basic Japanese, so I was very excited when I saw that they were learning a song in basic Japanese. By far, it has been one of my favorite moment while visiting this beautiful country. We were all singing together about friendship. And I even got to dance with some of the students! Speaking singing, one of the many treats was that the students would sing for me. On my first day, I sang "Old MacDonald" with the students and on the second day, the students sang a Japanese song for me. They began to harmonize and occassionally danced along to the songs. It was so beautiful that I seriously got a little teary.
I had a couple of girls that kept following me and dragging me to different classrooms. It was so funny. One of the teachers called me an "idol." And I immediately replied, "No, no, no." Haha. One girl was slightly scary, because she got very emotional anytime that I was near. She started breathing very heavily and kept saying, "I love you. I love you." I tried to calm her down and talk with her. She was very sweet. The boys were really funny. When I told them that I like basketball, they always responded with an "Ehhhhh!!!" Because, I guess girls aren't supposed to like basketball. Haha. They also seemed to like it when I showed a picture of bar-b-que. Some of the boys started complaining about being hungry. And sometimes, students will ask very difficult questions like, "What is the difference between Japan and America?" I just so happened to get this question when some parents were visiting their childrens' classes. I immediately drew a blank. Then ｓｕｄｄｅｎｌｙ Ｉ ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔ ａｂｏｕｔ ｆｏｏｄ． Ａｎｄ ｔｈａｔ ｓｅｅｍｅｄ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｍｅ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ａ ｔｏｕｇｈ ａｎｓｗｅｒ．（Ｐｌｅａｓｅ ｅｘｃｕｓｅ ｔｈｅ ｆｏｎｔ ｃｈａｎｇｅ． Ｉ’ｍ ｔｙｐｉｎｇ ｏｎ ａ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ， ｓｏ ｓｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ ｔｈｅ ｆｏｎｔ／ｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ ｃｈａｎｇｅｓ ａｎｄ Ｉ ｈａｖｅ ｔｏ ｆｉｇｕｒｅ ｉｔ ｏｕｔ．）
All of the students and staff were great to me. Shimura-sensei apparentely loves to jump rope, so he started showing me tricks in the hallway as students and teachers passed by. And, of course, the foreigner had to try as well! Haha. Later he taught me how to do origami. We did the traditional crane, but he showed me a different and slightly more complicated way of doing it. Afterwards, he made me a double-crane, which was really cool! I'll try to post pictures of it.
Ｓｔｅｒｅｏｓ ｉｎ ｇｒｏｃｅｒｙ ｓｔｏｒｅｓ
Ｓｍｏｋｉｎｇ ｒｏｏｍｓ
Ｆｏｏｄ ｅｘｃｈａｎｇｅ
Ｍｏｖｉｅｓ
Ｇｒｏｕｐ Ｃ ａｒｒｉｖｅｓ
Ｃｌｕｂｂｉｎｇ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅ ｇａｉｊｉｎｓ
Ｓｔｕｐｉｄ ｄｒａｍａ ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ＡＬＴｓ （Ｓａｄｌｙ， ｓｏｍｅ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｓｔｏｐ ａｃｔｉｎｇ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈｅｙ ａｒｅ ｉｎ ｈｉｇｈ ｓｃｈｏｏｌ．．．）
Last week I started working at my base junior high school, Hassamu Chu-Gakko. The very first day was very nerve-wracking. I was almost late to work, I was sweating profusely, and I couldn't remember my introduction speeches! I had attempted to memorize some short introductions in Japanese, but all of the words kind of jumbled together. Normally, my Japanese pronunciation is fairly decent, but when the nerves are going, one's tongue suddenly can't pronounce one coherent word. I had to stand up in front of the school and introduce myself, which was admittedly terrifying! I didn't know what to say and hundreds of people were all staring blankly at me. Some student-teachers were also starting on the same day, so that helped calm me down a little bit. When we went on stage to introduce ourselves, being THE foreigner, I had to speak myself first. After I stumbled through my introduction and got offstage, one of the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English), Ueda-sensei, came over to talk with me. She asked, "Are you okay?" I let out a sigh of relief and said, "Hai." She then said, "I could tell you were nervous." Haha. Later, Ueda-sensei gave me a tour of the school. It's an older school, but very beautiful. I was surprised at how big it is. Right next door to the junior high, there is an elementary school. It so nice to walk home and here the little school children singing or practicing their instruments in music class. Right in front of the school there are some little ponds, trees and benches for all of the children to sit on. There is also a little greenhouse and small gardens that the students for use for their classes. I was only there for one week, and I must say that I was very sad to leave. However, I will return in November. It's just a little frustrating because just as I started feeling more comfortable with some of the other sensei, I had to tell them "See you!" (That is one of the most common English phrases that Japanese students know. Every once in a while you'll hear them change it up by saying, "See you tomorrow!" Or even, "See you next week.") My head JTE is, Miki-sensei. She is amazing! She is so nice and speaks English very well. She wants me to start teaching her Spanish. I told her my Spanish is very bad, but I will try to teach her what few phrases I do know. (Haha, most of which relate to food. Imagine that!) My desk is right in the center of the room, directly in front of Koucho-sensei (Principal) and Kiyouto-sensei (Vice-Principal). So, my first couple of days I felt as though I always needed to look like I was busy. Koucho-sensei was only there on my first day, and from what I understand, I will rarely ever see him. The Kiyouto-sensei is very nice, but doesn't speak a word English, so our interactions have been very limited. The truth is that many of the teachers do speak English, but there are very nervous about speaking it. Who can blame them? I feel the same way about my Japanese. However, some of the other sensei have been very brave and have tried speaking with me. It's been great practice for me because they will speak to me in English and I'll try my best to use every single Japanese word that I know (which is not a lot). The geography teacher, Nakai-sensei, is so cool! He is from Osaka, so he speaks Osaka-ben, which is basically a different dialect of Japanese. He told me that the sounds are similar to that of Spanish pronunciation. In Osaka, they roll their "r" sounds, so Nakai-sensei enjoys saying Spanish words with "r" letters in them, like "Buenos tarrrrdes." Haha. I just so happen to sit right across from the Japanese sensei, and I tried my best to speak Japanese with her. And I promised her that I would try to be a good student and study as much Nihongo (Japanese) as possible.
(By the way this is my base junior high school:
And here is a link to their website： http://www.hassamu-j.sapporo-c.ed.jp/ Beware, it's all in Japanese.)
For the rest of September, I will be going to two different elementary schools a week. I'm really excited about it because the children are very "genki" (excited/happy). They are also very cute!!! Going to elementary schools is also a great way to practice Japanese, because most of the staff doesn't speak English and it's fun to converse with the children because they are all still at the beginners level of Japanese---which just so happens to be my level as well! So on Monday, I ventured off to Yamanote Elementary School. It was wonderful! The staff is so nice and the kids were a lot of fun. Almost none of the staf spoke any English, but they still tried their best, which made me want to try even harder to speak Japanese. The principal introduced me at an assembly in the gym. It was so funny to sit there and have all of the little children stare at you with wide eyes and they mouths dangling open. I couldn't stop looking at this one little boy who was really short compared to his classmates. He was so cute. He had on these really thick glasses, and what was so cool about him was that he basically looked like an old man stuck in a little boy's body. I know that may sound strange, but you would agree if you saw him. He was also kinda lost in his own little world. He was really cool. I also couldn't stop looking at this little boy who was picking his nose like there was no tomorrow. It was hilarious. He was sitting directly in front of me and Koucho-sensei. And, of course, what did the little boy do after picking his nose? Well, I think everyone knows where I'm going with this, so I'll just move on. Since I mentioned Koucho-sensei, I must say that he was also a great person, as well. He always had a smile on his face. And what they call the, "Team Teacher in Charge," who was basically responsible for me, was extremely friendly. Shimura-sensei (the "Team Teacher in Charge") tried so hard to speak English with me and taught me a lot of Japanese words, phrases, and special words in the Hokkaido dialect. And, of course, once he taught a new phrase in Hokkaido-ben, he made me use it with everyone.
I was only at Yamanote for 2 days, so each day I went to 3 classes. I introduced myself with pictures and all, and then played games with the kids. Some of the kids spoke very good English! In fact, all of the students spoke very good English, but they were a little shy, which is understandable. However, they all became comfortable after I introduced myself and played games with them. I really enjoyed working at elementary school because I got to eat lunch with the students. They are so much and I just tried to use every Japanese word I knew on them. It was funny when they laughed and said, "Sugoi, Celeste-sensei!" as I picked up my chopsticks. They were amazed that I was capable of eating with "hashi" (chopsticks). One thing that's very cool about Japanese schools is that everyone is expected to play an important role in the school. This practice echoes the philosophy of Japan as a country. It is not about the individual, it about the collective. The community. During the lunch hour, the lunch ladies bring a cart of food to each classroom and the students serve the food to each other. They all run to their bags, put on aprons and begin passing out food. They all sit down at the same time, begin the meal together, and end the meal at the same time. Afterwards, they all have their jobs in cleaning up the room. It's such an amazing sight to see them working together.
This is also a great time because the teachers spend a lot of time visiting with each student. The position of teacher holds a great deal of honor here in Japan. Most teachers works very long hours and act very often act as surrogate parents to many of the children. Japanese people possess an amazing work ethic and therefore, many of the parents don't get to spend as much time with their children. So, teachers will step in and spend a lot of time just playing with the kids, in addition to actually teaching them. I'm not sure, but I wonder what some people's impressions of Japan are. I feel as though some people may look at Japan as a very stiff, somewhat cold country when it comes to showing affection. Well, I've only been here 1 month, and I cannot speak for an entire country, but the people I have met and worked with are very warm and kind to their students.
Definitely one of the highlights for me was visiting with the Special Education students. Shimura-sensei was giving me a tour of the school and we decided to stay awhile in the Special Education class. I am capable of reading basic Japanese, so I was very excited when I saw that they were learning a song in basic Japanese. By far, it has been one of my favorite moment while visiting this beautiful country. We were all singing together about friendship. And I even got to dance with some of the students! Speaking singing, one of the many treats was that the students would sing for me. On my first day, I sang "Old MacDonald" with the students and on the second day, the students sang a Japanese song for me. They began to harmonize and occassionally danced along to the songs. It was so beautiful that I seriously got a little teary.
I had a couple of girls that kept following me and dragging me to different classrooms. It was so funny. One of the teachers called me an "idol." And I immediately replied, "No, no, no." Haha. One girl was slightly scary, because she got very emotional anytime that I was near. She started breathing very heavily and kept saying, "I love you. I love you." I tried to calm her down and talk with her. She was very sweet. The boys were really funny. When I told them that I like basketball, they always responded with an "Ehhhhh!!!" Because, I guess girls aren't supposed to like basketball. Haha. They also seemed to like it when I showed a picture of bar-b-que. Some of the boys started complaining about being hungry. And sometimes, students will ask very difficult questions like, "What is the difference between Japan and America?" I just so happened to get this question when some parents were visiting their childrens' classes. I immediately drew a blank. Then ｓｕｄｄｅｎｌｙ Ｉ ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔ ａｂｏｕｔ ｆｏｏｄ． Ａｎｄ ｔｈａｔ ｓｅｅｍｅｄ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｍｅ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ａ ｔｏｕｇｈ ａｎｓｗｅｒ．（Ｐｌｅａｓｅ ｅｘｃｕｓｅ ｔｈｅ ｆｏｎｔ ｃｈａｎｇｅ． Ｉ’ｍ ｔｙｐｉｎｇ ｏｎ ａ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ， ｓｏ ｓｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ ｔｈｅ ｆｏｎｔ／ｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ ｃｈａｎｇｅｓ ａｎｄ Ｉ ｈａｖｅ ｔｏ ｆｉｇｕｒｅ ｉｔ ｏｕｔ．）
All of the students and staff were great to me. Shimura-sensei apparentely loves to jump rope, so he started showing me tricks in the hallway as students and teachers passed by. And, of course, the foreigner had to try as well! Haha. Later he taught me how to do origami. We did the traditional crane, but he showed me a different and slightly more complicated way of doing it. Afterwards, he made me a double-crane, which was really cool! I'll try to post pictures of it.
Ｔｏｍｏｒｒｏｗ Ｉ ｓｔａｒｔ ａｔ ａ ｎｅｗ ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｒｙ ｓｃｈｏｏｌ ａｎｄ Ｉ’ｍ ｓｕｒｅ ｉｔ’ｌｌ ｂｅ ａ ｎｅｗ ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｅ ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ．
Ｓｔｅｒｅｏｓ ｉｎ ｇｒｏｃｅｒｙ ｓｔｏｒｅｓ
Ｓｍｏｋｉｎｇ ｒｏｏｍｓ
Ｆｏｏｄ ｅｘｃｈａｎｇｅ
Ｍｏｖｉｅｓ
Ｇｒｏｕｐ Ｃ ａｒｒｉｖｅｓ
Ｃｌｕｂｂｉｎｇ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅ ｇａｉｊｉｎｓ
Ｓｔｕｐｉｄ ｄｒａｍａ ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ＡＬＴｓ （Ｓａｄｌｙ， ｓｏｍｅ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｓｔｏｐ ａｃｔｉｎｇ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈｅｙ ａｒｅ ｉｎ ｈｉｇｈ ｓｃｈｏｏｌ．．．）
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
RSR, Learning the Language and Embarassing Gaijin Moments
Wow...it feels liks such a long time since I last updated my blog. First off, I'm so excited because I'm hopefully gonna have my internet delivered tonight or tomorrow at the latest. The next fun step is to attempt to set up an internet package that is all in Japanese. (An aside: that's been one of the most interesting parts of living in Japan, trying things on a gamble. More often than not, I feel as though I'm blindly choosing something to eat of picking a direction to walk. It's an interesting mixture of excitement and fear. However, I must say that I'm starting to become more fearless as I start exploring places on my own. Yesterday, I rode the subway by myself. At first, I was a bit nervous, because it's hard not to stand out. Then, I finally stopped thinking about it and gave myself a mental pat-on-the-back for actually knowing where I was going.)
I'm feeling a little more tired today because I had to get up earlier than usual to go across town to deliver a snow board. At first, I was a little confused about who to give it to, but thankfully, I managed to find the hotel where I had to drop it off AND I got into work early. I even managed to squeeze in some time to stop by Starbucks for breakfast.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics...
So this past weekend I went to Ezo ( about 40 minutes North of Sapporo) to attend the Rising Sun Rock Festival. All I can say is that it was simply amazing. I came back exhausted, dirty, and my entire body was killing me, but do I regret it? Not at all. There were about 6 stages around this huge patch of land and each area had a different style of music to enjoy. And in each section, there were many stands offering different types of food from around Japan and other parts of the world. There were also camp sites that we could venture off to for a rest. Of course, I didn't bother going there very often because it was really far from everything else. I was really excited because there were only Japanese bands playing, so it was really cool to experience some of the Japanese music culture. And also I got to see one of my all-time favorites bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation (otherwise known as, Ajikan), and they were amazing live! Another just little interesting observation is that Japanese fans ''rock out'' differently from westerners. They are a lot more orderly. That may sound odd, but I have trouble explaining it any other way. They go crazy when a band hits the stage, but between songs there is a dead silence. It's kinda funny. Anyway, there were so many different styles of music from mainstream rock to techno to jazz to ainu music. For those interested in trying out new music, I highly recommend the Dub Ainu Band. The band was dressed in traditional Ainu clothing and played beautiful music that everyone really enjoyed. On a slightly sad not, I missed out on the Maruyama Zoo trip because I got back too late. I'll just have to make the trip on my own some day.
(For those who are interested in seeing some pictures, feel free to check out my facebook because my friend Alice took numerous pictures. And for those without facebook, I promise to post them as soon as I get my internet set up and steal the pics from Alice, hehe.)
I have reached a few conclusions concerning myself since I entered this wonderful country. Let me explain in further detail. First off, Japan is the country where I stain everything! I can't count how many shirts and skirts I have already ruined by spilling soup or other foods onto myself. It's pretty incredible when I can go an entire day with spotless clothing. I already stick out as it is, so clothing. I already stick out as it is, so it's nice to have another reason for people to stare. Secondly, I am incapable of not stumbling into something or alarming fellow patrons at a restaurant by clanging into the dishware. Last night, I attended my first language exchange with a Japanese person. We went to a restaurant in this really nice hotel. It was kind of quiet so I already nervous about having some of the people there listen to my horrible Japanese pronunciation. I ordered some food, and then CLANG!!! I hit my plate with my college ring. The sound echoed all throughout the restaurant and people stopped eating to look at me. Way to go, foreigner! Thankfully my language exchange partner, Tsukasa, helped me laugh it off.
Last Friday, I made my first ''covert'' visit to my base junior high school. It's called Hassamu and it looks kind of big from the outside. I waws excited about walking up to it, but in true Celeste-fashion I decided to make a grand entrance. As I was on the sidewalk I didn't pay attention to where I was walking and slipped and fell on some mud. Now keep in mind, I didn't just get a small spot of mud on me. No, no. I got mud on me from the top of my skirt to the very bottom it. Luckily, my friend Sarah was with me and she helped me get up. And of course who would come running around the corner, but my future students. They were jogging back to the school and so I quickly ran to hide behind a house nearby. Sarah and I proceeded to pour water on my skirt and scrape off all the mud. And to make matters more interesting we had to hurry because we still had to visit Sarah's school and then head back into town to attend a big language exchange meeting. So as we rushing to clean myself off, I suddenly noticed a little kid standing there with his bike just in awe of one person pouring bottles of water on another person. After I was somewhat decent looking, we hurried to catch the train to Sarah's school. Yet again, we got lost and then quickly got back onto the train to head to the language exchange meeting. We were making good time and might have even arrived early...if we hadn't gotten lost again! Hehe. At this point we just had to laugh. We jumped in an elevator, rushed upstairs and managed to catch ort breath just in time to jump into conversations with some very friendly Japanese people. After an hour that quickly flew by, we all realized that we didn't wanna stop talking with our new friends and decided to get a drink together. Me and one of the other Japanese attendees, Tsukasa, discovered that we would both be attending the same rock festival and exchanged numbers so that we could meet up there.
About my schools:
As I said previously, my base school is a junior high school called Hassamu. I will go to Hassmu for one week and once September begins, I will start going to a couple of different elementary schools a week. I'm looking forward to it because all we really do is play games while using English with the kids. The only downside is that it's a bit tiring. The nice thing is that I only have to go 4 times a week. And I believe that I get out of work a little earlier. My supervisor, Ito-san, is really great because he understands that it can very hard on the ALTs to go to new schools each week and spend all day running around with the kids. So, to help out, he gives us a 'rest day' where all we have to do is go into the main office with the Board of Education and prepare future lesson materials. I anticipate getting lost a few times while searching for my elementary schools, but at least going from place to place every week will help me become more familiar with Sapporo and make me feel more confident about using the different forms of transportation here. Gotta find the positive spin to things. So far, that's one of the most important things I' ve learned.
Once again, please excuse my horrible grammar, misspellings and awkwards sentences. I don't really have time to edit this blog because I need to go study some Japanese. (^-^)
Ja, matta ne!
I'm feeling a little more tired today because I had to get up earlier than usual to go across town to deliver a snow board. At first, I was a little confused about who to give it to, but thankfully, I managed to find the hotel where I had to drop it off AND I got into work early. I even managed to squeeze in some time to stop by Starbucks for breakfast.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics...
So this past weekend I went to Ezo ( about 40 minutes North of Sapporo) to attend the Rising Sun Rock Festival. All I can say is that it was simply amazing. I came back exhausted, dirty, and my entire body was killing me, but do I regret it? Not at all. There were about 6 stages around this huge patch of land and each area had a different style of music to enjoy. And in each section, there were many stands offering different types of food from around Japan and other parts of the world. There were also camp sites that we could venture off to for a rest. Of course, I didn't bother going there very often because it was really far from everything else. I was really excited because there were only Japanese bands playing, so it was really cool to experience some of the Japanese music culture. And also I got to see one of my all-time favorites bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation (otherwise known as, Ajikan), and they were amazing live! Another just little interesting observation is that Japanese fans ''rock out'' differently from westerners. They are a lot more orderly. That may sound odd, but I have trouble explaining it any other way. They go crazy when a band hits the stage, but between songs there is a dead silence. It's kinda funny. Anyway, there were so many different styles of music from mainstream rock to techno to jazz to ainu music. For those interested in trying out new music, I highly recommend the Dub Ainu Band. The band was dressed in traditional Ainu clothing and played beautiful music that everyone really enjoyed. On a slightly sad not, I missed out on the Maruyama Zoo trip because I got back too late. I'll just have to make the trip on my own some day.
(For those who are interested in seeing some pictures, feel free to check out my facebook because my friend Alice took numerous pictures. And for those without facebook, I promise to post them as soon as I get my internet set up and steal the pics from Alice, hehe.)
I have reached a few conclusions concerning myself since I entered this wonderful country. Let me explain in further detail. First off, Japan is the country where I stain everything! I can't count how many shirts and skirts I have already ruined by spilling soup or other foods onto myself. It's pretty incredible when I can go an entire day with spotless clothing. I already stick out as it is, so clothing. I already stick out as it is, so it's nice to have another reason for people to stare. Secondly, I am incapable of not stumbling into something or alarming fellow patrons at a restaurant by clanging into the dishware. Last night, I attended my first language exchange with a Japanese person. We went to a restaurant in this really nice hotel. It was kind of quiet so I already nervous about having some of the people there listen to my horrible Japanese pronunciation. I ordered some food, and then CLANG!!! I hit my plate with my college ring. The sound echoed all throughout the restaurant and people stopped eating to look at me. Way to go, foreigner! Thankfully my language exchange partner, Tsukasa, helped me laugh it off.
Last Friday, I made my first ''covert'' visit to my base junior high school. It's called Hassamu and it looks kind of big from the outside. I waws excited about walking up to it, but in true Celeste-fashion I decided to make a grand entrance. As I was on the sidewalk I didn't pay attention to where I was walking and slipped and fell on some mud. Now keep in mind, I didn't just get a small spot of mud on me. No, no. I got mud on me from the top of my skirt to the very bottom it. Luckily, my friend Sarah was with me and she helped me get up. And of course who would come running around the corner, but my future students. They were jogging back to the school and so I quickly ran to hide behind a house nearby. Sarah and I proceeded to pour water on my skirt and scrape off all the mud. And to make matters more interesting we had to hurry because we still had to visit Sarah's school and then head back into town to attend a big language exchange meeting. So as we rushing to clean myself off, I suddenly noticed a little kid standing there with his bike just in awe of one person pouring bottles of water on another person. After I was somewhat decent looking, we hurried to catch the train to Sarah's school. Yet again, we got lost and then quickly got back onto the train to head to the language exchange meeting. We were making good time and might have even arrived early...if we hadn't gotten lost again! Hehe. At this point we just had to laugh. We jumped in an elevator, rushed upstairs and managed to catch ort breath just in time to jump into conversations with some very friendly Japanese people. After an hour that quickly flew by, we all realized that we didn't wanna stop talking with our new friends and decided to get a drink together. Me and one of the other Japanese attendees, Tsukasa, discovered that we would both be attending the same rock festival and exchanged numbers so that we could meet up there.
About my schools:
As I said previously, my base school is a junior high school called Hassamu. I will go to Hassmu for one week and once September begins, I will start going to a couple of different elementary schools a week. I'm looking forward to it because all we really do is play games while using English with the kids. The only downside is that it's a bit tiring. The nice thing is that I only have to go 4 times a week. And I believe that I get out of work a little earlier. My supervisor, Ito-san, is really great because he understands that it can very hard on the ALTs to go to new schools each week and spend all day running around with the kids. So, to help out, he gives us a 'rest day' where all we have to do is go into the main office with the Board of Education and prepare future lesson materials. I anticipate getting lost a few times while searching for my elementary schools, but at least going from place to place every week will help me become more familiar with Sapporo and make me feel more confident about using the different forms of transportation here. Gotta find the positive spin to things. So far, that's one of the most important things I' ve learned.
Once again, please excuse my horrible grammar, misspellings and awkwards sentences. I don't really have time to edit this blog because I need to go study some Japanese. (^-^)
Ja, matta ne!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Hmmmm....
I guess I'm starting to get a little more settled. However, I can't say entirely so because I don't have a real routine yet. Tomorrow I'm supposed to make a school visit tomorrow just to see where I will be teaching. The only problem is that I'm not sure where I will be teaching, especially because I won't even be going to my base school until November. For the next month I will be teaching elementary school students, which supposedly means that I'll be playing a bunch of games with them. I'm excited.
Weird observation time:
Japan is an amazing country. There are so many interesting things to see and do, and I know I haven't even seen anything yet. However, I must say that there are some rather strange things that I don't quite understand. For instance, there are random sounds dinging outside doorways that don't seem to serve any logical purpose. The education center that I'm currently working at has speakers at the entrances of the buildings and they just continuously go on and on. I've asked some of the other senior ALTs what they are doing, but they have no idea either.
Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow afternoon because me and some fellow ALTs will attending an event called "Let's Talk! Workshop." It'll be at the international plaza, which is supposed to be a really cool area that offers a lot of information to foreigners. We will be spending time with high school students to help them practice speaking in English. I'm looking forward to it because high school students have quite a large English vocabulary.
This weekend I'm going to The Rising Sun Rock Festival. I'm going with a few other ALTs to a beach and camp out for the festival. I've never been camping before, so I'm not exactly sure how to prepare for it, but I just view it as another adventure. Initially, I just wanted to go see some live Japanese music, but I'm even more excited because some of my favorite bands will be playing.
On Sunday, all of the ALTs have been invited to go to Maruyama Zoo with Higarashi (I think) Junior High School. I kept seeing posters for the zoo, so now I'm really looking forward to it!
By the way, to everyone that has been trying to contact me through facebook:
I'm so sorry, but I can't access facebook from my computer at work. This is the only internet that I have access to, so I apologize for not getting back to you guys. I hope to have internet within the week, so I promise to get back to each and everyone of you ASAP.
Must go to another workshop right now! Bye!
Weird observation time:
Japan is an amazing country. There are so many interesting things to see and do, and I know I haven't even seen anything yet. However, I must say that there are some rather strange things that I don't quite understand. For instance, there are random sounds dinging outside doorways that don't seem to serve any logical purpose. The education center that I'm currently working at has speakers at the entrances of the buildings and they just continuously go on and on. I've asked some of the other senior ALTs what they are doing, but they have no idea either.
Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow afternoon because me and some fellow ALTs will attending an event called "Let's Talk! Workshop." It'll be at the international plaza, which is supposed to be a really cool area that offers a lot of information to foreigners. We will be spending time with high school students to help them practice speaking in English. I'm looking forward to it because high school students have quite a large English vocabulary.
This weekend I'm going to The Rising Sun Rock Festival. I'm going with a few other ALTs to a beach and camp out for the festival. I've never been camping before, so I'm not exactly sure how to prepare for it, but I just view it as another adventure. Initially, I just wanted to go see some live Japanese music, but I'm even more excited because some of my favorite bands will be playing.
On Sunday, all of the ALTs have been invited to go to Maruyama Zoo with Higarashi (I think) Junior High School. I kept seeing posters for the zoo, so now I'm really looking forward to it!
By the way, to everyone that has been trying to contact me through facebook:
I'm so sorry, but I can't access facebook from my computer at work. This is the only internet that I have access to, so I apologize for not getting back to you guys. I hope to have internet within the week, so I promise to get back to each and everyone of you ASAP.
Must go to another workshop right now! Bye!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Craziness, Food and a Japanese Cover Band
The title says it all. That's exactly what the last couple of weeks have felt like. I am so tired and I feel really bad because I haven't been able to talk with a lot of my family and friends. But hopefully I will be able to get my internet up and running within the next few days. My flat is starting to feel like home as I fill it up with more essential "home" stuff. However, it doesn't have much personality right now. My predecessor left a few things up on the walls, and while I think it looks really cool, it still makes me feel like it's not my own place. I feel like I'm merely visiting someone else's flat. I love a lot of random Austin and Texas things around my place. One of of the first things I did after I plopped all of my stuff down was to immediately take out a small Texas flag I brought with me and place it in a flower pot. Hehe. It makes me feel good to open my window and see it flapping in the breeze.
Another thing I've been doing to make it feel more like home is to start cooking more. There was a sale on chicken at the local grocery/department store, so I decided to try making something "Italianish." Earlier in the week, I had visited an international food store and picked up some bowtie pasta, so my menu was pasta with herbed chicken and a salad. It was pretty tasty, but I made way too much for one person. My friend Sarah ( the girl from South Africa) had phoned my earlier to invite me over to her place so we could eat dinner together. I quickly packed up my stuff and ran up to her place. (Sarah lives in the same building, so we hang out quite a bit.) Another friend, Tarnjeet (from the UK) was already hanging out there when I arrived. I quickly sat down to start eating and I must say I'm a decent cook. I need some practice, but at least the food was edible and Sarah seemed to like it.
Last night me and a senior ALT decided to cook Mexican food for some of the other new ALTs. It was a some of the other new ALTs. It was a bit interesting adapting to local goods, but I think it turned out okay. We had tacos, chicken fajitas, guacamole and salsa. And then Sarah and another friend, Olivia (from New Zealand), made dessert. (And apparently pudding means the same thing as dessert. I still don't get it. But Sarah swears the words are interchangeable.) The tortillas were a bit funky, but the food as a whole was very tasty. Oishii! However, Xelan, the fellow ALT who helped maked the food, did steal my thunder because I was planning on making Mexican food. But the other ALTs did say that they' d eat Mexican food whenever. I'll just try to spice it up when I host the next dinner party.
Friday was a pretty cool day, too. Well, the daytime was VERY hot, but still cool all the same. VERY hot, but still cool all the same. All of the ALTs ventured to a Japanese senior high school for a "Foreign Food & Fun Festival." It was a lot fun, but really hot in the school because they don't have central air. We played games with the students and doing Japanese calligraphy together. I wrote horribly and it was slightly embarassing. Hehe. One of the students told me that one of the kanji (Chinese character) I was attempting to write was a character he had written back in elementary school. We all had a great time talking about movies and music. And then it was my turn to write in kanji on a fan. I wrote star and it seemed to come out okay.
After lunch, we went to different workshops. Students had the option of attending 2 of 3 workshops. There was a cookｉｎｇ， ｂｅｌｌｙｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｓｐｏｒｔｓ． Ｉ ａｔｔｅｎｄｅｄ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｏｋｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｂｅｌｌｙｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ｗｏｒｋｓｈｏｐｓ． Ａｔ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｏｋｉｎｇ ｗｏｒｋｓｈｏｐ， ｗｅ ｍａｄｅ ｒｉｃｅ ｋｒｉｓｐｙ ｔｒｅａｔｓ ａｎｄ ｒａｓｐｂｅｒｒｙ ｌｅｍｏｎａｄｅ． Ｔｈｅ ｒｅｃｉｐｅｓ ｗｅｒｅ ａ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｏｆｆ， ｓｏ ｉｔ ｔａｓｔｅｄ ａ ｂｉｔ．．．ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｉｎｇ． Ｉ ｗａｓ ｋｉｎｄ ｏｆ ｅｍｂａｒａｓｓｅｄ ｗｈｅｎ ｏｎｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｓｔａｆｆ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ａｓｋｅｄ ｉｆ ｈｅ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｔｒｙ ｏｕｒ ｎｅｗ ｃｏｎｃｏｃｔｉｏｎｓ． Ｉ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｔｅｌｌ ｔｈａｔ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｔｒｙｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｌｏｏｋ ｌｉｋｅ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｅｎｊｏｙｉｎｇ ｉｔ． Ｏｈ ｗｅｌｌ． Ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｒｅａｌｌｙ ｃｏｏｌ ａｂｏｕｔ ｉｔ ａｌｌ. After that I went to the bellydancing class, but I was feeling very restless, so I was jumping around a lot. Ｔｈｅ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｇｉｒｌｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｃｌａｓｓ ｗｅｒｅ ｌａｕｇｈｉｎｇ ａ ｌｏｔ， ｆｅｅｌｉｎｇ ｓｌｉｇｈｔｌｙ ｅｍｂａｒａｓｓｅｅｄ．
Ｌａｔｅｒ ｔｈａｔ ｅｖｅｎｉｎｇ ｗｅ ｗｅｎｔ ｔｏ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｃａｌｌｅｄ ａｎ ｅｎｋａｉ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ｉｓ ｂａｓｉｃａｌｌｙ ａ ｗｅｌｃｏｍｅ ｄｉｎｎｅｒ． Ｗｅ ａｔｅ Ｇｅｎｇｉｓ Ｋｈａｎ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ｉｓ ｌａｍｂ ａｎｄ ａ ｂｕｎｃｈ ｏｆ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｖｅｇｅｔａｂｌｅｓ. Groups of people are given a plate of food and we all cook our own food on a stove-like top. Me and my friend Tarnjeet sat down in front of a principal and a teacher. Out of nowhere, the teacher asked if we could start editing some essays. He literally pulled 2 red pens for us to begin correcting some junior high schools students' papers. I wasn't really sure what to do. I figured it would be rude to say no, so while everyone else was preparing for the big toast, I was reading about a child's experience with having her car break down in the middle of nowhere. It was actually pretty interesting to read about another student's account of bullying in Japan and how to deal with it.
After much eating, we all filed out of the restaurant and some of us made our way out on the town. It was Friday night, so we couldn't possibly go home right away. We decided to head out into Odori and go watch some live music and have a few drinks. Two senior ALTs took 7 of us to a place called "Brit's Beat." It's essentially a bar with live music. It's kind of a tiny place, but is very cool and laid back. There is a $21 cover charge，ｓｏ ｔｈｅ ｐｒｉｃｅ ｉｓ ａ ｂｉｔ ｓｔｅｅｐ， ｂｕｔ ｔｈａｔ ａｌｓｏ ｍｅａｎｓ ｕｎｌｉｍｉｔｅｄ ｂｅｖｅｒａｇｅｓ！ Ｉ ｄｅｃｉｄｅｄ ｔｏ ｂｅ ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｏｕｓ， ａｎｄ ｏｒｄｅｒｅｄ ａ ｄｒｉｎｋ Ｉ ｈａｄ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｈｅａｒｄ． Ｓｏｏｎ ａｆｔｅｒ， Ｉ ｄｅｃｉｄｅｄ ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｂｅｓｔ ｔｏ ｓｔｉｃｋ ｔｏ ｄｒｉｎｋｓ ｔｈａｔ Ｉ ｗａｓ ｆａｍｉｌｉａｒ ｗｉｔｈ． Ｔｈｅｎ， ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ ｗｅｎｔ ｏｎ ｓｔａｇｅ． Ｔｈｅｙ ｂｒｏｋｅ ｉｎｔｏ Ｊｉｍｉ Ｈｅｎｄｒｉｘ， Ｔｈｅ Ｗｈｏ， ｅｔｃ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ａｍａｚｉｎｇ！ Ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ ｈａｄ ａ ｓｏｒｅ ｔｈｒｏａｔ， ｓｏ ｈｅ ｗｏｕｌｄｎ’ｔ ｂｅ ｓｉｎｇｉｎｇ ｕｎｔｉｌ ｔｈｅ ｎｅｘｔ ｓｅｔ． Ｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｅ， ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｇｕｉｔａｒｉｓｔ ｔｏｏｋ ｏｖｅｒ． Ａｎｄ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ａｂｓｏｌｕｔｅｌｙ ａｍａｚｉｎｇ！ Ｈｉｓ ｓｉｎｇｉｎｇ ｗａｓ ｐｒｅｔｔｙ ｇｏｏｄ， ｂｕｔ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ａ ｔｏｔａｌ ｒｏｃｋ ｓｔａｒ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ｇｕｉｔａｒ． Ｉ ｐｒｏｍｉｓｅ ｔｏ ｐｏｓｔ ｐｉｃｓ ａｎｄ ｖｉｄｅｏｓ ａｓ ｓｏｏｎ ａｓ Ｉ ｋｎｏｗ ｈｏｗ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｔｈｅｍ ｏｆｆ ｍｙ ｐｈｏｎｅ． Ｌａｔｅｒ， ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ ｊｏｉｎｅｄ ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ ａｎｄ ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ ｓｔａｒｔｉｎｇ ｒｏｃｋｉｎｇ ｏｕｔ． Ｍｅ ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ｆｅｌｌｏｗ ＡＬＴｓ ｇｏｔ ｔｈｅ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｐａｔｒｏｎｓ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｓｔａｒｔ ｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｓｏ ｍｕｃｈ ｆｕｎ！ Ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｅ ｗｅｒｅ， ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｇｒｏｕｐ ｏｆ ’ｇａｉｊｉｎ’ （ｗｈｉｃｈ ｍｅａｎｓ ｆｏｒｅｉｇｎｅｒ ｉｎ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ） ｗｈｏ ｇｏｔ ｔｈｅ ｅｎｔｉｒｅ ｂａｒ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｒｏｃｋ ｏｕｔ． Ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ， ｗｈｏ ａｌｓｏ ｈａｐｐｅｎｅｄ ｔｏ ｂｅ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒ ｏｗｎｅｒ， ｔｏｌｄ ｕｓ ｔｈａｔ ｈｅ ｈａｄ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｓｅｅｎ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒ ｇｏ ｃｒａｚｙ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈａｔ． Ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ， ｗｈｏ ａｌｓｏ ｗｏｒｋｅｄ ａｓ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒｔｅｎｄｅｒｓ， ｋｅｐｔ ａｓｋｉｎｇ ｕｓ ｔｏ ｃｏｍｅ ｂａｃｋ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ａ ｇｒｅａｔ ｎｉｇｈｔ． Ａｎｙｏｎｅ ｗｈｏ ｃｏｍｅｓ ｔｏ ｖｉｓｉｔ ｍｅ， Ｉ ｍｕｓｔ ｔａｋｅ ｙｏｕ ｔｈｅｒｅ！ Ｗｅ ｃａｎ ｓｈｏｗ ｔｈｅ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｈｏｗ ｔｏ ”ｒｏｃｋ ａｎｄ ｒｏｌｌ ａｌｌ ｎｉｇｈｔ， ａｎｄ ｐａｒｔｙ ｅｖｅｒｙ ｄａｙ！” Ｅｘｃｕｓｅ， ｍｙ ｃｈｅｅｓｉｎｅｓｓ．
Ｏｋａｙ， ｗｅｌｌ ｉｔ’ｓ ａｌｍｏｓｔ ｔｉｍｅ ｆｏｒ ｍｅ ｔｏ ｌｅａｖｅ ｗｏｒｋ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ａｌｓｏ ｍｅａｎｓ ｉｔ’ｓ ｔｉｍｅ ｆｏｒ ｔｏ ｗｒａｐ ｕｐ ｔｈｉｓ ｅｘｔｒｅｍｅｌｙ ｌｏｎｇ ｅｎｔｒｙ． Ｉ ｈａｖｅｎ’ｔ ｅｖｅｎ ｒｅａｄ ｏｖｅｒ ｔｈｉｓ ｂｌｏｇ， ｓｏ ｐｌｅａｓｅ ｆｏｒｇｉｖｅ ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｍｙ ｍｉｓｔａｋｅｓ． Ｊｕｓｔ ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ ｍｙ ｇｒａｍｍａｒ ａｎｄ ｓｐｅｌｌｉｎｇ ｍａｙ ｂｅ ｓｃｒｅｗｙ， Ｉ ａｍ ｃａｐａｂｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｅａｃｈｉｎｇ Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ ｔｏ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ． （＾－＾）
Ｐｒｅｖｉｅｗ ｏｆ ｎｅｘｔ ｅｎｔｒｙ：
Ｍａｒｕｙａｍａ Ｚｏｏ ｗｉｔｈ Ｊｕｎｉｏｒ Ｈｉｇｈ Ｓｃｈｏｏｌ ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ ＆ ｔｈｅ Ｒｉｓｉｎｇ Ｓｕｎ Ｒｏｃｋ Ｆｅｓｔｉｖａｌ
Another thing I've been doing to make it feel more like home is to start cooking more. There was a sale on chicken at the local grocery/department store, so I decided to try making something "Italianish." Earlier in the week, I had visited an international food store and picked up some bowtie pasta, so my menu was pasta with herbed chicken and a salad. It was pretty tasty, but I made way too much for one person. My friend Sarah ( the girl from South Africa) had phoned my earlier to invite me over to her place so we could eat dinner together. I quickly packed up my stuff and ran up to her place. (Sarah lives in the same building, so we hang out quite a bit.) Another friend, Tarnjeet (from the UK) was already hanging out there when I arrived. I quickly sat down to start eating and I must say I'm a decent cook. I need some practice, but at least the food was edible and Sarah seemed to like it.
Last night me and a senior ALT decided to cook Mexican food for some of the other new ALTs. It was a some of the other new ALTs. It was a bit interesting adapting to local goods, but I think it turned out okay. We had tacos, chicken fajitas, guacamole and salsa. And then Sarah and another friend, Olivia (from New Zealand), made dessert. (And apparently pudding means the same thing as dessert. I still don't get it. But Sarah swears the words are interchangeable.) The tortillas were a bit funky, but the food as a whole was very tasty. Oishii! However, Xelan, the fellow ALT who helped maked the food, did steal my thunder because I was planning on making Mexican food. But the other ALTs did say that they' d eat Mexican food whenever. I'll just try to spice it up when I host the next dinner party.
Friday was a pretty cool day, too. Well, the daytime was VERY hot, but still cool all the same. VERY hot, but still cool all the same. All of the ALTs ventured to a Japanese senior high school for a "Foreign Food & Fun Festival." It was a lot fun, but really hot in the school because they don't have central air. We played games with the students and doing Japanese calligraphy together. I wrote horribly and it was slightly embarassing. Hehe. One of the students told me that one of the kanji (Chinese character) I was attempting to write was a character he had written back in elementary school. We all had a great time talking about movies and music. And then it was my turn to write in kanji on a fan. I wrote star and it seemed to come out okay.
After lunch, we went to different workshops. Students had the option of attending 2 of 3 workshops. There was a cookｉｎｇ， ｂｅｌｌｙｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｓｐｏｒｔｓ． Ｉ ａｔｔｅｎｄｅｄ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｏｋｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｂｅｌｌｙｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ｗｏｒｋｓｈｏｐｓ． Ａｔ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｏｋｉｎｇ ｗｏｒｋｓｈｏｐ， ｗｅ ｍａｄｅ ｒｉｃｅ ｋｒｉｓｐｙ ｔｒｅａｔｓ ａｎｄ ｒａｓｐｂｅｒｒｙ ｌｅｍｏｎａｄｅ． Ｔｈｅ ｒｅｃｉｐｅｓ ｗｅｒｅ ａ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｏｆｆ， ｓｏ ｉｔ ｔａｓｔｅｄ ａ ｂｉｔ．．．ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｉｎｇ． Ｉ ｗａｓ ｋｉｎｄ ｏｆ ｅｍｂａｒａｓｓｅｄ ｗｈｅｎ ｏｎｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｓｔａｆｆ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ａｓｋｅｄ ｉｆ ｈｅ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｔｒｙ ｏｕｒ ｎｅｗ ｃｏｎｃｏｃｔｉｏｎｓ． Ｉ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｔｅｌｌ ｔｈａｔ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｔｒｙｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｌｏｏｋ ｌｉｋｅ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｅｎｊｏｙｉｎｇ ｉｔ． Ｏｈ ｗｅｌｌ． Ｈｅ ｗａｓ ｒｅａｌｌｙ ｃｏｏｌ ａｂｏｕｔ ｉｔ ａｌｌ. After that I went to the bellydancing class, but I was feeling very restless, so I was jumping around a lot. Ｔｈｅ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｇｉｒｌｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｃｌａｓｓ ｗｅｒｅ ｌａｕｇｈｉｎｇ ａ ｌｏｔ， ｆｅｅｌｉｎｇ ｓｌｉｇｈｔｌｙ ｅｍｂａｒａｓｓｅｅｄ．
Ｌａｔｅｒ ｔｈａｔ ｅｖｅｎｉｎｇ ｗｅ ｗｅｎｔ ｔｏ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｃａｌｌｅｄ ａｎ ｅｎｋａｉ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ｉｓ ｂａｓｉｃａｌｌｙ ａ ｗｅｌｃｏｍｅ ｄｉｎｎｅｒ． Ｗｅ ａｔｅ Ｇｅｎｇｉｓ Ｋｈａｎ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ｉｓ ｌａｍｂ ａｎｄ ａ ｂｕｎｃｈ ｏｆ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｖｅｇｅｔａｂｌｅｓ. Groups of people are given a plate of food and we all cook our own food on a stove-like top. Me and my friend Tarnjeet sat down in front of a principal and a teacher. Out of nowhere, the teacher asked if we could start editing some essays. He literally pulled 2 red pens for us to begin correcting some junior high schools students' papers. I wasn't really sure what to do. I figured it would be rude to say no, so while everyone else was preparing for the big toast, I was reading about a child's experience with having her car break down in the middle of nowhere. It was actually pretty interesting to read about another student's account of bullying in Japan and how to deal with it.
After much eating, we all filed out of the restaurant and some of us made our way out on the town. It was Friday night, so we couldn't possibly go home right away. We decided to head out into Odori and go watch some live music and have a few drinks. Two senior ALTs took 7 of us to a place called "Brit's Beat." It's essentially a bar with live music. It's kind of a tiny place, but is very cool and laid back. There is a $21 cover charge，ｓｏ ｔｈｅ ｐｒｉｃｅ ｉｓ ａ ｂｉｔ ｓｔｅｅｐ， ｂｕｔ ｔｈａｔ ａｌｓｏ ｍｅａｎｓ ｕｎｌｉｍｉｔｅｄ ｂｅｖｅｒａｇｅｓ！ Ｉ ｄｅｃｉｄｅｄ ｔｏ ｂｅ ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｏｕｓ， ａｎｄ ｏｒｄｅｒｅｄ ａ ｄｒｉｎｋ Ｉ ｈａｄ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｈｅａｒｄ． Ｓｏｏｎ ａｆｔｅｒ， Ｉ ｄｅｃｉｄｅｄ ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｂｅｓｔ ｔｏ ｓｔｉｃｋ ｔｏ ｄｒｉｎｋｓ ｔｈａｔ Ｉ ｗａｓ ｆａｍｉｌｉａｒ ｗｉｔｈ． Ｔｈｅｎ， ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ ｗｅｎｔ ｏｎ ｓｔａｇｅ． Ｔｈｅｙ ｂｒｏｋｅ ｉｎｔｏ Ｊｉｍｉ Ｈｅｎｄｒｉｘ， Ｔｈｅ Ｗｈｏ， ｅｔｃ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ａｍａｚｉｎｇ！ Ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ ｈａｄ ａ ｓｏｒｅ ｔｈｒｏａｔ， ｓｏ ｈｅ ｗｏｕｌｄｎ’ｔ ｂｅ ｓｉｎｇｉｎｇ ｕｎｔｉｌ ｔｈｅ ｎｅｘｔ ｓｅｔ． Ｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｅ， ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｇｕｉｔａｒｉｓｔ ｔｏｏｋ ｏｖｅｒ． Ａｎｄ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ａｂｓｏｌｕｔｅｌｙ ａｍａｚｉｎｇ！ Ｈｉｓ ｓｉｎｇｉｎｇ ｗａｓ ｐｒｅｔｔｙ ｇｏｏｄ， ｂｕｔ ｈｅ ｗａｓ ａ ｔｏｔａｌ ｒｏｃｋ ｓｔａｒ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ｇｕｉｔａｒ． Ｉ ｐｒｏｍｉｓｅ ｔｏ ｐｏｓｔ ｐｉｃｓ ａｎｄ ｖｉｄｅｏｓ ａｓ ｓｏｏｎ ａｓ Ｉ ｋｎｏｗ ｈｏｗ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｔｈｅｍ ｏｆｆ ｍｙ ｐｈｏｎｅ． Ｌａｔｅｒ， ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ ｊｏｉｎｅｄ ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ ａｎｄ ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ ｓｔａｒｔｉｎｇ ｒｏｃｋｉｎｇ ｏｕｔ． Ｍｅ ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ｆｅｌｌｏｗ ＡＬＴｓ ｇｏｔ ｔｈｅ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｐａｔｒｏｎｓ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｓｔａｒｔ ｄａｎｃｉｎｇ ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｓｏ ｍｕｃｈ ｆｕｎ！ Ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｅ ｗｅｒｅ， ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｇｒｏｕｐ ｏｆ ’ｇａｉｊｉｎ’ （ｗｈｉｃｈ ｍｅａｎｓ ｆｏｒｅｉｇｎｅｒ ｉｎ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ） ｗｈｏ ｇｏｔ ｔｈｅ ｅｎｔｉｒｅ ｂａｒ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｒｏｃｋ ｏｕｔ． Ｔｈｅ ｌｅａｄ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ， ｗｈｏ ａｌｓｏ ｈａｐｐｅｎｅｄ ｔｏ ｂｅ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒ ｏｗｎｅｒ， ｔｏｌｄ ｕｓ ｔｈａｔ ｈｅ ｈａｄ ｎｅｖｅｒ ｓｅｅｎ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒ ｇｏ ｃｒａｚｙ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈａｔ． Ｔｈｅ ｂａｎｄ， ｗｈｏ ａｌｓｏ ｗｏｒｋｅｄ ａｓ ｔｈｅ ｂａｒｔｅｎｄｅｒｓ， ｋｅｐｔ ａｓｋｉｎｇ ｕｓ ｔｏ ｃｏｍｅ ｂａｃｋ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ａ ｇｒｅａｔ ｎｉｇｈｔ． Ａｎｙｏｎｅ ｗｈｏ ｃｏｍｅｓ ｔｏ ｖｉｓｉｔ ｍｅ， Ｉ ｍｕｓｔ ｔａｋｅ ｙｏｕ ｔｈｅｒｅ！ Ｗｅ ｃａｎ ｓｈｏｗ ｔｈｅ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｈｏｗ ｔｏ ”ｒｏｃｋ ａｎｄ ｒｏｌｌ ａｌｌ ｎｉｇｈｔ， ａｎｄ ｐａｒｔｙ ｅｖｅｒｙ ｄａｙ！” Ｅｘｃｕｓｅ， ｍｙ ｃｈｅｅｓｉｎｅｓｓ．
Ｏｋａｙ， ｗｅｌｌ ｉｔ’ｓ ａｌｍｏｓｔ ｔｉｍｅ ｆｏｒ ｍｅ ｔｏ ｌｅａｖｅ ｗｏｒｋ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ａｌｓｏ ｍｅａｎｓ ｉｔ’ｓ ｔｉｍｅ ｆｏｒ ｔｏ ｗｒａｐ ｕｐ ｔｈｉｓ ｅｘｔｒｅｍｅｌｙ ｌｏｎｇ ｅｎｔｒｙ． Ｉ ｈａｖｅｎ’ｔ ｅｖｅｎ ｒｅａｄ ｏｖｅｒ ｔｈｉｓ ｂｌｏｇ， ｓｏ ｐｌｅａｓｅ ｆｏｒｇｉｖｅ ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｍｙ ｍｉｓｔａｋｅｓ． Ｊｕｓｔ ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ ｍｙ ｇｒａｍｍａｒ ａｎｄ ｓｐｅｌｌｉｎｇ ｍａｙ ｂｅ ｓｃｒｅｗｙ， Ｉ ａｍ ｃａｐａｂｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｅａｃｈｉｎｇ Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ ｔｏ Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ． （＾－＾）
Ｐｒｅｖｉｅｗ ｏｆ ｎｅｘｔ ｅｎｔｒｙ：
Ｍａｒｕｙａｍａ Ｚｏｏ ｗｉｔｈ Ｊｕｎｉｏｒ Ｈｉｇｈ Ｓｃｈｏｏｌ ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ ＆ ｔｈｅ Ｒｉｓｉｎｇ Ｓｕｎ Ｒｏｃｋ Ｆｅｓｔｉｖａｌ
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Getting Settled
Wow, well life has been non-stop since I arrived here in Japan. Everyday I seem to be going out to spend more money. My new flat is very nice, but I still have many things to buy! Right now I'm at work really working hard for the money. Me and my fellow ALTs are gonna spend a hard day of messing around on the computer. We don't actually start teaching until September.
For the first full month I'll be working at an elementary school. And the next month，I'll be at a junior high school．And then in November I'll begin working at my base school, which is also a junior high. I'm excited about working at an elementary school, but from what I hear, it's extremely crazy because I go to a new school every 2 days! Oh well. It should be fun to play with the little kids.
I'm still pretty frustrated with my phone. It won't dial out and it's a little upsetting because I'd like to hear my family's voices. I need to talk with my supervisor about it, who in turn, must talk with the Board of Education here. I hope it gets set up Board of Education here. I hope it gets set up quickly, because my internet is also supposed to be set up in about a week. And at the end of this month, I'll finally be able to get a cell phone. I hate sounding so whiney. It's still a bit of an adjustment period for me. Perhaps that is the problem. I need to follow what my Mom would say, "Try to adapt, not adjust."
In my last blog I mentioned the Beer Garden Festival. That is a special event hosted here in Sapporo. In Odori (a more city-like part of Sapporo), there are a few parks right in the heart of the city. And at nighttime, all the major Japanese beer companies serve mugs upon mugs of beer. What's even cooler is that they also serve huge tubes of beer that a whole group of friends can share. The tubes are easily 5 feet tall! It's amazing because people will all take blankets, food and games and just gather round to sit and be merry. It's quite an amazing site. Like my previous posts, I'll try to post pictures once they've been developed.
Two nights ago, me and some of the other new ALTs, decided to venture out into the town for some late night karaoke. We went into Susukino, (another more city-like part of Sapporo) and found a lot of Japanese people about our age. We eventually stumbled upon a pretty karaoke place and we were all shoved into a really small room. The rest of night was spent belting out U2 songs and disco songs and drinking Lemon-Chu. And who knows what was in that, but it was good.
Last night, one of the second-year ALTs invited us all over for a bar-b-que. It was a lot of fun and I must say that me and one of my Kiwi friends enjoyed the Japanese beer. There so much food and I almost got teary-eyed when I saw a bowl of guacamole sitting on the ｔａｂｌｅ. I used some of the bar-b-que seasoning that my family gave me before I left the states. I put it on the some corn that we were roasting. It was very tasty and very hot! Oh, Texas.
Well, I guess I need to wrap for right now. I need to start working on my self-introduction for my students. Hope to be back soon!
For the first full month I'll be working at an elementary school. And the next month，I'll be at a junior high school．And then in November I'll begin working at my base school, which is also a junior high. I'm excited about working at an elementary school, but from what I hear, it's extremely crazy because I go to a new school every 2 days! Oh well. It should be fun to play with the little kids.
I'm still pretty frustrated with my phone. It won't dial out and it's a little upsetting because I'd like to hear my family's voices. I need to talk with my supervisor about it, who in turn, must talk with the Board of Education here. I hope it gets set up Board of Education here. I hope it gets set up quickly, because my internet is also supposed to be set up in about a week. And at the end of this month, I'll finally be able to get a cell phone. I hate sounding so whiney. It's still a bit of an adjustment period for me. Perhaps that is the problem. I need to follow what my Mom would say, "Try to adapt, not adjust."
In my last blog I mentioned the Beer Garden Festival. That is a special event hosted here in Sapporo. In Odori (a more city-like part of Sapporo), there are a few parks right in the heart of the city. And at nighttime, all the major Japanese beer companies serve mugs upon mugs of beer. What's even cooler is that they also serve huge tubes of beer that a whole group of friends can share. The tubes are easily 5 feet tall! It's amazing because people will all take blankets, food and games and just gather round to sit and be merry. It's quite an amazing site. Like my previous posts, I'll try to post pictures once they've been developed.
Two nights ago, me and some of the other new ALTs, decided to venture out into the town for some late night karaoke. We went into Susukino, (another more city-like part of Sapporo) and found a lot of Japanese people about our age. We eventually stumbled upon a pretty karaoke place and we were all shoved into a really small room. The rest of night was spent belting out U2 songs and disco songs and drinking Lemon-Chu. And who knows what was in that, but it was good.
Last night, one of the second-year ALTs invited us all over for a bar-b-que. It was a lot of fun and I must say that me and one of my Kiwi friends enjoyed the Japanese beer. There so much food and I almost got teary-eyed when I saw a bowl of guacamole sitting on the ｔａｂｌｅ. I used some of the bar-b-que seasoning that my family gave me before I left the states. I put it on the some corn that we were roasting. It was very tasty and very hot! Oh, Texas.
Well, I guess I need to wrap for right now. I need to start working on my self-introduction for my students. Hope to be back soon!
Friday, August 3, 2007
こんにちは from 札幌市
Wow...I'm not even sure where to begin. So sorry I've been away for a few days. Since I arrived in Sapporo, everything has been EXTREMELY hectic. I'm so sorry to everyone who has tried to contact me. I've been without internet and I probably wont have internet for another month, so I'll have to steal free moments while at work. And to my facebook friends, I'm sorry, but the only computer I have access to has blocked the network computer from the site.
I moved into my new apartment, which is actually pretty cool. I'm one of the luckier ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) who got a fairly nice apartment. A lot of the other places are filled with the previous owners' belongings. And when I say filled, I mean filled with trash from the past three years．Luckily, my predecessor was very organized and left me and lot of instructions to help me out. Unfortunately, along with my internet, I won't have a cell phone for about with my internet, I won't have a cell phone for about another month. I won't have a cell phone for about another month. I have a phone at my apartment, but it's not working! Oh well! Anyway, I hope to be in touch with you all through email and on here. I have yet to get a camera, but I hope to get one soon and then start posting some pictures.
Quick background：
I'm one of two Americans, so it's been kinda cool listening to different accents and teaching each other our own slang．We are all a pretty tight-knit group, especially since we are a bunch of foreigners in a foreign land. There is a girl from the UK, a girl from South Africa and a couple girls from New Zealand. All of them are really funny and laid back. We're all about to go shopping at the ￥100 (the equivalent of a $1 store) to buy some things for our new homes because they all could use a bit of personality.
Well, I gotta go for now.
Preview: Odori Beer Garden Madness!
I moved into my new apartment, which is actually pretty cool. I'm one of the luckier ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) who got a fairly nice apartment. A lot of the other places are filled with the previous owners' belongings. And when I say filled, I mean filled with trash from the past three years．Luckily, my predecessor was very organized and left me and lot of instructions to help me out. Unfortunately, along with my internet, I won't have a cell phone for about with my internet, I won't have a cell phone for about another month. I won't have a cell phone for about another month. I have a phone at my apartment, but it's not working! Oh well! Anyway, I hope to be in touch with you all through email and on here. I have yet to get a camera, but I hope to get one soon and then start posting some pictures.
Quick background：
I'm one of two Americans, so it's been kinda cool listening to different accents and teaching each other our own slang．We are all a pretty tight-knit group, especially since we are a bunch of foreigners in a foreign land. There is a girl from the UK, a girl from South Africa and a couple girls from New Zealand. All of them are really funny and laid back. We're all about to go shopping at the ￥100 (the equivalent of a $1 store) to buy some things for our new homes because they all could use a bit of personality.
Well, I gotta go for now.
Preview: Odori Beer Garden Madness!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Shinjuku Nights
Well, it's my last night here in Tokyo. There so much to say, but I don't even know where to begin. The last few days have been a slight blur, but I'm sure I'll have some time soon to sit and ruminate about the whole experience. Earlier this evening, me and my roommate (who is very cool by the way. She is from Texas and lived for a while in San Antonio with her husband, who will soon be joining her here.) went exploring to find a place to eat dinner. Initially, we wanted to eat Mexican food and we found this place called "El Borracho" on the internet, but the directions were a little too fuzzy for us foreigners. So, we decided to just wing it.
We met up with a fellow ALT (that stands for Assistant Language Teacher) and began our search for dinner. We wandered for quite a while. And man, let me tell you, do you gotta pay attention while walking busy streets. People mainly walk on the left side here, but for some reason that rule does not always apply. So you have to quickly shift you directions in a split second. Or else a small, fast Japanese girl can hit you in the shoulder and practically knock you over. Anyway, we eventually decided upon going to a traditional-looking noodle shop. The fun part was trying to choose what to eat, because there was not a word of English to be seen. So we all just pointed to a picture on the wall. And man, we picked a good picture because the food was really good.
Afterwards, we wandered a bit more to take touristy pictures and then eventually headed back to our hotel. My fellow wanderers had prefecture parties to attend and so I decided to head back to my room to pack. Later, I decided to head out again by myself to see what it felt like to be a little foreigner who was attempting not to get too lost. Also, I was in desperate need of a watch. (For the past few years, I've relied on my phone as a watch, but since my old phone is currently in the states, I've had to really on asking people for the time. And in the process I've come to a conclusion: In addition to my previous observation that Tokyo is a super-clean city without any trash cans, it also is missing clocks.) The other ALT that we met up with earlier had found a watch at this really neat electronics store, so I wanted to test my memory in hopes of tracking down the same store. However, after going in a big circle about 2 times and with no sight of said shop, I thought it best to head back the hotel.
But before I could head back, I decided I had to stop by a Pachinko that I kept walking past. (Pachinko is like gambling here in Japan, except it's not. Gambling is illegal, but the Japanese get around this by playing with metal balls instead of money. So, technically, they are trying to win more metal balls. That is of course until they collect their metal balls and redeem them for cash. (For more info, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko) I walked inside and man, the music was blaring. I could only be in there for a few minutes it was sensory overload for me. I know, I know. I'm getting old. I blame it on the jet lag. However, I will try playing pachinko someday.
Okay, well it's time for bed. Gotta get up in the morning and catch a plane to Sapporo City. I'll need to set up my internet, so it may take some time before I can get on the internet again.
Take care to anyone who may be reading my stupid ramblings. And I'll try to be in touch with all of you soon.
We met up with a fellow ALT (that stands for Assistant Language Teacher) and began our search for dinner. We wandered for quite a while. And man, let me tell you, do you gotta pay attention while walking busy streets. People mainly walk on the left side here, but for some reason that rule does not always apply. So you have to quickly shift you directions in a split second. Or else a small, fast Japanese girl can hit you in the shoulder and practically knock you over. Anyway, we eventually decided upon going to a traditional-looking noodle shop. The fun part was trying to choose what to eat, because there was not a word of English to be seen. So we all just pointed to a picture on the wall. And man, we picked a good picture because the food was really good.
Afterwards, we wandered a bit more to take touristy pictures and then eventually headed back to our hotel. My fellow wanderers had prefecture parties to attend and so I decided to head back to my room to pack. Later, I decided to head out again by myself to see what it felt like to be a little foreigner who was attempting not to get too lost. Also, I was in desperate need of a watch. (For the past few years, I've relied on my phone as a watch, but since my old phone is currently in the states, I've had to really on asking people for the time. And in the process I've come to a conclusion: In addition to my previous observation that Tokyo is a super-clean city without any trash cans, it also is missing clocks.) The other ALT that we met up with earlier had found a watch at this really neat electronics store, so I wanted to test my memory in hopes of tracking down the same store. However, after going in a big circle about 2 times and with no sight of said shop, I thought it best to head back the hotel.
But before I could head back, I decided I had to stop by a Pachinko that I kept walking past. (Pachinko is like gambling here in Japan, except it's not. Gambling is illegal, but the Japanese get around this by playing with metal balls instead of money. So, technically, they are trying to win more metal balls. That is of course until they collect their metal balls and redeem them for cash. (For more info, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko) I walked inside and man, the music was blaring. I could only be in there for a few minutes it was sensory overload for me. I know, I know. I'm getting old. I blame it on the jet lag. However, I will try playing pachinko someday.
Okay, well it's time for bed. Gotta get up in the morning and catch a plane to Sapporo City. I'll need to set up my internet, so it may take some time before I can get on the internet again.
Take care to anyone who may be reading my stupid ramblings. And I'll try to be in touch with all of you soon.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Well, here I am...
Right now I'm sitting in the gorgeously, huge Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. I can't believe I actually typed that sentence. It is after midnight here (Monday), but my body still thinks that it's 10am on Sunday. And yet, I don't care. I don't care about the time because I'm easily distracted by being able to look out my window and see these huge sky scrapers that envelope every corner of my vision. I'm actually speechless. While this is still all a dream to me, I do realize that the next few days are expected to be very crazy, but hopefully, not too overwhelming. I really should be off to bed, but I gotta share just a brief story. After I arrived at the hotel, I soon realized that I had accidentally shipped off a bag that I desperately needed. (Hopefully) my bag should be waiting for me at my apartment in Sapporo when I arrive. So, my first task after getting settled, calling mom and scrounging for some yen to go find something to eat was to find a convenience store to replace some of the things that I was missing. I picked up my room key and jetted for the lobby before it got much later. I made it out the door only to see it pouring down rain outside. So, after some ridiculous wandering around the hotel (which, honestly, was kinda fun) I came across a cute little convenience store. I stood there trying my best to read the labels on some of the bottles, in an effort to find a facial wash replacement. Success! I found a very cute, and cheap bottle of face wash, but upon further inspection, it began to look more like a face-whitening cream...which is what I definitely do not want. And so I kept looking and looking. I'd like to say that I was able to get by on my Japanese alphabet skills, but sadly no. I grabbed the only bottle that said "facial foam" in English. Oh well, that thing that I learned from this experience is that I'm sure that I'm gonna do a ton of silly things and make numerous mistakes in the following months. But hey, that's called living. I've grown to see living as "living forward." We gotta take chances, we gotta keep looking ahead even after a few stumbles along the way. I mean, hey, after what felt like an endless pursuit and through sheer determination, I did end up with a pretty cool face wash, hehe. So I say, keep stumbling. There's nothing wrong with that. Just stand back up, brush yourself off, and keep going forward.
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