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!