Dec. 19 Saturday
So today my sup and I went to go check out snowboards and snowboarding gear at this awesomely big sports shop called Xebio. Some of the decor included fake/stuffed/taxidermed wildlife and for a sec I was like "whoa, they sell hunting rifles here too?" Cuz, you know, that`s usually how it is if you go to a sports shop in the US; it`s either full of camping gear or rifles when there`s animals like that around....lol
So anyways, I found a board, boots, and bindings set, all for 500 bucks total cuz it was on sale. But I didn`t buy it because I had found a board in a recycle shop earlier for 32 bucks. And plus I`ve never snowboarded in my life, so I was planning on maybe renting first to see how I like it. But I think I will be boarding alot here because that`s basically the big sport here in Hokkaido. And plus there`s a ski hill in every town. So it`s crazy if I don`t learn a winter sport besides skating here. I need to get out more and work out too. haha.
In the evening Su and I went to Bikkuri Donkey to eat hamburg steaks. They were soooo damn good there!
Dec. 20 Sunday
Went over to Asahikawa to hang with Alan! My first time hanging with him in Asahikawa. I usually don`t have the time, but this time I was like, "Yes! Free!" I had a car so I drove him and I to JUSCO for some shopping goods. Christmas presents etc. Yes, it`s a lil late for me to still be buying gifts especially since I have to send it to CA, but hey, I know or I hope my family won`t mind late presents. =P And then we stuffed ourselves at the buffet there. haha. Alan saw a couple of his high school students, and i saw a couple of my elementary kids. hehe.
Dec. 22nd Tuesday
So today was the Christmas party at the nusery at 10am, but before that, at my elementary was the individual grades music concert at 9:30am. So since my 6th graders were last to perform, I was unable to see the whole thing and had to rush off to the nursery. At the nursery the party was already well underway and each of the classes performed a Christmas song. It was soooooooooOOOOOO CUTE! I melted when I saw all of them in their little cute proper formal christmas wear and party hats. I wore my reindeer headband and all the kids were like "AH! REINDEER!" And asked me if Santa`s coming or not. lol Cute. I was surprised, however, when the kids (my older ones, 5 and 6 year olds) were aloud to hold open flame stick candles and walk with it and light the menora in the center of the stage. I was freaking out because I was like "OMG you guys are getting too close to the person in front of you!! Watch the hair! THe hair!" The lil kids were trying to be as careful as possible and kept only staring at the candle. And it was actually really funny to see because they were just absolutely mezmerized by their candles and couldn`t stop staring at it. lol But I was still freaking out. Open flamed candle stick, children, walking in one line really close to each other makes for a bad combo. Afterwards I had to head back to the elementary because I was going to teach a special Christmas lesson to my 6th graders. Although my nursery kids were asking me to stay for the afternoon and asked why I had to go. hehe. cuties!
Once I got off of work I immediately came home and got ready for the bounenkai (end of the year party) with my middle school teachers. It was held in Asahikawa, so Iwata-sensei came to pick me up and we booked individual rooms together at a hotel there since there was going to be massive drinking at the party tonight and none of us wanted to drive back home at 2-3am in the morning. I was able to talk to my family on skype for a bit, but was talking and running around fretting about what to do with myself for the party. haha. So at 5pm I was picked up and we checked into our wonderful nice hotel rooms (well, great except for the fact that it smelt like cigarretes) And then left to go to the party venue.
The place was called Shiraume. And it was damn awesome and delicious! They were famous for their tempura. And then they had Mushi-shabu which uses the shabu-shabu pot, but on top of it you put a bamboo box and put the meat and veggies inside and then cover it, and steam it via the shabu pot beneath. It was delicious! And I loved the atmosphere with all the teachers. Yappari, my middle school teachers are the best to get along with and party with. They`re so much fun and lively and crazy! haha. I love them. Afterwards we reserved a bar/snack (as that`s what they call dark places with few lights that has a bar, and sofas, and a karaoke machine) for all of us to have 90minutes all you can drink alcoholic beverages. Dangerous. lol There I sung my heart out with karaoke. Hagino-sensei was excellent however. LOL His actions, adlibbing, and super genkiness even had the other customers joining in with us! haha. Then afterwards we went to another bar to drink witha ll you can drink stuffs. But I was starting to get tired and I had another party the next day, so I decided halfway to head back to the room and crash.
Okay, right now, I`m at work and it`s the big cleaning day at my elementary. So I will go clean now. More updates later! Bye! Otsukare!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I think by the end of this month, I`m going to be sick of parties.
Alright guys, it`s been a while since my last post. I`ve just been too tired and busy lately. But now that I have nothing to do while I`m at work, I can post! Yay! =P
Dec. 13 Sunday
Today is the Christmas party at the storybook library/museum for the elementary and nursery kids! I volunteered to help out but there really wasn`t much for me to do except look after the children. So all the volunteers all had little Santa aprons and hats on and because I didn`t, I decided to be a reindeer with snow on it. I wore my reindeer ears, a brown tank, and brown leggings with a white fluffy poncho like thing(shawl?) that represented the snow. =P I got there and people weren`t expecting me to be all dressed up, so they were all like WHA?! lol I love dressing up for the occasion so I couldn`t pass it up. The kids thought I was funny and liked to play with my ears because I was the only reindeer. There were lotsa santa`s helpers and santas though. haha. Several of my high school girls also decided to volunteer at the party. So it was a jolly good time bonding with them! I normally don`t talk to them very much at school, but I was happy to be able to talk to them now. They`re sweet and happy children.
I felt so popular at the party because I knew basically every kid! They were all my students. When they came in through the doors and saw me, all smiles. I love them, my babies. I met a lot of the nursery kids parents and they all already knew who I was. I even got invited by one of them to go over for dinner. Turns out she`s the wife of one of my cool high school teachers that I actually talk to. Their son, Genshuu, is seriously adorable and loves English time. ^^ Anyways, when it was time to do a dance together,(I think I must have lost all shame by now) a couple of the kids came over to hold my hand because they wanted to dance with me. haha, cute!!! And I was the only one going all out on the little cute dance because I had to keep up my image of a fun wierd exciting teacher for the kids. haha. -Seriously, at school, I`m quite the wierd teacher and sometimes even the teachers are like "What...are you doing, Theresa?" Or they`ll just laugh at me because I do weird actions. It`s all for my kids. Oddly enough, by me being my weird crazy self, the kids respect me more. The class becomes more fun and lively that way. I like it. The teachers get a kick out of it too. And by chasing students down and poking them until they finally say hello in English to me, I`m getting the students to be more into speaking it (cuz they have to, otherwise they`ll be poked endlessly >D). But that`s mainly only at my elementary.-
Anyways, the kids all had fun at the party and went home happy and with presents. I hung around and went to the otsukare party afterwards with my high school girls. But I didn`t feel right staying there too long and eating the food because I really didn`t do anything to help, except clean up and mind the kids. But they all still gave me a present and homemade cake which is very good btw! ^^
Dec. 16 Wednesday
So, I found out yesterday that my high school has a dormitory. I was like, really?! A dorm in high school? It`s my first time hearing it, but I`m sure there are other high schools like this in the states...i think. It`s located right behind the school. It`s super nice and cozy and has 22 students living in it, seperated into the boys` dorm and the girls` dorm. Although there are only 5 boys living there. lol The boys` area was super dirty compared to the girls even though they clean the dorm everyday after school! Dedication! But they had a PS3 and Grand Theft Auto! I was like, "DUDE! You guys realize I`m coming over here more often now, right?" It also had a cafeteria in it with the cafeteria ladies. The ladies told me about a party happening Wednesday night for the students and teachers in this dorm for Christmas! They invited me to come! I was super excited and said yes because I wanted to spend more time with the high school students and come back to this dorm because it`s awesome! And then I realized that I`m going to be having Christmas party overload. This month is the month of Bounenkai`s or End of the Year work parties and Christmas parties. Parties galore to be exact. I have two more parties tomorrow night to go to too.......
So at first on this night I wasn`t sure if I wanted to go because I was super tired after work today, but I`m quite glad I went. Actually, the free food enticed me to go. haha. So when I entered the cafeteria, all the kids were like "OMG, Theresa!" And were all excited! One of the boys was even like "Tension agatta zo!" which basically means the atmosphere is getting more exciting, for a lack of better translation for this...lol The food was soo good and I got to eat Japanese pizza. I had one with shrimp and mayonnaise and one with raw ham on it (proscuitto?) But food was so damn good and my kids loved talking to me. And then the boys decided to go dress up or cross dress and came in wearing sexy dresses and evreything. haha. They were sooooo skinny! More than some of the girls! I took pictures. =P Afterwards, we played some games like bingo, charades, and quiz games. It was pretty fun. I kept getting the "Kawaii!!~" from all my girls too. And then they all asked my if I had a bf and when I said no, all the girls were super surprised and was like "Wha? But you`re so cute!" lol Thanks girls. You make me feel special. So the night ended at 9pm and was wonderfully fun. Mainly because the dorm was really comfy feeling. Woot.
Dec. 17 Thursday
A hectic day of partying. Seriously, no joke. I had two Christmas parties today, one starting at 6pm and one at 6:30pm. Yes....they were basically at the same time. And I had just finished teaching at the elementary school today, running around and playing with the kids, so I was already ready to just pass out. But since I payed for the 6pm one, which is for the 30 years old and under workers in town crew I wanted to get my money`s worth. And I promised my Taiko kids (the party at 6:30) that I would be there to exchange presents and play with them. So I first went to the 6pm one at really hot nabe (hot pot) really fast, burnt my tongue, and then at 6:25 went over to the club hall for the other party. Actually, I would`ve been able ot eat more and a little slower if there weren`t so many speeches before eating. That`s about the only thing I don`t like here that people have to give long speeches before eating taking up precious eating time and letting the food go cold. Just kampai and lets eat! >.< At the 6pm party I didn`t really talk to other people very much except for Su because she`s the easiest to talk to for me and the funniest. So I was actually pretty excited to go to the 6:30pm one with my kids.
At the club hall my kids and their parents had already arrived and were sitting down at the tables waiting for the teachers to all arrive. I was second to last to arrive and felt pretty bad, but my kids were excited to see me and my girls were like "Theresa-sensei, come sit next to us!" And they even said, "It`s good isn`t it? Theresa-sensei is sitting with us!" I felt more glowy and happy. It was much more comfortable sitting there with my students and their parents and the taiko group rather than the 6pm party with people who are the same age as me. Either, I`m really just a kid at heart or maybe the atmospehere was better. I don`t know. It made me wonder though. Anyways, we played a fun and cute game with stuffed animals and Bingo and then did a present exchange. Most of the gifts that the parents got were all given to the younger kids because the presents were mainly fun kids things. I got 2 nice pens and cute erasers from one of my 1st grade boys. I was quite happy actually. I need them! ^^
Then after sitting and playing with my kids for a lil while longer, I was called by Su and other peoples at the 6pm party to go back because they want to start the present exchange. So as much as i hated to leave my taiko party, I had to because, one I was still hungry for more food, and I paid for the thing, and I didn`t want to be rude to them. So I bid my kids farewell for the night and went back to the other party. I actually got lucky and got this huge apple pie made by the local bakery. It looks so damn good, but I can`t eat all of it, so I think I`m gonna give some to other people, or just Su since she eats so much anyways. lol After the first party ended, there was a second party to go to, which i wasn`t sure if I should go or not. But against better judgement i went. I drank no alcohol though because I was driving. And I didn`t want to drink anymore after all the drinking in Sapporo. I wanted to give myself time to rest and let my liver recover. lol So I stayed there and talked to everyone for a little bit and then left at around 11pm. I was quite exhausted to say the least. And now I`m at work writing my blog update. I`m really quite tired right now, but pumping myself full of coffee to keep me going throughout the day. Hahh.....I have more parties next week too...3 more to be exact. One on the 22nd, 23rd, and 25th. Luckily, on my B-day, the 24th, I can just stay at home and chill. Or, maybe go out and party......
Otsukare-sama! Pics willl will will be up soon. There will be about 300 or so pics so just be warned. Love you all!
Dec. 13 Sunday
Today is the Christmas party at the storybook library/museum for the elementary and nursery kids! I volunteered to help out but there really wasn`t much for me to do except look after the children. So all the volunteers all had little Santa aprons and hats on and because I didn`t, I decided to be a reindeer with snow on it. I wore my reindeer ears, a brown tank, and brown leggings with a white fluffy poncho like thing(shawl?) that represented the snow. =P I got there and people weren`t expecting me to be all dressed up, so they were all like WHA?! lol I love dressing up for the occasion so I couldn`t pass it up. The kids thought I was funny and liked to play with my ears because I was the only reindeer. There were lotsa santa`s helpers and santas though. haha. Several of my high school girls also decided to volunteer at the party. So it was a jolly good time bonding with them! I normally don`t talk to them very much at school, but I was happy to be able to talk to them now. They`re sweet and happy children.
I felt so popular at the party because I knew basically every kid! They were all my students. When they came in through the doors and saw me, all smiles. I love them, my babies. I met a lot of the nursery kids parents and they all already knew who I was. I even got invited by one of them to go over for dinner. Turns out she`s the wife of one of my cool high school teachers that I actually talk to. Their son, Genshuu, is seriously adorable and loves English time. ^^ Anyways, when it was time to do a dance together,(I think I must have lost all shame by now) a couple of the kids came over to hold my hand because they wanted to dance with me. haha, cute!!! And I was the only one going all out on the little cute dance because I had to keep up my image of a fun wierd exciting teacher for the kids. haha. -Seriously, at school, I`m quite the wierd teacher and sometimes even the teachers are like "What...are you doing, Theresa?" Or they`ll just laugh at me because I do weird actions. It`s all for my kids. Oddly enough, by me being my weird crazy self, the kids respect me more. The class becomes more fun and lively that way. I like it. The teachers get a kick out of it too. And by chasing students down and poking them until they finally say hello in English to me, I`m getting the students to be more into speaking it (cuz they have to, otherwise they`ll be poked endlessly >D). But that`s mainly only at my elementary.-
Anyways, the kids all had fun at the party and went home happy and with presents. I hung around and went to the otsukare party afterwards with my high school girls. But I didn`t feel right staying there too long and eating the food because I really didn`t do anything to help, except clean up and mind the kids. But they all still gave me a present and homemade cake which is very good btw! ^^
Dec. 16 Wednesday
So, I found out yesterday that my high school has a dormitory. I was like, really?! A dorm in high school? It`s my first time hearing it, but I`m sure there are other high schools like this in the states...i think. It`s located right behind the school. It`s super nice and cozy and has 22 students living in it, seperated into the boys` dorm and the girls` dorm. Although there are only 5 boys living there. lol The boys` area was super dirty compared to the girls even though they clean the dorm everyday after school! Dedication! But they had a PS3 and Grand Theft Auto! I was like, "DUDE! You guys realize I`m coming over here more often now, right?" It also had a cafeteria in it with the cafeteria ladies. The ladies told me about a party happening Wednesday night for the students and teachers in this dorm for Christmas! They invited me to come! I was super excited and said yes because I wanted to spend more time with the high school students and come back to this dorm because it`s awesome! And then I realized that I`m going to be having Christmas party overload. This month is the month of Bounenkai`s or End of the Year work parties and Christmas parties. Parties galore to be exact. I have two more parties tomorrow night to go to too.......
So at first on this night I wasn`t sure if I wanted to go because I was super tired after work today, but I`m quite glad I went. Actually, the free food enticed me to go. haha. So when I entered the cafeteria, all the kids were like "OMG, Theresa!" And were all excited! One of the boys was even like "Tension agatta zo!" which basically means the atmosphere is getting more exciting, for a lack of better translation for this...lol The food was soo good and I got to eat Japanese pizza. I had one with shrimp and mayonnaise and one with raw ham on it (proscuitto?) But food was so damn good and my kids loved talking to me. And then the boys decided to go dress up or cross dress and came in wearing sexy dresses and evreything. haha. They were sooooo skinny! More than some of the girls! I took pictures. =P Afterwards, we played some games like bingo, charades, and quiz games. It was pretty fun. I kept getting the "Kawaii!!~" from all my girls too. And then they all asked my if I had a bf and when I said no, all the girls were super surprised and was like "Wha? But you`re so cute!" lol Thanks girls. You make me feel special. So the night ended at 9pm and was wonderfully fun. Mainly because the dorm was really comfy feeling. Woot.
Dec. 17 Thursday
A hectic day of partying. Seriously, no joke. I had two Christmas parties today, one starting at 6pm and one at 6:30pm. Yes....they were basically at the same time. And I had just finished teaching at the elementary school today, running around and playing with the kids, so I was already ready to just pass out. But since I payed for the 6pm one, which is for the 30 years old and under workers in town crew I wanted to get my money`s worth. And I promised my Taiko kids (the party at 6:30) that I would be there to exchange presents and play with them. So I first went to the 6pm one at really hot nabe (hot pot) really fast, burnt my tongue, and then at 6:25 went over to the club hall for the other party. Actually, I would`ve been able ot eat more and a little slower if there weren`t so many speeches before eating. That`s about the only thing I don`t like here that people have to give long speeches before eating taking up precious eating time and letting the food go cold. Just kampai and lets eat! >.< At the 6pm party I didn`t really talk to other people very much except for Su because she`s the easiest to talk to for me and the funniest. So I was actually pretty excited to go to the 6:30pm one with my kids.
At the club hall my kids and their parents had already arrived and were sitting down at the tables waiting for the teachers to all arrive. I was second to last to arrive and felt pretty bad, but my kids were excited to see me and my girls were like "Theresa-sensei, come sit next to us!" And they even said, "It`s good isn`t it? Theresa-sensei is sitting with us!" I felt more glowy and happy. It was much more comfortable sitting there with my students and their parents and the taiko group rather than the 6pm party with people who are the same age as me. Either, I`m really just a kid at heart or maybe the atmospehere was better. I don`t know. It made me wonder though. Anyways, we played a fun and cute game with stuffed animals and Bingo and then did a present exchange. Most of the gifts that the parents got were all given to the younger kids because the presents were mainly fun kids things. I got 2 nice pens and cute erasers from one of my 1st grade boys. I was quite happy actually. I need them! ^^
Then after sitting and playing with my kids for a lil while longer, I was called by Su and other peoples at the 6pm party to go back because they want to start the present exchange. So as much as i hated to leave my taiko party, I had to because, one I was still hungry for more food, and I paid for the thing, and I didn`t want to be rude to them. So I bid my kids farewell for the night and went back to the other party. I actually got lucky and got this huge apple pie made by the local bakery. It looks so damn good, but I can`t eat all of it, so I think I`m gonna give some to other people, or just Su since she eats so much anyways. lol After the first party ended, there was a second party to go to, which i wasn`t sure if I should go or not. But against better judgement i went. I drank no alcohol though because I was driving. And I didn`t want to drink anymore after all the drinking in Sapporo. I wanted to give myself time to rest and let my liver recover. lol So I stayed there and talked to everyone for a little bit and then left at around 11pm. I was quite exhausted to say the least. And now I`m at work writing my blog update. I`m really quite tired right now, but pumping myself full of coffee to keep me going throughout the day. Hahh.....I have more parties next week too...3 more to be exact. One on the 22nd, 23rd, and 25th. Luckily, on my B-day, the 24th, I can just stay at home and chill. Or, maybe go out and party......
Otsukare-sama! Pics willl will will be up soon. There will be about 300 or so pics so just be warned. Love you all!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sapporo Orientation MYC (Mid Year Conference) and others
December 2nd Wednesday
So this is the second time this week that I`ve woken up late for work! I woke up at 8:30am and I was supposed to be at the school by 8:10am! Damn alarm clock had run out of batteries while I was sleeping. So, yes, I was very late. But, luckily, I didn`t have to teach until second period, so the vice principal and the other teachers all said that it was totally fine and not a big deal since I`ve never been late before. Just as long as I don`t do it again. eheh. But I felt terrible because I also needed to leave an hour earlier to catch the train to Asahikawa city to change onto the fast train to Sapporo for the Mid year conference that starts tomorrow. So troublesome. But all the teachers said it was okay for me to do so.
So I got all my stuff ready and went off to the train station. When I got to Asahikawa station and was waiting in line to get on the fast limited express train, I saw a girl who looked very familiar because I`ve seen her several times. I vaguely remembered that it was Mio and so I called her name and she responded. It was such a coincidence that we were on the same train together. She lives and works in Biei which is about an hour south of Asahikawa. I`m an hour north. So we sat together on the train and had a good conversation. Turns out we both have the same interests and all that which is awesome. And then a caucasian guy came over to talk to us and we found out he was one of the ALTs in Nayoro city which is only an hour north of me. And I knew Abby and Giselle were also from there so they were also on the train as well. There were actually a lot of us ALTs on the train all headed over to the hotel for the night since we all live so far away that we didn`t want to have to wake up at the crack of dawn to leave for Sapporo.
Once we all got to Sapporo, we parted ways after we checked into the hotel, and since I didn`t have a room to stay in because my BOE was being cheap and didn`t want to pay for the extra night, I stayed the night with Abby. So then John (the Nayoro ALT) and I went to go meet up with Collin and two other guy ALTs from Hamatonbetsu which is near where Collin is. However, from the first impression I got from them, they seemed like trouble. And that`s kindof how it was that night. They were crazy ass guys and I started feeling alittle uncomfortable with them. Our conversations got pretty perverted and I was like "Whoa!" But I really should be used to dirty conversations since me and a bunch of you guys back home constatnly had really wierd and wrong conversations. But because I`ve been isolated from that and have been constantly in the polite sweet mannered jpanaese peoples` company (well, as sweet mannered as they can be until they drink) it`s been way too long since anything like that has happened. At around 12am I decided that I wanted to head home because it was just too much. I know that John was very unhappy with these guys by the end of the night that`s for sure.
So I spent half the night sleeping on the floor in my friend`s room and then was called back to sleep on the bed, to which I kind of got kicked off a little. lol But it wasn`t bad at all. haha. I really appreciated her letting me sleep there for the night, though. Thank you so much Abby! Luvs!
Nov. 3rd Thursday
So neither Abby nor I woke up until 8am because we didn`t need to be at the meeting until 10:30am. Yeah, being able to wake up that late on a weekday is wonderful. I was able to meet up with Miki and everyone else that morning so I was super excited and happy to see everyone. The conference was okay, I mean the it felt like college lectures all over again for some part of it. But when Chelle did her presentation, that was awesome! And what she said was pretty true. Like how when we phone back home to the states, for some of us who have been so isolated, and tell our family and friends how we`re so excited when we get to eat fried chicken for lunch. lol Thtat was totally me. I get excited when little things like that happen. haha.
So tonight is the MYC ball which is an 80`s prom theme. My homies and I didn`t have 80`s theme dresses or clothes, so we all just kinda stuck with our cocktail dresses. I wore my dress with black "fiberheat" (nice and warm) pantyhose or stockings, and silver heels with my black fur coat. I looked and felt really Japanese. haha. My friends even said the same thing. =P Oh, and I met Davie Bowie. lol
Afterwards we went to TK6 which is the foreigners bar in town to drink and stuff, but I ended up going home early because I was tired and the next day we had to wake up earlier for the conference. But i had a good Long Island Ice Tea before I went home.
Nov. 4th Friday
Last day of conference. At night I went to go see the White Illumination in Odori Park. It`s when they decorate the park with a lot of lights and light statues and stuff. So it was absolutely beautiful! Then they also had the Mulhen festival in the park which is a German Christmas festival. That was cool. I had real sausages and real saurkraut! So damn good. I also had warm cherry beer which was actually very good. I met up with other ALTs there too! And got to take a picture with the German santa! Yay! ^^ Afterwards we were supposed to meet up with Steph to go eat, but it turned out to be pretty late by the time we got back to the hotel and we all wanted to go clubbing too. So we decided to just make a run to the conbini and head over to the girl`s hotel and eat there while everyone was sitll getting ready.
However, we accidentally walked into the love hotel that`s right next door because we thought that that was the hotel they were staying at. We went inside and knew it was not a normal hotel as the hallway and entryway had no one there and allt here was was an elevator and a wall with pictures of available rooms. HAH! That was my first timein one and i was excited because they always have like the coolest rooms ever! Seriously, they were swanky! So I called the girls and was like "dude, are you guys staying in a love hotel?" And they said that it was called the Business Inn hotel, which is very different from the one we were in. lol =P We found it right next door and it looked completely different. haha. Anyways we went to the girl`s room and they looked damn hot! Well, everyone just looked good that night. It`s been awhile since we`ve all dressed up to go dancin. I wore my one piece long sleeve semi-dress top that bared a shoulder with leggings and my stylish brown legboots. Lol I was thinking of heels, but then decided against it. haha.
So we walked all the way to the club and when we got there we found out they were playing hip hop and reggae!!! YESSSHHHH!!! I love it. We also had met up with Jonathon and his wife. So all the cool kids were there. All the guys were dressed up in button up shirts and nice pants. But the Japanese guys at the club were all just wearing sweatshirts and jeans and caps. lol Steph couldn`t get over that fact because back at home, the guys would totally be kicked out. lol =P I do like it when guys dress up nicer for clubbin. But it was pretty funny. The guys just wear their street clothes in. haha. The music was pretty good and we spotted these 3 girls who were damn good at dancing and figured that by the way they danced, they cannot possibly be from Japan. So i asked one girl with short hair and she said they were from Tokyo but originally came from New York. So that`s why! I fell in love with her. Seriously, she was so hot when she danced. Man. X3
At 5am our feet were dying and getting tired so we decided to go home. I crashed at Collin`s that night because I had no other place to stay. So thanks muchos Collin! Appreciation!
Next day, woke up at 10 checked out at 11 and decided to go eat at an awesome Indian restraunt with Nan and curry and then went shopping for a little bit. Then headed back home. Everyone was ready to pass out we were so freakin tired. lol
Nov. 6th Sunday
Stayed at home, found out my pipes froze and tried to unfreeze them. The temp in my apt was 1 degrees celsius. Wooo. lol So I ordered some delicious potato and cod roe pizza (which is seriously damn good) and stayed at home planning games and lesson plans for my elementary school kids. Fun day. lol Well actually it really was because I was able to talk with my love, Linda. I lurv you massly Lindas!
Nov. 7th Monday
I stocked myself up on coffee galore because I was still feeling the effects of the lack of sleep the entire time I was at the conference. Seriously, each night I only had at most 4 hours of sleep. And i always start my mondays with my super energetic little nursery babies which require all of your energy. Like crazy. Then after was the elementary 6th grade which also required a shit load of my energy. I seriuosly go crazy when I`m in school with the kids. I try to match with their energy and level of excitement so by the end of the day I`m ready to pass out. Waaaaa....But it`s always alot of funwith them. At the elementary today all my kids told me "Theresa-sensei daisuki!!!" which means I love you Ms. Theresa!! and gave me big hugs WAAHHH!! To which I responded back with equally large huggage. When the teachers told them that I will still be in the elementary when they go there, they were all like "yatta!" ^_^ woo children. And then at the elementary school, because I was super genki and super outgoing with the kids today, the kids fed off my energy and were excited for class. They loved me and loved talking to me. Yay!! Seriuosly, I had so many kids tell me they loved me today. I feel so special.
Nov. 8th Tuesday
Today was my BOE`s bounenkai which means end of the year party where they can forget all their troubles this year and look forward to the next year. It wasn`t terrible, but it wasn`t awesome. I just liked the sukiyaki they had. That was super good. I won bingo and got soba making basket things......And then went back home and had a good talk time with Su (my supervisor which I totally love and adore cuz she`s so awesome). We had a pretty hilarious conversation. XD Anyways,
Otsukare-sama for reading all. And be prepared for 300 or so pics to be up by this weekend. For sure! Love you all. I think I need to hold back on the coffee drinking. But without it, I`m unable to give enough energy to the kids in my elementary. soooo tired.....
So this is the second time this week that I`ve woken up late for work! I woke up at 8:30am and I was supposed to be at the school by 8:10am! Damn alarm clock had run out of batteries while I was sleeping. So, yes, I was very late. But, luckily, I didn`t have to teach until second period, so the vice principal and the other teachers all said that it was totally fine and not a big deal since I`ve never been late before. Just as long as I don`t do it again. eheh. But I felt terrible because I also needed to leave an hour earlier to catch the train to Asahikawa city to change onto the fast train to Sapporo for the Mid year conference that starts tomorrow. So troublesome. But all the teachers said it was okay for me to do so.
So I got all my stuff ready and went off to the train station. When I got to Asahikawa station and was waiting in line to get on the fast limited express train, I saw a girl who looked very familiar because I`ve seen her several times. I vaguely remembered that it was Mio and so I called her name and she responded. It was such a coincidence that we were on the same train together. She lives and works in Biei which is about an hour south of Asahikawa. I`m an hour north. So we sat together on the train and had a good conversation. Turns out we both have the same interests and all that which is awesome. And then a caucasian guy came over to talk to us and we found out he was one of the ALTs in Nayoro city which is only an hour north of me. And I knew Abby and Giselle were also from there so they were also on the train as well. There were actually a lot of us ALTs on the train all headed over to the hotel for the night since we all live so far away that we didn`t want to have to wake up at the crack of dawn to leave for Sapporo.
Once we all got to Sapporo, we parted ways after we checked into the hotel, and since I didn`t have a room to stay in because my BOE was being cheap and didn`t want to pay for the extra night, I stayed the night with Abby. So then John (the Nayoro ALT) and I went to go meet up with Collin and two other guy ALTs from Hamatonbetsu which is near where Collin is. However, from the first impression I got from them, they seemed like trouble. And that`s kindof how it was that night. They were crazy ass guys and I started feeling alittle uncomfortable with them. Our conversations got pretty perverted and I was like "Whoa!" But I really should be used to dirty conversations since me and a bunch of you guys back home constatnly had really wierd and wrong conversations. But because I`ve been isolated from that and have been constantly in the polite sweet mannered jpanaese peoples` company (well, as sweet mannered as they can be until they drink) it`s been way too long since anything like that has happened. At around 12am I decided that I wanted to head home because it was just too much. I know that John was very unhappy with these guys by the end of the night that`s for sure.
So I spent half the night sleeping on the floor in my friend`s room and then was called back to sleep on the bed, to which I kind of got kicked off a little. lol But it wasn`t bad at all. haha. I really appreciated her letting me sleep there for the night, though. Thank you so much Abby! Luvs!
Nov. 3rd Thursday
So neither Abby nor I woke up until 8am because we didn`t need to be at the meeting until 10:30am. Yeah, being able to wake up that late on a weekday is wonderful. I was able to meet up with Miki and everyone else that morning so I was super excited and happy to see everyone. The conference was okay, I mean the it felt like college lectures all over again for some part of it. But when Chelle did her presentation, that was awesome! And what she said was pretty true. Like how when we phone back home to the states, for some of us who have been so isolated, and tell our family and friends how we`re so excited when we get to eat fried chicken for lunch. lol Thtat was totally me. I get excited when little things like that happen. haha.
So tonight is the MYC ball which is an 80`s prom theme. My homies and I didn`t have 80`s theme dresses or clothes, so we all just kinda stuck with our cocktail dresses. I wore my dress with black "fiberheat" (nice and warm) pantyhose or stockings, and silver heels with my black fur coat. I looked and felt really Japanese. haha. My friends even said the same thing. =P Oh, and I met Davie Bowie. lol
Afterwards we went to TK6 which is the foreigners bar in town to drink and stuff, but I ended up going home early because I was tired and the next day we had to wake up earlier for the conference. But i had a good Long Island Ice Tea before I went home.
Nov. 4th Friday
Last day of conference. At night I went to go see the White Illumination in Odori Park. It`s when they decorate the park with a lot of lights and light statues and stuff. So it was absolutely beautiful! Then they also had the Mulhen festival in the park which is a German Christmas festival. That was cool. I had real sausages and real saurkraut! So damn good. I also had warm cherry beer which was actually very good. I met up with other ALTs there too! And got to take a picture with the German santa! Yay! ^^ Afterwards we were supposed to meet up with Steph to go eat, but it turned out to be pretty late by the time we got back to the hotel and we all wanted to go clubbing too. So we decided to just make a run to the conbini and head over to the girl`s hotel and eat there while everyone was sitll getting ready.
However, we accidentally walked into the love hotel that`s right next door because we thought that that was the hotel they were staying at. We went inside and knew it was not a normal hotel as the hallway and entryway had no one there and allt here was was an elevator and a wall with pictures of available rooms. HAH! That was my first timein one and i was excited because they always have like the coolest rooms ever! Seriously, they were swanky! So I called the girls and was like "dude, are you guys staying in a love hotel?" And they said that it was called the Business Inn hotel, which is very different from the one we were in. lol =P We found it right next door and it looked completely different. haha. Anyways we went to the girl`s room and they looked damn hot! Well, everyone just looked good that night. It`s been awhile since we`ve all dressed up to go dancin. I wore my one piece long sleeve semi-dress top that bared a shoulder with leggings and my stylish brown legboots. Lol I was thinking of heels, but then decided against it. haha.
So we walked all the way to the club and when we got there we found out they were playing hip hop and reggae!!! YESSSHHHH!!! I love it. We also had met up with Jonathon and his wife. So all the cool kids were there. All the guys were dressed up in button up shirts and nice pants. But the Japanese guys at the club were all just wearing sweatshirts and jeans and caps. lol Steph couldn`t get over that fact because back at home, the guys would totally be kicked out. lol =P I do like it when guys dress up nicer for clubbin. But it was pretty funny. The guys just wear their street clothes in. haha. The music was pretty good and we spotted these 3 girls who were damn good at dancing and figured that by the way they danced, they cannot possibly be from Japan. So i asked one girl with short hair and she said they were from Tokyo but originally came from New York. So that`s why! I fell in love with her. Seriously, she was so hot when she danced. Man. X3
At 5am our feet were dying and getting tired so we decided to go home. I crashed at Collin`s that night because I had no other place to stay. So thanks muchos Collin! Appreciation!
Next day, woke up at 10 checked out at 11 and decided to go eat at an awesome Indian restraunt with Nan and curry and then went shopping for a little bit. Then headed back home. Everyone was ready to pass out we were so freakin tired. lol
Nov. 6th Sunday
Stayed at home, found out my pipes froze and tried to unfreeze them. The temp in my apt was 1 degrees celsius. Wooo. lol So I ordered some delicious potato and cod roe pizza (which is seriously damn good) and stayed at home planning games and lesson plans for my elementary school kids. Fun day. lol Well actually it really was because I was able to talk with my love, Linda. I lurv you massly Lindas!
Nov. 7th Monday
I stocked myself up on coffee galore because I was still feeling the effects of the lack of sleep the entire time I was at the conference. Seriously, each night I only had at most 4 hours of sleep. And i always start my mondays with my super energetic little nursery babies which require all of your energy. Like crazy. Then after was the elementary 6th grade which also required a shit load of my energy. I seriuosly go crazy when I`m in school with the kids. I try to match with their energy and level of excitement so by the end of the day I`m ready to pass out. Waaaaa....But it`s always alot of funwith them. At the elementary today all my kids told me "Theresa-sensei daisuki!!!" which means I love you Ms. Theresa!! and gave me big hugs WAAHHH!! To which I responded back with equally large huggage. When the teachers told them that I will still be in the elementary when they go there, they were all like "yatta!" ^_^ woo children. And then at the elementary school, because I was super genki and super outgoing with the kids today, the kids fed off my energy and were excited for class. They loved me and loved talking to me. Yay!! Seriuosly, I had so many kids tell me they loved me today. I feel so special.
Nov. 8th Tuesday
Today was my BOE`s bounenkai which means end of the year party where they can forget all their troubles this year and look forward to the next year. It wasn`t terrible, but it wasn`t awesome. I just liked the sukiyaki they had. That was super good. I won bingo and got soba making basket things......And then went back home and had a good talk time with Su (my supervisor which I totally love and adore cuz she`s so awesome). We had a pretty hilarious conversation. XD Anyways,
Otsukare-sama for reading all. And be prepared for 300 or so pics to be up by this weekend. For sure! Love you all. I think I need to hold back on the coffee drinking. But without it, I`m unable to give enough energy to the kids in my elementary. soooo tired.....
Thursday, November 26, 2009
F-ing awesome weekend!!!!
November 21-23 Saturday-Monday
Yes for long three day weekend and thanksgiving!!! We don`t really have a thanksgiving feast or anything, just the day off which is on monday. So one of the Asahikawa ALT`s invited a couple of us ALTs in Hokkaido to go over for a mini get-together. And originally Collin and I were going to go on a road trip over to Lake Akan this weekend to see the marimo (balls of algae that Hokkaido is famous for and therefore the mascot is marimokko= the humanized algae ball with an erection.....), but because of the weather, we decided it would be best to just head over to Asahikawa and hang there. So Collin drove down on Saturday to my town and got here about 6pm and we went to go eat at Ibushiya. We then caught the train over to Nagayama and got there about 9:30pm and walked in the snow to the Alan`s (one of the Asahikawa ALTs) apartment, which was super big!!!! It had three spare rooms, a living room, a super huge bathroom/washroom, and a kitchen. I was like "WHAA??!! IT`S HUGE! compared to mine." And we have deduced that I have the smallest apt, but apparently a very homey feeling one. Yay. I try with the decor.
So when we got there Erika (the Noboribetsu ALT) was already there. It`s been awhile since I`ve seen her so was quite glad. Since it was already quite late by the time we arrived, and we were still waiting for Steph, we decided to just chill at the apt. and drink. So two of us headed out to buy alcohol while we waited for Steph to come. And we bought quite a lot of stuff! In fact we bought enough that we couldn`t drink all of it. After Steph came and we busted open the drinks we sat and talked with alcohol for a while. Actually, until 5am. Well, Erika fell asleep first and I was being lulled away by the kotatsu, but was in a mode of pseudo sleep as I would occasionally respond to whatever the others were saying while partially asleep. But I don`t know why we stayed up until 5am as the next day we were supposed to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. lol
SoI woke up at 8am to take a shower which was super early after sleeping so late!! >.< But if we wanted to head over there before the zoo closed we had to get up. Though Steph did comment "Why are we up?". lol We got up, Collin went go buy materials for breakfast (Thanks Collin!) We had yummy scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. It`s been awhile since I`ve eaten western style full breakfast. It was nice. And all the English we spoke...man, it`s been a super long time since I`ve spoken that much English. Seriously. lol But I felt my English level falling. haha. So we all got ready and left for the train to Asahikawa where we then caught the bus to the zoo.
On the bus, these three guys got on and one of them was SUPER HOT!! Like, he wasn`t gyaru-o style or host club boy style which are good for looking, but not really bf material or great personalities. But this guy was sort of Asian hip hop style with his black and white jersey and his pants almost falling below his butt (not exactly the pants style that I like but...), his hair was styled very nicely, his face was amazing because it was a very masculine shape and he had kind of a little bit of a shadow on his face and he looked like a serious nice guy, and his hands were nice. =P I couldn`t stop looking at him cuz he was just so hot and kept reminding the rest of the ALTs on the bus with me that too. haha. And he got off at the zoo stop also! lol He was going with his 2 guy friends. I just couldn`t stop staring longingly after him. And the rest of the ALTs were like, you should totally go and talk to him. They kept trying to push me towards him, but I couldn`t as I thought it would be awkward because I look to Asian to just randomly go up to a Japanese guy and talk. If I were foreign looking, then it would be no problem. But since I blend in, it`s a little difficult. eheh.
So I wanted to take a picture of all of us standing in front of the Asahiyama Zoo sign and was going to ask a random person when I saw the hot dude with his friends trying to take a picture too. Collin told me I should go ask them if they wanted help and I couldn`t because I was too nervous, so Collin did it for me. And then afterwards the hot guy was like alright, let`s change places now and took my camera from me to take a picture of all of us. I was secretly very happy. Haha.
Majority of the animals were not out at all because it was f-ing cold outside. But we saw all of the winter animals and then the big flat faced bored looking orangutan. We then went to the petting zoo area and got to pet a collie and a sheepdog!! I was soo happy! It`s been so long since I`ve been able to pet a dog and I miss it. I miss fat Bobby and Kin-chan (my Taiwan uncle`s fat Shi-tzu and Japanese Golden Retriever). But I`ll get to see them next month when I head over there and get fatter eating the food..I`ll start looking like Bobby then... So then we tried to pet some ducks but were afraid they were going to bite us, and then we went in to see the Guinea Pig farm....now that was strange. There were so many guinea pigs!! And a chinchilla. I got to hold a guinea pig. It kept my lap warm cuz I was so cold. haha. I kinda want one, but unfortunately, of all the animals, guinea pigs are not really kept as pets here. But you can keep a prairie dog and flying squirrel! lol
We pretty much stayed until the zoo kicked us out and we were the second to last people in the place. =P Collin left to go spend the evening with his friend`s family and the rest of us headed back to Asahikawa city for chilling and foods. We found an awesome store for Halloween costumes or just weird gag stuffs and then took some purikura. Yay! Then I discovered the location of "Hoang Tam Asian Cafe". I had seen the restaurant in magazines cuz it was so pretty looking and well designed that I was like, dude, let`s go guys. And the decor was awesome! It`s supposed to be like southeast Asia style. Mainly, Thai and Vietnamese style as that was the majority of the foods they served there. The bar was awesome though! THey`re drinks were so tasty and good! I got this drink called Blue Bell Heaven. It was beautiful and tasty! The food however took forever to come out and came out one by one. They only had 2 chefs in the back. Seriously, they need to hire more chefs or be super fast or make the restaurant smaller. We got in at 6 and didn`t get all our food until 7 so didn`t leaved until 8pm. It would never fly in the US.
Afterwards, we decided to go to a bar and have nomihoudai which is all you can drink alcohol. Whoo! We went to this awesome bar that Alan recommended called Zero. The decor was cool and there were 200 drinks to choose from. 1,880yen for all you can drink for 2 hours. Awesome. Although, the service there could`ve been a little better. The girls were gyarus and when they respond to your order they say "haaii~" instead of "kashikomarimashita" and their attitude needs a little work. But, hey, they`re gyarus, what do you expect? The guys, however, were super great and provided excellent service. Wow, what would I do when I go back to the states with crappy service? lol
So after getting loaded up on alcohol we went to Shidax Karaoke at 12am and sang our hearts out until 3am. Whereupon one of the girls got sick and spent a bit in the bathroom before we decided to go home. I was amazed at how well she held herself until we got back to Alan`s apt. So we got back at 4am and then went to sleep. I was gonna get up early the next day to head to AEON for Taco shells for teaching my 3rd year high school class how to make tacos on Tuesday, but luckily, Alan had some so I was just gonna use his, even though they were a little stale. And then I found out that we`re not doing tacos until 2 weeks later....Well, that had me worry for nothing.
Anyways, that morning I woke up, went to Asahikawa with Steph, sent off Steph back to her place, and met up with Collin for shopping. They had the cutest Christmas cards at Loft. I missed Loft, I love the place,but it`s a little pricey. I have to figure out what I`m sending back home to the states for friends and family. We then headed back to Kenbuchi where Collin then went back to Sarufutsu. I feel like I`m getting sick again because just when I thought I was cured, I go out and spend whole evenings with barely any sleep drinking....lol So yes, I`m sick, again.
November 26 Thursday
So I went to play badminton this evening at the B&G gym which is our local gym. Oh, btw, it`s one of our town`s activities for the townspeople where you can play ping pong or badminton on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So most of my elementary boys do ping pong along with some middle schoolers. I always see them there and one of my high school boys does badminton. On the occasion Hiroya (elementary 6th grade) is there too. Today both my badminton kids asked me if I was going tonight. And I said yes and they were happy. Yay! lol When I entered the gym, all the lil kids who were busy playing badminton saw me, stopped what they were doing, and were like "oh! It`s Theresa! HELLO!" And they all had smiling faces on. I felt popular and loved and I love my children very much too. That`s one of the greatest feelings of this job is the fact that your children appreciate and love what you do for them and being able to love your students too. I`ve grown attached to this lil town`s babies. They`re so precious to me they`re like my own children. ehehe. I attach myself to my job too much. Today was special at the badminton courts. 3 boys from each school came and were playing together on one court. One from elementary, middle, and high school. They were all my students. When they saw me they had the same big smile on their faces with their "Hello Theresa!" I was so glad to see them. Although, Hiroya is sometimes a hit or miss because he tries to act adult-like sometimes and I`m too playful with him...eheh.
After playing and saying goodbye to Nemoto-san`s cute little daughter who I will see at the elementary 1st grade next year I drove Su home with me. Su was like "You really love the students, dont` you?" I replied "Yes, I really really love all of them", to which she said "Yeah, I can tell. You love them and they love you too, judging from their reactions with you". Yokatta. I`m glad for that. In this town, my students are the most important thing to me. And if they`re happy learning and loving English, then it makes me the happiest person right now. Yay Kenbuchi babies! Mass love to you all!
Otsukaresama for reading all! Pictures will for sure be up. Although it will be old because there are pics from way back. Love ya all!
Yes for long three day weekend and thanksgiving!!! We don`t really have a thanksgiving feast or anything, just the day off which is on monday. So one of the Asahikawa ALT`s invited a couple of us ALTs in Hokkaido to go over for a mini get-together. And originally Collin and I were going to go on a road trip over to Lake Akan this weekend to see the marimo (balls of algae that Hokkaido is famous for and therefore the mascot is marimokko= the humanized algae ball with an erection.....), but because of the weather, we decided it would be best to just head over to Asahikawa and hang there. So Collin drove down on Saturday to my town and got here about 6pm and we went to go eat at Ibushiya. We then caught the train over to Nagayama and got there about 9:30pm and walked in the snow to the Alan`s (one of the Asahikawa ALTs) apartment, which was super big!!!! It had three spare rooms, a living room, a super huge bathroom/washroom, and a kitchen. I was like "WHAA??!! IT`S HUGE! compared to mine." And we have deduced that I have the smallest apt, but apparently a very homey feeling one. Yay. I try with the decor.
So when we got there Erika (the Noboribetsu ALT) was already there. It`s been awhile since I`ve seen her so was quite glad. Since it was already quite late by the time we arrived, and we were still waiting for Steph, we decided to just chill at the apt. and drink. So two of us headed out to buy alcohol while we waited for Steph to come. And we bought quite a lot of stuff! In fact we bought enough that we couldn`t drink all of it. After Steph came and we busted open the drinks we sat and talked with alcohol for a while. Actually, until 5am. Well, Erika fell asleep first and I was being lulled away by the kotatsu, but was in a mode of pseudo sleep as I would occasionally respond to whatever the others were saying while partially asleep. But I don`t know why we stayed up until 5am as the next day we were supposed to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. lol
SoI woke up at 8am to take a shower which was super early after sleeping so late!! >.< But if we wanted to head over there before the zoo closed we had to get up. Though Steph did comment "Why are we up?". lol We got up, Collin went go buy materials for breakfast (Thanks Collin!) We had yummy scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. It`s been awhile since I`ve eaten western style full breakfast. It was nice. And all the English we spoke...man, it`s been a super long time since I`ve spoken that much English. Seriously. lol But I felt my English level falling. haha. So we all got ready and left for the train to Asahikawa where we then caught the bus to the zoo.
On the bus, these three guys got on and one of them was SUPER HOT!! Like, he wasn`t gyaru-o style or host club boy style which are good for looking, but not really bf material or great personalities. But this guy was sort of Asian hip hop style with his black and white jersey and his pants almost falling below his butt (not exactly the pants style that I like but...), his hair was styled very nicely, his face was amazing because it was a very masculine shape and he had kind of a little bit of a shadow on his face and he looked like a serious nice guy, and his hands were nice. =P I couldn`t stop looking at him cuz he was just so hot and kept reminding the rest of the ALTs on the bus with me that too. haha. And he got off at the zoo stop also! lol He was going with his 2 guy friends. I just couldn`t stop staring longingly after him. And the rest of the ALTs were like, you should totally go and talk to him. They kept trying to push me towards him, but I couldn`t as I thought it would be awkward because I look to Asian to just randomly go up to a Japanese guy and talk. If I were foreign looking, then it would be no problem. But since I blend in, it`s a little difficult. eheh.
So I wanted to take a picture of all of us standing in front of the Asahiyama Zoo sign and was going to ask a random person when I saw the hot dude with his friends trying to take a picture too. Collin told me I should go ask them if they wanted help and I couldn`t because I was too nervous, so Collin did it for me. And then afterwards the hot guy was like alright, let`s change places now and took my camera from me to take a picture of all of us. I was secretly very happy. Haha.
Majority of the animals were not out at all because it was f-ing cold outside. But we saw all of the winter animals and then the big flat faced bored looking orangutan. We then went to the petting zoo area and got to pet a collie and a sheepdog!! I was soo happy! It`s been so long since I`ve been able to pet a dog and I miss it. I miss fat Bobby and Kin-chan (my Taiwan uncle`s fat Shi-tzu and Japanese Golden Retriever). But I`ll get to see them next month when I head over there and get fatter eating the food..I`ll start looking like Bobby then... So then we tried to pet some ducks but were afraid they were going to bite us, and then we went in to see the Guinea Pig farm....now that was strange. There were so many guinea pigs!! And a chinchilla. I got to hold a guinea pig. It kept my lap warm cuz I was so cold. haha. I kinda want one, but unfortunately, of all the animals, guinea pigs are not really kept as pets here. But you can keep a prairie dog and flying squirrel! lol
We pretty much stayed until the zoo kicked us out and we were the second to last people in the place. =P Collin left to go spend the evening with his friend`s family and the rest of us headed back to Asahikawa city for chilling and foods. We found an awesome store for Halloween costumes or just weird gag stuffs and then took some purikura. Yay! Then I discovered the location of "Hoang Tam Asian Cafe". I had seen the restaurant in magazines cuz it was so pretty looking and well designed that I was like, dude, let`s go guys. And the decor was awesome! It`s supposed to be like southeast Asia style. Mainly, Thai and Vietnamese style as that was the majority of the foods they served there. The bar was awesome though! THey`re drinks were so tasty and good! I got this drink called Blue Bell Heaven. It was beautiful and tasty! The food however took forever to come out and came out one by one. They only had 2 chefs in the back. Seriously, they need to hire more chefs or be super fast or make the restaurant smaller. We got in at 6 and didn`t get all our food until 7 so didn`t leaved until 8pm. It would never fly in the US.
Afterwards, we decided to go to a bar and have nomihoudai which is all you can drink alcohol. Whoo! We went to this awesome bar that Alan recommended called Zero. The decor was cool and there were 200 drinks to choose from. 1,880yen for all you can drink for 2 hours. Awesome. Although, the service there could`ve been a little better. The girls were gyarus and when they respond to your order they say "haaii~" instead of "kashikomarimashita" and their attitude needs a little work. But, hey, they`re gyarus, what do you expect? The guys, however, were super great and provided excellent service. Wow, what would I do when I go back to the states with crappy service? lol
So after getting loaded up on alcohol we went to Shidax Karaoke at 12am and sang our hearts out until 3am. Whereupon one of the girls got sick and spent a bit in the bathroom before we decided to go home. I was amazed at how well she held herself until we got back to Alan`s apt. So we got back at 4am and then went to sleep. I was gonna get up early the next day to head to AEON for Taco shells for teaching my 3rd year high school class how to make tacos on Tuesday, but luckily, Alan had some so I was just gonna use his, even though they were a little stale. And then I found out that we`re not doing tacos until 2 weeks later....Well, that had me worry for nothing.
Anyways, that morning I woke up, went to Asahikawa with Steph, sent off Steph back to her place, and met up with Collin for shopping. They had the cutest Christmas cards at Loft. I missed Loft, I love the place,but it`s a little pricey. I have to figure out what I`m sending back home to the states for friends and family. We then headed back to Kenbuchi where Collin then went back to Sarufutsu. I feel like I`m getting sick again because just when I thought I was cured, I go out and spend whole evenings with barely any sleep drinking....lol So yes, I`m sick, again.
November 26 Thursday
So I went to play badminton this evening at the B&G gym which is our local gym. Oh, btw, it`s one of our town`s activities for the townspeople where you can play ping pong or badminton on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So most of my elementary boys do ping pong along with some middle schoolers. I always see them there and one of my high school boys does badminton. On the occasion Hiroya (elementary 6th grade) is there too. Today both my badminton kids asked me if I was going tonight. And I said yes and they were happy. Yay! lol When I entered the gym, all the lil kids who were busy playing badminton saw me, stopped what they were doing, and were like "oh! It`s Theresa! HELLO!" And they all had smiling faces on. I felt popular and loved and I love my children very much too. That`s one of the greatest feelings of this job is the fact that your children appreciate and love what you do for them and being able to love your students too. I`ve grown attached to this lil town`s babies. They`re so precious to me they`re like my own children. ehehe. I attach myself to my job too much. Today was special at the badminton courts. 3 boys from each school came and were playing together on one court. One from elementary, middle, and high school. They were all my students. When they saw me they had the same big smile on their faces with their "Hello Theresa!" I was so glad to see them. Although, Hiroya is sometimes a hit or miss because he tries to act adult-like sometimes and I`m too playful with him...eheh.
After playing and saying goodbye to Nemoto-san`s cute little daughter who I will see at the elementary 1st grade next year I drove Su home with me. Su was like "You really love the students, dont` you?" I replied "Yes, I really really love all of them", to which she said "Yeah, I can tell. You love them and they love you too, judging from their reactions with you". Yokatta. I`m glad for that. In this town, my students are the most important thing to me. And if they`re happy learning and loving English, then it makes me the happiest person right now. Yay Kenbuchi babies! Mass love to you all!
Otsukaresama for reading all! Pictures will for sure be up. Although it will be old because there are pics from way back. Love ya all!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tama-ire!?
November 16 Monday
So I`m officially sick. I was already not feeling too good at the Arashi concert, but I shrugged it off and thought that I was just too excited during the time. But when I got up for work today I started feeling the strain of holding back my sickness during the weekend. And, as it is the trend here when you get sick, you wear a mask so you don`t spread it to others, or so the Asians believe. In truth, the mask doesn`t really do too much because it`s not airtight or sealed to your mouth so there are open areas for germs to still spread out; it`s difficult to breathe through the mask causing you a little bit of dizziness, possibly making you more sick; and if you sneeze or anything like that the germs just stick to the mask that you`re wearing and you still have to breathe it in.....Not the most effective in my opinion. But, hey, it does help in the fact that during work if I`m reading something funny I can smile and no one will notice. =P Anyways, if that`s what the Japanese people think will be better for me and for them I will wear the mask because there`s the big influenza scare.
I was ready to go to the nursery, but my BOE peoples were all a little apprehensive of me working because I was sick. I felt well enough to teach, so I just told them I`m fine, no worries. It`s just that I have a runny nose, a little cough, and I`m unable to talk in a normal voice. I don`t have a fever, so I`ll be okay I said. So they let me go to the nursery where I taught my lil loving kiddies and they were so good when they learned that I was sick and couldn`t talk in a loud voice so they were a lot more quiet. Good children. But then one of the head teachers told me that after the class I should just stay in the teacher`s office because she doesn`t want me spreading it to the children. I was actually thinking the same thing, so it`s fine. Later, as I sat there、I received a call from my BOE saying that I should go back because i was sick and shouldn`t go to the elementary. At the elementary the 1st,3rd,4th,and 6th graders are all infected and have been sent home for the week. So only the 2nd and 5th graders are there. They told me it was because they wanted to wait for me to become better and for my voice to come back to me before I go teach, but I know it`s because they don`t want me spreading it to the children. Whatever, to protect the kids it`s fine.
So they told me that this entire week I will just stay at the BOE and chill (do nothing, because there is nothing for me to do) since they will cancel all the classes I`m supposed to teach this week. And that`s bad because this week was supposed to be pronunciation practice with the sounds "th", "v", "r", "l". Mooouuu...I feel bad for being sick, but at least I can rest for this week without straining my voice and stuff. I had bought Omiyage for my elementary and middle school teachers so I wanted to bring it over to them myself personally. So I did, and when I got in there everybody avoided me like the plague...>.< The only person who was normal with me was Ichinoseki-san, the office personnel. So I handed him the stuff and left. The middle school was actually nicer to me as they all worried for my health. I need to sleep earlier.
November 17 Tuesday
I sat at the BOE the whole day today with absolutely nothing to do.....So I just read manga on the internet. Everyone kept telling me to go to the hospital to get checked out, but I was like, "dude, I`m not going to the hospital just beacuse I have a cold. I know it`s not influenza and I know I don`t have a fever so no need for the hospital." But since everyone just kept pestering me, and I mean everyone, I decided to give in to them and go to the hospital. Because I have health insurance (in Japan, it`s social health insurance meaning everyone who lives in Japan has health insurance no matter what. US needs to adopt this system because we f-ing need health insurance for everybody) the bill was pretty cheap including medicine. And as I had already suspected, I only have a cold. So I went back home to prepare for tonight`s activity which is the big Teacher`s gathering. All the teacher`s of all the schools in this town and the staff of the BOE meet up togethher for a recreational activity and then have dinner. It happens once a year and it`s pretty cool to see all the teachers gathered like that so even though I was sick, I still decided to go. I wore my mask.
It took place in the middle school gym and the activity was Tama-ire. I was like wtf is that? Basically it`s just throwing a bunch of little bean bags into a basket on a pole that`s pretty high up. Alright. It was actually harder than I thought. I ended up not getting any into my basket earning nothing for my team. Oh, btw, you play this game in teams. All the teachers were pre-seperated in teams A-F with teachers from every school in each team and one BOE member. Since I`m technically a BOE memebr I was the head for my D team. And so all the team members have to gather around the net with your bean bags and throw them in. And the fastest team to get everything in is the winner. Our team came in 5th place. Mr. WOnderful was there too,a lthough not in my team. But he was the only one of the elementary teachers to say konbanwa to me and I was super happy. But then he just left without saying anything. Well, actually, all the teachers did that. But I felt stupid because all this time as we were watching the other teams compete he was standing there by himself and not talking to anybody and it was my chance to go to talk to him, but what did I do? I just stood there talking with the other female teachers....I lost my chance that night and I felt dumb because of it. I need to be more confident in my flirting ability and go ahead and be agressive and talk to him. =P lol But I don`t even know if he has a gf.
Anyways so after I left I just went home because I decided not to go eat because I wasn`t feeling too well, and plus majority of my fav teachers weren`t going to be there, like Mr. Wonderful. So I just went home to sleep and rest. Oh! It was actually kinda cool at the recreational activity because I knew everyone in there and was able to talk to all my teacher`s easily. And some of the teachers on my team don`t really talk to the other teachers on my team, but would talk to me. So I felt kind of popular because of that. haha. Yay. Anyways, it was fun. Cool.
Otsukare-sama for reading!
So I`m officially sick. I was already not feeling too good at the Arashi concert, but I shrugged it off and thought that I was just too excited during the time. But when I got up for work today I started feeling the strain of holding back my sickness during the weekend. And, as it is the trend here when you get sick, you wear a mask so you don`t spread it to others, or so the Asians believe. In truth, the mask doesn`t really do too much because it`s not airtight or sealed to your mouth so there are open areas for germs to still spread out; it`s difficult to breathe through the mask causing you a little bit of dizziness, possibly making you more sick; and if you sneeze or anything like that the germs just stick to the mask that you`re wearing and you still have to breathe it in.....Not the most effective in my opinion. But, hey, it does help in the fact that during work if I`m reading something funny I can smile and no one will notice. =P Anyways, if that`s what the Japanese people think will be better for me and for them I will wear the mask because there`s the big influenza scare.
I was ready to go to the nursery, but my BOE peoples were all a little apprehensive of me working because I was sick. I felt well enough to teach, so I just told them I`m fine, no worries. It`s just that I have a runny nose, a little cough, and I`m unable to talk in a normal voice. I don`t have a fever, so I`ll be okay I said. So they let me go to the nursery where I taught my lil loving kiddies and they were so good when they learned that I was sick and couldn`t talk in a loud voice so they were a lot more quiet. Good children. But then one of the head teachers told me that after the class I should just stay in the teacher`s office because she doesn`t want me spreading it to the children. I was actually thinking the same thing, so it`s fine. Later, as I sat there、I received a call from my BOE saying that I should go back because i was sick and shouldn`t go to the elementary. At the elementary the 1st,3rd,4th,and 6th graders are all infected and have been sent home for the week. So only the 2nd and 5th graders are there. They told me it was because they wanted to wait for me to become better and for my voice to come back to me before I go teach, but I know it`s because they don`t want me spreading it to the children. Whatever, to protect the kids it`s fine.
So they told me that this entire week I will just stay at the BOE and chill (do nothing, because there is nothing for me to do) since they will cancel all the classes I`m supposed to teach this week. And that`s bad because this week was supposed to be pronunciation practice with the sounds "th", "v", "r", "l". Mooouuu...I feel bad for being sick, but at least I can rest for this week without straining my voice and stuff. I had bought Omiyage for my elementary and middle school teachers so I wanted to bring it over to them myself personally. So I did, and when I got in there everybody avoided me like the plague...>.< The only person who was normal with me was Ichinoseki-san, the office personnel. So I handed him the stuff and left. The middle school was actually nicer to me as they all worried for my health. I need to sleep earlier.
November 17 Tuesday
I sat at the BOE the whole day today with absolutely nothing to do.....So I just read manga on the internet. Everyone kept telling me to go to the hospital to get checked out, but I was like, "dude, I`m not going to the hospital just beacuse I have a cold. I know it`s not influenza and I know I don`t have a fever so no need for the hospital." But since everyone just kept pestering me, and I mean everyone, I decided to give in to them and go to the hospital. Because I have health insurance (in Japan, it`s social health insurance meaning everyone who lives in Japan has health insurance no matter what. US needs to adopt this system because we f-ing need health insurance for everybody) the bill was pretty cheap including medicine. And as I had already suspected, I only have a cold. So I went back home to prepare for tonight`s activity which is the big Teacher`s gathering. All the teacher`s of all the schools in this town and the staff of the BOE meet up togethher for a recreational activity and then have dinner. It happens once a year and it`s pretty cool to see all the teachers gathered like that so even though I was sick, I still decided to go. I wore my mask.
It took place in the middle school gym and the activity was Tama-ire. I was like wtf is that? Basically it`s just throwing a bunch of little bean bags into a basket on a pole that`s pretty high up. Alright. It was actually harder than I thought. I ended up not getting any into my basket earning nothing for my team. Oh, btw, you play this game in teams. All the teachers were pre-seperated in teams A-F with teachers from every school in each team and one BOE member. Since I`m technically a BOE memebr I was the head for my D team. And so all the team members have to gather around the net with your bean bags and throw them in. And the fastest team to get everything in is the winner. Our team came in 5th place. Mr. WOnderful was there too,a lthough not in my team. But he was the only one of the elementary teachers to say konbanwa to me and I was super happy. But then he just left without saying anything. Well, actually, all the teachers did that. But I felt stupid because all this time as we were watching the other teams compete he was standing there by himself and not talking to anybody and it was my chance to go to talk to him, but what did I do? I just stood there talking with the other female teachers....I lost my chance that night and I felt dumb because of it. I need to be more confident in my flirting ability and go ahead and be agressive and talk to him. =P lol But I don`t even know if he has a gf.
Anyways so after I left I just went home because I decided not to go eat because I wasn`t feeling too well, and plus majority of my fav teachers weren`t going to be there, like Mr. Wonderful. So I just went home to sleep and rest. Oh! It was actually kinda cool at the recreational activity because I knew everyone in there and was able to talk to all my teacher`s easily. And some of the teachers on my team don`t really talk to the other teachers on my team, but would talk to me. So I felt kind of popular because of that. haha. Yay. Anyways, it was fun. Cool.
Otsukare-sama for reading!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
YES ARASHI CONCERT!!!
November 9-12 Monday thru Thursday
So my confidenceness has been paying off. Ever since I pumped myself with more confidence the teachers have been talking to me more and stuff. Particularly interesting is the elementary. On Monday when I went to the Elementary I exuberantly and confidently said Ohayou gozaimasu to the teachers and was so energetic with the kids that the teachers were surprised, but since the kids already knew that was how I usually am like it was nothing new to them. Yeah, I don`t know how the teachers don`t see how genki I am with the kids...eh, whatevs. But at all the schools it made a difference with the teachers. Well, the high school is still the same, but in terms of teaching, it was a difference.
On Thursday night I went to pick up Chingyi from the Asahikawa train station. She flew in from Gunma-ken on the main island. She was here to see the Arashi concert in Sapporo, in which she invited me to go as well, and decided to also visit me since I`m on this island. haha. But it was nice to have another states person with me in the car. The way we talked and everything really felt like I was back in the US with my ol buddies. I missed it very much. And I realized that after not cussing for a long time, I spewed it out almost every other sentence. And that`s bad. lol =O I`ve been trying to be agood girl and not do that. But it just came out....
Anyways, we went to go eat at the all you can eat Shabu-shabu place and I had her try the Hokkaido softcream because damn is it good. And I told her she also needed to try HOkkaido milk. So afterwards we went to Lawson`s to find it, but to no avail. We`ll check out Seico Mart later for it. So then we went home and chilled.
November 13 Friday
My middle school was excited to hear about my friend who came last night. I had asked them beforehand if it was okay if I brought in my friend for a visit of the school after all the students had left and they were totally fine with it. On the other hand, the elementary was f-ing strict with this stuff and it took an hour to okay everything! Are you kidding me? She`s just coming in to see the school after the students have left. ANd they like need to know why she came, where she came from, why she`s coming to the school, what time she`s coming to the school, if she needs a guide via the vice principal. DUDE. It was like a police inquiry. I know it would be dangerous if it was some gangsta guy, but I had already told them she was an ALT from Gunma-ken. Bah, in the end they told me it was okay.
So at around 3pm I went home to pick up Chingyi at the apt and took her to the elementary first to look around. The teachers were all in a meeting so they were in the meeting room. So I guided her around the school and saw a couple of my volleyball girls so went over to say hi and introduce them. Then afterwards I went to the middle school and with whom all my teachers were really excited to talk to her and everything. I love my middle school peoples. haha. Even my kids who were still at the school for club practices were pretty cool with her. =P
After that we went to the Picture Book Library/Museum, one of my favorite places in town. It`s so nice and modern looking. Hehe. So Takeuchi-san, one of my bosses who works at the the Picture Book place and also an awesome father of one of the 6th grade elementary kids whom I dearly love, was there that evening. No one else was at the library except for the workers. So I was halfway giving her the tour when Takeuchi-san came over and said he`ll give us a tour of the place himself. And luckily because of him we were able to go to all the rooms that were locked and even go the backroom or the safe room where the temperature has to be kept at a certain degree so as not to ruin the items kept there. It was soo cool! He even told me that if I ever want to come in here to translate books or anything like that all I have to do is tell him and he`ll let me in. WOO! I feel like one of those special agent peoples who have special access to everything. haha. Anyways, afterwards we went to go eat at the Eki-mae ryokan and then went to go sing our hearts out at the Karaoke box in Shibetsu city. Originally, we were going to only sing for an hour, but when I got there and they said there was a special price if you order free time (no time limit) that comes with all you can drink it`s only 1420yen. If we ordered the one hour Karaoke by itself it would cost us about 800yen for one hour. It`s expensive at night yes.So we were like, dude, 1420yen for as long as we like and anything we want to drink? I think I`ll take that one instead. SO we sang for 4 1/2 hours just the two of us, from 7pm until 11:30pm. Man, my voice was seriously dying on me. haha. But the Arashi concert is tomorrow! Exciting!
November 14 Saturday
Off to Sapporo for the Arashi concert!!! I drove my car to Asahikawa and parked it at the structure next to the train station for an overnight stay and then afterwards rode the train to Sapporo. The trip was pleasant with our duking it out on Mario Kart. So when we got there it was raining like crazy. Like a freakin typhoon. So we rode the subway over to the nearest stop to our hotel and walked the rest of the way. My jacket was soaked,even though I had an umbrella. ANyways, we got there at 12pm so we couldn`t check in yet. We just left our luggage with them and went off to Sapporo dome to buy the goods for the concert. THE LINE WAS LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG!!!! We waited outside, in the pouring rain, in the long ass line for 2-3 hours! Just to buy the concert goods. Hah.... It was a good thing both of us had umbrellas and were wearing rain boots. Otherwise I would`ve died from the cold and wetness. =P There were a lot of girls wearing very little out there and non rain repellent stuff so I felt bad for them. But they chose fashion over usefulness and protection. Their own fault. But what they were wearing were cute I have to say.
Finally after 2 long hours I could see the goods. And I saw the really hot posters of them. This concert is their 5x10 Anniversary Tour celebrating 10 years that they`ve been super popular. So all their stuff has that logo on it. But their posters were super hot. And Aiba-kun seriously takes the best pictures!! His single picture was sooo hot! He looked like a prince in the photos. HOT! I caved and bought the single one of him, the one with all the members, and I bought their pamphlet/photo book, and a fan with Aiba-kun`s face on it. Haha. They were selling eco-bags and pen lights and towels and keychains too, but since I`m not a super big fan, I was content with what I bought. Save money!! lol And as I was waiting for Chingyi to finish buying her things I hear "Theresa?" and looked around and saw my two eldest cousins standing there with their umbrellas looking at me incredulously. I was like "OMG!!?? WHAT!??" My cousins don`t live in Japan, they live in the states. So I was super surprised to see them. They were here traveling around Japan and were fans of Arashi so last stop for them was this concert. Freakin amazing! Seriously, big coincidence that we met here at the concert. I haven`t seen them in several years too. And then of all the places, here. So I took pictures with my cousins and said goodbye to them and if we see each other later it would be awesome. But I don`t think that was going to happen because there`s way too many people here. I didn`t even see any of my students who were coming, but I met my cousins. Too cool!
So afterwards we first went back to drop stuff off at the hotel and then went back to the Sapporo Dome (concert venue). Our seats were up in the stands but since the stage was huge and the seats were well positioned there was no problem seeing them. Although the boys were a little small. Our seats ended up being next to these two awesome black girls who were studying abroad here in Sapporo. And get this, one of the girls is from CA`s La Verne University. My hometown`s university! Too coincidental. I was like, wow, today was a day of coincidences.
But anyways, the concert was way too awesome. The crowd all had their pen lights and when the concert was beginning they all held them up in the air. It was soooo cool looking. The whole place lit up red and blue. Well, more red though. But that`s like DBSK`s color....lol There was this giant helium balloon that had 5x10 written on it and when the boys came out they were dangling from this huge balloon flying over the crowd. It was awesome!! And then Aiba did his solo song and he was so freakin cool and hot hot hot! All the other boys were also very cool and hot. I didn`t know that Nino played the guitar. That was cool. And at the end, when you thought it was the end with just one encore, they popped out again with another one. THey did 2 encores! I love these boys! Seriously, this concert made me a bigger fan of them. The special effects and everything were all very cool. An awesome concert.
Afterwards, since there were so many people leaving the dome to get onto the one train leading out of the dome we girls decided to just chill around the area for an hour before getting on the train. We did not want to get smashed in the train with other rabid fans. But there was a line to get on the train that extended all the way out to the entrance of the station. We waited for a while before we got to the actual platform and by then we were lucky enough to catch the last train. I felt sorry for all the other girls who couldn`t get a train back home. But it was already super cramped on there. It felt like the Tokyo trains during rush hour, but luckily it was all young girls standing around us and not old men on you. lol Ah, good times. =P
Anyways, the girls we were with were totally awesome, and I will definitely call them up when I come back to Sapporo next time. So we said our goodbyes and headed over to our hotel. I was originally planning on hitting up bars to drink the night away, but because we didn`t get back until 12:30am and I was super tired after the concert, we just bought bentos from the conbini and went back to chill at the hotel. Yeah, I just collapsed after my shower. Oh, btw, our hotel is located in downtown Susukino where all the host and hostess clubs were located. Oh yeah. The cabaret clubs were there too. There were so many sexy looking buildings that just had club names all over them. There was one named Club Desire and Club Atlantis and I so wanted to go into them!! And our hotel is right across the street from the apartment building where all the hosts live. So we saw a couple of them walking in and out from there as well as just all over the place. haha. It was hot.
November 15 Sunday
Aahh...Good morning. A very good morning indeed. I`m all worked out from the concert and then we get free breakfast. Woo. So we spent the morning wandering around the Sapporo train station looking for empty lockers to put our luggage in after we have checked out so tht we don`t have to carry the damn things around. But because there were so many girls here for the concert majority of the lockers were taken. So we wandered for like 30 min trying to find empty ones. But we finally found them. Then we went to go take some purikura. I love purikura here and it`s so cheap! The first machine we took pics in we held up our Arashi fans and just had Arashi written all over the pics. The second machine we looked cho model-like. Super models. Haha. It helps that what we were wearing were fairly fashionable. I liked that machine. It made me look a little skinnier. haha.
We then went to the pokemon center and I bought 2 little pokemon plushies. Soo cute. The place was pretty awesome I have to say and there were so many lil kids running around. haha. It was cute. Afterwards we met up with Chingyi`s friend who came from Canada to the concert. We met up to give her her stuff that Chingyi had bought for her. We then rushed to go eat and ended up in the same Tonkatsu place as last time I was here because it was the fastest. At 3pm I took my train home to Asahikawa and drove back home. Good weekend.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post a video and pictures soon. But unfortunately I will not have pics of the concert since we were not allowed to take pics and there were people walking around making sure we didn`t take pictures. Suck. But good good concert.
So my confidenceness has been paying off. Ever since I pumped myself with more confidence the teachers have been talking to me more and stuff. Particularly interesting is the elementary. On Monday when I went to the Elementary I exuberantly and confidently said Ohayou gozaimasu to the teachers and was so energetic with the kids that the teachers were surprised, but since the kids already knew that was how I usually am like it was nothing new to them. Yeah, I don`t know how the teachers don`t see how genki I am with the kids...eh, whatevs. But at all the schools it made a difference with the teachers. Well, the high school is still the same, but in terms of teaching, it was a difference.
On Thursday night I went to pick up Chingyi from the Asahikawa train station. She flew in from Gunma-ken on the main island. She was here to see the Arashi concert in Sapporo, in which she invited me to go as well, and decided to also visit me since I`m on this island. haha. But it was nice to have another states person with me in the car. The way we talked and everything really felt like I was back in the US with my ol buddies. I missed it very much. And I realized that after not cussing for a long time, I spewed it out almost every other sentence. And that`s bad. lol =O I`ve been trying to be agood girl and not do that. But it just came out....
Anyways, we went to go eat at the all you can eat Shabu-shabu place and I had her try the Hokkaido softcream because damn is it good. And I told her she also needed to try HOkkaido milk. So afterwards we went to Lawson`s to find it, but to no avail. We`ll check out Seico Mart later for it. So then we went home and chilled.
November 13 Friday
My middle school was excited to hear about my friend who came last night. I had asked them beforehand if it was okay if I brought in my friend for a visit of the school after all the students had left and they were totally fine with it. On the other hand, the elementary was f-ing strict with this stuff and it took an hour to okay everything! Are you kidding me? She`s just coming in to see the school after the students have left. ANd they like need to know why she came, where she came from, why she`s coming to the school, what time she`s coming to the school, if she needs a guide via the vice principal. DUDE. It was like a police inquiry. I know it would be dangerous if it was some gangsta guy, but I had already told them she was an ALT from Gunma-ken. Bah, in the end they told me it was okay.
So at around 3pm I went home to pick up Chingyi at the apt and took her to the elementary first to look around. The teachers were all in a meeting so they were in the meeting room. So I guided her around the school and saw a couple of my volleyball girls so went over to say hi and introduce them. Then afterwards I went to the middle school and with whom all my teachers were really excited to talk to her and everything. I love my middle school peoples. haha. Even my kids who were still at the school for club practices were pretty cool with her. =P
After that we went to the Picture Book Library/Museum, one of my favorite places in town. It`s so nice and modern looking. Hehe. So Takeuchi-san, one of my bosses who works at the the Picture Book place and also an awesome father of one of the 6th grade elementary kids whom I dearly love, was there that evening. No one else was at the library except for the workers. So I was halfway giving her the tour when Takeuchi-san came over and said he`ll give us a tour of the place himself. And luckily because of him we were able to go to all the rooms that were locked and even go the backroom or the safe room where the temperature has to be kept at a certain degree so as not to ruin the items kept there. It was soo cool! He even told me that if I ever want to come in here to translate books or anything like that all I have to do is tell him and he`ll let me in. WOO! I feel like one of those special agent peoples who have special access to everything. haha. Anyways, afterwards we went to go eat at the Eki-mae ryokan and then went to go sing our hearts out at the Karaoke box in Shibetsu city. Originally, we were going to only sing for an hour, but when I got there and they said there was a special price if you order free time (no time limit) that comes with all you can drink it`s only 1420yen. If we ordered the one hour Karaoke by itself it would cost us about 800yen for one hour. It`s expensive at night yes.So we were like, dude, 1420yen for as long as we like and anything we want to drink? I think I`ll take that one instead. SO we sang for 4 1/2 hours just the two of us, from 7pm until 11:30pm. Man, my voice was seriously dying on me. haha. But the Arashi concert is tomorrow! Exciting!
November 14 Saturday
Off to Sapporo for the Arashi concert!!! I drove my car to Asahikawa and parked it at the structure next to the train station for an overnight stay and then afterwards rode the train to Sapporo. The trip was pleasant with our duking it out on Mario Kart. So when we got there it was raining like crazy. Like a freakin typhoon. So we rode the subway over to the nearest stop to our hotel and walked the rest of the way. My jacket was soaked,even though I had an umbrella. ANyways, we got there at 12pm so we couldn`t check in yet. We just left our luggage with them and went off to Sapporo dome to buy the goods for the concert. THE LINE WAS LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG!!!! We waited outside, in the pouring rain, in the long ass line for 2-3 hours! Just to buy the concert goods. Hah.... It was a good thing both of us had umbrellas and were wearing rain boots. Otherwise I would`ve died from the cold and wetness. =P There were a lot of girls wearing very little out there and non rain repellent stuff so I felt bad for them. But they chose fashion over usefulness and protection. Their own fault. But what they were wearing were cute I have to say.
Finally after 2 long hours I could see the goods. And I saw the really hot posters of them. This concert is their 5x10 Anniversary Tour celebrating 10 years that they`ve been super popular. So all their stuff has that logo on it. But their posters were super hot. And Aiba-kun seriously takes the best pictures!! His single picture was sooo hot! He looked like a prince in the photos. HOT! I caved and bought the single one of him, the one with all the members, and I bought their pamphlet/photo book, and a fan with Aiba-kun`s face on it. Haha. They were selling eco-bags and pen lights and towels and keychains too, but since I`m not a super big fan, I was content with what I bought. Save money!! lol And as I was waiting for Chingyi to finish buying her things I hear "Theresa?" and looked around and saw my two eldest cousins standing there with their umbrellas looking at me incredulously. I was like "OMG!!?? WHAT!??" My cousins don`t live in Japan, they live in the states. So I was super surprised to see them. They were here traveling around Japan and were fans of Arashi so last stop for them was this concert. Freakin amazing! Seriously, big coincidence that we met here at the concert. I haven`t seen them in several years too. And then of all the places, here. So I took pictures with my cousins and said goodbye to them and if we see each other later it would be awesome. But I don`t think that was going to happen because there`s way too many people here. I didn`t even see any of my students who were coming, but I met my cousins. Too cool!
So afterwards we first went back to drop stuff off at the hotel and then went back to the Sapporo Dome (concert venue). Our seats were up in the stands but since the stage was huge and the seats were well positioned there was no problem seeing them. Although the boys were a little small. Our seats ended up being next to these two awesome black girls who were studying abroad here in Sapporo. And get this, one of the girls is from CA`s La Verne University. My hometown`s university! Too coincidental. I was like, wow, today was a day of coincidences.
But anyways, the concert was way too awesome. The crowd all had their pen lights and when the concert was beginning they all held them up in the air. It was soooo cool looking. The whole place lit up red and blue. Well, more red though. But that`s like DBSK`s color....lol There was this giant helium balloon that had 5x10 written on it and when the boys came out they were dangling from this huge balloon flying over the crowd. It was awesome!! And then Aiba did his solo song and he was so freakin cool and hot hot hot! All the other boys were also very cool and hot. I didn`t know that Nino played the guitar. That was cool. And at the end, when you thought it was the end with just one encore, they popped out again with another one. THey did 2 encores! I love these boys! Seriously, this concert made me a bigger fan of them. The special effects and everything were all very cool. An awesome concert.
Afterwards, since there were so many people leaving the dome to get onto the one train leading out of the dome we girls decided to just chill around the area for an hour before getting on the train. We did not want to get smashed in the train with other rabid fans. But there was a line to get on the train that extended all the way out to the entrance of the station. We waited for a while before we got to the actual platform and by then we were lucky enough to catch the last train. I felt sorry for all the other girls who couldn`t get a train back home. But it was already super cramped on there. It felt like the Tokyo trains during rush hour, but luckily it was all young girls standing around us and not old men on you. lol Ah, good times. =P
Anyways, the girls we were with were totally awesome, and I will definitely call them up when I come back to Sapporo next time. So we said our goodbyes and headed over to our hotel. I was originally planning on hitting up bars to drink the night away, but because we didn`t get back until 12:30am and I was super tired after the concert, we just bought bentos from the conbini and went back to chill at the hotel. Yeah, I just collapsed after my shower. Oh, btw, our hotel is located in downtown Susukino where all the host and hostess clubs were located. Oh yeah. The cabaret clubs were there too. There were so many sexy looking buildings that just had club names all over them. There was one named Club Desire and Club Atlantis and I so wanted to go into them!! And our hotel is right across the street from the apartment building where all the hosts live. So we saw a couple of them walking in and out from there as well as just all over the place. haha. It was hot.
November 15 Sunday
Aahh...Good morning. A very good morning indeed. I`m all worked out from the concert and then we get free breakfast. Woo. So we spent the morning wandering around the Sapporo train station looking for empty lockers to put our luggage in after we have checked out so tht we don`t have to carry the damn things around. But because there were so many girls here for the concert majority of the lockers were taken. So we wandered for like 30 min trying to find empty ones. But we finally found them. Then we went to go take some purikura. I love purikura here and it`s so cheap! The first machine we took pics in we held up our Arashi fans and just had Arashi written all over the pics. The second machine we looked cho model-like. Super models. Haha. It helps that what we were wearing were fairly fashionable. I liked that machine. It made me look a little skinnier. haha.
We then went to the pokemon center and I bought 2 little pokemon plushies. Soo cute. The place was pretty awesome I have to say and there were so many lil kids running around. haha. It was cute. Afterwards we met up with Chingyi`s friend who came from Canada to the concert. We met up to give her her stuff that Chingyi had bought for her. We then rushed to go eat and ended up in the same Tonkatsu place as last time I was here because it was the fastest. At 3pm I took my train home to Asahikawa and drove back home. Good weekend.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post a video and pictures soon. But unfortunately I will not have pics of the concert since we were not allowed to take pics and there were people walking around making sure we didn`t take pictures. Suck. But good good concert.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I`m going to freakin exude confidence and be awesome!!
11/8/09 Sunday
My Elementary School Festival! Well, more like just an open house performance thing. I`ve been waiting for this day for a while because the kids plays are sooooo cute and good that I wanted to see it performed for real, as well as the dance I taught the 6th graders. I love my children! So the thing started at 8:30am and all the parents arrived to sit on the floor in the gym where the stage also is. Since I`m technically a teacher, but not one of the official teachers I don`t have to actually work and I get the special important people chairs/seats. And when I went to go sit down I heard a small little voice say "Theresa-sensei!!" and saw one of my lil nursery kids run over to me and hug me tight. I was so exhilarated to see her! She`s soo cute! And her parents were sitting on the floor behind me and I heard them say "Who is that? The English teacher?" So I decided to introduce myself to them and now they like me. haha. And because there was an empty seat next to me since not many important people came, I told her that she could sit next to me because she couldn`t really see anything otherwise. Some of my other babies also saw me and came over to hold my hand or talk to me. However, some of the parents were like...who is that? THey didn`t think I was a teacher and wondered why I was sitting in the important people`s seats. I guess I still look like a high schooler to alot of them....
So the kids did an awesome awesome job and their costumes and props and backdrops were freakin AMAZING!! I have to admit I did help alot on the 1st graders costumes. And so they had the most elaborate looking ones because Yuki also helped. THe other teachers did majority of everything themselves which was amazing! But I didn`t know that Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade teacher) was so freaking good at art or just artistic and creative in general. His backdrops were painted and hand drawn by him and they were soooooo beatiful!! Even the audience gasped when they saw it! I love him even more now. He was already my fav teacher because he reminded my of Winnie the Pooh, but now he`s the best! haha. So the 2nd graders did a play called きつねさんのたくさん客さん "Mr. Fox`s Many Guests". 1st graders did something about a fight between the water mountain and fire mountain. It was actually pretty epic and the 1st graders did an awesome job! The 3rd graders did どろぼう学校 "Theives School" which was the best performance of them all. It was sooo cute and funny. The 5th graders did something about a good daimyo in a village. The 4th graders did おれたちはゴミっ子だ！ "We are Garbage Children!" Yes, it sounds terrible, but it talks about the importance of seperating trash...lol Kinda cute, kinda sad. =P The 6th graders did 青い鳥２１about finding the beginning of peaceful times from travelling to the past. It was really good and funny.
Oh, dude, so Mr. Wonderful looked damn good today! He was wearing black pants, a grey sweater and underneath it was a white collared shirt so the collar and cuffs peeked out of the sweater, and he moussed/gelled his hair semi-ikemen style. I saw him and was like DAMN! lol Like I said before, he`s not the hottest thing out there, but he has a very nice body and an awesome personality and really is kind of like eye candy. SO that`s why when I saw him looking like that, it upped his level! lol
After the festival at 1pm we had the enkai for all the elementary teachers. There was supposed to be a bus that left for the Shibetsu hotel where the enkai was taking place and I rode in to the school on my bike just in time to see the bus leave....I was like Oh shit...Luckily, the vice principal and Watanabe-sensei were there waiting for me. I felt so bad. But they told me it`s okay because they had told me a later time...so technically it wasn`t my fault...=P At the enkai we are given lil pieces of paper with a picture of a cute animal on it which corresponds to the animal pictures on our seats. It`s basically a roullette of where you get to sit. So I was standing next to Mr. Wonderful and was dearly hoping to be sitting next to him. He got a deer and I got a freakin hippo. And I was hoping that they would be next to each other. But nope, I`m next to the principal. I somehow always end up in the seat next to the bigwigs. But then I saw Mr. Wonderful sit directly diagonal from me and was like, "oh man, it`s going to be hard for me to talk to him because now I`ll have to look at him". And you know me, I panic during those times with hot guys. But I really tried and ganbarued! So I got one short 2 minute conversation in with him during the whole time and it was just about his car......>.< lol
After lunch was the second party to where most of the teachers went to go bowling. I again, like always, got the lowest score. Suck. But Mr. Wonderful took off his sweater and relaxed his white button up shirt underneath. And he looked sooo nice! He was on a different team next to mine, but we sat back to back or side to side whatever you wanna see it as, and I didn`t show it, but was pretty happy. haha. After bowling we decided to go to Tsubohachi to drink and somewhat eat. The guys ordered beer that came in fat big glasses and whiskey and the girls ordered cocktails and stuff. I didn`t sit next to Mr. Wonderful, one of the teachers was in between us, but he would occasionally look over to talk to me. And the men drank sooooo much, like ridiculous amounts. lol ANd it`s not nomihoudai, so we had to pay for all of it. The enkai at the hotel cost 4000yen each and this cost us 3000yen each. Errg.... Then we went to karaoke.
And there is where I really let myself go. I love Karaoke, and no matter what I fill myself with confidence and sing my heart out. Singing is something I`m not afraid to just belt out in front of people whether I suck or not. And it really freakin surprised my teachers. I guess that normally I`m really meek and quiet at school when I`m around the teachers, but when singing I`m back to my normal American self. haha. And all the teachers were like, dude, Theresa, you`re really good. And I swelled with pride. haha. And Mr. Wonderful`s voice is amazing! And when he`s doing Karaoke, he also becomes a little different. He somehow becomes sooo cool and fun! At school he`s kind of quiet and mature like, but here he was a normal cool party guy. Points upped. I really like that. When you work, your in good person work mode, and when you party, you really know how to party. That was him. Awesome! And when I selected to sing Aoyama Telma`s そばにいるね "Soba ni iru ne", he was like "ah, さすが" haha. And in the song there`s a guy rapping part to which none of the other guy teachers knew except for Mr.Wonderful. I was about to rap myself, but he took the other mic and started rapping the words for me! XDDDDD AAAAAHHH!! He was sooo good at it! I was amazed and wowed. And I was all a flutter that he sang with me. haha. Points totally upped. Then I decided to sing Mariah Carey`s "All I want for Christmas" and he totally cheered me on and woohoo`d for me. XD
After the karaoke session when I was waiting with him to pay I told him that he was totally good at rapping and his singing voice is amazing! And he told me that he just likes to sing and really has an interest in foreign music and the English language. He said that when he learned English in middle school he started having an interest in English and so he actually speaks it pretty well! So we started talking about English music in English. And I told him anytime he wanted to practice his English with me he can. Ahah. My strategy. lol So he was really happy and talked alot with me that night. He also asked me if I knew Fly Me to The Moon, and I just looked at him and was like OMG, are you serious? I love that song!! (No joke, I really do.) And he was like "you Love that song?! That`s great! Let`s go Karaoke together next time!" And I almost fainted from that one comment. =P I`m weird, yes I know. haha. But I`m always really fluttery around him, so I`m never sure what I should be feeling. XD Oh, and he`s a freakin gentleman. Like, the other men, even Kitagawa-sensei aren`t so gentlemanly, but he was totally. He would always wait for all the women to go out the door first to follow in the end so he was always the last guy out. Or he would let all the girls get their shoes before he would get his and he would open all the doors for us. Then when we got back at 12am after Karaoke (Yes, I spent from 1:30pm to 12am with my elementary teachers all day, and, man, can elementary teachers party. I love them when their drunk and crazy!!! LOL) he volunteered to walk me and the other female teacher back home when the other teachers were like "you guys are walking back alone?" But we told him since we`re walking together, it`ll be fine. Although, I really would`ve liked to walk with him. We could`ve been able to talk more, but becuse he lives in the total opposite direction of us, I didn`t want to inconvenience him. Points majorly upped. Oh, yeah, and Karaoke cost us 4000yen each cuz of all the drinks we ordered and the long ass time we spent in there. Yeah, I don`t need money. I don`t need money at all.
However, to cut this lovely spiel about Mr. Wonderful, there was something that majorly irked me and pissed me off during this time. Specifically during Karaoke, but it began at Tsubohachi. I guess the guys were getting a little more drunk and tipsy and can`t control what they say ya know. But I was still very surprised and taken aback by it. Watanabe-sensei (the 6th grade teacher) began to be a little rude to me at Tsubohachi. Not terribly, just a little. And then at Karaoke he said some rude things to me and when I went to the bathroom and came back, I saw him talking with one of the female teachers who I was sitting next to. And when I came back and sat next to her he said "I`ll talk to you more about this later" and she turned and saw me and kinda laughed and went Oh! So I knew something was up, but didn`t wanna confirm it just yet. Then when I was with Mr. Wonderful waiting to pay I saw him talking to the other teachers in the corner and them looking at me. So I really really knew something was up. When we got in the large taxi to go home, I sat behind him and I heard him say to Hisakawa-sensei "oh, she`s sitting behind us" Hmm.....So I started listening to his conversation while at the same time talking with the female teacher next to me and Mr. Wonderful behind me to not let them know I suspect something. ALthough they`re so obvious because they`re kindof drunk.
So Watanabe-sensei kept saying "she really needs to have more confidence in herself. She is so different when she sings, but at school she has no confidence." But it was in a much more worse tone. And the other teachers seem to be nodding along. You know I really wouldn`t mind if you told me after I sang or something "oh, Theresa, you`re really confident and different when you sing, but you need to have more confidence at school" Yeah, I wouldn`t take offense but take it to heart and do my best then. But if you`re going to talk behind my back like that about something that I think is so trivial but you`re making it sound horrible it`s absurd and I won`t just take it. I mean, they were freaking talking about it right there, while I was still there with them like they thought I couldn`t hear or understand them! True, at school I`m a little more meek and quiet, but that doesn`t mean I have no confidence. I just don`t know what exactly to talk to you about besides lesson plans, you teachers are always super busy anyways, and I get confused in class sometimes because I`m never exactly sure what you want me to teach! >.< Seriuosly, I try really hard to clear things up with the lesson I`m supposed to help you teach so that I understand what I have to do. Yet, even when they tell me what to do and I thought that I understood they pull some things on me during class where they don`t explain to me what they`re doing and expect me to just know and I get so confused because of that. I know it`s partially my fault for not being able to understand Japanese fluently, but I try freakin hard when I teach. I really let myself go crazy in class and be totally out there with the students, how can you say I have no confidence in that area? The kids seem to love me because I`m so different and I do things that teachers would normally not do because they might think it lowers their status or whatever but I go out and do it because I don`t care if people think I`m wierd or look stupid. I mean, I came all the way out to Japan on my own to teach in an area where barely anyone knows English, so then how can you say I have no confidence in myself? Maybe, they might`ve taken my confusedness and quietness with lack of confidence, but by no means do I think I have no confidence. Maybe I do need a little more confidence in myself, but the reason I don`t talk too much is because I sometimes can`t understand what your conversation is about. I`m not fluent or a native Japanese person. I try to start a conversation on the occasions, but you only answer shortly and breifly and don`t continue it and you want to now beat on me? WTF, dude? Majority of my friends who know me know that I have enough confidence in myself. True, there are many things that I`m not confident about, but it`s not in the part of teaching or talking with Japanese people because I`ve already done alot of that back at UCI. SOmetimes, I just don`t know how to act around the teachers so that I don`t offend them so I think it`s better to be a little more reserved around them. I didn`t want to be too American style ya know?
But you know what? F that! THis Sunday night I decided that from now on I will be so confident that you will take back those words you said and realize that you made a mistake. I will exude even more confidence than I already have, be even more genki and livelier than normal, and be my normal self. You want more confidence? You`ll get it. You might even think that I maybe am not the same person anymore and I don`t know if you`ll like my new self, but that`s me. So don`t go regretting that you think I need more confidence. Because I will show you more confidence. But, no worries peoples, I will be careful with myself that I don`t go overboard. I just want it so that one day when Watanabe-sensei or any of the other teachers in cahoots with him say to me "Theresa, you seem to be alot more lively and genki lately" I`ll just say to them "Oh, you know, I just thought it would be good if i had more confidence in myself" and just see the look on their faces. So from now I will live life like there is no tomorrow and burst with and exude confidence so that no one will ever say otherwise again.
Sorry for the long rant here, but I needed to vent and proclaim my "new" self. haha. And hopefully, good changes will happen.
My Elementary School Festival! Well, more like just an open house performance thing. I`ve been waiting for this day for a while because the kids plays are sooooo cute and good that I wanted to see it performed for real, as well as the dance I taught the 6th graders. I love my children! So the thing started at 8:30am and all the parents arrived to sit on the floor in the gym where the stage also is. Since I`m technically a teacher, but not one of the official teachers I don`t have to actually work and I get the special important people chairs/seats. And when I went to go sit down I heard a small little voice say "Theresa-sensei!!" and saw one of my lil nursery kids run over to me and hug me tight. I was so exhilarated to see her! She`s soo cute! And her parents were sitting on the floor behind me and I heard them say "Who is that? The English teacher?" So I decided to introduce myself to them and now they like me. haha. And because there was an empty seat next to me since not many important people came, I told her that she could sit next to me because she couldn`t really see anything otherwise. Some of my other babies also saw me and came over to hold my hand or talk to me. However, some of the parents were like...who is that? THey didn`t think I was a teacher and wondered why I was sitting in the important people`s seats. I guess I still look like a high schooler to alot of them....
So the kids did an awesome awesome job and their costumes and props and backdrops were freakin AMAZING!! I have to admit I did help alot on the 1st graders costumes. And so they had the most elaborate looking ones because Yuki also helped. THe other teachers did majority of everything themselves which was amazing! But I didn`t know that Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade teacher) was so freaking good at art or just artistic and creative in general. His backdrops were painted and hand drawn by him and they were soooooo beatiful!! Even the audience gasped when they saw it! I love him even more now. He was already my fav teacher because he reminded my of Winnie the Pooh, but now he`s the best! haha. So the 2nd graders did a play called きつねさんのたくさん客さん "Mr. Fox`s Many Guests". 1st graders did something about a fight between the water mountain and fire mountain. It was actually pretty epic and the 1st graders did an awesome job! The 3rd graders did どろぼう学校 "Theives School" which was the best performance of them all. It was sooo cute and funny. The 5th graders did something about a good daimyo in a village. The 4th graders did おれたちはゴミっ子だ！ "We are Garbage Children!" Yes, it sounds terrible, but it talks about the importance of seperating trash...lol Kinda cute, kinda sad. =P The 6th graders did 青い鳥２１about finding the beginning of peaceful times from travelling to the past. It was really good and funny.
Oh, dude, so Mr. Wonderful looked damn good today! He was wearing black pants, a grey sweater and underneath it was a white collared shirt so the collar and cuffs peeked out of the sweater, and he moussed/gelled his hair semi-ikemen style. I saw him and was like DAMN! lol Like I said before, he`s not the hottest thing out there, but he has a very nice body and an awesome personality and really is kind of like eye candy. SO that`s why when I saw him looking like that, it upped his level! lol
After the festival at 1pm we had the enkai for all the elementary teachers. There was supposed to be a bus that left for the Shibetsu hotel where the enkai was taking place and I rode in to the school on my bike just in time to see the bus leave....I was like Oh shit...Luckily, the vice principal and Watanabe-sensei were there waiting for me. I felt so bad. But they told me it`s okay because they had told me a later time...so technically it wasn`t my fault...=P At the enkai we are given lil pieces of paper with a picture of a cute animal on it which corresponds to the animal pictures on our seats. It`s basically a roullette of where you get to sit. So I was standing next to Mr. Wonderful and was dearly hoping to be sitting next to him. He got a deer and I got a freakin hippo. And I was hoping that they would be next to each other. But nope, I`m next to the principal. I somehow always end up in the seat next to the bigwigs. But then I saw Mr. Wonderful sit directly diagonal from me and was like, "oh man, it`s going to be hard for me to talk to him because now I`ll have to look at him". And you know me, I panic during those times with hot guys. But I really tried and ganbarued! So I got one short 2 minute conversation in with him during the whole time and it was just about his car......>.< lol
After lunch was the second party to where most of the teachers went to go bowling. I again, like always, got the lowest score. Suck. But Mr. Wonderful took off his sweater and relaxed his white button up shirt underneath. And he looked sooo nice! He was on a different team next to mine, but we sat back to back or side to side whatever you wanna see it as, and I didn`t show it, but was pretty happy. haha. After bowling we decided to go to Tsubohachi to drink and somewhat eat. The guys ordered beer that came in fat big glasses and whiskey and the girls ordered cocktails and stuff. I didn`t sit next to Mr. Wonderful, one of the teachers was in between us, but he would occasionally look over to talk to me. And the men drank sooooo much, like ridiculous amounts. lol ANd it`s not nomihoudai, so we had to pay for all of it. The enkai at the hotel cost 4000yen each and this cost us 3000yen each. Errg.... Then we went to karaoke.
And there is where I really let myself go. I love Karaoke, and no matter what I fill myself with confidence and sing my heart out. Singing is something I`m not afraid to just belt out in front of people whether I suck or not. And it really freakin surprised my teachers. I guess that normally I`m really meek and quiet at school when I`m around the teachers, but when singing I`m back to my normal American self. haha. And all the teachers were like, dude, Theresa, you`re really good. And I swelled with pride. haha. And Mr. Wonderful`s voice is amazing! And when he`s doing Karaoke, he also becomes a little different. He somehow becomes sooo cool and fun! At school he`s kind of quiet and mature like, but here he was a normal cool party guy. Points upped. I really like that. When you work, your in good person work mode, and when you party, you really know how to party. That was him. Awesome! And when I selected to sing Aoyama Telma`s そばにいるね "Soba ni iru ne", he was like "ah, さすが" haha. And in the song there`s a guy rapping part to which none of the other guy teachers knew except for Mr.Wonderful. I was about to rap myself, but he took the other mic and started rapping the words for me! XDDDDD AAAAAHHH!! He was sooo good at it! I was amazed and wowed. And I was all a flutter that he sang with me. haha. Points totally upped. Then I decided to sing Mariah Carey`s "All I want for Christmas" and he totally cheered me on and woohoo`d for me. XD
After the karaoke session when I was waiting with him to pay I told him that he was totally good at rapping and his singing voice is amazing! And he told me that he just likes to sing and really has an interest in foreign music and the English language. He said that when he learned English in middle school he started having an interest in English and so he actually speaks it pretty well! So we started talking about English music in English. And I told him anytime he wanted to practice his English with me he can. Ahah. My strategy. lol So he was really happy and talked alot with me that night. He also asked me if I knew Fly Me to The Moon, and I just looked at him and was like OMG, are you serious? I love that song!! (No joke, I really do.) And he was like "you Love that song?! That`s great! Let`s go Karaoke together next time!" And I almost fainted from that one comment. =P I`m weird, yes I know. haha. But I`m always really fluttery around him, so I`m never sure what I should be feeling. XD Oh, and he`s a freakin gentleman. Like, the other men, even Kitagawa-sensei aren`t so gentlemanly, but he was totally. He would always wait for all the women to go out the door first to follow in the end so he was always the last guy out. Or he would let all the girls get their shoes before he would get his and he would open all the doors for us. Then when we got back at 12am after Karaoke (Yes, I spent from 1:30pm to 12am with my elementary teachers all day, and, man, can elementary teachers party. I love them when their drunk and crazy!!! LOL) he volunteered to walk me and the other female teacher back home when the other teachers were like "you guys are walking back alone?" But we told him since we`re walking together, it`ll be fine. Although, I really would`ve liked to walk with him. We could`ve been able to talk more, but becuse he lives in the total opposite direction of us, I didn`t want to inconvenience him. Points majorly upped. Oh, yeah, and Karaoke cost us 4000yen each cuz of all the drinks we ordered and the long ass time we spent in there. Yeah, I don`t need money. I don`t need money at all.
However, to cut this lovely spiel about Mr. Wonderful, there was something that majorly irked me and pissed me off during this time. Specifically during Karaoke, but it began at Tsubohachi. I guess the guys were getting a little more drunk and tipsy and can`t control what they say ya know. But I was still very surprised and taken aback by it. Watanabe-sensei (the 6th grade teacher) began to be a little rude to me at Tsubohachi. Not terribly, just a little. And then at Karaoke he said some rude things to me and when I went to the bathroom and came back, I saw him talking with one of the female teachers who I was sitting next to. And when I came back and sat next to her he said "I`ll talk to you more about this later" and she turned and saw me and kinda laughed and went Oh! So I knew something was up, but didn`t wanna confirm it just yet. Then when I was with Mr. Wonderful waiting to pay I saw him talking to the other teachers in the corner and them looking at me. So I really really knew something was up. When we got in the large taxi to go home, I sat behind him and I heard him say to Hisakawa-sensei "oh, she`s sitting behind us" Hmm.....So I started listening to his conversation while at the same time talking with the female teacher next to me and Mr. Wonderful behind me to not let them know I suspect something. ALthough they`re so obvious because they`re kindof drunk.
So Watanabe-sensei kept saying "she really needs to have more confidence in herself. She is so different when she sings, but at school she has no confidence." But it was in a much more worse tone. And the other teachers seem to be nodding along. You know I really wouldn`t mind if you told me after I sang or something "oh, Theresa, you`re really confident and different when you sing, but you need to have more confidence at school" Yeah, I wouldn`t take offense but take it to heart and do my best then. But if you`re going to talk behind my back like that about something that I think is so trivial but you`re making it sound horrible it`s absurd and I won`t just take it. I mean, they were freaking talking about it right there, while I was still there with them like they thought I couldn`t hear or understand them! True, at school I`m a little more meek and quiet, but that doesn`t mean I have no confidence. I just don`t know what exactly to talk to you about besides lesson plans, you teachers are always super busy anyways, and I get confused in class sometimes because I`m never exactly sure what you want me to teach! >.< Seriuosly, I try really hard to clear things up with the lesson I`m supposed to help you teach so that I understand what I have to do. Yet, even when they tell me what to do and I thought that I understood they pull some things on me during class where they don`t explain to me what they`re doing and expect me to just know and I get so confused because of that. I know it`s partially my fault for not being able to understand Japanese fluently, but I try freakin hard when I teach. I really let myself go crazy in class and be totally out there with the students, how can you say I have no confidence in that area? The kids seem to love me because I`m so different and I do things that teachers would normally not do because they might think it lowers their status or whatever but I go out and do it because I don`t care if people think I`m wierd or look stupid. I mean, I came all the way out to Japan on my own to teach in an area where barely anyone knows English, so then how can you say I have no confidence in myself? Maybe, they might`ve taken my confusedness and quietness with lack of confidence, but by no means do I think I have no confidence. Maybe I do need a little more confidence in myself, but the reason I don`t talk too much is because I sometimes can`t understand what your conversation is about. I`m not fluent or a native Japanese person. I try to start a conversation on the occasions, but you only answer shortly and breifly and don`t continue it and you want to now beat on me? WTF, dude? Majority of my friends who know me know that I have enough confidence in myself. True, there are many things that I`m not confident about, but it`s not in the part of teaching or talking with Japanese people because I`ve already done alot of that back at UCI. SOmetimes, I just don`t know how to act around the teachers so that I don`t offend them so I think it`s better to be a little more reserved around them. I didn`t want to be too American style ya know?
But you know what? F that! THis Sunday night I decided that from now on I will be so confident that you will take back those words you said and realize that you made a mistake. I will exude even more confidence than I already have, be even more genki and livelier than normal, and be my normal self. You want more confidence? You`ll get it. You might even think that I maybe am not the same person anymore and I don`t know if you`ll like my new self, but that`s me. So don`t go regretting that you think I need more confidence. Because I will show you more confidence. But, no worries peoples, I will be careful with myself that I don`t go overboard. I just want it so that one day when Watanabe-sensei or any of the other teachers in cahoots with him say to me "Theresa, you seem to be alot more lively and genki lately" I`ll just say to them "Oh, you know, I just thought it would be good if i had more confidence in myself" and just see the look on their faces. So from now I will live life like there is no tomorrow and burst with and exude confidence so that no one will ever say otherwise again.
Sorry for the long rant here, but I needed to vent and proclaim my "new" self. haha. And hopefully, good changes will happen.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
OMG SNOW!!!! And my car battery died while I was an hour away from home...
October 31st HALLOWEEN!!!!
So today is Halloween right? But rememeber, there is no such official day like that in Japan. So instead, for my town, today is the town`s cultural festival. Or specifically the old people`s culture festival. It was a small little thing held at the town hall with a gallery displaying all the works of the elderly in this town. The work was amazing!! I have to say, old people really do have a lot of time on their hands. So much that they perfect their hobbies of artwork and calligraphy. It reminded me of my grandma because she`s the same way. Old people don`t have alot to do during the days so they go to art classes and stuff. I loved the gallery. I really really wanted to learn all these things that the grandpa/mas do but, sadly, I don`t have the time. After the gallery I went to go eat some free soba that some of the grandpas were making. They asked if I wanted to make it too and I did. Except that Su was in front of me making it so I had to wait as there was only one table for this thing. ANd i was kinda on a time constraint. I had to get back home to get ready to leave for Asahikawa and the Halloween party tonight. So I couldn`t make the sobas. Sadness. ;=; But after Su was done making her portion she brought alot of it over for me with sauce. Hurrah! I also bought some deep fried curry flavored potatoes called "Curry Balls". Yes. lol
Anyways, I went back home to get myself ready for the party tonight and discovered I don`t have a costume!! So I decided to just wear a nice black top and jeans. Hiraga-san came to pick me up at 5pm and I discovered that she lives right behind me! We both didn`t know that we lived so close to each other. So from now on when she goes to the local bar, which they call "snack"s here if they include Karoake...i think, she will call me up and we will go drinking! lol I normally don`t talk to her at the high school because she always seems super busy. But now that I`ve talked to her she is awesome! I like her alot! haha. ^^ So we talked the whole way to Asahikawa. When we got there we parked at the station and walked along Kaimono doori to meet up with her ALT friend from Kitami city who invited us to the party. He apparently knew about it from before and he has friends who are going to the party. Hiraga-sensei used to work with him at her previous high school. He`s from England and super tall, and so were his two other friends who were both from the states. Well, everyone`s taller than me, except for my elementary students. lol The street was freaking cold though! And I saw so many girls/gyarus wearing short shorts or skirts and heels or boots and was like "AREN`T YOU LADIES COLD!!?" Yes, they were, but they choose sexy fashion over protection....sure. But I have to admit, I like that fashion style alot and would wear it if I could. Just maybe not in this cold.
We decided to go to someplace to eat before the party which started at 9pm. So we walked all over the place in the freakin cold until we found an izakaya to eat at. Oh, and one of the guys` costume was a girl`s seifuku/school uniform so he was wearing a skirt and looked pretty cold. The Japanese people were staring at him as we walked around because of his costume. lol haha. After the izakaya we decided to head to a nearby place for more drinks. So we headed in to a British Pub named "Bank of America"....something`s wrong here.....LOL But it had a bar and a TV showing the baseball game and felt like a foreign pub, except for the fact that the bartenders were Japanese. The girl bartenders were pretty cute though. So I drank this cocktail named Blue`s Blue which had grapefruit and blueberry juice/alcohol in it. And around 9pm we headed to Club Den which was where the party was held. This club/bar area is owned and operated by foreigners. most of them all work here as ALT`s or for companies and stuff around here. It was a small place, but had a good foreign atmosphere to it.
But here`s the problem. I did meet a couple of the other foreigners around here, but for some reason, I couldn`t talk to them as well as I used to back in the states. I remember myself being super social and being able to hold conversations with alot of people. And people who know me can hopefully attest to that. I did say hi and try to talk to them, but I think it might be partially because lately I haven`t been in contact with much other foreign peoples and then I`ve been kind of isolated in my lil place, and the fact that most of these people already knew each other was a bit of a problem. Hiraga-san knew no one at the party aside from me and the Kitami ALT, so I decided to stay with her otherwise she would be alone and left out. So I ended up sitting with a bunch of Japanese people and actually holding a decent conversatino with the Japanese peoples. Me and 2 Japanese girls became quite good friends and decided to exchange phone numbers and emails so that we can hang out and stuff. One of them`s a nurse and the otherone used to live in Kenbuchi. haha. So I don`t know if it`s sad or not or if it`s a good thing or not, but I was able to have a better conversation and connection with the Japanese people then with the foreigners. I felt bad for a little bit that I wasn`t able to talk or connect much with the other foreigners aside from the three I had dinner with, but then quickly got over it because I was able to make new friends anyways. It`s fine. I think.
At around 11pm we decided to leave because Hiraga-san was driving and I don`t think she was having too much fun at the party, so I didn`t mind leaving. When we got outside it was snowing for REALS!! I was like "WWWWAAAAAAAAHhHHHH" I got so excited and happy. And it didn`t help that I was a little buzzed from the all you can drink bar at the party. I drank quite a lot. And they give you generous amounts. So on the way home I was really animated and talked to Hiraga-san alot, although I don`t remember what I talked to her about. lol When I got to my apt, the place was covered in snow!! I was like woah and in my buzzed status wobbled over to the door and tried to put the key into the lock for like 2 minutes. haha. Either my hands were super cold or I was just super buzzed. =P Haha. And I conked out.
November 1st Sunday
It`s so damn bright outside because it`s all covered in white!! Everything was white! And super beautiful!! Just wonderous! I was like wow, winter wonderland! I couldn`t believe it! So in the morning I put on my winter clothes and went outside to play in the snow by myself....lol XD I made botched lobatomy snowmen and buttprints in the snow. Haha. I also made snowballs and threw them at my apt or tried to see how far they would sink when i threw them in the snow. I think if you were watching me, you would`ve probably thought it sad. lol I bet the neighbors were like, wtf is she doing? =P So then I decided to trudge my way through the soft powder snow over to Su`s apt. Oh my feet sank to the ground almost 1ft. And I at first couldn`t open my door because there was so much snow piled outside my apt. lol But I had so much fun just walking in the snow. I felt like a lil kid again. haha. I went over to Su`s apt, rang her doorbell, just to tell her it was snowing. haha. And she laughed and thought it funny. I sat over at her place for a lil bit and then went back home after a few minutes of walking through snow covered Kenbuchi. My feet however were getting super cold because I didn`t have real snow boots. Just my velvet black ones. So what ended up happening was that I wore plastic bags over my socks and then put htem in my shoes to avoid them getting wet and my toes hurting from the cold. =P
And then at night I decided to head over to Aoi to eat. It was snowing like crazy outside and I couldn`t really see the road that clearly. And just when I neared the place I stepped on an area that had frozen over and was like black ice and basically slipped and fell. I landed hard on my butt, but thankfully, not my head. It hurt and reminded me of when I fell when I used to ice skate and wanted to go ice skating again...haha. funny. ANyways, it happened again when I left the restaurant. Terrible, stupid clumsy me.
November 3rd Tuesday
Today is Japan`s culture day so it`s a holiday evryone has off. Thank god, because I needed a day where I could go buy winter stuff. I desperately needed snowboots, a thicker jacket, a hat, a shovel and a snow brush for my car. And Su said she would come with me today. So I first headed over to SHibetsu city to find the cheaper things. At Homac I was thinking of getting an extra thing of car batteries and a rope/cable tug thing just in case. And then thought better of it. I was like, "oh, I don`t need it" That will come back to bite me in the butt later tonight. I bought some of my cheap stuff in Shibetsu then headed over to Asahikawa AEON JUSCO to buy the rest of it. I drove super slow and let people pass me because I was really scared of getting into an accident in the snow. Especially slipping. We passed by one car where the girl had slipped into the snow next to the road and some dude was trying to help her out. THat`s when that cable would come in handy.
Well after an hour or maybe a little over because I drove so much slower than usual, we got there. So today AEON`s clothing section was having a huge sale on winter clothing, so I went and bought some, particularly my jacket. And then i bought a humidifier, a mini heater for my toilet beause it`s freakin cold in there since it`s not in my main apt area, just in the entryway which is an awkward place to put it I tell you. And then I bought my snow boots!! Yay! THey`re super cute I love them! They`re brown with pink words written in French all over it. I had liked the black one too, but I have too many black boots already. I wanted to buy these really hot heels, but because I doubt I`ll be able to wear them much during this time, I didn`t.
We basically spent a whole day out until 7pm and decided tohead on back to the car to go home. And my car wouldn`t start up. I had realized too late that I had forgotten to turn off my headlights and it sucked up all the battery life. And now my car won`t run. And we were in Asahikawa. And it was -3 degrees celsius outside. Great. Luckily, we were stuck at the AEON parking lot. And AEON just so happened to be the largest mall/dept store place in Asahikawa. So there were alot of people to ask for help in there. The service people called the guardsman to come and try to charge my car`s batteries or give it a little boost for it to run. And it didn`t. So the guardsman/police dude told us to call JAF which is the AAA of Japan to come help us. He said it might not just be the problem with the batteries. Su called JAF and had the guy come out to help find the problem with my car. And what happened was that the problem was just that my batteries needed a boost!!! And just for that it cost me $120!! If I was a JAF member, it would`ve been free. But apparently I wasnt, when I thought I had signed up for it, and it cost me. BOOO!!!! So I decided to join them in case anymore things like this happened which prolly will cuz my car`s so freakin old. STUPID GUARDSMEN! If only you were able to charge it properly I wouldn`t have had to pay....Whatever. I still thank him for having tried several times. Honestly, I`m really thankful to all of the people who helped, because otherwise I would`ve been hin huge trouble.
I had originally wanted to stop and eat at Kohrinboh ramen with Su, but because of this problem I cannot stop the car until I get home because I need to let the batteries run awhile. So that was that. And then at midnight, as I was blowdrying my hair, the electricity went out. And i was like "oh shit, if the electricty is out that means my heater will go out, and it`s -4 degrees right now. Not good" So I donned my winter clothing and went outside and shoveled my way through the snow at 12am to try and find the circuit breaker. And then realized that it was not outside but inside my apt, above my door. I wasted my body heat outside....lol anyways, it worked. And then I forgot that when you reset the heater, previous settings are erased and I had forgotten to put it on save mode so that when it reaches a certain temperature it will stop for a little bit until the temperature drops and it will start again. So it saves a lot of kerosene and electricity while keeping me warm, hence the name Save mode. I had left it on normal nmode all night and was unsure why it was so hot in my apt until this morning when I realized that it was not on save mode. There goes a lot of my money......Not a good night.
So today is Halloween right? But rememeber, there is no such official day like that in Japan. So instead, for my town, today is the town`s cultural festival. Or specifically the old people`s culture festival. It was a small little thing held at the town hall with a gallery displaying all the works of the elderly in this town. The work was amazing!! I have to say, old people really do have a lot of time on their hands. So much that they perfect their hobbies of artwork and calligraphy. It reminded me of my grandma because she`s the same way. Old people don`t have alot to do during the days so they go to art classes and stuff. I loved the gallery. I really really wanted to learn all these things that the grandpa/mas do but, sadly, I don`t have the time. After the gallery I went to go eat some free soba that some of the grandpas were making. They asked if I wanted to make it too and I did. Except that Su was in front of me making it so I had to wait as there was only one table for this thing. ANd i was kinda on a time constraint. I had to get back home to get ready to leave for Asahikawa and the Halloween party tonight. So I couldn`t make the sobas. Sadness. ;=; But after Su was done making her portion she brought alot of it over for me with sauce. Hurrah! I also bought some deep fried curry flavored potatoes called "Curry Balls". Yes. lol
Anyways, I went back home to get myself ready for the party tonight and discovered I don`t have a costume!! So I decided to just wear a nice black top and jeans. Hiraga-san came to pick me up at 5pm and I discovered that she lives right behind me! We both didn`t know that we lived so close to each other. So from now on when she goes to the local bar, which they call "snack"s here if they include Karoake...i think, she will call me up and we will go drinking! lol I normally don`t talk to her at the high school because she always seems super busy. But now that I`ve talked to her she is awesome! I like her alot! haha. ^^ So we talked the whole way to Asahikawa. When we got there we parked at the station and walked along Kaimono doori to meet up with her ALT friend from Kitami city who invited us to the party. He apparently knew about it from before and he has friends who are going to the party. Hiraga-sensei used to work with him at her previous high school. He`s from England and super tall, and so were his two other friends who were both from the states. Well, everyone`s taller than me, except for my elementary students. lol The street was freaking cold though! And I saw so many girls/gyarus wearing short shorts or skirts and heels or boots and was like "AREN`T YOU LADIES COLD!!?" Yes, they were, but they choose sexy fashion over protection....sure. But I have to admit, I like that fashion style alot and would wear it if I could. Just maybe not in this cold.
We decided to go to someplace to eat before the party which started at 9pm. So we walked all over the place in the freakin cold until we found an izakaya to eat at. Oh, and one of the guys` costume was a girl`s seifuku/school uniform so he was wearing a skirt and looked pretty cold. The Japanese people were staring at him as we walked around because of his costume. lol haha. After the izakaya we decided to head to a nearby place for more drinks. So we headed in to a British Pub named "Bank of America"....something`s wrong here.....LOL But it had a bar and a TV showing the baseball game and felt like a foreign pub, except for the fact that the bartenders were Japanese. The girl bartenders were pretty cute though. So I drank this cocktail named Blue`s Blue which had grapefruit and blueberry juice/alcohol in it. And around 9pm we headed to Club Den which was where the party was held. This club/bar area is owned and operated by foreigners. most of them all work here as ALT`s or for companies and stuff around here. It was a small place, but had a good foreign atmosphere to it.
But here`s the problem. I did meet a couple of the other foreigners around here, but for some reason, I couldn`t talk to them as well as I used to back in the states. I remember myself being super social and being able to hold conversations with alot of people. And people who know me can hopefully attest to that. I did say hi and try to talk to them, but I think it might be partially because lately I haven`t been in contact with much other foreign peoples and then I`ve been kind of isolated in my lil place, and the fact that most of these people already knew each other was a bit of a problem. Hiraga-san knew no one at the party aside from me and the Kitami ALT, so I decided to stay with her otherwise she would be alone and left out. So I ended up sitting with a bunch of Japanese people and actually holding a decent conversatino with the Japanese peoples. Me and 2 Japanese girls became quite good friends and decided to exchange phone numbers and emails so that we can hang out and stuff. One of them`s a nurse and the otherone used to live in Kenbuchi. haha. So I don`t know if it`s sad or not or if it`s a good thing or not, but I was able to have a better conversation and connection with the Japanese people then with the foreigners. I felt bad for a little bit that I wasn`t able to talk or connect much with the other foreigners aside from the three I had dinner with, but then quickly got over it because I was able to make new friends anyways. It`s fine. I think.
At around 11pm we decided to leave because Hiraga-san was driving and I don`t think she was having too much fun at the party, so I didn`t mind leaving. When we got outside it was snowing for REALS!! I was like "WWWWAAAAAAAAHhHHHH" I got so excited and happy. And it didn`t help that I was a little buzzed from the all you can drink bar at the party. I drank quite a lot. And they give you generous amounts. So on the way home I was really animated and talked to Hiraga-san alot, although I don`t remember what I talked to her about. lol When I got to my apt, the place was covered in snow!! I was like woah and in my buzzed status wobbled over to the door and tried to put the key into the lock for like 2 minutes. haha. Either my hands were super cold or I was just super buzzed. =P Haha. And I conked out.
November 1st Sunday
It`s so damn bright outside because it`s all covered in white!! Everything was white! And super beautiful!! Just wonderous! I was like wow, winter wonderland! I couldn`t believe it! So in the morning I put on my winter clothes and went outside to play in the snow by myself....lol XD I made botched lobatomy snowmen and buttprints in the snow. Haha. I also made snowballs and threw them at my apt or tried to see how far they would sink when i threw them in the snow. I think if you were watching me, you would`ve probably thought it sad. lol I bet the neighbors were like, wtf is she doing? =P So then I decided to trudge my way through the soft powder snow over to Su`s apt. Oh my feet sank to the ground almost 1ft. And I at first couldn`t open my door because there was so much snow piled outside my apt. lol But I had so much fun just walking in the snow. I felt like a lil kid again. haha. I went over to Su`s apt, rang her doorbell, just to tell her it was snowing. haha. And she laughed and thought it funny. I sat over at her place for a lil bit and then went back home after a few minutes of walking through snow covered Kenbuchi. My feet however were getting super cold because I didn`t have real snow boots. Just my velvet black ones. So what ended up happening was that I wore plastic bags over my socks and then put htem in my shoes to avoid them getting wet and my toes hurting from the cold. =P
And then at night I decided to head over to Aoi to eat. It was snowing like crazy outside and I couldn`t really see the road that clearly. And just when I neared the place I stepped on an area that had frozen over and was like black ice and basically slipped and fell. I landed hard on my butt, but thankfully, not my head. It hurt and reminded me of when I fell when I used to ice skate and wanted to go ice skating again...haha. funny. ANyways, it happened again when I left the restaurant. Terrible, stupid clumsy me.
November 3rd Tuesday
Today is Japan`s culture day so it`s a holiday evryone has off. Thank god, because I needed a day where I could go buy winter stuff. I desperately needed snowboots, a thicker jacket, a hat, a shovel and a snow brush for my car. And Su said she would come with me today. So I first headed over to SHibetsu city to find the cheaper things. At Homac I was thinking of getting an extra thing of car batteries and a rope/cable tug thing just in case. And then thought better of it. I was like, "oh, I don`t need it" That will come back to bite me in the butt later tonight. I bought some of my cheap stuff in Shibetsu then headed over to Asahikawa AEON JUSCO to buy the rest of it. I drove super slow and let people pass me because I was really scared of getting into an accident in the snow. Especially slipping. We passed by one car where the girl had slipped into the snow next to the road and some dude was trying to help her out. THat`s when that cable would come in handy.
Well after an hour or maybe a little over because I drove so much slower than usual, we got there. So today AEON`s clothing section was having a huge sale on winter clothing, so I went and bought some, particularly my jacket. And then i bought a humidifier, a mini heater for my toilet beause it`s freakin cold in there since it`s not in my main apt area, just in the entryway which is an awkward place to put it I tell you. And then I bought my snow boots!! Yay! THey`re super cute I love them! They`re brown with pink words written in French all over it. I had liked the black one too, but I have too many black boots already. I wanted to buy these really hot heels, but because I doubt I`ll be able to wear them much during this time, I didn`t.
We basically spent a whole day out until 7pm and decided tohead on back to the car to go home. And my car wouldn`t start up. I had realized too late that I had forgotten to turn off my headlights and it sucked up all the battery life. And now my car won`t run. And we were in Asahikawa. And it was -3 degrees celsius outside. Great. Luckily, we were stuck at the AEON parking lot. And AEON just so happened to be the largest mall/dept store place in Asahikawa. So there were alot of people to ask for help in there. The service people called the guardsman to come and try to charge my car`s batteries or give it a little boost for it to run. And it didn`t. So the guardsman/police dude told us to call JAF which is the AAA of Japan to come help us. He said it might not just be the problem with the batteries. Su called JAF and had the guy come out to help find the problem with my car. And what happened was that the problem was just that my batteries needed a boost!!! And just for that it cost me $120!! If I was a JAF member, it would`ve been free. But apparently I wasnt, when I thought I had signed up for it, and it cost me. BOOO!!!! So I decided to join them in case anymore things like this happened which prolly will cuz my car`s so freakin old. STUPID GUARDSMEN! If only you were able to charge it properly I wouldn`t have had to pay....Whatever. I still thank him for having tried several times. Honestly, I`m really thankful to all of the people who helped, because otherwise I would`ve been hin huge trouble.
I had originally wanted to stop and eat at Kohrinboh ramen with Su, but because of this problem I cannot stop the car until I get home because I need to let the batteries run awhile. So that was that. And then at midnight, as I was blowdrying my hair, the electricity went out. And i was like "oh shit, if the electricty is out that means my heater will go out, and it`s -4 degrees right now. Not good" So I donned my winter clothing and went outside and shoveled my way through the snow at 12am to try and find the circuit breaker. And then realized that it was not outside but inside my apt, above my door. I wasted my body heat outside....lol anyways, it worked. And then I forgot that when you reset the heater, previous settings are erased and I had forgotten to put it on save mode so that when it reaches a certain temperature it will stop for a little bit until the temperature drops and it will start again. So it saves a lot of kerosene and electricity while keeping me warm, hence the name Save mode. I had left it on normal nmode all night and was unsure why it was so hot in my apt until this morning when I realized that it was not on save mode. There goes a lot of my money......Not a good night.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Crazy me and my sleep deprivation.
I really don`t know why, but facebook is being a bitch and not allowing me to post pictures. Boo.... I have so many too!
October 26th Monday
So I know it`s Friday now and I`m writing about something several several days ago. My life has become pretty busy and a hectic adventure so it`s beginning to get harder and harder for me to post and update stuffs. But I will still try. Oh, and would you guys rather me write about stuff everyday like a diary? Or write when big stuff or amazing things happen? Which one?
I really really wanted to go to Asahikawa for dinner today like hardcore, so I asked Su if she wanted to come along. I didn`t care that it would take about an hour to drive there and back and Su didn`t seem to mind either. SO yes! I really wanted Shabu-shabu, but I didn`t know where I could get it. And neither did Su. So we just took a long drive around the city getting lost a couple of times and finding the super bright neon lights section advertising all the izakayas and bars and restaurants all around. I got so excited when I saw that area because it reminded me of Tokyo which I sorely missed. Actually I just sorely miss big cities. THey`re just so amazing. But I still love my lil town. Like I keep saying, people are nicer and the atmosperhere is better. But I do miss the bright lights big city feel. I got so happy when I saw that street and told Su that next time we are for sure definitely coming here. No joke.
And then I decided that I wanted to try out the buffet I keep seeing advertised in magazines and stuff called "Five Star". So we decided to go there. That was a long long away from where we entered the city. It was actually near the zoo. I was like dude, this is eating up my gas. But it`s all for the food. So we got there and I smelled something that smelled like yakiniku. And lo and behold, there on every table was a grill. It was a buffet with all you can eat yakiniku!!!! I was suddenly reminded of "Gut`s Soul" (EAP CREW! eating till we barfed). Good times. So the buffet was pretty big, but there was barely anybody there because, well, it was a monday night. Yeah. I was crazy and came all the way here to Asahikawa on a monday night just for food. But Asahikawa has a larger variety of foods to choose from and better tasting too. =P SO at the buffet, there was the yakinku section, western foods section, chinese food section, korean food, japanese food, dessert section complete with a large chocolate fountain, and a kids food section. It was awesome. I mean as far as the food goes, it`s okay. But the presentation was beautiful and you get to make your own ramen! And dessert section was HUGE! So it wasn`t bad. And in the booth behind us were 4 hot guys that I thought might`ve been in their 3rd year in high school or 1st year in college. Even Su said that one of them was pretty ikemen. Hahah.
So we ate till we were bursting and decided to head on home. On our way home I spotted these beautiful beautiful houses on my left and decided to turn into the street area to look at them. And these houses were awesome! They`re not terribly big, probably big enough for a family of 5. But the decor and architecture for these houses were way too cool. They were all very artistically contemporary style. But there were some that reminded me of American style houses. I however, adore the Japanese style contemporary architecture houses. Su, though, likes the American style ones and we both said that we should switch places. haha. Dude, if I lived in one of those houses, I wouldn`t leave Japan. =P After 1 hour of milling around the neighborhood we took to the streets for home. However, we took some weird "country" path that Su told me to get on where there were barely any lights, barely and houses and just fields and blackness. I was like "Su...where are you taking me?" And she just went "hehehe. It would suck if you got a flat tire right about now wouldn`t it?" And I was scared. lol
But luckily I found the original street we had come from and went back onto that and ran into fog on our 1 hour drive back home in darkness. Seriuosly, it`s creepy to drive alone at night around here. It`s so dark with almost nothing around you when your not in a city or town area. lol
October 29th Thursday
So I decided that I would make vanilla meringue ghosts for my BOE and middle school which turned out more difficult than I thought. I wanted to make caramel apples at first, but I decided not to make the caramel or get apples because it`s so costly. Apples cost a shit load of mooney out here. So I decided it wouldn`t be cost effective. SO I bought a lot of stuff to make it with and went over to Su`s apt to cook and prep evrything. And only to find out that Su has absolutely nothing in her apt for cooking. She doesn`t cook whatsoever so she has nothing that I could use for baking. She also has no oven which is kinda essential to make Meringue. So I had to settle with using toaster oven which isn`t as good. I started at 7:30 until 1am. That was how long making about 80 of these things was exluding the help of any electruc egg beater. at about 9:30 Su came back home from the volleyball competition thingy. I was at her house by myself from 7:30pm. She left it unlocked for me. Thank you! She and Mago-chan helped me make the things until 1am. I`m so grateful to them. I gave them all the extra ones and I gave Su the leftover meringue mix and chocolate. I just let them eat everything because I`m on a diet. Or, well trying to.
But today at the elementary i wore my Ko-Rilakkuma costume to school for my special Halloween day! And I basically got tackled all day today by small children. A lot of them were like "Why are you wearing a costume?" because most have never heard of Halloween. WHen I explained it to them or did a presentation about it during class time, all the students were like "dude, we want something like that too!" lol And then I distributed stickers to all the kiddies. Everyone was super happy and excited because of it. My children now love me forever. haha. Wait till Christmas and Valentines day kiddies, I have more! Oh and even Mr. Wonderful came over to talk to me when he saw me, although it was just about describing Halloween to the little kids in his class...but he said I was sugoi! XD I was happy for that one word. It just made me giddy. haha. Anyways, afterwards I gave a lot of stuff like American candies to all my teachers.
And then I was supposed to go play badminton today, but because I had to make those meringue ghosts, there was no time. Yuki had come to find me to go play with her, but I sadly had to say no even though I wanted to. I told her to go without me and have fun. And then later I find out that she injured her achilles heel!! I felt so bad after because I had told her to go play. But she went to the hospital and is hopefully okay. I really really hope she`s okay.
On that note, I will have to end it here as I`m falling asleep writing this. It`s been a long day. But oh! It will start snowing Friday! So I`m looking forward to it, but I think I will freeze.
October 26th Monday
So I know it`s Friday now and I`m writing about something several several days ago. My life has become pretty busy and a hectic adventure so it`s beginning to get harder and harder for me to post and update stuffs. But I will still try. Oh, and would you guys rather me write about stuff everyday like a diary? Or write when big stuff or amazing things happen? Which one?
I really really wanted to go to Asahikawa for dinner today like hardcore, so I asked Su if she wanted to come along. I didn`t care that it would take about an hour to drive there and back and Su didn`t seem to mind either. SO yes! I really wanted Shabu-shabu, but I didn`t know where I could get it. And neither did Su. So we just took a long drive around the city getting lost a couple of times and finding the super bright neon lights section advertising all the izakayas and bars and restaurants all around. I got so excited when I saw that area because it reminded me of Tokyo which I sorely missed. Actually I just sorely miss big cities. THey`re just so amazing. But I still love my lil town. Like I keep saying, people are nicer and the atmosperhere is better. But I do miss the bright lights big city feel. I got so happy when I saw that street and told Su that next time we are for sure definitely coming here. No joke.
And then I decided that I wanted to try out the buffet I keep seeing advertised in magazines and stuff called "Five Star". So we decided to go there. That was a long long away from where we entered the city. It was actually near the zoo. I was like dude, this is eating up my gas. But it`s all for the food. So we got there and I smelled something that smelled like yakiniku. And lo and behold, there on every table was a grill. It was a buffet with all you can eat yakiniku!!!! I was suddenly reminded of "Gut`s Soul" (EAP CREW! eating till we barfed). Good times. So the buffet was pretty big, but there was barely anybody there because, well, it was a monday night. Yeah. I was crazy and came all the way here to Asahikawa on a monday night just for food. But Asahikawa has a larger variety of foods to choose from and better tasting too. =P SO at the buffet, there was the yakinku section, western foods section, chinese food section, korean food, japanese food, dessert section complete with a large chocolate fountain, and a kids food section. It was awesome. I mean as far as the food goes, it`s okay. But the presentation was beautiful and you get to make your own ramen! And dessert section was HUGE! So it wasn`t bad. And in the booth behind us were 4 hot guys that I thought might`ve been in their 3rd year in high school or 1st year in college. Even Su said that one of them was pretty ikemen. Hahah.
So we ate till we were bursting and decided to head on home. On our way home I spotted these beautiful beautiful houses on my left and decided to turn into the street area to look at them. And these houses were awesome! They`re not terribly big, probably big enough for a family of 5. But the decor and architecture for these houses were way too cool. They were all very artistically contemporary style. But there were some that reminded me of American style houses. I however, adore the Japanese style contemporary architecture houses. Su, though, likes the American style ones and we both said that we should switch places. haha. Dude, if I lived in one of those houses, I wouldn`t leave Japan. =P After 1 hour of milling around the neighborhood we took to the streets for home. However, we took some weird "country" path that Su told me to get on where there were barely any lights, barely and houses and just fields and blackness. I was like "Su...where are you taking me?" And she just went "hehehe. It would suck if you got a flat tire right about now wouldn`t it?" And I was scared. lol
But luckily I found the original street we had come from and went back onto that and ran into fog on our 1 hour drive back home in darkness. Seriuosly, it`s creepy to drive alone at night around here. It`s so dark with almost nothing around you when your not in a city or town area. lol
October 29th Thursday
So I decided that I would make vanilla meringue ghosts for my BOE and middle school which turned out more difficult than I thought. I wanted to make caramel apples at first, but I decided not to make the caramel or get apples because it`s so costly. Apples cost a shit load of mooney out here. So I decided it wouldn`t be cost effective. SO I bought a lot of stuff to make it with and went over to Su`s apt to cook and prep evrything. And only to find out that Su has absolutely nothing in her apt for cooking. She doesn`t cook whatsoever so she has nothing that I could use for baking. She also has no oven which is kinda essential to make Meringue. So I had to settle with using toaster oven which isn`t as good. I started at 7:30 until 1am. That was how long making about 80 of these things was exluding the help of any electruc egg beater. at about 9:30 Su came back home from the volleyball competition thingy. I was at her house by myself from 7:30pm. She left it unlocked for me. Thank you! She and Mago-chan helped me make the things until 1am. I`m so grateful to them. I gave them all the extra ones and I gave Su the leftover meringue mix and chocolate. I just let them eat everything because I`m on a diet. Or, well trying to.
But today at the elementary i wore my Ko-Rilakkuma costume to school for my special Halloween day! And I basically got tackled all day today by small children. A lot of them were like "Why are you wearing a costume?" because most have never heard of Halloween. WHen I explained it to them or did a presentation about it during class time, all the students were like "dude, we want something like that too!" lol And then I distributed stickers to all the kiddies. Everyone was super happy and excited because of it. My children now love me forever. haha. Wait till Christmas and Valentines day kiddies, I have more! Oh and even Mr. Wonderful came over to talk to me when he saw me, although it was just about describing Halloween to the little kids in his class...but he said I was sugoi! XD I was happy for that one word. It just made me giddy. haha. Anyways, afterwards I gave a lot of stuff like American candies to all my teachers.
And then I was supposed to go play badminton today, but because I had to make those meringue ghosts, there was no time. Yuki had come to find me to go play with her, but I sadly had to say no even though I wanted to. I told her to go without me and have fun. And then later I find out that she injured her achilles heel!! I felt so bad after because I had told her to go play. But she went to the hospital and is hopefully okay. I really really hope she`s okay.
On that note, I will have to end it here as I`m falling asleep writing this. It`s been a long day. But oh! It will start snowing Friday! So I`m looking forward to it, but I think I will freeze.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
I can see Russia!!
October 24th
So I`m now on a quest to look for caramel in packages that I can melt to make caramel apples for my teachers and the BOE, but apparently there`s no such thing here. Well, there is, but not for sale in bulk for making these things since there are no caramel apples here. Boo....Maybe I`ll just make little meringue ghosts or something. hehe. =P
This day Sakurai-san from the junior high decided to take me and Iwata-sensei around the northern peninsula of Hokkaido!! WOo! He`s so awesome. Actually the trip was supposed to be for viewing the swans as they have migrated here now. But yesterday Sakurai-san was like "I was thinking, and well, you have three courses to choose from. There`s the Daimyo/Tono course where we leave at 7:30am and drive to see the swans and then tour the entire northern peninsula. Then there`s the Ojou-sama course where we leave at noon to go see the swans and go the western side of the northern peninsula where Wakkanai city is. And then there`s the ______course (I don`t remember what the name was) where we go to see the swans and then come back." Both Iwata-sensei and I chose the Daimyo course. lol
So at 7:30 in the morning Sakurai-san came to pick us up and we were on our way to see the swans. The swans all flock to the little river that is in the countryside area of the next city (but then again the entire island is countryside-like, even in the cities) and just chill there with the ducks. And they`re totally not afraid of humans. Especially the ducks! There were a couple that just walked right up to me and stood next to my feet for the longest time. I really wanted to pet them, but I didn`t want to get some kind of disease especially since the Influenza has already been going around. So we fed the swans chips and stuff we bought from Seico-mart (the local conbini) which was probably terrible for them. I even told that to Sakurai-san and he just told me "yeah, these things aren`t exactly the best foods for them, but I`m gonna give it to them anyways." LOL I was like, okay. =P
So after we fed them we went up Monbetsu and followed the road up the northern peninsula and over to SoyaMisaki which is the northern most point in Japan. And there, on a fine day, you can actually see the outline of the Russian continent!!! I saw silhouettes of mountains and stuff from where we were. It was soooooo cool! I was like dude, we`re so close to Russia this is so exciting! I`ve never been, so at the moment that`s the closest it`ll be for me to go. lol Oh, btw, on our drive up we would drive next to the ocean and it was just sooo beautiful! And it reminded me of the OC area, specifically Irvine, and I miss it terribly. I miss being seaside. But, I love Kenbuchi, so it`s okay. So, at Soyamisaki, we got hungry and decided to eat at the little Ramen shop that`s perched on top of the hill there. Because it was next to the sea and this area is special for its scallops the ramen special was Scallop ramen. So freakin amazingly good! And this shop was pretty packed with people. And then these super hot gyaru-o guys came in and I was like WHA? Gyaru-o guys here in this lil place? But I was happy to see them. It`s been a little while since I`ve seen them besides on TV. haha.
After that, we went to Wakkanai city. And when I went through the city I almost had tears because I terribly missed the big city life. Wakkanai was kinda like Irvine. Actually, it really really was like Irvine. I felt so refreshed being there and was wondering what would it be like if I lived here. It was just so great looking! I think I prefer it over Asahikawa. It`s got the big city feel without being overcrowded and noisy. So after visiting some seafood places where they sold amazing hairy crabs that ranged from $30 to $90 each and there I bought some very interesting caramels. They had the normal caramel, then sea salt and butter caramels, then sweet milk caramel, and then there was melon caramel, and corn caramel. I bought the corn one, the sea salt one, and the sweet milk one. And the corn one really tasted like corn! But then again, the corn here in Hokkaido is naturally ridiculously yummily sweet so i guess it worked. Oh, on our way here we stopped off at the Bifuka rest station where they were selling foods and other souvenirs. Iwata-sensei bought croquettes and I bought the karaage. And I have to say, the karaage was the best i`ve tasted ever! So damn good and soft and juicy but crunchy on the outside since it`s been fried. I loved it. And Sakurai-san bought us corn to eat. AAhhh, I melted when I ate that corn. It was seriously the best tasting corn EVER!! SOOO DAMN GOOD HERE!! The corn, the tomatos...man, I just never knew veggies could taste so good. lol
After that we Wakkanai we wound down the western side of the northern peninsula, saw some more fat and funny swans that we had given names to, and made ridilous pathetic puns on our drive down. The puns we made were so pathetic that it was funny. For example: 稚内＝わっかんない the city name Wakkani= Wakkannai which means I don`t understand. しんご町＝信号を待ち Shingo town= Shingo wo Machi which means waiting for the traffic light to turn green. lol They were so dumb, but it was fun. It was really dark on our way back and we took all the country roads where there were barely any lights whatsoever. So we almost ran over a fox and almost ran into a deer. It was dangerous to say the least. haha. Around 6:30-7pm we got home. And I took a nice long sleep. haha Thank you so much for today Sakurai-san! I really appreciate it!
Otsukare-sama for reading all!
So I`m now on a quest to look for caramel in packages that I can melt to make caramel apples for my teachers and the BOE, but apparently there`s no such thing here. Well, there is, but not for sale in bulk for making these things since there are no caramel apples here. Boo....Maybe I`ll just make little meringue ghosts or something. hehe. =P
This day Sakurai-san from the junior high decided to take me and Iwata-sensei around the northern peninsula of Hokkaido!! WOo! He`s so awesome. Actually the trip was supposed to be for viewing the swans as they have migrated here now. But yesterday Sakurai-san was like "I was thinking, and well, you have three courses to choose from. There`s the Daimyo/Tono course where we leave at 7:30am and drive to see the swans and then tour the entire northern peninsula. Then there`s the Ojou-sama course where we leave at noon to go see the swans and go the western side of the northern peninsula where Wakkanai city is. And then there`s the ______course (I don`t remember what the name was) where we go to see the swans and then come back." Both Iwata-sensei and I chose the Daimyo course. lol
So at 7:30 in the morning Sakurai-san came to pick us up and we were on our way to see the swans. The swans all flock to the little river that is in the countryside area of the next city (but then again the entire island is countryside-like, even in the cities) and just chill there with the ducks. And they`re totally not afraid of humans. Especially the ducks! There were a couple that just walked right up to me and stood next to my feet for the longest time. I really wanted to pet them, but I didn`t want to get some kind of disease especially since the Influenza has already been going around. So we fed the swans chips and stuff we bought from Seico-mart (the local conbini) which was probably terrible for them. I even told that to Sakurai-san and he just told me "yeah, these things aren`t exactly the best foods for them, but I`m gonna give it to them anyways." LOL I was like, okay. =P
So after we fed them we went up Monbetsu and followed the road up the northern peninsula and over to SoyaMisaki which is the northern most point in Japan. And there, on a fine day, you can actually see the outline of the Russian continent!!! I saw silhouettes of mountains and stuff from where we were. It was soooooo cool! I was like dude, we`re so close to Russia this is so exciting! I`ve never been, so at the moment that`s the closest it`ll be for me to go. lol Oh, btw, on our drive up we would drive next to the ocean and it was just sooo beautiful! And it reminded me of the OC area, specifically Irvine, and I miss it terribly. I miss being seaside. But, I love Kenbuchi, so it`s okay. So, at Soyamisaki, we got hungry and decided to eat at the little Ramen shop that`s perched on top of the hill there. Because it was next to the sea and this area is special for its scallops the ramen special was Scallop ramen. So freakin amazingly good! And this shop was pretty packed with people. And then these super hot gyaru-o guys came in and I was like WHA? Gyaru-o guys here in this lil place? But I was happy to see them. It`s been a little while since I`ve seen them besides on TV. haha.
After that, we went to Wakkanai city. And when I went through the city I almost had tears because I terribly missed the big city life. Wakkanai was kinda like Irvine. Actually, it really really was like Irvine. I felt so refreshed being there and was wondering what would it be like if I lived here. It was just so great looking! I think I prefer it over Asahikawa. It`s got the big city feel without being overcrowded and noisy. So after visiting some seafood places where they sold amazing hairy crabs that ranged from $30 to $90 each and there I bought some very interesting caramels. They had the normal caramel, then sea salt and butter caramels, then sweet milk caramel, and then there was melon caramel, and corn caramel. I bought the corn one, the sea salt one, and the sweet milk one. And the corn one really tasted like corn! But then again, the corn here in Hokkaido is naturally ridiculously yummily sweet so i guess it worked. Oh, on our way here we stopped off at the Bifuka rest station where they were selling foods and other souvenirs. Iwata-sensei bought croquettes and I bought the karaage. And I have to say, the karaage was the best i`ve tasted ever! So damn good and soft and juicy but crunchy on the outside since it`s been fried. I loved it. And Sakurai-san bought us corn to eat. AAhhh, I melted when I ate that corn. It was seriously the best tasting corn EVER!! SOOO DAMN GOOD HERE!! The corn, the tomatos...man, I just never knew veggies could taste so good. lol
After that we Wakkanai we wound down the western side of the northern peninsula, saw some more fat and funny swans that we had given names to, and made ridilous pathetic puns on our drive down. The puns we made were so pathetic that it was funny. For example: 稚内＝わっかんない the city name Wakkani= Wakkannai which means I don`t understand. しんご町＝信号を待ち Shingo town= Shingo wo Machi which means waiting for the traffic light to turn green. lol They were so dumb, but it was fun. It was really dark on our way back and we took all the country roads where there were barely any lights whatsoever. So we almost ran over a fox and almost ran into a deer. It was dangerous to say the least. haha. Around 6:30-7pm we got home. And I took a nice long sleep. haha Thank you so much for today Sakurai-san! I really appreciate it!
Otsukare-sama for reading all!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
English Competition
Alright....my posts are getting farther and farther in between. I just keep not having the time for it anymore. I feel terrible. And freakin facebook is not letting me post my pictures!!!! >.< I don`t know why though. Anyways, I really will try to post up pics soon as soon as I discover why freakin facebook won`t take it.
October 20th Tuesday
So today is going to be an awesomely fun day in my opinion. I get to be one of the judges for the English Speech and Performance Competition in Shibetsu. Willing junior high kids from all the schools in Shibetsu (there are about 4 of them I think), the one middle school in Wassamu, and my one middle school in Kenbuchi do speech recitations from the textbook and performances and are judged based on that. My kids and I have been practicing non-stop everyday after school from 3pm until 6pm sometimes 7 for this thing. So in the morning I dressed more formal than usual in my cool white long sleeve button up top and my vest and made sure my hair was perfect and sexy and then left for school. I got to school way earlier than I usually would because my 2nd year kids were practicing their script at 7:40am. Ugh, early, but it`s for my kids, so it`s okay. We gathered all the props and stuff and at about 8:40 we piled everything and everyone onto the little bus and headed off the the Shibetsu community center.
When we got there I saw a tall white dude with blond hair and was like "You must be an ALT" and he was like "Oh,yeah. I`m Jonathon, the Wassamu ALT" and we did our lil intros. At first he didn`t really talk much to me and I was like..hmm...he`s not much of a talker, but his kids seemed to like him. He`s from Australia. Then I saw another tall kinda burly white dude with a brown beard and figured "You must be the Shibetsu ALT, Collin right?" And he seemed to be the nicest fun-loving teddy bear teacher. I immediately took a liking to him. He really reminds me of Santa Claus. lol Nice man. He`s from Australia as well. Both of the ALT`s are from Sydney and they`re super super tall. I felt like a little kid standing next to them even in my heels. So, anyways, Jonathon just married a Japanese teacher last year and has been working as an ALT for 8 years. JET only allows you 5 years. And so he worked for JET for 3 years, went to a different city not on JET for 2 years, and then was rehired by the Shibetsu peoples on a private contract. That was amazing. I was like, Dude, I`d definitely like to do that. Anyways, all the other students from the other schools were surprised to see me as an ALT cuz I was Asian looking and it`s been a while since they saw a female ALT. haha. The, uh, young 2nd year boys from Minami-Shibetsu seem to have taken an interest in me from my interactions with them. haha. Minami-Shibetsu`s kids were all boys, and mine were all girls, so Collin told me that they should stay away from each other. lol Cute. And of course I had the best looking Japanese English teacher among all of them. Yes, Mr. Shibata! He really looked good in his suit. haha.
So in the competition there are 2 categories: recitation and performance, and they are seperated by grades. There was only 1 person in 1st grade recitation and that was my kid, and then there were 2 groups for the 1st year performance with 2 of my girls. Then about 5 groups for the 2nd year performances. My kids (5 of them) did Urashima Taro Returns and used paper puppets on sticks to narrate the story. It was cute! And then last were my 3rd graders with their coolest performance: Kojiroh. The script was originally written by them in Japanese and I translated the whole thing into ENglish. It was about 8 pages long but they memorized everything! I was super proud of them but I knew they could do it. They`re all smart children so I had faith. I mean, they would stick around everyday after school and practice all the lines with me in their classroom and act out the script and practice the intonations I taught them. By the third time I practiced with them I knew they were going to be able to do it. And they won Best Performance in the whole show!! ^O^ WAHAHAH! And I felt so prideful when the other Japanese Teachers of English and the other ALTs told me how impressed they were with my 3rd year kids and told me I taught them well. HAHAHA!! AWESOME!! eheh. Of course, I only helped a little, it was mainly my kids that did the most of the work.
After that we ate lunch and deliberated on the winner. 1st year speech was my child, 1st year performance went to Shibetsu, 2nd year performance went to Onnebetsu because they did the cutest "Three Little Pigs" story, 2nd year speech-i forgot who, but none of my kids, 3rd year speech went to Onnebetsu, and 3rd year performance were my girls who also won best in show. heheh. WOO!! Two awards! Oh, and at lunch there was a leftover bento and no one knew what to do with it, so Shibata-sensei was like "Well, here you go Theresa, your dinner for tonight." And lo and behold the problem was solved and I had free dinner. =P Thanks Mr. Shibata! We then went back to the competition hall and announced the winners. Then when we were about to leave and I said goodbye to Collin and followed Jonathon out to where his kids and my kids were, I shook Jonathon`s hand and said goodbye and his kids were all like "wooo". haha. Jonathon was like "No, no it`s nothing like that" I just ignored it and went to my kids. eheh.
The bus ride back home was so lively because of the happy atmosphere of all the kids. There was lots of singing and applauding and happiness. Haha. Good times.
October 21st Wednesday
Not much happened during school. After school for dinner I asked if Su wanted to go eat with me at Sawarabi, witch is a very short walk from our apts. She also invited Satomi along. Tomorrow`s Satomi`s b-day so I`m thinking of buying her two cake slices from the local bakery to give to her. She`s helped me with a lot of stuff so I really appreciate her. ANyways, we had Mushroom Nabe/hotpot, and pork kebabs. =P Delicious. And I`ve been watching Ninkyo Helper lately. It`s very good because it has Mukai Osamu in it. haha. I`m a sucker for anything this sexy man does. He`s my #1 ikemen right now.
October 23rd Thursday
So I first went to the high school today. I loathe teaching at the high school. It`s because of the 3rd year boys. Not my favorite kids. The girls are fine, but the boys....The 2nd year boys are awesome though. They`re so much fun and lively! And everytime they see me they love saying Hi to me and trying to remember my name. I like that. The girls in 2nd year don`t talk very much though. But the boys are good. They`re also pretty good looking haha. I can`t wait to teach them next year. oh, and everytime Mr. Gorgeous and I pass by them they would yell out things at him. I kept thinking they were just calling him Eichi or Eiji as his nickname but then later he told me that they call him Ecchi, which means hentai, which means erotic pervert. LOL The boys think it`s funny to call him that, especially when he`s walking around with me. I think it`s pretty funny too cuz I can kinda see it in him. haha. Then it was off to the elementary.
Today I did a presentatino on Halloween for my 6th grade kiddies and they really liked it. My 6th grade girls love me. They love talking to me and everything. I`m happy for that. They also really like my hair, every chance they get they`ll come and stroke my head because they think it feels nice. haha. And they`re used to me helping them clean now, so they`ll always ask me to help them wipe the floors now. The other teachers still haven`t gotten used to me doing these things with the students I suppose. =P Oh, so at lunch break I met Mr. Wonderful in the library. I was already in there with 4 of the girls and then he came in and I was like "Oh shit." He looked really good today. Oh, btw, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders had kids with influenza so they cancelled the classes for this week. They`re coming back on Friday though, which is a very good thing. But those teachers now have a lot of time on their hands. Anyways, he came in and then I was at a lost for what to do. He came to check on the books I think...or I don`t know what he came in for cuz he doesn`t usually come into the library. But he came in this time and I just stood around reading the books over the children`s shoulders and then asked them if they knew what Halloween was and then forgot to explain it to them. I must`ve looked so stupid to him. I don`t know, whenever he`s around I can never properly talk to him or ask him questions or be cool looking. haha. I just get all clumsy and awkward around him. I need to work on that.
So after school was over and everything I went to home to prep for the community badminton activity that started this tuesday and happens every tuesday and thursday from 7:30pm until 9pm at the B&G gym. So when I got there I was very surprised to see one of my good 1st year high school boys there as well. He was also surprised to see me. So he`s a resident of Kenbuchi. Now I know. I never know where all the students come from for the High school cuz they`re all from different cities and stuff. Anyways, I also saw some of my elementary boys playing pingpong there. They were very happy and surprised to see me. I was exhilirated to see them. They`re the cutest 3rd and 4th grade boys ever and I absolutely adore them. I don`t know, this job is making me constantly "moeeee" over them. I`m starting to really really love children. But then again, I think I really love country children, not the city ones just yet. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading and I promise to get the pictures up and running as soon as possible.
October 20th Tuesday
So today is going to be an awesomely fun day in my opinion. I get to be one of the judges for the English Speech and Performance Competition in Shibetsu. Willing junior high kids from all the schools in Shibetsu (there are about 4 of them I think), the one middle school in Wassamu, and my one middle school in Kenbuchi do speech recitations from the textbook and performances and are judged based on that. My kids and I have been practicing non-stop everyday after school from 3pm until 6pm sometimes 7 for this thing. So in the morning I dressed more formal than usual in my cool white long sleeve button up top and my vest and made sure my hair was perfect and sexy and then left for school. I got to school way earlier than I usually would because my 2nd year kids were practicing their script at 7:40am. Ugh, early, but it`s for my kids, so it`s okay. We gathered all the props and stuff and at about 8:40 we piled everything and everyone onto the little bus and headed off the the Shibetsu community center.
When we got there I saw a tall white dude with blond hair and was like "You must be an ALT" and he was like "Oh,yeah. I`m Jonathon, the Wassamu ALT" and we did our lil intros. At first he didn`t really talk much to me and I was like..hmm...he`s not much of a talker, but his kids seemed to like him. He`s from Australia. Then I saw another tall kinda burly white dude with a brown beard and figured "You must be the Shibetsu ALT, Collin right?" And he seemed to be the nicest fun-loving teddy bear teacher. I immediately took a liking to him. He really reminds me of Santa Claus. lol Nice man. He`s from Australia as well. Both of the ALT`s are from Sydney and they`re super super tall. I felt like a little kid standing next to them even in my heels. So, anyways, Jonathon just married a Japanese teacher last year and has been working as an ALT for 8 years. JET only allows you 5 years. And so he worked for JET for 3 years, went to a different city not on JET for 2 years, and then was rehired by the Shibetsu peoples on a private contract. That was amazing. I was like, Dude, I`d definitely like to do that. Anyways, all the other students from the other schools were surprised to see me as an ALT cuz I was Asian looking and it`s been a while since they saw a female ALT. haha. The, uh, young 2nd year boys from Minami-Shibetsu seem to have taken an interest in me from my interactions with them. haha. Minami-Shibetsu`s kids were all boys, and mine were all girls, so Collin told me that they should stay away from each other. lol Cute. And of course I had the best looking Japanese English teacher among all of them. Yes, Mr. Shibata! He really looked good in his suit. haha.
So in the competition there are 2 categories: recitation and performance, and they are seperated by grades. There was only 1 person in 1st grade recitation and that was my kid, and then there were 2 groups for the 1st year performance with 2 of my girls. Then about 5 groups for the 2nd year performances. My kids (5 of them) did Urashima Taro Returns and used paper puppets on sticks to narrate the story. It was cute! And then last were my 3rd graders with their coolest performance: Kojiroh. The script was originally written by them in Japanese and I translated the whole thing into ENglish. It was about 8 pages long but they memorized everything! I was super proud of them but I knew they could do it. They`re all smart children so I had faith. I mean, they would stick around everyday after school and practice all the lines with me in their classroom and act out the script and practice the intonations I taught them. By the third time I practiced with them I knew they were going to be able to do it. And they won Best Performance in the whole show!! ^O^ WAHAHAH! And I felt so prideful when the other Japanese Teachers of English and the other ALTs told me how impressed they were with my 3rd year kids and told me I taught them well. HAHAHA!! AWESOME!! eheh. Of course, I only helped a little, it was mainly my kids that did the most of the work.
After that we ate lunch and deliberated on the winner. 1st year speech was my child, 1st year performance went to Shibetsu, 2nd year performance went to Onnebetsu because they did the cutest "Three Little Pigs" story, 2nd year speech-i forgot who, but none of my kids, 3rd year speech went to Onnebetsu, and 3rd year performance were my girls who also won best in show. heheh. WOO!! Two awards! Oh, and at lunch there was a leftover bento and no one knew what to do with it, so Shibata-sensei was like "Well, here you go Theresa, your dinner for tonight." And lo and behold the problem was solved and I had free dinner. =P Thanks Mr. Shibata! We then went back to the competition hall and announced the winners. Then when we were about to leave and I said goodbye to Collin and followed Jonathon out to where his kids and my kids were, I shook Jonathon`s hand and said goodbye and his kids were all like "wooo". haha. Jonathon was like "No, no it`s nothing like that" I just ignored it and went to my kids. eheh.
The bus ride back home was so lively because of the happy atmosphere of all the kids. There was lots of singing and applauding and happiness. Haha. Good times.
October 21st Wednesday
Not much happened during school. After school for dinner I asked if Su wanted to go eat with me at Sawarabi, witch is a very short walk from our apts. She also invited Satomi along. Tomorrow`s Satomi`s b-day so I`m thinking of buying her two cake slices from the local bakery to give to her. She`s helped me with a lot of stuff so I really appreciate her. ANyways, we had Mushroom Nabe/hotpot, and pork kebabs. =P Delicious. And I`ve been watching Ninkyo Helper lately. It`s very good because it has Mukai Osamu in it. haha. I`m a sucker for anything this sexy man does. He`s my #1 ikemen right now.
October 23rd Thursday
So I first went to the high school today. I loathe teaching at the high school. It`s because of the 3rd year boys. Not my favorite kids. The girls are fine, but the boys....The 2nd year boys are awesome though. They`re so much fun and lively! And everytime they see me they love saying Hi to me and trying to remember my name. I like that. The girls in 2nd year don`t talk very much though. But the boys are good. They`re also pretty good looking haha. I can`t wait to teach them next year. oh, and everytime Mr. Gorgeous and I pass by them they would yell out things at him. I kept thinking they were just calling him Eichi or Eiji as his nickname but then later he told me that they call him Ecchi, which means hentai, which means erotic pervert. LOL The boys think it`s funny to call him that, especially when he`s walking around with me. I think it`s pretty funny too cuz I can kinda see it in him. haha. Then it was off to the elementary.
Today I did a presentatino on Halloween for my 6th grade kiddies and they really liked it. My 6th grade girls love me. They love talking to me and everything. I`m happy for that. They also really like my hair, every chance they get they`ll come and stroke my head because they think it feels nice. haha. And they`re used to me helping them clean now, so they`ll always ask me to help them wipe the floors now. The other teachers still haven`t gotten used to me doing these things with the students I suppose. =P Oh, so at lunch break I met Mr. Wonderful in the library. I was already in there with 4 of the girls and then he came in and I was like "Oh shit." He looked really good today. Oh, btw, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders had kids with influenza so they cancelled the classes for this week. They`re coming back on Friday though, which is a very good thing. But those teachers now have a lot of time on their hands. Anyways, he came in and then I was at a lost for what to do. He came to check on the books I think...or I don`t know what he came in for cuz he doesn`t usually come into the library. But he came in this time and I just stood around reading the books over the children`s shoulders and then asked them if they knew what Halloween was and then forgot to explain it to them. I must`ve looked so stupid to him. I don`t know, whenever he`s around I can never properly talk to him or ask him questions or be cool looking. haha. I just get all clumsy and awkward around him. I need to work on that.
So after school was over and everything I went to home to prep for the community badminton activity that started this tuesday and happens every tuesday and thursday from 7:30pm until 9pm at the B&G gym. So when I got there I was very surprised to see one of my good 1st year high school boys there as well. He was also surprised to see me. So he`s a resident of Kenbuchi. Now I know. I never know where all the students come from for the High school cuz they`re all from different cities and stuff. Anyways, I also saw some of my elementary boys playing pingpong there. They were very happy and surprised to see me. I was exhilirated to see them. They`re the cutest 3rd and 4th grade boys ever and I absolutely adore them. I don`t know, this job is making me constantly "moeeee" over them. I`m starting to really really love children. But then again, I think I really love country children, not the city ones just yet. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading and I promise to get the pictures up and running as soon as possible.
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