Sept 26 Saturday
Ugh...I feel terrible this morning. Against my better judgement, the night before I went drinking with 3 other middle school teachers and I drank ridiculous amounts of alcohol. Didn`t get drunk though! It takes a lot more to get me drunk, but I did feel buzzed. I started off with Ume-shuu on the rocks which I thought was a timid drink but all the other women were like "かっこいい!” Haha. Then I moved onto a jug of beer, then a bottle of sweet delicous white wine and ended with a bottle of red wine, which is what I shouldn`t have ended it with. I actually do not like red wine that much. I should`ve just ended with the bottle of white wine...but noooo I had to drink the red one too. Actually it was Iwata-san who ordered the bottle of red wine for me. I was like, dammnit, I dont wanna waste it after she ordered it for me so I drank it too. But I tell you these were the regular sized bottles of wine and I drank more than half of each bottle. The other women had some too, but I drank the most. I mean it may not sound like much, but the bottles totally killed me and made me sick. And today I have a camping trip with the 30 years old and under workers at town hall. They have it every year for us youngins. Luckily we don`t have to meet up until 1pm so I was able to sleep in majority of my dizziness and sick feelings. But I still had some when I met up at town hall. Man, I had even told myself that it`s better not to go, but as soon as I told Masutani-san about Mr. Wonderful she was like "Alright, girls! We`re going to go drinking tonight because there`s some good news!" I was like...all I did was like a new guy and now I`m here in the izakaya drinking till I feel kinda sick. WHY?! I don`t know, I just like hanging out with them.
ANYWAYS, today is the camping trip like I said before. I met up with the peoples in front of the town hall in the parking lot. And man, does everyone look so much cooler and better when not in their work uniforms which is not the sexy OL or hot salary-man suits. I was like...dude, the guys suddenly look hotter when before they`re really not. lol Everyone was so oshare/fashionable, and I was in a T-shirt and jeans and a thick jacket because what went through my head was "camping= outdoors, freezing cold, dirt, rugged lifestyle" So I dressed for what I thought was the occasion...which turned out to be very different from my image. I`ll get back to that later. Anyways, I bummed a ride with Tama-chan because she was the only girl driving, I liked her car, and we`re friends. haha. She`s the nursery teacher for my beloved Sakura-gumi/class. The camping site was in Sun Pillar Park in the city of Nayoro. It`s about an hour away from Kenbuchi and we took some really random scenic routes with no traffic lights. It was really nice and relaxing. The scenery was absolutley beautiful and I saw ponies!
We got to Sun Pillar Park and this park was GINORMOUS!! Like ridiculous huge! It had a put-put range/miniature golf, a yakiniku/BBQ pit, a fitness center and meeting hall, playgrounds..very many of them, and my favorite and first time ever seeing: fua-fua domes or the fluffy domes for a direct translation. These were white domes on top of grass that you can jump on! They`re like those giant blowup jumphouses that you can rent for a kid`s party. Except there were like 10 of these huge white domes just laid out together in one section of the park and there were a lot of kids and parents jumping on them. I took a picture which I will upload soon. It was so much fun looking!! I really wanted to go on them, but there was no time for that unfortunately.
We drove up to the camping location and I was like "あれ?/are?" There were no tents and stuff. Just large cabins/cottages. It kinda surprised me. Su told me then that we were staying in the largest cottage because there`s 20 of us. Yes, 20 people camping. lol I was excited because it`ll be my first time being in a cottage. The thing was 2 stories and the view was magnificent!! Absolutley breathtaking! We were on top of a very high hill so we could see all that was around us and the city below. The first story consisted of a large sitting room for everyone to sit around and chill, seperate men and women bathrooms, a kitchen, a shower room with laundry machines, and a cool looking TV. The second floor was a large room with closets that held futons and blankets. I was like "no way, all of us are going to sleep in this room? GUYS AND GIRLS!!??" Well, to tell you the truth, I really don`t care if guys and girls sleep in the same room as I`ve done that several times already with Vegas hotel rooms and when I was in Japan last time as well as when I was in Sapporo, but this is with guys I don`t really know and I don`t feel like really getting to know them. Because honestly, the guys at town hall aren`t exactly the greatest to talk to. I mean they`re all around my age and I really should try to be more interactive with them, but I still prefer the ocmpany of the teachers instead of them. The girls I don`t really mind hanging out with at all, but the boys are the ones hard to get along with in my opinion. I just feel really awkward around them and I dont know...there`s just something there that`s like a barrier for me to talk to them. So I stuck with the girls most of the time.
But, continuing the story, all we did was first put all our stuff away and then left to play put-put. The call it Park Golf in Japan though and it`s really popular to do here in Hokkaido. I ended up with Su and Hasegawa-san on my team for the game. Hasegawa-san is the one I don`t really want to interact with because I don`t like his personality. He`s crude and dirty and unrefined. And somehow he managed to become Uno-san`s bf. Uno-san is the cutest girl in the entire townhall. She`s small and petite, has a cute body and a beautiful face, wonderful personality, so why is she with him of all people!?? I just could not fathom how they got together...>.< Not the best couple in my opinion. She could do so much better. ANyways, Hasegawa-san won the game. Su kept making funny noises whenever she hit the ball...and she was the worst player, but I laughed so much whenever she played. It was fun with her. lol =P One of the guys on another team, Seiya, kept supporting me with cheers. haha. He`s the outgoing player type. But no worries, I`m not interested in anyone from town hall. =P
After put-putting we went to the yakiniku pit just around the corner to cook up some meat. I had so much good meats and an onigiri. And I smelled like it. haha. Then suddenly Uno-san got up out of her seat and went out. Tama-chan, Su, and I followed her out and found out that she was going to look for fireflies. Tama-chan knew the location and we walked around in the freezing cold where it was already dusk into a beautiful forest. In the forest was a cute little bridge with a creek running under it. It was a picture perfect beautiful scenery. I want to return back here again. Unfortunately, there were no fireflies because the water in the creek was too low. It needs to be higher and more for them things to gather. So we just went back. When it was time to leave I was stuffed in a car with all guys and just me and felt very very awkward. I didn`t really talk at all because I`m not sure what to talk about. Seriuosly, with the guys there`s always a lot of awkward moments. eheh.
Anyways, back at the cottage again and the view was absolutely beautiful!! I could see the shining lights of the city in the distance and the bright stars in the night sky. The cottage lights actually blended well with the scenery. I was entranced by the sight that I really barely talked to the other guys standing around me as we were waiting for the others to arrive so that we can go into the cottage. Seriously, the surroundings around here are an experience for the soul. So when when we were all inside the cottage we pulled up the tables and made one huge table for all of us to sit around and talk. I had a good chance to talk to all the girls and then some of the guys came over to talk to us too. I totally didn`t want to drink anything because of how much I had drunk last night. So I refused all alcohol that came my way even though everyone was like you should drink! >.< Hell no, no more alcohol for a little bit after what had happened last night. At around 12:30am I crawled upstairs to sleep in one of the 20 futons. I chose one next to Su and found out the next morning that Seiya had slept in the futon next to me. lol He`s not a bad guy so I didn`t mind. However, the pillow as terrible and caused me the inability to actually sleep so I drifted in between sleep and being awake for several hours.
September 27 Sunday
I got up at 5:30am(internal alarm clock) to get ready to leave because that`s when Tama-chan was leaving and I was going with her. I didn`t really want to stay an extra day.
When I was done dressing I went outside in the cold to fully wake myself up and breathe in the fresh air and take in the beautiful environment. I stayed outside for a good 10 minutes before Tama-chan came to get me and then went back in to say good bye to everyone. I was amazed because people were already awake by then. I was thinking "ugh, why do you guys wake up so early!?" lol. And then we finally left. In the car with Tama-chan we talked about so many things, in particular, relatinoships and love stuffs. haha. It was a bonding experience. I finally got home and just crashed because I was so freakin tired from not having properly slept after an activity filled day. Then after that I spent the day milling around the house watching Nodame Cantabile. Yes, I`ve been lazy but it`s because I`ve been super tired.
Otsukare-sama for reading! Seriously, pictures will be up soon. Thanks!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I WANT A CHINCHILLA!!!
Sept 20 Sunday
Yay the day with Yuki!! (She's the 22 year old helper teacher at the elementary whom I've become super good friends with) Today her parents were nice enough to take us to Asahikawa to go to Asahiyama Zoo. Her parents are so nice and cute! Plus you can tell they really love each other. Her father's a fireman who works at town hall since that's where the firestation is. And her mother works as someone who goes to people's houses to take care of the old and invalids. I forget what's that called. We went the really pretty nature route to get to Asahikawa meaning we went through like a mountain area. Seriously beautiful like no other. I was like damn, I wish I had a boyfriend here to see this with or that my family was here to see this. Oh, and as a side note you can see the stars here like crazy well! I saw the most stars I've ever seen in my life by being out here at night. Very very romantic place to be I tell ya...>.< lol Anyways, we first went to go eat at Kohrinboh Ramenya-san. It was marvelously delicious. Their spicy miso ramen is excellent! I wanna go there again, but I don't know how to get there. Her mom kept saying I was kawaii. lol And then she was like "so you like Mr. Wonderful, huh?" and I just choked on my food. I was like "Wha!?? Uh...eheheheh," and just looked at Yuki with a 'you told them!?' look. It was funny though and her parents both laughed.
On the way to the zoo her parents kept pointing out a lot of amazing restaurants in Asahikawa, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to go there because I'm terribly directionally challenged. Well, the zoo was crazily こんでた or crowded because it's silver week. And since this zoo is famous throughout Japan everyone has to of course come here. Man, it was crowded and cold since it was atop a mountain and there were lines to see everything that led inside a building. I first went to go see the kapibaras. THE CUTEST THINGS EVER!! Giant rats! Soooo cute! You can't tell if they're sleeping or awake because of the shape of their eyes. I want one. lol They just laze around doing absolutely nothing and hanging with the monkeys they share the lot with. Dude, there were a shit load of couples there too. Yuki and I don't have bf's so we were like..."man this is kinda depressing." lol But I was like "it's okay Yuki, we have each other!!" lol haha. We walked around for 2 hours and then decided to head on back home. Her parents came back to pick us up and then we headed to Yuki's house.
Her house is small but beautiful! It's one of the newly built townhomes near the middle school. I wished I lived here, the size is perfect...even for 1 person. I just wanna live here. lol They even grow their own vegetables and grapes which were delicious. Her parents then left to go buy groceries and buy a new flatscreen TV. Leaving me and Yuki to be silly. So we basically people watched the window as people who lived near us (in particular all the teachers who live like next door). And then we started talking about Mr. Wonderful. Then, who should ride by on his bike, but the man himself. He was dressed in a very stylish turqoise windbreaker like thing and black pants. He looked really cool. I was like "damn...well..I'm kinda interested in where he lives now." lol So Yuki was like "you wanna go take a walk?" We both grinned and put on our jackets and set out. And so I now know where Mr. Wonderful lives. LOL Then her parents came home and prepped the living room for Genghis Khan goodness. Oh, about Yuki's house, their rooms are very small and is strictly only for sleeping, well, and other lil things, so the family spends alot of their time together in the living room and watches TV together and everything. It's a very happy family atmosphere. The genghis khan we ate was so delicious and good ebcause it was homemeade. Afterwards I sat and watched TV with them until 9pm and then her father brought me home. Good day and fun day today!
Sept. 22 Tuesday
Day with Iwata-san! (The super cute and happy math teacher at the middle school who I've become attached to) Iwata-san had told me that I can invite Yuki too, but Yuki was busy today, and then she even said to invite Mr. Wonderful. =P LOL I was like "hun, I don't know his number, and even if I did, I'd be too embarrased to ask him." Yuki and her are just trying to be my cupids or so they tell me. lol So we first went to this really Oshare/stylish cafe and had huge plates of hamburg steak and white wine mushroom sauce spaghetti with wonderfully buttered crisp french bread and sesame dressing salads. SOOO good. Then we headed off to Ueno Farm. We actually got a little lost because the place was in such an inaka-like(country) area and was near the hills and stuff. But the scenery was beautiful! Absolutely breathtaking. We had an adventure going through the countryside area and it was just so much fun just driving through all that. I truly do love being here with nature. It's so good for the soul.
So owe finally got to Ueno Farm and it's like a botanical garden. It had flowers of all kinds with wonderful smells and lots of bugs. We walked around for a bit, saw some black chicken which were fat fat fat, and saw a family of geese. Again, there were lotsa couples here and Iwata-san and I just laughed and pondered over boyfriendage. But like I said with Yuki, we have each other. haha. After walking a bit we went into the cafe and had some amazingly wonderful soft ice cream parfaits. I had mine with coffee jelly, the bitterness of the coffee jelly with the sweetness of the soft cream was perfect! A very 'adult-like' dessert, or so it says in the menu. =P
Afterwards we decided to go to Jusco. I bought a crap load of stuff there particularly a fluffy white carpet, curtains as a room partitioner for my living room and bedroom, and two rilakkuma blankets: one thick one for the car and one thinner one to leave at home for when I get cold, and a Winnie the Pooh 1000 piece puzzle because it was beautiful. I just need to buy the frame. Oh, and I also bought lots of plants to place in my apt. I like greenery. Err..needless to say, I spent a lot of money. But it was all worth it because my apartment feels more like an amazing home. ^^ My living room actually feels more comfy than my bedroom. I still need to decorate that somehow. And I need to get a sofa cover. The blue leather so does not match my white and brown nature theme. lol =P Anyways at JUSCO I saw a black Chinchilla that I really really really wanted! I've actually been thinking of getting one for a while now so that my apt, doesn't feel lonely...lol I really want a pet, I just don't know if it can survive the winter. But they sell them here...so they must be able to.
In the evening I went to go eat super good Genghis Khan with Iwata-san. She paid for more than half of my foods today! I was shocked and super appreciative. The people here are so nice! ^^ Anyways, that's all for today.
Otsukare-sama! Thanks for reading and pics really will come up soon. Oh, and I want a Chinchilla. I want one bad. lol They're about $300 over here though. I'll think about it. I don't even know if it can survive the cold and snow or not...lol
Yay the day with Yuki!! (She's the 22 year old helper teacher at the elementary whom I've become super good friends with) Today her parents were nice enough to take us to Asahikawa to go to Asahiyama Zoo. Her parents are so nice and cute! Plus you can tell they really love each other. Her father's a fireman who works at town hall since that's where the firestation is. And her mother works as someone who goes to people's houses to take care of the old and invalids. I forget what's that called. We went the really pretty nature route to get to Asahikawa meaning we went through like a mountain area. Seriously beautiful like no other. I was like damn, I wish I had a boyfriend here to see this with or that my family was here to see this. Oh, and as a side note you can see the stars here like crazy well! I saw the most stars I've ever seen in my life by being out here at night. Very very romantic place to be I tell ya...>.< lol Anyways, we first went to go eat at Kohrinboh Ramenya-san. It was marvelously delicious. Their spicy miso ramen is excellent! I wanna go there again, but I don't know how to get there. Her mom kept saying I was kawaii. lol And then she was like "so you like Mr. Wonderful, huh?" and I just choked on my food. I was like "Wha!?? Uh...eheheheh," and just looked at Yuki with a 'you told them!?' look. It was funny though and her parents both laughed.
On the way to the zoo her parents kept pointing out a lot of amazing restaurants in Asahikawa, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to go there because I'm terribly directionally challenged. Well, the zoo was crazily こんでた or crowded because it's silver week. And since this zoo is famous throughout Japan everyone has to of course come here. Man, it was crowded and cold since it was atop a mountain and there were lines to see everything that led inside a building. I first went to go see the kapibaras. THE CUTEST THINGS EVER!! Giant rats! Soooo cute! You can't tell if they're sleeping or awake because of the shape of their eyes. I want one. lol They just laze around doing absolutely nothing and hanging with the monkeys they share the lot with. Dude, there were a shit load of couples there too. Yuki and I don't have bf's so we were like..."man this is kinda depressing." lol But I was like "it's okay Yuki, we have each other!!" lol haha. We walked around for 2 hours and then decided to head on back home. Her parents came back to pick us up and then we headed to Yuki's house.
Her house is small but beautiful! It's one of the newly built townhomes near the middle school. I wished I lived here, the size is perfect...even for 1 person. I just wanna live here. lol They even grow their own vegetables and grapes which were delicious. Her parents then left to go buy groceries and buy a new flatscreen TV. Leaving me and Yuki to be silly. So we basically people watched the window as people who lived near us (in particular all the teachers who live like next door). And then we started talking about Mr. Wonderful. Then, who should ride by on his bike, but the man himself. He was dressed in a very stylish turqoise windbreaker like thing and black pants. He looked really cool. I was like "damn...well..I'm kinda interested in where he lives now." lol So Yuki was like "you wanna go take a walk?" We both grinned and put on our jackets and set out. And so I now know where Mr. Wonderful lives. LOL Then her parents came home and prepped the living room for Genghis Khan goodness. Oh, about Yuki's house, their rooms are very small and is strictly only for sleeping, well, and other lil things, so the family spends alot of their time together in the living room and watches TV together and everything. It's a very happy family atmosphere. The genghis khan we ate was so delicious and good ebcause it was homemeade. Afterwards I sat and watched TV with them until 9pm and then her father brought me home. Good day and fun day today!
Sept. 22 Tuesday
Day with Iwata-san! (The super cute and happy math teacher at the middle school who I've become attached to) Iwata-san had told me that I can invite Yuki too, but Yuki was busy today, and then she even said to invite Mr. Wonderful. =P LOL I was like "hun, I don't know his number, and even if I did, I'd be too embarrased to ask him." Yuki and her are just trying to be my cupids or so they tell me. lol So we first went to this really Oshare/stylish cafe and had huge plates of hamburg steak and white wine mushroom sauce spaghetti with wonderfully buttered crisp french bread and sesame dressing salads. SOOO good. Then we headed off to Ueno Farm. We actually got a little lost because the place was in such an inaka-like(country) area and was near the hills and stuff. But the scenery was beautiful! Absolutely breathtaking. We had an adventure going through the countryside area and it was just so much fun just driving through all that. I truly do love being here with nature. It's so good for the soul.
So owe finally got to Ueno Farm and it's like a botanical garden. It had flowers of all kinds with wonderful smells and lots of bugs. We walked around for a bit, saw some black chicken which were fat fat fat, and saw a family of geese. Again, there were lotsa couples here and Iwata-san and I just laughed and pondered over boyfriendage. But like I said with Yuki, we have each other. haha. After walking a bit we went into the cafe and had some amazingly wonderful soft ice cream parfaits. I had mine with coffee jelly, the bitterness of the coffee jelly with the sweetness of the soft cream was perfect! A very 'adult-like' dessert, or so it says in the menu. =P
Afterwards we decided to go to Jusco. I bought a crap load of stuff there particularly a fluffy white carpet, curtains as a room partitioner for my living room and bedroom, and two rilakkuma blankets: one thick one for the car and one thinner one to leave at home for when I get cold, and a Winnie the Pooh 1000 piece puzzle because it was beautiful. I just need to buy the frame. Oh, and I also bought lots of plants to place in my apt. I like greenery. Err..needless to say, I spent a lot of money. But it was all worth it because my apartment feels more like an amazing home. ^^ My living room actually feels more comfy than my bedroom. I still need to decorate that somehow. And I need to get a sofa cover. The blue leather so does not match my white and brown nature theme. lol =P Anyways at JUSCO I saw a black Chinchilla that I really really really wanted! I've actually been thinking of getting one for a while now so that my apt, doesn't feel lonely...lol I really want a pet, I just don't know if it can survive the winter. But they sell them here...so they must be able to.
In the evening I went to go eat super good Genghis Khan with Iwata-san. She paid for more than half of my foods today! I was shocked and super appreciative. The people here are so nice! ^^ Anyways, that's all for today.
Otsukare-sama! Thanks for reading and pics really will come up soon. Oh, and I want a Chinchilla. I want one bad. lol They're about $300 over here though. I'll think about it. I don't even know if it can survive the cold and snow or not...lol
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Middle School Festival!!
Oh, before I begin, "" means that I'm talking in Japanese or English. '' this means I'm thinking it.
Sept 18 Friday
The beginning of my middle school's festival! Their theme this year is "あっぱれワカチコ剣仲際トォース！”ワカチコ(Wakachiko) and トォース(Twos) is something that these two famous comedians have been saying alot lately and so the kids decided to put it in their theme this year. 剣仲際(Kenchuusai)means Kenbuchi Middle School festival. And あっぱれ (appare) means cool. lol Sure...lol But so in the beginning was the opening ceremony. Oh, actually since there wasn't that many people or parents that came today I was able to sit in the audience area instead of the teachers seats. The audience area faces the stage directly. The teachers seats are next to the stage so I have to sit kinda diagonal to see the students. So I was thankful to sit in the audience seat. So after the opening ceremony the students individually or in groups sang and performed songs. They were all my 3rd year kids. Well, all the more outgoing popular kids.
The first performance was by my 4 other popular boys. My 3rd year kids, all the boys are popular cuz they all have a certain type of personality and look to them that all the 2nd years really like or so they've told me and I also think the same. These 4 are the more uncategorizable popular boys. They're still outgoing and fun and wonderful, but not really as ikemen as the 4 main popular boys who are also on the student planning committee. Though they all are very friendly with each other, they hang out with their own group of popular boys. haha. Anyways, they performed songs by Greeen and called themselves "Bads" lol I don't know why, but sure! ^^ They did a good job and all the kids would get up out of their seats and run to gather in front of the stage to show their support and clap their hands and everything.
The second performance was by the most popular and smartest girl in the 3rd year class who I call Omoe as that is her nickname and she likes it. It's cute. lol =P Her voice was beautiful!! Absolutely beautiful! I was like "dude, you normally talk in this non-genki low voice, but when you sing you're like a totally different person." haha. Third was by the most popular girls in school including Omoe whom are my favorites although all of the kids are my favorites. It's just that they love coming to talk to me and involving me in everything they do. So that's why I like them. That's also what the mentioned above 4 boys do with me too. haha. Anyways these girls performed a "Johnny's" medly and were also the host for today's performances and they did wonderful!! These girls were also my most active particpatns in my hip hop class. And actually while they performed my 4 most popular boys (the ikemen ones) came out to get Yuki (he's the least active and unmotivated boy and I thought he had some kind of syndrome or mental problem when it's actually problems in his family that makes him so inactive and sullen/down looking all the time. There's nothing wrong with his brain) who was sitting alone in his chair like usual. They coaxed him to get up and clap and have fun along with everyone and stood by him and laughed and clapped along with him so that he wouldn't feel left out. When I saw that it moved and warmed my heart. I was like 'not only are you guys the best looking and popular boys in class but you guys have a heart of gold. It's no wonder you guys are popular.' I was amazed that they did that and I loved my kids even more.
And finally the 4th performance was by the 4th most popular boys in class. So I will categorize them for you. Boy #1: The head of the student council, the captain of the baseball team, the most outgoing and friendly boy and happy all the time but a little absent minded sometimes, and the one that all the 2nd year girls admire, good looking and cute, the leader of the popular boys group, ergo, the most popular boy in school. Boy #2: Silent and mysterious, very handsome (it's true! All the female teachers say so! actually he's the best looking boy in school), sweet natured, smart, super caring and helpful even though it looks like he's brooding all the time, vice president of the student council, vice captain of the baseball team, the one that the 3rd year girls look to for help, ergo, the second in command of the boys and second most popular. =P Boy #3: Hilarious and superbly outgoing, active and helpful, the planner of the student council, seriously he's funny, the life of the party. Boy #4: kinda reminds me of a butler but that's because I've been watching Mei-chan no Shitsuji lately, super tall, wears glasses, doesn't talk too much, and is very close with Boy #3. Actually I have to say, if you know Ouran Koukou Host Club, that's basically all the boys in my class. They're all like that except not exactly super dashing. That's just the ikemen crew. lol Their hearts are golden.
But I digress from their performance. They did "Can't Get Back" by W-inds. If you haven't heard it or seen the PV, WATCH IT!! It's good! The song is good! And my boys did an excellent job of singing and dancing to it! They all wore very handsome clothes and a vest. So they looked like a boyband. Their dancing was also very good. The girls were going crazy. haha. And they would call out the names of their fav boys. lol I clapped and jumped up and down and shouted after their performance because I was exhilarated and so proud. ^o^ I hope they will do their best in tomorrow's hip hop performance too.
So that was the end of this day and afterwards I went to the town hall to have dinner with my co-workers there although after I started going to the schools all the time I barely had time to talk to them. It was good handmade gyoza and salmon chan-chan-yaki. lol It was good. And then one of the high school workers came by to give us all some tomato juice made from the high school's fresh and sweet tomatos. I usually don't like tomatoes or the juice, but this town's tomatoes have changed me. lol hehe.
Sept. 19 Saturday
Today is still considered a workday for me even though it's a festival and saturday because all the teachers have to help with everything. I still had to get to the middle school at 8am and had morning meetings with the teachers and then at 8:30 headed over to the gym for the presentations given by certain students for a contest. Then at 9:35 the kids performed their hip hop routine that i taught. Before that was a 10 minute break in which the 3rd years went to get changed. And when they finished changing I would run over to them and tell them to have fun and do their best and have confidence. The popular girls saw me and came over to me so I didn't have to run over. haha. =P They were all like "Theresa-sensei you look so cool!" because I wore something much more fashionable today. I wore my black flared slacks, a white collared work top, and a striped dark gray vest. The girls had sexy hats so they told me to wear it to complete my coolness. lol And when I did all of them were like "Yappari, kakkoii!!" lol I love my girls. ^^
Before the performance began they did a little intro in which they said that this was a chance for them to perform something new as well as learn hip hop dancing and they were lucky and grateful to be able have me teach them. I was so proud and thankful for them saying that. I blushed and everything. haha. Anyways, they did excellent! Of course they were a little shy still and some of them forgot what to do, but they still did good for the limited amount of time that they had to learn. I cheered soooo loudly for them, in fact I was probably the loudest one there at the time. haha. My gaijin self came out. I bet the parents were like 'who the f is the crazy teacher?' I was so so immensely proud of my kids. I want to do something for them or make them something to show my appreciation and happiness at their efforts. I can't make them food as that's prohibited. So any ideas anybody?
After that each grade did their own presentation on what their most important memories and trips and accomplishments this year. They did little plays too. hehe. after that was a break in which I met up with Yuki because she came to see the dance. ^^ We talked about what we were going to do the next day. Then afterwards was the brass band who were super super good! I was like DUDE! You guys need to compete! They're ridiculously good! Then afterwards was lunch in which I had onigiri, Mr. Donuts, and a cream puff. And then went out with Yuki to go to the various activities that the kids had done. First was the maze in which I thought people were going to pop out and scare us cuz it was super dark. lol But nothing bad happened, besides running into a dead end. Then we went to the third graders "Adventure World". lol It was fun and i got one of those water filled balloon YoYos! You fish for them and get the one you want. It's cute! I'll post pics of it soon. The 3rd years had a basketball freethrow thing, the YoYo thing, darts, and try your luck box in which you reach in to get a number and you get whatever it is that that number represents. Then we went to the 1st years room in which they had ring toss (in which I failed miserably), slime making, and plastic keychain making. I made two little keychains in which I will also post pictures of.
The whole school was decked out and looked very cute and festive. I took a bunch of pics so will post soon. Afterwards was the song/chorus competition in which each grade competes to win a trophy of who is the best grade in singing. And of course the 3rd years took it because they had much more years of experience. They sung beautifully. All the kids did excellent though! ^o^ THen the festival came to an end at 3:35pm. I stayed at the school until 4pm. I realized that because all the teachers had to come work at the school on a saturday we automatically have next thursday off as compensation. But the sucky thing is I still have to work on Thursday because I work at the elementary and high school on those days. So no rest for me. >.<
Sakurai-san invited us all to have a celebration party at his house at 5:30pm. Monma-san came to pick me up via car to head over to his house. He was so nice to do so! He's tall too! haha. Anyways Iwata-san was also already in the car. I love her! I was so excited to go to the party because it's with my favorite group of people, my middle school teachers! Such a funny and lively group. Sakurai-san's house is in the middle of alot of farmland because he does alot of farming himself when he's not working at the school. He really grows the best corn I tell ya. It's so deliciously sweet and juicy naturally! The best corn you will ever eat! Good thing about countryside farmtowns. Anyways we had a yakiniku party in his hugeass garage/storage shed in which there was a tractor and other farming utilities. All the male teachers sat on one side and I sat with the 3 other female teachers there. It was me, Hayashi-san, Iwata-san, and last year's math teacher, Natsu-san, who was my predecessor's girlfriend and is super cute and beautiful! ANyways, everyone got drunk and happy and relieved all the stress built up from the school festival preperations and it was a hilarious party! I laughed so much and ate so much and was happy happy happy.
Afterwards a couple of us went outside in the uber darkness to light fireworks!!!!! ^o^ XD It was so pretty and fun and exciting! The party ended at 10pm, but then all the girls wanted to go drinking in Shibetsu and Yamada-sensei also wanted to tag along. So I went with them and we had crazy drinking time at a nomiya-san in which everyone drunk 4 large bottles of beer and I just had vodka. Seriously, people were drunk and Hayashi-san ended up being a little sick and throwing up. But she was the whole planner and the force behind the festival so she deserves to drink all she wants until she throws up. So all of us were like it's okay, but don't drink anymore so you don't get sick. In the end we took a taxi home. Oh, and the girls all said that on Tuesday we will go to Asahikawa and have a drinking party with all the female teachers and office personnel of the middle school. For that I am damn excited and can't wait. haha. =P And Natsu-san volunteered her home in Asahikawa for us to stay so we don't have to drive home. Thanks girl!
So anyways, i will post more on what happened today tomorrow. For now, it's just the school festival info. Otsukare-sama for reading! I swear there will be pics soon. I just need to get to it. Thanks!
Sept 18 Friday
The beginning of my middle school's festival! Their theme this year is "あっぱれワカチコ剣仲際トォース！”ワカチコ(Wakachiko) and トォース(Twos) is something that these two famous comedians have been saying alot lately and so the kids decided to put it in their theme this year. 剣仲際(Kenchuusai)means Kenbuchi Middle School festival. And あっぱれ (appare) means cool. lol Sure...lol But so in the beginning was the opening ceremony. Oh, actually since there wasn't that many people or parents that came today I was able to sit in the audience area instead of the teachers seats. The audience area faces the stage directly. The teachers seats are next to the stage so I have to sit kinda diagonal to see the students. So I was thankful to sit in the audience seat. So after the opening ceremony the students individually or in groups sang and performed songs. They were all my 3rd year kids. Well, all the more outgoing popular kids.
The first performance was by my 4 other popular boys. My 3rd year kids, all the boys are popular cuz they all have a certain type of personality and look to them that all the 2nd years really like or so they've told me and I also think the same. These 4 are the more uncategorizable popular boys. They're still outgoing and fun and wonderful, but not really as ikemen as the 4 main popular boys who are also on the student planning committee. Though they all are very friendly with each other, they hang out with their own group of popular boys. haha. Anyways, they performed songs by Greeen and called themselves "Bads" lol I don't know why, but sure! ^^ They did a good job and all the kids would get up out of their seats and run to gather in front of the stage to show their support and clap their hands and everything.
The second performance was by the most popular and smartest girl in the 3rd year class who I call Omoe as that is her nickname and she likes it. It's cute. lol =P Her voice was beautiful!! Absolutely beautiful! I was like "dude, you normally talk in this non-genki low voice, but when you sing you're like a totally different person." haha. Third was by the most popular girls in school including Omoe whom are my favorites although all of the kids are my favorites. It's just that they love coming to talk to me and involving me in everything they do. So that's why I like them. That's also what the mentioned above 4 boys do with me too. haha. Anyways these girls performed a "Johnny's" medly and were also the host for today's performances and they did wonderful!! These girls were also my most active particpatns in my hip hop class. And actually while they performed my 4 most popular boys (the ikemen ones) came out to get Yuki (he's the least active and unmotivated boy and I thought he had some kind of syndrome or mental problem when it's actually problems in his family that makes him so inactive and sullen/down looking all the time. There's nothing wrong with his brain) who was sitting alone in his chair like usual. They coaxed him to get up and clap and have fun along with everyone and stood by him and laughed and clapped along with him so that he wouldn't feel left out. When I saw that it moved and warmed my heart. I was like 'not only are you guys the best looking and popular boys in class but you guys have a heart of gold. It's no wonder you guys are popular.' I was amazed that they did that and I loved my kids even more.
And finally the 4th performance was by the 4th most popular boys in class. So I will categorize them for you. Boy #1: The head of the student council, the captain of the baseball team, the most outgoing and friendly boy and happy all the time but a little absent minded sometimes, and the one that all the 2nd year girls admire, good looking and cute, the leader of the popular boys group, ergo, the most popular boy in school. Boy #2: Silent and mysterious, very handsome (it's true! All the female teachers say so! actually he's the best looking boy in school), sweet natured, smart, super caring and helpful even though it looks like he's brooding all the time, vice president of the student council, vice captain of the baseball team, the one that the 3rd year girls look to for help, ergo, the second in command of the boys and second most popular. =P Boy #3: Hilarious and superbly outgoing, active and helpful, the planner of the student council, seriously he's funny, the life of the party. Boy #4: kinda reminds me of a butler but that's because I've been watching Mei-chan no Shitsuji lately, super tall, wears glasses, doesn't talk too much, and is very close with Boy #3. Actually I have to say, if you know Ouran Koukou Host Club, that's basically all the boys in my class. They're all like that except not exactly super dashing. That's just the ikemen crew. lol Their hearts are golden.
But I digress from their performance. They did "Can't Get Back" by W-inds. If you haven't heard it or seen the PV, WATCH IT!! It's good! The song is good! And my boys did an excellent job of singing and dancing to it! They all wore very handsome clothes and a vest. So they looked like a boyband. Their dancing was also very good. The girls were going crazy. haha. And they would call out the names of their fav boys. lol I clapped and jumped up and down and shouted after their performance because I was exhilarated and so proud. ^o^ I hope they will do their best in tomorrow's hip hop performance too.
So that was the end of this day and afterwards I went to the town hall to have dinner with my co-workers there although after I started going to the schools all the time I barely had time to talk to them. It was good handmade gyoza and salmon chan-chan-yaki. lol It was good. And then one of the high school workers came by to give us all some tomato juice made from the high school's fresh and sweet tomatos. I usually don't like tomatoes or the juice, but this town's tomatoes have changed me. lol hehe.
Sept. 19 Saturday
Today is still considered a workday for me even though it's a festival and saturday because all the teachers have to help with everything. I still had to get to the middle school at 8am and had morning meetings with the teachers and then at 8:30 headed over to the gym for the presentations given by certain students for a contest. Then at 9:35 the kids performed their hip hop routine that i taught. Before that was a 10 minute break in which the 3rd years went to get changed. And when they finished changing I would run over to them and tell them to have fun and do their best and have confidence. The popular girls saw me and came over to me so I didn't have to run over. haha. =P They were all like "Theresa-sensei you look so cool!" because I wore something much more fashionable today. I wore my black flared slacks, a white collared work top, and a striped dark gray vest. The girls had sexy hats so they told me to wear it to complete my coolness. lol And when I did all of them were like "Yappari, kakkoii!!" lol I love my girls. ^^
Before the performance began they did a little intro in which they said that this was a chance for them to perform something new as well as learn hip hop dancing and they were lucky and grateful to be able have me teach them. I was so proud and thankful for them saying that. I blushed and everything. haha. Anyways, they did excellent! Of course they were a little shy still and some of them forgot what to do, but they still did good for the limited amount of time that they had to learn. I cheered soooo loudly for them, in fact I was probably the loudest one there at the time. haha. My gaijin self came out. I bet the parents were like 'who the f is the crazy teacher?' I was so so immensely proud of my kids. I want to do something for them or make them something to show my appreciation and happiness at their efforts. I can't make them food as that's prohibited. So any ideas anybody?
After that each grade did their own presentation on what their most important memories and trips and accomplishments this year. They did little plays too. hehe. after that was a break in which I met up with Yuki because she came to see the dance. ^^ We talked about what we were going to do the next day. Then afterwards was the brass band who were super super good! I was like DUDE! You guys need to compete! They're ridiculously good! Then afterwards was lunch in which I had onigiri, Mr. Donuts, and a cream puff. And then went out with Yuki to go to the various activities that the kids had done. First was the maze in which I thought people were going to pop out and scare us cuz it was super dark. lol But nothing bad happened, besides running into a dead end. Then we went to the third graders "Adventure World". lol It was fun and i got one of those water filled balloon YoYos! You fish for them and get the one you want. It's cute! I'll post pics of it soon. The 3rd years had a basketball freethrow thing, the YoYo thing, darts, and try your luck box in which you reach in to get a number and you get whatever it is that that number represents. Then we went to the 1st years room in which they had ring toss (in which I failed miserably), slime making, and plastic keychain making. I made two little keychains in which I will also post pictures of.
The whole school was decked out and looked very cute and festive. I took a bunch of pics so will post soon. Afterwards was the song/chorus competition in which each grade competes to win a trophy of who is the best grade in singing. And of course the 3rd years took it because they had much more years of experience. They sung beautifully. All the kids did excellent though! ^o^ THen the festival came to an end at 3:35pm. I stayed at the school until 4pm. I realized that because all the teachers had to come work at the school on a saturday we automatically have next thursday off as compensation. But the sucky thing is I still have to work on Thursday because I work at the elementary and high school on those days. So no rest for me. >.<
Sakurai-san invited us all to have a celebration party at his house at 5:30pm. Monma-san came to pick me up via car to head over to his house. He was so nice to do so! He's tall too! haha. Anyways Iwata-san was also already in the car. I love her! I was so excited to go to the party because it's with my favorite group of people, my middle school teachers! Such a funny and lively group. Sakurai-san's house is in the middle of alot of farmland because he does alot of farming himself when he's not working at the school. He really grows the best corn I tell ya. It's so deliciously sweet and juicy naturally! The best corn you will ever eat! Good thing about countryside farmtowns. Anyways we had a yakiniku party in his hugeass garage/storage shed in which there was a tractor and other farming utilities. All the male teachers sat on one side and I sat with the 3 other female teachers there. It was me, Hayashi-san, Iwata-san, and last year's math teacher, Natsu-san, who was my predecessor's girlfriend and is super cute and beautiful! ANyways, everyone got drunk and happy and relieved all the stress built up from the school festival preperations and it was a hilarious party! I laughed so much and ate so much and was happy happy happy.
Afterwards a couple of us went outside in the uber darkness to light fireworks!!!!! ^o^ XD It was so pretty and fun and exciting! The party ended at 10pm, but then all the girls wanted to go drinking in Shibetsu and Yamada-sensei also wanted to tag along. So I went with them and we had crazy drinking time at a nomiya-san in which everyone drunk 4 large bottles of beer and I just had vodka. Seriously, people were drunk and Hayashi-san ended up being a little sick and throwing up. But she was the whole planner and the force behind the festival so she deserves to drink all she wants until she throws up. So all of us were like it's okay, but don't drink anymore so you don't get sick. In the end we took a taxi home. Oh, and the girls all said that on Tuesday we will go to Asahikawa and have a drinking party with all the female teachers and office personnel of the middle school. For that I am damn excited and can't wait. haha. =P And Natsu-san volunteered her home in Asahikawa for us to stay so we don't have to drive home. Thanks girl!
So anyways, i will post more on what happened today tomorrow. For now, it's just the school festival info. Otsukare-sama for reading! I swear there will be pics soon. I just need to get to it. Thanks!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Yes....Mr. Wonderful...
Sept. 16th Wednesday
So today was a super fun day at the middle school as it usually always is anyways. Today after English class I told the 3rd year kids that I want to see the final routine all together because I didn't get to teach them the day before since I was teaching at the elementary. The kids were awesome enough to take time out of their busy matsuri/festival prep day to perform for me. AND THEY DID EXCELLENT!!! Well, there were some areas that were a little choppy, but for never having danced before and volunteering to do this in 3 days they were amazing! I was sooooo immensely proud of them!!!! I cheered and shouted and jumped up and downI was so happy. The kids caught on to my happiness and also felt very proud of themselves. XDXDXD When I asked them how was the lesson that Yoneda-sensei taught in my stead yesterday they were like..."Well, we understood the moves, but because it wasn't the real thing (me) teaching it looked a little weird and wasn't as cool. And just now when you were reteaching us the last steps it was totally different looking. Much much cooler!" LOL I couldn't help laughing, because I could totally understand how they feel since I've seen Yoneda-sensei try to mimic my dancing. It looks...interesting. haha But I applaud him for teaching the steps and being able to dance along. He really is an amazing teacher. Of course, he is the PE teacher so there has to be some physical ability in him. =P Anyways, I told the kids they were "awesome" and now they use that word everytime they see me. hehe.
Afterwards I decided to walk around because it was festival preparation time. Outside the teacher's office I saw 4 of my fav female 2nd year students putting up tissue paper flowers as a border decoration for a large board with a bunch of pictures glued together spelling an expression that I was like WTF? And I found out the expression was just a word that the current famous comedians say...I was very confused and was seriously like WTF is this word? Is it even Japanese? lol When I saw the girls I got all excited and went over to them. They were putting the paper flowers on their heads and it looked so cute I wanted one too. So they put one on me. lol They said pink looked best on me. Not my favorite color, but hey, it did look cute on me according to all the girl students who were super excited to see the flower on my head. =P And all my 3rd year boy students were like "dude, even the teacher has one on her head!??" lol But they all commented that I looked beautiful and cute. haha. Good boys. I feel like I'm the only teacher who does these weird things with the students. I like it though. It's fun and I get close with the students. I spent quite a while with the girls decorating. And we had fun talking about stuff. I inserted English here and there, but majority of it was in Japanese. I swear, if I didn't know Japanese I don't think they would talk to me as much. And because I try with Japanese they try speaking English with me too, practicing what they learned that day. I was proud of them. Anyways, so the other teachers who saw me would either give me funny looks or say I looked really cute. haha. =P
Then afterwards, I went through the 2nd year's 80% finished maze. It wasn't difficult to get through, but fun nonetheless. Then I went to help the 3rd years with their carnival activities that they had dubbed "Adventure World". LOL One of the girls was like "Why did we call it Adventure World? It seems like we have some kind of sci-fi attraction when it's just festival activities." lol When they were choosing the name, I had the last say in it because I was there in the room at the time. So I did the "innie minnie miny moe" thing between Adventure Land and World and it ended up being that. Afterwards when i was leaving a bunch of the students were still at school doing more festival preparations! I was amazed at their dedication! Go kids!
At 5:30 was my enkai (welcome party) for elementary since we had yet to have one. And it was not only for me, but also for and Hirano-sensei (the 2nd grade teacher) who is leaving on maternity leave in which the newly come Kudou-sensei (who is very handsome and tall who I will from now on refer to as Mr. Wonderful) will replace. So it was a party for all 3 of us. And it was themed with food. lol It was so cute. All the teachers who were presenting something and us new ones and leaving ones were given props to wear to represent what we liked to eat. I was an uni sushi in which I was given a taped together circular roll of black paper to represent the nori (seaweed) which went around my head so I couldn't see and a wig the color close to uni. lol I couldn't see but still had to present an opening speech with the thing over my head. So I'm not sure if I was able to be clear in my speech. =P Hirano sensei was a bowl of ramen! I will post these pictures soon! You have to see this ramen bowl thing! It's amazing and cool and super goofily cute! And then Mr. Wonderful was a box of curry. lol
We played a guessing quiz game on how well we know the teachers and I knew Takagi-san the best so I was able to guess her part. It was really quite a lot of fun. And I got to sit next to Mr. Wonderful the whole time. And damn, he has a nice toned body. Even Watanabe-sensei (the male 6th grade teacher) was impressed. He was like "Dude, flex your arms." In which Mr. Wonderful did, and Watanabe-sensei was just like "SUGOI!" lol Seriously, his arms were AMAZING!! Like, damn those are nice arms, and his chest too! Watanabe-sensei was also trying to mimic Mr. Wonderful's toned chest. He is seriously fit and not in a bad ugly way! It was because he used to play rugby in school. He's a super kind guy who loves nature and is very smart. His face isn't too bad either. He's one of those almost perfect guys. In a way, he is better than Mr. Gorgeous. Mr Gorgeous is just gorgeous and cool-like and has a nice body but he doesn't think too much of his students which gets me a little down about that because I care for the students alot even if they don't really want to learn English and very lifeless in my class. They don't really try and some of them just give up too easily. So I try to make my classes weird and fun for them. Their happiness makes me happy. So it disappointed me a little about his attitude with the kids.
After the first party ended we went to the nijikai (second party) and sung Karaoke, but it wasn't my best. I actually sung terribly. haha. =P But Mr. Wonderful's voice was beautiful! I was like "Hirai Ken?" Takagi-san and I had a good girl to girl talk and decided to hang out more together in the future because we were the only 2 girls around the same age. lol And she told me to just call her Yuki from now on. YAY! ANd I don't have to use desu/masu with her anymore! Friendship progressing! So we said during silver week we would go do something. WOO! We both do absolutely nothing during our free time except stay at home and surf the internet or other things. lol So we're going to hang out a lot more now! A FRIEND!! ^o^ Anyways, that was the end of our day. And I've decided that I have taken an interest in Mr. Wonderful now because I'm sure he's not married and doesn't have a girlfriend. Or I hope he doesn't have a gf because then I would have to become disinterested in him. My rule that I try to follow. Try. lol
Sept. 17th Thursday
One more day until the middle school festival! I'm so excited! Today I went to the high school to play a game called Landmines with the students that uses English directions. There are pieces of paper with pictures of bombs on them scattered all over the floor. And you have to maneuver around them while wearing a blindfold. One person gives directions while the other does the walking. And I was super surprised that they didn't know what left or right was!!!! I was like...dude you learn that in elementary/middle school! It's one of the most important and basic English words. I was shocked actually. But at least this game will be sure to make them remember. They have to know it to play otherwise they can't and everyone has to play no one is left to stay on the sidelines. Even the kids who thought it was mendoukusai had to play, but I know that secretly they enjoyed it. =P Because it's these kinds of thing you'll rememeber. English class is the only time when they can play games and get up and go to the gym during class time to do weird things. Anyways, all the kids were really into it and enjoyed it. So I was super glad and happy for that fact. Mr. Gorgeous said that it's okay if the students don't seem like they're into it because they have no will and are just stupid. But I said that it doesn't matter in English class, because whether or not you have the will you still have to do it and these activities are games that they will enjoy, not paperwork; so regardless they will join in or cause their teammates shame and not look cool in class.
I'm trying to devise a way that will make sure that everyone in class participates regardless if they really want to or not. Because whatever I do they will do it because they enjoy it. Even the game today, many of the boys and girls, at first, were like "Jeez, this is so mendoukusai (troublesome)" but still did it anyways and were laughing and having fun. They just say those things to seem cool and pretend that they don't really think it's worth their time. But I know they like these little games. Their expressions don't lie. =P I'm glad for that. They had just received their test results back and were really unhappy so this game possibly cheered them up a little.
Then I went over to the elementary school and played the same game. And it was a huge success! Even Watanabe-sensei was so excited with this game. He said it was the first time all year and all the times that he's been teaching that he's had so much fun in class and thanked me. I was so happy and my chest just swelled hearing that. BIG SUCCESS! The kids were laughing and excited during the whole game. They loved it. And were also really happy everytime I play "Theresa says" (my rendition of Simon Says). I did that with directions today. lol I love the kids here.
After dinner today I decided to ask Yuki if she wanted to go out for dessert with me. She had accidentally broke the laminator by feeding the stuff in the wrong side. lol And was feeling very down from that so I thought it might cheer her up. Besides I haven't really gone to dinner or anything with her yet. So dessert it is. We had so much fun talking about random crap and she says she wants to go with me to the festival on saturday. So together we will go! ^^ She also said that her parents told her that I can go visit her house anytime and have dinner with them!!! XDXDXDXDXD I'm so excited to do so! YAY! Anyways afterwards we decided to go see if anyone was still at the elementary at 9pm and there still were! Mr. Wonderful and Ootani-sensei were still there workin away. We snuck up quietly by the windows to peer in so that they wouldn't see us. And when they walked by the windows, we would duck. lol We were so inconspicuous. =P I think I will make some kind of food for them or something next time and bring it to them during this hour because they're always at the school until so late at night and i'm not sure if they've eaten. I think I would like it if someone brought me food while I was still working late into the night. Anyways, we tried not to be loud or be seen and then snuck back to my car and went back home. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post more on other good things later and pictures. Oh, and I got to ride in Mr. Gorgeous's car today. It was cute, the interior was sleek, and it smelt sexy. lol But I think I'm starting to prefer Mr. Wonderful over Mr. Gorgeous
So today was a super fun day at the middle school as it usually always is anyways. Today after English class I told the 3rd year kids that I want to see the final routine all together because I didn't get to teach them the day before since I was teaching at the elementary. The kids were awesome enough to take time out of their busy matsuri/festival prep day to perform for me. AND THEY DID EXCELLENT!!! Well, there were some areas that were a little choppy, but for never having danced before and volunteering to do this in 3 days they were amazing! I was sooooo immensely proud of them!!!! I cheered and shouted and jumped up and downI was so happy. The kids caught on to my happiness and also felt very proud of themselves. XDXDXD When I asked them how was the lesson that Yoneda-sensei taught in my stead yesterday they were like..."Well, we understood the moves, but because it wasn't the real thing (me) teaching it looked a little weird and wasn't as cool. And just now when you were reteaching us the last steps it was totally different looking. Much much cooler!" LOL I couldn't help laughing, because I could totally understand how they feel since I've seen Yoneda-sensei try to mimic my dancing. It looks...interesting. haha But I applaud him for teaching the steps and being able to dance along. He really is an amazing teacher. Of course, he is the PE teacher so there has to be some physical ability in him. =P Anyways, I told the kids they were "awesome" and now they use that word everytime they see me. hehe.
Afterwards I decided to walk around because it was festival preparation time. Outside the teacher's office I saw 4 of my fav female 2nd year students putting up tissue paper flowers as a border decoration for a large board with a bunch of pictures glued together spelling an expression that I was like WTF? And I found out the expression was just a word that the current famous comedians say...I was very confused and was seriously like WTF is this word? Is it even Japanese? lol When I saw the girls I got all excited and went over to them. They were putting the paper flowers on their heads and it looked so cute I wanted one too. So they put one on me. lol They said pink looked best on me. Not my favorite color, but hey, it did look cute on me according to all the girl students who were super excited to see the flower on my head. =P And all my 3rd year boy students were like "dude, even the teacher has one on her head!??" lol But they all commented that I looked beautiful and cute. haha. Good boys. I feel like I'm the only teacher who does these weird things with the students. I like it though. It's fun and I get close with the students. I spent quite a while with the girls decorating. And we had fun talking about stuff. I inserted English here and there, but majority of it was in Japanese. I swear, if I didn't know Japanese I don't think they would talk to me as much. And because I try with Japanese they try speaking English with me too, practicing what they learned that day. I was proud of them. Anyways, so the other teachers who saw me would either give me funny looks or say I looked really cute. haha. =P
Then afterwards, I went through the 2nd year's 80% finished maze. It wasn't difficult to get through, but fun nonetheless. Then I went to help the 3rd years with their carnival activities that they had dubbed "Adventure World". LOL One of the girls was like "Why did we call it Adventure World? It seems like we have some kind of sci-fi attraction when it's just festival activities." lol When they were choosing the name, I had the last say in it because I was there in the room at the time. So I did the "innie minnie miny moe" thing between Adventure Land and World and it ended up being that. Afterwards when i was leaving a bunch of the students were still at school doing more festival preparations! I was amazed at their dedication! Go kids!
At 5:30 was my enkai (welcome party) for elementary since we had yet to have one. And it was not only for me, but also for and Hirano-sensei (the 2nd grade teacher) who is leaving on maternity leave in which the newly come Kudou-sensei (who is very handsome and tall who I will from now on refer to as Mr. Wonderful) will replace. So it was a party for all 3 of us. And it was themed with food. lol It was so cute. All the teachers who were presenting something and us new ones and leaving ones were given props to wear to represent what we liked to eat. I was an uni sushi in which I was given a taped together circular roll of black paper to represent the nori (seaweed) which went around my head so I couldn't see and a wig the color close to uni. lol I couldn't see but still had to present an opening speech with the thing over my head. So I'm not sure if I was able to be clear in my speech. =P Hirano sensei was a bowl of ramen! I will post these pictures soon! You have to see this ramen bowl thing! It's amazing and cool and super goofily cute! And then Mr. Wonderful was a box of curry. lol
We played a guessing quiz game on how well we know the teachers and I knew Takagi-san the best so I was able to guess her part. It was really quite a lot of fun. And I got to sit next to Mr. Wonderful the whole time. And damn, he has a nice toned body. Even Watanabe-sensei (the male 6th grade teacher) was impressed. He was like "Dude, flex your arms." In which Mr. Wonderful did, and Watanabe-sensei was just like "SUGOI!" lol Seriously, his arms were AMAZING!! Like, damn those are nice arms, and his chest too! Watanabe-sensei was also trying to mimic Mr. Wonderful's toned chest. He is seriously fit and not in a bad ugly way! It was because he used to play rugby in school. He's a super kind guy who loves nature and is very smart. His face isn't too bad either. He's one of those almost perfect guys. In a way, he is better than Mr. Gorgeous. Mr Gorgeous is just gorgeous and cool-like and has a nice body but he doesn't think too much of his students which gets me a little down about that because I care for the students alot even if they don't really want to learn English and very lifeless in my class. They don't really try and some of them just give up too easily. So I try to make my classes weird and fun for them. Their happiness makes me happy. So it disappointed me a little about his attitude with the kids.
After the first party ended we went to the nijikai (second party) and sung Karaoke, but it wasn't my best. I actually sung terribly. haha. =P But Mr. Wonderful's voice was beautiful! I was like "Hirai Ken?" Takagi-san and I had a good girl to girl talk and decided to hang out more together in the future because we were the only 2 girls around the same age. lol And she told me to just call her Yuki from now on. YAY! ANd I don't have to use desu/masu with her anymore! Friendship progressing! So we said during silver week we would go do something. WOO! We both do absolutely nothing during our free time except stay at home and surf the internet or other things. lol So we're going to hang out a lot more now! A FRIEND!! ^o^ Anyways, that was the end of our day. And I've decided that I have taken an interest in Mr. Wonderful now because I'm sure he's not married and doesn't have a girlfriend. Or I hope he doesn't have a gf because then I would have to become disinterested in him. My rule that I try to follow. Try. lol
Sept. 17th Thursday
One more day until the middle school festival! I'm so excited! Today I went to the high school to play a game called Landmines with the students that uses English directions. There are pieces of paper with pictures of bombs on them scattered all over the floor. And you have to maneuver around them while wearing a blindfold. One person gives directions while the other does the walking. And I was super surprised that they didn't know what left or right was!!!! I was like...dude you learn that in elementary/middle school! It's one of the most important and basic English words. I was shocked actually. But at least this game will be sure to make them remember. They have to know it to play otherwise they can't and everyone has to play no one is left to stay on the sidelines. Even the kids who thought it was mendoukusai had to play, but I know that secretly they enjoyed it. =P Because it's these kinds of thing you'll rememeber. English class is the only time when they can play games and get up and go to the gym during class time to do weird things. Anyways, all the kids were really into it and enjoyed it. So I was super glad and happy for that fact. Mr. Gorgeous said that it's okay if the students don't seem like they're into it because they have no will and are just stupid. But I said that it doesn't matter in English class, because whether or not you have the will you still have to do it and these activities are games that they will enjoy, not paperwork; so regardless they will join in or cause their teammates shame and not look cool in class.
I'm trying to devise a way that will make sure that everyone in class participates regardless if they really want to or not. Because whatever I do they will do it because they enjoy it. Even the game today, many of the boys and girls, at first, were like "Jeez, this is so mendoukusai (troublesome)" but still did it anyways and were laughing and having fun. They just say those things to seem cool and pretend that they don't really think it's worth their time. But I know they like these little games. Their expressions don't lie. =P I'm glad for that. They had just received their test results back and were really unhappy so this game possibly cheered them up a little.
Then I went over to the elementary school and played the same game. And it was a huge success! Even Watanabe-sensei was so excited with this game. He said it was the first time all year and all the times that he's been teaching that he's had so much fun in class and thanked me. I was so happy and my chest just swelled hearing that. BIG SUCCESS! The kids were laughing and excited during the whole game. They loved it. And were also really happy everytime I play "Theresa says" (my rendition of Simon Says). I did that with directions today. lol I love the kids here.
After dinner today I decided to ask Yuki if she wanted to go out for dessert with me. She had accidentally broke the laminator by feeding the stuff in the wrong side. lol And was feeling very down from that so I thought it might cheer her up. Besides I haven't really gone to dinner or anything with her yet. So dessert it is. We had so much fun talking about random crap and she says she wants to go with me to the festival on saturday. So together we will go! ^^ She also said that her parents told her that I can go visit her house anytime and have dinner with them!!! XDXDXDXDXD I'm so excited to do so! YAY! Anyways afterwards we decided to go see if anyone was still at the elementary at 9pm and there still were! Mr. Wonderful and Ootani-sensei were still there workin away. We snuck up quietly by the windows to peer in so that they wouldn't see us. And when they walked by the windows, we would duck. lol We were so inconspicuous. =P I think I will make some kind of food for them or something next time and bring it to them during this hour because they're always at the school until so late at night and i'm not sure if they've eaten. I think I would like it if someone brought me food while I was still working late into the night. Anyways, we tried not to be loud or be seen and then snuck back to my car and went back home. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post more on other good things later and pictures. Oh, and I got to ride in Mr. Gorgeous's car today. It was cute, the interior was sleek, and it smelt sexy. lol But I think I'm starting to prefer Mr. Wonderful over Mr. Gorgeous
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
"Theresa-sensei! You're that white ghost blob thing in Super Mario!".......
Sept. 14 Monday
YAY! I'm back to teaching my beloved Sakura class/gumi. I love these kids and have memorized everyone's names! hehe. They're the only class where I know everyone's names and face by heart. And they have only 17 students...so it helps. Plus it really really helps that they refer to themselves in third person all the time. I think it's absolutely adorable like that. But please don't do it when you're out of elementary...it's disturbing. Nagomi-chan for example would go "Nagomi wa ne. Nagomi ne. ne." lol They use alot of ne's and sa's lol That's why sometimes I'm not sure what they want to say to me or what they are saying to me. =P
Anyways, so today my beloved Ikuma wasn't there which I was sad. I had prepared sticker sheets for all of them where they get cute smily face stickers everytime they do their best in class. They were so excited for it!! And incredibly happy! It was just a little index card with grid lines that I had drawn on them and a smily face sticker in one box. They said they were going to show their parents and everything. hehe. I was happy for them. I still gave Ikuma a sticker even though he wasn't here. I'm pretty sure he would've wanted one anyways. And he does participate and listen to me in my previous class. So he would've earned it. I'll just say it was a sticker from the first time I taught class.
Today I started off with review of "Hello. My name is..." to which all of them remembered very well! I was so proud! And then we moved on to colors. I showed them crayon colored pictures that I had drawn of animals and items, etc. that had different colors on them. Trust me, my art wasn't the greatest but the kids liked it. lol I had a blue pig on there too because I wasn't exactly sure what to use for blue and I didn't want fruits because I had too many already. So blue pig it is. Hey, it's like the blue horse in "Brown Bear" okay? Totally legit. I made them repeat after me and would say it a couple of times alternating between loud and whisper voices and posture. The kids remembered everything. Very good. ^_^ And then they got excited when I told them to go find the colors I ask for in the classroom. They kept trying to get my attention to show me everything of that specific color that was in the class...."THERESA-SENSEI! BLUE BLUE!!" it's very hard listening to about 12 little things trying to tell you what they have or where the color is and then having them tug at you and stuff...haha Then we went out to play red light green light to which they were all very excited to do. At lunch the half child wanted me to sit at their table with him so I did. And he talks soooo much. The other kids around him barely had a chance to talk so I had to constantly momentarily pause him and let the other kids speak. The girls actually take turns talking while the boys just jump on in and start talking regardless of who originally had the right of way. lol hmmm....
So after that I headed over to the elementary with absolutely nothing that I needed to do. All I did was prep for my lessons for the next day. I didn't really even get to see the kids. Actually, I'm not too sure if they even care to see me all the time. I started to sit in less and less in class as an experiment to see if that affected their attitude towards me. And it did! The less I sit in on their class the more they seem to be happy to see me when I just pass by on the occasions. haha. I think it's because they might get too used to seeing me be all silent and still in the back of the class and then it wouldn't be as exciting to play with me anymore because all they'll have is that image of me in the classroom standing still all the time. I'll try this for a couple more days and see if it's still the same or what I should do as a tactic to get them excited whenever they see me so that they know it's happy english class time.
Sept. 15th Tuesday
HAHA! I just saw a commerical right now that was advertising a club/party somewhere and it was called Disco&Blackmusic Party with "Boogieland" playing in the background!!!! lol It's terrible.
Anyways, so today is a seriously busy day at the elementary. I first start off teaching the 3rd graders during 2nd period, 4th graders 3rd period, and then 5th graders during 4th period, then lunch with the 4th graders. This will be my first time teaching the 3rd and 4th grade kiddies. I'm excited yet nervous cuz I'm not sure how it'll go. But as long as I stay myself and be super genki, the kids will just feed off my energy and go with that. I hope...
So first, off to the 3rd graders and Ootani-sensei. I had wanted to use the projector and computer for my self-intro but Ootani-sensei had forgotten it and the thing wasn't working for some reason. So no powerpoint. Luckily I had brought my pictures with me...but only some of them, so I had to just draw most of it on the board and let them guess. haha. Then I did a chant of "Hello. My name is Theresa. Nice to meet you." Because they had all forgotten how to do the basic intro in English. I swear I think I sounded like a cheerleader. Even the kids laughed at how oddly genki I was when doing the chant. Everyone did real well. Afterwards we did the gokiburi game in which they had to use the intro phrase stated above. They first started as as cockroaches (gokiburi) then evolved into frogs, rabbits, cats, dogs, monkeys, humans and finally an angel in which they all pretended they had died...and were flying with their new wings. Every time they evolved into something they would do the action. Everyone finished quicker than I had thought. So we played Simon Says. Haha, the kids love this game. I was super hot and sweaty after this. Seriuosly, sweat was drippin off of me. It didn't help that the windows were closed as well.
Then off to 4th grade. The kids in this class are so genki and wonderful. I even heard some of them go "I'm really excited and happy." When asked why, they said "It's because it's English class." I don't think they ever have it except when with me. So they were excited to have it. I'm super glad for that. ^_^The powerpoint worked perfectly this time. And all the kids really enjoyed seeing my home in the states. =P The agenda was the same except we were much more active and had a lot of fun as well. A couple of the boys also kept callling me the white ghost blog thing that's in the Mario Bros. series games...lol I'm not sure if that's because I'm a lil chubby and pale or if that is just what they wanna call me, but I didn't mind. I laughed and thought it was funny and would just go "EEEEHHH!!??" And the kids were excited that I would have lunch with them today and kept trying to get me to sit at their tables during that time. I also was sweating like crazy in this class...it was hot and I did alot of actions.
Last was the 5th grade class, but for some reason everytime I go into this class my genkiness leaves me and I feel stuffy and restricted. It's not the problem of the windows being closed or it being hot in the class, it's the atmosphere somehow. The windows were opened in this class too. It didn't help that the kids looked very disinterested. I think maybe because they just came back from walking from the Storybook library so they must've been tired. But I just couldn't teach properly like I did the other two classes. Or maybe it's just Hisakawa-sensei that's emitting this bad aura. I'm not sure what I just couldn't be my normal self and felt unable to teach. I was unable to explain the first activitiy properly resulting in confusion and awkwardness for a little bit. Then the second activity which was interviewing was okay. But we barely had time for color basket because we had to move to another room to play and we only had 5 minutes left. They had played this before but some of the kids still had problems. And one boy was being stubborn and didn't want to call the one color that hadn't been called yet. Anyways, I'm just not too sure how to handle this class. I'm pretty sure now that Hisakawa-sensei has a terrible impression of me now. I do so well in 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade, just not this one. And it really is causing me some worry. Let's see what'll happen next time I guess.
At lunch I went and ate with the 4th graders. The kids were really happy to have me here and I was happy to eat with them. I was able to sit next to Aika-chan. She's one of the students in the class who has a mental disability. It's almost the same as Lawrence's and so she reminds me of him. She's also very sweet and gentle. There are 3 children in this school with mental disabilities and i enjoy spending time with them as they remind me of Lawrence. It comforts me to play with them and I just feel super comfortable with Aika. She doesn't really talk to much but is always happy to see me as well as the other child with the same mental disability in class. SHe responds to all my questions and will sit quietly with me in class and i don't feel pressured to have to speak with her. There's just something about this child that I feel very 安心 about. And the nice thing is the other 'normal' children in the class don't sneer or laugh at them, but actually try to help them out and clear things up for me when I don't understand what Aika-chan or the other boy is talking about. In the states at this age and elementary these kids would've been made fun of like Lawrence was, but here they are the exact opposite. I just wish that Lawrence could've been in this kind of environment instead of what he experienced back home. It would've been better for him and he wouldn't have been hurt or made fun of. Of course, this is the countryside so it is different from my old hometown of the rich kids in a city-like setting, I suppose. Children here are much nicer and wiser and better disciplined.
Anyways.....Afterwards I was invited by Ueno-sensei of the 4th grade class to go and help cut some melons. They're cantoloupes grown by the school themselves! They're not the same size as American ones they're tiny compared to that but still very good and enough for a group of 4 kids to a melon. I was amazed and happy because I hadn't had real fruit for a while because it's so expensive here. But because they grow it here themselves it's free!! YAY!! lol melon! lol Oh before this the 4th grade class had called me out to go play with them at lunch break. I ran races with the kids and played tag and carried a girl piggyback style. I think I'm the only teacher who plays with them like that. I think I become my real self when I'm with the kids. I act totally wierd and out there and like the kids themselves sometime. But I make sure not to go too far out there. I'm still a teacher after all. But I think the kids have begun to think of me as just a bigger kid. Luckily, they still listen to me. haha.
And then all of a sudden it started raining like crazy out of nowhere when it was super sunny and hot outside! And the wind came like it was a typhoon! Freakin weird! Plus lightning and thunder! I was like WTF?! I need to go home dude! So I decided to wait half an hour to see if it would subside....but no, it just kept going. I started talking to Takagi-san who is the other young teacher in all the schools I go to. She's only 22!! ^O^ YAY! I was super happy to be able to talk to her and we're both really weird and genki-like so I think we'll get along well. I asked if we can exchange numbers and what she does on the weekends. SHe says she does absolutely nothing and so she was like "PLEASE COME VISIT ME!!" lol I was like "OF COURSE!!" I'm totally goin. She's the only girl around my age that I know around here. I was like YES NEW FRIEND! And I hope that we can be good friends because I'm lacking in that dept. I mean, all the women teachers here are like my friends, but none of them are around my age and have the same humor or personality as me. So we ended up squatting in a corner of the room exchanging numbers via infrared...LOL It was a funny sight to see actually. The head teacher passed by us, saw us, stopped and stared at us for a little bit. Takagi-san looked up and was like "...Oh..." And then the head teacher started laughing. He was like, in his broken accented English, "Stand up please." Then in Japanese he said we looked like those girls with no manners who squat on the sides of streets. LOL So we shouldn't do that. haha. I thought we kinda looked like that too, except I was dressed in OL finery and Takagi-san was in sportswear. =P
Anyways, I decided to take a chance and go home in the rain. It proved more difficult than I thought. In one hand I held my umbrella, in the other I was trying to steer. But my bikes steering mechanism was a little off so the balance was totally off as well. I had to stop several times to readjust myself in the rain...not fun. But an experience I suppose. lol And I decided to cook some wonderful satay/chinese BBQ sauce pork slices with mushrooms, garlic, and onions. I used the sauce that I had found at the foreign foods market. I was excited for that and so happy to be able to use this ingredient that I so love. I think I will invite the Japanese teachers a couple at a time over to my apt. for dinner one day. Either Chinese cuisine or French fusion. one or the other I suppose. I'll ask which they prefer.
Otsukare-sama for reading!! Pictures coming soon! Oh, and Mr. Gorgeous from the high school personally called me on my cell phone from his today...!!! ^^ Although it was just to check on why I had called for him at the high school from the elementary. I just wanted to know if I had to go over to the high school today or not. But because it was test day there was no reason for me to go. He called me around 7pm though. Way after I had called him during school hours. haha. In a way, that made me kinda giggly and happy. haha. I'm such an easily pleased person. =P I'm not sure if it's proper or no but I'm really casual in English with him. I talk to him like I would talk to my guy friends, except not as rough and sarcastic and weird. hehe. I don't want to scare him away. lol
Weird Japenglish or Engrish of the day:
Lovemagedden, Blackmusic
YAY! I'm back to teaching my beloved Sakura class/gumi. I love these kids and have memorized everyone's names! hehe. They're the only class where I know everyone's names and face by heart. And they have only 17 students...so it helps. Plus it really really helps that they refer to themselves in third person all the time. I think it's absolutely adorable like that. But please don't do it when you're out of elementary...it's disturbing. Nagomi-chan for example would go "Nagomi wa ne. Nagomi ne. ne." lol They use alot of ne's and sa's lol That's why sometimes I'm not sure what they want to say to me or what they are saying to me. =P
Anyways, so today my beloved Ikuma wasn't there which I was sad. I had prepared sticker sheets for all of them where they get cute smily face stickers everytime they do their best in class. They were so excited for it!! And incredibly happy! It was just a little index card with grid lines that I had drawn on them and a smily face sticker in one box. They said they were going to show their parents and everything. hehe. I was happy for them. I still gave Ikuma a sticker even though he wasn't here. I'm pretty sure he would've wanted one anyways. And he does participate and listen to me in my previous class. So he would've earned it. I'll just say it was a sticker from the first time I taught class.
Today I started off with review of "Hello. My name is..." to which all of them remembered very well! I was so proud! And then we moved on to colors. I showed them crayon colored pictures that I had drawn of animals and items, etc. that had different colors on them. Trust me, my art wasn't the greatest but the kids liked it. lol I had a blue pig on there too because I wasn't exactly sure what to use for blue and I didn't want fruits because I had too many already. So blue pig it is. Hey, it's like the blue horse in "Brown Bear" okay? Totally legit. I made them repeat after me and would say it a couple of times alternating between loud and whisper voices and posture. The kids remembered everything. Very good. ^_^ And then they got excited when I told them to go find the colors I ask for in the classroom. They kept trying to get my attention to show me everything of that specific color that was in the class...."THERESA-SENSEI! BLUE BLUE!!" it's very hard listening to about 12 little things trying to tell you what they have or where the color is and then having them tug at you and stuff...haha Then we went out to play red light green light to which they were all very excited to do. At lunch the half child wanted me to sit at their table with him so I did. And he talks soooo much. The other kids around him barely had a chance to talk so I had to constantly momentarily pause him and let the other kids speak. The girls actually take turns talking while the boys just jump on in and start talking regardless of who originally had the right of way. lol hmmm....
So after that I headed over to the elementary with absolutely nothing that I needed to do. All I did was prep for my lessons for the next day. I didn't really even get to see the kids. Actually, I'm not too sure if they even care to see me all the time. I started to sit in less and less in class as an experiment to see if that affected their attitude towards me. And it did! The less I sit in on their class the more they seem to be happy to see me when I just pass by on the occasions. haha. I think it's because they might get too used to seeing me be all silent and still in the back of the class and then it wouldn't be as exciting to play with me anymore because all they'll have is that image of me in the classroom standing still all the time. I'll try this for a couple more days and see if it's still the same or what I should do as a tactic to get them excited whenever they see me so that they know it's happy english class time.
Sept. 15th Tuesday
HAHA! I just saw a commerical right now that was advertising a club/party somewhere and it was called Disco&Blackmusic Party with "Boogieland" playing in the background!!!! lol It's terrible.
Anyways, so today is a seriously busy day at the elementary. I first start off teaching the 3rd graders during 2nd period, 4th graders 3rd period, and then 5th graders during 4th period, then lunch with the 4th graders. This will be my first time teaching the 3rd and 4th grade kiddies. I'm excited yet nervous cuz I'm not sure how it'll go. But as long as I stay myself and be super genki, the kids will just feed off my energy and go with that. I hope...
So first, off to the 3rd graders and Ootani-sensei. I had wanted to use the projector and computer for my self-intro but Ootani-sensei had forgotten it and the thing wasn't working for some reason. So no powerpoint. Luckily I had brought my pictures with me...but only some of them, so I had to just draw most of it on the board and let them guess. haha. Then I did a chant of "Hello. My name is Theresa. Nice to meet you." Because they had all forgotten how to do the basic intro in English. I swear I think I sounded like a cheerleader. Even the kids laughed at how oddly genki I was when doing the chant. Everyone did real well. Afterwards we did the gokiburi game in which they had to use the intro phrase stated above. They first started as as cockroaches (gokiburi) then evolved into frogs, rabbits, cats, dogs, monkeys, humans and finally an angel in which they all pretended they had died...and were flying with their new wings. Every time they evolved into something they would do the action. Everyone finished quicker than I had thought. So we played Simon Says. Haha, the kids love this game. I was super hot and sweaty after this. Seriuosly, sweat was drippin off of me. It didn't help that the windows were closed as well.
Then off to 4th grade. The kids in this class are so genki and wonderful. I even heard some of them go "I'm really excited and happy." When asked why, they said "It's because it's English class." I don't think they ever have it except when with me. So they were excited to have it. I'm super glad for that. ^_^The powerpoint worked perfectly this time. And all the kids really enjoyed seeing my home in the states. =P The agenda was the same except we were much more active and had a lot of fun as well. A couple of the boys also kept callling me the white ghost blog thing that's in the Mario Bros. series games...lol I'm not sure if that's because I'm a lil chubby and pale or if that is just what they wanna call me, but I didn't mind. I laughed and thought it was funny and would just go "EEEEHHH!!??" And the kids were excited that I would have lunch with them today and kept trying to get me to sit at their tables during that time. I also was sweating like crazy in this class...it was hot and I did alot of actions.
Last was the 5th grade class, but for some reason everytime I go into this class my genkiness leaves me and I feel stuffy and restricted. It's not the problem of the windows being closed or it being hot in the class, it's the atmosphere somehow. The windows were opened in this class too. It didn't help that the kids looked very disinterested. I think maybe because they just came back from walking from the Storybook library so they must've been tired. But I just couldn't teach properly like I did the other two classes. Or maybe it's just Hisakawa-sensei that's emitting this bad aura. I'm not sure what I just couldn't be my normal self and felt unable to teach. I was unable to explain the first activitiy properly resulting in confusion and awkwardness for a little bit. Then the second activity which was interviewing was okay. But we barely had time for color basket because we had to move to another room to play and we only had 5 minutes left. They had played this before but some of the kids still had problems. And one boy was being stubborn and didn't want to call the one color that hadn't been called yet. Anyways, I'm just not too sure how to handle this class. I'm pretty sure now that Hisakawa-sensei has a terrible impression of me now. I do so well in 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade, just not this one. And it really is causing me some worry. Let's see what'll happen next time I guess.
At lunch I went and ate with the 4th graders. The kids were really happy to have me here and I was happy to eat with them. I was able to sit next to Aika-chan. She's one of the students in the class who has a mental disability. It's almost the same as Lawrence's and so she reminds me of him. She's also very sweet and gentle. There are 3 children in this school with mental disabilities and i enjoy spending time with them as they remind me of Lawrence. It comforts me to play with them and I just feel super comfortable with Aika. She doesn't really talk to much but is always happy to see me as well as the other child with the same mental disability in class. SHe responds to all my questions and will sit quietly with me in class and i don't feel pressured to have to speak with her. There's just something about this child that I feel very 安心 about. And the nice thing is the other 'normal' children in the class don't sneer or laugh at them, but actually try to help them out and clear things up for me when I don't understand what Aika-chan or the other boy is talking about. In the states at this age and elementary these kids would've been made fun of like Lawrence was, but here they are the exact opposite. I just wish that Lawrence could've been in this kind of environment instead of what he experienced back home. It would've been better for him and he wouldn't have been hurt or made fun of. Of course, this is the countryside so it is different from my old hometown of the rich kids in a city-like setting, I suppose. Children here are much nicer and wiser and better disciplined.
Anyways.....Afterwards I was invited by Ueno-sensei of the 4th grade class to go and help cut some melons. They're cantoloupes grown by the school themselves! They're not the same size as American ones they're tiny compared to that but still very good and enough for a group of 4 kids to a melon. I was amazed and happy because I hadn't had real fruit for a while because it's so expensive here. But because they grow it here themselves it's free!! YAY!! lol melon! lol Oh before this the 4th grade class had called me out to go play with them at lunch break. I ran races with the kids and played tag and carried a girl piggyback style. I think I'm the only teacher who plays with them like that. I think I become my real self when I'm with the kids. I act totally wierd and out there and like the kids themselves sometime. But I make sure not to go too far out there. I'm still a teacher after all. But I think the kids have begun to think of me as just a bigger kid. Luckily, they still listen to me. haha.
And then all of a sudden it started raining like crazy out of nowhere when it was super sunny and hot outside! And the wind came like it was a typhoon! Freakin weird! Plus lightning and thunder! I was like WTF?! I need to go home dude! So I decided to wait half an hour to see if it would subside....but no, it just kept going. I started talking to Takagi-san who is the other young teacher in all the schools I go to. She's only 22!! ^O^ YAY! I was super happy to be able to talk to her and we're both really weird and genki-like so I think we'll get along well. I asked if we can exchange numbers and what she does on the weekends. SHe says she does absolutely nothing and so she was like "PLEASE COME VISIT ME!!" lol I was like "OF COURSE!!" I'm totally goin. She's the only girl around my age that I know around here. I was like YES NEW FRIEND! And I hope that we can be good friends because I'm lacking in that dept. I mean, all the women teachers here are like my friends, but none of them are around my age and have the same humor or personality as me. So we ended up squatting in a corner of the room exchanging numbers via infrared...LOL It was a funny sight to see actually. The head teacher passed by us, saw us, stopped and stared at us for a little bit. Takagi-san looked up and was like "...Oh..." And then the head teacher started laughing. He was like, in his broken accented English, "Stand up please." Then in Japanese he said we looked like those girls with no manners who squat on the sides of streets. LOL So we shouldn't do that. haha. I thought we kinda looked like that too, except I was dressed in OL finery and Takagi-san was in sportswear. =P
Anyways, I decided to take a chance and go home in the rain. It proved more difficult than I thought. In one hand I held my umbrella, in the other I was trying to steer. But my bikes steering mechanism was a little off so the balance was totally off as well. I had to stop several times to readjust myself in the rain...not fun. But an experience I suppose. lol And I decided to cook some wonderful satay/chinese BBQ sauce pork slices with mushrooms, garlic, and onions. I used the sauce that I had found at the foreign foods market. I was excited for that and so happy to be able to use this ingredient that I so love. I think I will invite the Japanese teachers a couple at a time over to my apt. for dinner one day. Either Chinese cuisine or French fusion. one or the other I suppose. I'll ask which they prefer.
Otsukare-sama for reading!! Pictures coming soon! Oh, and Mr. Gorgeous from the high school personally called me on my cell phone from his today...!!! ^^ Although it was just to check on why I had called for him at the high school from the elementary. I just wanted to know if I had to go over to the high school today or not. But because it was test day there was no reason for me to go. He called me around 7pm though. Way after I had called him during school hours. haha. In a way, that made me kinda giggly and happy. haha. I'm such an easily pleased person. =P I'm not sure if it's proper or no but I'm really casual in English with him. I talk to him like I would talk to my guy friends, except not as rough and sarcastic and weird. hehe. I don't want to scare him away. lol
Weird Japenglish or Engrish of the day:
Lovemagedden, Blackmusic
Sunday, September 13, 2009
I'm having the time of my life but.......I'm dead tired.
September 7 Monday
Sorry for the super long time that I haven't posted. I've been really busy lately and super tired by the time I get back home. And honestly, there hasn't been anything super interesting to post about lately. Well, there is, but not as much as before. So here goes:
Today I taught the Sumire class at the nursery. They're the 4-5 year olds. Although they are still pretty enthusiastic, it just wasn't the same as Sakura class. I love both my classes but I think I'm leaning more towards the Sakura class...=P Oh! And there's a hybrid child in Sakura class too! He comes on the occasions and I've actually never seen him until today. He's half swiss half japanese! And his name is Sora. I can already tell he will be gorgeous when he gets older! I already thought that he looks like such a beautiful child. Yappari, halfies are just beautiful. haha. Then off I went to the elementary.
Then at 7 in the evening I went over to the multipurpose activities building where the taiko and judo practices were happening. 7pm was the time for children's practice for Taiko, so I joined in. And man, for warmup time I had to do some physically demanding exercises like tumbling, and leap frog, and cartwheeling, and running with the children. I was the only adult doing these things. The taiko leader/teacher just watched and laughed. The kids were really surprised to see me and thought it was funny that I was doing these things. lol I thought I looked totally dumb and inept. haha. But it was so much fun though! I learned a new song, but I can't remember it at all....too much other stuff to think about. Then I finished at 9 and came back home and passed out. Nothing else. =P
Sept. 9 Wednesday
My first hiphop class with the middle school 3rd year kids. I was able to teach 18 of them in the school gym, which by the way is just like in those dramas and animes. It's awesome looking! And huge! haha. It came with a long large mirror hidden behind whiteboards so I was happy for it. I was actually really surprised and happy that my kids did so well! They performed it really well after I taught them a couple of times. The kids found it really fun and really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed watching them do so. The boys really really respected me after that lesson. haha. THey started opening up to me more and talking to me more. I was very happy! The girls also would crowd around me and talk with me and chill with me. I felt like part of their group it was awesome. After lunch was over everyone was doing their preparations for the festival. So I went around and observed what they were doing.
Apparently the 3rd years are doing an assortment of games and fun activities. The 2nd years are doing a maze and the 1st years I think are doing a cafe...although I wasn't too clear on that. Anyways, it was fun being part of all the preparations and stuff. I always wanted to be part of a school festival and I'll get to take part in 3 of them. 2 of them, the elementary and middle school one, I'll get to actively help as the choreographer for performance routines while the high school festival I'm just there as a guest to observe and participate in whatever's needed.
Sept. 12 Saturday
I decided to go to Asahikawa for shopping stuffs at AEON/JUSCO. I left at 12 got there at 1 and didn't leave until 5pm. lol I did a lot of shopping...=P XD I bought this super cute neko-chan block pillow like thing...I'm not sure what to call it. But it was soooo cute I had to buy it. And then I bought a pair of sexy white sneaker heels. I sooo wanted to get them and so this time I was so happy to be able to buy it. Yes! And there were a lot more shoes that I wanted to buy, but I was like "no I have to wait until my next paycheck" I then bought some other random stuffs and looked at carpets/rugs that I wanted in my apt. For lunch I had negi takoyaki and dinner I bought croquettes and yakitori to eat at home. The supermarket area of this place was massive!! Freakin behemoth! It took me 2 hours to get through just the foods section. The supermarket area had a foods section, cosmetics section, and furniture section. The largest was the foods section. I also found the foreign foods store located within AEON. I was sooo excited! I bought Thai panang curry mix, and chinese cuisine seasonings that I couldn't find elsewhere. YES!!! SOOOO OVERJOYED TODAY! It was a successful day of shopping. I bought so much crap...and still wanna buy more. No, no. must wait till next paycheck.
Otsukare-sama! I will post some pictures sooon!
Sorry for the super long time that I haven't posted. I've been really busy lately and super tired by the time I get back home. And honestly, there hasn't been anything super interesting to post about lately. Well, there is, but not as much as before. So here goes:
Today I taught the Sumire class at the nursery. They're the 4-5 year olds. Although they are still pretty enthusiastic, it just wasn't the same as Sakura class. I love both my classes but I think I'm leaning more towards the Sakura class...=P Oh! And there's a hybrid child in Sakura class too! He comes on the occasions and I've actually never seen him until today. He's half swiss half japanese! And his name is Sora. I can already tell he will be gorgeous when he gets older! I already thought that he looks like such a beautiful child. Yappari, halfies are just beautiful. haha. Then off I went to the elementary.
Then at 7 in the evening I went over to the multipurpose activities building where the taiko and judo practices were happening. 7pm was the time for children's practice for Taiko, so I joined in. And man, for warmup time I had to do some physically demanding exercises like tumbling, and leap frog, and cartwheeling, and running with the children. I was the only adult doing these things. The taiko leader/teacher just watched and laughed. The kids were really surprised to see me and thought it was funny that I was doing these things. lol I thought I looked totally dumb and inept. haha. But it was so much fun though! I learned a new song, but I can't remember it at all....too much other stuff to think about. Then I finished at 9 and came back home and passed out. Nothing else. =P
Sept. 9 Wednesday
My first hiphop class with the middle school 3rd year kids. I was able to teach 18 of them in the school gym, which by the way is just like in those dramas and animes. It's awesome looking! And huge! haha. It came with a long large mirror hidden behind whiteboards so I was happy for it. I was actually really surprised and happy that my kids did so well! They performed it really well after I taught them a couple of times. The kids found it really fun and really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed watching them do so. The boys really really respected me after that lesson. haha. THey started opening up to me more and talking to me more. I was very happy! The girls also would crowd around me and talk with me and chill with me. I felt like part of their group it was awesome. After lunch was over everyone was doing their preparations for the festival. So I went around and observed what they were doing.
Apparently the 3rd years are doing an assortment of games and fun activities. The 2nd years are doing a maze and the 1st years I think are doing a cafe...although I wasn't too clear on that. Anyways, it was fun being part of all the preparations and stuff. I always wanted to be part of a school festival and I'll get to take part in 3 of them. 2 of them, the elementary and middle school one, I'll get to actively help as the choreographer for performance routines while the high school festival I'm just there as a guest to observe and participate in whatever's needed.
Sept. 12 Saturday
I decided to go to Asahikawa for shopping stuffs at AEON/JUSCO. I left at 12 got there at 1 and didn't leave until 5pm. lol I did a lot of shopping...=P XD I bought this super cute neko-chan block pillow like thing...I'm not sure what to call it. But it was soooo cute I had to buy it. And then I bought a pair of sexy white sneaker heels. I sooo wanted to get them and so this time I was so happy to be able to buy it. Yes! And there were a lot more shoes that I wanted to buy, but I was like "no I have to wait until my next paycheck" I then bought some other random stuffs and looked at carpets/rugs that I wanted in my apt. For lunch I had negi takoyaki and dinner I bought croquettes and yakitori to eat at home. The supermarket area of this place was massive!! Freakin behemoth! It took me 2 hours to get through just the foods section. The supermarket area had a foods section, cosmetics section, and furniture section. The largest was the foods section. I also found the foreign foods store located within AEON. I was sooo excited! I bought Thai panang curry mix, and chinese cuisine seasonings that I couldn't find elsewhere. YES!!! SOOOO OVERJOYED TODAY! It was a successful day of shopping. I bought so much crap...and still wanna buy more. No, no. must wait till next paycheck.
Otsukare-sama! I will post some pictures sooon!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Dude, his name is Kyohei....
Sept. 3 Thursday
So I had a failed game with the 1st year high school students called the Meishi game and the students were so lazy and kinda unwilling to play the game but I still kept the spirit of the game going. However, the boys got a kick out of it when I exchanged my meishi with theirs. They would exclaim "やった！もらったぜ！”when they received mine. lol haha. Hopefully that's a good thing. After the game, Mr. Gorgeous told me not to worry about it because the 1st years are still like little kids and are childish so I shouldn't worry about the game not going as planned. He's so sweet and reassuring....DOES HE HAVE A GF!??? lol And then after that I went to the elementary.
Again, I had nothing to do today at the elementary so I ended up wandering around. I went into the 2nd grade class and was very surprised to see not the cute pregnant teacher but a handsome male teacher in the class instead. He saw me come in and was wondering if I needed anything. He's never seen me before because it was his first day teaching today. He's replacing the cute pregnant teacher because she's taking a maternity leave. Aww...I loved that woman too. But it's okay if the guy replacing her is handsome too you know. haha. The kids were excited to see me as usual and I'm always weirdly excited when I see my lil kiddies. But other than that I'm just going to pass the time until my girl's night out with my fav middle school teachers.
At 7pm Hayashi-san came to pick me up in her wonderfully smelling car. It was comfortable too. =P Masutani-san was already in the car and then we went to go pick up cute Iwata-san. And off we went to Shibetsu city. We went to this hole in the wall Izakaya which turned out to be the best izakaya I've been to so far. Their food was ridiculously good. Like I can have that everyday and I'd be happy. We had fried squid rings, beef tataki with wasabi-butter sauce (AMAZING!!!!), soft cabbage with butter and salt (it sounds so simple but tastes like heaven), raw ham salad, and pork fried rice, and thick Taiwan style pork/bacon thingy. It's hard to describe what it is. It' just really fatty with thick meat. lol Just trust me, it's good. AMAZING! *O* And it was all you can drink. So we loaded up on alcohol galore. lol We ended up gossiping like crazy and I found out so many different things about the teachers. We even started giving nicknames to all the teachers with one of them being called "baldy" the other one called "balding". lol
We've also labeled each other. Hayashi-san is the funky teacher, Masutani-san is the abnormal one, Iwata-san is the one who spaces out all the time, and I'm the shiny sparkly one cuz apparently to them I'm super genki all the time and they feel like my aura is always shiny....lol キラキラな感じ。。。haha. I laughed so hard and so much this night I almost cried. Everyone was kinda tipsy especially Hayashi-san. And i dont' know why either, but when I'm with these ladies my Japanese becomes pretty good. =P Hmm..I need to be around them more. Iwata-san said that if I ever have time I can always look her up to go hang out and stuff. YAY! Oh...and then we started talking about penises and how Hayashi-san likes long and hard ones.....XD I love these women. We're so weird when we're all together. haha. Anyways we finished talking eating and stuff at 12am. Yeah from 7:30 until then. We had too much fun. Anyways, since Hayashi-san was kinda tipsy, Masutani-san's husband came to pick us up in his Prius. And damn was he a good looking man. Perfect body, nice deep voice, and is super caring. All the women in the car were telling me about him during dinner. lol Man, Masutani-san's a lucky woman. Her little son who is at the nursery is very smart and active too. Good family. JEALOUS! =P But it was a wonderful wonderful night.
Sept. 4 Friday
Today was another fun day at the middle school. Actually starting thursday the days have become shorter because of the middle school festival. All the students are really busy preparing for this festival. And I'm so crazy excited to be able to be a part of it. I have been asked by the head teacher to come up with a routine to teach 10 of the middle school students which I think will be all girls because the boys are loathe to do anything besides sports it seems, as ikemen as they are. On top of that the elementary festival is next month and I've been asked to come up with a routine for them too....so I've been really busy lately coming up with routines. And to add to that I also have to come up with lesson plans for the elementary school and high school...I haven't had much sleep lately. I'm still trying my best to keep this blog updated, but as you can tell it's been about 3 days since I've updated and that's a long while away from when I usually update. So I apologize for that and any other time this will occur in advance. It's because when I get home I usually just want to pass out I'm so tired. I didn't think I was going to do this much as a JET, but I don't regret it. I love my job. Actually, all my jobs I've had I love now that I think about it. hehe. <3
Anyways, during school time I was allowed to practice my routines and stuff in the second floor music room. While I was practicing I faced the windows so you could imagine the shock I had when I turned around and saw a couple of my students peering in and watching me from the two doors in the room. I was a little surprised to see them and it was during a turn in my routine that I had noticed them and so I lost balance and fell backwards causing some of the boys who were watching me to laugh. But they all gave me thumbs up and clapped in approval. Or I hope it was approval. lol Then when I was sitting in my office and some of the kids came in busy doing stuff for the festival one of the boys who had watched me dance and didn't usually talk to me started talking to me...I was like "YAY!! TALK TO ME MORE!!" lol I love it when my students talk to me in English or Japanese though sometimes I don't know what they're talking about and will just cock my to the side and make a sound like "eh?" lol
After classes were over I decided to call up Su so that we could go to Shibetsu for foods. We went to the fancy restaurant on top of the hill. The restaurant looked like a large modern cottage with lights shining from within on top of a dark hill with no light around it whatsoever. Su said it looked like the saving light of a cottage in the dark woods. haha. The inside was so modern looking and looked like it would be a super expensive place, but it wasn't. It was normal food but with higher quality and a fair price. And lamb with everything. In fact there's sheep grazing outside but it was too dark to see anything. But I know that we're eating the meat very fresh. Su kept saying "little lamb, we're going to eat you now. I know there's alot of you out there waiting to be eaten by us. ^^" lol She's sooo funny and cute. Everytime after that when we see any sheep stuffed animals or etc. she would say "oh we just ate you." =P Then we went back to Kenbuchi.
Ayako (the shrine priestess's daughter who is quite the drinker) wanted to go drinking with us in Kenbuchi so Su and I headed to Sawarabi. At Sawarabi we called up Tama-chan (the 5-6 year old class's teacher at the nursery) to come drink with us. There was more gossip and stuffs and then I was invited to go to the 30 years old and under camping party in Nayoro the weekend after next. It's for all the people who are younger than 30 who work in the town hall. And the youngest is Yuki-kun who's only 20!!! I was shocked! I was like "WHA!? There's someone younger than me there?" He's like a cute little brother then. haha. I started falling asleep halfway in and so decided to return back home. I felt rude, but they said it was okay because I was super tired looking. Thank you girls! Two drinking nights in a row I can take, but it was because I had school and classes those days so needless to say I was pooped.
Sept. 5 Saturday
Asahikawa goodness today! Su decided to show me the way to Asahikawa via my car today. We left at 12 and got to Asahikawa at 1pm. Now I know how to get there. Yay! But it really does take an hour. If I could drive like my normal speed in the states it would only take me 1/2 an hour. But I don't mind. The scenery is beautiful from Kenbuchi-Asahikawa. We went to Aeon/Jusco. The large-ass one. Like we spent 5 hours in there it was so huge. lol We went to a variety of shops, looked at shoes and clothes and ate wonderous foods. We had amazing ramen for lunch, then had chestnut and green tea ice cream crepes, takoyaki and then individual parfaits. Man...I'm going on a diet after this day. I need to be good to my body if I want to look sexy in those heels that I will be buying after payday. Yeah, I swear I'm going to buy like 3-4 pairs of shoes. They're ridiculously cute and unique. Lately, all I've been wearing are heels unless I'm practicing my dance or working out of some sort. So i'm getting used to wearing them again. And those clothes too! Losing weight now. lol
So I went to Tower Records and found the sexy limited edition DBSK book of hot love!!! It's their photo album from when they were in Saipan. The book is Korean with Japanese and English translations. Yay for that! But the English translation is adorable, it's not really proper English. You can totally understand what it's aying, but it has the Asian feel of cuteness to it's translation. haha. I don't know how to describe it, but that's how it is. =P I didn't care that it was 4560yen. I just wanted it. lol So then I went up to the register to check out. The guy at the register looked like Mizushima Hiro! He's the guy who was Nanba in the Hana Kimi drama and was also in Mei-chan no Shitsuji as the butler. The guy at the register was pretty hot I have to say. So my eyes were wandering around and I saw his name tag. And get this, EAP buddies, his name is Kyohei!!!! It was written in romanji! He had it in Kanji and below it romanji so I was able to read it! DUDE! Kyohei!!! I was like, "seriously?" You're the first guy I thought was hot all day (even though there were alot of ikemen at AEON) and your name tag happened to have Romanji on it and I happened to look at it and I happened to have done the drama where the bad boy type's name was Kyohei and you are Kyohei!!! LOL I just couldn't help but keep smiling after that. I thought it was funny. So that is what a real life Kyohei looks like. If I have a son, I want to name him that. haha. It's a hot name I think and if he'll grow up to look hot and be a bad boy type than I'm down for that name. haha. *sigh* I feel shallow...lol But I think it's funny.
Anyways, after AEON we decided to go back to Kenbuchi...and then wanted soft ice cream. So we searched around town and then decided to go over to Shibetsu to see if anything was opened and found the cafe that sold these beautifully delicious parfaits until 9pm! We were like YES!!! I had a matcha zenzai parfait and Su had Chocobanana. I LOVE MATCHA! Anyways, today was a superfun but tiring day of alot of driving. Oh, and speaking of driving, the gas for me for a full tank from empty was only 2780yen! I was surprised and super happy! Yay for a cheap car! lol Just don't break down on me now...
Anyways, good days. Now I'm heading off to sleep and will post more about monday the 7th tomorrow. G'night and otsukare-sama!
So I had a failed game with the 1st year high school students called the Meishi game and the students were so lazy and kinda unwilling to play the game but I still kept the spirit of the game going. However, the boys got a kick out of it when I exchanged my meishi with theirs. They would exclaim "やった！もらったぜ！”when they received mine. lol haha. Hopefully that's a good thing. After the game, Mr. Gorgeous told me not to worry about it because the 1st years are still like little kids and are childish so I shouldn't worry about the game not going as planned. He's so sweet and reassuring....DOES HE HAVE A GF!??? lol And then after that I went to the elementary.
Again, I had nothing to do today at the elementary so I ended up wandering around. I went into the 2nd grade class and was very surprised to see not the cute pregnant teacher but a handsome male teacher in the class instead. He saw me come in and was wondering if I needed anything. He's never seen me before because it was his first day teaching today. He's replacing the cute pregnant teacher because she's taking a maternity leave. Aww...I loved that woman too. But it's okay if the guy replacing her is handsome too you know. haha. The kids were excited to see me as usual and I'm always weirdly excited when I see my lil kiddies. But other than that I'm just going to pass the time until my girl's night out with my fav middle school teachers.
At 7pm Hayashi-san came to pick me up in her wonderfully smelling car. It was comfortable too. =P Masutani-san was already in the car and then we went to go pick up cute Iwata-san. And off we went to Shibetsu city. We went to this hole in the wall Izakaya which turned out to be the best izakaya I've been to so far. Their food was ridiculously good. Like I can have that everyday and I'd be happy. We had fried squid rings, beef tataki with wasabi-butter sauce (AMAZING!!!!), soft cabbage with butter and salt (it sounds so simple but tastes like heaven), raw ham salad, and pork fried rice, and thick Taiwan style pork/bacon thingy. It's hard to describe what it is. It' just really fatty with thick meat. lol Just trust me, it's good. AMAZING! *O* And it was all you can drink. So we loaded up on alcohol galore. lol We ended up gossiping like crazy and I found out so many different things about the teachers. We even started giving nicknames to all the teachers with one of them being called "baldy" the other one called "balding". lol
We've also labeled each other. Hayashi-san is the funky teacher, Masutani-san is the abnormal one, Iwata-san is the one who spaces out all the time, and I'm the shiny sparkly one cuz apparently to them I'm super genki all the time and they feel like my aura is always shiny....lol キラキラな感じ。。。haha. I laughed so hard and so much this night I almost cried. Everyone was kinda tipsy especially Hayashi-san. And i dont' know why either, but when I'm with these ladies my Japanese becomes pretty good. =P Hmm..I need to be around them more. Iwata-san said that if I ever have time I can always look her up to go hang out and stuff. YAY! Oh...and then we started talking about penises and how Hayashi-san likes long and hard ones.....XD I love these women. We're so weird when we're all together. haha. Anyways we finished talking eating and stuff at 12am. Yeah from 7:30 until then. We had too much fun. Anyways, since Hayashi-san was kinda tipsy, Masutani-san's husband came to pick us up in his Prius. And damn was he a good looking man. Perfect body, nice deep voice, and is super caring. All the women in the car were telling me about him during dinner. lol Man, Masutani-san's a lucky woman. Her little son who is at the nursery is very smart and active too. Good family. JEALOUS! =P But it was a wonderful wonderful night.
Sept. 4 Friday
Today was another fun day at the middle school. Actually starting thursday the days have become shorter because of the middle school festival. All the students are really busy preparing for this festival. And I'm so crazy excited to be able to be a part of it. I have been asked by the head teacher to come up with a routine to teach 10 of the middle school students which I think will be all girls because the boys are loathe to do anything besides sports it seems, as ikemen as they are. On top of that the elementary festival is next month and I've been asked to come up with a routine for them too....so I've been really busy lately coming up with routines. And to add to that I also have to come up with lesson plans for the elementary school and high school...I haven't had much sleep lately. I'm still trying my best to keep this blog updated, but as you can tell it's been about 3 days since I've updated and that's a long while away from when I usually update. So I apologize for that and any other time this will occur in advance. It's because when I get home I usually just want to pass out I'm so tired. I didn't think I was going to do this much as a JET, but I don't regret it. I love my job. Actually, all my jobs I've had I love now that I think about it. hehe. <3
Anyways, during school time I was allowed to practice my routines and stuff in the second floor music room. While I was practicing I faced the windows so you could imagine the shock I had when I turned around and saw a couple of my students peering in and watching me from the two doors in the room. I was a little surprised to see them and it was during a turn in my routine that I had noticed them and so I lost balance and fell backwards causing some of the boys who were watching me to laugh. But they all gave me thumbs up and clapped in approval. Or I hope it was approval. lol Then when I was sitting in my office and some of the kids came in busy doing stuff for the festival one of the boys who had watched me dance and didn't usually talk to me started talking to me...I was like "YAY!! TALK TO ME MORE!!" lol I love it when my students talk to me in English or Japanese though sometimes I don't know what they're talking about and will just cock my to the side and make a sound like "eh?" lol
After classes were over I decided to call up Su so that we could go to Shibetsu for foods. We went to the fancy restaurant on top of the hill. The restaurant looked like a large modern cottage with lights shining from within on top of a dark hill with no light around it whatsoever. Su said it looked like the saving light of a cottage in the dark woods. haha. The inside was so modern looking and looked like it would be a super expensive place, but it wasn't. It was normal food but with higher quality and a fair price. And lamb with everything. In fact there's sheep grazing outside but it was too dark to see anything. But I know that we're eating the meat very fresh. Su kept saying "little lamb, we're going to eat you now. I know there's alot of you out there waiting to be eaten by us. ^^" lol She's sooo funny and cute. Everytime after that when we see any sheep stuffed animals or etc. she would say "oh we just ate you." =P Then we went back to Kenbuchi.
Ayako (the shrine priestess's daughter who is quite the drinker) wanted to go drinking with us in Kenbuchi so Su and I headed to Sawarabi. At Sawarabi we called up Tama-chan (the 5-6 year old class's teacher at the nursery) to come drink with us. There was more gossip and stuffs and then I was invited to go to the 30 years old and under camping party in Nayoro the weekend after next. It's for all the people who are younger than 30 who work in the town hall. And the youngest is Yuki-kun who's only 20!!! I was shocked! I was like "WHA!? There's someone younger than me there?" He's like a cute little brother then. haha. I started falling asleep halfway in and so decided to return back home. I felt rude, but they said it was okay because I was super tired looking. Thank you girls! Two drinking nights in a row I can take, but it was because I had school and classes those days so needless to say I was pooped.
Sept. 5 Saturday
Asahikawa goodness today! Su decided to show me the way to Asahikawa via my car today. We left at 12 and got to Asahikawa at 1pm. Now I know how to get there. Yay! But it really does take an hour. If I could drive like my normal speed in the states it would only take me 1/2 an hour. But I don't mind. The scenery is beautiful from Kenbuchi-Asahikawa. We went to Aeon/Jusco. The large-ass one. Like we spent 5 hours in there it was so huge. lol We went to a variety of shops, looked at shoes and clothes and ate wonderous foods. We had amazing ramen for lunch, then had chestnut and green tea ice cream crepes, takoyaki and then individual parfaits. Man...I'm going on a diet after this day. I need to be good to my body if I want to look sexy in those heels that I will be buying after payday. Yeah, I swear I'm going to buy like 3-4 pairs of shoes. They're ridiculously cute and unique. Lately, all I've been wearing are heels unless I'm practicing my dance or working out of some sort. So i'm getting used to wearing them again. And those clothes too! Losing weight now. lol
So I went to Tower Records and found the sexy limited edition DBSK book of hot love!!! It's their photo album from when they were in Saipan. The book is Korean with Japanese and English translations. Yay for that! But the English translation is adorable, it's not really proper English. You can totally understand what it's aying, but it has the Asian feel of cuteness to it's translation. haha. I don't know how to describe it, but that's how it is. =P I didn't care that it was 4560yen. I just wanted it. lol So then I went up to the register to check out. The guy at the register looked like Mizushima Hiro! He's the guy who was Nanba in the Hana Kimi drama and was also in Mei-chan no Shitsuji as the butler. The guy at the register was pretty hot I have to say. So my eyes were wandering around and I saw his name tag. And get this, EAP buddies, his name is Kyohei!!!! It was written in romanji! He had it in Kanji and below it romanji so I was able to read it! DUDE! Kyohei!!! I was like, "seriously?" You're the first guy I thought was hot all day (even though there were alot of ikemen at AEON) and your name tag happened to have Romanji on it and I happened to look at it and I happened to have done the drama where the bad boy type's name was Kyohei and you are Kyohei!!! LOL I just couldn't help but keep smiling after that. I thought it was funny. So that is what a real life Kyohei looks like. If I have a son, I want to name him that. haha. It's a hot name I think and if he'll grow up to look hot and be a bad boy type than I'm down for that name. haha. *sigh* I feel shallow...lol But I think it's funny.
Anyways, after AEON we decided to go back to Kenbuchi...and then wanted soft ice cream. So we searched around town and then decided to go over to Shibetsu to see if anything was opened and found the cafe that sold these beautifully delicious parfaits until 9pm! We were like YES!!! I had a matcha zenzai parfait and Su had Chocobanana. I LOVE MATCHA! Anyways, today was a superfun but tiring day of alot of driving. Oh, and speaking of driving, the gas for me for a full tank from empty was only 2780yen! I was surprised and super happy! Yay for a cheap car! lol Just don't break down on me now...
Anyways, good days. Now I'm heading off to sleep and will post more about monday the 7th tomorrow. G'night and otsukare-sama!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Ah, kids and boys.
Sept. 1 Monday
Today I had no classes at the elementary school again, but had to stay there until 1pm. I don't mind really. I actually quite like being at the elementary school. The children here are really very sweet and friendly. And love me. haha That's the best part. XD I also have a lot of freedom of movement here and it's not awkward for me to just walk into a class like it is for middle school and high schools. So I figured out some scheduling stuffs and lesson plans and then went to go visit the different classes again. This time I went to the second floor to visit Ootani-sensei's class. The children were very surprised to see me and happy. They wanted to know when i would be teaching their class. Sadly I only teach 3rd and 4th grade once and if I'm lucky twice a month.:( But they were excited to have me just stand in the class nonetheless. I then went back down to visit the 1st graders, and I have to say, they're my favorite class here at the elementary. Well, favorite as in of the classes I don't teach. lol Though i really do wish I could teach them though. I teach the nursery kids which are right before elementary 1st graders so I dont' know why they don't really have me continue. But I guess it's for time constraints and stuff. Oh, and for lunch today we had bibimbap, a chinese type soup, and this amazing tasting yogurt. It was soooooooo good. Damn, if I ate this well in the states when I was a kid maybe I would be skinnier and healthier...or fatter. haha.
The first graders are absolutely adorable and cute and still have baby fat cheeks. The boys and girls are very grabby still and would crowd me during break and grab my hands and tap me and try to pull me to whatever it is they want to show me. And when it's art time they all drew something for me! It was soooo cute! I'm going to put it on my desk to show off proudly. They drew me weird items and people, but I thought they were funny and wonderful because it was made by the cuties. XD They even asked me when I would be teaching them English and I wasn't sure how to respond to them so i just said whenever I come in I will teach you an English word because I will never be able to actually have a class with them. Boooo..... They asked me to speak English and were absolutely amazed at the fact and they just kept saying "sugei!" lol Cuties, absolutely, every one of them. They were learning math when I came in and it was just wonderful simple math: using unit blocks, they count them out to equal numbers 10 or above. Ah, back in the day. The teacher for this class is an amazing man and patient and wonderful. Well, I suppose you have to be to teach 1st graders. Although again when I witnessed the discipline of these kids in class I'm just amazed. The class has two little student leaders, as does all the classes; a boy and a girl. And they lead the class in morning greetings and closings. The minute that happens all the kids become attentive and quiet. It's crazy! Although they would keep glancing back at me and smiling. haha. Anyways, getting back to the original sentence...if only the teacher was handsome or ikemen and not married, perfect candidate for a husband. =P
I know, I'm always on the lookout, but not exactly interested to have one. I just like looking or evaluating them men. lol Well, afterwards I went to the high school. At the high school everything was still as usual. Mr. Gorgeous came to talk to me about lesson plans today and he was in his suit as good looking as ever. lol We were going to do my self intro game that I had thought of that would get the kids using their English and being active. I like to see them having fun when I'm here. Not just a droll English class as it so often is. So I had them make business cards for themselves and draw a face and decorate it. At first, they were really confused as to what to do and their English really is lower than that of the junior high students. On a side note, Hayashi-san from the middle school told me it was because many of the students in high school are not from Kenbuchi because you have to get tested to get into it. Kenbuchi is specifically for social welfare and agriculture so the students aren't as into English as the junior high kids. Although in high school I don't use any Japanese whatsoever, but in middle school I still use it alot. Which I'm not sure if I should be or not with the students. Otherwise they don't really understand me and they don't know what to talk with me about. But I will start using English everywhere now, except for elementary and the nursery.
Sorry for digressing so much, but back to the main point of the English class. So at first when I walked into the class everyone was so not into it and some even fell asleep before I said anything to them. Mr. Gorgeous just let them be. And so I did too because I felt that it is not my place to discipline them as this is not my culture but theirs. If they have a different way of disciplining, then so be it. I'll let the teachers handle it. Although, I did get them to wake up and pay more attention when I had them decorate their cards and have fun doing it. =P The girls got really into it and because of that they really started talking to me and asking me questions. I'm glad that my fun activities are making them open up to me more. Though, the boys I will have to work on. Don't worry I'll use my Theresa charm! =P haha. Gotta lose some weight for that to work. Mr. Gorgeous was so cute about making his cards, he was having fun making them too. He was standing next to me writing it and he would say out loud for his personality description that he was cool and deep. LOL He is pretty cool... and gorgeous for that matter. >D
Sadly, however, the class ran out of time to even start the game. So we held onto the cards until thursday when i see them again. After class ended I walked around for a while with nothing to do. I decided to go buy some ice cocoa from the vending machine. It tasted amazing! Like seriously good! The milk in it is Hokkaido milk so you can imagine the richness and everything. Strangely, I haven't actually gained weight from all the sweets that contain milk from Hokkaido. I've actually lost some. Hmm....it can't be for reals. Something this rich tasting can't help you lose weight...lol After I finished my drink I started wandering again. And I heard these three obviously the cool kids boys sitting on the hallway benches chatting away. I walked past them and said "hello" and they were like "wha? whoa..hello?" and then started laughing. lol I walked up the stairs to the second floor and as I did I heard them trying to say "ALT" in English and laughing about it. I decided to help them out as I peered over the balcony to talk to them. They then started to try to say things in English and talk about me. lol I left them as they were and wandered around again. I feel like that's all I do alot of times. But I'd rather wander around with not much to do instead of being stuck at my desk in a silent teacher's office with nothing to do.
When I went back downstairs I heard the boys talking again. I came down the stairs on the opposite side of the hallway where the boys sat and overheard them trying to say some things in English and talk about me, though I'm not sure what they were saying. They were surprised to see me as I walked by. haha. They were then like "wait, what's your name?" I told them and they were like "ooo". Apparently they're 2nd years so i don't ever teach them, although i would like to. They seem to have the best looking boys like these ones and the most outgoing ones. Well, nothing else really happened this day besides going home to cook myself some good meat and planning my hip hop routines for the elementary kids.
Sept. 2 Wednesday
FREAKIN COLD!!!!! I don't know why but this morning was ridiculously cold! I was freezing! ANd I still had to bike all the way to the middle school. And then in the afternoon it got really hot....I don't understand. lol But Yay for the relaxing fun atmosphere of the middle school. First thing that happens in the morning when I get there is that two of the female teachers were playing on their DS's with each other. hahah. I went over to look at what they were playing. It's called "Friend collection" And is kinda like tamagotchi but with the pets being your friends. lol They would all play with that and then when a student came in they would quickly hide their DS's. lol
Today I went to teach the 3rd, 2nd and 1st years. In the 2nd year class there's a new transfer student who's quite the personality. No problems for him. In the third year class we reviewed stuff and then we played the game that I had suggested to help students with their listening and comprehension skills. However, Shibata-sensei (the JTE I work with) would explain everything to them in Japanese and I barely got to say anything! I was surprised and not pleasantly...I wanted to tell the students the directions in English to check their listening ability, but I wasn't able to. Everything was in Japanese and it sounded as if he was the one who came up with the idea. I was a little miffed but I kept it in and kept cordial about it with him. Afterwards I had a consolidation with him about the class today and I has asked him if it was okay if next time I could first say the instructions in English and then he can translate if they don't understand. He said "of course, it was just because of time constraints that we couldn't do that today." So I let it off. I really would like to play more games and get the kids more excited in learning English, but they way he teaches, as cool and funny a teacher as he is it's just so droll for the students. It's basically passage reading and then answering questions, but in a non creative way. I want them to have fun with English when I'm there. I just feel like a tape recorder. So I'm going to try and see if I can talk to the teacher about implementing more fun activities and games.
After teaching all the classes I went back to my office. And then I walked around for a bit again. I saw my fav. 2nd year class outside getting ready for PE and walked over to the door and poked my face out to say hello. The girls were ecstatic to see me and talked to me quite a lot. The boys were out playing soccer on the field. One of the girls came up to me and asked what I thought about Shibata-sensei. I wasn't exactly sure if she meant in terms of a love interest or in terms of personality. So i asked why and she explained that she doesn't really like him because he talks too much nonsense in class and is strict with them. I do have to admit he is pretty strict with the kids. Even though he tries to make the class fun and is funny. And he does talk alot during classtime where I would really like to talk too. lol As an example: today he gave some sort of sermon to the first grade class about how loud they were when moving chairs and stuff this morning. I felt the lecture was a little too long and some of the kids were kind of getting antsy and unhappy about it. I didn't really understand it and some of the kids kept looking at me to see if I knew what he was saying so that they wouldn't have to face me with those thoughts. I feigned ignorance. This was not business to begin with anyways.
When school was over I walked out to say goodbye to some students. One of the second year girls came over to hug me goodbye. I appreciated it quite alot. XD Hayashi-san (one of the super friendly female teachers) was also there and so I talked with her for a bit. Then the cool and best looking 3rd year boys came out of the changing room where I had peeked in earlier because I just saw people crowding around there and I didn't know what it was...I didn't see anything though. =P When they came out all cool looking Hayashi-san made the comment, "ah, it's the ikemen group." lol Haha. They are, they really are. They saw us and waved to us and we waved back. I told Hayashi-san I thought these boys were cool. And so she went over to tell the boys about what I said and then was like "Ne, Theresa?" I just nodded nonchalantly and said "you guys are really super cool!" And they were all like "Yosha!!" lol And got all bigheaded and happy. lol The hottest one of them waved his hand at me and said "Come! Come to my age!" LOL I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Maybe that if I was his age he would give me chance? Or that I should like a guy his age...? lol I was confused with the comment and ended up laughing. And then walked back into my office. Man, I wish the high school had more boys like them. I don't think i will see half of these kids in my high school since I'm sure not all of them want to become farmers, etc.
As soon as all the kids had left, the female teachers, of which there are only 4 of us and the one office personnel told me about a dinner plan for just the girls tomorrow night in Shibetsu city. Whoo! Girl's night out! I'm down! lol And they want to go drinking too. haha. I love these women. They're my favorite teachers actually. They're so funny and open. I wish I could talk to them more though. So this will be a good chance! ^^ So because of that we all started exchanging phone numbers and stuff. It was kinda cute to see them all doing that. The guy teachers just kinda minded their own business. lol
So anyways, it's late, and i'm ready to pass out and go to sleep. Otsukare-sama! Thanks for keeping up with me again!
Evaluation of schools:
Today I had no classes at the elementary school again, but had to stay there until 1pm. I don't mind really. I actually quite like being at the elementary school. The children here are really very sweet and friendly. And love me. haha That's the best part. XD I also have a lot of freedom of movement here and it's not awkward for me to just walk into a class like it is for middle school and high schools. So I figured out some scheduling stuffs and lesson plans and then went to go visit the different classes again. This time I went to the second floor to visit Ootani-sensei's class. The children were very surprised to see me and happy. They wanted to know when i would be teaching their class. Sadly I only teach 3rd and 4th grade once and if I'm lucky twice a month.:( But they were excited to have me just stand in the class nonetheless. I then went back down to visit the 1st graders, and I have to say, they're my favorite class here at the elementary. Well, favorite as in of the classes I don't teach. lol Though i really do wish I could teach them though. I teach the nursery kids which are right before elementary 1st graders so I dont' know why they don't really have me continue. But I guess it's for time constraints and stuff. Oh, and for lunch today we had bibimbap, a chinese type soup, and this amazing tasting yogurt. It was soooooooo good. Damn, if I ate this well in the states when I was a kid maybe I would be skinnier and healthier...or fatter. haha.
The first graders are absolutely adorable and cute and still have baby fat cheeks. The boys and girls are very grabby still and would crowd me during break and grab my hands and tap me and try to pull me to whatever it is they want to show me. And when it's art time they all drew something for me! It was soooo cute! I'm going to put it on my desk to show off proudly. They drew me weird items and people, but I thought they were funny and wonderful because it was made by the cuties. XD They even asked me when I would be teaching them English and I wasn't sure how to respond to them so i just said whenever I come in I will teach you an English word because I will never be able to actually have a class with them. Boooo..... They asked me to speak English and were absolutely amazed at the fact and they just kept saying "sugei!" lol Cuties, absolutely, every one of them. They were learning math when I came in and it was just wonderful simple math: using unit blocks, they count them out to equal numbers 10 or above. Ah, back in the day. The teacher for this class is an amazing man and patient and wonderful. Well, I suppose you have to be to teach 1st graders. Although again when I witnessed the discipline of these kids in class I'm just amazed. The class has two little student leaders, as does all the classes; a boy and a girl. And they lead the class in morning greetings and closings. The minute that happens all the kids become attentive and quiet. It's crazy! Although they would keep glancing back at me and smiling. haha. Anyways, getting back to the original sentence...if only the teacher was handsome or ikemen and not married, perfect candidate for a husband. =P
I know, I'm always on the lookout, but not exactly interested to have one. I just like looking or evaluating them men. lol Well, afterwards I went to the high school. At the high school everything was still as usual. Mr. Gorgeous came to talk to me about lesson plans today and he was in his suit as good looking as ever. lol We were going to do my self intro game that I had thought of that would get the kids using their English and being active. I like to see them having fun when I'm here. Not just a droll English class as it so often is. So I had them make business cards for themselves and draw a face and decorate it. At first, they were really confused as to what to do and their English really is lower than that of the junior high students. On a side note, Hayashi-san from the middle school told me it was because many of the students in high school are not from Kenbuchi because you have to get tested to get into it. Kenbuchi is specifically for social welfare and agriculture so the students aren't as into English as the junior high kids. Although in high school I don't use any Japanese whatsoever, but in middle school I still use it alot. Which I'm not sure if I should be or not with the students. Otherwise they don't really understand me and they don't know what to talk with me about. But I will start using English everywhere now, except for elementary and the nursery.
Sorry for digressing so much, but back to the main point of the English class. So at first when I walked into the class everyone was so not into it and some even fell asleep before I said anything to them. Mr. Gorgeous just let them be. And so I did too because I felt that it is not my place to discipline them as this is not my culture but theirs. If they have a different way of disciplining, then so be it. I'll let the teachers handle it. Although, I did get them to wake up and pay more attention when I had them decorate their cards and have fun doing it. =P The girls got really into it and because of that they really started talking to me and asking me questions. I'm glad that my fun activities are making them open up to me more. Though, the boys I will have to work on. Don't worry I'll use my Theresa charm! =P haha. Gotta lose some weight for that to work. Mr. Gorgeous was so cute about making his cards, he was having fun making them too. He was standing next to me writing it and he would say out loud for his personality description that he was cool and deep. LOL He is pretty cool... and gorgeous for that matter. >D
Sadly, however, the class ran out of time to even start the game. So we held onto the cards until thursday when i see them again. After class ended I walked around for a while with nothing to do. I decided to go buy some ice cocoa from the vending machine. It tasted amazing! Like seriously good! The milk in it is Hokkaido milk so you can imagine the richness and everything. Strangely, I haven't actually gained weight from all the sweets that contain milk from Hokkaido. I've actually lost some. Hmm....it can't be for reals. Something this rich tasting can't help you lose weight...lol After I finished my drink I started wandering again. And I heard these three obviously the cool kids boys sitting on the hallway benches chatting away. I walked past them and said "hello" and they were like "wha? whoa..hello?" and then started laughing. lol I walked up the stairs to the second floor and as I did I heard them trying to say "ALT" in English and laughing about it. I decided to help them out as I peered over the balcony to talk to them. They then started to try to say things in English and talk about me. lol I left them as they were and wandered around again. I feel like that's all I do alot of times. But I'd rather wander around with not much to do instead of being stuck at my desk in a silent teacher's office with nothing to do.
When I went back downstairs I heard the boys talking again. I came down the stairs on the opposite side of the hallway where the boys sat and overheard them trying to say some things in English and talk about me, though I'm not sure what they were saying. They were surprised to see me as I walked by. haha. They were then like "wait, what's your name?" I told them and they were like "ooo". Apparently they're 2nd years so i don't ever teach them, although i would like to. They seem to have the best looking boys like these ones and the most outgoing ones. Well, nothing else really happened this day besides going home to cook myself some good meat and planning my hip hop routines for the elementary kids.
Sept. 2 Wednesday
FREAKIN COLD!!!!! I don't know why but this morning was ridiculously cold! I was freezing! ANd I still had to bike all the way to the middle school. And then in the afternoon it got really hot....I don't understand. lol But Yay for the relaxing fun atmosphere of the middle school. First thing that happens in the morning when I get there is that two of the female teachers were playing on their DS's with each other. hahah. I went over to look at what they were playing. It's called "Friend collection" And is kinda like tamagotchi but with the pets being your friends. lol They would all play with that and then when a student came in they would quickly hide their DS's. lol
Today I went to teach the 3rd, 2nd and 1st years. In the 2nd year class there's a new transfer student who's quite the personality. No problems for him. In the third year class we reviewed stuff and then we played the game that I had suggested to help students with their listening and comprehension skills. However, Shibata-sensei (the JTE I work with) would explain everything to them in Japanese and I barely got to say anything! I was surprised and not pleasantly...I wanted to tell the students the directions in English to check their listening ability, but I wasn't able to. Everything was in Japanese and it sounded as if he was the one who came up with the idea. I was a little miffed but I kept it in and kept cordial about it with him. Afterwards I had a consolidation with him about the class today and I has asked him if it was okay if next time I could first say the instructions in English and then he can translate if they don't understand. He said "of course, it was just because of time constraints that we couldn't do that today." So I let it off. I really would like to play more games and get the kids more excited in learning English, but they way he teaches, as cool and funny a teacher as he is it's just so droll for the students. It's basically passage reading and then answering questions, but in a non creative way. I want them to have fun with English when I'm there. I just feel like a tape recorder. So I'm going to try and see if I can talk to the teacher about implementing more fun activities and games.
After teaching all the classes I went back to my office. And then I walked around for a bit again. I saw my fav. 2nd year class outside getting ready for PE and walked over to the door and poked my face out to say hello. The girls were ecstatic to see me and talked to me quite a lot. The boys were out playing soccer on the field. One of the girls came up to me and asked what I thought about Shibata-sensei. I wasn't exactly sure if she meant in terms of a love interest or in terms of personality. So i asked why and she explained that she doesn't really like him because he talks too much nonsense in class and is strict with them. I do have to admit he is pretty strict with the kids. Even though he tries to make the class fun and is funny. And he does talk alot during classtime where I would really like to talk too. lol As an example: today he gave some sort of sermon to the first grade class about how loud they were when moving chairs and stuff this morning. I felt the lecture was a little too long and some of the kids were kind of getting antsy and unhappy about it. I didn't really understand it and some of the kids kept looking at me to see if I knew what he was saying so that they wouldn't have to face me with those thoughts. I feigned ignorance. This was not business to begin with anyways.
When school was over I walked out to say goodbye to some students. One of the second year girls came over to hug me goodbye. I appreciated it quite alot. XD Hayashi-san (one of the super friendly female teachers) was also there and so I talked with her for a bit. Then the cool and best looking 3rd year boys came out of the changing room where I had peeked in earlier because I just saw people crowding around there and I didn't know what it was...I didn't see anything though. =P When they came out all cool looking Hayashi-san made the comment, "ah, it's the ikemen group." lol Haha. They are, they really are. They saw us and waved to us and we waved back. I told Hayashi-san I thought these boys were cool. And so she went over to tell the boys about what I said and then was like "Ne, Theresa?" I just nodded nonchalantly and said "you guys are really super cool!" And they were all like "Yosha!!" lol And got all bigheaded and happy. lol The hottest one of them waved his hand at me and said "Come! Come to my age!" LOL I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Maybe that if I was his age he would give me chance? Or that I should like a guy his age...? lol I was confused with the comment and ended up laughing. And then walked back into my office. Man, I wish the high school had more boys like them. I don't think i will see half of these kids in my high school since I'm sure not all of them want to become farmers, etc.
As soon as all the kids had left, the female teachers, of which there are only 4 of us and the one office personnel told me about a dinner plan for just the girls tomorrow night in Shibetsu city. Whoo! Girl's night out! I'm down! lol And they want to go drinking too. haha. I love these women. They're my favorite teachers actually. They're so funny and open. I wish I could talk to them more though. So this will be a good chance! ^^ So because of that we all started exchanging phone numbers and stuff. It was kinda cute to see them all doing that. The guy teachers just kinda minded their own business. lol
So anyways, it's late, and i'm ready to pass out and go to sleep. Otsukare-sama! Thanks for keeping up with me again!
Evaluation of schools:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)