I really don`t know why, but facebook is being a bitch and not allowing me to post pictures. Boo.... I have so many too!
October 26th Monday
So I know it`s Friday now and I`m writing about something several several days ago. My life has become pretty busy and a hectic adventure so it`s beginning to get harder and harder for me to post and update stuffs. But I will still try. Oh, and would you guys rather me write about stuff everyday like a diary? Or write when big stuff or amazing things happen? Which one?
I really really wanted to go to Asahikawa for dinner today like hardcore, so I asked Su if she wanted to come along. I didn`t care that it would take about an hour to drive there and back and Su didn`t seem to mind either. SO yes! I really wanted Shabu-shabu, but I didn`t know where I could get it. And neither did Su. So we just took a long drive around the city getting lost a couple of times and finding the super bright neon lights section advertising all the izakayas and bars and restaurants all around. I got so excited when I saw that area because it reminded me of Tokyo which I sorely missed. Actually I just sorely miss big cities. THey`re just so amazing. But I still love my lil town. Like I keep saying, people are nicer and the atmosperhere is better. But I do miss the bright lights big city feel. I got so happy when I saw that street and told Su that next time we are for sure definitely coming here. No joke.
And then I decided that I wanted to try out the buffet I keep seeing advertised in magazines and stuff called "Five Star". So we decided to go there. That was a long long away from where we entered the city. It was actually near the zoo. I was like dude, this is eating up my gas. But it`s all for the food. So we got there and I smelled something that smelled like yakiniku. And lo and behold, there on every table was a grill. It was a buffet with all you can eat yakiniku!!!! I was suddenly reminded of "Gut`s Soul" (EAP CREW! eating till we barfed). Good times. So the buffet was pretty big, but there was barely anybody there because, well, it was a monday night. Yeah. I was crazy and came all the way here to Asahikawa on a monday night just for food. But Asahikawa has a larger variety of foods to choose from and better tasting too. =P SO at the buffet, there was the yakinku section, western foods section, chinese food section, korean food, japanese food, dessert section complete with a large chocolate fountain, and a kids food section. It was awesome. I mean as far as the food goes, it`s okay. But the presentation was beautiful and you get to make your own ramen! And dessert section was HUGE! So it wasn`t bad. And in the booth behind us were 4 hot guys that I thought might`ve been in their 3rd year in high school or 1st year in college. Even Su said that one of them was pretty ikemen. Hahah.
So we ate till we were bursting and decided to head on home. On our way home I spotted these beautiful beautiful houses on my left and decided to turn into the street area to look at them. And these houses were awesome! They`re not terribly big, probably big enough for a family of 5. But the decor and architecture for these houses were way too cool. They were all very artistically contemporary style. But there were some that reminded me of American style houses. I however, adore the Japanese style contemporary architecture houses. Su, though, likes the American style ones and we both said that we should switch places. haha. Dude, if I lived in one of those houses, I wouldn`t leave Japan. =P After 1 hour of milling around the neighborhood we took to the streets for home. However, we took some weird "country" path that Su told me to get on where there were barely any lights, barely and houses and just fields and blackness. I was like "Su...where are you taking me?" And she just went "hehehe. It would suck if you got a flat tire right about now wouldn`t it?" And I was scared. lol
But luckily I found the original street we had come from and went back onto that and ran into fog on our 1 hour drive back home in darkness. Seriuosly, it`s creepy to drive alone at night around here. It`s so dark with almost nothing around you when your not in a city or town area. lol
October 29th Thursday
So I decided that I would make vanilla meringue ghosts for my BOE and middle school which turned out more difficult than I thought. I wanted to make caramel apples at first, but I decided not to make the caramel or get apples because it`s so costly. Apples cost a shit load of mooney out here. So I decided it wouldn`t be cost effective. SO I bought a lot of stuff to make it with and went over to Su`s apt to cook and prep evrything. And only to find out that Su has absolutely nothing in her apt for cooking. She doesn`t cook whatsoever so she has nothing that I could use for baking. She also has no oven which is kinda essential to make Meringue. So I had to settle with using toaster oven which isn`t as good. I started at 7:30 until 1am. That was how long making about 80 of these things was exluding the help of any electruc egg beater. at about 9:30 Su came back home from the volleyball competition thingy. I was at her house by myself from 7:30pm. She left it unlocked for me. Thank you! She and Mago-chan helped me make the things until 1am. I`m so grateful to them. I gave them all the extra ones and I gave Su the leftover meringue mix and chocolate. I just let them eat everything because I`m on a diet. Or, well trying to.
But today at the elementary i wore my Ko-Rilakkuma costume to school for my special Halloween day! And I basically got tackled all day today by small children. A lot of them were like "Why are you wearing a costume?" because most have never heard of Halloween. WHen I explained it to them or did a presentation about it during class time, all the students were like "dude, we want something like that too!" lol And then I distributed stickers to all the kiddies. Everyone was super happy and excited because of it. My children now love me forever. haha. Wait till Christmas and Valentines day kiddies, I have more! Oh and even Mr. Wonderful came over to talk to me when he saw me, although it was just about describing Halloween to the little kids in his class...but he said I was sugoi! XD I was happy for that one word. It just made me giddy. haha. Anyways, afterwards I gave a lot of stuff like American candies to all my teachers.
And then I was supposed to go play badminton today, but because I had to make those meringue ghosts, there was no time. Yuki had come to find me to go play with her, but I sadly had to say no even though I wanted to. I told her to go without me and have fun. And then later I find out that she injured her achilles heel!! I felt so bad after because I had told her to go play. But she went to the hospital and is hopefully okay. I really really hope she`s okay.
On that note, I will have to end it here as I`m falling asleep writing this. It`s been a long day. But oh! It will start snowing Friday! So I`m looking forward to it, but I think I will freeze.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
I can see Russia!!
October 24th
So I`m now on a quest to look for caramel in packages that I can melt to make caramel apples for my teachers and the BOE, but apparently there`s no such thing here. Well, there is, but not for sale in bulk for making these things since there are no caramel apples here. Boo....Maybe I`ll just make little meringue ghosts or something. hehe. =P
This day Sakurai-san from the junior high decided to take me and Iwata-sensei around the northern peninsula of Hokkaido!! WOo! He`s so awesome. Actually the trip was supposed to be for viewing the swans as they have migrated here now. But yesterday Sakurai-san was like "I was thinking, and well, you have three courses to choose from. There`s the Daimyo/Tono course where we leave at 7:30am and drive to see the swans and then tour the entire northern peninsula. Then there`s the Ojou-sama course where we leave at noon to go see the swans and go the western side of the northern peninsula where Wakkanai city is. And then there`s the ______course (I don`t remember what the name was) where we go to see the swans and then come back." Both Iwata-sensei and I chose the Daimyo course. lol
So at 7:30 in the morning Sakurai-san came to pick us up and we were on our way to see the swans. The swans all flock to the little river that is in the countryside area of the next city (but then again the entire island is countryside-like, even in the cities) and just chill there with the ducks. And they`re totally not afraid of humans. Especially the ducks! There were a couple that just walked right up to me and stood next to my feet for the longest time. I really wanted to pet them, but I didn`t want to get some kind of disease especially since the Influenza has already been going around. So we fed the swans chips and stuff we bought from Seico-mart (the local conbini) which was probably terrible for them. I even told that to Sakurai-san and he just told me "yeah, these things aren`t exactly the best foods for them, but I`m gonna give it to them anyways." LOL I was like, okay. =P
So after we fed them we went up Monbetsu and followed the road up the northern peninsula and over to SoyaMisaki which is the northern most point in Japan. And there, on a fine day, you can actually see the outline of the Russian continent!!! I saw silhouettes of mountains and stuff from where we were. It was soooooo cool! I was like dude, we`re so close to Russia this is so exciting! I`ve never been, so at the moment that`s the closest it`ll be for me to go. lol Oh, btw, on our drive up we would drive next to the ocean and it was just sooo beautiful! And it reminded me of the OC area, specifically Irvine, and I miss it terribly. I miss being seaside. But, I love Kenbuchi, so it`s okay. So, at Soyamisaki, we got hungry and decided to eat at the little Ramen shop that`s perched on top of the hill there. Because it was next to the sea and this area is special for its scallops the ramen special was Scallop ramen. So freakin amazingly good! And this shop was pretty packed with people. And then these super hot gyaru-o guys came in and I was like WHA? Gyaru-o guys here in this lil place? But I was happy to see them. It`s been a little while since I`ve seen them besides on TV. haha.
After that, we went to Wakkanai city. And when I went through the city I almost had tears because I terribly missed the big city life. Wakkanai was kinda like Irvine. Actually, it really really was like Irvine. I felt so refreshed being there and was wondering what would it be like if I lived here. It was just so great looking! I think I prefer it over Asahikawa. It`s got the big city feel without being overcrowded and noisy. So after visiting some seafood places where they sold amazing hairy crabs that ranged from $30 to $90 each and there I bought some very interesting caramels. They had the normal caramel, then sea salt and butter caramels, then sweet milk caramel, and then there was melon caramel, and corn caramel. I bought the corn one, the sea salt one, and the sweet milk one. And the corn one really tasted like corn! But then again, the corn here in Hokkaido is naturally ridiculously yummily sweet so i guess it worked. Oh, on our way here we stopped off at the Bifuka rest station where they were selling foods and other souvenirs. Iwata-sensei bought croquettes and I bought the karaage. And I have to say, the karaage was the best i`ve tasted ever! So damn good and soft and juicy but crunchy on the outside since it`s been fried. I loved it. And Sakurai-san bought us corn to eat. AAhhh, I melted when I ate that corn. It was seriously the best tasting corn EVER!! SOOO DAMN GOOD HERE!! The corn, the tomatos...man, I just never knew veggies could taste so good. lol
After that we Wakkanai we wound down the western side of the northern peninsula, saw some more fat and funny swans that we had given names to, and made ridilous pathetic puns on our drive down. The puns we made were so pathetic that it was funny. For example: 稚内＝わっかんない the city name Wakkani= Wakkannai which means I don`t understand. しんご町＝信号を待ち Shingo town= Shingo wo Machi which means waiting for the traffic light to turn green. lol They were so dumb, but it was fun. It was really dark on our way back and we took all the country roads where there were barely any lights whatsoever. So we almost ran over a fox and almost ran into a deer. It was dangerous to say the least. haha. Around 6:30-7pm we got home. And I took a nice long sleep. haha Thank you so much for today Sakurai-san! I really appreciate it!
Otsukare-sama for reading all!
So I`m now on a quest to look for caramel in packages that I can melt to make caramel apples for my teachers and the BOE, but apparently there`s no such thing here. Well, there is, but not for sale in bulk for making these things since there are no caramel apples here. Boo....Maybe I`ll just make little meringue ghosts or something. hehe. =P
This day Sakurai-san from the junior high decided to take me and Iwata-sensei around the northern peninsula of Hokkaido!! WOo! He`s so awesome. Actually the trip was supposed to be for viewing the swans as they have migrated here now. But yesterday Sakurai-san was like "I was thinking, and well, you have three courses to choose from. There`s the Daimyo/Tono course where we leave at 7:30am and drive to see the swans and then tour the entire northern peninsula. Then there`s the Ojou-sama course where we leave at noon to go see the swans and go the western side of the northern peninsula where Wakkanai city is. And then there`s the ______course (I don`t remember what the name was) where we go to see the swans and then come back." Both Iwata-sensei and I chose the Daimyo course. lol
So at 7:30 in the morning Sakurai-san came to pick us up and we were on our way to see the swans. The swans all flock to the little river that is in the countryside area of the next city (but then again the entire island is countryside-like, even in the cities) and just chill there with the ducks. And they`re totally not afraid of humans. Especially the ducks! There were a couple that just walked right up to me and stood next to my feet for the longest time. I really wanted to pet them, but I didn`t want to get some kind of disease especially since the Influenza has already been going around. So we fed the swans chips and stuff we bought from Seico-mart (the local conbini) which was probably terrible for them. I even told that to Sakurai-san and he just told me "yeah, these things aren`t exactly the best foods for them, but I`m gonna give it to them anyways." LOL I was like, okay. =P
So after we fed them we went up Monbetsu and followed the road up the northern peninsula and over to SoyaMisaki which is the northern most point in Japan. And there, on a fine day, you can actually see the outline of the Russian continent!!! I saw silhouettes of mountains and stuff from where we were. It was soooooo cool! I was like dude, we`re so close to Russia this is so exciting! I`ve never been, so at the moment that`s the closest it`ll be for me to go. lol Oh, btw, on our drive up we would drive next to the ocean and it was just sooo beautiful! And it reminded me of the OC area, specifically Irvine, and I miss it terribly. I miss being seaside. But, I love Kenbuchi, so it`s okay. So, at Soyamisaki, we got hungry and decided to eat at the little Ramen shop that`s perched on top of the hill there. Because it was next to the sea and this area is special for its scallops the ramen special was Scallop ramen. So freakin amazingly good! And this shop was pretty packed with people. And then these super hot gyaru-o guys came in and I was like WHA? Gyaru-o guys here in this lil place? But I was happy to see them. It`s been a little while since I`ve seen them besides on TV. haha.
After that, we went to Wakkanai city. And when I went through the city I almost had tears because I terribly missed the big city life. Wakkanai was kinda like Irvine. Actually, it really really was like Irvine. I felt so refreshed being there and was wondering what would it be like if I lived here. It was just so great looking! I think I prefer it over Asahikawa. It`s got the big city feel without being overcrowded and noisy. So after visiting some seafood places where they sold amazing hairy crabs that ranged from $30 to $90 each and there I bought some very interesting caramels. They had the normal caramel, then sea salt and butter caramels, then sweet milk caramel, and then there was melon caramel, and corn caramel. I bought the corn one, the sea salt one, and the sweet milk one. And the corn one really tasted like corn! But then again, the corn here in Hokkaido is naturally ridiculously yummily sweet so i guess it worked. Oh, on our way here we stopped off at the Bifuka rest station where they were selling foods and other souvenirs. Iwata-sensei bought croquettes and I bought the karaage. And I have to say, the karaage was the best i`ve tasted ever! So damn good and soft and juicy but crunchy on the outside since it`s been fried. I loved it. And Sakurai-san bought us corn to eat. AAhhh, I melted when I ate that corn. It was seriously the best tasting corn EVER!! SOOO DAMN GOOD HERE!! The corn, the tomatos...man, I just never knew veggies could taste so good. lol
After that we Wakkanai we wound down the western side of the northern peninsula, saw some more fat and funny swans that we had given names to, and made ridilous pathetic puns on our drive down. The puns we made were so pathetic that it was funny. For example: 稚内＝わっかんない the city name Wakkani= Wakkannai which means I don`t understand. しんご町＝信号を待ち Shingo town= Shingo wo Machi which means waiting for the traffic light to turn green. lol They were so dumb, but it was fun. It was really dark on our way back and we took all the country roads where there were barely any lights whatsoever. So we almost ran over a fox and almost ran into a deer. It was dangerous to say the least. haha. Around 6:30-7pm we got home. And I took a nice long sleep. haha Thank you so much for today Sakurai-san! I really appreciate it!
Otsukare-sama for reading all!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
English Competition
Alright....my posts are getting farther and farther in between. I just keep not having the time for it anymore. I feel terrible. And freakin facebook is not letting me post my pictures!!!! >.< I don`t know why though. Anyways, I really will try to post up pics soon as soon as I discover why freakin facebook won`t take it.
October 20th Tuesday
So today is going to be an awesomely fun day in my opinion. I get to be one of the judges for the English Speech and Performance Competition in Shibetsu. Willing junior high kids from all the schools in Shibetsu (there are about 4 of them I think), the one middle school in Wassamu, and my one middle school in Kenbuchi do speech recitations from the textbook and performances and are judged based on that. My kids and I have been practicing non-stop everyday after school from 3pm until 6pm sometimes 7 for this thing. So in the morning I dressed more formal than usual in my cool white long sleeve button up top and my vest and made sure my hair was perfect and sexy and then left for school. I got to school way earlier than I usually would because my 2nd year kids were practicing their script at 7:40am. Ugh, early, but it`s for my kids, so it`s okay. We gathered all the props and stuff and at about 8:40 we piled everything and everyone onto the little bus and headed off the the Shibetsu community center.
When we got there I saw a tall white dude with blond hair and was like "You must be an ALT" and he was like "Oh,yeah. I`m Jonathon, the Wassamu ALT" and we did our lil intros. At first he didn`t really talk much to me and I was like..hmm...he`s not much of a talker, but his kids seemed to like him. He`s from Australia. Then I saw another tall kinda burly white dude with a brown beard and figured "You must be the Shibetsu ALT, Collin right?" And he seemed to be the nicest fun-loving teddy bear teacher. I immediately took a liking to him. He really reminds me of Santa Claus. lol Nice man. He`s from Australia as well. Both of the ALT`s are from Sydney and they`re super super tall. I felt like a little kid standing next to them even in my heels. So, anyways, Jonathon just married a Japanese teacher last year and has been working as an ALT for 8 years. JET only allows you 5 years. And so he worked for JET for 3 years, went to a different city not on JET for 2 years, and then was rehired by the Shibetsu peoples on a private contract. That was amazing. I was like, Dude, I`d definitely like to do that. Anyways, all the other students from the other schools were surprised to see me as an ALT cuz I was Asian looking and it`s been a while since they saw a female ALT. haha. The, uh, young 2nd year boys from Minami-Shibetsu seem to have taken an interest in me from my interactions with them. haha. Minami-Shibetsu`s kids were all boys, and mine were all girls, so Collin told me that they should stay away from each other. lol Cute. And of course I had the best looking Japanese English teacher among all of them. Yes, Mr. Shibata! He really looked good in his suit. haha.
So in the competition there are 2 categories: recitation and performance, and they are seperated by grades. There was only 1 person in 1st grade recitation and that was my kid, and then there were 2 groups for the 1st year performance with 2 of my girls. Then about 5 groups for the 2nd year performances. My kids (5 of them) did Urashima Taro Returns and used paper puppets on sticks to narrate the story. It was cute! And then last were my 3rd graders with their coolest performance: Kojiroh. The script was originally written by them in Japanese and I translated the whole thing into ENglish. It was about 8 pages long but they memorized everything! I was super proud of them but I knew they could do it. They`re all smart children so I had faith. I mean, they would stick around everyday after school and practice all the lines with me in their classroom and act out the script and practice the intonations I taught them. By the third time I practiced with them I knew they were going to be able to do it. And they won Best Performance in the whole show!! ^O^ WAHAHAH! And I felt so prideful when the other Japanese Teachers of English and the other ALTs told me how impressed they were with my 3rd year kids and told me I taught them well. HAHAHA!! AWESOME!! eheh. Of course, I only helped a little, it was mainly my kids that did the most of the work.
After that we ate lunch and deliberated on the winner. 1st year speech was my child, 1st year performance went to Shibetsu, 2nd year performance went to Onnebetsu because they did the cutest "Three Little Pigs" story, 2nd year speech-i forgot who, but none of my kids, 3rd year speech went to Onnebetsu, and 3rd year performance were my girls who also won best in show. heheh. WOO!! Two awards! Oh, and at lunch there was a leftover bento and no one knew what to do with it, so Shibata-sensei was like "Well, here you go Theresa, your dinner for tonight." And lo and behold the problem was solved and I had free dinner. =P Thanks Mr. Shibata! We then went back to the competition hall and announced the winners. Then when we were about to leave and I said goodbye to Collin and followed Jonathon out to where his kids and my kids were, I shook Jonathon`s hand and said goodbye and his kids were all like "wooo". haha. Jonathon was like "No, no it`s nothing like that" I just ignored it and went to my kids. eheh.
The bus ride back home was so lively because of the happy atmosphere of all the kids. There was lots of singing and applauding and happiness. Haha. Good times.
October 21st Wednesday
Not much happened during school. After school for dinner I asked if Su wanted to go eat with me at Sawarabi, witch is a very short walk from our apts. She also invited Satomi along. Tomorrow`s Satomi`s b-day so I`m thinking of buying her two cake slices from the local bakery to give to her. She`s helped me with a lot of stuff so I really appreciate her. ANyways, we had Mushroom Nabe/hotpot, and pork kebabs. =P Delicious. And I`ve been watching Ninkyo Helper lately. It`s very good because it has Mukai Osamu in it. haha. I`m a sucker for anything this sexy man does. He`s my #1 ikemen right now.
October 23rd Thursday
So I first went to the high school today. I loathe teaching at the high school. It`s because of the 3rd year boys. Not my favorite kids. The girls are fine, but the boys....The 2nd year boys are awesome though. They`re so much fun and lively! And everytime they see me they love saying Hi to me and trying to remember my name. I like that. The girls in 2nd year don`t talk very much though. But the boys are good. They`re also pretty good looking haha. I can`t wait to teach them next year. oh, and everytime Mr. Gorgeous and I pass by them they would yell out things at him. I kept thinking they were just calling him Eichi or Eiji as his nickname but then later he told me that they call him Ecchi, which means hentai, which means erotic pervert. LOL The boys think it`s funny to call him that, especially when he`s walking around with me. I think it`s pretty funny too cuz I can kinda see it in him. haha. Then it was off to the elementary.
Today I did a presentatino on Halloween for my 6th grade kiddies and they really liked it. My 6th grade girls love me. They love talking to me and everything. I`m happy for that. They also really like my hair, every chance they get they`ll come and stroke my head because they think it feels nice. haha. And they`re used to me helping them clean now, so they`ll always ask me to help them wipe the floors now. The other teachers still haven`t gotten used to me doing these things with the students I suppose. =P Oh, so at lunch break I met Mr. Wonderful in the library. I was already in there with 4 of the girls and then he came in and I was like "Oh shit." He looked really good today. Oh, btw, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders had kids with influenza so they cancelled the classes for this week. They`re coming back on Friday though, which is a very good thing. But those teachers now have a lot of time on their hands. Anyways, he came in and then I was at a lost for what to do. He came to check on the books I think...or I don`t know what he came in for cuz he doesn`t usually come into the library. But he came in this time and I just stood around reading the books over the children`s shoulders and then asked them if they knew what Halloween was and then forgot to explain it to them. I must`ve looked so stupid to him. I don`t know, whenever he`s around I can never properly talk to him or ask him questions or be cool looking. haha. I just get all clumsy and awkward around him. I need to work on that.
So after school was over and everything I went to home to prep for the community badminton activity that started this tuesday and happens every tuesday and thursday from 7:30pm until 9pm at the B&G gym. So when I got there I was very surprised to see one of my good 1st year high school boys there as well. He was also surprised to see me. So he`s a resident of Kenbuchi. Now I know. I never know where all the students come from for the High school cuz they`re all from different cities and stuff. Anyways, I also saw some of my elementary boys playing pingpong there. They were very happy and surprised to see me. I was exhilirated to see them. They`re the cutest 3rd and 4th grade boys ever and I absolutely adore them. I don`t know, this job is making me constantly "moeeee" over them. I`m starting to really really love children. But then again, I think I really love country children, not the city ones just yet. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading and I promise to get the pictures up and running as soon as possible.
October 20th Tuesday
So today is going to be an awesomely fun day in my opinion. I get to be one of the judges for the English Speech and Performance Competition in Shibetsu. Willing junior high kids from all the schools in Shibetsu (there are about 4 of them I think), the one middle school in Wassamu, and my one middle school in Kenbuchi do speech recitations from the textbook and performances and are judged based on that. My kids and I have been practicing non-stop everyday after school from 3pm until 6pm sometimes 7 for this thing. So in the morning I dressed more formal than usual in my cool white long sleeve button up top and my vest and made sure my hair was perfect and sexy and then left for school. I got to school way earlier than I usually would because my 2nd year kids were practicing their script at 7:40am. Ugh, early, but it`s for my kids, so it`s okay. We gathered all the props and stuff and at about 8:40 we piled everything and everyone onto the little bus and headed off the the Shibetsu community center.
When we got there I saw a tall white dude with blond hair and was like "You must be an ALT" and he was like "Oh,yeah. I`m Jonathon, the Wassamu ALT" and we did our lil intros. At first he didn`t really talk much to me and I was like..hmm...he`s not much of a talker, but his kids seemed to like him. He`s from Australia. Then I saw another tall kinda burly white dude with a brown beard and figured "You must be the Shibetsu ALT, Collin right?" And he seemed to be the nicest fun-loving teddy bear teacher. I immediately took a liking to him. He really reminds me of Santa Claus. lol Nice man. He`s from Australia as well. Both of the ALT`s are from Sydney and they`re super super tall. I felt like a little kid standing next to them even in my heels. So, anyways, Jonathon just married a Japanese teacher last year and has been working as an ALT for 8 years. JET only allows you 5 years. And so he worked for JET for 3 years, went to a different city not on JET for 2 years, and then was rehired by the Shibetsu peoples on a private contract. That was amazing. I was like, Dude, I`d definitely like to do that. Anyways, all the other students from the other schools were surprised to see me as an ALT cuz I was Asian looking and it`s been a while since they saw a female ALT. haha. The, uh, young 2nd year boys from Minami-Shibetsu seem to have taken an interest in me from my interactions with them. haha. Minami-Shibetsu`s kids were all boys, and mine were all girls, so Collin told me that they should stay away from each other. lol Cute. And of course I had the best looking Japanese English teacher among all of them. Yes, Mr. Shibata! He really looked good in his suit. haha.
So in the competition there are 2 categories: recitation and performance, and they are seperated by grades. There was only 1 person in 1st grade recitation and that was my kid, and then there were 2 groups for the 1st year performance with 2 of my girls. Then about 5 groups for the 2nd year performances. My kids (5 of them) did Urashima Taro Returns and used paper puppets on sticks to narrate the story. It was cute! And then last were my 3rd graders with their coolest performance: Kojiroh. The script was originally written by them in Japanese and I translated the whole thing into ENglish. It was about 8 pages long but they memorized everything! I was super proud of them but I knew they could do it. They`re all smart children so I had faith. I mean, they would stick around everyday after school and practice all the lines with me in their classroom and act out the script and practice the intonations I taught them. By the third time I practiced with them I knew they were going to be able to do it. And they won Best Performance in the whole show!! ^O^ WAHAHAH! And I felt so prideful when the other Japanese Teachers of English and the other ALTs told me how impressed they were with my 3rd year kids and told me I taught them well. HAHAHA!! AWESOME!! eheh. Of course, I only helped a little, it was mainly my kids that did the most of the work.
After that we ate lunch and deliberated on the winner. 1st year speech was my child, 1st year performance went to Shibetsu, 2nd year performance went to Onnebetsu because they did the cutest "Three Little Pigs" story, 2nd year speech-i forgot who, but none of my kids, 3rd year speech went to Onnebetsu, and 3rd year performance were my girls who also won best in show. heheh. WOO!! Two awards! Oh, and at lunch there was a leftover bento and no one knew what to do with it, so Shibata-sensei was like "Well, here you go Theresa, your dinner for tonight." And lo and behold the problem was solved and I had free dinner. =P Thanks Mr. Shibata! We then went back to the competition hall and announced the winners. Then when we were about to leave and I said goodbye to Collin and followed Jonathon out to where his kids and my kids were, I shook Jonathon`s hand and said goodbye and his kids were all like "wooo". haha. Jonathon was like "No, no it`s nothing like that" I just ignored it and went to my kids. eheh.
The bus ride back home was so lively because of the happy atmosphere of all the kids. There was lots of singing and applauding and happiness. Haha. Good times.
October 21st Wednesday
Not much happened during school. After school for dinner I asked if Su wanted to go eat with me at Sawarabi, witch is a very short walk from our apts. She also invited Satomi along. Tomorrow`s Satomi`s b-day so I`m thinking of buying her two cake slices from the local bakery to give to her. She`s helped me with a lot of stuff so I really appreciate her. ANyways, we had Mushroom Nabe/hotpot, and pork kebabs. =P Delicious. And I`ve been watching Ninkyo Helper lately. It`s very good because it has Mukai Osamu in it. haha. I`m a sucker for anything this sexy man does. He`s my #1 ikemen right now.
October 23rd Thursday
So I first went to the high school today. I loathe teaching at the high school. It`s because of the 3rd year boys. Not my favorite kids. The girls are fine, but the boys....The 2nd year boys are awesome though. They`re so much fun and lively! And everytime they see me they love saying Hi to me and trying to remember my name. I like that. The girls in 2nd year don`t talk very much though. But the boys are good. They`re also pretty good looking haha. I can`t wait to teach them next year. oh, and everytime Mr. Gorgeous and I pass by them they would yell out things at him. I kept thinking they were just calling him Eichi or Eiji as his nickname but then later he told me that they call him Ecchi, which means hentai, which means erotic pervert. LOL The boys think it`s funny to call him that, especially when he`s walking around with me. I think it`s pretty funny too cuz I can kinda see it in him. haha. Then it was off to the elementary.
Today I did a presentatino on Halloween for my 6th grade kiddies and they really liked it. My 6th grade girls love me. They love talking to me and everything. I`m happy for that. They also really like my hair, every chance they get they`ll come and stroke my head because they think it feels nice. haha. And they`re used to me helping them clean now, so they`ll always ask me to help them wipe the floors now. The other teachers still haven`t gotten used to me doing these things with the students I suppose. =P Oh, so at lunch break I met Mr. Wonderful in the library. I was already in there with 4 of the girls and then he came in and I was like "Oh shit." He looked really good today. Oh, btw, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders had kids with influenza so they cancelled the classes for this week. They`re coming back on Friday though, which is a very good thing. But those teachers now have a lot of time on their hands. Anyways, he came in and then I was at a lost for what to do. He came to check on the books I think...or I don`t know what he came in for cuz he doesn`t usually come into the library. But he came in this time and I just stood around reading the books over the children`s shoulders and then asked them if they knew what Halloween was and then forgot to explain it to them. I must`ve looked so stupid to him. I don`t know, whenever he`s around I can never properly talk to him or ask him questions or be cool looking. haha. I just get all clumsy and awkward around him. I need to work on that.
So after school was over and everything I went to home to prep for the community badminton activity that started this tuesday and happens every tuesday and thursday from 7:30pm until 9pm at the B&G gym. So when I got there I was very surprised to see one of my good 1st year high school boys there as well. He was also surprised to see me. So he`s a resident of Kenbuchi. Now I know. I never know where all the students come from for the High school cuz they`re all from different cities and stuff. Anyways, I also saw some of my elementary boys playing pingpong there. They were very happy and surprised to see me. I was exhilirated to see them. They`re the cutest 3rd and 4th grade boys ever and I absolutely adore them. I don`t know, this job is making me constantly "moeeee" over them. I`m starting to really really love children. But then again, I think I really love country children, not the city ones just yet. haha.
Otsukare-sama for reading and I promise to get the pictures up and running as soon as possible.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Freakin Influenza!!....>.<
October 9th Friday
So long time no update and no pictures yet. I`m really sorry guys, my life has been ridiculously busy lately what with the Elementary school festival coming up. I`ve been staying at school until 7-9pm helping with the preparations, especially for the 1st graders. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school Yuki and I would help Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade homeroom teacher) make costumes, props, etc. for the 1st graders` play. It`s fun, but I start lacking in sleep because then I come home and have to prep for the next day`s lesson and I try to have a decent meal.
Anyways, today when I came home it was f-Ing cold!! It dropped below 40 degrees dude! First time ever in my life to be that cold! So my lil old apt needed heating and I tried to turn on the heater to find out that I couldn`t operate it...I kept trying to push the buttons but the little screen just kept popping up green letters spelling "CL". I was like WTF? I`M FrEAKIN COLD! Work DAMNIT! And so I tried calling Su, but she couldn`t help me because she wasn`t in Kenbuchi; I called Satomi, but she too wasn`t here and so she called Mago-chan to come and help me and she dragged Ayako along. They were at a party when Satomi called them to come and I felt sooooo bad. But they both said that when they heard about my heater situation they felt bad for me and came to help. lol I get the `foreigner-is-unable-to-work-everyday-electronics` pity...But it was the first time for me to work such a heater. It`s not like the American electronic ones...It is electric in which it needs it to turn on, but the heat uses the kerosene oil from the container outside my apt. Oh and fyi, my apt area is like an explosion waiting to happen. Right outside my door is a can (or those large metal tubular things that hold gas) of Kerosene oil for my stove. And then next to my house is the large Kerosene oil container to heat up my water and the heater.
So they came over to help me try to figure out my heater and couldn`t figure it out either. Then they called Soutome-san to come over early tomorrow morning (7am on Saturday) to come and help me fix it. So I spent the night under several layers of blankets freezing as I slept...lol
October 10th Saturday
I woke up at 6:30am on a saturday to greet the dude who`s supposed to help me fix my heater. And let me tell you, my apt was like freezing over. Mago-chan also came over to help me in case I couldn`t understand his Japanese. So the man came to check on my heater and after pushing around buttons he was like "Your heater was on child-lock." Well I felt stupid. And Mago-chan was like "oh, was that the problem?" Yes, so now I know what to do when I can`t work my heater, press the child lock button 3 times. lol And the heater uses the kerosene oil to make a fire. Anyways, my room got warmer that`s for sure. Mago-chan stayed around a little bit and so I made breakfast for the both of us. She`s never had real Peanut Butter before and I just so happened to find real peanut butter in a store so I made PB&J. Woot!
Today we decided to go out shopping for stuff. It was decided last night when the girls came over to fix my heater and discovered that my living room light is dying on me. But before that I went to my 3rd-5th graders cheerleading practice to watch them. Oh! And fyi, cheerleading is a huge sport here in Kenbuchi. It`s the new in thing to do and because my town is so big on it that all the other cities around us come down and over to my lil town for cheer practice. Hehe. All the kids and coaches want me to join them because they know that I can dance. =P But I told them I`m just there to watch. The Cheerleading image in japan isn`t what you imagine in the states. It`s not full of ditzy popular girls or mean chicks or anything like the same image in the states. Totally different. I was really surprised to see some of my girls in the cheerleading team because they`re so different from the image I had. So cheer is actually a good accepted thing here. And it`s so great here that the Japan Representative Cheerleading team came here yesterday to do performances today and tomorrow. That`s cool! But unfortunately I couldn`t make it to both of them. Today`s reason was because I had already promised the girls that we would go out.
So Ayako came to pick us up in her luxury black car that I felt I should be a millionare to ride...Man, who knew the priesstess`s daughter had so much money? lol We went to Asahikawa. We first went to Yamada Electronics store and that place was HUGE!1!! And guess what!? I even saw a LOTUS there? As in the sexy lil sportscar. I was like DUDE?! WHAT!? A lotus!? WTF? But then again, I shouldn`t be surprised anymore. I swear, on the way here I saw several hot and sexy sportscars here and more than my fill of hotass motorcycles. Yes...I`m a sucker for hot vehicles. Even better, hot vehicles with hot men on them. lol Them Japanese people like them crazy looking sportscars and racecars...like maybe for some late night in the parking structure drifting races maybe? lol ehehe. >D Then we went to Toys R Us and it was amazing! They had real American products and stuff there! I was very happy to see all that. I finally bought a picture frame for my 1000piece puzzle. Then we decided to go to Karaoke!!! After 2 hours of 飲み放題 and endless songs we became hungry and went to go find food to eat.
Ayako recommended a Soup-curryスープカレー place. It was small and rundown looking on the outside, but once you step in it`s like your in an Indian cavern. The music was like funky trance Indian music and the waiters in there were all really gangsta looking. haha. Everyone in the restaurant were young and hot looking peoples. And I swear I saw a guy in there who looked exactly like Mizushima Hiro, but he was with his gf. Boo...lol The food portion was HUGE! But it wasn`t my favorite. Asahikawa is famous for its soup-curry, but I`m not too fond of it to be frank. Then we went to Mega Don Quixote!! AND IT WAS F-ING HUGE!!! LIKE DUDE!!! All my ICU EAP-ers should remember the Don Quixotes in Tokyo right? Well think that except twice as big! And it had an arcade and restaurants and brand name items in there too! Like it carried Chanel, Coach, LV. It was crazy! I think I might spend a lot of my time there in the future. haha. After that we went home. Twas a good day.
October 13th Tuesday
Yesterday was an official holiday, the day of health. So I didn`t have to go to work. But today at work I heard from my boss that some children at my elementary have influenza A H1N1!!!!! So they closed the school for the week, but the teachers still have to go to school. ANd I still have to work. So I stayed in the BOE until lunch time, went to go have lunch and then went to the high school to teach my lazy 3rd years. I really do not like teaching at the high school as the kids are disrespectful and the teachers don`t really talk. The atmosphere in the teachers` room always seems really heavy.
In my 3rd grade class I decided to play hangman with them and divided them into groups. Well, they divided themselves, so there was a group of the most noisy and inattentive boys in the class. When I asked that group to give me a letter they answered with "You`re beautiful" and "Love" and "You`re my wife" ....Hmm...I think maybe it was because I cut my hair and straightened it. lol My friend even said I looked younger, like a high school student. haha. cool. Then after that in the hallways and stuff the other boys would come and talk to me and everything more than they did before....ehehe. Well, I guess my haircut was a good thing. Now I just have to lose weight. =P
After that I went to the middle school to help the 3rd year girls with their play for the English contest on the 20th of this month. I stayed until 6pm.
October 15th Thursday
As usual I had my high school class and as soon as that was over I went home to take a nap before heading over to the elementary school. I didn`t have to teach the 1st year highschool kids today so I had an extra hour. So I took that hour to nap at home. I was dead tired. And then I went to the elementary. At the elementary none of the teachers were in the teachers lounge which was strange because since the school closed for the week there shouldn`t be any classes. So I walked around and found Kitagawa-sensei doing some things in his classroom for preparation for next week. He told me that all the teachers were in the cooking classroom on the 2nd floor. I went up and in and my glasses fogged up. lol It was so warm in the class especially since there was boiling water in a large pot. The teachers were making soba! lol They made the dough themselves and cut it and then cooked it! LOL It was awesome! I decided to help in cleaning since I got there when they were all done. I felt a little awkward at first because I`m never too sure on conversations with these teachers. It`s a little hard for me to talk with the elementary teachers. And plus my Japanese aint that good so it`s kinda a problem. ANyways, I ate the soba and it was very very good! Afterwards I decided to head over to the middle school since there was nothing for me to do at the elementary.
I stayed at the middle school until 5:30pm. And I also found out that 17 of my elementary kids have influenza...the really bad one. I`m really really worried about them because on the news there have been children dying from it. I really hope my children are alright. They`re such wonderful kids.
Otsukare-sama for reading. I promise pictures will come up soon!
So long time no update and no pictures yet. I`m really sorry guys, my life has been ridiculously busy lately what with the Elementary school festival coming up. I`ve been staying at school until 7-9pm helping with the preparations, especially for the 1st graders. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school Yuki and I would help Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade homeroom teacher) make costumes, props, etc. for the 1st graders` play. It`s fun, but I start lacking in sleep because then I come home and have to prep for the next day`s lesson and I try to have a decent meal.
Anyways, today when I came home it was f-Ing cold!! It dropped below 40 degrees dude! First time ever in my life to be that cold! So my lil old apt needed heating and I tried to turn on the heater to find out that I couldn`t operate it...I kept trying to push the buttons but the little screen just kept popping up green letters spelling "CL". I was like WTF? I`M FrEAKIN COLD! Work DAMNIT! And so I tried calling Su, but she couldn`t help me because she wasn`t in Kenbuchi; I called Satomi, but she too wasn`t here and so she called Mago-chan to come and help me and she dragged Ayako along. They were at a party when Satomi called them to come and I felt sooooo bad. But they both said that when they heard about my heater situation they felt bad for me and came to help. lol I get the `foreigner-is-unable-to-work-everyday-electronics` pity...But it was the first time for me to work such a heater. It`s not like the American electronic ones...It is electric in which it needs it to turn on, but the heat uses the kerosene oil from the container outside my apt. Oh and fyi, my apt area is like an explosion waiting to happen. Right outside my door is a can (or those large metal tubular things that hold gas) of Kerosene oil for my stove. And then next to my house is the large Kerosene oil container to heat up my water and the heater.
So they came over to help me try to figure out my heater and couldn`t figure it out either. Then they called Soutome-san to come over early tomorrow morning (7am on Saturday) to come and help me fix it. So I spent the night under several layers of blankets freezing as I slept...lol
October 10th Saturday
I woke up at 6:30am on a saturday to greet the dude who`s supposed to help me fix my heater. And let me tell you, my apt was like freezing over. Mago-chan also came over to help me in case I couldn`t understand his Japanese. So the man came to check on my heater and after pushing around buttons he was like "Your heater was on child-lock." Well I felt stupid. And Mago-chan was like "oh, was that the problem?" Yes, so now I know what to do when I can`t work my heater, press the child lock button 3 times. lol And the heater uses the kerosene oil to make a fire. Anyways, my room got warmer that`s for sure. Mago-chan stayed around a little bit and so I made breakfast for the both of us. She`s never had real Peanut Butter before and I just so happened to find real peanut butter in a store so I made PB&J. Woot!
Today we decided to go out shopping for stuff. It was decided last night when the girls came over to fix my heater and discovered that my living room light is dying on me. But before that I went to my 3rd-5th graders cheerleading practice to watch them. Oh! And fyi, cheerleading is a huge sport here in Kenbuchi. It`s the new in thing to do and because my town is so big on it that all the other cities around us come down and over to my lil town for cheer practice. Hehe. All the kids and coaches want me to join them because they know that I can dance. =P But I told them I`m just there to watch. The Cheerleading image in japan isn`t what you imagine in the states. It`s not full of ditzy popular girls or mean chicks or anything like the same image in the states. Totally different. I was really surprised to see some of my girls in the cheerleading team because they`re so different from the image I had. So cheer is actually a good accepted thing here. And it`s so great here that the Japan Representative Cheerleading team came here yesterday to do performances today and tomorrow. That`s cool! But unfortunately I couldn`t make it to both of them. Today`s reason was because I had already promised the girls that we would go out.
So Ayako came to pick us up in her luxury black car that I felt I should be a millionare to ride...Man, who knew the priesstess`s daughter had so much money? lol We went to Asahikawa. We first went to Yamada Electronics store and that place was HUGE!1!! And guess what!? I even saw a LOTUS there? As in the sexy lil sportscar. I was like DUDE?! WHAT!? A lotus!? WTF? But then again, I shouldn`t be surprised anymore. I swear, on the way here I saw several hot and sexy sportscars here and more than my fill of hotass motorcycles. Yes...I`m a sucker for hot vehicles. Even better, hot vehicles with hot men on them. lol Them Japanese people like them crazy looking sportscars and racecars...like maybe for some late night in the parking structure drifting races maybe? lol ehehe. >D Then we went to Toys R Us and it was amazing! They had real American products and stuff there! I was very happy to see all that. I finally bought a picture frame for my 1000piece puzzle. Then we decided to go to Karaoke!!! After 2 hours of 飲み放題 and endless songs we became hungry and went to go find food to eat.
Ayako recommended a Soup-curryスープカレー place. It was small and rundown looking on the outside, but once you step in it`s like your in an Indian cavern. The music was like funky trance Indian music and the waiters in there were all really gangsta looking. haha. Everyone in the restaurant were young and hot looking peoples. And I swear I saw a guy in there who looked exactly like Mizushima Hiro, but he was with his gf. Boo...lol The food portion was HUGE! But it wasn`t my favorite. Asahikawa is famous for its soup-curry, but I`m not too fond of it to be frank. Then we went to Mega Don Quixote!! AND IT WAS F-ING HUGE!!! LIKE DUDE!!! All my ICU EAP-ers should remember the Don Quixotes in Tokyo right? Well think that except twice as big! And it had an arcade and restaurants and brand name items in there too! Like it carried Chanel, Coach, LV. It was crazy! I think I might spend a lot of my time there in the future. haha. After that we went home. Twas a good day.
October 13th Tuesday
Yesterday was an official holiday, the day of health. So I didn`t have to go to work. But today at work I heard from my boss that some children at my elementary have influenza A H1N1!!!!! So they closed the school for the week, but the teachers still have to go to school. ANd I still have to work. So I stayed in the BOE until lunch time, went to go have lunch and then went to the high school to teach my lazy 3rd years. I really do not like teaching at the high school as the kids are disrespectful and the teachers don`t really talk. The atmosphere in the teachers` room always seems really heavy.
In my 3rd grade class I decided to play hangman with them and divided them into groups. Well, they divided themselves, so there was a group of the most noisy and inattentive boys in the class. When I asked that group to give me a letter they answered with "You`re beautiful" and "Love" and "You`re my wife" ....Hmm...I think maybe it was because I cut my hair and straightened it. lol My friend even said I looked younger, like a high school student. haha. cool. Then after that in the hallways and stuff the other boys would come and talk to me and everything more than they did before....ehehe. Well, I guess my haircut was a good thing. Now I just have to lose weight. =P
After that I went to the middle school to help the 3rd year girls with their play for the English contest on the 20th of this month. I stayed until 6pm.
October 15th Thursday
As usual I had my high school class and as soon as that was over I went home to take a nap before heading over to the elementary school. I didn`t have to teach the 1st year highschool kids today so I had an extra hour. So I took that hour to nap at home. I was dead tired. And then I went to the elementary. At the elementary none of the teachers were in the teachers lounge which was strange because since the school closed for the week there shouldn`t be any classes. So I walked around and found Kitagawa-sensei doing some things in his classroom for preparation for next week. He told me that all the teachers were in the cooking classroom on the 2nd floor. I went up and in and my glasses fogged up. lol It was so warm in the class especially since there was boiling water in a large pot. The teachers were making soba! lol They made the dough themselves and cut it and then cooked it! LOL It was awesome! I decided to help in cleaning since I got there when they were all done. I felt a little awkward at first because I`m never too sure on conversations with these teachers. It`s a little hard for me to talk with the elementary teachers. And plus my Japanese aint that good so it`s kinda a problem. ANyways, I ate the soba and it was very very good! Afterwards I decided to head over to the middle school since there was nothing for me to do at the elementary.
I stayed at the middle school until 5:30pm. And I also found out that 17 of my elementary kids have influenza...the really bad one. I`m really really worried about them because on the news there have been children dying from it. I really hope my children are alright. They`re such wonderful kids.
Otsukare-sama for reading. I promise pictures will come up soon!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
High School Festival!!! and more...
October 4th Sunday
いよいよ this day has come. The day of Kenbuchi`s high school festival!!! Oh, but the day before this I went to go get my hair permed damn straight and got a sleek new haircut where my hair is a sharp slanted down angle. I like it...although because I got chubbier and my hair is so straight it makes my head look smaller, my shoulders now look broader and I feel like I look fatter...>.< Well, I guess it`s motivation for me to get skinnier. I also coincidentally met Kubo-san (one of the teachers at the elementary) at the salon. haha. Oh, and I guess being a foreigner helps in the salon because you always get the young hip male owners of the place to do and cut your hair for you. =P
ANyways, so today is the festival and my hair and fashion is all set to go. lol I`m not involved with anything at the high school so I didn`t have to help as a teacher, just as an attendee. Although I think I would`ve loved to teach these kids hip hop. They would`ve been more involved than normal English class. So the kids had been selling yakitori in front of the school entryway that I had just missed when I got there. I had gotten there at 12 and they had started selling them at 10am. >.< It was 4 sticks for 200yen!! やすい！ Ah well. I met some of the past students and teachers. HOT! I was like "Who are these hot men and where did they come from????!" lol I met Yuki in the school entryway and it was actually my first time walking through the students entrance. I usually always walk in through the teacher`s entrance so it was a little wierd at first. haha. =P But the students were very genki today and made an effort to say hello to me whereas during normal school hours it`s rare. I was surprised by how genki they were with me. lol But I responded back with the same enthusiasm. Yuki and I were given free tickets for Marron cake by one of my BOE bosses. So nice!! So we first had some cake to eat and then walked over to the gymnasium to see what veggies and fruits they were selling.
The fruits and veggies they were selling were all grown by the students (hence it being an agriculture school) and these were beautiful beautiful veggies for cheap cheap prices! OH, btw, they sell the veggies that the students grow in a tent next to the school and their greenhouse and anyone can go in to buy it. You just pick out what you want and put money into the tincan. All the veggies are ridiculously cheap!! Like a bag of tomatoes is only 100yen!!! XDXDXD A Japanese pumpkin/kabocha is only 300 yen!!! WAAH! I love this town`s agriculture foods. lol ANyways, at the festival they were selling these wonderful wierd white things that looked like maggot eggs but I`m pretty sure was like popcorn or a kind of seed. It`s sweet and crunchy like the sweet popcorn and the popcorn they were selling had no taste to it whatsoever. lol Yuki had bought the popcorn and I had bouthg the wierd white things. Actually it was via donation for the snacks. So Yuki and I just put in 100 yen each. Yes...we`re cheap, but everything`s cheap here so it doesn`t matter. =P
Afterwards we decided to go to the second floor to see the activities that the kids made for us attendees to do. And found out that the 1st and 2nd years only did a small maze in their classroom that just had pictures of their escapades and activities throughout the year. It was not comparable to the awesomness and darkness of the middle school`s maze. Now that was cool. But nonetheless, good effort. Then there was the 3rd year`s "Horror House". It was actually made very very well. The entire classroom was covered with black trashbags to block out the light. The first room that you go into was very dark and only lit by a lamp and had a bed with blood on it and a desk with a diary that you can read. It would start off all happy and normal and then get distrubing where this guy starts growing weird lumps on his body, and then the writing just gets more and more erratic and larger and messier until there were only two words on the page and then nothing on the pages after that. That was pretty cool and freaky. And then the next part of the room was where the guy had died. So there was a doll that the kids use for CPR or health training that looked pretty real lying on the bed with bloodstains everywhere and freaky-ass pictures on the wall. I tell you, the scariest thing in the entire place were those pictures in my opinion. Those things freaked me out like crazy. Moving on to the next room was the surgery room, more bloodiness, and then lastly the room of death with lots more of those freaky pictures.....I was so happy to go back out into the hallway after that because of those things...Everything else wasn`t that scary, just the pictures. ANyways, I complimented the kids on their work and went back down to the 1st floor with Yuki to watch the performances that all the students were going to do.
First up was the cheer team. They were good! And they had a healthy amount of girls and boys. haha. Then after was some pretty comedic acts. Everyone was laughing hard because it was really really funny. Then some awesome dancing performed by each grade. The dancing was like para-para or johnny`s dances, so not exactly cool like it would be if I could`ve taught them hip hop (hint hint) lol. =P They all did an excellent job nonetheless. In particular was one of the 1st year boys who`s very active in English class. He was very into the dance and because of him the entire audience enjoyed it so much because his face was smiling and it looked like he was having so much fun. The other boys just had bored faces on. I`m pretty sure everyone was watching the active one because he was sooo good! I was very proud of him because he made the audience quite happy with his performance. XD I will try to enlist him in my hip hop routines. lol After all the performances were over Yuki and I decided to head across the street to the Club Hall to view the Judo competition. But it was already over by the time we got there because it happened at the same time as the school festival. But my 5th grade student, Nana, who is the daughter of the Judo master who teaches here won 1st place!! I was so proud of her! My other student had won 2nd! YAY! And then Yuki and I parted ways and went home.
On my way home, I kept thinking how bored I was right now and decided to see if Su was doing anything and rode my way over there. As it turned out Su was doing nothing! ^^ So I was like "Let`s go to Shibetsu to eat and sing Karaoke! And so invite any of the other girls who wanna come along" So only Tama-chan and Mago-chan were able to make it because it`s such a sudden request. I drove Tama-chan and Su to SHibetsu to meet up with Mago-chan who was already in SHibetsu. We decided to go singing first as it would be cheaper before 6pm. We got there at 5pm. We went to a place called Uta-ya 歌屋 where the decor was like that of old historical Japan theme. It was actually very very cool looking inside. AND it was SUPER CHEAP! We ordered the 120 minutes all you can drink set where you can drink all that you like and sing for 120minutes for only 635yen per person! Isn`t that amazing!? Although not as cheap as Korea`s noraebang I have to say.
The room you get is based on the machine you want. There are four types of machines that have different set of songs in them and because we wanted all available songs from different countries we chose the Hyper Wave machine. lol It`s very cool looking and changes colors while you`re singing! hehe. The room we were in was very nice and spacious. The TV was a flatscreen TV and all the mics were sanitized. haha. I have to admit, that`s nice. So all of us took turns singing and drinking crazy amounts of liquids (no alcohol). It was so much fun and I would love to do it again if I can. We then went to go eat at Myu because Tama-chan has never been. At Myu we ordered the ShakiShaki lamb tataki rice bowl シャキシャキラームたたき丼. That was amazingly good and I felt healthy because all the foods had no oil in them. It was basically Lamb tataki on top of a bed of lettuce leaves on top of white rice with strips of the yellow daikon mixed in. SOOO GOOD AND HEALTHY!
WHen all was done, and we had such a wonderful time talking, we all decided to go home. Since Tama-chan and Mago-chan live in the same apt. complex they went home together and so it was me and Su. Su and I decided to go to Seico Mart for ice cream. haha. And then back home to watch my Hong Il Dong drama. I swear that`s all I do at home now is drama watching. =P
October 5th Monday
YAY my beloved nursery kids with the cuties of all cuties. Ooo, I just wanna hug them and hug them and kiss their cute little fat cheeks. o>.
After that I went to the elementary to teach my least favorite 5th grade class. Like I said, it`s not exactly the students, it`s the teacher...I really don`t understand what I`m supposed to do in that class and I don`t feel like I am able properly teach. If I had free reign of teaching instead of having to follow the textbook and not understanding the teacher I would be so much happier. My 6th grade class is so much fun and I teach to the best of my abilities even with the textbook so this class is my saving grace. But today it`s 5th grade. Again, I was confused on what we`re doing and my games didn`t turn out as great because of some problems. Hmm..I just don`t know about this class. I was relieved when it was over. I usually have such great successes and fun in the rest of my classes, just not this one.
During school cleaning time I decided to help the kids clean in which they kept asking me "Are you really sure it`s okay to help us?" and were all really surprised when I decided to help. I`m the only teacher that helps them clean the classroooms instead of just sitting there and monitoring. Actually, I`m the only teacher who does alot of things that the other teachers won`t do with the students. I`ve never had to clean my own school before so I wanted to try it and it gets me to bond with the students better. But the kids thought it was fun and interesting that I was helping them. So I decided to help them clean the floor via a wet towel and running from one end of the room the other while wiping the floor with the towel at the same time. I`m pretty sure it was a funny sight to see. It was actually very difficult and I kept slipping and falling and my shoes kept falling off. I would run from one end of the classroom to the other with my butt sticking up in the air slipping this way and that. Not very attractive, but fun and the kids get a kick out of it. lol
After school, as I was passing by the 1st grade class I glanced over and saw Kitagawa-sensei working on something that looked like the skeleton for a chinese hat. I decided to go in and see what he was making. It turns out he was making the base for a hat for all the 1st graders for their play in the school festival. The kids are doing a play where they`re animals. And so these hats are going to be like their heads and the ears will come on later. I thought it would be great fun to make these things since i had nothing else to do and decided to help out. At the same time, Yuki also came in to help out, so Kitagawa-sensei taught the both of us what to do. I basically spent my evening until 7pm helping out. All the teachers were staying very late in order to prep for the school festival. They were all painting and making crafts etc. Teachers here are amazing!
October 6th Tuesday
Because my high school is on their fall break, which I`m very thankful for, I don`t have any classes there so all day I just stay at the elementary. YAY! =P So today I taught my favorite 6th grade class! THey`re so wonderful and spirited and I am able to be the most expressive in this class. hehe. Even though Watanabe-san speaks most of the time with instructions and stuff and I have to follow the main activties in the txtbk., for my personal games and activities I`m able to explain and talk with them just fine and freely. So today I taught them the "I want to..." phrase where in this context means they want to do an action of some sort. I first started them off with simon says where they only do the action if I say "I want to..". Then we all went outside to play the Harry Potter game. Err...if you don`t know what it is go look it up on genkienglish.net. It`s a really fun game for all the kids to play and it`s kinda like freezetag except using the english phrases. The kids had so much fun with it and were pretty tired afterwards. haha.
After 3rd period I went up to chill with the 6th grade kids and we talked about some pretty funny things. I love spending time with these ones and they`ve all already gotten used to my presence of randomly being somewhere. haha. During cleaning time today I went to look for Anna (one of the 6th grade girls) so I can help clean. Again, she was in the 2nd grade classroom along with Nana and a couple other students. They were like "eh? Theresa-sensei, you`re here to help clean again? Is it alright for you to do this?" I was like "Dude, this is fun and interesting so why wouldn`t I do it?!" ^^ WHen I walked in to the classrrom, however, I heard a "ah! Konnichiwa!" from somehwere and realized that Mr. Wonderful was in the classroom. Of course he would be. It`s his classroom, but I was surprised to see him there for a little bit and was like `Oh no..he`s going to see me being stupid with the kids`, but then was like `eh, f-it. I told the kids I was gonna do it, so I`m gonna do it even if I look weird doing it in front of him.` He was actually also kinda suprised that I`m cleaning and was like "Is it really okay for you to clean?" I told him I wanted to try because we American kids don`t clean our classrooms like how the Japanese kids do it and because it was fun. So again, I did the wipe the floor with the wet towel/me and my body thing. Again, my butt was sticking up in the air, I slipped, but not as much as the 1st time and got faster! I improved! But still prolly looked like a wierd fool in front of Mr. Wonderful...lol And then I decided to help Nana take out the trash and which upon returning Mr. Wonderful saw me with the trash bag and gave a Pffft! laugh and told one of the 5th grade boys to take the trash bag from me and put it in the bin since the teacher shouldn`t be the ones to do that. But at that time I had already placed it in. lol I didn`t think that the teachers didn`t take the trash out, I just did it because I`m used to cleaning at home and doing this kinda stuff...lol The kids just looked at me confused when Mr. Wonderful said that (since they knew that I had wanted to do it) and I too was kinda confused for a bit(because I didn`t exactly understand what he had said at that moment until later), so we were all confused except for him. lol But now I`m a regular cleaner with the kids. haha. They look for me now to mop the floors. =P
After school, I was again walking around with nothing to do when I saw Yuki papier-mache-ing the 1st grade hats that we had made the night before. I was like "HO! Yuki! I too will help!" And she was like "EH?! REally?! Please!!? You`d be a big help since there`s so many of these hats." So again, I spent until 6pm doing this activitiy. THe other teachers were also really surprised that I was still at school helping. I told them that if they need a helping hand I can always do so. Anyways, I invited Yuki to come to my apt Wednesday night for dinner. So I will go find the materials and prep for dinner. Chinese food it is.
Otsukare-sama for reading!! Loves!
いよいよ this day has come. The day of Kenbuchi`s high school festival!!! Oh, but the day before this I went to go get my hair permed damn straight and got a sleek new haircut where my hair is a sharp slanted down angle. I like it...although because I got chubbier and my hair is so straight it makes my head look smaller, my shoulders now look broader and I feel like I look fatter...>.< Well, I guess it`s motivation for me to get skinnier. I also coincidentally met Kubo-san (one of the teachers at the elementary) at the salon. haha. Oh, and I guess being a foreigner helps in the salon because you always get the young hip male owners of the place to do and cut your hair for you. =P
ANyways, so today is the festival and my hair and fashion is all set to go. lol I`m not involved with anything at the high school so I didn`t have to help as a teacher, just as an attendee. Although I think I would`ve loved to teach these kids hip hop. They would`ve been more involved than normal English class. So the kids had been selling yakitori in front of the school entryway that I had just missed when I got there. I had gotten there at 12 and they had started selling them at 10am. >.< It was 4 sticks for 200yen!! やすい！ Ah well. I met some of the past students and teachers. HOT! I was like "Who are these hot men and where did they come from????!" lol I met Yuki in the school entryway and it was actually my first time walking through the students entrance. I usually always walk in through the teacher`s entrance so it was a little wierd at first. haha. =P But the students were very genki today and made an effort to say hello to me whereas during normal school hours it`s rare. I was surprised by how genki they were with me. lol But I responded back with the same enthusiasm. Yuki and I were given free tickets for Marron cake by one of my BOE bosses. So nice!! So we first had some cake to eat and then walked over to the gymnasium to see what veggies and fruits they were selling.
The fruits and veggies they were selling were all grown by the students (hence it being an agriculture school) and these were beautiful beautiful veggies for cheap cheap prices! OH, btw, they sell the veggies that the students grow in a tent next to the school and their greenhouse and anyone can go in to buy it. You just pick out what you want and put money into the tincan. All the veggies are ridiculously cheap!! Like a bag of tomatoes is only 100yen!!! XDXDXD A Japanese pumpkin/kabocha is only 300 yen!!! WAAH! I love this town`s agriculture foods. lol ANyways, at the festival they were selling these wonderful wierd white things that looked like maggot eggs but I`m pretty sure was like popcorn or a kind of seed. It`s sweet and crunchy like the sweet popcorn and the popcorn they were selling had no taste to it whatsoever. lol Yuki had bought the popcorn and I had bouthg the wierd white things. Actually it was via donation for the snacks. So Yuki and I just put in 100 yen each. Yes...we`re cheap, but everything`s cheap here so it doesn`t matter. =P
Afterwards we decided to go to the second floor to see the activities that the kids made for us attendees to do. And found out that the 1st and 2nd years only did a small maze in their classroom that just had pictures of their escapades and activities throughout the year. It was not comparable to the awesomness and darkness of the middle school`s maze. Now that was cool. But nonetheless, good effort. Then there was the 3rd year`s "Horror House". It was actually made very very well. The entire classroom was covered with black trashbags to block out the light. The first room that you go into was very dark and only lit by a lamp and had a bed with blood on it and a desk with a diary that you can read. It would start off all happy and normal and then get distrubing where this guy starts growing weird lumps on his body, and then the writing just gets more and more erratic and larger and messier until there were only two words on the page and then nothing on the pages after that. That was pretty cool and freaky. And then the next part of the room was where the guy had died. So there was a doll that the kids use for CPR or health training that looked pretty real lying on the bed with bloodstains everywhere and freaky-ass pictures on the wall. I tell you, the scariest thing in the entire place were those pictures in my opinion. Those things freaked me out like crazy. Moving on to the next room was the surgery room, more bloodiness, and then lastly the room of death with lots more of those freaky pictures.....I was so happy to go back out into the hallway after that because of those things...Everything else wasn`t that scary, just the pictures. ANyways, I complimented the kids on their work and went back down to the 1st floor with Yuki to watch the performances that all the students were going to do.
First up was the cheer team. They were good! And they had a healthy amount of girls and boys. haha. Then after was some pretty comedic acts. Everyone was laughing hard because it was really really funny. Then some awesome dancing performed by each grade. The dancing was like para-para or johnny`s dances, so not exactly cool like it would be if I could`ve taught them hip hop (hint hint) lol. =P They all did an excellent job nonetheless. In particular was one of the 1st year boys who`s very active in English class. He was very into the dance and because of him the entire audience enjoyed it so much because his face was smiling and it looked like he was having so much fun. The other boys just had bored faces on. I`m pretty sure everyone was watching the active one because he was sooo good! I was very proud of him because he made the audience quite happy with his performance. XD I will try to enlist him in my hip hop routines. lol After all the performances were over Yuki and I decided to head across the street to the Club Hall to view the Judo competition. But it was already over by the time we got there because it happened at the same time as the school festival. But my 5th grade student, Nana, who is the daughter of the Judo master who teaches here won 1st place!! I was so proud of her! My other student had won 2nd! YAY! And then Yuki and I parted ways and went home.
On my way home, I kept thinking how bored I was right now and decided to see if Su was doing anything and rode my way over there. As it turned out Su was doing nothing! ^^ So I was like "Let`s go to Shibetsu to eat and sing Karaoke! And so invite any of the other girls who wanna come along" So only Tama-chan and Mago-chan were able to make it because it`s such a sudden request. I drove Tama-chan and Su to SHibetsu to meet up with Mago-chan who was already in SHibetsu. We decided to go singing first as it would be cheaper before 6pm. We got there at 5pm. We went to a place called Uta-ya 歌屋 where the decor was like that of old historical Japan theme. It was actually very very cool looking inside. AND it was SUPER CHEAP! We ordered the 120 minutes all you can drink set where you can drink all that you like and sing for 120minutes for only 635yen per person! Isn`t that amazing!? Although not as cheap as Korea`s noraebang I have to say.
The room you get is based on the machine you want. There are four types of machines that have different set of songs in them and because we wanted all available songs from different countries we chose the Hyper Wave machine. lol It`s very cool looking and changes colors while you`re singing! hehe. The room we were in was very nice and spacious. The TV was a flatscreen TV and all the mics were sanitized. haha. I have to admit, that`s nice. So all of us took turns singing and drinking crazy amounts of liquids (no alcohol). It was so much fun and I would love to do it again if I can. We then went to go eat at Myu because Tama-chan has never been. At Myu we ordered the ShakiShaki lamb tataki rice bowl シャキシャキラームたたき丼. That was amazingly good and I felt healthy because all the foods had no oil in them. It was basically Lamb tataki on top of a bed of lettuce leaves on top of white rice with strips of the yellow daikon mixed in. SOOO GOOD AND HEALTHY!
WHen all was done, and we had such a wonderful time talking, we all decided to go home. Since Tama-chan and Mago-chan live in the same apt. complex they went home together and so it was me and Su. Su and I decided to go to Seico Mart for ice cream. haha. And then back home to watch my Hong Il Dong drama. I swear that`s all I do at home now is drama watching. =P
October 5th Monday
YAY my beloved nursery kids with the cuties of all cuties. Ooo, I just wanna hug them and hug them and kiss their cute little fat cheeks. o>.
After that I went to the elementary to teach my least favorite 5th grade class. Like I said, it`s not exactly the students, it`s the teacher...I really don`t understand what I`m supposed to do in that class and I don`t feel like I am able properly teach. If I had free reign of teaching instead of having to follow the textbook and not understanding the teacher I would be so much happier. My 6th grade class is so much fun and I teach to the best of my abilities even with the textbook so this class is my saving grace. But today it`s 5th grade. Again, I was confused on what we`re doing and my games didn`t turn out as great because of some problems. Hmm..I just don`t know about this class. I was relieved when it was over. I usually have such great successes and fun in the rest of my classes, just not this one.
During school cleaning time I decided to help the kids clean in which they kept asking me "Are you really sure it`s okay to help us?" and were all really surprised when I decided to help. I`m the only teacher that helps them clean the classroooms instead of just sitting there and monitoring. Actually, I`m the only teacher who does alot of things that the other teachers won`t do with the students. I`ve never had to clean my own school before so I wanted to try it and it gets me to bond with the students better. But the kids thought it was fun and interesting that I was helping them. So I decided to help them clean the floor via a wet towel and running from one end of the room the other while wiping the floor with the towel at the same time. I`m pretty sure it was a funny sight to see. It was actually very difficult and I kept slipping and falling and my shoes kept falling off. I would run from one end of the classroom to the other with my butt sticking up in the air slipping this way and that. Not very attractive, but fun and the kids get a kick out of it. lol
After school, as I was passing by the 1st grade class I glanced over and saw Kitagawa-sensei working on something that looked like the skeleton for a chinese hat. I decided to go in and see what he was making. It turns out he was making the base for a hat for all the 1st graders for their play in the school festival. The kids are doing a play where they`re animals. And so these hats are going to be like their heads and the ears will come on later. I thought it would be great fun to make these things since i had nothing else to do and decided to help out. At the same time, Yuki also came in to help out, so Kitagawa-sensei taught the both of us what to do. I basically spent my evening until 7pm helping out. All the teachers were staying very late in order to prep for the school festival. They were all painting and making crafts etc. Teachers here are amazing!
October 6th Tuesday
Because my high school is on their fall break, which I`m very thankful for, I don`t have any classes there so all day I just stay at the elementary. YAY! =P So today I taught my favorite 6th grade class! THey`re so wonderful and spirited and I am able to be the most expressive in this class. hehe. Even though Watanabe-san speaks most of the time with instructions and stuff and I have to follow the main activties in the txtbk., for my personal games and activities I`m able to explain and talk with them just fine and freely. So today I taught them the "I want to..." phrase where in this context means they want to do an action of some sort. I first started them off with simon says where they only do the action if I say "I want to..". Then we all went outside to play the Harry Potter game. Err...if you don`t know what it is go look it up on genkienglish.net. It`s a really fun game for all the kids to play and it`s kinda like freezetag except using the english phrases. The kids had so much fun with it and were pretty tired afterwards. haha.
After 3rd period I went up to chill with the 6th grade kids and we talked about some pretty funny things. I love spending time with these ones and they`ve all already gotten used to my presence of randomly being somewhere. haha. During cleaning time today I went to look for Anna (one of the 6th grade girls) so I can help clean. Again, she was in the 2nd grade classroom along with Nana and a couple other students. They were like "eh? Theresa-sensei, you`re here to help clean again? Is it alright for you to do this?" I was like "Dude, this is fun and interesting so why wouldn`t I do it?!" ^^ WHen I walked in to the classrrom, however, I heard a "ah! Konnichiwa!" from somehwere and realized that Mr. Wonderful was in the classroom. Of course he would be. It`s his classroom, but I was surprised to see him there for a little bit and was like `Oh no..he`s going to see me being stupid with the kids`, but then was like `eh, f-it. I told the kids I was gonna do it, so I`m gonna do it even if I look weird doing it in front of him.` He was actually also kinda suprised that I`m cleaning and was like "Is it really okay for you to clean?" I told him I wanted to try because we American kids don`t clean our classrooms like how the Japanese kids do it and because it was fun. So again, I did the wipe the floor with the wet towel/me and my body thing. Again, my butt was sticking up in the air, I slipped, but not as much as the 1st time and got faster! I improved! But still prolly looked like a wierd fool in front of Mr. Wonderful...lol And then I decided to help Nana take out the trash and which upon returning Mr. Wonderful saw me with the trash bag and gave a Pffft! laugh and told one of the 5th grade boys to take the trash bag from me and put it in the bin since the teacher shouldn`t be the ones to do that. But at that time I had already placed it in. lol I didn`t think that the teachers didn`t take the trash out, I just did it because I`m used to cleaning at home and doing this kinda stuff...lol The kids just looked at me confused when Mr. Wonderful said that (since they knew that I had wanted to do it) and I too was kinda confused for a bit(because I didn`t exactly understand what he had said at that moment until later), so we were all confused except for him. lol But now I`m a regular cleaner with the kids. haha. They look for me now to mop the floors. =P
After school, I was again walking around with nothing to do when I saw Yuki papier-mache-ing the 1st grade hats that we had made the night before. I was like "HO! Yuki! I too will help!" And she was like "EH?! REally?! Please!!? You`d be a big help since there`s so many of these hats." So again, I spent until 6pm doing this activitiy. THe other teachers were also really surprised that I was still at school helping. I told them that if they need a helping hand I can always do so. Anyways, I invited Yuki to come to my apt Wednesday night for dinner. So I will go find the materials and prep for dinner. Chinese food it is.
Otsukare-sama for reading!! Loves!
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