November 21-23 Saturday-Monday
Yes for long three day weekend and thanksgiving!!! We don`t really have a thanksgiving feast or anything, just the day off which is on monday. So one of the Asahikawa ALT`s invited a couple of us ALTs in Hokkaido to go over for a mini get-together. And originally Collin and I were going to go on a road trip over to Lake Akan this weekend to see the marimo (balls of algae that Hokkaido is famous for and therefore the mascot is marimokko= the humanized algae ball with an erection.....), but because of the weather, we decided it would be best to just head over to Asahikawa and hang there. So Collin drove down on Saturday to my town and got here about 6pm and we went to go eat at Ibushiya. We then caught the train over to Nagayama and got there about 9:30pm and walked in the snow to the Alan`s (one of the Asahikawa ALTs) apartment, which was super big!!!! It had three spare rooms, a living room, a super huge bathroom/washroom, and a kitchen. I was like "WHAA??!! IT`S HUGE! compared to mine." And we have deduced that I have the smallest apt, but apparently a very homey feeling one. Yay. I try with the decor.
So when we got there Erika (the Noboribetsu ALT) was already there. It`s been awhile since I`ve seen her so was quite glad. Since it was already quite late by the time we arrived, and we were still waiting for Steph, we decided to just chill at the apt. and drink. So two of us headed out to buy alcohol while we waited for Steph to come. And we bought quite a lot of stuff! In fact we bought enough that we couldn`t drink all of it. After Steph came and we busted open the drinks we sat and talked with alcohol for a while. Actually, until 5am. Well, Erika fell asleep first and I was being lulled away by the kotatsu, but was in a mode of pseudo sleep as I would occasionally respond to whatever the others were saying while partially asleep. But I don`t know why we stayed up until 5am as the next day we were supposed to go to the Asahiyama Zoo. lol
SoI woke up at 8am to take a shower which was super early after sleeping so late!! >.< But if we wanted to head over there before the zoo closed we had to get up. Though Steph did comment "Why are we up?". lol We got up, Collin went go buy materials for breakfast (Thanks Collin!) We had yummy scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. It`s been awhile since I`ve eaten western style full breakfast. It was nice. And all the English we spoke...man, it`s been a super long time since I`ve spoken that much English. Seriously. lol But I felt my English level falling. haha. So we all got ready and left for the train to Asahikawa where we then caught the bus to the zoo.
On the bus, these three guys got on and one of them was SUPER HOT!! Like, he wasn`t gyaru-o style or host club boy style which are good for looking, but not really bf material or great personalities. But this guy was sort of Asian hip hop style with his black and white jersey and his pants almost falling below his butt (not exactly the pants style that I like but...), his hair was styled very nicely, his face was amazing because it was a very masculine shape and he had kind of a little bit of a shadow on his face and he looked like a serious nice guy, and his hands were nice. =P I couldn`t stop looking at him cuz he was just so hot and kept reminding the rest of the ALTs on the bus with me that too. haha. And he got off at the zoo stop also! lol He was going with his 2 guy friends. I just couldn`t stop staring longingly after him. And the rest of the ALTs were like, you should totally go and talk to him. They kept trying to push me towards him, but I couldn`t as I thought it would be awkward because I look to Asian to just randomly go up to a Japanese guy and talk. If I were foreign looking, then it would be no problem. But since I blend in, it`s a little difficult. eheh.
So I wanted to take a picture of all of us standing in front of the Asahiyama Zoo sign and was going to ask a random person when I saw the hot dude with his friends trying to take a picture too. Collin told me I should go ask them if they wanted help and I couldn`t because I was too nervous, so Collin did it for me. And then afterwards the hot guy was like alright, let`s change places now and took my camera from me to take a picture of all of us. I was secretly very happy. Haha.
Majority of the animals were not out at all because it was f-ing cold outside. But we saw all of the winter animals and then the big flat faced bored looking orangutan. We then went to the petting zoo area and got to pet a collie and a sheepdog!! I was soo happy! It`s been so long since I`ve been able to pet a dog and I miss it. I miss fat Bobby and Kin-chan (my Taiwan uncle`s fat Shi-tzu and Japanese Golden Retriever). But I`ll get to see them next month when I head over there and get fatter eating the food..I`ll start looking like Bobby then... So then we tried to pet some ducks but were afraid they were going to bite us, and then we went in to see the Guinea Pig farm....now that was strange. There were so many guinea pigs!! And a chinchilla. I got to hold a guinea pig. It kept my lap warm cuz I was so cold. haha. I kinda want one, but unfortunately, of all the animals, guinea pigs are not really kept as pets here. But you can keep a prairie dog and flying squirrel! lol
We pretty much stayed until the zoo kicked us out and we were the second to last people in the place. =P Collin left to go spend the evening with his friend`s family and the rest of us headed back to Asahikawa city for chilling and foods. We found an awesome store for Halloween costumes or just weird gag stuffs and then took some purikura. Yay! Then I discovered the location of "Hoang Tam Asian Cafe". I had seen the restaurant in magazines cuz it was so pretty looking and well designed that I was like, dude, let`s go guys. And the decor was awesome! It`s supposed to be like southeast Asia style. Mainly, Thai and Vietnamese style as that was the majority of the foods they served there. The bar was awesome though! THey`re drinks were so tasty and good! I got this drink called Blue Bell Heaven. It was beautiful and tasty! The food however took forever to come out and came out one by one. They only had 2 chefs in the back. Seriously, they need to hire more chefs or be super fast or make the restaurant smaller. We got in at 6 and didn`t get all our food until 7 so didn`t leaved until 8pm. It would never fly in the US.
Afterwards, we decided to go to a bar and have nomihoudai which is all you can drink alcohol. Whoo! We went to this awesome bar that Alan recommended called Zero. The decor was cool and there were 200 drinks to choose from. 1,880yen for all you can drink for 2 hours. Awesome. Although, the service there could`ve been a little better. The girls were gyarus and when they respond to your order they say "haaii~" instead of "kashikomarimashita" and their attitude needs a little work. But, hey, they`re gyarus, what do you expect? The guys, however, were super great and provided excellent service. Wow, what would I do when I go back to the states with crappy service? lol
So after getting loaded up on alcohol we went to Shidax Karaoke at 12am and sang our hearts out until 3am. Whereupon one of the girls got sick and spent a bit in the bathroom before we decided to go home. I was amazed at how well she held herself until we got back to Alan`s apt. So we got back at 4am and then went to sleep. I was gonna get up early the next day to head to AEON for Taco shells for teaching my 3rd year high school class how to make tacos on Tuesday, but luckily, Alan had some so I was just gonna use his, even though they were a little stale. And then I found out that we`re not doing tacos until 2 weeks later....Well, that had me worry for nothing.
Anyways, that morning I woke up, went to Asahikawa with Steph, sent off Steph back to her place, and met up with Collin for shopping. They had the cutest Christmas cards at Loft. I missed Loft, I love the place,but it`s a little pricey. I have to figure out what I`m sending back home to the states for friends and family. We then headed back to Kenbuchi where Collin then went back to Sarufutsu. I feel like I`m getting sick again because just when I thought I was cured, I go out and spend whole evenings with barely any sleep drinking....lol So yes, I`m sick, again.
November 26 Thursday
So I went to play badminton this evening at the B&G gym which is our local gym. Oh, btw, it`s one of our town`s activities for the townspeople where you can play ping pong or badminton on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So most of my elementary boys do ping pong along with some middle schoolers. I always see them there and one of my high school boys does badminton. On the occasion Hiroya (elementary 6th grade) is there too. Today both my badminton kids asked me if I was going tonight. And I said yes and they were happy. Yay! lol When I entered the gym, all the lil kids who were busy playing badminton saw me, stopped what they were doing, and were like "oh! It`s Theresa! HELLO!" And they all had smiling faces on. I felt popular and loved and I love my children very much too. That`s one of the greatest feelings of this job is the fact that your children appreciate and love what you do for them and being able to love your students too. I`ve grown attached to this lil town`s babies. They`re so precious to me they`re like my own children. ehehe. I attach myself to my job too much. Today was special at the badminton courts. 3 boys from each school came and were playing together on one court. One from elementary, middle, and high school. They were all my students. When they saw me they had the same big smile on their faces with their "Hello Theresa!" I was so glad to see them. Although, Hiroya is sometimes a hit or miss because he tries to act adult-like sometimes and I`m too playful with him...eheh.
After playing and saying goodbye to Nemoto-san`s cute little daughter who I will see at the elementary 1st grade next year I drove Su home with me. Su was like "You really love the students, dont` you?" I replied "Yes, I really really love all of them", to which she said "Yeah, I can tell. You love them and they love you too, judging from their reactions with you". Yokatta. I`m glad for that. In this town, my students are the most important thing to me. And if they`re happy learning and loving English, then it makes me the happiest person right now. Yay Kenbuchi babies! Mass love to you all!
Otsukaresama for reading all! Pictures will for sure be up. Although it will be old because there are pics from way back. Love ya all!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tama-ire!?
November 16 Monday
So I`m officially sick. I was already not feeling too good at the Arashi concert, but I shrugged it off and thought that I was just too excited during the time. But when I got up for work today I started feeling the strain of holding back my sickness during the weekend. And, as it is the trend here when you get sick, you wear a mask so you don`t spread it to others, or so the Asians believe. In truth, the mask doesn`t really do too much because it`s not airtight or sealed to your mouth so there are open areas for germs to still spread out; it`s difficult to breathe through the mask causing you a little bit of dizziness, possibly making you more sick; and if you sneeze or anything like that the germs just stick to the mask that you`re wearing and you still have to breathe it in.....Not the most effective in my opinion. But, hey, it does help in the fact that during work if I`m reading something funny I can smile and no one will notice. =P Anyways, if that`s what the Japanese people think will be better for me and for them I will wear the mask because there`s the big influenza scare.
I was ready to go to the nursery, but my BOE peoples were all a little apprehensive of me working because I was sick. I felt well enough to teach, so I just told them I`m fine, no worries. It`s just that I have a runny nose, a little cough, and I`m unable to talk in a normal voice. I don`t have a fever, so I`ll be okay I said. So they let me go to the nursery where I taught my lil loving kiddies and they were so good when they learned that I was sick and couldn`t talk in a loud voice so they were a lot more quiet. Good children. But then one of the head teachers told me that after the class I should just stay in the teacher`s office because she doesn`t want me spreading it to the children. I was actually thinking the same thing, so it`s fine. Later, as I sat there、I received a call from my BOE saying that I should go back because i was sick and shouldn`t go to the elementary. At the elementary the 1st,3rd,4th,and 6th graders are all infected and have been sent home for the week. So only the 2nd and 5th graders are there. They told me it was because they wanted to wait for me to become better and for my voice to come back to me before I go teach, but I know it`s because they don`t want me spreading it to the children. Whatever, to protect the kids it`s fine.
So they told me that this entire week I will just stay at the BOE and chill (do nothing, because there is nothing for me to do) since they will cancel all the classes I`m supposed to teach this week. And that`s bad because this week was supposed to be pronunciation practice with the sounds "th", "v", "r", "l". Mooouuu...I feel bad for being sick, but at least I can rest for this week without straining my voice and stuff. I had bought Omiyage for my elementary and middle school teachers so I wanted to bring it over to them myself personally. So I did, and when I got in there everybody avoided me like the plague...>.< The only person who was normal with me was Ichinoseki-san, the office personnel. So I handed him the stuff and left. The middle school was actually nicer to me as they all worried for my health. I need to sleep earlier.
November 17 Tuesday
I sat at the BOE the whole day today with absolutely nothing to do.....So I just read manga on the internet. Everyone kept telling me to go to the hospital to get checked out, but I was like, "dude, I`m not going to the hospital just beacuse I have a cold. I know it`s not influenza and I know I don`t have a fever so no need for the hospital." But since everyone just kept pestering me, and I mean everyone, I decided to give in to them and go to the hospital. Because I have health insurance (in Japan, it`s social health insurance meaning everyone who lives in Japan has health insurance no matter what. US needs to adopt this system because we f-ing need health insurance for everybody) the bill was pretty cheap including medicine. And as I had already suspected, I only have a cold. So I went back home to prepare for tonight`s activity which is the big Teacher`s gathering. All the teacher`s of all the schools in this town and the staff of the BOE meet up togethher for a recreational activity and then have dinner. It happens once a year and it`s pretty cool to see all the teachers gathered like that so even though I was sick, I still decided to go. I wore my mask.
It took place in the middle school gym and the activity was Tama-ire. I was like wtf is that? Basically it`s just throwing a bunch of little bean bags into a basket on a pole that`s pretty high up. Alright. It was actually harder than I thought. I ended up not getting any into my basket earning nothing for my team. Oh, btw, you play this game in teams. All the teachers were pre-seperated in teams A-F with teachers from every school in each team and one BOE member. Since I`m technically a BOE memebr I was the head for my D team. And so all the team members have to gather around the net with your bean bags and throw them in. And the fastest team to get everything in is the winner. Our team came in 5th place. Mr. WOnderful was there too,a lthough not in my team. But he was the only one of the elementary teachers to say konbanwa to me and I was super happy. But then he just left without saying anything. Well, actually, all the teachers did that. But I felt stupid because all this time as we were watching the other teams compete he was standing there by himself and not talking to anybody and it was my chance to go to talk to him, but what did I do? I just stood there talking with the other female teachers....I lost my chance that night and I felt dumb because of it. I need to be more confident in my flirting ability and go ahead and be agressive and talk to him. =P lol But I don`t even know if he has a gf.
Anyways so after I left I just went home because I decided not to go eat because I wasn`t feeling too well, and plus majority of my fav teachers weren`t going to be there, like Mr. Wonderful. So I just went home to sleep and rest. Oh! It was actually kinda cool at the recreational activity because I knew everyone in there and was able to talk to all my teacher`s easily. And some of the teachers on my team don`t really talk to the other teachers on my team, but would talk to me. So I felt kind of popular because of that. haha. Yay. Anyways, it was fun. Cool.
Otsukare-sama for reading!
So I`m officially sick. I was already not feeling too good at the Arashi concert, but I shrugged it off and thought that I was just too excited during the time. But when I got up for work today I started feeling the strain of holding back my sickness during the weekend. And, as it is the trend here when you get sick, you wear a mask so you don`t spread it to others, or so the Asians believe. In truth, the mask doesn`t really do too much because it`s not airtight or sealed to your mouth so there are open areas for germs to still spread out; it`s difficult to breathe through the mask causing you a little bit of dizziness, possibly making you more sick; and if you sneeze or anything like that the germs just stick to the mask that you`re wearing and you still have to breathe it in.....Not the most effective in my opinion. But, hey, it does help in the fact that during work if I`m reading something funny I can smile and no one will notice. =P Anyways, if that`s what the Japanese people think will be better for me and for them I will wear the mask because there`s the big influenza scare.
I was ready to go to the nursery, but my BOE peoples were all a little apprehensive of me working because I was sick. I felt well enough to teach, so I just told them I`m fine, no worries. It`s just that I have a runny nose, a little cough, and I`m unable to talk in a normal voice. I don`t have a fever, so I`ll be okay I said. So they let me go to the nursery where I taught my lil loving kiddies and they were so good when they learned that I was sick and couldn`t talk in a loud voice so they were a lot more quiet. Good children. But then one of the head teachers told me that after the class I should just stay in the teacher`s office because she doesn`t want me spreading it to the children. I was actually thinking the same thing, so it`s fine. Later, as I sat there、I received a call from my BOE saying that I should go back because i was sick and shouldn`t go to the elementary. At the elementary the 1st,3rd,4th,and 6th graders are all infected and have been sent home for the week. So only the 2nd and 5th graders are there. They told me it was because they wanted to wait for me to become better and for my voice to come back to me before I go teach, but I know it`s because they don`t want me spreading it to the children. Whatever, to protect the kids it`s fine.
So they told me that this entire week I will just stay at the BOE and chill (do nothing, because there is nothing for me to do) since they will cancel all the classes I`m supposed to teach this week. And that`s bad because this week was supposed to be pronunciation practice with the sounds "th", "v", "r", "l". Mooouuu...I feel bad for being sick, but at least I can rest for this week without straining my voice and stuff. I had bought Omiyage for my elementary and middle school teachers so I wanted to bring it over to them myself personally. So I did, and when I got in there everybody avoided me like the plague...>.< The only person who was normal with me was Ichinoseki-san, the office personnel. So I handed him the stuff and left. The middle school was actually nicer to me as they all worried for my health. I need to sleep earlier.
November 17 Tuesday
I sat at the BOE the whole day today with absolutely nothing to do.....So I just read manga on the internet. Everyone kept telling me to go to the hospital to get checked out, but I was like, "dude, I`m not going to the hospital just beacuse I have a cold. I know it`s not influenza and I know I don`t have a fever so no need for the hospital." But since everyone just kept pestering me, and I mean everyone, I decided to give in to them and go to the hospital. Because I have health insurance (in Japan, it`s social health insurance meaning everyone who lives in Japan has health insurance no matter what. US needs to adopt this system because we f-ing need health insurance for everybody) the bill was pretty cheap including medicine. And as I had already suspected, I only have a cold. So I went back home to prepare for tonight`s activity which is the big Teacher`s gathering. All the teacher`s of all the schools in this town and the staff of the BOE meet up togethher for a recreational activity and then have dinner. It happens once a year and it`s pretty cool to see all the teachers gathered like that so even though I was sick, I still decided to go. I wore my mask.
It took place in the middle school gym and the activity was Tama-ire. I was like wtf is that? Basically it`s just throwing a bunch of little bean bags into a basket on a pole that`s pretty high up. Alright. It was actually harder than I thought. I ended up not getting any into my basket earning nothing for my team. Oh, btw, you play this game in teams. All the teachers were pre-seperated in teams A-F with teachers from every school in each team and one BOE member. Since I`m technically a BOE memebr I was the head for my D team. And so all the team members have to gather around the net with your bean bags and throw them in. And the fastest team to get everything in is the winner. Our team came in 5th place. Mr. WOnderful was there too,a lthough not in my team. But he was the only one of the elementary teachers to say konbanwa to me and I was super happy. But then he just left without saying anything. Well, actually, all the teachers did that. But I felt stupid because all this time as we were watching the other teams compete he was standing there by himself and not talking to anybody and it was my chance to go to talk to him, but what did I do? I just stood there talking with the other female teachers....I lost my chance that night and I felt dumb because of it. I need to be more confident in my flirting ability and go ahead and be agressive and talk to him. =P lol But I don`t even know if he has a gf.
Anyways so after I left I just went home because I decided not to go eat because I wasn`t feeling too well, and plus majority of my fav teachers weren`t going to be there, like Mr. Wonderful. So I just went home to sleep and rest. Oh! It was actually kinda cool at the recreational activity because I knew everyone in there and was able to talk to all my teacher`s easily. And some of the teachers on my team don`t really talk to the other teachers on my team, but would talk to me. So I felt kind of popular because of that. haha. Yay. Anyways, it was fun. Cool.
Otsukare-sama for reading!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
YES ARASHI CONCERT!!!
November 9-12 Monday thru Thursday
So my confidenceness has been paying off. Ever since I pumped myself with more confidence the teachers have been talking to me more and stuff. Particularly interesting is the elementary. On Monday when I went to the Elementary I exuberantly and confidently said Ohayou gozaimasu to the teachers and was so energetic with the kids that the teachers were surprised, but since the kids already knew that was how I usually am like it was nothing new to them. Yeah, I don`t know how the teachers don`t see how genki I am with the kids...eh, whatevs. But at all the schools it made a difference with the teachers. Well, the high school is still the same, but in terms of teaching, it was a difference.
On Thursday night I went to pick up Chingyi from the Asahikawa train station. She flew in from Gunma-ken on the main island. She was here to see the Arashi concert in Sapporo, in which she invited me to go as well, and decided to also visit me since I`m on this island. haha. But it was nice to have another states person with me in the car. The way we talked and everything really felt like I was back in the US with my ol buddies. I missed it very much. And I realized that after not cussing for a long time, I spewed it out almost every other sentence. And that`s bad. lol =O I`ve been trying to be agood girl and not do that. But it just came out....
Anyways, we went to go eat at the all you can eat Shabu-shabu place and I had her try the Hokkaido softcream because damn is it good. And I told her she also needed to try HOkkaido milk. So afterwards we went to Lawson`s to find it, but to no avail. We`ll check out Seico Mart later for it. So then we went home and chilled.
November 13 Friday
My middle school was excited to hear about my friend who came last night. I had asked them beforehand if it was okay if I brought in my friend for a visit of the school after all the students had left and they were totally fine with it. On the other hand, the elementary was f-ing strict with this stuff and it took an hour to okay everything! Are you kidding me? She`s just coming in to see the school after the students have left. ANd they like need to know why she came, where she came from, why she`s coming to the school, what time she`s coming to the school, if she needs a guide via the vice principal. DUDE. It was like a police inquiry. I know it would be dangerous if it was some gangsta guy, but I had already told them she was an ALT from Gunma-ken. Bah, in the end they told me it was okay.
So at around 3pm I went home to pick up Chingyi at the apt and took her to the elementary first to look around. The teachers were all in a meeting so they were in the meeting room. So I guided her around the school and saw a couple of my volleyball girls so went over to say hi and introduce them. Then afterwards I went to the middle school and with whom all my teachers were really excited to talk to her and everything. I love my middle school peoples. haha. Even my kids who were still at the school for club practices were pretty cool with her. =P
After that we went to the Picture Book Library/Museum, one of my favorite places in town. It`s so nice and modern looking. Hehe. So Takeuchi-san, one of my bosses who works at the the Picture Book place and also an awesome father of one of the 6th grade elementary kids whom I dearly love, was there that evening. No one else was at the library except for the workers. So I was halfway giving her the tour when Takeuchi-san came over and said he`ll give us a tour of the place himself. And luckily because of him we were able to go to all the rooms that were locked and even go the backroom or the safe room where the temperature has to be kept at a certain degree so as not to ruin the items kept there. It was soo cool! He even told me that if I ever want to come in here to translate books or anything like that all I have to do is tell him and he`ll let me in. WOO! I feel like one of those special agent peoples who have special access to everything. haha. Anyways, afterwards we went to go eat at the Eki-mae ryokan and then went to go sing our hearts out at the Karaoke box in Shibetsu city. Originally, we were going to only sing for an hour, but when I got there and they said there was a special price if you order free time (no time limit) that comes with all you can drink it`s only 1420yen. If we ordered the one hour Karaoke by itself it would cost us about 800yen for one hour. It`s expensive at night yes.So we were like, dude, 1420yen for as long as we like and anything we want to drink? I think I`ll take that one instead. SO we sang for 4 1/2 hours just the two of us, from 7pm until 11:30pm. Man, my voice was seriously dying on me. haha. But the Arashi concert is tomorrow! Exciting!
November 14 Saturday
Off to Sapporo for the Arashi concert!!! I drove my car to Asahikawa and parked it at the structure next to the train station for an overnight stay and then afterwards rode the train to Sapporo. The trip was pleasant with our duking it out on Mario Kart. So when we got there it was raining like crazy. Like a freakin typhoon. So we rode the subway over to the nearest stop to our hotel and walked the rest of the way. My jacket was soaked,even though I had an umbrella. ANyways, we got there at 12pm so we couldn`t check in yet. We just left our luggage with them and went off to Sapporo dome to buy the goods for the concert. THE LINE WAS LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG!!!! We waited outside, in the pouring rain, in the long ass line for 2-3 hours! Just to buy the concert goods. Hah.... It was a good thing both of us had umbrellas and were wearing rain boots. Otherwise I would`ve died from the cold and wetness. =P There were a lot of girls wearing very little out there and non rain repellent stuff so I felt bad for them. But they chose fashion over usefulness and protection. Their own fault. But what they were wearing were cute I have to say.
Finally after 2 long hours I could see the goods. And I saw the really hot posters of them. This concert is their 5x10 Anniversary Tour celebrating 10 years that they`ve been super popular. So all their stuff has that logo on it. But their posters were super hot. And Aiba-kun seriously takes the best pictures!! His single picture was sooo hot! He looked like a prince in the photos. HOT! I caved and bought the single one of him, the one with all the members, and I bought their pamphlet/photo book, and a fan with Aiba-kun`s face on it. Haha. They were selling eco-bags and pen lights and towels and keychains too, but since I`m not a super big fan, I was content with what I bought. Save money!! lol And as I was waiting for Chingyi to finish buying her things I hear "Theresa?" and looked around and saw my two eldest cousins standing there with their umbrellas looking at me incredulously. I was like "OMG!!?? WHAT!??" My cousins don`t live in Japan, they live in the states. So I was super surprised to see them. They were here traveling around Japan and were fans of Arashi so last stop for them was this concert. Freakin amazing! Seriously, big coincidence that we met here at the concert. I haven`t seen them in several years too. And then of all the places, here. So I took pictures with my cousins and said goodbye to them and if we see each other later it would be awesome. But I don`t think that was going to happen because there`s way too many people here. I didn`t even see any of my students who were coming, but I met my cousins. Too cool!
So afterwards we first went back to drop stuff off at the hotel and then went back to the Sapporo Dome (concert venue). Our seats were up in the stands but since the stage was huge and the seats were well positioned there was no problem seeing them. Although the boys were a little small. Our seats ended up being next to these two awesome black girls who were studying abroad here in Sapporo. And get this, one of the girls is from CA`s La Verne University. My hometown`s university! Too coincidental. I was like, wow, today was a day of coincidences.
But anyways, the concert was way too awesome. The crowd all had their pen lights and when the concert was beginning they all held them up in the air. It was soooo cool looking. The whole place lit up red and blue. Well, more red though. But that`s like DBSK`s color....lol There was this giant helium balloon that had 5x10 written on it and when the boys came out they were dangling from this huge balloon flying over the crowd. It was awesome!! And then Aiba did his solo song and he was so freakin cool and hot hot hot! All the other boys were also very cool and hot. I didn`t know that Nino played the guitar. That was cool. And at the end, when you thought it was the end with just one encore, they popped out again with another one. THey did 2 encores! I love these boys! Seriously, this concert made me a bigger fan of them. The special effects and everything were all very cool. An awesome concert.
Afterwards, since there were so many people leaving the dome to get onto the one train leading out of the dome we girls decided to just chill around the area for an hour before getting on the train. We did not want to get smashed in the train with other rabid fans. But there was a line to get on the train that extended all the way out to the entrance of the station. We waited for a while before we got to the actual platform and by then we were lucky enough to catch the last train. I felt sorry for all the other girls who couldn`t get a train back home. But it was already super cramped on there. It felt like the Tokyo trains during rush hour, but luckily it was all young girls standing around us and not old men on you. lol Ah, good times. =P
Anyways, the girls we were with were totally awesome, and I will definitely call them up when I come back to Sapporo next time. So we said our goodbyes and headed over to our hotel. I was originally planning on hitting up bars to drink the night away, but because we didn`t get back until 12:30am and I was super tired after the concert, we just bought bentos from the conbini and went back to chill at the hotel. Yeah, I just collapsed after my shower. Oh, btw, our hotel is located in downtown Susukino where all the host and hostess clubs were located. Oh yeah. The cabaret clubs were there too. There were so many sexy looking buildings that just had club names all over them. There was one named Club Desire and Club Atlantis and I so wanted to go into them!! And our hotel is right across the street from the apartment building where all the hosts live. So we saw a couple of them walking in and out from there as well as just all over the place. haha. It was hot.
November 15 Sunday
Aahh...Good morning. A very good morning indeed. I`m all worked out from the concert and then we get free breakfast. Woo. So we spent the morning wandering around the Sapporo train station looking for empty lockers to put our luggage in after we have checked out so tht we don`t have to carry the damn things around. But because there were so many girls here for the concert majority of the lockers were taken. So we wandered for like 30 min trying to find empty ones. But we finally found them. Then we went to go take some purikura. I love purikura here and it`s so cheap! The first machine we took pics in we held up our Arashi fans and just had Arashi written all over the pics. The second machine we looked cho model-like. Super models. Haha. It helps that what we were wearing were fairly fashionable. I liked that machine. It made me look a little skinnier. haha.
We then went to the pokemon center and I bought 2 little pokemon plushies. Soo cute. The place was pretty awesome I have to say and there were so many lil kids running around. haha. It was cute. Afterwards we met up with Chingyi`s friend who came from Canada to the concert. We met up to give her her stuff that Chingyi had bought for her. We then rushed to go eat and ended up in the same Tonkatsu place as last time I was here because it was the fastest. At 3pm I took my train home to Asahikawa and drove back home. Good weekend.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post a video and pictures soon. But unfortunately I will not have pics of the concert since we were not allowed to take pics and there were people walking around making sure we didn`t take pictures. Suck. But good good concert.
So my confidenceness has been paying off. Ever since I pumped myself with more confidence the teachers have been talking to me more and stuff. Particularly interesting is the elementary. On Monday when I went to the Elementary I exuberantly and confidently said Ohayou gozaimasu to the teachers and was so energetic with the kids that the teachers were surprised, but since the kids already knew that was how I usually am like it was nothing new to them. Yeah, I don`t know how the teachers don`t see how genki I am with the kids...eh, whatevs. But at all the schools it made a difference with the teachers. Well, the high school is still the same, but in terms of teaching, it was a difference.
On Thursday night I went to pick up Chingyi from the Asahikawa train station. She flew in from Gunma-ken on the main island. She was here to see the Arashi concert in Sapporo, in which she invited me to go as well, and decided to also visit me since I`m on this island. haha. But it was nice to have another states person with me in the car. The way we talked and everything really felt like I was back in the US with my ol buddies. I missed it very much. And I realized that after not cussing for a long time, I spewed it out almost every other sentence. And that`s bad. lol =O I`ve been trying to be agood girl and not do that. But it just came out....
Anyways, we went to go eat at the all you can eat Shabu-shabu place and I had her try the Hokkaido softcream because damn is it good. And I told her she also needed to try HOkkaido milk. So afterwards we went to Lawson`s to find it, but to no avail. We`ll check out Seico Mart later for it. So then we went home and chilled.
November 13 Friday
My middle school was excited to hear about my friend who came last night. I had asked them beforehand if it was okay if I brought in my friend for a visit of the school after all the students had left and they were totally fine with it. On the other hand, the elementary was f-ing strict with this stuff and it took an hour to okay everything! Are you kidding me? She`s just coming in to see the school after the students have left. ANd they like need to know why she came, where she came from, why she`s coming to the school, what time she`s coming to the school, if she needs a guide via the vice principal. DUDE. It was like a police inquiry. I know it would be dangerous if it was some gangsta guy, but I had already told them she was an ALT from Gunma-ken. Bah, in the end they told me it was okay.
So at around 3pm I went home to pick up Chingyi at the apt and took her to the elementary first to look around. The teachers were all in a meeting so they were in the meeting room. So I guided her around the school and saw a couple of my volleyball girls so went over to say hi and introduce them. Then afterwards I went to the middle school and with whom all my teachers were really excited to talk to her and everything. I love my middle school peoples. haha. Even my kids who were still at the school for club practices were pretty cool with her. =P
After that we went to the Picture Book Library/Museum, one of my favorite places in town. It`s so nice and modern looking. Hehe. So Takeuchi-san, one of my bosses who works at the the Picture Book place and also an awesome father of one of the 6th grade elementary kids whom I dearly love, was there that evening. No one else was at the library except for the workers. So I was halfway giving her the tour when Takeuchi-san came over and said he`ll give us a tour of the place himself. And luckily because of him we were able to go to all the rooms that were locked and even go the backroom or the safe room where the temperature has to be kept at a certain degree so as not to ruin the items kept there. It was soo cool! He even told me that if I ever want to come in here to translate books or anything like that all I have to do is tell him and he`ll let me in. WOO! I feel like one of those special agent peoples who have special access to everything. haha. Anyways, afterwards we went to go eat at the Eki-mae ryokan and then went to go sing our hearts out at the Karaoke box in Shibetsu city. Originally, we were going to only sing for an hour, but when I got there and they said there was a special price if you order free time (no time limit) that comes with all you can drink it`s only 1420yen. If we ordered the one hour Karaoke by itself it would cost us about 800yen for one hour. It`s expensive at night yes.So we were like, dude, 1420yen for as long as we like and anything we want to drink? I think I`ll take that one instead. SO we sang for 4 1/2 hours just the two of us, from 7pm until 11:30pm. Man, my voice was seriously dying on me. haha. But the Arashi concert is tomorrow! Exciting!
November 14 Saturday
Off to Sapporo for the Arashi concert!!! I drove my car to Asahikawa and parked it at the structure next to the train station for an overnight stay and then afterwards rode the train to Sapporo. The trip was pleasant with our duking it out on Mario Kart. So when we got there it was raining like crazy. Like a freakin typhoon. So we rode the subway over to the nearest stop to our hotel and walked the rest of the way. My jacket was soaked,even though I had an umbrella. ANyways, we got there at 12pm so we couldn`t check in yet. We just left our luggage with them and went off to Sapporo dome to buy the goods for the concert. THE LINE WAS LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG!!!! We waited outside, in the pouring rain, in the long ass line for 2-3 hours! Just to buy the concert goods. Hah.... It was a good thing both of us had umbrellas and were wearing rain boots. Otherwise I would`ve died from the cold and wetness. =P There were a lot of girls wearing very little out there and non rain repellent stuff so I felt bad for them. But they chose fashion over usefulness and protection. Their own fault. But what they were wearing were cute I have to say.
Finally after 2 long hours I could see the goods. And I saw the really hot posters of them. This concert is their 5x10 Anniversary Tour celebrating 10 years that they`ve been super popular. So all their stuff has that logo on it. But their posters were super hot. And Aiba-kun seriously takes the best pictures!! His single picture was sooo hot! He looked like a prince in the photos. HOT! I caved and bought the single one of him, the one with all the members, and I bought their pamphlet/photo book, and a fan with Aiba-kun`s face on it. Haha. They were selling eco-bags and pen lights and towels and keychains too, but since I`m not a super big fan, I was content with what I bought. Save money!! lol And as I was waiting for Chingyi to finish buying her things I hear "Theresa?" and looked around and saw my two eldest cousins standing there with their umbrellas looking at me incredulously. I was like "OMG!!?? WHAT!??" My cousins don`t live in Japan, they live in the states. So I was super surprised to see them. They were here traveling around Japan and were fans of Arashi so last stop for them was this concert. Freakin amazing! Seriously, big coincidence that we met here at the concert. I haven`t seen them in several years too. And then of all the places, here. So I took pictures with my cousins and said goodbye to them and if we see each other later it would be awesome. But I don`t think that was going to happen because there`s way too many people here. I didn`t even see any of my students who were coming, but I met my cousins. Too cool!
So afterwards we first went back to drop stuff off at the hotel and then went back to the Sapporo Dome (concert venue). Our seats were up in the stands but since the stage was huge and the seats were well positioned there was no problem seeing them. Although the boys were a little small. Our seats ended up being next to these two awesome black girls who were studying abroad here in Sapporo. And get this, one of the girls is from CA`s La Verne University. My hometown`s university! Too coincidental. I was like, wow, today was a day of coincidences.
But anyways, the concert was way too awesome. The crowd all had their pen lights and when the concert was beginning they all held them up in the air. It was soooo cool looking. The whole place lit up red and blue. Well, more red though. But that`s like DBSK`s color....lol There was this giant helium balloon that had 5x10 written on it and when the boys came out they were dangling from this huge balloon flying over the crowd. It was awesome!! And then Aiba did his solo song and he was so freakin cool and hot hot hot! All the other boys were also very cool and hot. I didn`t know that Nino played the guitar. That was cool. And at the end, when you thought it was the end with just one encore, they popped out again with another one. THey did 2 encores! I love these boys! Seriously, this concert made me a bigger fan of them. The special effects and everything were all very cool. An awesome concert.
Afterwards, since there were so many people leaving the dome to get onto the one train leading out of the dome we girls decided to just chill around the area for an hour before getting on the train. We did not want to get smashed in the train with other rabid fans. But there was a line to get on the train that extended all the way out to the entrance of the station. We waited for a while before we got to the actual platform and by then we were lucky enough to catch the last train. I felt sorry for all the other girls who couldn`t get a train back home. But it was already super cramped on there. It felt like the Tokyo trains during rush hour, but luckily it was all young girls standing around us and not old men on you. lol Ah, good times. =P
Anyways, the girls we were with were totally awesome, and I will definitely call them up when I come back to Sapporo next time. So we said our goodbyes and headed over to our hotel. I was originally planning on hitting up bars to drink the night away, but because we didn`t get back until 12:30am and I was super tired after the concert, we just bought bentos from the conbini and went back to chill at the hotel. Yeah, I just collapsed after my shower. Oh, btw, our hotel is located in downtown Susukino where all the host and hostess clubs were located. Oh yeah. The cabaret clubs were there too. There were so many sexy looking buildings that just had club names all over them. There was one named Club Desire and Club Atlantis and I so wanted to go into them!! And our hotel is right across the street from the apartment building where all the hosts live. So we saw a couple of them walking in and out from there as well as just all over the place. haha. It was hot.
November 15 Sunday
Aahh...Good morning. A very good morning indeed. I`m all worked out from the concert and then we get free breakfast. Woo. So we spent the morning wandering around the Sapporo train station looking for empty lockers to put our luggage in after we have checked out so tht we don`t have to carry the damn things around. But because there were so many girls here for the concert majority of the lockers were taken. So we wandered for like 30 min trying to find empty ones. But we finally found them. Then we went to go take some purikura. I love purikura here and it`s so cheap! The first machine we took pics in we held up our Arashi fans and just had Arashi written all over the pics. The second machine we looked cho model-like. Super models. Haha. It helps that what we were wearing were fairly fashionable. I liked that machine. It made me look a little skinnier. haha.
We then went to the pokemon center and I bought 2 little pokemon plushies. Soo cute. The place was pretty awesome I have to say and there were so many lil kids running around. haha. It was cute. Afterwards we met up with Chingyi`s friend who came from Canada to the concert. We met up to give her her stuff that Chingyi had bought for her. We then rushed to go eat and ended up in the same Tonkatsu place as last time I was here because it was the fastest. At 3pm I took my train home to Asahikawa and drove back home. Good weekend.
Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post a video and pictures soon. But unfortunately I will not have pics of the concert since we were not allowed to take pics and there were people walking around making sure we didn`t take pictures. Suck. But good good concert.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I`m going to freakin exude confidence and be awesome!!
11/8/09 Sunday
My Elementary School Festival! Well, more like just an open house performance thing. I`ve been waiting for this day for a while because the kids plays are sooooo cute and good that I wanted to see it performed for real, as well as the dance I taught the 6th graders. I love my children! So the thing started at 8:30am and all the parents arrived to sit on the floor in the gym where the stage also is. Since I`m technically a teacher, but not one of the official teachers I don`t have to actually work and I get the special important people chairs/seats. And when I went to go sit down I heard a small little voice say "Theresa-sensei!!" and saw one of my lil nursery kids run over to me and hug me tight. I was so exhilarated to see her! She`s soo cute! And her parents were sitting on the floor behind me and I heard them say "Who is that? The English teacher?" So I decided to introduce myself to them and now they like me. haha. And because there was an empty seat next to me since not many important people came, I told her that she could sit next to me because she couldn`t really see anything otherwise. Some of my other babies also saw me and came over to hold my hand or talk to me. However, some of the parents were like...who is that? THey didn`t think I was a teacher and wondered why I was sitting in the important people`s seats. I guess I still look like a high schooler to alot of them....
So the kids did an awesome awesome job and their costumes and props and backdrops were freakin AMAZING!! I have to admit I did help alot on the 1st graders costumes. And so they had the most elaborate looking ones because Yuki also helped. THe other teachers did majority of everything themselves which was amazing! But I didn`t know that Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade teacher) was so freaking good at art or just artistic and creative in general. His backdrops were painted and hand drawn by him and they were soooooo beatiful!! Even the audience gasped when they saw it! I love him even more now. He was already my fav teacher because he reminded my of Winnie the Pooh, but now he`s the best! haha. So the 2nd graders did a play called きつねさんのたくさん客さん "Mr. Fox`s Many Guests". 1st graders did something about a fight between the water mountain and fire mountain. It was actually pretty epic and the 1st graders did an awesome job! The 3rd graders did どろぼう学校 "Theives School" which was the best performance of them all. It was sooo cute and funny. The 5th graders did something about a good daimyo in a village. The 4th graders did おれたちはゴミっ子だ！ "We are Garbage Children!" Yes, it sounds terrible, but it talks about the importance of seperating trash...lol Kinda cute, kinda sad. =P The 6th graders did 青い鳥２１about finding the beginning of peaceful times from travelling to the past. It was really good and funny.
Oh, dude, so Mr. Wonderful looked damn good today! He was wearing black pants, a grey sweater and underneath it was a white collared shirt so the collar and cuffs peeked out of the sweater, and he moussed/gelled his hair semi-ikemen style. I saw him and was like DAMN! lol Like I said before, he`s not the hottest thing out there, but he has a very nice body and an awesome personality and really is kind of like eye candy. SO that`s why when I saw him looking like that, it upped his level! lol
After the festival at 1pm we had the enkai for all the elementary teachers. There was supposed to be a bus that left for the Shibetsu hotel where the enkai was taking place and I rode in to the school on my bike just in time to see the bus leave....I was like Oh shit...Luckily, the vice principal and Watanabe-sensei were there waiting for me. I felt so bad. But they told me it`s okay because they had told me a later time...so technically it wasn`t my fault...=P At the enkai we are given lil pieces of paper with a picture of a cute animal on it which corresponds to the animal pictures on our seats. It`s basically a roullette of where you get to sit. So I was standing next to Mr. Wonderful and was dearly hoping to be sitting next to him. He got a deer and I got a freakin hippo. And I was hoping that they would be next to each other. But nope, I`m next to the principal. I somehow always end up in the seat next to the bigwigs. But then I saw Mr. Wonderful sit directly diagonal from me and was like, "oh man, it`s going to be hard for me to talk to him because now I`ll have to look at him". And you know me, I panic during those times with hot guys. But I really tried and ganbarued! So I got one short 2 minute conversation in with him during the whole time and it was just about his car......>.< lol
After lunch was the second party to where most of the teachers went to go bowling. I again, like always, got the lowest score. Suck. But Mr. Wonderful took off his sweater and relaxed his white button up shirt underneath. And he looked sooo nice! He was on a different team next to mine, but we sat back to back or side to side whatever you wanna see it as, and I didn`t show it, but was pretty happy. haha. After bowling we decided to go to Tsubohachi to drink and somewhat eat. The guys ordered beer that came in fat big glasses and whiskey and the girls ordered cocktails and stuff. I didn`t sit next to Mr. Wonderful, one of the teachers was in between us, but he would occasionally look over to talk to me. And the men drank sooooo much, like ridiculous amounts. lol ANd it`s not nomihoudai, so we had to pay for all of it. The enkai at the hotel cost 4000yen each and this cost us 3000yen each. Errg.... Then we went to karaoke.
And there is where I really let myself go. I love Karaoke, and no matter what I fill myself with confidence and sing my heart out. Singing is something I`m not afraid to just belt out in front of people whether I suck or not. And it really freakin surprised my teachers. I guess that normally I`m really meek and quiet at school when I`m around the teachers, but when singing I`m back to my normal American self. haha. And all the teachers were like, dude, Theresa, you`re really good. And I swelled with pride. haha. And Mr. Wonderful`s voice is amazing! And when he`s doing Karaoke, he also becomes a little different. He somehow becomes sooo cool and fun! At school he`s kind of quiet and mature like, but here he was a normal cool party guy. Points upped. I really like that. When you work, your in good person work mode, and when you party, you really know how to party. That was him. Awesome! And when I selected to sing Aoyama Telma`s そばにいるね "Soba ni iru ne", he was like "ah, さすが" haha. And in the song there`s a guy rapping part to which none of the other guy teachers knew except for Mr.Wonderful. I was about to rap myself, but he took the other mic and started rapping the words for me! XDDDDD AAAAAHHH!! He was sooo good at it! I was amazed and wowed. And I was all a flutter that he sang with me. haha. Points totally upped. Then I decided to sing Mariah Carey`s "All I want for Christmas" and he totally cheered me on and woohoo`d for me. XD
After the karaoke session when I was waiting with him to pay I told him that he was totally good at rapping and his singing voice is amazing! And he told me that he just likes to sing and really has an interest in foreign music and the English language. He said that when he learned English in middle school he started having an interest in English and so he actually speaks it pretty well! So we started talking about English music in English. And I told him anytime he wanted to practice his English with me he can. Ahah. My strategy. lol So he was really happy and talked alot with me that night. He also asked me if I knew Fly Me to The Moon, and I just looked at him and was like OMG, are you serious? I love that song!! (No joke, I really do.) And he was like "you Love that song?! That`s great! Let`s go Karaoke together next time!" And I almost fainted from that one comment. =P I`m weird, yes I know. haha. But I`m always really fluttery around him, so I`m never sure what I should be feeling. XD Oh, and he`s a freakin gentleman. Like, the other men, even Kitagawa-sensei aren`t so gentlemanly, but he was totally. He would always wait for all the women to go out the door first to follow in the end so he was always the last guy out. Or he would let all the girls get their shoes before he would get his and he would open all the doors for us. Then when we got back at 12am after Karaoke (Yes, I spent from 1:30pm to 12am with my elementary teachers all day, and, man, can elementary teachers party. I love them when their drunk and crazy!!! LOL) he volunteered to walk me and the other female teacher back home when the other teachers were like "you guys are walking back alone?" But we told him since we`re walking together, it`ll be fine. Although, I really would`ve liked to walk with him. We could`ve been able to talk more, but becuse he lives in the total opposite direction of us, I didn`t want to inconvenience him. Points majorly upped. Oh, yeah, and Karaoke cost us 4000yen each cuz of all the drinks we ordered and the long ass time we spent in there. Yeah, I don`t need money. I don`t need money at all.
However, to cut this lovely spiel about Mr. Wonderful, there was something that majorly irked me and pissed me off during this time. Specifically during Karaoke, but it began at Tsubohachi. I guess the guys were getting a little more drunk and tipsy and can`t control what they say ya know. But I was still very surprised and taken aback by it. Watanabe-sensei (the 6th grade teacher) began to be a little rude to me at Tsubohachi. Not terribly, just a little. And then at Karaoke he said some rude things to me and when I went to the bathroom and came back, I saw him talking with one of the female teachers who I was sitting next to. And when I came back and sat next to her he said "I`ll talk to you more about this later" and she turned and saw me and kinda laughed and went Oh! So I knew something was up, but didn`t wanna confirm it just yet. Then when I was with Mr. Wonderful waiting to pay I saw him talking to the other teachers in the corner and them looking at me. So I really really knew something was up. When we got in the large taxi to go home, I sat behind him and I heard him say to Hisakawa-sensei "oh, she`s sitting behind us" Hmm.....So I started listening to his conversation while at the same time talking with the female teacher next to me and Mr. Wonderful behind me to not let them know I suspect something. ALthough they`re so obvious because they`re kindof drunk.
So Watanabe-sensei kept saying "she really needs to have more confidence in herself. She is so different when she sings, but at school she has no confidence." But it was in a much more worse tone. And the other teachers seem to be nodding along. You know I really wouldn`t mind if you told me after I sang or something "oh, Theresa, you`re really confident and different when you sing, but you need to have more confidence at school" Yeah, I wouldn`t take offense but take it to heart and do my best then. But if you`re going to talk behind my back like that about something that I think is so trivial but you`re making it sound horrible it`s absurd and I won`t just take it. I mean, they were freaking talking about it right there, while I was still there with them like they thought I couldn`t hear or understand them! True, at school I`m a little more meek and quiet, but that doesn`t mean I have no confidence. I just don`t know what exactly to talk to you about besides lesson plans, you teachers are always super busy anyways, and I get confused in class sometimes because I`m never exactly sure what you want me to teach! >.< Seriuosly, I try really hard to clear things up with the lesson I`m supposed to help you teach so that I understand what I have to do. Yet, even when they tell me what to do and I thought that I understood they pull some things on me during class where they don`t explain to me what they`re doing and expect me to just know and I get so confused because of that. I know it`s partially my fault for not being able to understand Japanese fluently, but I try freakin hard when I teach. I really let myself go crazy in class and be totally out there with the students, how can you say I have no confidence in that area? The kids seem to love me because I`m so different and I do things that teachers would normally not do because they might think it lowers their status or whatever but I go out and do it because I don`t care if people think I`m wierd or look stupid. I mean, I came all the way out to Japan on my own to teach in an area where barely anyone knows English, so then how can you say I have no confidence in myself? Maybe, they might`ve taken my confusedness and quietness with lack of confidence, but by no means do I think I have no confidence. Maybe I do need a little more confidence in myself, but the reason I don`t talk too much is because I sometimes can`t understand what your conversation is about. I`m not fluent or a native Japanese person. I try to start a conversation on the occasions, but you only answer shortly and breifly and don`t continue it and you want to now beat on me? WTF, dude? Majority of my friends who know me know that I have enough confidence in myself. True, there are many things that I`m not confident about, but it`s not in the part of teaching or talking with Japanese people because I`ve already done alot of that back at UCI. SOmetimes, I just don`t know how to act around the teachers so that I don`t offend them so I think it`s better to be a little more reserved around them. I didn`t want to be too American style ya know?
But you know what? F that! THis Sunday night I decided that from now on I will be so confident that you will take back those words you said and realize that you made a mistake. I will exude even more confidence than I already have, be even more genki and livelier than normal, and be my normal self. You want more confidence? You`ll get it. You might even think that I maybe am not the same person anymore and I don`t know if you`ll like my new self, but that`s me. So don`t go regretting that you think I need more confidence. Because I will show you more confidence. But, no worries peoples, I will be careful with myself that I don`t go overboard. I just want it so that one day when Watanabe-sensei or any of the other teachers in cahoots with him say to me "Theresa, you seem to be alot more lively and genki lately" I`ll just say to them "Oh, you know, I just thought it would be good if i had more confidence in myself" and just see the look on their faces. So from now I will live life like there is no tomorrow and burst with and exude confidence so that no one will ever say otherwise again.
Sorry for the long rant here, but I needed to vent and proclaim my "new" self. haha. And hopefully, good changes will happen.
My Elementary School Festival! Well, more like just an open house performance thing. I`ve been waiting for this day for a while because the kids plays are sooooo cute and good that I wanted to see it performed for real, as well as the dance I taught the 6th graders. I love my children! So the thing started at 8:30am and all the parents arrived to sit on the floor in the gym where the stage also is. Since I`m technically a teacher, but not one of the official teachers I don`t have to actually work and I get the special important people chairs/seats. And when I went to go sit down I heard a small little voice say "Theresa-sensei!!" and saw one of my lil nursery kids run over to me and hug me tight. I was so exhilarated to see her! She`s soo cute! And her parents were sitting on the floor behind me and I heard them say "Who is that? The English teacher?" So I decided to introduce myself to them and now they like me. haha. And because there was an empty seat next to me since not many important people came, I told her that she could sit next to me because she couldn`t really see anything otherwise. Some of my other babies also saw me and came over to hold my hand or talk to me. However, some of the parents were like...who is that? THey didn`t think I was a teacher and wondered why I was sitting in the important people`s seats. I guess I still look like a high schooler to alot of them....
So the kids did an awesome awesome job and their costumes and props and backdrops were freakin AMAZING!! I have to admit I did help alot on the 1st graders costumes. And so they had the most elaborate looking ones because Yuki also helped. THe other teachers did majority of everything themselves which was amazing! But I didn`t know that Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade teacher) was so freaking good at art or just artistic and creative in general. His backdrops were painted and hand drawn by him and they were soooooo beatiful!! Even the audience gasped when they saw it! I love him even more now. He was already my fav teacher because he reminded my of Winnie the Pooh, but now he`s the best! haha. So the 2nd graders did a play called きつねさんのたくさん客さん "Mr. Fox`s Many Guests". 1st graders did something about a fight between the water mountain and fire mountain. It was actually pretty epic and the 1st graders did an awesome job! The 3rd graders did どろぼう学校 "Theives School" which was the best performance of them all. It was sooo cute and funny. The 5th graders did something about a good daimyo in a village. The 4th graders did おれたちはゴミっ子だ！ "We are Garbage Children!" Yes, it sounds terrible, but it talks about the importance of seperating trash...lol Kinda cute, kinda sad. =P The 6th graders did 青い鳥２１about finding the beginning of peaceful times from travelling to the past. It was really good and funny.
Oh, dude, so Mr. Wonderful looked damn good today! He was wearing black pants, a grey sweater and underneath it was a white collared shirt so the collar and cuffs peeked out of the sweater, and he moussed/gelled his hair semi-ikemen style. I saw him and was like DAMN! lol Like I said before, he`s not the hottest thing out there, but he has a very nice body and an awesome personality and really is kind of like eye candy. SO that`s why when I saw him looking like that, it upped his level! lol
After the festival at 1pm we had the enkai for all the elementary teachers. There was supposed to be a bus that left for the Shibetsu hotel where the enkai was taking place and I rode in to the school on my bike just in time to see the bus leave....I was like Oh shit...Luckily, the vice principal and Watanabe-sensei were there waiting for me. I felt so bad. But they told me it`s okay because they had told me a later time...so technically it wasn`t my fault...=P At the enkai we are given lil pieces of paper with a picture of a cute animal on it which corresponds to the animal pictures on our seats. It`s basically a roullette of where you get to sit. So I was standing next to Mr. Wonderful and was dearly hoping to be sitting next to him. He got a deer and I got a freakin hippo. And I was hoping that they would be next to each other. But nope, I`m next to the principal. I somehow always end up in the seat next to the bigwigs. But then I saw Mr. Wonderful sit directly diagonal from me and was like, "oh man, it`s going to be hard for me to talk to him because now I`ll have to look at him". And you know me, I panic during those times with hot guys. But I really tried and ganbarued! So I got one short 2 minute conversation in with him during the whole time and it was just about his car......>.< lol
After lunch was the second party to where most of the teachers went to go bowling. I again, like always, got the lowest score. Suck. But Mr. Wonderful took off his sweater and relaxed his white button up shirt underneath. And he looked sooo nice! He was on a different team next to mine, but we sat back to back or side to side whatever you wanna see it as, and I didn`t show it, but was pretty happy. haha. After bowling we decided to go to Tsubohachi to drink and somewhat eat. The guys ordered beer that came in fat big glasses and whiskey and the girls ordered cocktails and stuff. I didn`t sit next to Mr. Wonderful, one of the teachers was in between us, but he would occasionally look over to talk to me. And the men drank sooooo much, like ridiculous amounts. lol ANd it`s not nomihoudai, so we had to pay for all of it. The enkai at the hotel cost 4000yen each and this cost us 3000yen each. Errg.... Then we went to karaoke.
And there is where I really let myself go. I love Karaoke, and no matter what I fill myself with confidence and sing my heart out. Singing is something I`m not afraid to just belt out in front of people whether I suck or not. And it really freakin surprised my teachers. I guess that normally I`m really meek and quiet at school when I`m around the teachers, but when singing I`m back to my normal American self. haha. And all the teachers were like, dude, Theresa, you`re really good. And I swelled with pride. haha. And Mr. Wonderful`s voice is amazing! And when he`s doing Karaoke, he also becomes a little different. He somehow becomes sooo cool and fun! At school he`s kind of quiet and mature like, but here he was a normal cool party guy. Points upped. I really like that. When you work, your in good person work mode, and when you party, you really know how to party. That was him. Awesome! And when I selected to sing Aoyama Telma`s そばにいるね "Soba ni iru ne", he was like "ah, さすが" haha. And in the song there`s a guy rapping part to which none of the other guy teachers knew except for Mr.Wonderful. I was about to rap myself, but he took the other mic and started rapping the words for me! XDDDDD AAAAAHHH!! He was sooo good at it! I was amazed and wowed. And I was all a flutter that he sang with me. haha. Points totally upped. Then I decided to sing Mariah Carey`s "All I want for Christmas" and he totally cheered me on and woohoo`d for me. XD
After the karaoke session when I was waiting with him to pay I told him that he was totally good at rapping and his singing voice is amazing! And he told me that he just likes to sing and really has an interest in foreign music and the English language. He said that when he learned English in middle school he started having an interest in English and so he actually speaks it pretty well! So we started talking about English music in English. And I told him anytime he wanted to practice his English with me he can. Ahah. My strategy. lol So he was really happy and talked alot with me that night. He also asked me if I knew Fly Me to The Moon, and I just looked at him and was like OMG, are you serious? I love that song!! (No joke, I really do.) And he was like "you Love that song?! That`s great! Let`s go Karaoke together next time!" And I almost fainted from that one comment. =P I`m weird, yes I know. haha. But I`m always really fluttery around him, so I`m never sure what I should be feeling. XD Oh, and he`s a freakin gentleman. Like, the other men, even Kitagawa-sensei aren`t so gentlemanly, but he was totally. He would always wait for all the women to go out the door first to follow in the end so he was always the last guy out. Or he would let all the girls get their shoes before he would get his and he would open all the doors for us. Then when we got back at 12am after Karaoke (Yes, I spent from 1:30pm to 12am with my elementary teachers all day, and, man, can elementary teachers party. I love them when their drunk and crazy!!! LOL) he volunteered to walk me and the other female teacher back home when the other teachers were like "you guys are walking back alone?" But we told him since we`re walking together, it`ll be fine. Although, I really would`ve liked to walk with him. We could`ve been able to talk more, but becuse he lives in the total opposite direction of us, I didn`t want to inconvenience him. Points majorly upped. Oh, yeah, and Karaoke cost us 4000yen each cuz of all the drinks we ordered and the long ass time we spent in there. Yeah, I don`t need money. I don`t need money at all.
However, to cut this lovely spiel about Mr. Wonderful, there was something that majorly irked me and pissed me off during this time. Specifically during Karaoke, but it began at Tsubohachi. I guess the guys were getting a little more drunk and tipsy and can`t control what they say ya know. But I was still very surprised and taken aback by it. Watanabe-sensei (the 6th grade teacher) began to be a little rude to me at Tsubohachi. Not terribly, just a little. And then at Karaoke he said some rude things to me and when I went to the bathroom and came back, I saw him talking with one of the female teachers who I was sitting next to. And when I came back and sat next to her he said "I`ll talk to you more about this later" and she turned and saw me and kinda laughed and went Oh! So I knew something was up, but didn`t wanna confirm it just yet. Then when I was with Mr. Wonderful waiting to pay I saw him talking to the other teachers in the corner and them looking at me. So I really really knew something was up. When we got in the large taxi to go home, I sat behind him and I heard him say to Hisakawa-sensei "oh, she`s sitting behind us" Hmm.....So I started listening to his conversation while at the same time talking with the female teacher next to me and Mr. Wonderful behind me to not let them know I suspect something. ALthough they`re so obvious because they`re kindof drunk.
So Watanabe-sensei kept saying "she really needs to have more confidence in herself. She is so different when she sings, but at school she has no confidence." But it was in a much more worse tone. And the other teachers seem to be nodding along. You know I really wouldn`t mind if you told me after I sang or something "oh, Theresa, you`re really confident and different when you sing, but you need to have more confidence at school" Yeah, I wouldn`t take offense but take it to heart and do my best then. But if you`re going to talk behind my back like that about something that I think is so trivial but you`re making it sound horrible it`s absurd and I won`t just take it. I mean, they were freaking talking about it right there, while I was still there with them like they thought I couldn`t hear or understand them! True, at school I`m a little more meek and quiet, but that doesn`t mean I have no confidence. I just don`t know what exactly to talk to you about besides lesson plans, you teachers are always super busy anyways, and I get confused in class sometimes because I`m never exactly sure what you want me to teach! >.< Seriuosly, I try really hard to clear things up with the lesson I`m supposed to help you teach so that I understand what I have to do. Yet, even when they tell me what to do and I thought that I understood they pull some things on me during class where they don`t explain to me what they`re doing and expect me to just know and I get so confused because of that. I know it`s partially my fault for not being able to understand Japanese fluently, but I try freakin hard when I teach. I really let myself go crazy in class and be totally out there with the students, how can you say I have no confidence in that area? The kids seem to love me because I`m so different and I do things that teachers would normally not do because they might think it lowers their status or whatever but I go out and do it because I don`t care if people think I`m wierd or look stupid. I mean, I came all the way out to Japan on my own to teach in an area where barely anyone knows English, so then how can you say I have no confidence in myself? Maybe, they might`ve taken my confusedness and quietness with lack of confidence, but by no means do I think I have no confidence. Maybe I do need a little more confidence in myself, but the reason I don`t talk too much is because I sometimes can`t understand what your conversation is about. I`m not fluent or a native Japanese person. I try to start a conversation on the occasions, but you only answer shortly and breifly and don`t continue it and you want to now beat on me? WTF, dude? Majority of my friends who know me know that I have enough confidence in myself. True, there are many things that I`m not confident about, but it`s not in the part of teaching or talking with Japanese people because I`ve already done alot of that back at UCI. SOmetimes, I just don`t know how to act around the teachers so that I don`t offend them so I think it`s better to be a little more reserved around them. I didn`t want to be too American style ya know?
But you know what? F that! THis Sunday night I decided that from now on I will be so confident that you will take back those words you said and realize that you made a mistake. I will exude even more confidence than I already have, be even more genki and livelier than normal, and be my normal self. You want more confidence? You`ll get it. You might even think that I maybe am not the same person anymore and I don`t know if you`ll like my new self, but that`s me. So don`t go regretting that you think I need more confidence. Because I will show you more confidence. But, no worries peoples, I will be careful with myself that I don`t go overboard. I just want it so that one day when Watanabe-sensei or any of the other teachers in cahoots with him say to me "Theresa, you seem to be alot more lively and genki lately" I`ll just say to them "Oh, you know, I just thought it would be good if i had more confidence in myself" and just see the look on their faces. So from now I will live life like there is no tomorrow and burst with and exude confidence so that no one will ever say otherwise again.
Sorry for the long rant here, but I needed to vent and proclaim my "new" self. haha. And hopefully, good changes will happen.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
OMG SNOW!!!! And my car battery died while I was an hour away from home...
October 31st HALLOWEEN!!!!
So today is Halloween right? But rememeber, there is no such official day like that in Japan. So instead, for my town, today is the town`s cultural festival. Or specifically the old people`s culture festival. It was a small little thing held at the town hall with a gallery displaying all the works of the elderly in this town. The work was amazing!! I have to say, old people really do have a lot of time on their hands. So much that they perfect their hobbies of artwork and calligraphy. It reminded me of my grandma because she`s the same way. Old people don`t have alot to do during the days so they go to art classes and stuff. I loved the gallery. I really really wanted to learn all these things that the grandpa/mas do but, sadly, I don`t have the time. After the gallery I went to go eat some free soba that some of the grandpas were making. They asked if I wanted to make it too and I did. Except that Su was in front of me making it so I had to wait as there was only one table for this thing. ANd i was kinda on a time constraint. I had to get back home to get ready to leave for Asahikawa and the Halloween party tonight. So I couldn`t make the sobas. Sadness. ;=; But after Su was done making her portion she brought alot of it over for me with sauce. Hurrah! I also bought some deep fried curry flavored potatoes called "Curry Balls". Yes. lol
Anyways, I went back home to get myself ready for the party tonight and discovered I don`t have a costume!! So I decided to just wear a nice black top and jeans. Hiraga-san came to pick me up at 5pm and I discovered that she lives right behind me! We both didn`t know that we lived so close to each other. So from now on when she goes to the local bar, which they call "snack"s here if they include Karoake...i think, she will call me up and we will go drinking! lol I normally don`t talk to her at the high school because she always seems super busy. But now that I`ve talked to her she is awesome! I like her alot! haha. ^^ So we talked the whole way to Asahikawa. When we got there we parked at the station and walked along Kaimono doori to meet up with her ALT friend from Kitami city who invited us to the party. He apparently knew about it from before and he has friends who are going to the party. Hiraga-sensei used to work with him at her previous high school. He`s from England and super tall, and so were his two other friends who were both from the states. Well, everyone`s taller than me, except for my elementary students. lol The street was freaking cold though! And I saw so many girls/gyarus wearing short shorts or skirts and heels or boots and was like "AREN`T YOU LADIES COLD!!?" Yes, they were, but they choose sexy fashion over protection....sure. But I have to admit, I like that fashion style alot and would wear it if I could. Just maybe not in this cold.
We decided to go to someplace to eat before the party which started at 9pm. So we walked all over the place in the freakin cold until we found an izakaya to eat at. Oh, and one of the guys` costume was a girl`s seifuku/school uniform so he was wearing a skirt and looked pretty cold. The Japanese people were staring at him as we walked around because of his costume. lol haha. After the izakaya we decided to head to a nearby place for more drinks. So we headed in to a British Pub named "Bank of America"....something`s wrong here.....LOL But it had a bar and a TV showing the baseball game and felt like a foreign pub, except for the fact that the bartenders were Japanese. The girl bartenders were pretty cute though. So I drank this cocktail named Blue`s Blue which had grapefruit and blueberry juice/alcohol in it. And around 9pm we headed to Club Den which was where the party was held. This club/bar area is owned and operated by foreigners. most of them all work here as ALT`s or for companies and stuff around here. It was a small place, but had a good foreign atmosphere to it.
But here`s the problem. I did meet a couple of the other foreigners around here, but for some reason, I couldn`t talk to them as well as I used to back in the states. I remember myself being super social and being able to hold conversations with alot of people. And people who know me can hopefully attest to that. I did say hi and try to talk to them, but I think it might be partially because lately I haven`t been in contact with much other foreign peoples and then I`ve been kind of isolated in my lil place, and the fact that most of these people already knew each other was a bit of a problem. Hiraga-san knew no one at the party aside from me and the Kitami ALT, so I decided to stay with her otherwise she would be alone and left out. So I ended up sitting with a bunch of Japanese people and actually holding a decent conversatino with the Japanese peoples. Me and 2 Japanese girls became quite good friends and decided to exchange phone numbers and emails so that we can hang out and stuff. One of them`s a nurse and the otherone used to live in Kenbuchi. haha. So I don`t know if it`s sad or not or if it`s a good thing or not, but I was able to have a better conversation and connection with the Japanese people then with the foreigners. I felt bad for a little bit that I wasn`t able to talk or connect much with the other foreigners aside from the three I had dinner with, but then quickly got over it because I was able to make new friends anyways. It`s fine. I think.
At around 11pm we decided to leave because Hiraga-san was driving and I don`t think she was having too much fun at the party, so I didn`t mind leaving. When we got outside it was snowing for REALS!! I was like "WWWWAAAAAAAAHhHHHH" I got so excited and happy. And it didn`t help that I was a little buzzed from the all you can drink bar at the party. I drank quite a lot. And they give you generous amounts. So on the way home I was really animated and talked to Hiraga-san alot, although I don`t remember what I talked to her about. lol When I got to my apt, the place was covered in snow!! I was like woah and in my buzzed status wobbled over to the door and tried to put the key into the lock for like 2 minutes. haha. Either my hands were super cold or I was just super buzzed. =P Haha. And I conked out.
November 1st Sunday
It`s so damn bright outside because it`s all covered in white!! Everything was white! And super beautiful!! Just wonderous! I was like wow, winter wonderland! I couldn`t believe it! So in the morning I put on my winter clothes and went outside to play in the snow by myself....lol XD I made botched lobatomy snowmen and buttprints in the snow. Haha. I also made snowballs and threw them at my apt or tried to see how far they would sink when i threw them in the snow. I think if you were watching me, you would`ve probably thought it sad. lol I bet the neighbors were like, wtf is she doing? =P So then I decided to trudge my way through the soft powder snow over to Su`s apt. Oh my feet sank to the ground almost 1ft. And I at first couldn`t open my door because there was so much snow piled outside my apt. lol But I had so much fun just walking in the snow. I felt like a lil kid again. haha. I went over to Su`s apt, rang her doorbell, just to tell her it was snowing. haha. And she laughed and thought it funny. I sat over at her place for a lil bit and then went back home after a few minutes of walking through snow covered Kenbuchi. My feet however were getting super cold because I didn`t have real snow boots. Just my velvet black ones. So what ended up happening was that I wore plastic bags over my socks and then put htem in my shoes to avoid them getting wet and my toes hurting from the cold. =P
And then at night I decided to head over to Aoi to eat. It was snowing like crazy outside and I couldn`t really see the road that clearly. And just when I neared the place I stepped on an area that had frozen over and was like black ice and basically slipped and fell. I landed hard on my butt, but thankfully, not my head. It hurt and reminded me of when I fell when I used to ice skate and wanted to go ice skating again...haha. funny. ANyways, it happened again when I left the restaurant. Terrible, stupid clumsy me.
November 3rd Tuesday
Today is Japan`s culture day so it`s a holiday evryone has off. Thank god, because I needed a day where I could go buy winter stuff. I desperately needed snowboots, a thicker jacket, a hat, a shovel and a snow brush for my car. And Su said she would come with me today. So I first headed over to SHibetsu city to find the cheaper things. At Homac I was thinking of getting an extra thing of car batteries and a rope/cable tug thing just in case. And then thought better of it. I was like, "oh, I don`t need it" That will come back to bite me in the butt later tonight. I bought some of my cheap stuff in Shibetsu then headed over to Asahikawa AEON JUSCO to buy the rest of it. I drove super slow and let people pass me because I was really scared of getting into an accident in the snow. Especially slipping. We passed by one car where the girl had slipped into the snow next to the road and some dude was trying to help her out. THat`s when that cable would come in handy.
Well after an hour or maybe a little over because I drove so much slower than usual, we got there. So today AEON`s clothing section was having a huge sale on winter clothing, so I went and bought some, particularly my jacket. And then i bought a humidifier, a mini heater for my toilet beause it`s freakin cold in there since it`s not in my main apt area, just in the entryway which is an awkward place to put it I tell you. And then I bought my snow boots!! Yay! THey`re super cute I love them! They`re brown with pink words written in French all over it. I had liked the black one too, but I have too many black boots already. I wanted to buy these really hot heels, but because I doubt I`ll be able to wear them much during this time, I didn`t.
We basically spent a whole day out until 7pm and decided tohead on back to the car to go home. And my car wouldn`t start up. I had realized too late that I had forgotten to turn off my headlights and it sucked up all the battery life. And now my car won`t run. And we were in Asahikawa. And it was -3 degrees celsius outside. Great. Luckily, we were stuck at the AEON parking lot. And AEON just so happened to be the largest mall/dept store place in Asahikawa. So there were alot of people to ask for help in there. The service people called the guardsman to come and try to charge my car`s batteries or give it a little boost for it to run. And it didn`t. So the guardsman/police dude told us to call JAF which is the AAA of Japan to come help us. He said it might not just be the problem with the batteries. Su called JAF and had the guy come out to help find the problem with my car. And what happened was that the problem was just that my batteries needed a boost!!! And just for that it cost me $120!! If I was a JAF member, it would`ve been free. But apparently I wasnt, when I thought I had signed up for it, and it cost me. BOOO!!!! So I decided to join them in case anymore things like this happened which prolly will cuz my car`s so freakin old. STUPID GUARDSMEN! If only you were able to charge it properly I wouldn`t have had to pay....Whatever. I still thank him for having tried several times. Honestly, I`m really thankful to all of the people who helped, because otherwise I would`ve been hin huge trouble.
I had originally wanted to stop and eat at Kohrinboh ramen with Su, but because of this problem I cannot stop the car until I get home because I need to let the batteries run awhile. So that was that. And then at midnight, as I was blowdrying my hair, the electricity went out. And i was like "oh shit, if the electricty is out that means my heater will go out, and it`s -4 degrees right now. Not good" So I donned my winter clothing and went outside and shoveled my way through the snow at 12am to try and find the circuit breaker. And then realized that it was not outside but inside my apt, above my door. I wasted my body heat outside....lol anyways, it worked. And then I forgot that when you reset the heater, previous settings are erased and I had forgotten to put it on save mode so that when it reaches a certain temperature it will stop for a little bit until the temperature drops and it will start again. So it saves a lot of kerosene and electricity while keeping me warm, hence the name Save mode. I had left it on normal nmode all night and was unsure why it was so hot in my apt until this morning when I realized that it was not on save mode. There goes a lot of my money......Not a good night.
So today is Halloween right? But rememeber, there is no such official day like that in Japan. So instead, for my town, today is the town`s cultural festival. Or specifically the old people`s culture festival. It was a small little thing held at the town hall with a gallery displaying all the works of the elderly in this town. The work was amazing!! I have to say, old people really do have a lot of time on their hands. So much that they perfect their hobbies of artwork and calligraphy. It reminded me of my grandma because she`s the same way. Old people don`t have alot to do during the days so they go to art classes and stuff. I loved the gallery. I really really wanted to learn all these things that the grandpa/mas do but, sadly, I don`t have the time. After the gallery I went to go eat some free soba that some of the grandpas were making. They asked if I wanted to make it too and I did. Except that Su was in front of me making it so I had to wait as there was only one table for this thing. ANd i was kinda on a time constraint. I had to get back home to get ready to leave for Asahikawa and the Halloween party tonight. So I couldn`t make the sobas. Sadness. ;=; But after Su was done making her portion she brought alot of it over for me with sauce. Hurrah! I also bought some deep fried curry flavored potatoes called "Curry Balls". Yes. lol
Anyways, I went back home to get myself ready for the party tonight and discovered I don`t have a costume!! So I decided to just wear a nice black top and jeans. Hiraga-san came to pick me up at 5pm and I discovered that she lives right behind me! We both didn`t know that we lived so close to each other. So from now on when she goes to the local bar, which they call "snack"s here if they include Karoake...i think, she will call me up and we will go drinking! lol I normally don`t talk to her at the high school because she always seems super busy. But now that I`ve talked to her she is awesome! I like her alot! haha. ^^ So we talked the whole way to Asahikawa. When we got there we parked at the station and walked along Kaimono doori to meet up with her ALT friend from Kitami city who invited us to the party. He apparently knew about it from before and he has friends who are going to the party. Hiraga-sensei used to work with him at her previous high school. He`s from England and super tall, and so were his two other friends who were both from the states. Well, everyone`s taller than me, except for my elementary students. lol The street was freaking cold though! And I saw so many girls/gyarus wearing short shorts or skirts and heels or boots and was like "AREN`T YOU LADIES COLD!!?" Yes, they were, but they choose sexy fashion over protection....sure. But I have to admit, I like that fashion style alot and would wear it if I could. Just maybe not in this cold.
We decided to go to someplace to eat before the party which started at 9pm. So we walked all over the place in the freakin cold until we found an izakaya to eat at. Oh, and one of the guys` costume was a girl`s seifuku/school uniform so he was wearing a skirt and looked pretty cold. The Japanese people were staring at him as we walked around because of his costume. lol haha. After the izakaya we decided to head to a nearby place for more drinks. So we headed in to a British Pub named "Bank of America"....something`s wrong here.....LOL But it had a bar and a TV showing the baseball game and felt like a foreign pub, except for the fact that the bartenders were Japanese. The girl bartenders were pretty cute though. So I drank this cocktail named Blue`s Blue which had grapefruit and blueberry juice/alcohol in it. And around 9pm we headed to Club Den which was where the party was held. This club/bar area is owned and operated by foreigners. most of them all work here as ALT`s or for companies and stuff around here. It was a small place, but had a good foreign atmosphere to it.
But here`s the problem. I did meet a couple of the other foreigners around here, but for some reason, I couldn`t talk to them as well as I used to back in the states. I remember myself being super social and being able to hold conversations with alot of people. And people who know me can hopefully attest to that. I did say hi and try to talk to them, but I think it might be partially because lately I haven`t been in contact with much other foreign peoples and then I`ve been kind of isolated in my lil place, and the fact that most of these people already knew each other was a bit of a problem. Hiraga-san knew no one at the party aside from me and the Kitami ALT, so I decided to stay with her otherwise she would be alone and left out. So I ended up sitting with a bunch of Japanese people and actually holding a decent conversatino with the Japanese peoples. Me and 2 Japanese girls became quite good friends and decided to exchange phone numbers and emails so that we can hang out and stuff. One of them`s a nurse and the otherone used to live in Kenbuchi. haha. So I don`t know if it`s sad or not or if it`s a good thing or not, but I was able to have a better conversation and connection with the Japanese people then with the foreigners. I felt bad for a little bit that I wasn`t able to talk or connect much with the other foreigners aside from the three I had dinner with, but then quickly got over it because I was able to make new friends anyways. It`s fine. I think.
At around 11pm we decided to leave because Hiraga-san was driving and I don`t think she was having too much fun at the party, so I didn`t mind leaving. When we got outside it was snowing for REALS!! I was like "WWWWAAAAAAAAHhHHHH" I got so excited and happy. And it didn`t help that I was a little buzzed from the all you can drink bar at the party. I drank quite a lot. And they give you generous amounts. So on the way home I was really animated and talked to Hiraga-san alot, although I don`t remember what I talked to her about. lol When I got to my apt, the place was covered in snow!! I was like woah and in my buzzed status wobbled over to the door and tried to put the key into the lock for like 2 minutes. haha. Either my hands were super cold or I was just super buzzed. =P Haha. And I conked out.
November 1st Sunday
It`s so damn bright outside because it`s all covered in white!! Everything was white! And super beautiful!! Just wonderous! I was like wow, winter wonderland! I couldn`t believe it! So in the morning I put on my winter clothes and went outside to play in the snow by myself....lol XD I made botched lobatomy snowmen and buttprints in the snow. Haha. I also made snowballs and threw them at my apt or tried to see how far they would sink when i threw them in the snow. I think if you were watching me, you would`ve probably thought it sad. lol I bet the neighbors were like, wtf is she doing? =P So then I decided to trudge my way through the soft powder snow over to Su`s apt. Oh my feet sank to the ground almost 1ft. And I at first couldn`t open my door because there was so much snow piled outside my apt. lol But I had so much fun just walking in the snow. I felt like a lil kid again. haha. I went over to Su`s apt, rang her doorbell, just to tell her it was snowing. haha. And she laughed and thought it funny. I sat over at her place for a lil bit and then went back home after a few minutes of walking through snow covered Kenbuchi. My feet however were getting super cold because I didn`t have real snow boots. Just my velvet black ones. So what ended up happening was that I wore plastic bags over my socks and then put htem in my shoes to avoid them getting wet and my toes hurting from the cold. =P
And then at night I decided to head over to Aoi to eat. It was snowing like crazy outside and I couldn`t really see the road that clearly. And just when I neared the place I stepped on an area that had frozen over and was like black ice and basically slipped and fell. I landed hard on my butt, but thankfully, not my head. It hurt and reminded me of when I fell when I used to ice skate and wanted to go ice skating again...haha. funny. ANyways, it happened again when I left the restaurant. Terrible, stupid clumsy me.
November 3rd Tuesday
Today is Japan`s culture day so it`s a holiday evryone has off. Thank god, because I needed a day where I could go buy winter stuff. I desperately needed snowboots, a thicker jacket, a hat, a shovel and a snow brush for my car. And Su said she would come with me today. So I first headed over to SHibetsu city to find the cheaper things. At Homac I was thinking of getting an extra thing of car batteries and a rope/cable tug thing just in case. And then thought better of it. I was like, "oh, I don`t need it" That will come back to bite me in the butt later tonight. I bought some of my cheap stuff in Shibetsu then headed over to Asahikawa AEON JUSCO to buy the rest of it. I drove super slow and let people pass me because I was really scared of getting into an accident in the snow. Especially slipping. We passed by one car where the girl had slipped into the snow next to the road and some dude was trying to help her out. THat`s when that cable would come in handy.
Well after an hour or maybe a little over because I drove so much slower than usual, we got there. So today AEON`s clothing section was having a huge sale on winter clothing, so I went and bought some, particularly my jacket. And then i bought a humidifier, a mini heater for my toilet beause it`s freakin cold in there since it`s not in my main apt area, just in the entryway which is an awkward place to put it I tell you. And then I bought my snow boots!! Yay! THey`re super cute I love them! They`re brown with pink words written in French all over it. I had liked the black one too, but I have too many black boots already. I wanted to buy these really hot heels, but because I doubt I`ll be able to wear them much during this time, I didn`t.
We basically spent a whole day out until 7pm and decided tohead on back to the car to go home. And my car wouldn`t start up. I had realized too late that I had forgotten to turn off my headlights and it sucked up all the battery life. And now my car won`t run. And we were in Asahikawa. And it was -3 degrees celsius outside. Great. Luckily, we were stuck at the AEON parking lot. And AEON just so happened to be the largest mall/dept store place in Asahikawa. So there were alot of people to ask for help in there. The service people called the guardsman to come and try to charge my car`s batteries or give it a little boost for it to run. And it didn`t. So the guardsman/police dude told us to call JAF which is the AAA of Japan to come help us. He said it might not just be the problem with the batteries. Su called JAF and had the guy come out to help find the problem with my car. And what happened was that the problem was just that my batteries needed a boost!!! And just for that it cost me $120!! If I was a JAF member, it would`ve been free. But apparently I wasnt, when I thought I had signed up for it, and it cost me. BOOO!!!! So I decided to join them in case anymore things like this happened which prolly will cuz my car`s so freakin old. STUPID GUARDSMEN! If only you were able to charge it properly I wouldn`t have had to pay....Whatever. I still thank him for having tried several times. Honestly, I`m really thankful to all of the people who helped, because otherwise I would`ve been hin huge trouble.
I had originally wanted to stop and eat at Kohrinboh ramen with Su, but because of this problem I cannot stop the car until I get home because I need to let the batteries run awhile. So that was that. And then at midnight, as I was blowdrying my hair, the electricity went out. And i was like "oh shit, if the electricty is out that means my heater will go out, and it`s -4 degrees right now. Not good" So I donned my winter clothing and went outside and shoveled my way through the snow at 12am to try and find the circuit breaker. And then realized that it was not outside but inside my apt, above my door. I wasted my body heat outside....lol anyways, it worked. And then I forgot that when you reset the heater, previous settings are erased and I had forgotten to put it on save mode so that when it reaches a certain temperature it will stop for a little bit until the temperature drops and it will start again. So it saves a lot of kerosene and electricity while keeping me warm, hence the name Save mode. I had left it on normal nmode all night and was unsure why it was so hot in my apt until this morning when I realized that it was not on save mode. There goes a lot of my money......Not a good night.
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