Osokute gomen, but here it is!

Hey guys. Sorry for the late update but things have been getting crazy busy and hectic lately that I`ve not had the time to do much blogging. And when I do have time, I just want to lie around and do nothing as I recently seldom have the time to relax. I`ve been planning lessons and having meetings often lately that it seems as if I`m no longer the ALT but the official English teacher at the nursery, elementary and high school. Luckily, I get breaks at the middle school where I`m just the assistant and I do no planning. It`s been a little stressful with all the planning and stuff as well as keeping up appearances as the foreign "interesting" English teacher. You`re expected to always be genki and into English and bring a "foreign" flair about with you which can actually be kind of tiring and draining. The job has alot of perks though. It`s fun, no doubt, and I quite enjoy spending my time with the students. But being in the inaka(countryside) with no other English speakers around is affecting my outgoing personality. I have many Japanese friends here, don`t get me wrong. I just seem to have been withdrawing more into myself and spend much of my time at home and on my own. I need to get into the big cities more often...lol Anyways......

June 6th Sunday

Today was the middle school sports festival! The kids have been practicing for this thing for 2 weeks straight! Everyday! Classes will only go for 5 periods, sometimes 4, and then the rest of the day is cancelled and everyone practices for it. The teachers are assigned to 1 of 4 teams to help the students. The students participate in a variety of sports activities raking in points for their team. And let me tell ya, the kids are super serious about this. They get frustrated if their teammates don`t do well and stay after school long after their own club activities are finished to practice. I was very impressed by the kids determination and attitude towards the festival. Now if only that can also be applid to their English classes...lol

So there were four teams: red, blue, yellow, white. Each team consists of a mixture of 1st-3rd years with two 3rd year students as the captain and co-captain. The captains, from what I`ve observed, are typical (and interestingly) drama/anime-like amazing boys. I really couldn`t help but notice it as these boys are some of the best students in my class. And it was no surprise that they were the captains. So the red team`s captain was the hilarious most outgoing sporty boy in the entire 3rd year class. Oh! And he`s president of the baseball club. He`s one of my favs as he`s always so willing to speak and volunteer in English even if he makes mistakes. Not to mention he`s incredibly funny. The blue team`s captain (president of the ping-pong club) was the quiet mysteriuos deep thinker who doesn`t talk much and leaves most of the directing and speaking to his co-captain (who is also very vocal and outgoing). I observed that he only steps in and voices things when needed. The yellow team`s is my taiko instructor`s son and all around ace of the school. He`s the smartest boy in the school and excels at everything, including sports (president of the tennis club and Hokkaido youth tennis champion). One of the mot sincere, honest, kindest boys ever and he has the respect of every student and teachers in this school. He`s also the president of the student body. Talk about being the best. And the last captain, the white team`s, is the best looking playboy of the 3rd years. He`s very outgoing and constantly always assumes I`ve got a boyfriend whenever I say I`m happy. lol The girls love him because he`s got a great personality and is kind of a playboy and looks good. haha. And there you have it, the team captains. Just like your imagination, no? =P

Anyways, on this day everyone was all abuzz about the festival. They have trained hard for it and finally it has come. All the students wore tshirts representing their team`s color. And marched out onto the field. There was the opening ceremony and then the start of the activities. There was a 100meter run, 500meter run, and 800meter run that timed the students individually as well as that one sport where they run and then jump to see who can get the farthest. Then there was the group jump roping, tug-of-war, and 12-15 legged race. That last one was amazing. The kids practiced so hard for it and were able to synch with each other well. Although there were a few injuries, but nothing serious.

At the end of the day the white team won. All of the kids did great! I was so proud of all of them. ^^ After that, the teachers all went for an enkai and drank and were merry. Especially Iwata-sensei. I`ve never seen her so drunk before and it was quite hilarious. I wish she was like that more often. lol I love her though. The principal then invited us over to his apartment for some more drinking and eating. Awesome.

June 12th Saturday

Yosakoi Soran festival in Sapporo!! Today I took a day trip to Sapporo to meet up with my girls Steph, Erika, and Nikki. It was wonderful seeing them again and a good refresher. I`ve been becoming more and more recluse-like in my town and at schools that when I finally saw my friends that recluse bubble popped for a day and I was able to be myself again. (Unfortunately,it only lasted for that one day and when I came back into my town I became the quiet reserved ALT again, except for when I`m teaching, of course). I think I also started getting sick on this day.

I almost didn`t make it on the train to get to Sapporo. I had woken up late and didn`t leave at the time I wanted to. It takes me an hour to drive to Asahikawa station (because I didn`t want to pay 900yen for the train from my town to Asahikawa) and since today was a special festival day the parking lot was crowded! Not to mention it was a little ways away from the station. I parked, ran like crazy to the train and got on just as the doors closed. I was fortunate enough to get a seat, as crowded as it was.

Upon getting to Sapporo and seeing the girls I leapt for joy and ran to hug them. I was so glad to see them!! =) So after a few minutes of staring at gyarus we went outside the station and immediately saw some awesome yosakoi dancers. We spent half an hour in the blazing sun (it went above 27degrees celsius!!!) watching the dancers do their thing. It was pretty awesome. I loved the makeup and the costumes and MEN WITH REAL MUSCLES!! OMG YES! lol I missed seeing that. Actually, I`m a sucker for Rain/Bi`s muscles. I think more men need to have muscles like that in Japan. lol So actually seeing ripped guys was a surprise for all of us girls. =P I now really want to join a team. We then wandered over for lunch at Rakuden. A beautifully decorated restaurant with no real particular theme to it`s menu. Pasta there was good though. Afterwards we headed over to odori koen and watched more soran dancers dance along the road. Then we went shopping! Hurrah! After entering "Cosmo" and seeing all the hot gyarus there I was determined to lose weight more than ever to be able to wear all the cute clothes they had in there. I really like gyaru style. It`s second to my gothic lolita passion. (Although, I don`t wear gothic lolita out normally. I think I`ll save that for special days and gyaru for everyday.)

I bought a set outfit for 5000yen. (5000YEN!!! RIDICULOUS! But I couldn`t not buy it after trying it on 3 times...that`s how I knew I wanted it.) I now just need to make my hair and makeup match it. It`s very sweet gyaru style, the outit. Afterwards we got hungry and wandered along for a restaurant and found this place that served pots of veggies and hamburg steak with rice. It was AMAZING! Erika, Nikki, and Steph all got the red wine sauce wines while I alone tackled the spicy schezuan sauce. And man, it was damn spicy! Like my tongue was on fire within the first lick of it. lol I kept sweating and blowing my nose...lol

We then wandered back over to odorikoen and watched more soran before walking back to the station and heading back to our respective homes. Awesomely fun day.

June 19th Saturday

Today was my nursery`s little sports festival. It was soooo cute!! My elementary`s vice principal was there too and he was so excited; it was cute. He loves seeing little kids and since he`s a grandfather I can understand that excitement. lol I love grandparents as most of them love children. And seeing all the grandparents there so happy looking made me feel happy. haha. I loved watching all the kids waddling to the finish line. It was the cutest thing. Then the parents all joined in and played some random games. I then joined in for the giant baton race. Oh man, on a sidenote majority of the parents there were all really young and gorgeous looking. The guy I was racing against looked so young and fashionable that I thought he was a high school student or fresh college boy. And he was not afraid to have a good grip on my hands when we joined hands for an exercise. I was just wondering whose brother he was when one of my little girls was like "Go DADDY!" And I was like "...Daddy?!!...Oh no...oh man....." Way too many parents there look too way too young to have kids. I did remember many of my babies sayin that their mothers and fathers were like in their early or late 20s and I kept thinking "oh man, they`re aound my age and they already have a child who is 5 years old." It was just hard to fathom the amount of parents in my town who are around my age. I like kids, but I think I`m still too young to be tied down to one. I`ll just play with them.

All the kids did so well and were absolutely adorable. Many of them came over to me and tackled me afterwards. lol I love the feeling of being tackled by little babies. hehe.

June 20th Sunday

This afternoon I went to Noso-sensei`s house to visit her family as well as go with them to visit the American family in Shibetsu city. I didn`t even know there was a family like that here until she mentioned it. I was also surprised to see the amount of children she had. I thought she only had 2 young children but was surprised to see a middle school kid and a 2 year old baby as well. They all came out one by one at different intervals so I kept getting surprised each time. lol We then all piled into the car and drove over to the Minks family`s home. The first thing I noticed was an attached church to the left of the multifloored house and was like "oh, they`re missionaries" and was right on the dot. The family consisted of 6 children ranging from ages 1-12!! They were in the middle of reforming their newly bought home, so the place wasn`t completely finished. The father, Alan, built majority of the interior himself, which was quite impressive. I went in and was like "wow, this is a very American Christian home." The colors and decor really reflected the Oklahoma feeling which is where this family is from. But aside from their first 2 children, the other 4 were born in Japan. They`re a very warm and unique family.

I took a liking to their children immediately as well as the mother, Alan`s wife. They were talkative and very willing to make friends with Noso-sensei`s family of kids. The father was a little jimi but not hard to talk to. The kids also immediately took a liking to me and kept talking nonstop to me. It`s been a long while since I`ve seen Caucasian children and hearing them speak English that I was at first a little unsure of what to do. But my experience with the Japanese elementary kids kicked in and I was back to having fun playing with the kids. I love children, I just don`t want one at the moment. lol

Actually, I think I was just shocked to see a family of Caucasians because here in Japan, the families are usually hybrids. But I was definitely glad to have met them because it reminds me of home a little. I`m pretty sure that when I go back to the states I`m going to be quite culture shocked in seeing different races. lol They invited me over for dinner for the thursday after next. And welcomed me to come over to their home whenever I wanted. I was definitely glad to hear that as I think I will need an American family company on my few years that I`m here. I just hope they don`t bring up religion too much as the father did start talking about how he ended up here. I don`t mind the fact that they`re very religious, in fact I think it`s great that they have something they so strongly believe in. As long as they don`t press it upon me, I will be more than happy to go over to their home to visit.

So we hung around there until 5pm and then left to go back to Noso-sensei`s home. I then bid them farewell and left to go back to my home and chilled for the rest of the evening.

Otsukare for reading and thanks for keeping up with me. lol I`ll try to be more timely in posting next time. Pictures are up btw.

A Small Pang in my Heart

March 28 Sunday

Today I had dinner at Tama-chan`s apt. Her mother had came all the way from Kutchan to visit her and made a crap load of food, so she invited all of us over to eat. I was a little tired this day, but it was free food, so I had to go. Her mother made delicious karaage, okonomiyaki, ramen-salad, cheese eggrolls (incredibly bad for you, but yummy), and flan. It was so damn good!!! Wraah. *o*

And at this time, since I wasn`t talking very much and the other girls were having a merry conversation, I decided to text Mr. Wonderful to see about dinner next week. I asked Yuki, beforehand, if she wanted to have dinner too, so that it would be a friendly get together with people of the same age. Remember, I`m not aiming for his love anymore, just aiming to be friends. However, the text didn`t work properly, so I had no choice but to call him. I stepped outside for a minute to call him. I was actually surprisingly calm about the call. I just directly asked him, "Hey! I was wondering if you`re free to eat dinner next Tuesday with Yuki and I?" "Ah....Yes! I am free that night!" "Alright then! That`s great! I`ll talk to you more about that later. Oh, and, sorry, but could you send me your cell mail address? Because I wasn`t able to get through to your inbox so I had to call you instead." "Yeah, sure." And we then said our goodbyes and hung up. I was proud of myself. hehe.
I went back to the party, but at around 9pm, I went back home, happy.

March 29th Monday

Today was the ending ceremony/graduation at my nursery....Yeah, at the nursery. You heard me right. My little 6 and 7 year olds had a graduation ceremony from the nursery. A really formal one, with alot of bowing and diploma receiving....All the kids wore their best formal clothes, so little suits and dresses that you would normally see at a wedding ceremony. It was very cute, though. And the kids looked so adorable, but there were such formal procedures that they had to go through to get their diploma and stuff. It was a little too much in my opinion. But cute, nonetheless. I spent the rest of the day after the ceremony at the nursery, playing with the babies. heeee. >U<

March 30th Tuesday

So today, since the school`s on spring break there are no students. But unfortunately, the teachers still all have to come to work throughout the break. >.< ugh. But we`re allowed to wear more relaxed clothes like jeans. I don`t really understand why, but in schools in Japan, track suits and sportswear are considered a higher level or above jeans. o.O I`ll never understand why, but we`re not allowed to wear jeans during school time. But sweats are totally okay...

I was helping the teachers clean up their classrooms and organizing things. But at the same time I also decided to go and see if Mr. Wonderful was in his room to talk to him to see if he remembers the dinner tonight. Cuz he tends to forget...I guess. But, now because I think of him as just a friend (well, i still have feelings for him) it feels easier to talk to him than before. So I was able to really speak casually with him. I was like, "Hey. So for dinner tonight, it will be at 6:30. Is that okay?" When he said yes I told him to meet me in front of Seico Mart. I was walking out of the classroom in the hallway when I heard my name being called by him. I turned around to see his body half out the door. "Theresa-sensei, are we going by car? Or what are we doing?" "I`ll drive!" And smiled at him and turned to walk back down the hall.

I was actually busy helping organize and clean the 1st grade classroom that Yuki and I didn`t finish until 5:30. So we had an hour to get home, chill, and get ready for dinner. At 6:30 I went to Seico Mart to pick both of them up. Mr. Wonderful was looking as good as ever in his hot clothes. We got in the car, took a little bit to decide where we wanted to go eat and decided on Shuraku, my favorite izakaya.

We had a pleasant conversation in the car driving there, but I didn`t talk very much because I wasn`t exactly sure what they were talking about. So I would just nod and keep my eyes on the road, but have the occasional response. When we got there, the only room they had was at the bar. So we all sat at the bar. Mr. Wonderful sat in between Yuki and I. We ordered food and drinks and sat around talking. I didn`t really talk too much because of lack of understanding, but he was sweet enough to try and help me understand our conversation. I also finally retold him about my interest in flowers and stuff, which is opposite of him because he has more interest in birds and none in flowers. But he found it interesting because we share the same passion. Camping too.

Well, at around 9pm we left and went home. I dropped him off at his apt. But before he left my car I told him, "If you ever want to practice your English or talk about camping and hiking, you can email me. And is it okay if I message you for this stuff too?" To which he replied, "Yes. I will and you can. Alright then, thank you very much Theresa." And then he stood outside to wait for me to leave before going back into his apartment. *sigh* I could`ve done better. But, ah well, friendship. Friendship.

March 31 Wednesday

No classes again today, so donned on my jeans and went to the middle school. At 10am, though, I went to the elementary to help with desk moving. So, a little about the Japanese school system here. Every new school year, the teachers change the grade levels they teach. And they`re allowed to be the homeroom teacher for each ascending grade for 2 years. After that they have to be assigned to another class. So my 5th grade teacher last year, is now the 6th grade teacher. The 6th grade teacher last year is now the 5th grade teacher, the 4th grade teacher is still the 4th grade teacher, the 3rd grade teacher is someone new to the school, the 2nd grade teacher was the helping teacher last year, and the 1st grade teacher was the 3rd grade teacher last year. Along with changing grades, the desks in the faculty office change places as well. I used to sit in the middle, but now the moved me to the back corner with the 5th and 6th grade teachers. The 1st-4 grade teachers sit in the middle of the room while the nurse, nutritionist, and the OLs and OMs sit on the other side of the room. It`s not so bad becaue I can see everyone in the room and I face the door, so I can see my kids walking in and out. But yeah....I don`t really get this system.

Actually, I realized that my seat is next to where Mr. Wonderful used to sit. And it gave me a little pang in my heart. If Mr. Wonderful was still here, I`d be sitting next to him. But he`s not anymore...so it`s a little sad. But I was able to see him one last time when I went to his apartment with the other teachers to help him move out. And his apt was how I imagined how a single man`s apt would be like. lol It was kinda dirty lol, and he likes to cook, but doesn`t really clean well, and his bathroom was just terrible...lol Well, we all helped him to move out his stuff and everything and clean his apt. I was impressed with the amount of things he had and what he had. He had a snowboard and ski set, a keyboard, weights for lifting, and a bunch of other cool things. Of course, he`s an ex-bartender. That explains his coolness. haha. @.@

Anyways, as I was helping the other teachers clean stuff, I went into one of his storage rooms which, apparently, also doubles as his closet of sorts. And his clothes were awesome! They were very oshare, but in a mature way. It was all very sexy mature clothes. I was quite enamored by the clothes just hanging there, that I imagine I`d be even more awed when they`re worn. lol I`m a little off my rocker these days.

So after all that, I went back to the middle school to get things settled, but totally forgot to say goodbye to him. I slapped myself later about that and decided to go back to the elementary after work to say goodbye to all the leaving teachers. At 4pm I went back to the elementary to say goodbye to Winnie-the-pooh sensei (my fav) and ran into Mr. Wonderful as I was coming out of the bathroom. Good timing. But all I could say to him was "Thank you for everything. I enjoyed our talks in English. They were fun. If you want to practie more English, just message me. Goodbye!" And then I left school. I didn`t give him any more than that becauese 1)just friends policy at the moment and 2) I forgot what I wanted to say to him.... Ah well, I hopefully will be able to see him again, one day. Until then, I will hold on to hope and go on with life with no regrets.

April 2nd Friday

Today I introduced myself to all the new incoming teachers. It was an assembly at the BOE and all the new teachers and principals/vice principal introduced themselves. The BOE people introduced ourselves also. Everyone did it in Japanese, obviously, so I did mine in English. haha. All the new teachers were confused, and the BOE people said I was pretty cool. =P Not a single hot teacher was there though. sad face.

In the evening was the welcome party for the elementary school. I was lucky enough to sit next Ayumi, the new helper teacher that replaced Yuki. I miss Yuki very much. She`s leaving the next day for a town 3 hours away from here. School just wont be the same without her. My kindred spirit. But Ayumi is the same age as I am and very sweet and easy to talk to. She doesn`t have the same humor as Yuki, but cute nonetheless...However, she`s married. 22 and she`s married...geez...I was like, wow. That`s young. haha. But I liked talking to her and we have the same interests. So I look forward to becoming better friends with her.

Our enkai was delicious and quite fun. I`ve been able to talk a lot to the teachers recently, so it`s a good thing. The new principal`s pretty funny. A little perverted, but funny. He was born on leap year, so even though he`s quite old looking, he`s actually only 14 because of the leap year thing. My first time meeting someone with a birthday on leap year. It`s an interesting phenomonen.

After that, we went to the second party. That was fun too. Drank lots, sang lots, and conversed enough. We then all went home at around 11pm or so. It was a good and tiring evening. And I have to prepare for heading off to Muroran the next day...

Otsukare for reading!

I believe my liver is going to kill me.

March 20 Saturday

Yay 3 day weekend! I’m excited! Time to hang with people! Today I spent my morning cleaning up my apartment for my friends who are coming to chill at my place on Sunday. At around 3pm I left to go to Asahikawa to meet up at Alan’s where Steph and Erika were also chillin. The girls decided to come up to visit Alan in Asahikawa for today and then tomorrow move over to my place to spend the night. I drove over there to discover that they weren’t home and was actually at the local supermarket. So I headed on over there with my car. I was containing my excitement at being able to see them. Living out here in the countryside it’s really difficult to see people, so any chance I get I become really excited. I just had to look for the tall foreigners wandering around the store and finally found them passing an aisle. I ran over to them like a happy puppy. Alan says that the image of me running down the aisle like that was pretty funny. I couldn’t help it, I was happy and excited. Haha. Apparently they were shopping for the next days’ breakfast…though I don’t know if we’ll be able to actually wake up early enough for it, seeing how I’m pretty sure tonight is clubbing and drinking. Lol
At around 7pm we headed over to catch the bus to Asahikawa station to meet up with Alan’s Japanese teacher and her friends. They were going to take us to eat at an izakaya. Their English was amazingly good. They could speak it quite well actually. We spent quite a while walking, trying to find izakayas that would accept 7 people or had room for us. We had no reservations so it was pretty difficult. But, finally, we found a place that was able to take all of us in, providing we were able to finish eating before 10pm because there was another reservation in place. We ordered a nomihoudai, or all you can drink and loads and loads of food. We talked for a serious long time and ended up going past 10pm, but the waiters didn’t come in to shoo us out. So, there must have been an extra room available for them.

After that we all went to “The Den” which is the international bar in Asahikawa. There were a lot of other foreigners that night because it was St. Patty’s weekend. So there were many people there drinking and stuff. But my friends and I were just content with talking and being with each other. There were some strange guys there too, so we basically ignored a lot of them. Eheh. From there we went to “Monarch” which is the new club located in the basement of a building. I guess I’m already pretty used to going underground for clubs as shady as that sounds. =P The club was small, but it had a dance floor and a bar. It was pretty classily decked out, but the music played was definitely not good for dancing. Not hip hop at all. So it was a lil difficult to dance to. The DJ wasn’t that amazing either. When the DJ can leave the dance floor and leave his gear unattended, you know that the club’s not exactly up to par…lol We met some other foreigners there too, some who were pretty cute. But there was one particular guy we all found interesting to talk to. He worked in some kind of bank accounting thing in Tokyo area and has been working there for 13 years, yet doesn’t speak a word of Japanese and has no interest in Japan. Why would you stay working in a country for so long and not speak a word of the language or dislike being here? If it were me, I would have moved ages ago. But, I guess he’s making bank, because he seems to be having the good life as much as he doesn’t care for it here. At around 4:30am we left for Alan’s. At Alan’s before we went to sleep, we stayed up for another 15 minutes still talking…and then fell silent as we all drifted off to sleep at around 5am.

March 21 Sunday

Well, needless to say, we were tired, and didn’t wake up until the afternoon around 12pm. Lol Collin was already on his way down from his village, but we were still in the middle of getting up/getting ready. Since I didn’t have futons and many blankets at my apt, I asked to borrow Alan’s and load them in my car. Okay, so my car is very small. Not meant for a shit load of people or things. So when we crammed all those futons into the back, my car was ready to explode. Pile in 3 more tall foreigners and my car was gonna fall over. When I started to move the car, I thought it weird that it felt so heavy. I knew that everyone and all the futons and thick blankets in it weighed it down a little, but not that much. 10 minutes into the road, my car was shaking bad. We weren’t exactly sure what was going on. So we stopped at the local Lawson’s (conbini) and checked what was going on. My back left tire was flat. Actually, it was completely depleted of air. So that was why my car was shaking so violently. I went into the Lawson’s to ask one of the employees where the nearest gas station was because my tire had gone flat. And he was sweet enough to come out to take a look at it and change it for us…even though Erika was totally ready to do it. Awesome man.

However, in order for us to get the spare tire out of the trunk we had to unload all the futons crammed in the back, but it just burst out our doors as soon as we opened them….lol It was quite a funny sight to see though, I have to say. So it was basically us 4 foreigners stuck at Lawson’s with a flat tire. I’m sure the old man must have thought it funny. And it would be a good story for him. Haha. So with our spare tire tacked on, we went on our way to my place. We arrived there at the same time as Collin. We unpacked the spilling futons and dumped them in my little apt, which it just took up all the floor space. Lol We then went out to eat at the “Hillside Box” restaurant in Shibetsu. Since there were 5 of us big foreigners…well, I’m kinda tiny… so they gave us the large relaxation room with sofas to sit on and a huge window to view out of. We spent a good 3 hours just sitting in the room doing nothing but fun talking until the lady came into the room to tell us that there was a limit to how long we can stay in this room. So at that sign, we decided to leave and go sing Karaoke. Collin was awesome enough to drive us all so he wasn’t able to drink with us at the karaoke bar. Sorry! >.< Next time, for sure, yo!

We then came back from Karaoke to go to Yamamoto-tei in my town, but it was already closed. So we decided to head on back to Shibetsu and went to a ramen shop to eat. Lol We were all pretty tired by the end of it so we just returned home. Although we did not sleep until 4am since we just stayed up late talking. The next morning…at around 11am Collin went back to Sarufutsu and the rest of us decided to cook a very late breakfast. We didn’t eat until 2pm…lol After that, I drove everyone back to their houses on a super slippery/icy road, but was able to make it back in one piece on my spare tire. Haha.

March 23 Tuesday

Today was my Taiko performance debut! And it was at the elderly care center. Lol So, there were a lot of old people there that weren’t really aware of what was going on. But they were cute! I performed with no mistakes, but then again I wasn’t really nervous because I had gotten used to being on stage or in front of a lot of people, thanks to Tomo Modern and teaching. Everything went well and afterwards all the kids and their parents and I went to go have a little celebration party. Lotsa good food and a wonderful time spent with my children. I love them wholeheartedly and am sad that many of them are quiting after this to focus on studies in middle school and club activities…like baseball…Everyone in this town does baseball, dude, why not be different and do something else? Ah well, at least I still get to see them in school.

March 24th Wednesday

Today was the end of the year closing ceremony for all my schools, except my nursery. All the teachers who were leaving to change to go to a different school all said their goodbyes on the stage to all the students. It was a little tearful, but I still see them for another week or so before they actually move away. After the middle school’s farewell ceremony I went to the elementary to have lunch, bought by my principle for all the teachers. It was huge and delicious.

In the evening was the farewell party/soubetsukai for the middle school held in Shibetsu. The food we had was wonderfully delicious, but so fatty because it was drenched in butter. It’s butter yaki or so they call it. You spread a block of butter on the hot plate and then cook meat and veggies on it. I didn’t drink at all at the 1st party because there was nothing besides beer…and I’m kinda on a diet so I didn’t want to drink just beer. But at the second party which was at a lounge/bar there was all you can drink alcohol! YES! And it had shots! WHOO! I asked the teachers around me if it was okay to order a shot and they were like “er….sure…?” They weren’t used to drinking shots and were surprised to hear me say it. When one of them asked the bartender for a shot of tequila for me, the bartender just stared at him incredulously and was like “A SHOT?! OF TEQUILA!? REALLY?” And I saw the teacher point to me and said that it was for me…and that was what surprised the bartender even more. Haha. Well, when I got the shot, even I was shocked. It was basically a double shot of tequila! The glass was the size of a whiskey glass. Like, dude, this was a shot, one shot, of tequila!???!! Well, I didn’t question it too much and just gulped the whole thing down. I didn’t bother to stop after drinking half of it, I just downed it all….Yeah, I’m crazy. After I set the glass back on the table, all the teachers just looked at me and was like “Wow, we just lost.” Lol Waha, American drinking style right there! And then I had a lot more alcoholic drinks after that. Mainly strong drinks made specially by the bartender for me. Heh =P

March 26th Friday

Tonight was the farewell party for the elementary school. It was in Asahikawa, at the Asahikawa Grand Hotel. The most expensive and luxurious hotel in all of the city. And that is why the entire night, plus the hotel room, cost me around $200…..>.< Geez. For one party, I forked over that much money. But I think I’m getting used to tossing my money around for all these parties Japanese people like to have and order expensive foods and all. *sigh* It’s just part of the life here. Well, this was a formal party that everyone had to dress up nicely for and I decided to wear my tube top dress with black leggings and my silver heels. Because the top was too revealing, I wore my faux fur coat over it the entire time…lol When I walked into the room, all the female teachers were like “AH! Kawaii!!” hehe. I saw out of the corner of my eye, Mr. Wonderful look over at me. He himself was looking pretty fly in his suit as well.

Sadly, our seats were at different tables, so we didn’t sit next to each other. We had some bomb foods. Like they were seriously high class and you can tell it was expensive. The dinner alone cost everyone $70.00. Then all the leaving teachers came up one by one to be presented with flowers and thank you notes. Apparently, from what I heard later because I seem to have not been paying real attention, Mr. Wonderful made a shocking announcement that changed my feelings about him. That day marked the anniversary of his breakup with his girlfriend of 3 years…Yeah. He announced it basically. So, obviously, he’s still carrying some baggage about it. There’s no way that he went out with her for 3 years and didn’t still think about or have feelings for her now. Not by the way he announced it at least. I mean, he didn’t look dejected or sound like it at all…but still, there’s a reason why he would announce something like that. I don’t know. All I know is that the whole announcement thing really settled the fact that I just want to be friends with him for now. I don’t want to date a guy who’s still got this problem of an old flame. I don’t want to be a rebound girl. I thought that most people, after a year, would be over it by now, but I guess it depends on the person. So I’m not gonna go after him. I’ll wait until he’s more available mentally. So, friends it is.

After the 1st party, we had a second party with all you can drink alcohol for 120 minutes up on the 17th floor where the hotel’s bar was. We had a private room reserved for us complete with a beautiful large window to view the nightscape. Breathtaking. Yeah, my elementary teachers know how to live it up. *.* As we came in, Mr. Wonderful looked a little sheepish and laughed a little bit. One of the teachers was then like, “Oh yeah! That’s right! You used to work here right?” And he said, “Yeah, I used to be a bartender here.” O.O OMG! THAT IS SO HOT! A BARTENDER! Hello! And the thing is, I can totally see him doing it too. >D I sat between Yuki and a leaving teacher and in front of me was the vice principal. He called over Mr. Wonderful to come sit next to him. So Mr. Wonderful sat diagonal from me. I took that chance to talk to him as much as I could. I just kept saying his name before I asked him questions and stuff. And plus I had a shit load of alcohol to drink, so my confidence was building up and my courage was overflowing. Words just seemed to come out of my mouth asking the randomest questions.

All the teachers there were fairly tipsy, if not drunk. So we had a grand ol’ time laughing it up and being all cooky. And because Mr. Wonderful used to work there and the bartenders knew him, they brought over complementary fruit plates for all of us! Awesome! After the 2nd party, we all went out to a local bar for more all you can drink alcohol. By that time, I was pretty relaxed because I had so much alcohol. But when we walked into the bar, I got excited and was like, omg, I’m ordering shots! No shots, no party. And it was a bar dude! You had to drink a shot at the bar! We got our own little room to sit in and, unfortunately, Mr. Wonderful sat 2 people down to the left of me. But that did not hinder me talking to him. I would look over and chat him up still. Haha. And then my tequila shot came and I downed it. One of the teachers asked me if I was feeling okay and if something bad happened to me recently. I was like “No. These are shots of happiness! I love shots! This is how Americans drink most of the time at parties. We tip our heads back and down the shot.” So he was like, “Alright, Theresa, order me one too!” I stared at him and was like are you sure you want one? Because in Japan, people don’t usually do shots and it’s not exactly normal at parties. So they were all surprised to see me chug it down. Lol Well, I ordered him one more, and me one as well. We cheered and downed it. The principal had a drop of it before we downed it and was like, “My throat feels really warm right now…actually kind of burning.” Lol Yes, that’s what tequila does to you. And it’s one of the strongest alcohols. So, yeah, of course we ordered another pair.

Mr. Wonderful then asked me if you usually always lick the salt first, then drink the tequila, and then eat the lemon. I was like “Well, yeah. I don’t know of any other way to drink tequila.” And he said, “Well, I have a friend that sniffs the salt, drinks the tequila, and squeezes the lemon in her eye.” And I just stared at him and said “That. Hurts. It’s not normal.” At the same time I thought ‘you must be drunk or that girl was high.’ Because that’s not normal…at all…no matter how crazy a party….you have to be on ecstasy or something to get up the courage to do that. When the principal asked him if that wouldn’t hurt, he answered that it hurt the girl’s nose when she sniffed the salt. And I was like, ‘and the lemon didn’t when it was squeezed into her eyes?’ Seriously, what kind of person do you have to be to like that kind of excruciating pain!!?? Salt and lemon, yo! Salt and lemon! In yo nose and eye! WHA?! This is going to stay in my memory forever dude. I’m not going to be able to forget this….lol

Before we left, there was still one more shot of tequila left to drink, so I was like “5th grade teacher! The tequila! Drink up!” And he had this resigned look on his face, “Oh Theresa. You`re riding in my car tomorrow, right? (Implying that is it safe for him to drive tomorrow after so much alcohol?)” “Yes, I am. So drink!” lol I was chocked full of liquor and I wasn`t too conscious about what I was talking about anymore. Much like Mr. Wonderful and that tequila story…lol eheh.

For the fourth and final party we went to sing karaoke. When Exile`s song, "Choo Choo Train", came up all the young male teachers stood up to dance to it. It was awesome. Yes, it reminded me that the male teachers are still really young (at heart as well) and still boys, and pretty cool hip for teachers. But then again, this is Japan, where the teachers are pretty oshare and don`t act like teachers when not in the classroom. They reminded me of college friends. heh. =P Again, we had all you can drink alcohol/nomihoudai and by that time, I was feeling pretty loose and very little control over myself. So, I was ordering alcohol left and right. I would yell it over the table to the waitress since I was sitting in the very back of the room. Oh, and because I had so much alcohol from the beginning, I also began constantly pouring alcohol for the other teachers and calling for more alcohol and other drinks for the other teachers. ~~;

Mr. Wonderful and I sang a duet together. Well, I sang, he rapped. It was to Aoyama Thelma`s "Soba ni iru ne". He`s so damn good at rapping! Anyways, afterwards we all parted ways to head back to the hotel at 4am. I was wearing my silver anklestrapped heels not made for walking in the snow. So I was basically skipping and hopping around because I kept getting snow inside my heels, very f-in cold. I was hopping around saying "OMG, cold! Cold! Cold! Snow in heels! Cold!" The other teachers were all laughing and Mr. Wonderful chuckled.

Finally when we went back to our rooms, he was on the same floor as I was so I took that chance to ask him for his cell phone info. I told him "I want to send you text mails, but I can`t" He just kind of gave a chuckle of sorts and sagged his shoulders. I wasn`t sure what that was, but we were able to exchange info. So I wasn`t going to get too caught up in analyzing that action he did. We then said goodnight to each other and went back to our rooms. I took a bath and chilled until around 4:30am and fell asleep to wake up at 7:30am....Yeah....

March 27th Saturday

Woke up at an awful early time after sleeping so late last night and then went to eat some McDonald`s with Yuki. We discussed all the stuff that happened last night. I asked her if I sounded strange or out of the ordinary when talking with the teachers last night because I had so much alcohol. And I remember myself constantly calling Mr. Wonderful`s name and talking to him. She was like, "Yeah, you really talked to him alot! Like constantly, but it didn`t sound bad! You sounded very natural when you were talking. It was actually a very good feeling between you two." YES! Good, but I doubt he remembers anything because he was drunk...lol

Oh, and a bit of info I forgot to put in for something that also happened yesterday: At the third party in the bar, sitting next to Mr. Wonderful was one of the leaving teachers who read fortunes and stuff. So she was explaining to me my fortune. She said that right now is not a good time for me to get into relationships and stuff. And not many things will be going too great for me, but come July things will get better. Hopefully. That`s when my family might be coming and when I will be able to go camping, possibly, with Mr. Wonderful. I`ll wait until that time to see if anything happens. The teacher also said that I`m a really easy person to date. I`m thinkng that means I can date and get along with just about anybody. Well, that`s good to know. Eheh. Alright guys, maybe something awesome will happen in July. Waiting on it.

Otsukare guys! I know this was a long post, but there`s been so many things happening that I wasn`t able to create the time to write in my blog. But thanks for reading nonetheless and sorry for the late delay.

What should I be feeling...?

March 5 Friday

So today at the middle school was pretty fun. After lunch was over, all the students gathered in the gym for a game to play in honor of the 3rd years graduating. I wasn`t exactly sure what game we were playing, but I just followed along. It seems that the students have a time limit to find all the pictures that are hidden throughout the school. Once that 1st time limit is up, then they send a certain amount of people who are the "oni" or those who are "it" out to catch the other students. They`re allowed to go hide and stuff throughout the school, but they cannot run, so they speedwalk. lol It was pretty funny to see. haha. Anyways, after that game they then had to do a triatholon in which they played mini games of ping pong, basketball, and group jump rope.

March 6th and 7th Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, went to Asahikawa to have an awesome lunch with Su. We drove around awhile looking for a good place to go eat and decided to eat at this place called "Kankoku-mura" which means Korean village. And it was the first time, in a long time (say a year) that I had real Korean food and not just Japanese bibimbap (which btw, they think is Chinese.....>.<) or kimchi or kalbi/bulgogi. It was soooo good! The place was even decorated Korean style and everything. I hardcore missed sundubu and they totally had it there! Yes! Although I still really miss Irvine`s sundubu/Korean restaurants. Even more then that, I miss Korea, my other homeland aside from US, Taiwan, and Japan. haha. We talked for several hours and then went to go get my back breaklight fixed because the one on the left had gone out. Then went home to do absolutely nothing.

Sunday was just talking with family (which they are planning on coming here in the summer! Yay!) and cleaning the house.

March 10 Wednesday

Wow. So this day was the middle school 3rd years (9th graders) graduation. And it was so formal and very Japanesey. lol Well, first off, when I went into the teacher`s office all the teachers were wearing black. Just all black; black suits, black dresses, black shoes, black purses. And I was the only one who had a navy blue suit jacket with really thin white stripes and a red tank top underneath. I felt like I had walked into a funeral procession of sorts. So I asked one of the teachers here if I should also be in all black, but she says that I`m fine and that for happy celebrations like this Japanese people always wear black. Err...ok. o.O

Anyways, my predecessor also came to the celebration. He flew here from the states a couple of days ago to come see the 3rd years graduate since he was with them the longest. I think that maybe he secretly came to see his girlfriend who was a teacher at the middle school.......=P I was actually slightly, slightly late for the ceremony. All because I forgot my schedule book in the staff room so I had to run back from the gym to get it. eheh. But I still made it on time before the 3rd years came walking in and the band started playing the graduation song. There was so much bowing and strict formal tradition in this whole process. The students have to have a very good posture while walking to their seats or walking up to the stage/podium to accept their certificate from the principal. Bow once before the principle, accept the certificate, step back, bow again, take one step back and turn to face the audience, walk down the stairs, bow to the BOE on the opposite side of the teachers, walk to their parents (where a little white table was set up where the parents go up to the table when their child comes), bow to their parents, hand over the certificate to them, bow again, and walk with good posture back to their seats... I was quite surprised actually. But amazed at the good discipline of these kids.

Then afterwards, when the 3rd year students` representatives, one boy and one girl, came to the front to give a speech to everyone, it was the most heartwrenching sobfest ever! Because this is a small school and there is only 1 class for every grade level (no 3A, 3B, 3C. Just 3A cuz there`s not that many students that they all fit in one class), and because they`ve all been together for 9 years of their lives never changing classes and some have been together since preschool, this is the first time that they will be seperated from each other. All the students are going to different high schools as all the high schools here are like specialty schools. My best English speaking student is going all the way to Sapporo in the best language school there. So, because this is the first time they`re going to be leaving each other, they have so much precious memories together, that everyone started crying. The students made a speech to thank all the teachers, all the younger students, and lastly, their precious classmates. I told myself I wasn`t going to cry, but I ended up doing so. It was just so touching. I felt like this was an US high school graduation where that was the final stage for everyone leaving each other and going to different schools/countries.

After the speech, the 3rd years sang a chorus song for everyone. They had one student come play the piano and one student conduct. Now, everyone was still crying/sniffling from the speech and one of the boys, the conductor, was red from crying and couldn`t stop sniffling really. So when he got up there, he tried to look strong and hold it all back, but as soon as the song started because it was such a sad sounding song and to look at all your friends crying, he couldn`t hold it in any longer and tears started pouring from his face, yet he still conducted wonderfully. He actually had to close his eyes for a while because he couldn`t stop crying. It was, seriously, one of the most touching and heartbreaking graduation ceremonies I`ve ever been to. When asked later by my teachers about how was a Japanese graduation compared to American ones, I said that the American ones are usually a big celebration and everyone`s just ridiculously happy and having fun, especially college ones. The high school one is probably the only really tearing one because that`s when everyone really seperates. But middle school was never that bad. But then again, most schools in America are big and graduating classes are about 300 and more students. This school only had 25 students graduating. Yeah, the whole 3rd year (9th grade) consists of only 25 students.

After the sobfest, the students and their parents went to the Lakeside Sakuraoka hotel to have a party. The teachers also all went. It was a buffet style lunch, which was absolutely delicious, and then the kids all performed songs and just had fun. Then the MC called up all the teachers to make speeches. I was last and I was ready to give a good speech in English. It was simple slow English so that everyone, even the parents who have not studied English in forever can understand. Although i got a bit excited. haha. I started out with "minna (everyone) CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!" Everyone thought I was going to speak Japanese, but I busted out the English. heh. At the congratulations part all my students whooped and clapped and yelled. And I couldn`t help it, I got caught up in their enthusiasm, and let my American self go and also whooooooooooooo-ed into the mic. ehehe. I`m sure the other teachers were a little taken aback. But the kids were all for it. haha. I told them "your English is very good! So in high school, good luck! I believe in you. You can do it! Yes, you can!" And my students whooped again after that. And then I realized afterwards, oh, maybe I shouldn`t have did the whoop thing, cuz that might`ve scared the other teachers for a little bit. ehehe. Ah well, I`m American, let them just think that. Or at least I hope they`ll think that. ~_~;

After the ceremony we all went home and went to ponder about how I`m going to confess to Mr. Wonderful. I had already decided that I will confess to him on Wednesday night because that is the only night that I believe he will be alone in the classroom. Thursday night there will be other teachers there till late in the evening, and Friday night, he probably goes home early. So I decided to go at around 8pm. I went over there and saw that there were still 3 other cars there. So I went back home and decided to come over at 9pm, other teachers were still there. Went back home again, tried 10pm, and there was still at least one teacher there. So in the end after driving around for another 10 minutes I decided that I would just go in there, ask him to come out to talk in the hallway and confess to him there, as awkward and weird as it may be to the other teacher there. I got there ready to do it, then discovered that the lights were all off and all the cars were gone. *sigh* I had missed him by a couple of minutes. And I was so ready too....>.<; Man. I was thinking to myself how bad everything is turning out and decided to go home dejectedly.

At home, after having a good long talk with Collin about this mess, getting a guys POV, it made better sense to me to ask Mr. Wonderful out to dinner first before confessing. It`s better to confess in not a work environment. At school, it would be kind of awkward. Even though I would never really do that because I`m not really aggressive and I don`t like to take the initiative with a guy. But if I don`t, I won`t get my chance. And plus, he`s a Japanese guy, so unfortunately, being the foreign girl, I have to take the initiative... So I decided to do just that the next day.

March 11th Thursday

Well, I waited until the end of the day after 5th period to walk into his classroom to ask him to dinner. I was kind of nervous, but not as nervous as I was when I went to ask about the snowboard. I felt kind of....complacent..? Anyways, I walked in there, and as soon as I did, I forgot what I was going to say. And then I just stood there after saying hello to him and was like "oh no, I forgot what I was going to say...uh, hold on." And then finally was able to ask him about where he got placed in for his next school. He still doesn`t know yet apparetnly. Then I asked him are you always here until 9 or 10 at night which he says, "yes, just about every night." "Well then, what do you do about food?" "I go home to eat it afterwards." "At 10 at night?!!" "Yes. haha" "WOW." "Well, hmm...If you`re okay with it, how about dinner sometime? Maybe tonight? Or tomorrow?" "Uh, I`m pretty busy these last few days because of the graduation ceremonies coming up and everything." "Oh, yes, I understand. Then maybe next week? Monday?" "Mondays are not the best for me, tuesdays too. But maybe Wednesday might be ok." "Oh, alrgith then. Well, how about we exchange cell phone mail so that we can message each other a good time for it?" "Oh, yeah, sure that`d be fine."

So we exchanged cell phone mail addresses, but he said that his might be wrong because it`s so long that he can`t really remember it all himself. And indeed it was quite long. But he said that if it`s wrong and after he checks his email he`ll tell me again. Because neither of us had our phones on us since they were all in the staff room and we were in his classroom. So we chatted for 5 more minutes or so and then I told him I will text him and said thank you and left.

After school was over I went to the large playroom to see what my friend Yuki was doing. Her and my favorite "Winnie the Pooh-Kitagawa-sensei" and Mr. Wonderful were mixing paint to color the 6th grade graduation banner with. So I decided to help out to which Kitagawa-sensei was more than delighted. I love this man, my fav teacher here. SOOO Cute. Like a bear, and his voice sounds like Pooh too. heheh.^^ Well, he then left to go to do some other errands, and so it was jut me and the other two. I love chatting with Yuki because she`s so much fun and outgoing and happy and just a great gal all around. And it seems that Mr. Wonderful does too. He really liked to chat with her. All I could do, because I`m not yet fluent in Japanese, and it was difficult to hear everything spoken in normal speed Japanese, was just sit there, nod and occasionally laugh at their comments. I couldn`t really say anythnig because I wasn`t sure what they were saying. I did ask some questions but there were mainly about vocab and what the subject that they were talking about. It`s difficult to grasp subjects in japanese as they don`t really say them sometimes....

So after seeing them go at it with a wonderful fun time conversation, I realized how pitiful my Japanese level was and how inept at conversation I was in it. And how I could never have as lively a conversation as they could have together. He really laughed alot and had fun talking with her. And maybe, I got a sense that he might be into her. Maybe. I`m not sure, but judging by how wonderful the two of them seemed to go together and their convo, I`d say the two might do better together than I would, and that maybe he liked her. *sigh* I don`t know.

At the end of the day before I went home, I didn`t feel excited or exhilarated or accomplished at asking him out to dinner. I just felt....normal. I had a Parent-child English conversation class to do that night and it was the last of this year`s, so I focused on doing that. We made peanut butter balls and grilled cheese sandwiches. The kids had so much fun makin the peanut butter balls because you have to use your hands. And the moms loved the grilled cheese sandwiches. My kids said that they loved my class and they wanted to have more with me. When I told them no more, they were all pretty sad. Aww. I love my children. I think that maybe I should channel my love for Mr. Wonderful into the love that I have for these kids. It would maybe be put to better use instead of this futile lovesick feeling that might not amount to anything. Le sigh.

Otsukare for reading guys! Pics will be up later on. Love

English Competition

Alright....my posts are getting farther and farther in between. I just keep not having the time for it anymore. I feel terrible. And freakin facebook is not letting me post my pictures!!!! >.< I don`t know why though. Anyways, I really will try to post up pics soon as soon as I discover why freakin facebook won`t take it.

October 20th Tuesday

So today is going to be an awesomely fun day in my opinion. I get to be one of the judges for the English Speech and Performance Competition in Shibetsu. Willing junior high kids from all the schools in Shibetsu (there are about 4 of them I think), the one middle school in Wassamu, and my one middle school in Kenbuchi do speech recitations from the textbook and performances and are judged based on that. My kids and I have been practicing non-stop everyday after school from 3pm until 6pm sometimes 7 for this thing. So in the morning I dressed more formal than usual in my cool white long sleeve button up top and my vest and made sure my hair was perfect and sexy and then left for school. I got to school way earlier than I usually would because my 2nd year kids were practicing their script at 7:40am. Ugh, early, but it`s for my kids, so it`s okay. We gathered all the props and stuff and at about 8:40 we piled everything and everyone onto the little bus and headed off the the Shibetsu community center.

When we got there I saw a tall white dude with blond hair and was like "You must be an ALT" and he was like "Oh,yeah. I`m Jonathon, the Wassamu ALT" and we did our lil intros. At first he didn`t really talk much to me and I was like..hmm...he`s not much of a talker, but his kids seemed to like him. He`s from Australia. Then I saw another tall kinda burly white dude with a brown beard and figured "You must be the Shibetsu ALT, Collin right?" And he seemed to be the nicest fun-loving teddy bear teacher. I immediately took a liking to him. He really reminds me of Santa Claus. lol Nice man. He`s from Australia as well. Both of the ALT`s are from Sydney and they`re super super tall. I felt like a little kid standing next to them even in my heels. So, anyways, Jonathon just married a Japanese teacher last year and has been working as an ALT for 8 years. JET only allows you 5 years. And so he worked for JET for 3 years, went to a different city not on JET for 2 years, and then was rehired by the Shibetsu peoples on a private contract. That was amazing. I was like, Dude, I`d definitely like to do that. Anyways, all the other students from the other schools were surprised to see me as an ALT cuz I was Asian looking and it`s been a while since they saw a female ALT. haha. The, uh, young 2nd year boys from Minami-Shibetsu seem to have taken an interest in me from my interactions with them. haha. Minami-Shibetsu`s kids were all boys, and mine were all girls, so Collin told me that they should stay away from each other. lol Cute. And of course I had the best looking Japanese English teacher among all of them. Yes, Mr. Shibata! He really looked good in his suit. haha.

So in the competition there are 2 categories: recitation and performance, and they are seperated by grades. There was only 1 person in 1st grade recitation and that was my kid, and then there were 2 groups for the 1st year performance with 2 of my girls. Then about 5 groups for the 2nd year performances. My kids (5 of them) did Urashima Taro Returns and used paper puppets on sticks to narrate the story. It was cute! And then last were my 3rd graders with their coolest performance: Kojiroh. The script was originally written by them in Japanese and I translated the whole thing into ENglish. It was about 8 pages long but they memorized everything! I was super proud of them but I knew they could do it. They`re all smart children so I had faith. I mean, they would stick around everyday after school and practice all the lines with me in their classroom and act out the script and practice the intonations I taught them. By the third time I practiced with them I knew they were going to be able to do it. And they won Best Performance in the whole show!! ^O^ WAHAHAH! And I felt so prideful when the other Japanese Teachers of English and the other ALTs told me how impressed they were with my 3rd year kids and told me I taught them well. HAHAHA!! AWESOME!! eheh. Of course, I only helped a little, it was mainly my kids that did the most of the work.

After that we ate lunch and deliberated on the winner. 1st year speech was my child, 1st year performance went to Shibetsu, 2nd year performance went to Onnebetsu because they did the cutest "Three Little Pigs" story, 2nd year speech-i forgot who, but none of my kids, 3rd year speech went to Onnebetsu, and 3rd year performance were my girls who also won best in show. heheh. WOO!! Two awards! Oh, and at lunch there was a leftover bento and no one knew what to do with it, so Shibata-sensei was like "Well, here you go Theresa, your dinner for tonight." And lo and behold the problem was solved and I had free dinner. =P Thanks Mr. Shibata! We then went back to the competition hall and announced the winners. Then when we were about to leave and I said goodbye to Collin and followed Jonathon out to where his kids and my kids were, I shook Jonathon`s hand and said goodbye and his kids were all like "wooo". haha. Jonathon was like "No, no it`s nothing like that" I just ignored it and went to my kids. eheh.

The bus ride back home was so lively because of the happy atmosphere of all the kids. There was lots of singing and applauding and happiness. Haha. Good times.

October 21st Wednesday

Not much happened during school. After school for dinner I asked if Su wanted to go eat with me at Sawarabi, witch is a very short walk from our apts. She also invited Satomi along. Tomorrow`s Satomi`s b-day so I`m thinking of buying her two cake slices from the local bakery to give to her. She`s helped me with a lot of stuff so I really appreciate her. ANyways, we had Mushroom Nabe/hotpot, and pork kebabs. =P Delicious. And I`ve been watching Ninkyo Helper lately. It`s very good because it has Mukai Osamu in it. haha. I`m a sucker for anything this sexy man does. He`s my #1 ikemen right now.

October 23rd Thursday

So I first went to the high school today. I loathe teaching at the high school. It`s because of the 3rd year boys. Not my favorite kids. The girls are fine, but the boys....The 2nd year boys are awesome though. They`re so much fun and lively! And everytime they see me they love saying Hi to me and trying to remember my name. I like that. The girls in 2nd year don`t talk very much though. But the boys are good. They`re also pretty good looking haha. I can`t wait to teach them next year. oh, and everytime Mr. Gorgeous and I pass by them they would yell out things at him. I kept thinking they were just calling him Eichi or Eiji as his nickname but then later he told me that they call him Ecchi, which means hentai, which means erotic pervert. LOL The boys think it`s funny to call him that, especially when he`s walking around with me. I think it`s pretty funny too cuz I can kinda see it in him. haha. Then it was off to the elementary.

Today I did a presentatino on Halloween for my 6th grade kiddies and they really liked it. My 6th grade girls love me. They love talking to me and everything. I`m happy for that. They also really like my hair, every chance they get they`ll come and stroke my head because they think it feels nice. haha. And they`re used to me helping them clean now, so they`ll always ask me to help them wipe the floors now. The other teachers still haven`t gotten used to me doing these things with the students I suppose. =P Oh, so at lunch break I met Mr. Wonderful in the library. I was already in there with 4 of the girls and then he came in and I was like "Oh shit." He looked really good today. Oh, btw, the 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders had kids with influenza so they cancelled the classes for this week. They`re coming back on Friday though, which is a very good thing. But those teachers now have a lot of time on their hands. Anyways, he came in and then I was at a lost for what to do. He came to check on the books I think...or I don`t know what he came in for cuz he doesn`t usually come into the library. But he came in this time and I just stood around reading the books over the children`s shoulders and then asked them if they knew what Halloween was and then forgot to explain it to them. I must`ve looked so stupid to him. I don`t know, whenever he`s around I can never properly talk to him or ask him questions or be cool looking. haha. I just get all clumsy and awkward around him. I need to work on that.

So after school was over and everything I went to home to prep for the community badminton activity that started this tuesday and happens every tuesday and thursday from 7:30pm until 9pm at the B&G gym. So when I got there I was very surprised to see one of my good 1st year high school boys there as well. He was also surprised to see me. So he`s a resident of Kenbuchi. Now I know. I never know where all the students come from for the High school cuz they`re all from different cities and stuff. Anyways, I also saw some of my elementary boys playing pingpong there. They were very happy and surprised to see me. I was exhilirated to see them. They`re the cutest 3rd and 4th grade boys ever and I absolutely adore them. I don`t know, this job is making me constantly "moeeee" over them. I`m starting to really really love children. But then again, I think I really love country children, not the city ones just yet. haha.

Otsukare-sama for reading and I promise to get the pictures up and running as soon as possible.

Freakin Influenza!!....>.<

October 9th Friday

So long time no update and no pictures yet. I`m really sorry guys, my life has been ridiculously busy lately what with the Elementary school festival coming up. I`ve been staying at school until 7-9pm helping with the preparations, especially for the 1st graders. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday after school Yuki and I would help Kitagawa-sensei (the 1st grade homeroom teacher) make costumes, props, etc. for the 1st graders` play. It`s fun, but I start lacking in sleep because then I come home and have to prep for the next day`s lesson and I try to have a decent meal.

Anyways, today when I came home it was f-Ing cold!! It dropped below 40 degrees dude! First time ever in my life to be that cold! So my lil old apt needed heating and I tried to turn on the heater to find out that I couldn`t operate it...I kept trying to push the buttons but the little screen just kept popping up green letters spelling "CL". I was like WTF? I`M FrEAKIN COLD! Work DAMNIT! And so I tried calling Su, but she couldn`t help me because she wasn`t in Kenbuchi; I called Satomi, but she too wasn`t here and so she called Mago-chan to come and help me and she dragged Ayako along. They were at a party when Satomi called them to come and I felt sooooo bad. But they both said that when they heard about my heater situation they felt bad for me and came to help. lol I get the `foreigner-is-unable-to-work-everyday-electronics` pity...But it was the first time for me to work such a heater. It`s not like the American electronic ones...It is electric in which it needs it to turn on, but the heat uses the kerosene oil from the container outside my apt. Oh and fyi, my apt area is like an explosion waiting to happen. Right outside my door is a can (or those large metal tubular things that hold gas) of Kerosene oil for my stove. And then next to my house is the large Kerosene oil container to heat up my water and the heater.

So they came over to help me try to figure out my heater and couldn`t figure it out either. Then they called Soutome-san to come over early tomorrow morning (7am on Saturday) to come and help me fix it. So I spent the night under several layers of blankets freezing as I slept...lol

October 10th Saturday

I woke up at 6:30am on a saturday to greet the dude who`s supposed to help me fix my heater. And let me tell you, my apt was like freezing over. Mago-chan also came over to help me in case I couldn`t understand his Japanese. So the man came to check on my heater and after pushing around buttons he was like "Your heater was on child-lock." Well I felt stupid. And Mago-chan was like "oh, was that the problem?" Yes, so now I know what to do when I can`t work my heater, press the child lock button 3 times. lol And the heater uses the kerosene oil to make a fire. Anyways, my room got warmer that`s for sure. Mago-chan stayed around a little bit and so I made breakfast for the both of us. She`s never had real Peanut Butter before and I just so happened to find real peanut butter in a store so I made PB&J. Woot!

Today we decided to go out shopping for stuff. It was decided last night when the girls came over to fix my heater and discovered that my living room light is dying on me. But before that I went to my 3rd-5th graders cheerleading practice to watch them. Oh! And fyi, cheerleading is a huge sport here in Kenbuchi. It`s the new in thing to do and because my town is so big on it that all the other cities around us come down and over to my lil town for cheer practice. Hehe. All the kids and coaches want me to join them because they know that I can dance. =P But I told them I`m just there to watch. The Cheerleading image in japan isn`t what you imagine in the states. It`s not full of ditzy popular girls or mean chicks or anything like the same image in the states. Totally different. I was really surprised to see some of my girls in the cheerleading team because they`re so different from the image I had. So cheer is actually a good accepted thing here. And it`s so great here that the Japan Representative Cheerleading team came here yesterday to do performances today and tomorrow. That`s cool! But unfortunately I couldn`t make it to both of them. Today`s reason was because I had already promised the girls that we would go out.

So Ayako came to pick us up in her luxury black car that I felt I should be a millionare to ride...Man, who knew the priesstess`s daughter had so much money? lol We went to Asahikawa. We first went to Yamada Electronics store and that place was HUGE!1!! And guess what!? I even saw a LOTUS there? As in the sexy lil sportscar. I was like DUDE?! WHAT!? A lotus!? WTF? But then again, I shouldn`t be surprised anymore. I swear, on the way here I saw several hot and sexy sportscars here and more than my fill of hotass motorcycles. Yes...I`m a sucker for hot vehicles. Even better, hot vehicles with hot men on them. lol Them Japanese people like them crazy looking sportscars and racecars...like maybe for some late night in the parking structure drifting races maybe? lol ehehe. >D Then we went to Toys R Us and it was amazing! They had real American products and stuff there! I was very happy to see all that. I finally bought a picture frame for my 1000piece puzzle. Then we decided to go to Karaoke!!! After 2 hours of 飲み放題 and endless songs we became hungry and went to go find food to eat.

Ayako recommended a Soup-curryスープカレー place. It was small and rundown looking on the outside, but once you step in it`s like your in an Indian cavern. The music was like funky trance Indian music and the waiters in there were all really gangsta looking. haha. Everyone in the restaurant were young and hot looking peoples. And I swear I saw a guy in there who looked exactly like Mizushima Hiro, but he was with his gf. Boo...lol The food portion was HUGE! But it wasn`t my favorite. Asahikawa is famous for its soup-curry, but I`m not too fond of it to be frank. Then we went to Mega Don Quixote!! AND IT WAS F-ING HUGE!!! LIKE DUDE!!! All my ICU EAP-ers should remember the Don Quixotes in Tokyo right? Well think that except twice as big! And it had an arcade and restaurants and brand name items in there too! Like it carried Chanel, Coach, LV. It was crazy! I think I might spend a lot of my time there in the future. haha. After that we went home. Twas a good day.

October 13th Tuesday

Yesterday was an official holiday, the day of health. So I didn`t have to go to work. But today at work I heard from my boss that some children at my elementary have influenza A H1N1!!!!! So they closed the school for the week, but the teachers still have to go to school. ANd I still have to work. So I stayed in the BOE until lunch time, went to go have lunch and then went to the high school to teach my lazy 3rd years. I really do not like teaching at the high school as the kids are disrespectful and the teachers don`t really talk. The atmosphere in the teachers` room always seems really heavy.

In my 3rd grade class I decided to play hangman with them and divided them into groups. Well, they divided themselves, so there was a group of the most noisy and inattentive boys in the class. When I asked that group to give me a letter they answered with "You`re beautiful" and "Love" and "You`re my wife" ....Hmm...I think maybe it was because I cut my hair and straightened it. lol My friend even said I looked younger, like a high school student. haha. cool. Then after that in the hallways and stuff the other boys would come and talk to me and everything more than they did before....ehehe. Well, I guess my haircut was a good thing. Now I just have to lose weight. =P

After that I went to the middle school to help the 3rd year girls with their play for the English contest on the 20th of this month. I stayed until 6pm.

October 15th Thursday

As usual I had my high school class and as soon as that was over I went home to take a nap before heading over to the elementary school. I didn`t have to teach the 1st year highschool kids today so I had an extra hour. So I took that hour to nap at home. I was dead tired. And then I went to the elementary. At the elementary none of the teachers were in the teachers lounge which was strange because since the school closed for the week there shouldn`t be any classes. So I walked around and found Kitagawa-sensei doing some things in his classroom for preparation for next week. He told me that all the teachers were in the cooking classroom on the 2nd floor. I went up and in and my glasses fogged up. lol It was so warm in the class especially since there was boiling water in a large pot. The teachers were making soba! lol They made the dough themselves and cut it and then cooked it! LOL It was awesome! I decided to help in cleaning since I got there when they were all done. I felt a little awkward at first because I`m never too sure on conversations with these teachers. It`s a little hard for me to talk with the elementary teachers. And plus my Japanese aint that good so it`s kinda a problem. ANyways, I ate the soba and it was very very good! Afterwards I decided to head over to the middle school since there was nothing for me to do at the elementary.

I stayed at the middle school until 5:30pm. And I also found out that 17 of my elementary kids have influenza...the really bad one. I`m really really worried about them because on the news there have been children dying from it. I really hope my children are alright. They`re such wonderful kids.

Otsukare-sama for reading. I promise pictures will come up soon!

Middle School Festival!!

Oh, before I begin, "" means that I'm talking in Japanese or English. '' this means I'm thinking it.

Sept 18 Friday

The beginning of my middle school's festival! Their theme this year is "あっぱれワカチコ剣仲際トォース！”ワカチコ(Wakachiko) and トォース(Twos) is something that these two famous comedians have been saying alot lately and so the kids decided to put it in their theme this year. 剣仲際(Kenchuusai)means Kenbuchi Middle School festival. And あっぱれ (appare) means cool. lol Sure...lol But so in the beginning was the opening ceremony. Oh, actually since there wasn't that many people or parents that came today I was able to sit in the audience area instead of the teachers seats. The audience area faces the stage directly. The teachers seats are next to the stage so I have to sit kinda diagonal to see the students. So I was thankful to sit in the audience seat. So after the opening ceremony the students individually or in groups sang and performed songs. They were all my 3rd year kids. Well, all the more outgoing popular kids.

The first performance was by my 4 other popular boys. My 3rd year kids, all the boys are popular cuz they all have a certain type of personality and look to them that all the 2nd years really like or so they've told me and I also think the same. These 4 are the more uncategorizable popular boys. They're still outgoing and fun and wonderful, but not really as ikemen as the 4 main popular boys who are also on the student planning committee. Though they all are very friendly with each other, they hang out with their own group of popular boys. haha. Anyways, they performed songs by Greeen and called themselves "Bads" lol I don't know why, but sure! ^^ They did a good job and all the kids would get up out of their seats and run to gather in front of the stage to show their support and clap their hands and everything.

The second performance was by the most popular and smartest girl in the 3rd year class who I call Omoe as that is her nickname and she likes it. It's cute. lol =P Her voice was beautiful!! Absolutely beautiful! I was like "dude, you normally talk in this non-genki low voice, but when you sing you're like a totally different person." haha. Third was by the most popular girls in school including Omoe whom are my favorites although all of the kids are my favorites. It's just that they love coming to talk to me and involving me in everything they do. So that's why I like them. That's also what the mentioned above 4 boys do with me too. haha. Anyways these girls performed a "Johnny's" medly and were also the host for today's performances and they did wonderful!! These girls were also my most active particpatns in my hip hop class. And actually while they performed my 4 most popular boys (the ikemen ones) came out to get Yuki (he's the least active and unmotivated boy and I thought he had some kind of syndrome or mental problem when it's actually problems in his family that makes him so inactive and sullen/down looking all the time. There's nothing wrong with his brain) who was sitting alone in his chair like usual. They coaxed him to get up and clap and have fun along with everyone and stood by him and laughed and clapped along with him so that he wouldn't feel left out. When I saw that it moved and warmed my heart. I was like 'not only are you guys the best looking and popular boys in class but you guys have a heart of gold. It's no wonder you guys are popular.' I was amazed that they did that and I loved my kids even more.

And finally the 4th performance was by the 4th most popular boys in class. So I will categorize them for you. Boy #1: The head of the student council, the captain of the baseball team, the most outgoing and friendly boy and happy all the time but a little absent minded sometimes, and the one that all the 2nd year girls admire, good looking and cute, the leader of the popular boys group, ergo, the most popular boy in school. Boy #2: Silent and mysterious, very handsome (it's true! All the female teachers say so! actually he's the best looking boy in school), sweet natured, smart, super caring and helpful even though it looks like he's brooding all the time, vice president of the student council, vice captain of the baseball team, the one that the 3rd year girls look to for help, ergo, the second in command of the boys and second most popular. =P Boy #3: Hilarious and superbly outgoing, active and helpful, the planner of the student council, seriously he's funny, the life of the party. Boy #4: kinda reminds me of a butler but that's because I've been watching Mei-chan no Shitsuji lately, super tall, wears glasses, doesn't talk too much, and is very close with Boy #3. Actually I have to say, if you know Ouran Koukou Host Club, that's basically all the boys in my class. They're all like that except not exactly super dashing. That's just the ikemen crew. lol Their hearts are golden.

But I digress from their performance. They did "Can't Get Back" by W-inds. If you haven't heard it or seen the PV, WATCH IT!! It's good! The song is good! And my boys did an excellent job of singing and dancing to it! They all wore very handsome clothes and a vest. So they looked like a boyband. Their dancing was also very good. The girls were going crazy. haha. And they would call out the names of their fav boys. lol I clapped and jumped up and down and shouted after their performance because I was exhilarated and so proud. ^o^ I hope they will do their best in tomorrow's hip hop performance too.

So that was the end of this day and afterwards I went to the town hall to have dinner with my co-workers there although after I started going to the schools all the time I barely had time to talk to them. It was good handmade gyoza and salmon chan-chan-yaki. lol It was good. And then one of the high school workers came by to give us all some tomato juice made from the high school's fresh and sweet tomatos. I usually don't like tomatoes or the juice, but this town's tomatoes have changed me. lol hehe.

Sept. 19 Saturday

Today is still considered a workday for me even though it's a festival and saturday because all the teachers have to help with everything. I still had to get to the middle school at 8am and had morning meetings with the teachers and then at 8:30 headed over to the gym for the presentations given by certain students for a contest. Then at 9:35 the kids performed their hip hop routine that i taught. Before that was a 10 minute break in which the 3rd years went to get changed. And when they finished changing I would run over to them and tell them to have fun and do their best and have confidence. The popular girls saw me and came over to me so I didn't have to run over. haha. =P They were all like "Theresa-sensei you look so cool!" because I wore something much more fashionable today. I wore my black flared slacks, a white collared work top, and a striped dark gray vest. The girls had sexy hats so they told me to wear it to complete my coolness. lol And when I did all of them were like "Yappari, kakkoii!!" lol I love my girls. ^^

Before the performance began they did a little intro in which they said that this was a chance for them to perform something new as well as learn hip hop dancing and they were lucky and grateful to be able have me teach them. I was so proud and thankful for them saying that. I blushed and everything. haha. Anyways, they did excellent! Of course they were a little shy still and some of them forgot what to do, but they still did good for the limited amount of time that they had to learn. I cheered soooo loudly for them, in fact I was probably the loudest one there at the time. haha. My gaijin self came out. I bet the parents were like 'who the f is the crazy teacher?' I was so so immensely proud of my kids. I want to do something for them or make them something to show my appreciation and happiness at their efforts. I can't make them food as that's prohibited. So any ideas anybody?

After that each grade did their own presentation on what their most important memories and trips and accomplishments this year. They did little plays too. hehe. after that was a break in which I met up with Yuki because she came to see the dance. ^^ We talked about what we were going to do the next day. Then afterwards was the brass band who were super super good! I was like DUDE! You guys need to compete! They're ridiculously good! Then afterwards was lunch in which I had onigiri, Mr. Donuts, and a cream puff. And then went out with Yuki to go to the various activities that the kids had done. First was the maze in which I thought people were going to pop out and scare us cuz it was super dark. lol But nothing bad happened, besides running into a dead end. Then we went to the third graders "Adventure World". lol It was fun and i got one of those water filled balloon YoYos! You fish for them and get the one you want. It's cute! I'll post pics of it soon. The 3rd years had a basketball freethrow thing, the YoYo thing, darts, and try your luck box in which you reach in to get a number and you get whatever it is that that number represents. Then we went to the 1st years room in which they had ring toss (in which I failed miserably), slime making, and plastic keychain making. I made two little keychains in which I will also post pictures of.

The whole school was decked out and looked very cute and festive. I took a bunch of pics so will post soon. Afterwards was the song/chorus competition in which each grade competes to win a trophy of who is the best grade in singing. And of course the 3rd years took it because they had much more years of experience. They sung beautifully. All the kids did excellent though! ^o^ THen the festival came to an end at 3:35pm. I stayed at the school until 4pm. I realized that because all the teachers had to come work at the school on a saturday we automatically have next thursday off as compensation. But the sucky thing is I still have to work on Thursday because I work at the elementary and high school on those days. So no rest for me. >.<

Sakurai-san invited us all to have a celebration party at his house at 5:30pm. Monma-san came to pick me up via car to head over to his house. He was so nice to do so! He's tall too! haha. Anyways Iwata-san was also already in the car. I love her! I was so excited to go to the party because it's with my favorite group of people, my middle school teachers! Such a funny and lively group. Sakurai-san's house is in the middle of alot of farmland because he does alot of farming himself when he's not working at the school. He really grows the best corn I tell ya. It's so deliciously sweet and juicy naturally! The best corn you will ever eat! Good thing about countryside farmtowns. Anyways we had a yakiniku party in his hugeass garage/storage shed in which there was a tractor and other farming utilities. All the male teachers sat on one side and I sat with the 3 other female teachers there. It was me, Hayashi-san, Iwata-san, and last year's math teacher, Natsu-san, who was my predecessor's girlfriend and is super cute and beautiful! ANyways, everyone got drunk and happy and relieved all the stress built up from the school festival preperations and it was a hilarious party! I laughed so much and ate so much and was happy happy happy.

Afterwards a couple of us went outside in the uber darkness to light fireworks!!!!! ^o^ XD It was so pretty and fun and exciting! The party ended at 10pm, but then all the girls wanted to go drinking in Shibetsu and Yamada-sensei also wanted to tag along. So I went with them and we had crazy drinking time at a nomiya-san in which everyone drunk 4 large bottles of beer and I just had vodka. Seriously, people were drunk and Hayashi-san ended up being a little sick and throwing up. But she was the whole planner and the force behind the festival so she deserves to drink all she wants until she throws up. So all of us were like it's okay, but don't drink anymore so you don't get sick. In the end we took a taxi home. Oh, and the girls all said that on Tuesday we will go to Asahikawa and have a drinking party with all the female teachers and office personnel of the middle school. For that I am damn excited and can't wait. haha. =P And Natsu-san volunteered her home in Asahikawa for us to stay so we don't have to drive home. Thanks girl!

So anyways, i will post more on what happened today tomorrow. For now, it's just the school festival info. Otsukare-sama for reading! I swear there will be pics soon. I just need to get to it. Thanks!

Yes....Mr. Wonderful...

Sept. 16th Wednesday

So today was a super fun day at the middle school as it usually always is anyways. Today after English class I told the 3rd year kids that I want to see the final routine all together because I didn't get to teach them the day before since I was teaching at the elementary. The kids were awesome enough to take time out of their busy matsuri/festival prep day to perform for me. AND THEY DID EXCELLENT!!! Well, there were some areas that were a little choppy, but for never having danced before and volunteering to do this in 3 days they were amazing! I was sooooo immensely proud of them!!!! I cheered and shouted and jumped up and downI was so happy. The kids caught on to my happiness and also felt very proud of themselves. XDXDXD When I asked them how was the lesson that Yoneda-sensei taught in my stead yesterday they were like..."Well, we understood the moves, but because it wasn't the real thing (me) teaching it looked a little weird and wasn't as cool. And just now when you were reteaching us the last steps it was totally different looking. Much much cooler!" LOL I couldn't help laughing, because I could totally understand how they feel since I've seen Yoneda-sensei try to mimic my dancing. It looks...interesting. haha But I applaud him for teaching the steps and being able to dance along. He really is an amazing teacher. Of course, he is the PE teacher so there has to be some physical ability in him. =P Anyways, I told the kids they were "awesome" and now they use that word everytime they see me. hehe.

Afterwards I decided to walk around because it was festival preparation time. Outside the teacher's office I saw 4 of my fav female 2nd year students putting up tissue paper flowers as a border decoration for a large board with a bunch of pictures glued together spelling an expression that I was like WTF? And I found out the expression was just a word that the current famous comedians say...I was very confused and was seriously like WTF is this word? Is it even Japanese? lol When I saw the girls I got all excited and went over to them. They were putting the paper flowers on their heads and it looked so cute I wanted one too. So they put one on me. lol They said pink looked best on me. Not my favorite color, but hey, it did look cute on me according to all the girl students who were super excited to see the flower on my head. =P And all my 3rd year boy students were like "dude, even the teacher has one on her head!??" lol But they all commented that I looked beautiful and cute. haha. Good boys. I feel like I'm the only teacher who does these weird things with the students. I like it though. It's fun and I get close with the students. I spent quite a while with the girls decorating. And we had fun talking about stuff. I inserted English here and there, but majority of it was in Japanese. I swear, if I didn't know Japanese I don't think they would talk to me as much. And because I try with Japanese they try speaking English with me too, practicing what they learned that day. I was proud of them. Anyways, so the other teachers who saw me would either give me funny looks or say I looked really cute. haha. =P

Then afterwards, I went through the 2nd year's 80% finished maze. It wasn't difficult to get through, but fun nonetheless. Then I went to help the 3rd years with their carnival activities that they had dubbed "Adventure World". LOL One of the girls was like "Why did we call it Adventure World? It seems like we have some kind of sci-fi attraction when it's just festival activities." lol When they were choosing the name, I had the last say in it because I was there in the room at the time. So I did the "innie minnie miny moe" thing between Adventure Land and World and it ended up being that. Afterwards when i was leaving a bunch of the students were still at school doing more festival preparations! I was amazed at their dedication! Go kids!

At 5:30 was my enkai (welcome party) for elementary since we had yet to have one. And it was not only for me, but also for and Hirano-sensei (the 2nd grade teacher) who is leaving on maternity leave in which the newly come Kudou-sensei (who is very handsome and tall who I will from now on refer to as Mr. Wonderful) will replace. So it was a party for all 3 of us. And it was themed with food. lol It was so cute. All the teachers who were presenting something and us new ones and leaving ones were given props to wear to represent what we liked to eat. I was an uni sushi in which I was given a taped together circular roll of black paper to represent the nori (seaweed) which went around my head so I couldn't see and a wig the color close to uni. lol I couldn't see but still had to present an opening speech with the thing over my head. So I'm not sure if I was able to be clear in my speech. =P Hirano sensei was a bowl of ramen! I will post these pictures soon! You have to see this ramen bowl thing! It's amazing and cool and super goofily cute! And then Mr. Wonderful was a box of curry. lol

We played a guessing quiz game on how well we know the teachers and I knew Takagi-san the best so I was able to guess her part. It was really quite a lot of fun. And I got to sit next to Mr. Wonderful the whole time. And damn, he has a nice toned body. Even Watanabe-sensei (the male 6th grade teacher) was impressed. He was like "Dude, flex your arms." In which Mr. Wonderful did, and Watanabe-sensei was just like "SUGOI!" lol Seriously, his arms were AMAZING!! Like, damn those are nice arms, and his chest too! Watanabe-sensei was also trying to mimic Mr. Wonderful's toned chest. He is seriously fit and not in a bad ugly way! It was because he used to play rugby in school. He's a super kind guy who loves nature and is very smart. His face isn't too bad either. He's one of those almost perfect guys. In a way, he is better than Mr. Gorgeous. Mr Gorgeous is just gorgeous and cool-like and has a nice body but he doesn't think too much of his students which gets me a little down about that because I care for the students alot even if they don't really want to learn English and very lifeless in my class. They don't really try and some of them just give up too easily. So I try to make my classes weird and fun for them. Their happiness makes me happy. So it disappointed me a little about his attitude with the kids.

After the first party ended we went to the nijikai (second party) and sung Karaoke, but it wasn't my best. I actually sung terribly. haha. =P But Mr. Wonderful's voice was beautiful! I was like "Hirai Ken?" Takagi-san and I had a good girl to girl talk and decided to hang out more together in the future because we were the only 2 girls around the same age. lol And she told me to just call her Yuki from now on. YAY! ANd I don't have to use desu/masu with her anymore! Friendship progressing! So we said during silver week we would go do something. WOO! We both do absolutely nothing during our free time except stay at home and surf the internet or other things. lol So we're going to hang out a lot more now! A FRIEND!! ^o^ Anyways, that was the end of our day. And I've decided that I have taken an interest in Mr. Wonderful now because I'm sure he's not married and doesn't have a girlfriend. Or I hope he doesn't have a gf because then I would have to become disinterested in him. My rule that I try to follow. Try. lol

Sept. 17th Thursday

One more day until the middle school festival! I'm so excited! Today I went to the high school to play a game called Landmines with the students that uses English directions. There are pieces of paper with pictures of bombs on them scattered all over the floor. And you have to maneuver around them while wearing a blindfold. One person gives directions while the other does the walking. And I was super surprised that they didn't know what left or right was!!!! I was like...dude you learn that in elementary/middle school! It's one of the most important and basic English words. I was shocked actually. But at least this game will be sure to make them remember. They have to know it to play otherwise they can't and everyone has to play no one is left to stay on the sidelines. Even the kids who thought it was mendoukusai had to play, but I know that secretly they enjoyed it. =P Because it's these kinds of thing you'll rememeber. English class is the only time when they can play games and get up and go to the gym during class time to do weird things. Anyways, all the kids were really into it and enjoyed it. So I was super glad and happy for that fact. Mr. Gorgeous said that it's okay if the students don't seem like they're into it because they have no will and are just stupid. But I said that it doesn't matter in English class, because whether or not you have the will you still have to do it and these activities are games that they will enjoy, not paperwork; so regardless they will join in or cause their teammates shame and not look cool in class.

I'm trying to devise a way that will make sure that everyone in class participates regardless if they really want to or not. Because whatever I do they will do it because they enjoy it. Even the game today, many of the boys and girls, at first, were like "Jeez, this is so mendoukusai (troublesome)" but still did it anyways and were laughing and having fun. They just say those things to seem cool and pretend that they don't really think it's worth their time. But I know they like these little games. Their expressions don't lie. =P I'm glad for that. They had just received their test results back and were really unhappy so this game possibly cheered them up a little.

Then I went over to the elementary school and played the same game. And it was a huge success! Even Watanabe-sensei was so excited with this game. He said it was the first time all year and all the times that he's been teaching that he's had so much fun in class and thanked me. I was so happy and my chest just swelled hearing that. BIG SUCCESS! The kids were laughing and excited during the whole game. They loved it. And were also really happy everytime I play "Theresa says" (my rendition of Simon Says). I did that with directions today. lol I love the kids here.

After dinner today I decided to ask Yuki if she wanted to go out for dessert with me. She had accidentally broke the laminator by feeding the stuff in the wrong side. lol And was feeling very down from that so I thought it might cheer her up. Besides I haven't really gone to dinner or anything with her yet. So dessert it is. We had so much fun talking about random crap and she says she wants to go with me to the festival on saturday. So together we will go! ^^ She also said that her parents told her that I can go visit her house anytime and have dinner with them!!! XDXDXDXDXD I'm so excited to do so! YAY! Anyways afterwards we decided to go see if anyone was still at the elementary at 9pm and there still were! Mr. Wonderful and Ootani-sensei were still there workin away. We snuck up quietly by the windows to peer in so that they wouldn't see us. And when they walked by the windows, we would duck. lol We were so inconspicuous. =P I think I will make some kind of food for them or something next time and bring it to them during this hour because they're always at the school until so late at night and i'm not sure if they've eaten. I think I would like it if someone brought me food while I was still working late into the night. Anyways, we tried not to be loud or be seen and then snuck back to my car and went back home. haha.

Otsukare-sama for reading! I will post more on other good things later and pictures. Oh, and I got to ride in Mr. Gorgeous's car today. It was cute, the interior was sleek, and it smelt sexy. lol But I think I'm starting to prefer Mr. Wonderful over Mr. Gorgeous