a quick update

hello!

things have been super hectic here recently: friends leaving, parties, new friends arriving and most importantly, my sister is visiting! she leaves tomorrow though... =(

i will get a real update out soon, before i go to hiroshima next week to check things out!

until then, some photos from the past wee while...

peace.

pilgrimage

i survived the weekend. i had no doubt about it. it's just difficult sometimes.

i was productive and today i had fun and continued the exploration, continued the pilgrimage.

let's all find ourselves, ok?

peace.

lazy

i'm feeling particularly lazy this weekend. no inclination whatsoever to do anything...

maybe it's the heat, maybe work has finally made me realise how unfit and tired i am?

whatever it is, i plan on doing very little this weekend, even though it's a long one... (gotta love japan's massive amount of national holidays, especially a week before breaking off for summer vacation!)

we'll see though, i'm pretty famous for big sweepy statements that don't get followed...

asides for the tired feeling it's an anniversary this weekend and it's the first time i've had it and not been in a place i really "know"... i'll survive though, we're built tough enough in my family.

yesterday saw the first of the alts in my area leave which was a little sad. sad because he was a genuinely nice guy and also because he's the first: he marks the beginning of the end for the rest of them...

there'll be a new batch flocking in soon enough but the folk i've met here are pretty amazing so it'll be tough to see them go...

we went out for dinner and then ice cream. there was beer too. =) a good wee send off i think!

i've collected eight mosquito bites in the last few days: one of the little buggers has managed to get into my apartment which isn't fun.

i smooshed a whopper of one last night so hopefully that was the chap using me as an all you can eat buffet... there's one on the sole of my foot (a bite that is, not a mosquito) which is particularly annoying... oh well.

i really should be cleaning my apartment because it's a bit of a tip: this last week has been pretty hectic and when i've not been bopping about town or working i've been waging war on the heat. my strategy is: if i'm asleep i don't feel the heat...

there have been more than a fair few naps this week...

i got a wee care package from my best friend this week which was ace: chewy sweeties from home, a gossip magazine because the confessional misery of "real life stories" makes me smile and cringe simultaneously, the local paper from my uni town ('mon the Tele) and a lovely paperchase card. fair made me smile so it did.

i'm saving the sweets for as long as possible but I've got a feeling i may be indulging over the weekend!


anyways: my apartment calls... more when i'm not being oppressed by the heat.

peace.

ps. happy birthday to my best friend (see "care package" above) hope you have a great day today Amy! =) x

tanabata

this weekend was the tanabata festival: you make wish trees and then tie your wishes to them in the hope that they'll be granted! the trees are super pretty. =)

i'd write more but this is the first hot sunny, not humid, day that we've had in forever. i'm going to go enjoy it. once i've done the laundry...


peace.

i am too hot to blog...

let a summer of moaning about the heat commence.

it's hot.

today there was no rain. which was nice. i got laundry done. go me.


but it was hot. and teaching in the heat isn't fun.

the classes were of the friday standard i've come to expect.

i was sweaty.

i played a colour touch game with a couple of the classes. they insisted on clinging to me when it was time to touch blue.

i sweated even more (but not enough to become child-repellent)


yeah. today was hot.

i want to go to bed because i'm tired. but it's too hot.


crap.

peace.

cheery.

hello.

i'm cheery today, not entirely sure why. i'm enjoying it.

today i had some really good classes, ate lunch with what i can only think to describe as an exchange student who spoke practically perfect english. he's half chinese, half japanese and speaks english with an american accent - this kid is either gonna be super messed up or could possibly take over the world. that decision is up to him... he has promised to write me a letter (very cool) and i asked him to take questions from the class - he was a little embarrassed to translate some of them, i think they were asking naughty questions... i told him not to worry. cool kid.

one of my teachers gave me kanji worksheets today - i was amazed that i actually knew a couple! so was he... he tried to hide his utter disbelief but i caught him... it's really sweet and kind of the teachers i work with to take such an active interest in my progress. i have to up my game and work harder, so as not to disappoint them! they're appreciating the fact that i'm gently rambling away in the background and they are very graciously humouring me when it comes to me occasionally just blurting something out in japanese and then smiling excitedly. i am five years old.

yesterday, one of my mountain school teachers told me that the whole school (five of them) look forward to me coming because i "make english time fun time!" i'm glad. because i love going there. we had typhoon-type weather at the start of this week but thankfully after a rocky night nothing really came of it: i was told to wait for a phone call before going to school... i was so glad that the schools here weren't closed: tuesday is my favourite day of the week and i would've been quite disappointed if i didn't get to go...

also, last night, i went to the adult eikaiwa (english conversation class) for the first time last night and met the folks there. they were all really nice and enthusiastic and welcoming. looking forward to hopefully taking over the class in the summer. it'd be nice and hopefully it'll help with my japanese...

i feel like i'm rambling a little here, just wandering from thought to thought. but you can't stop me, so i'll continue.

today i had an electrician come over and check the apartment. he also fixed my bathroom fan which hasn't worked since i got here. to be honest, i've just tested it and it seems to be pretty redundant... it barely does anything. still, it'll hopefully help in the constant war i'm waging on damp and mould. =) any ally is welcome. i made the electrician a coffee (the universal way of making friends) and we had a stilted japanese/english conversation. i love the look on peoples faces when i tell them i'm not from america. we talked about the weather, about schools and i think he talked about electricity for a bit (i picked out the word for electricity amongst the rapid-fire japanese) i smiled and nodded a lot. it was lovely. i think i made a friend.

anyways, i think i've recapped enough for now. gotta go get bits and pieces sorted now. might buy a fan today. starting to wilt a little in the heat now...

peace.

ps. my friend Mune made a rather awesome video of the rice planting i went to a couple of weeks ago. here's a link to it: linkety-link-link. even if you've already watched it, you should watch it again. it's very good. =)

pps. i've been playing about with the layout of the blog. expect it to change a lot until i find something i like. apologies.

rainy day...

hello.

just a short update today. no reason really.

i'm on a fidgety mood today, maybe because the weather is pretty rubbish and i can't do too much. i'm a trapped animal right now. my house is clean and most of my prep-work and paperwork is done for next week. so, what to do now?

last night i went to a friends for home-made sushi which was pretty cool. i tried goya for the first time (it's an okinawan vegetable, translated as bitter melon) and it was ok: looked like a knobbly cucumber and tasted the way a hedgerow smells after you've cut it. doesn't sound to appetising but i promised to try everything that i could so i went for it. not as bad as expected but not something i could eat huge amounts of...

i had a board of education observation randomly sprung on me during the week and it went well! when i say sprung on me, i really mean it. i was about halfway through my lesson (it was at one of my mountain schools where i'm pretty much told "the topic today is X. go get em tiger!") and these official looking folk wandered into the class. rather proud of the fact i took it in my stride and just went with it. the BOE officials looked happy enough and one of the teachers told me they enjoyed the lesson so all is good in the mountains it would seem.

i don't know if i'd have preferred a little notice or if this way was better? this way, i didn't have the time to get nervous and really, until it was over, i didn't have much of a clue what was actually happening. i guess that made it easier just to get on with my lesson as usual, not having to worry about what was happening or how i was being evaluated/judged. i just hope the positive, enthusiastic comments were genuine and that the BOE folk were indeed happy with me...

on friday one of my usual teachers was absent and i taught that class under the supervision of the head teacher.

in the schools here the "management structure" is: principal, vice-principal and head-teacher. my understanding of their roles is: principal deals with visitors to the school, vice-principal deals with the managerial running of the school and head teacher deals with kids and classes. only the head teacher teaches classes (at least at the schools i work in) while the other two are purely administrators.

the head teacher at this school is a good guy, he always has time for a quick chat with me which is nice because i still sometimes feel slightly displaced at that school. anyways, he was super impressed with the lesson i gave, he remarked that the kids at this particular school aren't as enthusiastic as some others (which is totally true) so he was impressed at the level of engagement and involvement that i managed to create. i didn't tell him that today was the first day that the classes at his school seemed to pay even the slightest bit of interest in what i was doing. i was too busy enjoying it and praying that it continues...

he was also curious about the nicknames i've given some of the kids. i explained that if a particular kid gets particularly involved in an activity, i tend to nickname them after that activity to (hopefully) inspire a little bit of camaraderie. in this class there was green! and monkey girl. not as mean as they sound, trust me. the kids who have nicknames respond well to them and i would certainly stop if they didn't seem to enjoy it...

at another of my schools, one of the kids couldn't quite grasp where i'm from and kept shouting "america!" when asked which country i come from. so now, when i teach his class, he is known as "americaaaa!" and he loves it. so does the teacher. i had lunch with his sister last week and she sidled up to me and elbowed me in the knee (she's a teeny tiny second grader) and in a really low voice said "americaaaa!" made me smile so it did.

so yeah, i really have nothing much else to say. guess i should go figure out how to waste the rest of today...

peace.