hiatus

Sorry there haven't been any blogs here.

As you might know, I've been writing this blog for a very long time wondering why exactly I am writing it. Entries have felt forced and unnatural to write.

So, I decided to put this blog on hiatus for the time being. I apologize to some of you who I know really enjoyed reading it.

I'll probably try to blog a little more on my regular blog and see if I can get back into blogs in general. Let me know if you want to know the link to my regular blog.

Thanks for reading and sorry about this.

For the rest of July

I realize this entry is almost an entire week late, so I suppose at this point- it will be the entry for both last week and this week.

I don't have a lot to say, but I'll just list a few things. Sorry it's not very interesting-

-Last week, I finally passed my driving test and got my Japanese drivers license. It's a relief to know I can continue to drive after my International Permit expires in August.

-This week is my last week teaching until school starts up again from summer vacation in September.

-Today, I thought the temperature was bearable, but lately it's been very hot. Compared to other places, it's not VERY hot, but the humidity makes it sticky and gross.

-Next Sunday, I will be on a plane flying to California. I'll be there for two weeks, so naturally, I'll have nothing Japan life related to post. If reverse culture shock hits me hard enough, I suppose I might post here about it, but chances are, there won't be any entries during that time.

The Leavers Party

It's July 5th here now, but still July 4th back in the US.

Last night I was at a Kagoshima JETs party put on to bid farewell to the people who are leaving this summer. It was a lot of fun. Outside of my city, I didn't really know entirely who was leaving and who was staying, so it was nice to find out and talk to those people at least one more time.

There were people that I really enjoyed talking to in the past and I suddenly realized I should have hung out with them more. It was a very event.

Afterward, the big group split in two- some went to Me Gusta (a Mexican restaurant) and the rest went to karaoke. I was in the karaoke group. We had to split up into 3 rooms because there were so many of us. I ended up in a room with almost all JETs from the Osumi side (the other side of the prefecture.) They were really fun and I realized that I missed out times where there were events there and I decided it was too far.

All in all, it was a good evening out. No fireworks for the 4th of July, but you have to remember that ALTs come from all over the place- so the folks from the UK, Australia, New Zealand (etc...) don't really care to celebrate the US holiday. :)

I'm really looking forward to the new JETs coming next month.

And I am looking forward to visiting my family and friends in California later this month.

Kinders

This blog is very, very late. It's about half a week late this time.

I was aware of it, but I've just been way too tired lately to even consider blogging. Anyway, I just got out of the shower a little while ago and that woke me up a little, so I thought I would get to it. I kind of wanted to write last week's blog by today so that it would end up being categorized under the same month. (Although I know it doesn't really matter... haha)

In my apartment, there's a bookshelf filled with books left behind by former ALTs. I've been somewhat making my way through them (whenever I can get myself torn away from re-re-re-re-reading the Ender series book.) Anyway, this evening I started reading a autobiography about a Japanese man who was born with no arms or legs, Hirotada Ototake.

I haven't gotten very far, but the overall optimism of the book is pretty impressive.

Yes, I do intend to tie this into something about last week.

I already finished the part in the book about his experience being in kindergarten. Apparently, the kids all gathered around him and asked him why he had no arms and legs. He gave a very simple explanation, which the kids accepted and his difference was no longer an issue.

My job schedules me to go to kindergartens every few months or so. I may have all of my limbs, but I am still one of the strangest looking people they've ever come across. But thinking about my experience with these kids, I can perfectly see the scenario in the book in my head.

These kindergarten students are not afraid of things that are different, but rather they are intrigued by them. It makes me think that fearing differences between people is something that is learned rather than something that really comes naturally to people.

I recall being different from that, though, when I was that age. There was a kid in my class who had silver teeth and, in kindergarten, he sat across from me. I was very disturbed by them and I was scared to drink milk because I thought one of his silver teeth could've gotten in there somehow. Looking back, I don't see myself as a kindergarten student going up to somebody unlike anyone I've ever seen before and boldly asking questions.

Is this a cultural difference or am I just making generalizations based off of the very limited things I have experienced?

sunburned

The appeal of blogging doesn't seem to exist within me these days.

I know this blog is very late, but I've just been running very short on energy these past few days.

I've been in the process of trying to get my Japanese drivers license. I went to the course during a weekend and practiced once, then I tried the test the following Wednesday and ended up failing. I'm going to try again next week or so. I don't want to go into details about it at this point, but the driving test is on a course, rather than public roads. It's got insane turns, specifics times to look in different directions, and a lot of switching from pushing the gas pedal to slamming the breaks. It doesn't relate a lot to real everyday driving, but I'm sure I'll pass next time or the time after.

Another thing that happened of interest was that I caught fish for the first time. I went to an event at the beach. I thought that we would have poles and what-not, but it ended up being all of us pulling a big net onto the shore. The event started at 6:30, so I had to get up really early to go to it. It was a pretty interesting/fun experience, Along with the fish, we caught a few rays. Sadly, they didn't let them go although I was hoping they would. We also played volleyball, which I didn't suck at too badly. Then some people went surfing (using that term very lightly...) and we had an awesome BBQ. It was a good day, but it was tiring and the sun drained me and burned my skin.

On the topic of work- same old. I am really starting to enjoy it more and more, though. This past week or so, it feels more like actual school time is taking up more of my work hours- which is great.

I suppose that's it. Sorry my blogger bug seems to have stepped out.

The weather and the months

(Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this blog.....)

I got my plane ticket and it's official- I am visiting California for the last two weeks of next month.

It'll be nice to get a break from the hot and humid Japanese weather.

The rainy season started. I guess this happens every year, but there was a big storm here on the first day.

It was INSANE. The wind was blowing so hard that I decided to walk the back way around my building after getting home from work so that the building could block the wind for me. The second I got around the corner, the wind hit and I had to close my umbrella so it wouldn't break.

My umbrella collapsed, my face was suddenly splashed with rain water. I ran the last few remaining steps to the door to my building. The wind tried to knock me off my feet but I regained my balance.

It was rather fun, actually.

Since then, however, the weather has been very clear and nice.

It's funny to think that I've been here almost a full year.

And, because the Chuo summer program from two years ago took place this month and my former trips took place in July, I can say that I've experienced every month in this country now. Still another year to go, too.

This year has been pretty incredible in terms of personal growth- I feel a lot tougher emotionally, secure about who I am, and I actually have a very clear and awesome idea of what I want to do in the future. I managed to save some money, have a good job, and have fun at the same time too.

It's June and August will mark one year, so maybe I am speaking too soon in terms of reflecting.

English club and tea ceremony lesson

So one of my elementary school teachers invited me to go to her English club meeting and tea ceremony lesson yesterday.

The English club meeting was held at her parent house- which was AMAZING. It was a really big and nice place (really fancy) and it had a great view of Sakurajima. They even have a Japanese style tea room and garden!

Anyway, the meeting itself was really fun because the members were all very interesting and animated people. There was an American guy there who had lived in Japan for quite some time now and I talked to him quite a bit. Coincidentally, one of the woman in the club is doing a big college (graduate school?) project on Salinas' sister city relationship with Kushikino. She was delighted to find out that I am -from- Salinas and I have been involved in the sister city association. We had a lot of good conversation and had a very delicious lunch.

After that, the teacher that I work with and I went to the tea lesson. The tea ceremony teacher is/was an English teacher, so she spoke very good English. She was really fun to talk to and I really enjoyed meeting her. It turned out that she is a big fan of Steinbeck and has even visited Salinas and Monterey! She was also very delighted to hear that I am from Salinas. (Two in one day- crazy!) I had three cups of delicious tea and dragged myself around the floor on my knees (Japanese tea ceremony style) and they hurt like crazy. All and in all, I was a pretty awesome experience.

I guess some aspect of the tea room changes each month along with the seasons and such- so I think it would be cool to go each month.

I hope to participate in the English club and visit the tea ceremony teacher again.

Anyway, here's a picture-



By the way, I finally updated my photo album. Check them out.

Broken glass and running more than I ever have before

Again, this entry is very late. I was about to write this on Saturday night, but I had sort of a rough week and I wanted to lighten up a little so that the entry doesn't end up too negative.

On Thursday, a student at the elementary school I was at on that day threw a rock at a tree and accidentally broke my car windshield. The whole situation was really overwhelming because I had to watch the upset 5th grader be questioned about what happened by 3 adults (while I sat there trying to look as patient as possible) and I later met the child's mother. Anyway, my car was taken to a repair place and I was lent a car to use in the meantime. I didn't care much for the borrowed car and I looked forward to getting my car back. I finally got it back on Sunday morning and this morning I found a letter from the student inside of it. To my surprise, the letter was written entirely in English. He must've had help from someone, but the letters were written painstakingly well and I didn't see any of the common errors that I see is middle school student papers all of the time, so I was touched by how much effort was obviously put into it.

I suppose that this should really be part of the next entry (...uhh... -this- week's), but on Sunday I took part in a Kagoshima city wide scavenger hunt! I don't believe I've physically exerted myself that much in my entire life, but it was really, REALLY a lot of fun. If the event happens next year, I am definitely participating again! I'll (probably) go into more detail on this one in the next entry.

Sorry again that this is late.

Folllow up

Sorry that this blog entry is late... once again! It's coming a Sunday night tradition, I guess. :)

Last week was rather busy. I had elementary school all 5 days and 4 classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday (3 classes on Monday). It was pretty exhausting. On top of that, I taught a little 1 hour Japanese lesson after work with the other Hioki city ALTs on Wednesday. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

So I just realized that all of my blogs have been about separate isolated events/ideas and I've provided little follow up on anything. So, I'll go through old entries and tie up loose ends. Starting with most recent entries--

The broadcasting vehicles are finally silent! I overheard the result of the elections announced over the loudspeakers at work and I was immediately relieved to know that this nonsense was finally over.

SWINE FLU! Ok, so that finally reached Japan recently. I guess the spread of swine flu all began with some sort of volleyball tournament in Osaka. It's kind of interesting that this is common knowledge. Anyway, there have been cases of it in the Osaka area and in Tokyo- not down here yet.

Here's a map of known swine flu cases in the world.

People around here are considering it to be only a matter of time. I heard another ALT in this prefecture was told to go to the hospital for what he was certain was just a cold.

The weather has become hot and humid at times, I've been leaving my window open just about all day. At the same time, we've been getting more and more rain because the "rainy season" of Japan, or "tsuyu" is just beginning.

Hmm... I was thinking about going farther than the real recent entries, but now I really feel no need.

Noise pollution

So, there are city elections going on now. I can't say I know for what office(s) in city government, but I can say that Japanese elections cause a lot of noise.

I probably mentioned the broadcasting vehicles here in Japan before, right? They drive around saying pretty much whatever they want- advertising, etc. I kind of enjoyed the novelty of it even though it kind of worried me at first. I thought it was worrisome because I can't immediately tell the difference between a broadcasting vehicle advertising a pachinko parlor and one notifying everyone of an actual danger.

I kind of let it slide and decided to enjoy the novelty because it doesn't do me any good to make a fuss over something that isn't going away.

But now, with the election going on, it's definitely annoying.

Imagine not just one, but many broadcasting vehicles ALL. DAY. LONG. Sometimes they're in the same area, so the two loud voices are practically competing. Sometimes one practically parks in front of my apartment building and sits there for a good 10-20 minutes broadcasting "vote for so and so" very very loudly. Sometimes I can't think with all of the noise.

It turns out Japanese people are very irritated by it, too. Then why do they do it?

My Japanese teacher told me I can yell "URUSAI!" (Be quiet!) to the cars. I decided I would only do it from my apartment so that they can't see me. I ALMOST did it today, but a woman in the car looked up, saw me, and waved before I could open my mouth.

Man, what a nuisance these politicians are.

I told myself that I wouldn't criticize Japanese government because it's not really my place, but certain I can at least complain about -this-.

All of that aside, all has been well lately. :)

Sand, rummage, and shoes

Sorry this blog entry is late again.

Last week was Golden Week here in Japan, so I had a five day weekend due to many national holidays that were bunched up together. Many (and by "many", I mean "most") ALTs traveled, but (as I mentioned in the last entry) I pretty much stayed home.

I was kind of glad I made no particular plans because I was sick for about half of it. I got better in time to drive down South a bit to see the ocean and go to the Sand and Flower festival. The flower aspect of the festival wasn't that impressive in my opinion, but the sand sculptures were pretty amazing.

I'll update my album with pictures from that. Sorry, I've been kind of slacking when it comes to uploading pictures lately. I'll force myself to catch up... uhh... soon!

Today I went to a rummage sale in Kagoshima city. It was a lot bigger of an event than I expected. There were maybe 100 booths or so. I was hoping to buy a full length mirror, but sadly all of the ones there weren't for sale (not that I asked every single booth that had one). Anyway, I was pretty excited about this rummage sale because I hadn't been to (or seen) one since I moved to Japan.

So one thing about lately is what aspects of my Japan life I plan to keep up after returning back to the US. An example of this being taking off my shoes when I enter my apartment.

A couple times semi-recently when people have decided that one or two steps into the apartment wearing shoes shouldn't make a difference, I found later that I could see EXACTLY where the shoes touched the floor. I realized then that it really DOES make a huge difference in how much dirt is brought into the house.

The thing is, though, people who ask folks to take off their shoes in the US are sort of considered to be (for a lack of a better word) anal. I don't want to be viewed quite like that, but I also feel like a "no shoes" rule makes lots of sense.

I think I'm going feel torn on quite a few things when I move back to the US.

Oink

It's kind of strange to obviously be a foreigner in a country that is worried about a foreign illness. Of course, I am talking about swine flu.

It kind of makes me wonder what it's like for Mexicans in the US now. Are they looked at by people as being likely carriers? That would suck- some people back home don't need MORE reason to be racist. *sigh*

I think it's kind of similar here now, although no one's been super obvious about it. It seems like people seeing me and other foreigners around might wonder if we just arrived in Japan the other day or if we've had any recent visitors.

I got a flash of a GLARE a little while ago at the grocery store checkout line when I sneezed. Whether it was in relation to that, I don't know.

I guess it doesn't help that I have a cold or something right now.

IS it swine flu? I really doubt it. Although my last interaction with someone newly arrived to this country WAS about a week ago at a party I went to, I think the chances that I got swine flu from that short interaction are very small. Have there been any cases of swine flu in Italy? There have been absolutely no known cases of it in Japan. But I guess it's not -great- to be a foreigner with a cold right now.

In other swine flu chaos related news-

It's Golden Week now (5 day weekend) and a lot of JETs are taking trips right now. Many of them are traveling overseas, even. Last week, I got an email TWICE instructing us to be careful traveling and warning that it might be difficult to get back into the country. It also recommended that ALTs have travel itineraries to our offices. One day, I found the exact same notice printed out on my desk as well. I realized immediately that my office was trying to tell me that they want an itinerary. BUT- since I have no plans, I just threw it away. I assumed that they would figure I have no plans because they didn't get any info from me.

However, yesterday, on Friday, one of the bosses of the office came up to me and began asking me if I was going anywhere. He seemed very surprised to hear that I really DID not have any plans.

I told him that I kind of plan to go to the US in the end of July and he warned me about the swine flu (...he thought I never heard of it *sigh*). We have no way of knowing what the situation will be like in July, so I see no reason not to plan for it now.

Portraits and windshield wiper fluid

YES! I remembered to blog this week! Just barely- but I did!

I am not really sure what to blog about this time, once again.

Last week, I had only elementary school and kindergarten classes. The outcome- lots of energy drained and my Japanese language brain hardly functioned on Friday.

A few 1st graders took a "draw whatever you want" opportunity to draw me!

Here's my favorite of the ones I managed to take home.



Not bad, huh? :)

It's a sweet feeling when kids decide they want to draw you.

The weather has been AWESOME lately. Did I mention that before in an earlier blog? Well, it's true! I love sweater weather more than I can easily say.

Last weekend, I purchased wind shield wiper fluid for the first time in Japan (and second time in my entire life.)

I don't really know what to call the store that I went to- but it had things like auto supplies, insecticides, gardening things, and the like. I guess I can compare it best with Home Depot or Orchard Supply.

Anyway, I've never been to one of those kinds of stores before in Japan. Traveling people and people living somewhere short term don't go to those stores, right?

So walking around that store I felt oddly happy because I felt that for the first time in a very long time that no one would assume that I am a tourist and that I don't know what I am doing (well, anymore than -anyone- would). It sounds weird, but I can't wait until I have another excuse to go there. (haha)

Pretty grand

Yikes! I totally forgot about this blog last week.

Well, here we go then-

I don't really feel up to doing the Kagoshima touristy places blog right now because I'm trying to get this entry out quickly because I'm pretty tired and distracted by about a million other things.

(Actually, I am having a hard time getting myself into the idea of writing it in the first place.)

This week was my first week teaching again in the new school year. It's been fun with the new middle school 1st years. I really enjoy being part of the beginning of the school year far more than I enjoyed jumping in during the middle of one. The students seem to see me more as a familiar face and I feel like they're a lot more comfortable with me now than they were last term. I think I am a lot more comfortable with them, too.

The weather has been very nice lately- bordering on HOT (at least to Central Coast Californian standards.) I've walked around wearing jeans and a t-shirt and still thought it was pretty hot. Anyway, since I am such a wimp when it comes to cold, I am really enjoying this heat.

I suppose I don't have a lot to say right now, besides the fact that I am really, truly enjoying my life here right now. My apartment feels clean, my job is fun, my bank account has money, the weather is nice, and my overall mood is pretty grand.

Ashes, Ashes

OK- so first of all... a little bit of blog housekeeping-

1) I just realized that the picture links on the top of this page expired, so I updated them. Please please PLEASE inform me in the future if you notice that they expired. I have -no idea- how long those links had been like that. *sigh*

2) I was told that my blog doesn't allow comments? I don't know. At first I thought that maybe the problem was that I accidentally made it so anonymous posters couldn't post comments. I checked and I already had it correctly. If you -still- can't comment here on this site, maybe it's because a pop up blocker is not allowing for the comment box to come up. :S If you have trouble commenting LET. ME. KNOW. If it's broken, I am NOT doing that on purpose.

3) Sorry this is rather late this week. I had a topic but then I got distracted by another topic. I STILL don't know exactly what this blog will be about.

OK, let's move on with the blog entry itself...

The new school year started here in Japan and I have to say that I like it so far. There is a real fresh new feel to it. I think I would've felt a lot better about last year if I were there from the beginning. This time, it really feels like my year- maybe last years left a little bit too much like it still belonged to my predecessor?

The weather had improved A LOT. I went to the city today wearing a shirt, jeans, and a light sweater and was actually feeling overheated. It was rather nice.

Sakurajima, the volcano, erupted the other day. Ashes traveled all the way to Ijuin town. I just walked to the store and I felt ashes getting into my eyes and my lungs even began to hurt.

Naturally, this didn't stop me from walking to the other side of the building and drawing in the ashes that had landed on my car at that point. You can KIND of see it.



And here is Ijuin with ash-y air.



The next morning, I had ashes all over my windshield. So, I used my windshield wipers and windshield wiper fluid (I can't remember what it's called now- haha) to be able to see better.



Yeah, I know it doesn't really look much different from much of California during the big fires last summer, but just knowing that it's from a volcano is pretty neat!

The volcano ash-y air even smells different! (Yes, I know that explains why my lungs started to hurt so quickly, because I was standing there SMELLING the air for so long.)

Anyway, I do plan to write a blog about neat touristy places in the area. Just... meh... why talk about that when you can talk about your air being polluted with volcanic ashes instead?

The Guide

I didn't have time to post a blog last week. I had my dad and his wife over at my place and I was trying not to get too absorbed in the internet with them around. I will probably be doing much the same thing around the same time next week due to the fact my mother will be around then.

Having company has helped me realize how many things around me that I once thought of as unusual or different have become common and normal to me.

For example, drink vending machines in places where they seem entirely pointless. I got very used to seeing them, so I no longer realized how silly it was that they were placed there.

Something else that was unusual about having company was my role as a translator. My level of Japanese certainly didn't rise when they came to Kagoshima, but being in the position of "translator", Japanese people seemed to be more confident in my ability to communicate with them. Maybe because instead of being annoyed that I didn't bring someone better at Japanese, they are grateful that my father did. When I think about it, it really makes sense.

This was a really great chance to check out some really awesome things in the area. I'll be uploading pictures on my facebook album sometime soon (but not right now because I am at work.) I am looking forward to doing more discovering of my host prefecture when my mom gets here.

I am truly impressed by the extent to which this prefecture has both beautiful places to see and a very interesting history. (Although I imagine most places do if you bother to find out.)

One of the highlights for me was when we went up to a park not too far of a drive from my apartment building and was surprised and delighted to have a view of the volcano, Sakurajima.

I know this is supposed to be a blog to make up for three weeks, but I really honestly don't know what else more to say.

Graduations and transfers

So, it's March. Students are graduating and ending their school years.

I heard the high schoolers graduated maybe a week or so ago, middle school students graduate tomorrow, and the elementary school graduations are coming up. College graduations somewhere in there, but I am not sure exactly where.

In April, everything starts over new. College graduates start their jobs they got while they were still students and other students move up into the next year of school.

I was kind of upset yesterday because I didn't get to go to a graduation ceremony. My schedule was written in a way that I was scheduled to be at an elementary school yesterday. I didn't want to cause people trouble by switching it because I wasn't directly invited to either of the Junior High graduation ceremonies, so I missed them entirely.

It's sad for me because when I had my last classes with the 3rd year students, I wasn't aware of that it was the last. Then, I wasn't able to go to their graduation. I might see them around town sometime, but it makes me sad that I might not see some of them again.

On the other hand, I am excited to have my 6th grade elementary school students become my new junior high 1st year students.

It's kind of amazing to have this happen, in a way.

But it's not just students. Teachers and other people who work for the city also are transferred in April.

Up North, I heard, it is not such a big deal to be transferred across the prefecture. However, Kagoshima is a very different story. Kagoshima is a relatively big prefecture itself, but considering the outlying islands transferring someone in Kagoshima is NOT a small thing at all. Some islands are so far that people would have to take a place to get to the mainland!

Yet they do it. I guess it just goes to show that the same policy does not work everywhere.

The crazy thing about all of this is that the teachers themselves don't even know for sure if they are moving and where to until just a few weeks or so beforehand.

I spoke to some teachers about it today and they are somewhat secretive about it. There are teachers that have a pretty good idea that they will be moved, but they have no way of knowing for sure.

This -really- puts my whole stressful JET application process in perspective. Yes, that was insane, but nowhere NEAR as insane as not knowing when you will live in just a few weeks.

It must be really, really hard.

It makes me wonder why anyone would -want- to be a teacher in Kagoshima knowing they could be moved from a pretty good place to an isolated island.

I am a sad that some really good people I know are being transferred, but I am also excited about the new school year. My feelings are definitely mixed.

Born yesterday?

It is so funny how so many people here are so quick to assume that I don't know what I am doing at all.

Take, for example, last weekend at the coin laundry.

It was a particularly busy day and, unfortunately, I brought a blanket and some sheets to wash as well as my usual clothes. All of the high capacity washers were being used. So, I was standing there, wondering what to do when I realized after looking at some charts that I my blanket and sheets could probably be put in the smallest machine and be just fine.

I stood there pondering whether I could be right. I don't really know kilograms well enough to know just from a number. (To be honest, I don't know pounds well enough, either. :) )

So a guy walked into the laundry place and I simply asked him if he thought that my blanket and sheets would be too heavy or not. He thought it would be ok.

But then after that he proceeded to try to show me how to use the machine.

This machine, being the same as the ones I've been using every weekend except just a little smaller.

And also being remarkably similar to machines in my home country.

(haha)

Really, though, I get things like that a lot.

It's always a little annoying at first, but it's not so bad when you think of the real reason why it's happening. What it comes down to is that the person doesn't think that foreigners are stupid, they actually just don't know enough about foreign countries. They know that a lot of things are different, but as far as they know, washing machines in the US are completely different from those in Japan.

So really, no wonder some people seem very surprised that I can function here at all.

You're welcome

So I am walking around grocery store looking for something to make for dinner when I hear a small child whining to her parents.

When I am in the child's vision, all of the sudden, she goes quiet and stares.

Because, of course, I am probably one of the most unusual looking people she's seen in her life.

So she stares. Silently.

Of course, this is nothing even remotely unusual for me now, so I smile and wave to the child as I pass.

But this time I realized that my mere existence stopped the little girl from whining. Could anything the parents said or done have achieved that so completely?

I must be doing some people a favor by just walking around and not being Japanese.

So, you're welcome.

It's funny how I am an oddity around here whether I am actually doing something unusual or not.

:)

(Sorry about the lack of a second blog last week, I have a cold and it's sort of blocking the creative juices.)

Spring?

Sorry, I forgot to blog last week. My mood has been doing funny things lately (ok, so not "funny"), but I feel like I am doing a lot better now. I'll try to blog here twice this week.

Spring has come early this year, it seems.

The cold generally has a bad effect on my body and mood.

Cherry trees are now blooming. Usually they're blooming late March, early April as far as I understand it.

It's kind of funny how, although I've seen cherry blossoms before, the colors really impress me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they're a real sign that winter is over.

My first Japanese winter is OVER. Although I suppose I should feel cheated by global warming making it end quicker or upset that the effects of global warming is -this- apparent.

I am -NOT- happy about global warming, but I can't help it if my body says "ewww" to cold and "hurray" to warm.

I hope the cherry blossoms stick around for a while, but I don't really know how these things work to begin with.

I suppose I hadn't really said a terrible lot in this entry, but I'll try to post again later this week.

Glasses and influenza

Who else thinks that my blog title should be the name of a rock song?

No? No takers?

Then I'll just skip to the blog then.

I got new glasses a few weeks ago. Perhaps the most amusing part of the process was how obsessive compulsive the man was about cleaning my glasses. He cleaned my old pair when I purchased the new glasses and then he cleaned the old pair AND the new pair when I went to go pick up the new glasses later.

I haven't even worn the old glasses since getting these new ones.

But I suppose I know that they're clean at least.

Today I was sitting in the teacher's room at an elementary school when suddenly someone was standing behind me and offering to clean my glasses for me. I was really startled, confused, and baffled by the situation. Finally, I realized that she worked for a glasses shop here in town. Apparently, it is normal for workers from glasses shops to go around to different work places, talking to people about glasses and cleaning people's glasses for them

By the way, the glasses store to shoe store ratio in this town is 6:1. There is only one shoe store. However, there probably are more glasses stores that I can think to count at the moment.

Isn't that weird???

The flu has been going around these days. 2 ALTs in this city have caught it already. I haven't yet and I don't feel the signs of my body fighting it off, so I guess I'm in pretty good shape so far. I think it is kind of funny that the Japanese use the word "influenza" for flu. For me, I've always heard the word "influenza" in places such as history books. People feeling sick these days have the "flu" and someone who died hundreds of years ago had "influenza." I know that they are the same thing, but I can't help but think that "influenza" is worse than "the flu".

People are constantly telling people to take care not to catch the flu these days. It's nice to see people have so much concern for one another.

Famous?

Today I had only two class periods at one of my elementary schools.

I had three second grade classes in the second period and the other two classes in the third.

I was walking with one of the teachers to the building where we were going to have the first lesson. Two of the three classes were standing outside waiting for the door to open. When they saw me walking up, they began cheering, yelling "hello!", waving, and jumping around. I walked through the crowd to the door waving, smiling, and saying "hello" back.

This is what it is like to be famous.

It's funny how elementary school students can make you feel like you're their favorite person in the world. ;)

Life in general

What happened last week? I can't say I quite know the answer for you. Part of it was the fact that nothing really popped out at me as being especially blog worthy and the other part being that whenever I found myself in front of a computer with sufficint time, all that came to my head was "blah."

Ok, so I'll admit it hasn't been helping that I've been watching television shows on the internet. Those can be time consuming.

I honestly watch a lot more TV than I have for years back in the US. Of course, my actual TV hasn't been turned on for a month (possibly two months.)

Since I still don't feel like there is a horrible lot to talk about, I'll talk about my life in general, like how I am eating, what I am doing with my living space, and a little about my students.

It's funny how things change.

For a while, I felt like I found the grand solution to feeding myself by raiding the frozen food aisle. Now, that idea doesn't appeal to me at ALL. These days, I find myself buying some kind of easy dish that requires me to also buy meat and vegetables, cooking it on the stove and eating it out of my big bowl over rice.

Is it weird that I eat maybe 85% of my dinners from this same big bowl?

I haven't been cooking anything super sophisticated, but I think I am doing rather well considering that I am cooking only for myself.

Another thing that really changed is how I view my apartment. When I first moved in here, I looked around and I just kind of decided it was satisfactory because it was how my predecessor left it and I just kind of assumed she would have known better than me. Since then, however, I've changed little things (I put a table cloth on my table, for example) and I've realized that there are a lot of things I can do to like my living space even more than I already do.

I also want to start cleaning a lot more.

Of course, these things (cooking and cleaning) require a lot of initiative.

I went to one of my middle schools Monday, Tuesday, and Friday this week and the other middle school Wednesday and Thursday. This was an unusually great middle school week. At this time, a Friday evening, I can really say that I feel good about my middle school students.

Yes, there are rude kids who laugh when I try to strike conversation during lunchtime. However, there is also a 3rd year student who visited California, a class of 2nd years that totally crack me up, three 1st year boys that I have funny English nicknames for and a special needs class filled with students that seem to really appreciate me at one school. At the other school, there is a group of girls that like to visit me in the teacher's room during the afternoon break, stare over my shoulder, comment on my typing speed, and talk to me about random things. Not to mention lots of other good students at both schools.

This week, I did little interviews with some third year students at the middle school that I had previously believed to me a black hole for students with genuine interest in English. However, quite a few of these students really REALLY surprised me. One boy sat very straight and made great eye contact and only required me to repeat something again when I had purposely gone for a difficult question. One girl answered everything I asked quickly and accurately. There was absolutely no way she could have known the questions I was going to ask beforehand. With her, I started having an almost regular conversation, putting aside my list of questions I had prepared. It was really impressive. When their classmates are around, these kids can be so shy and so I never knew how good at English they could be. I know now that I have many, many more good students than I could've possibly ever guessed.

I suppose that's it. Hope this makes up for the lack of a post last week.

Something called a spring rider

It's 11:35 pm Saturday night. I have 25 minutes to write this week's entry.

It's been a week now since I've been back from Tokyo and I work this week. Monday was a meeting with other Hioki city ALTs; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all office days; and Friday was my first day at a school in this new year.

Unfortunately, the school didn't have any classes for me that day and asked me only to grade students' winter vacation English homework.

Not so unfortunately, there was a lot of it, so I actually busy at work for the entire day doing this.

Part of what the second year students' homework was that they had to talk about their town and what's in it. Most students drew maps.

My mind was officially boggled when a student wrote that a park nearby her house has many "animal chair."

I wondered what animals chairs could possibly be and looked at her illustration and realized that she was referring this sort of thing.

I thought to myself: What IS the word for those?

I pulled up an internet browser and looked up playground on wikipedia. It turns out it's called a "spring rider"

I can't remember ever hearing those called ANYTHING much less "spring rider".

I was conflicted- I could see no way around correcting this student's paper with something that probably no one really knows. BUT- if you're talking about a parks, "animal spring riders" is probably a bit more helpful than "animals chairs", so I went with it.

It's so funny when students throw things at you that you really don't know what to do with.

Another 2nd year student wrote that the past tense of "teach" was "peach." I am fairly certain this person was trying to see what they could get away with rather than really thinking they had the correct answer.

In the homework of a 1st year student, she introduced a friend of hers. She wrote: "She likes piano. She is piano." I thought that was amusing. :) Anyway, I crossed out "is" and put "plays" figuring that was a pretty safe guess.

Good to be back to work after 2 weeks of much needed vacation.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year in Japan!
I won’t be able to post this until tomorrow morning, though, but it still won’t be 2009 in California yet.
My New Years Eve was pretty unevenful. I spent my last few hours of 2008 on my computer downstairs plugged into the Internet while the older of the two of my host brothers (now 8 years old) watched pokemon episodes recorded before.
My host mother pretty much pried the remote from his hands so that I could watch the New Year programming at around 11:50 pm.
They showed footage of various shrines around Japan and people out there already to do their first temple visits of the year.
The clock in the living room said that it was 12, but it was early. Something within me (probably something very American) completely refused to accept it until the correct time became 12. (haha) Then, my cell phone, the TV, and the website I was looking at for the time all said 12. It was a quiet evening, but I still felt really happy about it being midnight New Years day like I always do. It’s silly because I am awake at midnight ALL of the time, but it was nice.
Then, I watched the 8-year-old roll around on the ground in a sort of a hyper, sleep deprived stupor and then went up stairs to plug in my phone, put away my laptop, and start getting ready for bed. Just as I was about to start charging the phone, the Japanese word for New Years just randomly showed up in the blue light display on the outside of my phone. I wasn’t expecting that at all. My phone is really just too sweet. (Actually, it gave me a special greeting on my birthday, too. :) ). I sat down on the bed to start writing this blog and I realized I could hear a temple bell (gong???) ringing. The same sort of sounds I heard from the television were happening all about the same time all around this country.
Anyway, these were small things, of course. But now I really feel like it’s the start of a pretty good year.
Happy New Year, everyone.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3