The Sasebo Crew Family Christmas Photo 2008
December 9, 2008
November 7, 2008
October 28, 2008
Lesson Planning
Just planned (co-planned really) my first lesson. This week and last, Sasebo Minami has been hosting student teachers. Tomorrow, the Japanese Student Teacher of English will be teaching the lesson with me instead of my usual JTE (Japanese teacher of English). She came to me with the idea that the students should write about Nagasaki, which I thought was neat. However, the students already have a grammar lesson, so in the classes I teach, I try to get them to speak as much English as possible. So, we're beginning the class by having them get in groups and then write about a place in Nagasaki, with each person saying something. Then each group gets to present their place to the class. If we finish early, we're going to play a game to test comprehension. There's a really awesome game that gets played a lot in classrooms in Japan called the Row and Column game. All of the students stand up. The teacher asks a question and whoever raises their hand first gets to answer. If the answer is wrong, the student remains standing. If the student is correct, they get to sit down and select the row or column they are sitting in to sit down with them. The came continues until a few people are left standing. We're going to use this game to see what they heard the other students say.
Cool, ne?
Cool, ne?
October 9, 2008
Nobel Prizes and Tongue Twisters
So, I learned today that the Japanese scientist who was one of the winnters of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7658945.stm) went to Sasebo Minami High School.
Also, I spent class yesterday and today teaching tongue twisters like "she sells seashells" and "Peter Piper" to the students. I also taught one of the senseis "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck" too. In return she taught me one of the easier Japanese tongue twisters: aka (ah kuh) pyjama (pee jah mah) ao (ah oh) pyjama cha pyjama or red pyjamas, blue pyjamas, brown pyjamas. I also found more here: http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ja.htm#T1.
Also, I spent class yesterday and today teaching tongue twisters like "she sells seashells" and "Peter Piper" to the students. I also taught one of the senseis "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck" too. In return she taught me one of the easier Japanese tongue twisters: aka (ah kuh) pyjama (pee jah mah) ao (ah oh) pyjama cha pyjama or red pyjamas, blue pyjamas, brown pyjamas. I also found more here: http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ja.htm#T1.
October 7, 2008
Okinawa has fish?!?!
What an interesting week it has been since my last post! The day after my last email, we found out that Thomas had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and was being medevac’ed off his ship to Okinawa Naval Hospital. Now, as many of you know, Thomas is somewhat nervous around needles. He can’t stand to get shots, so his future actions would be very interesting… Well, a couple of days went by, until Friday morning when I read my email in the morning before going to school. Mummy and Pop asked me to go to Okinawa to visit Thomas. I had asked them if I should go earlier in the week, but since we weren’t sure of the Navy’s plans for Thomas, we decided I should wait.
So, Friday at 0630 I read the email. The previous four days at school were for exams so I hadn’t taught any classes. I had one class to teach Friday morning, and then the rest of the day was devoted to something else (never found out what). Thankfully, my class was first period. So, I went to school, and right after morning announcements, told my supervisor of my plans. She was awesome and looked up flights to Oki for me as well as filling out my nenkyu (paid leave) form. I spent half an hour after class getting things sorted before walking home and packing. An hour after I left school I was on a bus on my way to the airport in Fukuoka.
As soon as I got off the bus at the airport I walked up to the counter and bought a ticket for the next flight to Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. The flight was delayed 40 min in leaving but I finally made it. Mummy and I had read the Navy Hospital’s website, so I knew to get a particular kind of taxi with a green stripe, which indicated it could go on base. I knew from a couple of hours earlier that they might move Thomas from the ICU to outpatient status, so as soon as I got off the plane, I called the Thomas’ cell to ask him where he was, but his phone was off. I then called the ICU to ask Thomas where I should go. Unfortunately he wasn’t there, but they told me they had sent him to the BOQ on one of the other bases nearby. I then called the BOQ. Thomas hadn’t checked in yet. My first thought was “Oh, s**t, what do I do?” but then I realized I could leave my cell number with Reception so Thomas could call me back when he checked in. As I was doing that, Thomas walked in. What luck!
After a 45 minute taxi ride from the airport I finally made it to the base. He looked thin and a little gray, but otherwise was well. He was also in good spirits, so I was relieved. He was about 150 lbs, and I could count his ribs. Thankfully over the course of the weekend he gained 7 lbs back. After checking in, it was time for dinner. I must admit, it kind of weirded me out to see Thomas doing a stick and trying to draw and inject his insulin. He sometimes psyches himself out right before injecting, but is getting less hesitant as time goes on. Carb counting really annoyed him. He was told only to eat 45g of carb, and before diabetes he normally at 2-3 times that… After dinner we went for a 15 min walk down the street and back, which really tired him. However, even that small amount of exercise had an impact on his bg.
After the walking we noticed that the front desk rented movies for 24 hours for free, so we spent a couple of hours watching the first few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was really fun. Growing up, we’d seen a lot of Star Trek (mostly Voyager, but some TNG, DS9, and Enterprise as well), so it was awesome to see the beginning of this one.
The next morning after getting breakfast we went to the exchange and commissary to get Thomas an insulated lunch box with a strap, blue ice, and snacks so we could outfit a kit for him to take around with his insulin and stick kit. After lunch and a nap, we drove to Kadena AFB to go to the exchange there because it is larger and we still needed a few things. What an adventure that was!
Before leaving Camp Foster, we asked for directions to the base and were told to go down Rte 330 until you get to Goya, then make a left turn. Simple right? Wrong. There were two Goya intersections, Goya South and Goya North. Not realizing there were two, we turned down the first one we saw, which was South. After realizing our error, we drove around on the back roads a bit until we could turn around. We tried again at Goya North, but Thomas was sure she said turn right, not left. Another 20 min of driving through narrow streets and up the world’s steepest hills before getting back to Rte 330. By this time we’d been lost for almost 45 minutes and had stopped to ask various people directions about 4 times until we made one last stop at a Lawson’s (convenience store) on the main road. We were told to go left at the light (Goya North) and continue on down the road until we arrived at the gate. We.finally.made.it. Le sigh. While we were there we wanted to eat at Sam’s by the Sea (a popular Okinawan chain, located near all the bases. Also Sam’s Café and Sam’s Maui I think). Unfortunately we realized we hadn’t brought Thomas’ insulin, so back home we went. Instead we went to Taco Bell’s on and got take out before going back to the room and watching Star Trek. Many of the meals we ate were take out from fast food, for two reasons. Firstly, Thomas was a little self-conscious about giving himself and insulin shot in public and also because there was an internet terminal in the room so we could google the carb count of the food we’d bought.
Saturday we decided to get up on time and go to the Naha Aquarium, which isn’t actually in Naha or anywhere near it. The aquarium is in Motobu-cho, about 1.5-2 hours north of the base (the range depends on if Americans are driving or not, they tend to drive faster than the Japanese, but never get pulled over by the police because of the Y, indicating American military, on their license plates).
After 15 minutes of searching for the entrance to the Okinawa Interchange (the big hwy on the main island) we finally found it and were on our way. It was a gorgeous day for a drive. We made it to the aquarium in good time. When we arrived it was lunch time, so we went to a buffet place (and at nowhere near the cost-effective amount) because it would be easier for Thomas to carb count.
The aquarium was amazing! They have many interesting kinds of fish, shallow salt water ocean fish, deep salt water ocean fish, mangrove fish, etc. Near the end of the walk about of the aquarium, there is a HUGE tank. They have 3 whale sharks, other kinds of sharks, a giant manta ray, other rays, and a ton of interesting fish. I highly recommend a visit to any visitor to Okinawa. We then drove back to Camp Foster, just in time to see the day’s movie, Eagle Eye, playing at the base theater. Really interesting, action-packed, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie.
That evening we went to Sam’s Café for dinner, which was right outside the gate. For the month of October, all of the servers were dressing up in some sort of Halloween Costume, so there were witches and clowns serving the food. Thomas had Kobe beef and I had some delicious tuna. After that we took a walk to the Baskin Robbins, but by the time we got there we decided we didn’t want any and went home and watched more Star Trek.
The next day, Monday, Thomas had an appointment at the hospital again. So after breakfast and some organization and room clean-up time, and lunch Thomas dressed in his uniform and we went to the hospital. We had a visit with his doctor and the nutritionist and then a visit to the Tricare person for orders back to Sasebo so he could go to the clinic there. Then Thomas dropped me off at the airport where I did my outgoing trip in the reverse with one exception. I wasn’t sure where the bus picked up at the airport, so I took Fukuoka’s metro to the bus station. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to buy a ticket, even though the vending machines had English, because you have to figure out which line your destination is on and go through the menus that way. Finally made it to the bus station and got a bus home to
Had a great weekend and wished I could’ve spent more time touring Oki, but that will have to wait for another visit.
Almost forgot to mention a funny incident today. Every Tuesday during third period is the English Teacher’s meeting, which takes place in the English resource room on the third floor. When I went up today I was a few minutes early, so decided to go to the bathroom. The typical layout for the bathrooms at my school is boys on the left and girls on the right. I don’t usually spend any time on the third floor; admin is first floor, teacher’s room second, and the English classroom fourth. So, when I walked into the right doorway I got a bit of a shock. I was in the boys bathroom! I immediately turned around and walked out as soon as I realized. I could hear the boys laughing after I left. The boy’s bathroom on this floor, from what I saw has taken up what is both bathrooms in other places. Thankfully, when you walk in, the first thing you see is a bank of sinks. I’m going to be more careful about looking for signs now, for sure.
October 1, 2008
Japanese "
Japanese Spirit (cheerleading) club performing at Sports Day. This is a traditional way of encouraging people and is performed by males.
Recent adventures
I've had a couple of adventues in the last two days, so I thought I:d share them. I:ll start with the most recent. Yesterday was Patrick's birthday, which we celebrated at a Mexican place called Chango's. As I was writing a message on his wall on Facebook, I noticed that a friend of mine here wrote a message saying that if she had cake mix, she:d bake him a cake. "Brilliant!" I thought, I have cake mix that I got for my birthday and haven:t used. The only question was, where would I cook it? I didn:t think I had time to go into town and use Thomas' oven, so I had to be resourceful. I had two options: the microwave or the toaster oven. The size of the pan I had dictated that I use the microwave. Thankfully it just fit in the long way, however the microwave has a turntable, which I couldn:t take out. Baking in the microwave on the oven setting worked really well, my cake just came out a little lopsided (an inch over the rim at one and and an inch below at the other) because the pan kept trying to turn and it couldn:t. I put Jacob in charge of procuring icing, which he had on hand after his mother sent him some for his bithday a month ago.
Right after it finished baking, it was time for me to go. I found some cork mats and put them in the bottom a large box which once held boots, covered it with wax paper and I was ready to go. It was raining out, but the cake made it to the restaurant just fine. After eating the four of us walked to Patrick's apartment to ice and eat the cake, while watching Hook. It was a really fun night.
My second adventure involves laundry. After being sick all weekend, I decided my sheets needed laundering, however, because it was rainy outside (another typhoon) I couldn:t hang them out. In the past, if I:ve put a load in the washer before i go to school, it:s dry by the time I come back for two reasons: one, the spin cycle dries your clothes 75% of the way and two, it was hot enough outside to do the rest. well, on monday it wasn:t hot enough, so when I came home they were still damp. I hung them up about my house in hopes they would finish, however, it didn:t work too well. This then caused me to wonder, what do people do on inclement winter days when they can:t take their laundry outside? Still don:t know the answer to that but this situation made me start pondering my options. So, once 8pm rolled around, I decided that I had to take more active involvement. At first I started with hair dryer, but the was inefficient on the big sheets. I then put 2 and 2 together. I have a 3 foot high floor fan which oscillates. I also have a movable closet, kind of like what you hang up your wool clothes in, but just the rod part.
So, I hung one of the big sheets over the top and made sure one half was hanging down and the other half was folded up. I put the hanging end in front of the fan, creating a sail effect. It worked perfectly; 20 minutes a side and and hour and a half later and they were dry. To dry the pillowcases I clamped the open end around the hair dryer and filled it up like a hot air ballon, which took about 2 min per pillowcase. It was awesome. However, must figure out a better way as the weather begins to get worse. Now we:re kind of in the mini rainy season.
The rainy season is in June/July. Apparently 12 or 13 years ago Sasebo didn:t get enough rain during the season. That year, it got so dry, that students at my school had to take buckets to the pool (after this it was converted to a tennis court), fill them up, and take them back to the toilets to flush them. I don:t think that:ll be a problem this year.
Well, that:s all for now. This week is exam week, so even though I:m not teaching any classes, I:m helping the students study by giving them pronunciations and editing essays and helping the teachers grade and record listening tests.
Right after it finished baking, it was time for me to go. I found some cork mats and put them in the bottom a large box which once held boots, covered it with wax paper and I was ready to go. It was raining out, but the cake made it to the restaurant just fine. After eating the four of us walked to Patrick's apartment to ice and eat the cake, while watching Hook. It was a really fun night.
My second adventure involves laundry. After being sick all weekend, I decided my sheets needed laundering, however, because it was rainy outside (another typhoon) I couldn:t hang them out. In the past, if I:ve put a load in the washer before i go to school, it:s dry by the time I come back for two reasons: one, the spin cycle dries your clothes 75% of the way and two, it was hot enough outside to do the rest. well, on monday it wasn:t hot enough, so when I came home they were still damp. I hung them up about my house in hopes they would finish, however, it didn:t work too well. This then caused me to wonder, what do people do on inclement winter days when they can:t take their laundry outside? Still don:t know the answer to that but this situation made me start pondering my options. So, once 8pm rolled around, I decided that I had to take more active involvement. At first I started with hair dryer, but the was inefficient on the big sheets. I then put 2 and 2 together. I have a 3 foot high floor fan which oscillates. I also have a movable closet, kind of like what you hang up your wool clothes in, but just the rod part.
So, I hung one of the big sheets over the top and made sure one half was hanging down and the other half was folded up. I put the hanging end in front of the fan, creating a sail effect. It worked perfectly; 20 minutes a side and and hour and a half later and they were dry. To dry the pillowcases I clamped the open end around the hair dryer and filled it up like a hot air ballon, which took about 2 min per pillowcase. It was awesome. However, must figure out a better way as the weather begins to get worse. Now we:re kind of in the mini rainy season.
The rainy season is in June/July. Apparently 12 or 13 years ago Sasebo didn:t get enough rain during the season. That year, it got so dry, that students at my school had to take buckets to the pool (after this it was converted to a tennis court), fill them up, and take them back to the toilets to flush them. I don:t think that:ll be a problem this year.
Well, that:s all for now. This week is exam week, so even though I:m not teaching any classes, I:m helping the students study by giving them pronunciations and editing essays and helping the teachers grade and record listening tests.
September 29, 2008
Bunkasai, enkai, and all in between!
I know it's been a while since I've written my last missive, almost 2 weeks I think… Anyway, this week at school is exam week, so I have to be here for the regular amount of time, but I'm not teaching any classes. I will be helping the English teachers make listening tests and such, and may help with some grading, but that's about it. So, I decided to bring my laptop to school today and spend some of my "free time" writing to you all.
Two weekends ago, we had bunkasai or culture festival. At my school this consisted of two parts: the first day took place at school and showcased the class projects and many of the performances. The second part took place in downtown Sasebo at the アルカス (Arukasu), which is a big music/performance hall. Think of it as a waaaay scaled down version of the Kennedy Center. Both days the public could come watch, but the second day especially was for everyone to come see. That day was one where everyone performed. It was great. I guess I should describe both days in a little more detail now that I've laid the foundation. On the first day, there were peformances in one of the gyms (we have 2) going on most of the day. I saw some koto students perform a couple of songs, the chorus, a Cinderella play, and a couple of dance performances. I have a bunch of this on video, and will put this up for you all to see on my blog, as soon as I think of a name.
Meanwhile, in the other gym was a bazaar set up by parents and townspeople selling anything from food, pottery, and linens, to towels and knit goods. I bought some food and a little knit thing that you're supposed to use to scrub your plates in the shape of a smiling eggplant. Too kawaii to use. On our school campus we also have a traditional building which is used by the students in the tea ceremony club. During culture festival, "masters" of the tea ceremony dressed up in kimonos and performed the tea ceremony throughout the day for interested parties. All of the gumi or class sections contributed in some way to bunkasai. Some did a dance performance or play as I mentioned before, and others did projects in their classrooms. Once class made stained glass windows with colored cellophane and construction paper, another used photos of the class' faces to make a collage of their teacher's face (way cool), another turned the classroom into the solar system with everything built to scale (o.O), and so forth. The students came up with some very interesting ideas. Also, the home ec students spent the week before the festival cooking up a storm so they could make and sell food during the festival. There were also food booths by some local groups and the Japanese version of the Red Cross (I can't remember what they are called) had a truck to do a blood drive. Unlike in the US, everyone here knows their bloodtype, so they put out signs saying which types they need.
That night (Friday) I decided to spend the weekend at Thomas' apartment, even though he had the duty all day Saturday, because the Arukasu is just a 3 min walk from his apartment and I didn't want to have to worry about getting the bus on time in the morning. And, Saturday night after the culture festival was over, I was going to have my official welcome enkai (party, but one involving colleagues) in downtown Sasebo. So, Saturday morning I went to the Arukasu. In front of the building there is a large square-like area. As the students arrived, they were instructed to sit in lines by year, then class, then number. For example, Ura-sensei is in charge of class 1-1, so the students from 1-1-1 to 1-1-41 would sit in front of her. Next to Ura-sensei would be Higa-sensei the 1-2 teacher. Students 1-2-1 to 1-2-40 would sit in front of him, and so on until the entire school of 800 some odd students and 70 teachers and staff were crowding this little square. We then marched everyone inside. Performances that day included some of the ones from the day before like the chorus and koto, but also had new ones like the baton twirling club, a taiko group (students from the nearby disabled school. They were really good!), and the brass band club. The brass band club was amazing. They prepared a few pieces selected by the music teacher, but also had a few they chose on their own. The first piece they played was one they selected and was a medley of Disney songs. All the students in the band wore some sort of had or headband, most Disney themed, and the student who was conducting dressed up in a Minnie costume. The students were really good, especially considering that music is only an afterschool activity. After a few pieces conducted by the music teacher, the students closed their concert with the theme song from My Neighbor Totoro, a very popular anime. I sang this theme song back in sophmore year of college at the yuki matsuri concert at Wellesley. This time the student conductor dressed up as one of the characters, a big gray ball-like monster. I've not seen the series, so can't describe it/him any better than that. There are a bunch of other events I'm forgetting to tell you about, but I think you get the idea.
Oh, I should tell you about a little incident that happened that day. So, back before Sports Day, I ordered and paid for bento for Sports Day and Culture Festival. On Friday, the office lady, Nakao-san, came up to me and asked if I really wanted to order bento that day. I asked what the other teachers were doing and she said eating food from the stalls. I said I would do the same and cancelled the bento. I ended up not eating lunch that day because by the time I go to the stalls at 1230, they were out of food. Anywho, that entire conversation was in Japanese, so I thought that's what she said. Turned out I was kind of wrong… So, on Saturday, I went with the other teachers at lunch to pick up the bento. I get in line and one of the other office ladies hands me a box. Nakao-san has the list and says "Oh Eleanor-sensei, you cancelled your bento." So she and the English teachers have a little back and forth conversation. I finally said that it was alright and that I would just walk a block down the street to the local Hotto Motto and order a bento. Hotto Motto is the place the school orders bento from everyday, so I was pretty familiar with it. I couldn't help but cry a little bit as I walked there. It was one of those days where all of the little frustrations I experience everyday in terms of communication just culminated into a major incident. I got my bento and managed to be ok by the time I got back to the Arukasu. I was in a bit of a bad mood until the brass band played after lunch. That gave me a huge lift.
After the culture festival was over I walked back to Thomas' house to rest up a bit before going out again for the enkai. The enkai was held in a Chinese restaurant in one of the reception rooms. Some of the teachers has assigned seats and other seats were assigned to a number. If you name wasn't written down when you walked in, then you picked a number from the kitty and sat in the designated place. I was seated at the head table as the enkai was to celebrate sports day and culture festival as well as to welcome me. Also at the head table was the music teacher representing culture festival, a P.E. teacher representing sports day, the head of the PTA, the head of the alumni association, the principal, and a guy I never got a chance to meet. When I arrived, they realized that they had neglected to put any of the English teachers at my table, so there was a quick reshuffle to seat my supervisor next to me. There were a couple of speeches and the kampai and then I gave a speech in Japanese along with the music teacher and pe teacher. Then the eating and drinking began. In Japan, when you're out drinking, you never pour your own glass, someone always pours for you. Therefore, if you're thirsty, all you have to do is top up someone else's glass and bingo! you're set. They also use this technique as an excuse to go over and talk to someone they don't know, in this case, me. I started out with a glass of beer (4oz glass) but quickly switched to oolong tea. Also, if you haven't drained your glass at all, but someone still wants to pour, then you both just go through the motions. They pretend to pour for you, but nothing comes out, and you pretend to sip without actually drinking anything.
The enkai was great fun. I got to meet and talk with a lot of teachers I might not have otherwise at school. One of the 2nd year Japanese teachers travels a lot so we talked about Egypt, Greece, and Istanbul. I also spoke with one of the soccer coaches. He was surprised to hear that girls play soccer in the US at school, because here it is a boy's sport. Also, there is no such thing as Title IX here, there are twice as many sports for boys as there are for girls. The party started at 1830, and ended at 2130. Usually there would a be a second, third, or fourth enkai, but thankfully there wasn't that night. I was walking back to my apartment, when I noticed I had a call from Connie, one of Thomas' fellow JOs. She and a few others were going to a karaoke bar where the entire bar sings and people weren't in booths. I joined here and about 10 others. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it so much that I convinced Thomas the next day that we really ought to host a dinner party. As, you know, that turned out really well.
From the Saturday of my enkai and culture festival to the following 2 weekends was a lot of party time. Tuesday, Thomas and I went over to the house of one of the JOs from the Tortuga who came to our dinner party. He made wings, creamed corn and rice. We then went downtown to a restaurant where Rich, was celebrating his 25th birthday. We sat down and had a few drinks. Rich's friends had arranged for a cake, so we tucked into that. After that came out, the restaurant brought out a cake once they learned three of us were celebrating our birthdays. It was an awesome time.
On Wednesday, I had dinner with Hayashi-sensei. Hayashi-sensei is the mother of one of the second year students at my school. She runs one of the Kumon centers nearby and teaches English and Japanese there. She is the one who asked me take part in the English Immersion camp. After she picked me up she took me to her house, the bottom floor of which is the center and the top part is their quarters. After her son Kyosuke arrived home from soccer practice we went to their favorite Japanese restaurant. Kyosuke and I both like tempura so had the tempura plates while Hayashi-sensei had the sashimi. This restaurant was pretty cool because as soon as you walk in, there is a pool set in the floor with all of the fish swimming around as well as several large tanks with the lobster, crab, and other shellfish. When they eat miso soup, they drink directly from the bowl, they don't really use spoons.
Thursday night I went with Thomas and some of his friends to Mongolian Barbeque on the base. They then left the next day. They had a two day extension because no one was sure which way the typhoon would go. Thankfully it bypassed Kyushu all together and followed the east coast of Shikoku and Honshu.
Carmen and Lauren arrived midday Saturday. I picked them up and took them to the local burger place and introduced them to the burger lady. After napping for a bit, we got ready to go downtown for dinner and karaoke. Everytime any one of us has made a trip to visit another, the trip has always had a name and a theme of some sort. Because it was my birthday, we had an 80s them. I wore a black top, miniskirt, aqua colored tights, and purple leg warmers with my black Steve Madden pumps to go with the theme. Carmen was wearing yellow tights and Lauren wore purple leggings. We all wore our hair the same way too. We got lots of looks, it was really funny. After eating dinner at an udon restaurant we met a bunch of my friends at karaoke place. We had our booth for two hours in an all you can eat and drink extravaganza. I've not had that much fun in a while. We sang current songs as well as old favorites like the Backstreet Boy's "I want it that way." Most of my friends left for home after karaoke, but Carmen, Lauren, and I, as well as the two Trinis went to an arcade nearby to play the taiko drum game as well as go to the photo booth. Carmen had never played before, but was really good. I like playing the game, but stink most of the time. After that we went to a bar/club called Rogiq (logic), but nothing was going on so we left. We then decided to go bowling. Thankfully, the bowling place is open late on Saturdays, as it was almost midnight by this point. We played two games, and I finally broke 100 with a score of 101. Lauren bowled a turkey which is three strikes in a row. On our way out, we played some more taiko, and Carmen really impressed some of the other Japanese guys playing, because she got a high score and got to enter her name in.Sunday we spent walking around Sasebo and doing a little shopping. I had to go to school Monday, but had Tuesday off because of the Autumnal Equinox. On Tuesday we went to another burger joint for a farewell lunch because Sasebo is know for it's hamburgers, before I saw Lauren and Carmen to the bus.
For JET, each prefecture of ALTs (assistant language teachers, ie me) and CIRs (coordinator for international relations) is divided into blocks by city area. So, in Nagasaki, the big cities (and therefore blocks) are Sasebo, Isahaya, Nagasaki, Shimbara, and then there is one for the Goto Islands. On Thursday, there was a Sasebo block dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown, which was great, because I've only really met the first year ALTs in the area.
Earlier on Thursday at school was had something called Jogging time. For Jogging time, all of the students most of the teachers headed out to the track in their sports gear to run for 15 min. I swear we ran for more than 15 minutes, it felt like agony. Thankfully I ran the whole time, even tho I wa really slow at some points. I hope this really encouraged the students… My legs were really really sore until Sunday morning even though I tried hot and cold remedies and ibuprofen. I guess with all of the activity of the last 3-4 weeks it's no wonder that on Friday night when I started to relax that I came down with whatever flu or bug has been making it's rounds. I rested all day Saturday and Sunday, but had to come to school today. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better, I just hope I can kick this without having to go to the doctor. However, I'll take it a little bit at a time and reevaluate as I go along.
This weekend I will have a meeting with Hayashi-sensei concerning camp the following weekend. Then an off weekend, Halloween, and then a trip out to Miyazaki prefecture to visit Carmen and Lauren. Whoo! So busy!
Y'alls Natal Day
written September 16, 2008
on sunday afternoon thomas and i hosted a dinner party at his apartment and invited about 8-9 JOs, mostly from essex. we got all the ingredients earlier in the day at the comm to make tzutsukakia (the little turds as we affectionately call them) except for mint. we went around a bit trying to find mint at the grocery stores, big department stores, and plant shops. no luck. scurrying back home, i started to make a yellow cake while thomas went to pick up chairs from some of our guests (thomas only had 4 in his apt).
After the cake I started on the ingredients for the turds. well, we decided to double the recipie, except that we forgot to buy double the meat, so thomas went back to the comm (he thought we agreed on triple portions, so we had a loooot of meat. how long does meat keep in the freezer?). i became an onion chopping pro~8 onions and an entire bulb of garlic later...we encountered a small problem. or problems i should say. i thought we bought parsley at the comm, turned out to be cilantro. also, thomas only had medium sized metal bowls, not a big one. so, for the first batch, i somehow fit 2lbs of meat, 3 chopped onions, half a bulb of garlic, a cup of breadcrubs (supposed to have 2, but didn:t buy enough) and eggs in the tiny medium-sized bowl. got onions everywhere as i tried to mix the ingredients. somehow managed to get it to come together enough to start forming the turds. wised up for the second batch, divided everything in half and put in two bowls. At this point Thomas brought two of the guests in early, so i set one to icing teh cake (dave) and the other (connie) to helping me mix and make the second batch of turds. they:re such good sports. in fact, dave got really into it and made some designs on the top of the cake!
finally got all food in oven as more ppl were arriving. thomas told everyone to show up at 1830 (i wanted 1900). finally got food served at 1930...while they were waiting, we set up thomas two tables in his *office* (removed the sliding doors from their tracks) and put the borrowed chairs around. thankfully, someone thought to bring chips and dip along. thomas conviced danny to make couscous in the microwave while dave (of the cake) then steamed veggies in the micro. dinner was loads of fun, lots of talking, laughing, and storytelling. thankfully, one of the guests had the brilliant idea of bringing paper plates and napkins so not too much cleaning up to do. another guest actually did the dishes for us! now we have tons of cans of soda and beer in the fridge. we made two trays of tzutsukakia and only consumed one, so sent most of the food home with everyone. thomas has pics on his camera, so hopefully he can send those out before they get underway (whenver that is at this point).
on sunday afternoon thomas and i hosted a dinner party at his apartment and invited about 8-9 JOs, mostly from essex. we got all the ingredients earlier in the day at the comm to make tzutsukakia (the little turds as we affectionately call them) except for mint. we went around a bit trying to find mint at the grocery stores, big department stores, and plant shops. no luck. scurrying back home, i started to make a yellow cake while thomas went to pick up chairs from some of our guests (thomas only had 4 in his apt).
After the cake I started on the ingredients for the turds. well, we decided to double the recipie, except that we forgot to buy double the meat, so thomas went back to the comm (he thought we agreed on triple portions, so we had a loooot of meat. how long does meat keep in the freezer?). i became an onion chopping pro~8 onions and an entire bulb of garlic later...we encountered a small problem. or problems i should say. i thought we bought parsley at the comm, turned out to be cilantro. also, thomas only had medium sized metal bowls, not a big one. so, for the first batch, i somehow fit 2lbs of meat, 3 chopped onions, half a bulb of garlic, a cup of breadcrubs (supposed to have 2, but didn:t buy enough) and eggs in the tiny medium-sized bowl. got onions everywhere as i tried to mix the ingredients. somehow managed to get it to come together enough to start forming the turds. wised up for the second batch, divided everything in half and put in two bowls. At this point Thomas brought two of the guests in early, so i set one to icing teh cake (dave) and the other (connie) to helping me mix and make the second batch of turds. they:re such good sports. in fact, dave got really into it and made some designs on the top of the cake!
finally got all food in oven as more ppl were arriving. thomas told everyone to show up at 1830 (i wanted 1900). finally got food served at 1930...while they were waiting, we set up thomas two tables in his *office* (removed the sliding doors from their tracks) and put the borrowed chairs around. thankfully, someone thought to bring chips and dip along. thomas conviced danny to make couscous in the microwave while dave (of the cake) then steamed veggies in the micro. dinner was loads of fun, lots of talking, laughing, and storytelling. thankfully, one of the guests had the brilliant idea of bringing paper plates and napkins so not too much cleaning up to do. another guest actually did the dishes for us! now we have tons of cans of soda and beer in the fridge. we made two trays of tzutsukakia and only consumed one, so sent most of the food home with everyone. thomas has pics on his camera, so hopefully he can send those out before they get underway (whenver that is at this point).
Questions from the first years
written September 1, 2008
Hello family mine,
I taught some more first year classes today. As part of the activity the students write down questions they have for me, some of which concern my self introduction and others of which can be about anything. About seven of my 1-2 students handed me their notebooks. Below is a sample of some of the questions (verbatim) that I have received...
Hello family mine,
I taught some more first year classes today. As part of the activity the students write down questions they have for me, some of which concern my self introduction and others of which can be about anything. About seven of my 1-2 students handed me their notebooks. Below is a sample of some of the questions (verbatim) that I have received...
1. What do you like movie?
2. Do you like sport?
3. What movies do you watch?
4. Are there Japanese foods that you are favorite?
5. How old is your brother?
6. Is the White house white?
7. What movie do you like?
8. Do you like dog?
9. Do you like sport?
10. How do you think triplets?
11. Do you like Japan?
12. What kind of books do you read?
13. Do you like music?
14. How old are her brother and sister?
15. How many do you have boyfriends?
16. Do you read Harry-Potter?
17. What do you like the best countries?
written August 27, 2007
Summer school is now over and real school has begun. I had an interesting first few days of school -- the first day here is very different from those I experienced in the States. The first bell rings at 0815 by which time all of the teachers (57!) are assembled in the staff room. Everyone stands up. One of the vice principals says "Ohayo Gozaimasu" and everyone returns the greeting and bows. One of the staff stands up and reads the days announcements and notices off of the black boards on the wall in the center of the room. Then the teachers listen to the announcements for their year. My desk is located in the section with the 2nd year teachers (I sit next to the nurse and the PE teachers). The room can get very loud as there is a person making an announcement and competing with 2 others to be heard. All of this is over by 0825 because it is then time for the Short Home Room. I have no real idea of what this is because I don't have a class or anything to take care of at that time.
After this on the first day it was cleaning time. Usually cleaning time takes place everyday between the second to last and the last period. I am in charge of the English classroom. In Japanese schools, the teachers move classrooms and the students stay put. However, in my school at least, there is a classroom devoted to English. In this space I can put up posters (if anyone has any, please send!) of different things about America or about myself. There are also magazines, textbooks, and dictionaries on the shelves. Anyway, the 2-7 students are the ones that clean my class and the end of the hallway. Every year of students is divided into 8 sections, so 2-7 would be second year section 7 students. My classroom is located on the fourth floor of the first building at the end of a short hallway. The library takes up the rest of the floor, so my students clean the classroom, the hallway outside, and the bathrooms that are between it and the library. The girls clean the bathrooms and the boys the classroom and hallway. The 5 girls seem to be fairly industrious, but then again, I'm not watching them all the time. The 5 boys...well, let's just say they use a broom the same way Thomas used to wipe down the table: they swish. However, if you pointedly ask them to do something, they will become slightly more energetic. Cleaning time only lasts 15 minutes, but the students are usually done after 10 so they will look out of the windows to the other school building across the way. The two academic buildings look like an = sign.
Then it was time for the assembly which officially opens the school year. The principal said a bunch of things and handed out awards to the sports teams which competed over the summer. The students then broke down into year groups and went to different sections of the gym for inspection. This involves the girls standing in rows on one side and the boys on the other by section and then by individual number (so Yamamoto-san could be 2-4-6, second year, 4th class, student 6). The teachers then walk up and down the rows and check hair and uniforms. No hair dye is allowed and boys' hair can:t touch their ears. For girls, their hair must be "natural" so either pulled back in a low ponytail or two low pigtails. All of the students have the same pair of outdoor shoes (black penny loafers) and gym shoes (white and green). Their indoor shoes look the same except for the color of rubber on the toe differs by class year; green is year 1, yellow year 2 and blue year 3. All of them have their names and year/section/student numbers written on the toe above the colored rubber. Indoor shoes are not allowed in the gym, only gym shoes or socks, so for an assembly, you will see all 800 pairs of shoes lined up outside the gym (hence naming and numbering the shoes). The students spent the rest of the first day taking placement exams in various subjects.
On the second day, the morning announcement part was the same. However, yesterday was special because there was a practice for Sports Day during 2nd and 3rd periods. All of the students and staff were in gym clothes (student's uniform is white top with a red stripe and navy blue shorts) standing in rows to do raijo taiso, girls in front and boys in back. The teachers were standing on the sides or in the middle. They brough someone in from Nagasaki to teach us this raijo taiso. It was called Gambarumba. This was a play on words. In Japanese the slang way to say good job or work hard is not Ganbatte (polite) but Gambaro (long o). However, they say Gambaranba in Nagasaki-ben (Nagasaki dialect). I stood in the middle of the room between the nurse and the PE teachers. However, halfway through, the boys moved to the front and the girls to the back, so the nurse dragged me to stand in the front of the room. So, there I was in tracksuit pants I had bought (thank goodness, or else it would have been bicycle shorts!) in front of a bunch of teenage boys doing a funky workout...oh man, I wish you all had been there!
Today was my actuall first day of teaching. For my first class, I team-taught 1-1 with Higa-sensei. I will team teach all 8 first year conversation classes and help out with two of the third year writing classes. However, teachers from all the years come up to me in the staff room for help/corrections/etc as needed. I even recorded the listening test for the English placement exam with another English teacher.
So, in class I started by introducing myself (I get to do this at least 7 more times). I then repeated it. As I was doing this the students took notes. Higa-sensei then had me direct them to arrange their desks into groups (41 students total!). The students spoke with each other about what they heard me say. I then chose one student from each group to stand up and read a statement I had made. If it was incorrect I corrected them. They then wrote the correct version on the board. It was funny, all the students would sit very tensely (now my English is going...) until I picked the presenter and then the rest would all heave a great sigh of relief and slouch down in their chairs. The last part of the class they wrote questions for me to answer next class. I can:t wait to see what they wrote!
At lunch I was speaking with one of the other first year teacher adn I happened to mention that I wanted to buy a bike. Kanamori-sensei said that she bought a bike that she didn:t use and that she would give it to me. I offered to pay for it, but she said she would like to give it to me. She said that in Japan most bikes have 26 inch wheels, but hers is 27 inches because she:s tall. I don:t know enough about bikes to tell if this will cause me any difficulty, but I guess I:ll find out soon. She lives nearby so she will bring her bike either today or tomorrow.
Yesterday was Jacob:s 28th birthday. Jacob is one of my best friends here in Japan. He is one of the people I traveled to Nagsaki with 2 weeks ago for Obon. Before coming to Japan, he was a chemist for Coca Cola in Atlanta for two years. He and his boyfriend were looking for things to do together so they took up line dancing Jacob was trying to convice his bf to take Japanese. They broke up, but thankfully for us, Jacob studied Japanese anyway. He:s been studying for the last 2 years, so his Japanese is really good. He arrived in Japan a week before I did and on his first night in Nagasaki he went to a restaurant across the street from his apartment. That is when he met Mama-san. Mama-san and Papa-san own the restaurant. Jacob mentioned he was going to teach English at Shygyo HS, which is where their daughter goes to school. Mama-san then took Jacob under their wing. He eats there often and teaches them English (their ability is amazing btw) and they teach him Japanese. Mama-san and Papa-san invited Jacob over for his birthday and told him to bring his friends so Sue Ann and Laurence (Trinis) and I went over. Patrick was to come as well but he was helping his students film something for their culture festival in October. Anywho, they laid quite a table. There were at least 12 different dishes and 3 desserts on the 5 tables they pushed together to seat the 4 of us, them, their daughter, her high school friend, Jacob:s landlord and her two daughters, and an elderly friend of the family. There were dumplings, fried rice balls, Japanese baked potatoes, fries, curry, pasta salad, regular salad, fried fish, octopus balls, a couple of different meat plates, Japanese pears, nectarines, edamame, beer, soda, a few other drinks, birthday cake, pound cake, and ice cream among others. I had a little of everything and didn't even eat breakfast this morning as I was so full (and my BG was good too). They even gave us each a box of leftover cake and another takeaway box to put in whatever leftovers we wanted. So good...!There was much laughing and talking and picture taking and at least 3 renditions of Happy Birthday. Apparently their version of hip hip hooray is to say Banzai 3 times, each time they lift their arms straight up in the air (like the signal for touchdown). We all had a lot of fun. Mama-san and Papa-san have even invited us to their restaurant for a moon viewing BBQ in October. I can:t wait!
note: On a Japanese keyboard, : is where ' should be. ' is above the 2 key. I'm too lazy to press shift every time I want ' so I'm just leaving them all as :.
Summer school is now over and real school has begun. I had an interesting first few days of school -- the first day here is very different from those I experienced in the States. The first bell rings at 0815 by which time all of the teachers (57!) are assembled in the staff room. Everyone stands up. One of the vice principals says "Ohayo Gozaimasu" and everyone returns the greeting and bows. One of the staff stands up and reads the days announcements and notices off of the black boards on the wall in the center of the room. Then the teachers listen to the announcements for their year. My desk is located in the section with the 2nd year teachers (I sit next to the nurse and the PE teachers). The room can get very loud as there is a person making an announcement and competing with 2 others to be heard. All of this is over by 0825 because it is then time for the Short Home Room. I have no real idea of what this is because I don't have a class or anything to take care of at that time.
After this on the first day it was cleaning time. Usually cleaning time takes place everyday between the second to last and the last period. I am in charge of the English classroom. In Japanese schools, the teachers move classrooms and the students stay put. However, in my school at least, there is a classroom devoted to English. In this space I can put up posters (if anyone has any, please send!) of different things about America or about myself. There are also magazines, textbooks, and dictionaries on the shelves. Anyway, the 2-7 students are the ones that clean my class and the end of the hallway. Every year of students is divided into 8 sections, so 2-7 would be second year section 7 students. My classroom is located on the fourth floor of the first building at the end of a short hallway. The library takes up the rest of the floor, so my students clean the classroom, the hallway outside, and the bathrooms that are between it and the library. The girls clean the bathrooms and the boys the classroom and hallway. The 5 girls seem to be fairly industrious, but then again, I'm not watching them all the time. The 5 boys...well, let's just say they use a broom the same way Thomas used to wipe down the table: they swish. However, if you pointedly ask them to do something, they will become slightly more energetic. Cleaning time only lasts 15 minutes, but the students are usually done after 10 so they will look out of the windows to the other school building across the way. The two academic buildings look like an = sign.
Then it was time for the assembly which officially opens the school year. The principal said a bunch of things and handed out awards to the sports teams which competed over the summer. The students then broke down into year groups and went to different sections of the gym for inspection. This involves the girls standing in rows on one side and the boys on the other by section and then by individual number (so Yamamoto-san could be 2-4-6, second year, 4th class, student 6). The teachers then walk up and down the rows and check hair and uniforms. No hair dye is allowed and boys' hair can:t touch their ears. For girls, their hair must be "natural" so either pulled back in a low ponytail or two low pigtails. All of the students have the same pair of outdoor shoes (black penny loafers) and gym shoes (white and green). Their indoor shoes look the same except for the color of rubber on the toe differs by class year; green is year 1, yellow year 2 and blue year 3. All of them have their names and year/section/student numbers written on the toe above the colored rubber. Indoor shoes are not allowed in the gym, only gym shoes or socks, so for an assembly, you will see all 800 pairs of shoes lined up outside the gym (hence naming and numbering the shoes). The students spent the rest of the first day taking placement exams in various subjects.
On the second day, the morning announcement part was the same. However, yesterday was special because there was a practice for Sports Day during 2nd and 3rd periods. All of the students and staff were in gym clothes (student's uniform is white top with a red stripe and navy blue shorts) standing in rows to do raijo taiso, girls in front and boys in back. The teachers were standing on the sides or in the middle. They brough someone in from Nagasaki to teach us this raijo taiso. It was called Gambarumba. This was a play on words. In Japanese the slang way to say good job or work hard is not Ganbatte (polite) but Gambaro (long o). However, they say Gambaranba in Nagasaki-ben (Nagasaki dialect). I stood in the middle of the room between the nurse and the PE teachers. However, halfway through, the boys moved to the front and the girls to the back, so the nurse dragged me to stand in the front of the room. So, there I was in tracksuit pants I had bought (thank goodness, or else it would have been bicycle shorts!) in front of a bunch of teenage boys doing a funky workout...oh man, I wish you all had been there!
Today was my actuall first day of teaching. For my first class, I team-taught 1-1 with Higa-sensei. I will team teach all 8 first year conversation classes and help out with two of the third year writing classes. However, teachers from all the years come up to me in the staff room for help/corrections/etc as needed. I even recorded the listening test for the English placement exam with another English teacher.
So, in class I started by introducing myself (I get to do this at least 7 more times). I then repeated it. As I was doing this the students took notes. Higa-sensei then had me direct them to arrange their desks into groups (41 students total!). The students spoke with each other about what they heard me say. I then chose one student from each group to stand up and read a statement I had made. If it was incorrect I corrected them. They then wrote the correct version on the board. It was funny, all the students would sit very tensely (now my English is going...) until I picked the presenter and then the rest would all heave a great sigh of relief and slouch down in their chairs. The last part of the class they wrote questions for me to answer next class. I can:t wait to see what they wrote!
At lunch I was speaking with one of the other first year teacher adn I happened to mention that I wanted to buy a bike. Kanamori-sensei said that she bought a bike that she didn:t use and that she would give it to me. I offered to pay for it, but she said she would like to give it to me. She said that in Japan most bikes have 26 inch wheels, but hers is 27 inches because she:s tall. I don:t know enough about bikes to tell if this will cause me any difficulty, but I guess I:ll find out soon. She lives nearby so she will bring her bike either today or tomorrow.
Yesterday was Jacob:s 28th birthday. Jacob is one of my best friends here in Japan. He is one of the people I traveled to Nagsaki with 2 weeks ago for Obon. Before coming to Japan, he was a chemist for Coca Cola in Atlanta for two years. He and his boyfriend were looking for things to do together so they took up line dancing Jacob was trying to convice his bf to take Japanese. They broke up, but thankfully for us, Jacob studied Japanese anyway. He:s been studying for the last 2 years, so his Japanese is really good. He arrived in Japan a week before I did and on his first night in Nagasaki he went to a restaurant across the street from his apartment. That is when he met Mama-san. Mama-san and Papa-san own the restaurant. Jacob mentioned he was going to teach English at Shygyo HS, which is where their daughter goes to school. Mama-san then took Jacob under their wing. He eats there often and teaches them English (their ability is amazing btw) and they teach him Japanese. Mama-san and Papa-san invited Jacob over for his birthday and told him to bring his friends so Sue Ann and Laurence (Trinis) and I went over. Patrick was to come as well but he was helping his students film something for their culture festival in October. Anywho, they laid quite a table. There were at least 12 different dishes and 3 desserts on the 5 tables they pushed together to seat the 4 of us, them, their daughter, her high school friend, Jacob:s landlord and her two daughters, and an elderly friend of the family. There were dumplings, fried rice balls, Japanese baked potatoes, fries, curry, pasta salad, regular salad, fried fish, octopus balls, a couple of different meat plates, Japanese pears, nectarines, edamame, beer, soda, a few other drinks, birthday cake, pound cake, and ice cream among others. I had a little of everything and didn't even eat breakfast this morning as I was so full (and my BG was good too). They even gave us each a box of leftover cake and another takeaway box to put in whatever leftovers we wanted. So good...!There was much laughing and talking and picture taking and at least 3 renditions of Happy Birthday. Apparently their version of hip hip hooray is to say Banzai 3 times, each time they lift their arms straight up in the air (like the signal for touchdown). We all had a lot of fun. Mama-san and Papa-san have even invited us to their restaurant for a moon viewing BBQ in October. I can:t wait!
note: On a Japanese keyboard, : is where ' should be. ' is above the 2 key. I'm too lazy to press shift every time I want ' so I'm just leaving them all as :.
Hello from Japantown, San Francisco!
Written August 2, 2008
Hola!
I skype called Pop to let him know I got here safely, but thought I'd share my travels so far. I got to San Fran alright, not too much of an adventure so far. Virgin America is one very cool airline. All of the seats have their own tvs, with a software called Red. With Red you can watch us and international tv, order movies, listen to music, play games, see the map and even -- the best part-- submit and order for food and drinks (free non-alcoholic drinks, food costs) after the cart comes through the first time. Didn't get enough water? No problem! Order as much as you want. It was a pretty neat experience. Once I arrived, it took me a little bit to find the luggage carousel. I decided to pay the $3 to buy myself a luggage cart (criminal!) because i had not idea how big the airport was, and it was a good thing i did. I took one of the airport shuttles to Japantown, which was pretty inexpensive and very convenient. My hotel, the Kabuki, is in the middle of Japantown, so all of the street signs are in Japanese and English and there are Japanese restaurants, banks, and stores everywhere. I think it was neat of JET to hold the event here, it's a cool way to begin to acclimate to the real thing. I'll probably give you all a quick skype call tomorrow night from Tokyo.
Hola!
I skype called Pop to let him know I got here safely, but thought I'd share my travels so far. I got to San Fran alright, not too much of an adventure so far. Virgin America is one very cool airline. All of the seats have their own tvs, with a software called Red. With Red you can watch us and international tv, order movies, listen to music, play games, see the map and even -- the best part-- submit and order for food and drinks (free non-alcoholic drinks, food costs) after the cart comes through the first time. Didn't get enough water? No problem! Order as much as you want. It was a pretty neat experience. Once I arrived, it took me a little bit to find the luggage carousel. I decided to pay the $3 to buy myself a luggage cart (criminal!) because i had not idea how big the airport was, and it was a good thing i did. I took one of the airport shuttles to Japantown, which was pretty inexpensive and very convenient. My hotel, the Kabuki, is in the middle of Japantown, so all of the street signs are in Japanese and English and there are Japanese restaurants, banks, and stores everywhere. I think it was neat of JET to hold the event here, it's a cool way to begin to acclimate to the real thing. I'll probably give you all a quick skype call tomorrow night from Tokyo.
Hello and Welcome
Hey everyone, welcome to my blog. I'm using this blog to record the events of my time here in Japan and my future travels, wherever they may be. The first 5 or 6 posts are the emails I've written my family, so cover the last 2 months.
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