Hey all. I think I’m going to give up trying to write about all my new experiences, there are just too many to recount. I’ll try to post the most interesting ones, but if you want to know more, you’ll have to get Skype. :)
About one week ago, the schools in my area held their Sports Day’s. Sports Day is a major event for most schools in Japan and is when the school is split into teams which compete against each other in a wide range of sports….and I mean wide. The sports kids compete in include jump rope competitions (where roughly 20 students jump a single long rope), 3-legged races (which should actually be called 15-legged race since ENTIRE CLASSES get linked together), a tug-of-war match (where multiple classes compete using one massive rope), and almost anything else that can be made competitive.
The games I like the best were the knight fights and tug-of-war. I’ll readily admit that I was completely jealous of my students that day and wanted to play, but – considering I’m at least twice their size – it’s probably better that I didn’t.
I snapped a lot of pics during Uchiko-chu’s practice day, but was expecting to take better photos with my D40 during the actual event. Well, long-story-short: I ended up missing the Sports Day’s of all my schools thanks to the tail end of a typhoon and a communication mix-up. I’m bummed about that, but glad I took so many pictures during their practice now. Speaking of which…
* A quick note: to help protect against child pornography and other such nastiness, all relatively close-up photos I take of my students (or any children for that matter) will be restricted on my Flickr account to “friends/family only.” A Flickr account is entirely free, so if you want to see the awesome pics of my students, you should get one. I will count you as a contact and you will be able to see them, no problem.
I also took some short videos of the tug of war game and the teams practicing their cheers. Cheers in Japan trump cheers in America, in my opinion. Keep in mind that this was their first time practicing as an entire group and most did not have their uniforms….
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
My Best Summer Memory
I had my first official ALT day today, woot!
I introduced myself to two 1st grade classes (quick note: 1st grade in Japanese Jr. High is roughly 7th grade where I come from -> read: 12 and 13 year olds) and then they played a game of "Kirsten Bingo" where they tried to guess facts about me (not my idea, I swear). Overall, I had a blast, and am impressed how witty these guys are...and also how tall! As far as I can tell, Japanese children reach their adult height sooner than Westerners because at the moment, I am teaching 13 year olds that can look me in the eye. That's impressive for 13 year olds in general I think, not to mention Japanese (my JT is shorter than me which is a bit awkward because he's a pretty built guy).
Anyway, after class I was correcting some 3rd grade (read: 9th grade) papers on what the students did over summer vacation. They were supposed to write about their favorite memory and I found myself laughing out loud at some of the entries. These kids are so witty!! Their English wasn't perfect, but still completely comprehensible (well most anyway, but I'll get to that later), and they were great! I want to share with you 2 entries that I loved. I'm transcribing their paragraphs exactly as they wrote them so the humor isn't dumbed down by my editing...
Paper #1:
“I fought with two cookroachs today.
When I was sleeping on the floor,
They appeared. Then I was surprised.
But I fought with them. Hit, hit, hit!
But I couldn’t hit. They were so quick.
So, I pleyed them a bug killer. Them
they died. I was tired. I’m winner.
YEAH~”
Paper #2:
“Today, I was reading a book all day.
I read ‘Seiji’ two times. It is very interesting.
A hero called Seiji is a strange person. But
I sympathized his opinion.
I have a headache.
I learn to shouldn’t read books all day.”
Aren't they great? There were many more I loved, but limited myself to sharing two.
I want to share one more, but because I feel like this next student was trying to say something substantial and I just can't understand it! The kid drew an empty baseball diamond with 'Boooo' written across the top. Below, was written the following...
Paper #3:
“I play baseball a championship series,
I there a teme a match got, I there a right
fielder out play a got I too Don’t activity
good lost I Don’t can’ all Don’t be useful
a thing. very puite fell pass Don’t cry.”
Am I just imagining something about a pitiful pass, game lost, and don't cry? I wish I could understand what the student wrote. This obviously was a very significant event in this kid's summer, even if it was not a happy memory.
On that note, I have to run to Fuji and spend a small fortune on bread so I can make exotic PB&J sandwiches for my Eikaiwa tomorrow. Haha, even Paul makes fun of that one, but I don't quite understand it when Aussies have Vegemite: a spread made basically from condensed beer. Yuuuum. (actually, I have to admit that with cheese it's pretty tastey, but that's beside the point).
Don't rush to comment on my blog too fast now ya'll, you might hurt yourselves. *wink*
I introduced myself to two 1st grade classes (quick note: 1st grade in Japanese Jr. High is roughly 7th grade where I come from -> read: 12 and 13 year olds) and then they played a game of "Kirsten Bingo" where they tried to guess facts about me (not my idea, I swear). Overall, I had a blast, and am impressed how witty these guys are...and also how tall! As far as I can tell, Japanese children reach their adult height sooner than Westerners because at the moment, I am teaching 13 year olds that can look me in the eye. That's impressive for 13 year olds in general I think, not to mention Japanese (my JT is shorter than me which is a bit awkward because he's a pretty built guy).
Anyway, after class I was correcting some 3rd grade (read: 9th grade) papers on what the students did over summer vacation. They were supposed to write about their favorite memory and I found myself laughing out loud at some of the entries. These kids are so witty!! Their English wasn't perfect, but still completely comprehensible (well most anyway, but I'll get to that later), and they were great! I want to share with you 2 entries that I loved. I'm transcribing their paragraphs exactly as they wrote them so the humor isn't dumbed down by my editing...
Paper #1:
“I fought with two cookroachs today.
When I was sleeping on the floor,
They appeared. Then I was surprised.
But I fought with them. Hit, hit, hit!
But I couldn’t hit. They were so quick.
So, I pleyed them a bug killer. Them
they died. I was tired. I’m winner.
YEAH~”
Paper #2:
“Today, I was reading a book all day.
I read ‘Seiji’ two times. It is very interesting.
A hero called Seiji is a strange person. But
I sympathized his opinion.
I have a headache.
I learn to shouldn’t read books all day.”
Aren't they great? There were many more I loved, but limited myself to sharing two.
I want to share one more, but because I feel like this next student was trying to say something substantial and I just can't understand it! The kid drew an empty baseball diamond with 'Boooo' written across the top. Below, was written the following...
Paper #3:
“I play baseball a championship series,
I there a teme a match got, I there a right
fielder out play a got I too Don’t activity
good lost I Don’t can’ all Don’t be useful
a thing. very puite fell pass Don’t cry.”
Am I just imagining something about a pitiful pass, game lost, and don't cry? I wish I could understand what the student wrote. This obviously was a very significant event in this kid's summer, even if it was not a happy memory.
On that note, I have to run to Fuji and spend a small fortune on bread so I can make exotic PB&J sandwiches for my Eikaiwa tomorrow. Haha, even Paul makes fun of that one, but I don't quite understand it when Aussies have Vegemite: a spread made basically from condensed beer. Yuuuum. (actually, I have to admit that with cheese it's pretty tastey, but that's beside the point).
Don't rush to comment on my blog too fast now ya'll, you might hurt yourselves. *wink*
Monday, September 3, 2007
3 Goals Accomplished!
So here I am at my desk in Uchiko Jr. High School, honestly just killing time because my actual first day of teaching won’t be until the day after tomorrow.
Yesterday I had to bug-bomb my apartment: Marco, Paul, and I all got tatami fleas. Since my tatami were new, I didn’t get them nearly as bad as the guys, but would still wake myself up at 5 a.m. scratching. I got this nifty bug-killer you inject into your tatami with a needle and then, just to be on the safe side, blasted my tiny apartment with two cans of the fumigation stuff.
Next, 3 great turn of events this week that made me very very happy:…
First: I FINALLY got my keitai (cell phone). It’s pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself. I went with the company “au” and most of their phones come with internet, camera, video, txting, and such so really it was just a choice in design. Although I won’t let myself use the t.v. function, I got: this one (in black). I know it’s expensive, but although they thought my cell would work with a phone card, it doesn’t, so I would LOVE to hear from you guys. Email me and I’ll give you my #.
Second: I found Aikido!! Or, maybe I should say, Aikido found me, haha. I stumbled across an AJETs blog one day who wrote about training in Matsuyama. I shamelessly commented on his site, begging him to tell me where the dojo was. Josh was kind enough to hunt down my number and get in touch. Although I won’t be able to start training until my school schedule settles down, I am more relieved than I thought I’d be about finding a place. Guess I didn’t realize I’ve missed it so much.
Lastly: I found a bass guitar! An extended-neck bass guitar!! Every music/guitar store I passed these past few weeks, I’ve gone in and asked (or tried to ask) about extended basses. I’m dying to play again, but none of the stores I found carried them. Thank god for Hard Off! That’s right, that’s the name of the store. They’re a second-hand chain that has spin-offs such as Book Off and House Off. Anyway, I found a beautiful solid wood bass for 30,000 Yen and am going back to Matsuyama after work today to get it (they wouldn’t reserve it for me so I’m crossing my fingers that it’s still there). Now, Johnny, if only I could find a way to bribe you across the globe for lessons…:D
Yesterday I had to bug-bomb my apartment: Marco, Paul, and I all got tatami fleas. Since my tatami were new, I didn’t get them nearly as bad as the guys, but would still wake myself up at 5 a.m. scratching. I got this nifty bug-killer you inject into your tatami with a needle and then, just to be on the safe side, blasted my tiny apartment with two cans of the fumigation stuff.
Next, 3 great turn of events this week that made me very very happy:…
First: I FINALLY got my keitai (cell phone). It’s pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself. I went with the company “au” and most of their phones come with internet, camera, video, txting, and such so really it was just a choice in design. Although I won’t let myself use the t.v. function, I got: this one (in black). I know it’s expensive, but although they thought my cell would work with a phone card, it doesn’t, so I would LOVE to hear from you guys. Email me and I’ll give you my #.
Second: I found Aikido!! Or, maybe I should say, Aikido found me, haha. I stumbled across an AJETs blog one day who wrote about training in Matsuyama. I shamelessly commented on his site, begging him to tell me where the dojo was. Josh was kind enough to hunt down my number and get in touch. Although I won’t be able to start training until my school schedule settles down, I am more relieved than I thought I’d be about finding a place. Guess I didn’t realize I’ve missed it so much.
Lastly: I found a bass guitar! An extended-neck bass guitar!! Every music/guitar store I passed these past few weeks, I’ve gone in and asked (or tried to ask) about extended basses. I’m dying to play again, but none of the stores I found carried them. Thank god for Hard Off! That’s right, that’s the name of the store. They’re a second-hand chain that has spin-offs such as Book Off and House Off. Anyway, I found a beautiful solid wood bass for 30,000 Yen and am going back to Matsuyama after work today to get it (they wouldn’t reserve it for me so I’m crossing my fingers that it’s still there). Now, Johnny, if only I could find a way to bribe you across the globe for lessons…:D
Nothin Much
So much has happened since my last entry, but at the same time not much of it seems particularly worth mentioning.
The majority of my time in Uchiko has been spent driving (or, rather, getting driven) from place to place trying to sort out insurance, utilities, bank accounts, and all that jazz. Things only started to settle down about a week ago, when I spent some time in Matsuyama taking an “intensive” Japanese course. The course was fun while it lasted, but my BOE (board of education) was the only one that I knew of to not count the course as part of job training, and so all expenses and time spent in Matsuyama were taken out of my own pocket and holiday leave. Commuting to and from the city every day cost me $25 a trip and so I could only afford to go to the first week of classes. Kind of a bummer, but luckily I was able to spend the weekend in Matsuyama seeing the sights with the Matsuyama JETs.
This past week we had our official Uchiko-cho welcome party that was very formal. Marco, Paul, and I had to give powerpoint presentations in Japanese…yeah, that was interesting. Marco, of course, was fine – having studied Japanese for 6 years and lived in Tokyo. Paul was the comic relief since his speech had been translated by his wife and spoken with a thick Aussie accent. I won’t tell you how I did. I hate public speaking and having to speak in a language I should have a basic grasp of by now but don’t was a tad uncomfortable to say the least. Everyone was incredibly nice, though, and they had arranged to have an Iaido demonstration during dinner. There was also a Shoudo or calligraphy master who painted our favorite Kanji for us to keep. I choose mizu or water, which I think everyone got a kick out of because it is such a simple character. I love it, though, in part because I think the Kanji just looks cool and also because there’s a Zen koan that I read years ago that I really like.
Oh! My attempt at making chocolate chip cookies succeeded!..sorta, hehe. It took me a while to hunt down all the ingredients. Basic things like flour, granulated white sugar, and salt I could find at my tiny Fuji in Uchiko. Brown sugar and bags of chocolate chips that contained more than 10 chips per package were harder get. I never did succeed with the brown sugar, settling for a sort of beige/tan sugar, but I bought chocolate chips (for about $12/bag) in Matsuyama. Hiroko-san then rented out the local community kitchen for me (and sort of bent the rules by assuring the caretaker that our cookies were a “BOE foreign exchange” group activity :P ) and we made about 6 batches of cookies. Although they tasted more like sugar cookies with chocolate, they were most definitely delicious and so I’m calling it a success….and considering saving up for a mini-oven so I can continue to bake.
The majority of my time in Uchiko has been spent driving (or, rather, getting driven) from place to place trying to sort out insurance, utilities, bank accounts, and all that jazz. Things only started to settle down about a week ago, when I spent some time in Matsuyama taking an “intensive” Japanese course. The course was fun while it lasted, but my BOE (board of education) was the only one that I knew of to not count the course as part of job training, and so all expenses and time spent in Matsuyama were taken out of my own pocket and holiday leave. Commuting to and from the city every day cost me $25 a trip and so I could only afford to go to the first week of classes. Kind of a bummer, but luckily I was able to spend the weekend in Matsuyama seeing the sights with the Matsuyama JETs.
This past week we had our official Uchiko-cho welcome party that was very formal. Marco, Paul, and I had to give powerpoint presentations in Japanese…yeah, that was interesting. Marco, of course, was fine – having studied Japanese for 6 years and lived in Tokyo. Paul was the comic relief since his speech had been translated by his wife and spoken with a thick Aussie accent. I won’t tell you how I did. I hate public speaking and having to speak in a language I should have a basic grasp of by now but don’t was a tad uncomfortable to say the least. Everyone was incredibly nice, though, and they had arranged to have an Iaido demonstration during dinner. There was also a Shoudo or calligraphy master who painted our favorite Kanji for us to keep. I choose mizu or water, which I think everyone got a kick out of because it is such a simple character. I love it, though, in part because I think the Kanji just looks cool and also because there’s a Zen koan that I read years ago that I really like.
Oh! My attempt at making chocolate chip cookies succeeded!..sorta, hehe. It took me a while to hunt down all the ingredients. Basic things like flour, granulated white sugar, and salt I could find at my tiny Fuji in Uchiko. Brown sugar and bags of chocolate chips that contained more than 10 chips per package were harder get. I never did succeed with the brown sugar, settling for a sort of beige/tan sugar, but I bought chocolate chips (for about $12/bag) in Matsuyama. Hiroko-san then rented out the local community kitchen for me (and sort of bent the rules by assuring the caretaker that our cookies were a “BOE foreign exchange” group activity :P ) and we made about 6 batches of cookies. Although they tasted more like sugar cookies with chocolate, they were most definitely delicious and so I’m calling it a success….and considering saving up for a mini-oven so I can continue to bake.
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