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8/27
I came home today to more birthday cards :) Thanks to everyone who sent packages and gifts, I really appreciate it, it feels a little more like my real birthday that way!
I'm in love with shimeiji tamago donburi. It's a ready-made package sauce from Chinese cuisine with other mushrooms, pork, and red peppers, and you mix it into unset eggs with shimeiji mushrooms and it is DELICIOUS. It makes this decadent gooey sauce you put over your rice. My favorite part is my new favorite mushroom, the shimeiji. It's like eating beer, they're so yeasty. I need to figure out how to make this from scratch! It can't be so hard!
It's been a bit stressful having so much to clean, especially with my Canadian houseguests coming this weekend. At this point, it's still largely unlivable and I don't want to expose them to that nor have them thinking that's how I roll. Still, I do enjoy the cleaning, it makes me feel productive to get things done. Especially when the bathroom floor you though was stained grey actually turns powder blue again.
Today I planned lessons pretty much all day, which makes me feel productive though I'm not as comfortable planning as I would be if I were teaching in a US classroom. In general, the level of English is higher and I'm more familiar with the technologies available to me in my home. I haven't yet figured out how to do all the things I want, nor what level is appropriate when teaching here, so it's not as rewarding.
I learned today that I'll be team teaching with K-sen on Saturday the 12th at our school's Open High School, where middle schoolers come take mock classes to see if they want to apply to our school. I've touched on this a little before, but middle schoolers have to take an entrance exam, and they can only send their results to certain schools. If they're smart enough, they can get in. So we're trying to make our school as appealing as possible, which probably means I'll be a show pony even though I've done close to nothing in classes so far. Still, it's something to do, and as reciprocity for working on a Saturday, I get Monday off.
Mochi and I have been texting back and forth all day. He wants me to come out and meet some of his friends and maybe we'll put an English conversation group together. It's difficult navigating his broken English though, he's pretty much the worst of anyone I've met who insists on using it. This is an exciting prospect, because I want to have Japanese friends and get to know him too.
Today during lunch I met with some girls who want to do the Hokkaido English challenge. They were cute. They want to meet with me every Thursday to practice. I feel like I'm ready to get them set up with good activities. It's also nice working with them because they're so motivated that they're good at English and so I don't have to worry so much about what words I use. Though it is still kind of amazing how low the level of English really is. However, when I compare it to my struggles with Japanese, I'm a lot more sympathetic.
Having a workplace that consists entirely of men is a funny thing, it lends a comfortable bro-like atmosphere to everything. This can be trying, seeing as I'm a woman, but it's fun to watch when they're at play. They like to sit around and shoot the breeze and they don't worry about what silly things they do. One of the sensei's who's probably 30...well, he's like a little girl. In fact, the other teachers call him Yama-chan even though his name is much longer and chan is three levels of diminutive nickname below sensei lol Well, at any rate, it fits him, as he just walked past my desk in his lab coat, stopped, and looked pointedly at the door. At that moment, he thrust a fist into the air and struck a running-man pose, made a victory noise, shouted, "Yosh!" and slow-motion skipped out of the room. Now I understand why he is called Yama-chan instead of Yamanani-sensei. The best part was, he was clearly doing it for himself and not for the people around him.
I came home today to more birthday cards :) Thanks to everyone who sent packages and gifts, I really appreciate it, it feels a little more like my real birthday that way!
I'm in love with shimeiji tamago donburi. It's a ready-made package sauce from Chinese cuisine with other mushrooms, pork, and red peppers, and you mix it into unset eggs with shimeiji mushrooms and it is DELICIOUS. It makes this decadent gooey sauce you put over your rice. My favorite part is my new favorite mushroom, the shimeiji. It's like eating beer, they're so yeasty. I need to figure out how to make this from scratch! It can't be so hard!
It's been a bit stressful having so much to clean, especially with my Canadian houseguests coming this weekend. At this point, it's still largely unlivable and I don't want to expose them to that nor have them thinking that's how I roll. Still, I do enjoy the cleaning, it makes me feel productive to get things done. Especially when the bathroom floor you though was stained grey actually turns powder blue again.
Today I planned lessons pretty much all day, which makes me feel productive though I'm not as comfortable planning as I would be if I were teaching in a US classroom. In general, the level of English is higher and I'm more familiar with the technologies available to me in my home. I haven't yet figured out how to do all the things I want, nor what level is appropriate when teaching here, so it's not as rewarding.
I learned today that I'll be team teaching with K-sen on Saturday the 12th at our school's Open High School, where middle schoolers come take mock classes to see if they want to apply to our school. I've touched on this a little before, but middle schoolers have to take an entrance exam, and they can only send their results to certain schools. If they're smart enough, they can get in. So we're trying to make our school as appealing as possible, which probably means I'll be a show pony even though I've done close to nothing in classes so far. Still, it's something to do, and as reciprocity for working on a Saturday, I get Monday off.
Mochi and I have been texting back and forth all day. He wants me to come out and meet some of his friends and maybe we'll put an English conversation group together. It's difficult navigating his broken English though, he's pretty much the worst of anyone I've met who insists on using it. This is an exciting prospect, because I want to have Japanese friends and get to know him too.
Today during lunch I met with some girls who want to do the Hokkaido English challenge. They were cute. They want to meet with me every Thursday to practice. I feel like I'm ready to get them set up with good activities. It's also nice working with them because they're so motivated that they're good at English and so I don't have to worry so much about what words I use. Though it is still kind of amazing how low the level of English really is. However, when I compare it to my struggles with Japanese, I'm a lot more sympathetic.
Having a workplace that consists entirely of men is a funny thing, it lends a comfortable bro-like atmosphere to everything. This can be trying, seeing as I'm a woman, but it's fun to watch when they're at play. They like to sit around and shoot the breeze and they don't worry about what silly things they do. One of the sensei's who's probably 30...well, he's like a little girl. In fact, the other teachers call him Yama-chan even though his name is much longer and chan is three levels of diminutive nickname below sensei lol Well, at any rate, it fits him, as he just walked past my desk in his lab coat, stopped, and looked pointedly at the door. At that moment, he thrust a fist into the air and struck a running-man pose, made a victory noise, shouted, "Yosh!" and slow-motion skipped out of the room. Now I understand why he is called Yama-chan instead of Yamanani-sensei. The best part was, he was clearly doing it for himself and not for the people around him.