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between: (Default)
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 01:50 pm
Last night I got in at 11:30, turned on my water and heat, and went to bed. I didn't take off from work today because I didn't want to waste any vacation time I could spend overseas, so I've really only spent about a half an hour conscious in my apartment. I arrived at school today to find only two cars in the lot and most of the lights off. After a moment of panic and confusion, I figured out it was probably still winter break, and in that case, the Vice Principal and I are the only two people in school whose contracts say they cannot work from home during break periods. Gr-eat.

I don't have a lot of work as it is, let alone when the school has been abandoned for two weeks and will be abandoned for two more weeks. I don't see why anyone should be working at all, let alone pretending to work as the other teachers and I will be undoubtedly doing. I guess it's okay though, it's best no one looks over my shoulder as I read the stack of mail from my apartment, catch up on gmail chat with my local friends, and do other things from my personal life I'm sure I'd be doing even if I really had work to do. Expect many blog entries.

Anyway, being back in Japan is not all bad. In case there was any doubt about Japan's badassness credentials, the first thing I read when I sat down at my desk with the city's English newspaper was, "Junior Meister of Volcano." Yes, folks, my city is offering the honor of "Junior Meister of Volcano" to any junior or senior high school student willing to visit the local geology park and write an essay on how it made you feel and what you learned about volcanos. And no, it's not something that was lost in translation, they're using the word "meister" instead of using a Japanese word, even in the Japanese title.

Because of our intensive science program at my school, I can guarantee you my school will have at least 50 Junior Meisters of Volcano lol

Also, let me share with you the highlights from the "Local Events" on the next page:

1) Robot Soccer Contest, January 9th-10th.
2) 2010 Calendar Recycling Market
3) Fire Fighters New Year Parade of Fire, January 10th. I quote: "Marching and songs by the young steeplejacks group, Draining water with fire fighting vehicle."

and this is something that's not as funny, but I actually am planning to go to it...
3)Illumination Factory, January 23rd-24th. The Institute of Technology will be decorated with 20,000 colorful lights and 100 ice candles for 2 days. The event team plans to make photo cards and serve hot drinks.

Aw, a teacher who doesn't speak English just came up to me to say, "Happy New Year" in English before the traditional, "let us continue our good relationship this year too," in Japanese. It was charming :)

Additionally, I came back to find a really nice complimentary 2010 day planner from the Board of Education and a Happy New Year card from one of the English teachers' dogs lol I'm also both pleased and troubled to find the, "here you go, Foreigner" dessert wagon is up and running again. Minutes after I sat down at 8:30 this morning, one of the only 2 other people in the room came up to give me two little cakes. Then five minutes ago another teacher came up with a piece of candy for me.

I have one thing to say. Japan, let us continue our good relationship in 2010.
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September 18th, The Business End

between: (hydrangea)
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 11:51 pm
The kids had been kind of crazy with their practice for the speech competition lately. One girl came up to me and told me she wanted two hours of practice after school! Well, of course I had nothing better to do, so we practiced for two hours! That’s how serious these kids are! This girl’s grammar isn’t good, but she’s very creative and very cute, so in a lot of ways I prefer talking to her even if it’s difficult. I’ve also been meeting regularly with the smartest girl in school – she’s the one who’s just a freshman yet she’s already going to University informational meetings so she can get into a good one and become a diplomat. Her English is so good that I never have to explain anything more than once, so it’s really refreshing. I’m glad to have all this work between starting classes and coaching students.

After work, I thought I’d be smart and save some money by biking to the really far old downtown for my volunteer meeting instead of taking the train. I needed the exercise anyway, right? Well, I *thought* I knew where I was going, I could see the mountain I was aiming for and I was going in the right direction, but when I wanted to turn there were no roads. I ended up biking 40 minutes in one direction, only to find myself walled off from where I wanted to be by a giant factory the entire time. When I finally thought I could get around it, I encountered a highway, so I took a walking path that required me to carry my bike...but at the bottom there was a man who told me it was a factory zone and I couldn’t go there. He wasn’t mean, it was like “oh no! where are you going!” “I’m sorry, I’m lost!” “oh no! this is a factory zone, I’m sorry!” And so I picked up my bike, carried it back up the stairs, and gave up. I went home. I felt bad for skipping the meeting and was a little upset with the inaccessibility of my city, especially because it’s inaccessibility as a result of industry. For as nice as Hokkaido is, the industrial nature of my city disgusts me sometimes. I wish it was a little cleaner and little less “dystopian future.”

I didn’t mind all the biking, it’s good exercise. I should really pull up a map, considering I haven't looked at one since before I left the States, and it's a very different ballgame when you're looking at google earth trying to figure out how far your apartment will be and what things will look like than when you're actually here getting things in perspective. It'd be kind of cute to compare my expectations with the reality, actually.

I just wish I could say I knew more of the city because of my bike tour, but I can’t. I only learned that the factory goes on and on and on and on...

I got home and pretty much died after that. Fortunately, I could, because it was now silver week.
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August 31st, It's Not Always Sparkles and Fun

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Thursday, September 17th, 2009 01:52 pm
8/31
Work was boring today and all I wanted to do was stretch after last night’s run, but I was afraid people would judge me. I also went to the bank to pay my rent, where I subsequently checked my paycheck, sent a postcard, and withdrew some money. On the way back to school I bought a ham and egg sandwich, which is quite good and quite popular here in Japan. I had no communication problems, and I rode my bike the whole way which made everything go quickly.

I’m starting to feel more and more guilty about my workload. Things will pick up once I have classes, but the last few days I feel like I’ve been paid to do nothing but study and write things to my friends and family. Granted, I worked really hard on various things on Thursday and Friday, I still feel like I shouldn’t be here if I’m just dicking around.
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August 27th, Working It

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Thursday, September 10th, 2009 05:09 pm
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.
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August 26th, Destined to be 15 Blog Days Behind

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Thursday, September 10th, 2009 04:46 pm
8/26
Today was a typical day of studying at my desk and conversing with various people. I gave my introduction to the whole school, which really wasn’t so intimidating because I had to do it in English and when 500 kids are sitting on the pavement in rows, they really don’t look like so many. I wanted my introduction to be interaction so it would make it more interesting and useful, so I taught them to do the fist pound and say, “Sweet!” I asked them to do it whenever I said something they liked in the speech, and of course, as I expected, they didn’t because that’s just not how Japanese kids listen to a presentation. Well, one boy did it, that was pretty funny, but my real goal was to establish common ground and give them something to do when they saw me. In that regard, it was a great success and I’ve been throwing out knuckles to students for weeks now. The kids love it. K-sen also loved the presentation, he’s big into Western foreign language methodology.

Speaking of East and West, living in the Western hemisphere my whole life has given me a bit of a definition problem. For some reason, I don’t think of East as East and West as West, I think of East as anything traditionally oriented in the center of a World map as East, and anything oriented on the outsides as West, kind of like a mirror image. It doesn’t even really make sense, East is always one way and West is always another and me moving on the globe doesn’t change that. I just think wrong, and it’s kind of embarrassing when talking to people about cities and maps. It’s kind of like the problem I’ve always had with “soft” and “smooth.” For some reason I think of them as synonyms

Anyway, I’ve been pushing the boundaries of my work hours from evening to night and I swear, I’m still the first to leave. I’ve heard stories about how teachers stay until 7 or 9 PM, but I refused to believe that everyone did it all the time. Also, I feel like an idiot saying, “Osaki ni shitsureishimasu,” the perfunctory goodbye, every time I leave because 1) it draws attention to the fact that I’m always last to arrive and first to leave, and 2) it distracts the people who are working. So this time, I resolved to stay until at least one person left before me.

It’s strange being there so late, it really throws off my day, especially because it gets dark so early here since they don’t do daylight savings. It’s a little quieter too, but not much, since the students are also there until late studying, going to clubs, and hanging out.

Well, as it turned out, around six o’clock I saw someone leave with all his stuff, and he did NOT say “shitsureishimasu.” So I figure I’ve seen teachers leave, they just did it discreetly, which means I won’t be saying it anymore either unless someone is making eye contact with me on my way out the door, otherwise I’ll just look humble and scurry out. As it happened, I did do it once more, just for good measure, which attracted the attention of the Vice Principal. He followed me out to the hall and we chatted a little, though I didn’t really mind getting home at 7 o’clock because talking to him is good for my Japanese fluency, good for my reputation, and let’s be honest, what else have I got to do?
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