Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Tales of Kyoto

Christmas and the new year are coming up, and so many teachers and my Kyoto-sensei keep asking me if I'm going home for the holidays, if my boyfriend is visiting me or vice versa, what am I going to do to celebrate, etc. etc. etc.  Today, while we were both chilling in the kitchen area by the electric water kettles, my Kyoto-sensei asked me if I knew about otoshidama (お年玉).  Otoshidama are money put in envelopes and given as New Year's gifts, usually, to children.  I said that I did, and he asked me if I was going to be giving any (har har), and I said no and immediately stuck my hands out in a receiving gesture and asked, where's my otoshidama?  He laughed and told me to stop it and playfully slapped my hands away while laughing.

Later, we were still talking, but now Kyoto-sensei was seated at his desk, and I was standing.  Two second year students came in asking for Kyoto-sensei, Kyoto-sensei irrashaimasu ka? (教頭先生いっらしゃいますか。)  And then Kyoto-sensei replied back in Japanese, Kyoto-sensei died (教頭先生死んだ。) The kids laughed and asked again for him, but he just repeated that the Kyoto-sensei was dead a few more times, and then another sensei across the staff room chimed in with, yeah, there's no Kyoto-sensei here.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

feeling a little down

Hey party people,

So this week is going kinda bleh.  I taught four periods of third years yesterday and one period of second years today.  Yesterday, for all four classes, all these kids would just not shut up.  Like, every time either I or the other teacher spoke trying to give instructions or just transition to the next activity, the volume of the room would just increase so that no one could hear anyone clearly.  It was really annoying.  And I don't like to yell.  I wait.  The third years' classes usually proceed this way with the other teachers yelling for everyone to be quiet and me just quietly waiting bored at the front of the room wondering if we'll get to finish everything on the lesson for the agenda.

Anyways, this time I got really mad because they were being really rude, and I yelled a little.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Tales of Kyoto

Today, I showed Kyoto-sensei, the vice principal, some of the paper gingerbread cookies that some students made.  He liked them.  He said they were cute.  Then I pointed out the gingerbread man with sketchy eyes, and he pointed to it and then me and motioned that that cookie was me.  I was like, nuh uh, and then I pointed to a cuter gingerbread cookie.  He then pointed to the cuter one and said, "me.  not you.  that is you," and pointed to the sketchy eyed cookie.  LoL, and then I pretended to be upset, and then we both laughed.  Good times.



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Another time, Kyoto-sensei came to use the laminator, which is on the desk next to mine.  He hadn't used it in a while and forgot some how-to's, and so I had to tell him that he needed to turn it on and wait 20 minutes for it to heat up (it was a really old laminator).  So he kinda chilled next to me while it heated up.  He noticed my work purse, which is a large navy blue Coach purse my aunt bought me as graduation present.  He told me it was very cool (kakkoii).  When I told him my obachan, aunt, bought it for me, he laughed a bunch.  I asked why, and he said it was funny that I said obachan.  I'm guessing it was funny because it's a more familiar and casual word than the expected obasan.  The san part makes it formal, and the chan makes it more informal and cute.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Attack on my Feelings!!



Hey wonderful Internet peoples,

I'm noticing that my blog posts are starting to take on more of the format of a letter or diary entry, heh heh.  Well, I guess it's become easier to write if I imagine who I'm writing to.  (Harks back to what I learned back in graduate school about "Purpose and Audience" being the two pillars of writing...but that's a discussion for another time...but the short story is that you always need to consider purpose and audience to successfully write or understand writing.)

So yeah, the point of this post: Attack on Titan was more like an attack on my feelings!  This show was really really good. There's so much room for analysis and interpretation of the metaphors available aplenty to satisfy the English teacher in me, and the characters are so well-developed and interesting delighting the reader in me, and there's a ton of action and violence which touches my shounen (young boy) heart.  However, I think there may have been too much violence and gore.  My boyfriend and I basically marathoned almost the entire series yesterday and finished season one.  Then we started another bloody series called Tokyo Ghoul.  I think in the end, I got an action and death overload, and it disturbed my sleep and even this morning while I'm at work.  I'm tense!  I can't stop thinking about Attack on Titan, but I kind of wish I could because I might be slightly traumatized, lol.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Tales of Kyoto

Hello beautiful darlings,

So I need to explain a little bit about the positions in a public school in Japan.  It's pretty similar to most American schools, but I want to provide some different label names and some information on the hierarchy.

Okay, everyone who teaches at the school is called sensei.  Sensei means teacher.  So we got our Tanaka-sensei, Kimura-sensei, Hashimoto-sensei, A-sensei, B-sensei, C-sensei, etc. etc. etc.  And they basically equate to our Mr. Smith and Mrs. Gomez and Ms. Brown of American schools.  (I'm seriously just using any name that pops into my head.)  Anyways, so sensei is reserved for teachers in a school setting (and also doctors, Ph.D's, and other positions, but that's a different story for another time).

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

I suck at updating

Hi all you beautiful people on the Internet,

So as you can tell...I suck at updating.  I have a youtube, instagram, and this blog, and I continually pass up opportunities to update for XYZ reasons (and it's usually my addiction to Netflix, heh heh).  Thus, I just want to apologize for not updating as much as I would like to and should.

Sooo much has happened in the past few months since moving to Japan, and I've taken a bajillion pictures and videos and seen and been to so many things.  I'm also trying to do the novel thing for November, but you can guess as to how well I'm faring with that.  I've got like 2000 words only so far...but it's a start!  I've never seriously written a long piece of fiction since like elementary school, so I'm actually really excited to put one of my ideas down on digital Google doc paper.  I tend to create characters and settings and sometimes whole plots and timelines for a work of fiction, but they usually stay in my head or very roughly drafted on a series of post-it notes and scrap paper.  I need to get my shit together!  >____<

Anyways, I'm about to declare some things here on the Internet, and hopefully, making these promises concretely documented, I might follow through.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

ただいま、大阪。I'm back, Osaka!

Alright, it's been more than a month since I've arrived in Japan, and I have had had plenty of time to settle in.  Let me tell you: Everything is practically perfect.  I feel like I'm experiencing a second cycle of culture shock, and I'm in the honeymoon phase yet again.  The mountains are in the horizon.  I've gotten to make friends with people from all over the world through my job program.  My co-workers make me feel welcomed.  My apartment is clean and spacious (for a Japanese apartment).  There's a supermarket with almost everything I would ever need right behind my apartment building.  I'm within 30-40 minutes of the main city center by train.  My boyfriend is in the same country as me. And I have a salary!

Yeah, life is pretty good, and I feel almost guilty for being so happy.  I know my family is happy to hear that I'm happy.  I feel like it helps them to worry less about my well-being.

Anyways, since the end of my job orientation (2 days) in Tokyo and upon arriving in Osaka, I have been talking in and listening to so much Japanese!  I felt really really rusty since I hadn't practiced for two years, but oh my god, in just this one month, I feel like I've been given a crash course in conversational and work Japanese.  Now, I'm not saying that my mind's eye has been opened to understanding Japanese 100% because there is still like 70% of conversation and paperwork that I feel I cannot understand, but I have had so much authentic practice by just living in Japan that I have almost been brought back up to speed from where I left off.  It's crazy!  Being surrounded by the language you're trying to learn really helps improve language skills exponentially that no one hour a day weekly class could ever hope to.

So yeah, I'm adjusting to life in Japan pretty well.  The Board of Education and the employees at the city hall have helped me immensely, especially the translator, who is happy that I'm not a hopeless newb.  They've helped me get things in order like my bank account, my cell phone, and my residence card.  My senpai, the other Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) who live in the same building and work in the same town as me although at different schools, have also been supremely helpful in helping me learn to sort trash, take the bus to work, understand some workplace culture and habits, shop locally, etc.  I am so grateful that I wasn't just plopped into this rural town and expected to fend for myself. Shhhhhit, because if I had, it would have taken me A LOT longer to adjust and finally feel comfortable (and find good cheap food to eat, ha ha).

I will post a picture summary below soon.  I'm currently typing this on my school laptop.  Yeah, there is definitely a good chunk of what is called "desk warming."  I have a lot of free time on my hands despite being a full-time ALT.  Picture update coming soon!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Goodbye, Amerikuh

Hi, I'm back!  Back to this blog and Japan, actually, hee hee.

Right now it's past midnight, and I have been traveling for the past 24 hours.  I traveled from Miami to Dallas (3-4 hours) and then finally arrived in Tokyo at 4:15 pm Tokyo time  (after a 14 hour flight and an hour through customs and shipping suitcases to my future home).

It's been a whirlwind of a trip, but one thing I can definitely say is that I am thoroughly impressed with my program's organization and seamless transitions.  There was always a representative at every point of the journey from the USA all the way to the hotel room accommodations for orientation (I now have a two day orientation in Tokyo before I go to where I will teach in Osaka prefecture).  I never for one moment felt confused or lost.

Oh yeah, what am I talking about?  I am still recovering from this trip, ha ha.  I am back in Japan to teach English at the junior high (middle school) level as an Assistant Language Teacher.  I just finished my master's in English Education, and I'm really excited to teach!  I have found my passion, and now I can merge it with my interests in improving my Japanese and chilling in Japanese culture and mountainous country filled with delicious takoyaki and sushi.  See, that's the real reason I'm here.  I'm here to eat as much sushi as possible.  Mmm, that salmon.

I'm trying to remember what I wanted to write about, but my mind is still in zombie mode and all over the place.  Let's see… Right now, I'm in a hotel room with two other young ladies who traveled with me from Miami on this program.  I just skyped my mom, and I contacted other family and friends via facebook, LINE, and Tango to let them know I was safe and happy.  Oh, and then before that I met a friend to eat an izakaya (pub), and I ordered a Cassis Soda (omg, how I have missed that drink).  Before that I showered because, geezus, I felt so gross after that 14 hour plane ride.  Oh!  And on the plane ride, I drank quite a bit of the complimentary white wine, got quite tipsy, and then napped for about 3 hours.  In the past 24-36 hours, I have probably only slept 6 hours total.  I should sleep now before I just ramble on and fall asleep at my laptop.  Gotta wake up in like 5 hours.

Night!