The adventure begins!

the evil manager tokyo manager glares at me every time I`m near the computer..

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 02:34:20 GMT

Yeah, I suck for not updating.

We have this manager who has started coming in randomly from Tokyo, one of the head office bigshots, who shows up much like a gift from god to straighten out we screw-ups here in Niigata. Not that she`s rude or anything less than polite even- she just breezes in and takes over, and every yen we make while she`s here is entirely a result of her and no one else. I actually do appreciate people who can get stuff done, work efficiently, be commanding- I just intensely dislike the fact that her nametag should read *it`s all about me*

I only rant about this because, frankly, we are doing our best here, and we`re a talented enough group that this is not simple placation; however, we`re getting weekly phone meetings and semi-daily letters saying that we need to work harder, do better, because we`re lazy, and not working hard enough, and not excercising teamwork, and we`re not being quality teachers and managers. I`m not just being sarcastic- this is almost verbatim what the company president told us at the last phone meeting. I know degrading your employees is a valid business tactic here in Japan, but it`s totally undeserved in some cases, and I`m personally getting really annoyed that head office people never consider, you know, maybe our schools aren`t meeting goals because we`re not competetive enough. Geos is the most expensive of any english school, and not terribly accomodating in general.

Blag... so thats work.

Also of note is that my co-workers are also leaving Geos. *snicker* Well, at least Cody is for sure, and with his two at worst tolerable co-workers leaving, Cameron is definitely having second thoughts. I may have mentioned this before, but having met a fair handful of Geos teachers, it`s safe to say that odds are against us being replaced with people Cameron could tolerate working with on a daily basis.

Ah, fun news! The Spicy food party on sunday, well, wasn`t full of delicious spicy food... in fact, the only spicy things were Kazumi`s (delicious!!!!) nabe, my bizarre egg and rice dish, and a bag of imported potatoe chips. @-@ It was fun, however, because we chatted a lot, ate a red-pepper covered squid that somehow managed to taste exactly like white chocolate, and I learned how to make hand-rolled sushi. Bonus is that I got invited to go to this giant mochi making festival ouside Niigata this Sunday. Mochi is this kindof sweet doughy snack, presumably made by pounding the living hell out of rice and adding flour, sugar, and water during the process. They also say that it`s difficult to swallow, and old people have been known to choke to death on it.

*blink blink*

Anyway... No other big news this week- except that apparently we have a holiday tomorrow, so no classes... but I may stop in anyway to poke at the interweb. Still, I`m excited to have a day off and a full bank account, so I can go food shopping and pick up a few things I`ve been needing but couldn`t afford before payday (like, um, food.)

^_^

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:47:44 GMT

Ahaha... Sorry, less than nothing to report. I`ve been busy bending my creative and constructive talents to decorating our school and preparing for the kids halloween party, and as such have done almost nothing else of interest.

btw, it kindof sucks decorating for halloween when you don`t have black paper or black markers.

Oh, although I suppose I did go out drinking on sunday, which wasn`t all that spectacular because the bar we ended up at served nothing cheaper than $7, and since I was expected to sit around with all the rich students for a few hours, I ended up spending more than I wanted to.

Yesterday some of my students brought in stewed chestnuts. Now, for some reason, stewed anything has never sounded appetizing to me, but these things were all kinds of tasty. Its the kind of recipie I`ll be happy to make at home.

Katy was giving a rant the other day, about how Japanese people cannot understand Japanese spoken to them by a foreigner, despite a fairly decent accent. I also want to jump up and down and yell about this, because it`s damn irritating. I do know a few words in Japanese, and I know my pronunciation is pretty good at least, but God save me from trying to use it outside of class with people. You`d think I`d spoken to them in German from the freshly-clubbed expression on their faces. I mean, seriously. Again, as Katy pointed out, we can understand other people when they mangle our language beyond reason. Yay for double standards.

Yay for parties! I`m actually really happy- this month is honestly flying by. Soon it will be November, then christmas, then January, then back to the states. I`m apparently supposed to leave Japan on February 17, which is sooner than I thought, but cool.

Agh! Time! Sorry, must go plan lessons. ^_^

I make children cry

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 01:56:11 GMT

groan. So, we were playing this very fun game in my kids class, involving them shouting out the vocabulary on a card I held up, me throwing the card like a frisbee, and them diving and leaping to (fail to) catch it. This is where I get to say that `it`s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.` I know how uncoordinated children are, and I`d been careful to throw the cards above or below them, but somehow one of my girls managed to take a card corner in the eye. End of class.

Luckily (for once), her classmates were actually really sympathetic, sweet, helpful, and well behaved after that. Not that I`m planning on abusing children to get good behavior, but it was the only saving grace of that class.

I got a new student in one of my evening classes, a class that was filled with social rejects and hopeless cases but which I am beginning to socialize, ever so slowly. And I have a love-hate relationship with this man, after a mere two weeks. It`s safe to say he`s one of the most talkative, outgoing people at Geos, and he has enough english skill to back it up. He`s funny, dramatic, dynamic, and I want to applaud him for it. The only problem is that he commands attention by doing this, and in my class full of shy, unopinionated, soft-spoken women, this means that every time he opens his mouth, all other conversation stops. And since he`s both talkative and passionate about his opinions, he`ll talk for twenty minutes straight unless I cut him off.

Home news- I am learning how to prepare the various types of instant ramen in this country- it`s not just `pour in hot water`, I guess, because there are three or four different packs of various ingredients, and four step instructions in Kanji, which I`ve managed to get through sofar by knowing the Kanji for minute (分) and by matching the words on the packets to the order in the instructions. hehe. so ghetto.

I also, after 8 months, got my garbage schedule. In case I never mentioned it, they`re really big on sorting trash here; I`ve got six different bins at home, and each is supposed to be emptied on a different day of the week.

I`m so excited, though! Hot coffee has returned to the vending machines! Everything went cold for the summer, and cold canned coffee is, well, vile. But now I can run downstairs at three am and get myself a nice warm can of hot cocoa again! Besides, I found a brand that I like again, so all is well. I just laugh a little inside, because the spokesperson for this coffee is Tommy Lee Jones, and he stares back at me from the sides of vending machines subtitled with *BOSS coffee- the boss of them all.*

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 01:08:07 GMT

^_^

I have been scolded for my lack of updates on this journal, so, for as long as I can remember to, I will make a point of updating more regularly. But, honestly, all the interesting stuff already happened, and now I`m just living life.

So, the school is located in this, well, office building that acts like a mall on some level. On the first floor you have Geos, the convenience store, an italian restaurant, and a seamstresses. I can use the feminine plural there because the only time I`ve ever seen a man in that shop was with his wife, watching a giant demonstration of some kind or another. But they`re generally cool ladies. There`s also a security box and some atms. Up the escalator you`ll find more of Geos sprawled about (thats where the japanese, korean, and chinese teachers teach), an optometrist, a clothing boutique (btw, you can only buy clothes in boutiques here, which is why I don`t buy clothes), a beauty spa (a literal spa), and the start of the Bandai city shopping catwalks, which bridge over the busy streets around here and can keep you above ground floor for several blocks south of here.

Right out front is a major bus, um, stop. It doesnt really qualify as a station, since there aren`t any attendants anywhere, but every bus inside and from outside Niigata will stop outside our school. The line of stops actually stretches for a full two blocks on the other side of the street, and if you walk south a block you`ll find a proper terminal and busses going all over Japan. I`m far more interested in the Starbucks that happens to also be located in that terminal.

Anyway, its rather busy outside our windows, so people watching is always fun. Despite the fact that the temerature has dropped to the low 60s, there are still women wearing impossibly short skirts. ... But they do have on jackets and act cold all the time. Makes me want to smack my forhead.

It was all nice and summery until mid last week, as if the seasons suddenly realized they were late in turning and decided to make up for lost time. Violently. For about two days we had gale-force winds and rain that shot down as if from a gun, and stopped, so suddenly that there was never enough warning to try to risk opening your umbrella. And there were pieces of umbrellas everywhere, fluttering about like broken-winged birds huddling in corners and between bicycles. I wore my trenchcoat with a certain amount of smugness.

I admit to not doing much this weekend- I did some serious housecleaning, and bought a few movies to watch, but that was about it. It was just too stormy to be doing anything outside.

I actually really have to go plan lessons now (go figure), bye, later, I swear I`ll try to update more.

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 01:53:29 GMT

News!

Well... um, not much to report here, actually. Training went well, I hung out with a bunch of british people and went back to teaching normally (except that one of my high level students asked me why my speaking had changed- she`d lived in Britan, and immediately picked up words and inflections that I hadn`t even realized I had.)

Of course, my boss told me how fantastic I am, but we all knew that already. I even managed to get a new student to sign up, giving a model lesson during our training lunch break. Color everyone impressed. (Not that it means I`ll get a raise or anything... ^_^)

I did seriously consider staying here another year, for a full three hours after training ended. Then I tried to find dinner, and regained my senses.

The only other thing I`ve done this week is found a few movies on sale, and decide that I`m going to be a pirate for halloween. Whee!

To work, then!

its a novel... sorry! but a worthwhile weekend

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:59:15 GMT

Special events....

On saturday one of my students came in wearing a T-shirt. This is what it said.

GIVE head. FUCK IT ALL spirit.

Being worn, of course, by my sweet little proud mother of two, and generally my most softspoken student... And, what can I do but explain what her shirt actually means. I wonder if she *really* understood, though, because she just had that kind of amazed look.

On sunday I went on a day trip with Ryuko, my chatty old lady student who doesn`t really speak english, but never lets that stop her from talking. She took me to this very cool little restaurant that was actually quite shabby looking, but it was build right next to a gorgeous river cutting wide through these gorgeous mountains close enough to walk to. They had a half-dam set up to catch the fish they served、and while you were waiting for your meal you could walk across the bridge and down to the river level where a man was waiting cheerfully to show you the fish he`d caught, and how everything worked, and the different kinds of fish in the river.

The eating was a little less magical, to be honest. The first course was fresh sashimi, and by fresh I mean just skinned and sliced, with the head still on the platter to verify its utterly fresh status by twiching it`s fins and gasping reflexively, in spite of the fact that the only other body parts on the plate was its neatly sliced meat. It was pretty delicious, though... Later on we had, um, some kind of fish about 8 inches long, cooked in breading and arranged artfully in pairs. Of course, it was a whole fish, skin, bones, and organs intact, and I had no idea how to begin eating it.　I asked Ryuko, who cheerily grabbed the smaller of the two and promptly bit off its head. Then proceeded to laugh at my horrified expression, and told me just to rip at it with my chopsticks. So... it was also pretty good, but I`ve concluded that learning to eat fish in that fashion is going to take a lot of practice, since it seemed like I wasted a whole lot of it.

Oh, and my fish had fish eggs in it, and I think Ryuko thought it was christmas or something. I wasn`t too impressed (once I mustered the courage yet again to try something I`d instinctively have rejected).

Later, we explored a famous sake brewery, and after that we went to this giant famous shrine to the fox gods. It was a fantastically interesting set of buildings... the only thing that put me off was that, between the bright orange, white, and green color scheme, and the fact that every conceivable thing was unnaturally giagantic and monolithic, it looked like Disney land set into a solomn mountain landscape. There were prayer bells you could ring, with ropes as thick as Shwarzeneggers biceps and jingle bells that could be used to block manholes. Everything was super-sized. I had to work not to giggle in that very solomn place.

Monday was not at all adventurous, though productive- I came in to work and cleaned/organized the store room, which is as big as most living rooms in the states, and when I walked in to clean it, I couldn`t actually get the door open all the way, to give you an idea of the sheer volume of stuff in there. I slid in and could stand there, in the pitching circle, the spot from which people had been just throwing things into the room because you couldn`t walk any further. Eventually, I found classy things like a washing machine, a rice cooker, six broken stereos, a full set of dishes, logbooks older than I am, a bag of cat litter... yeah. But, now it is clean, beautiful, and done.

I celebrated by going into Bandai to get some melon ice cream, and was greeted by, lo and behold, another dance festival, this one far more interesting that the last. Same costumes with bright colors, but less pattern... and every group had a different dance, all of them full of energy and jazz and hip-hop and eerie formal movements. People`s hair was a little crazily made-up, and the dancers all wore face paint in harsh, bright colors, that made them somehow disturbing to look upon. It was beautiful, but in an uncomfortable way. Sooo cool, though. I wish I`d had my camera..

That is the story of my weekend. huzzah!

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 04:19:39 GMT

In some of my extra teaching materials, I found a worksheet entitled `Do you get easily confused?`, and it immediately made me think of Ruth. Out of curiosity, I did try it out (because giving something to second language students that I couldn`t easily complete would be a recipe for disaster). I am apparently not as easily confused as I thought I was, but... wow. For example:

7. If M is not the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, then write the number eighty-eight in Box 1 below. Otherwise draw a house unless C is not the fourth letter of the alphabet, in which case draw a tree.

And of course, you`ve got a time limit to finish a bunch of these, so you`re only supposed to read them quickly. So fun!

Speaking of Ruth, the wedding (and chicago trip) was fun. Being home was great, just because it`s so relaxing to be able to crash anywhere, and I`ll never again take a sofa for granted. Or a large pantry. ^-^ It was also a fine reminder of how cool my family is... but I say that all the time anyway. The wedding itself was also fun, as I got to see a whole bunch of people I hadnt really expected to see anytime soon. I`m getting used to the idea of Ruth and James as a married couple- it`s just an odd change of status.

I am, however, glad to know that, well, all the friends who might have been getting married in the next few years already have, and I don`t have to think about churches and white dresses for a while. Not that they`re not great and all... But I`m glad to take a break from it. All the dark wood, white tulle, and elegant script Ive seen over the years is starting to blur together. Maybe I`ll write my wedding favors in blocky crayon...

Aaaanyway... back to work. It`s ominously quiet today, since it`s thursday, kids day, and it all starts at 4. It`s also almost chilly; autumn has decided to start pressing its authority on the weather, and the relative sunshine of summer has been absent for the last week, as well as the more scandelously short skirts. Almost coat weather!!

Merde, must go do real work. =)

Wait, what time is it? Oh.... oh no...

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 06:37:24 GMT

Well, I survived the 14 hour flight to tokyo, the 3 hours on trains to Niigata, and the 20 minute walk to the apartment. I got home at 11pm Japan time, which is about 9am Chicago time. I unpacked, got a reminder of just how limited the food here is, and crashed.

And woke up at 12:20 today, 10 minutes before my first class began. Since its a 10 minute walk to work... Needless to say there was a lot of swearing involved. Although I had made a point of setting my alarm, I neglected to remember that my phone was on silent mode.

I`m here, though, and the new manager had done a good-manager thing (I guess) and called my first class students to cancel (although I made it to work only 5 minutes late, and thats about the time most of those students generally show up anyway). ... since two of them showed up anyway, I`m not sure how effective it was, but they did the equivalent of coming in to pat me on the head, welcome me back, and assure me that it was okay there was no class today. ?_?

Of course, I`m still a little behind, since I was planning to come in to work at 9 in order to get all my evening classes happily planned, so I`m gonna postpone posting tales of the weekend for now. Just wanted to let everyone know I`m alive.

^ Its the most wonderful time of the year ^

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 06:38:17 GMT

So... late summer is great. The last week, the weather has dropped down to the 70s, it`s been sunny and breezy, and saints be praised, the humidity has dropped to something just below the radar. That doesn`t stop all the moue-faced Niigatians from bitching about how hot it is, natives and foreigners alike, but I`m certainly glorying in the newfound perfect weather.

Maybe its a result of the weather, but I get a much stronger sense of Home here when I can sleep with my windows open. It`s interesting... I`m the kind of person who really strongly associates memories and emotions with smell, actually, and as weird as this will sound, I`ve been, well, smelling at home. Just this sense of familiar things from times past, wafting around and outside my apartment lately. It really locks in the solidity of this place; It actually reminds me a lot of my last apartment, only a lot nicer. Coming home alone, but listening to people all around above and outside, smelling someone cooking something that my mom has made before (some kind of saucy chinese dish with lots of vegetables and chicken), listening to the old ladies greeting each other and the occasional moan that could be an achy person sitting down or something more illicit.

Of course, I could be in a good mood because today I taught two lessons, 12-2, and, um, I`m essentially finished. I have to do an interview at 5, and chat with a really cool student at 7, and thats all she wrote. I think I`ll go make beautiful lesson plans for next week (not!). ^_^

Then the difficult question... when I come home next week, do I cut all my hair off or not....

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 01:57:19 GMT

Ayuh. So, not really much to update, as I haven`t been doing anything at all notable in the last two weeks, merely waiting impatiently for the trip home. In my free time I have rewatched the Aliens series (and its a lot more funny and less scary than I remember it being), negotiated with Immigrations at the airport (ironically, they don`t speak any English, at the one place where it would be quite useful to know. The people at the candy shop across the street speak English, for goodness sake), and converted a pair of jeans into a jean skirt without the benefit of a sewing machine. That was a project of several hours... But now I have a skirt instead of an indecently ripped pair of jeans.

Er... must go do some work. Just wanted to give ya`ll a wave.

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:46:28 GMT

Some of you already know, but for the rest...

This morning, I finally bought plane tickets home, and am now poorer in pocket but richer in spirit. I`m officially coming home on September 1st for a short stint of family fun and the demonic lifebonding of two of my best friends.

I mean happy wedding. Yes, happy wedding.

^_^

In Japan news...

Matsuri, right. The dancing festival was.... very... japanese. It`s hard to come up with a better description. They closed the main 4-lane road in Niigata for a two mile stretch, literally filled it with thousands of people in Kimono, and had them all dance in unison. There were certainly more people participating than watching the dancing. At several points they had a stage set up with a bunch of singers, and people playing shamisen, japanese flutes, and drums, and they played in rotation so that they could play continuously for the two or three hours of the performance. And everywhere, people handed out fans.

All in all... it was captivating for about 10 minutes, until I realized that they were literally repeating the same song and short, simple dance, over and over. It`s easy to see why most of my students weren`t planning on going. I myself wandered around half the parade until I`d seen most of the interesting dresses (they weren`t actually kimono, which are expensive and too heavy to wear in this heat- they wore a simpler version called yukata). I found hot dogs, flavor ice, and popoyaki, and went home.

The fireworks the next night were also nothing to have a heart attack about, although it was nice to see fireworks in summer still. I went with a bunch of GEOS students (my co-workers decided to stay home), sat on the riverbank with the thousands of other Niigata residents, and learned new words like hanabi (fireworks), mabeshi (sparkly), and keki (kind of a drinking challenge). Much to my amusement, they asked very sincerely if we had fireworks in Chicago.

Again, though, it was two hours of fireworks, and fireworks don`t come in much variety. There was just one set that was really spectacular, a wall of fireworks on the far side of the river that literally looked like fire pouring down in a waterfall. Unlike american fireworks shows, this one did not have a grand finale, so after the last few rockets were fired and it was apparent there would be no more, people just started wandering home in an amazing exodus. I tend to forget the density of this city until events like Masturi or the lunch rush.

With that being said, I`m back to work.

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:25:28 GMT

I went swimming in the OCEAN!!!

Really exciting, since I realized I hadn`t been swimming in about 2 years... so it was quite awesome. I hadn`t yet taken advantage of the fact that I live a 30 minute walk away from a public beach. It was fun, floating around essentially by myself. And swimming with crabs. They kindof hid out on these rocky things about 50 meters out that I went to check out, covered in clam shells and sea plants and shy little black bugs. (hence, I did not climb on them).

But, I am all salty now. And sea brine is something that a lukewarm glass of saltwater does not do justice to. yuck.

I may actually go again today- seeing as I have one class to teach today and then my day is done. Go-go Niigata Matsuri! Today is just a dancing festival in the streets, so I may peek in on that but probably won`t stay. Tomorrow is the highlight- the fireworks.

This weekend we did other fun things, actually. Sunday was an all-you-can-drink party in a beer garden that was on the roof of this 12 story building in downtown. They didn`t have any new foods or drinks, but it was fun nonetheless. I kept getting snagged by random people for conversations every time I got up for a refill, and ended up making a load of new friends. The after-party was the best part, though... We went to a Karaoke bar!!!!! Finally!!!!! Karaoke!!! It was totally cool, too- another place where you just pay a lump sum and then drink all you can drink until you leave. It was a smallish bar, seating maybe 30 at max and there were 15 of us. It was cool because there were boxes full of every instrument imaginable, so you grabbed what you liked and banged along with whoever was singing. I somehow ended up singing a lot of Greenday... and everyone really liked the jumpy happy energy of it, even though they couldn`t understand. What also happened was that the Chinese teacher at GEOS (who speaks about 3 words of English), grabbed me for a few dances. And I`ll be damned if that man isn`t the best dancer I`ve yet met. It was just great all around.

The only thing I`m doing today is hogging the computer, and shaking my credit card in frustration. I (finally!!) transferred a load of money to my bank at home (I`m absolutely the most horrible kind of procrastinator). And with a fair portion of that money I have intended to purchase a plane ticket home for Ruths wedding on September 1st... And now it would appear something is up with my bank card. groan. But, at least I have time today to call places and sort things out, hopefully.

So, I really ought to go clean up my room for my first lesson, in a half hour. Talk to ya later!

I`m Aliiiiiiive!

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 01:29:33 GMT

Sortof. ^-^

Vacation was a ton of necessary fun and relaxation, and as usual I don`t really have enough time to go into all the details, so you`ll get the highlights.

Sunday I jaunted off to Tokyo and, after having a really awesome lunch with Katy in a Hawaiian burger joint, I went to the airport to pick up Brendan. By the way, if you ever worry about being late to pick someone up at Narita airport, dont. I didn`t see him until an hour after his plane had landed, during which I chatted up this dude from New Hampshire who was living in Guam and on vacation in Tokyo. Weird. Anyway, after I finally collected my boyfriend we went to the train station, saw Tokyo tower in the distance, and decided to walk to it and check it out. So, we saw Tokyo tower in all it`s Eiffel tower glory... It was quite lovely, actually. And I don`t ever recommend walking to it, because every time you get close there will be a building in the way.

Wednesday my student Ryuko kidnapped us to Yahiko shrine, up in the mountains- a painfully beautiful and scenic drive, and a really cool shrine to boot. We saw beach, coast, mountain, farmland, ricefeilds, orchards, tiny villas... the works. Ryuko, being this fantastic energetic old lady who talks to everyone, got us accidentally invited to a tea ceremony- so now I have done a tea ceremony- and it was cool. The ceremony was full of old ladies who after two minutes of chatting nearly kidnapped Brendan and I to keep us there. It was great- we were surrounded by gushingly, sincerely friendly old ladies in Kimono trying to give us things. We did get invited to someones house to hang out (and hells, she even called me on friday to try to set up a date, to show you how sincere she was). It was cool.

After we smiled, laughed, and bowed our way out of the tea house, Ryuko treated us to a fantastic smorgasborg lunch, and brought us to a special cookie making place, where again they took one look at us and invited us inside the actual shop and even sat us down and had us make a few cookies. It was a really awesome wednesday.

The rest of the week really involved a lot of us sightseeing around Niigata, going to movies, trying new restaurants, and lots of chilling out doing nothing. My Japanese got dusted off and exercised, and all was well. Yesterday (being monday), we went back to Tokyo to check out all the awesome goth outfits in Harajuku, and all the fantastic shops in Sunshine city in Ikebukuro, and then a few really stressful trains to the airport. For some reason, that night I had phenomonally bad luck with finding the train I really wanted, and we ended up using a very expensive (albeit very nice and much faster) train to the airport. ... Corney as this will sound, I think leaving Bren a the airport was almost as hard as leaving my family when I left Chicago. Blah.

Then I had the same spectacularly bad luck with trains on the way home, but managed to get back here just the same.

Well, back to reality. Although at least this week I`ll kill classtime getting asked vacation questions; this weekend is a GEOS party; and next week we have several half-days of work because of the Niigata fireworks festival. Woo!

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:11:30 GMT

Zipping along... Brendan is here, currently out on his own exploring the shopping mall nearby while I work. Today is the only day I`ll be in work this week, so I figured I`d write a quick note saying hi, I`m alive- And I saw Tokyo tower in person. It was quite worth the blisters and almost getting lost. ^-^

must plan, then work. Sorry for the brevity... I`ll promise a full fledged and fleshy post next week with lots of details of all the fun things I`ve done on my week long vacation.

"It`s raining, it`s pouring..."

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 02:26:06 GMT

... And it`s S.T.I.C.K.Y. Bleagh! I still haven`t quite figured out how to turn my heater to the AC setting, and I`m not sure that that would help, seeing as it`s really not the temperature but the moisture on everything that`s been keeping me awake nights. It`s like the midsummer rainy camping trip that never ends. All my clothes, bedsheets, pillows, books, and floors are literally damp from the sheer persistant humidity, and since it`s the very air that is full of moisture it`s not as if I can just air-dry anything. I smell the beginnings of mildew.

At GEOS we have A/C, but it does little to remove the wet. At least we`re not dripping sweat during class, though, at least until our students start turning blue. (By the way, the Japanese seem to turn blue as soon as it reaches 75 or cooler). It`s amazing, actually- I go running in this heat, and I`m dripping in a t-shirt and contemplating running in a swimsuit, but there are native joggers in full jacket-pant running suits, baseball caps, and freaking towels wrapped around their necks and tucked in. I`m looking out into the mid-day bustle now, and every other woman has long sleeves and multiple layers of clothing on. And it`s nearing 80 out there. yikes.

hm, news. Last weekend some of my students kidnapped me for a trip to a historical museum in a nearby city, which was cool. It was actually a hundred-plus-year old farmstead of a rich landowner, restored and converted into a museum. I didn`t get to take too many pictures, it was kindof frowned upon, but it was cool nonetheless because they had really phenomonal gardens.

Then I learned something that I`m surprised I didn`t figure out already- Japanese people dont just do one activity and then say their goodbyes. Outings are a full day event whether you planned for it or not; so, the museum trip was followed by an unexpected trip to a soba restaurant, followed by a trip to a botanical garden and arboretum in another city, followed by a trip to an organic foods italian restaurant, and that would have been followed by a trip to one of Niigata`s famous parks save for the sudden downpour. Fun, if unexpected.

By the way, they have some awesomely big butterflies here.

Ack, must go plan classes. Later!

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 01:12:36 GMT

Hey! I did something this weekend!!

First of all, the rainy season finally made an appearance (of sorts). It got all dark and stormy, and rained like hell for about two days, then became quite sunny again. ah, well. ^-^ It has been rather off and on, so I guess that can be called a rainy season. And the wind, my god, the wind! I mentioned before that it`s normally quite breezy here, but over the weekend and yet into today it`s spurting gale-force gusts and breezes to make any umbrella pop inside-out.

Oh, yeah, festival! Saturday night after classes Michie grabbed me and took me to a shrine festival that was going on that night. Totally cool experience, by the way- it was more like a carnival without the rides than anything else, just loads of cheap food stalls, places to buy toys, balloons, and things that glowed, and all sorts of games to con you of your money, like catching fish with a paper spoon and tossing the ring around the bottle. It was narrow and dim and packed with people and delicious smells, and the stalls stretched for blocks, so close together that at places I could stand in the middle of the aisle and reach out to touch booths on either side of me. We did finally get to the shrine, but seeing as it was packed with people I only got a few bad pictures off.

Lessee... while there I tried almost everything, giving a pass only to foods that I simply could not conceive of how to eat. Candied apples and cherries, fried sweet potatoe, this pancake like thing with meat and onion, takoyaki (a ball of cheesy dough around a chunk of octopus, topped with onion, cheese, and bacon bits, which you`re supposed to eat in one bite except that the thing is bigger than a golf ball. delicious, though). Oh, and popoyaki, which I love. Apparently it`s only made here in Niigata city and in Osaka- it`s a soft pancake breadstick with a hint of cinnamon. I felt like I was ten, running around with a candied apple eating all this other food and poking at all the games.

I did catch some fish, and after the predictable expiration of most of them I`m left with three hardy new housemates currently occupying my glass teapot. It was great fun.

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:34:55 GMT

Hello people!

News from this week- New dude manager is nothing to shout about. He`s nice enough, I guess, but he`s not even a quarter as personable as any of the women have been- he almost seems to hide from people, including we teachers. oh well.

This week I also had another culinary experience that does not need to be repeated; one of my students went traveling into the countryside, and found a little (hick) delicacy that most urban people avoid- candied locusts. So she presented them to me, and being a game little teacher in front of a bunch of expectant students, I did my duty and ate my first bug.

mmm, crunchy. the head makes this most unpleasent popping, though, and the legs tend to be sticky and scratchy. No, it did not taste like chicken- more like carmel corn without the popcorn.

I was also urged to remind all that most Japanese people don`t go around eating bugs- the one woman who did eat them as a child seemed incredibly embarressed by it. They are full of protein, though...

What else..? I ran into the coolest cashier ever at lawsons last night, amidst a sea of russian and italian backpackers. Since I`m a regular and a townie, I was actually a little put off by this mass of foreign tourists invading my store, and the coolest cashier ever and I chatted about it for a while about the newcomers. It was really cool. ^-^

So now I`m remotivated to study Japanese again. haha. I go through phases of apathy and interest, but I`m taking this as a good sign that I`m shedding my recent apathetic funk of homesickness.

I only have four classes to teach today, and I get to go home early (again, in theory), which is cool. I only just realized how fast time is flying here; it feels like I just got off the plane last month, yet I`ve been here closing in on five. Too weird. It certainly makes me realize that, just because I`m living in Japan, does not mean I get to see a lot of it. Travel is expensive beyond reason, and free time is preciously scarce, it seems. ^-^ but, I`ll go play with my camera tomorrow.

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 01:40:54 GMT

I had the most fantastic dinner last night- I made lemon chicken over a salad with snow-pea cheese, and buttered spicy noodles. =p

I`m kindof weirded out every time I stop and think about what I eat here. Especially dinners- last night, for example, I had a totally healthy balanced meal. The three nights before that, I had a piece of fruit, a cup of coffee, and a mouthful of cheese. I honestly can`t remember what I eat during the day most days, but seeing as I always get lunch from the convenience store next door, you can draw your own conclusions as to the content and quality of the food.

The shocking thing is, I think I`m actually eating far more healthily than I ever did back home, even with my daily dose of cookies. There is always something vegetable-like in my fridge (if only because I buy it and don`t eat it for a week), and the staples of my diet have expanded beyond coffee and chocolate to include toast, bananas, and cheese on a daily basis. Woo-hoo for variety. Now if only I could manage to eat something green every day...

The rainy season has started, finally. I`m quite disappointed- I was really expecting rain like you get in the midwest; thunderous downpours; slow, steady, singing, soaking rains, deceptively gentle mists that turn into real rain when you least expect it... Sofar, to be perfectly crude, it`s just piddled a little bit and looked unthreateningly murky outside. I suppose it`s too early to call this the season- standard, but judging from the questions and reactions of my students I`m thinking that the rainy season will be quite boring. I`ll keep my fingers crossed, though.

Poing poing

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:00:35 GMT

Oops, I`m being terrible already- sorry about the lack of update. Last week homesickness hit me, for the first time; much like a truck, actually. I barely managed to pull myself through classes, and I`ll admit I even took a sickday. Never let anyone tell you that living in a foriegn country is easy.

However, the good news is that I`m at least a little rejuvenated this week and am once again looking forward to classes. Not that there`s any specific reason for it, I just realize that I won`t have any chance to have fun in the next few months if I`m sitting around moping.

A few things of note- today we get in a new manager, a guy this time... it shall be interesting. (yes, we do have wicked manager turnover here; they get fed up and quit, or don`t do quite well enough and get transferred to another school instead of being fired).

That prejudiced student, as Cameron puts it, I have him wrapped around my finger. Don`t ask me exactly why; I guess I just have interesting classes and also handle him perfectly.

Sunday night while wandering around my apartment, I noticed the third most horrible thing a person can find in their apartment- cockroaches. I promptly evicted them, and monday went on a cleaning frenzy. Which entailed me going to the store to buy various cleaning supplies, whence I realized that in japan all the cleaning supplies are on the same shelf, in the same style of bottle, and obviously labelled in japanese. >-< so that was fun. I did find what I was looking for, and returned to do war upon my home, where I discovered the second most horrible thing a person can find in their apartment- dark, dank crevices in your laundry room with some former tenants still-wet socks slowly coming to life in a womb of mold and slime sporting all colors of the rainbow. No more cockroaches, though.

I leave you to guess what the first most horrible thing a person can find in their house is, although I will say that it is something I`ve never found.

After cleaning was the World cup soccer game, Japan vs Australia. We`d watched Englands somewhat lackluster game saturday night, and this one was at least more interesting if less polished. Japan got a lucky shot right in the beginning, then got pretty violently smacked down in the last fifteen minutes. I spent the whole night wondering who I wanted to cheer for.. I didn`t have the stamina to stay up for the America-Croatia game after, and since I`d heard that Croatia is significantly better, I wasn`t too keen to watch it in the first place. eh. but when most of your students are soccer fans, you`d better at least know the scores.

Off to find out how badly we lost last night, and plan todays lessons. power on!

Happy monday!

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 02:52:05 GMT

Another week survived, another week to begin. =)

The american hater was actually pretty decent in class. He`s the super serious, rather disinterested type, so he`s not much for doing the normal roleplays that we traditionally do to practice english. On the other hand, he askes great, pointed questions about using the grammar, and we ended up having a long discussion about the difference between patriotism and nationalism (because apparently since the war they`ve been teaching people here that nationalism is Evil or something)

Saturday night we went out drinking and to karaoke, which was great fun indeed. Yesterday I also went out and splurged on an i-pod shuffle (it was only like $65), so I wandered around Niigata like a little whitey punk with my do-rag and my earrings and an i-pod. So much fun! Althought I`d been preferring to dress more conservatively before, I realized that the natives were gonna eyeball me no matter what I`m wearing, so I may as well make a fashion statement. It was cool, too- I overheard several of the really trendy groups commenting on my cool look.

I`m sortof looking forward to this month. The weather is consistently warm, I`ve got plans to hang out with students, and there are no new insane all-consuming sales campaigns for the next two weeks. Plus, I got paid, and I`m actually looking forward to finally sending my parents some money.

^-^ I`m going to go enjoy my day off. Later!

So much to say, so little time

Wed, 31 May 2006 00:29:26 GMT

Booya. Another week bites the dust. While the boys were gone, my productivity actually skyrocketed, so I got everything done, well, and quickly, leaving me with lots of time and nothing to occupy myself. So despite the distraction, I`m glad they`re back. To show how much I missed them, I went out of my way to hang things from the 10 ft ceilings in their classrooms, rearrange all the furniture, and write hilarious things on their whiteboards. Their incredible confusion was fantastic.

They also came back with a ton of ideas for kids lessons, an unbelievable new motivation to do even better than we have been, and some very interesting information. Firstly, they learned that, if their training group was anything to go by, we of Niigata are three of the best teachers new teachers in Japan. Granted, we are awesome, but apparently the other teachers just didn`t even compare as far as capacity to teach. Curious.

The second, more remarkable thing they learned, was that, well, we were really hand picked as employees with really great potential- which is why we all got placed in Niigata at the same time, to work magic. Assuming we don`t do anything dumb, if we choose to stay on in Geos we`re all going to be climbing the corporate ladder very quickly, as we`re all pegged to be area leaders by this time next year. ... assuming we stay, that is.

Its so hard not to feel either flattered or smug about that, I have to admit.

AAAAAAAnyway... The weekend flew by, its wednesday, and I`m back to the daily deal. I met the america-hater last night and emerged unscathed, no screaming, or even pen throwing. And I learned that while being an american might not make teaching him impossible, I`ve actually got a bigger, and much more confusing problem. The man hates English. How does a teacher offer enticing classes to a person who hates the language? More to the point... why in gods name has he been studying a language he hates for more than two years? I admit I was just too confused at that point to even begin thinking of study plans for the man, which was the point of our little sit-down last night. oh well.

And it`s PAYDAY!!!! WOOHOO! We`re going out for a beer tonight! ^-^

atsui!! (It`s hot!)

Wed, 24 May 2006 01:05:38 GMT

The weather here has always been interstingly erratic. Monday was hot and beautiful, yesterday was hot and rainy, today is cool and humid.

I bought a giant plant! Its not too much shorter than I am, and only cost about $30. I think I can say my home life is complete. I go shopping every weekend, since I can only fit a weeks worth of food in my fridge and cubbords- it`s kindof ironic that I don`t have much room for food when I could fit mom`s dining room table in my kitchen. Not that I`d buy more than a weeks worth of groceries if I could, since I have to carry that stuff home, and the supermarket isn`t exactly just around the corner.

I`m currently enjoying a delicious starbucks breakfast, courtesy of our recently departed teacher, Sakae. (He quit, not died) Actually, between him being gone, and my English coworkers both being at training this week, it`s been really quiet. Dare I say I kindof like it?

I can`t chat too long, as always I have a lot of work to do. Its a shame I don`t really have anything intersting to report, however, I spent most of the weekend secluded in my apartment desperately attempting to fight the battle of the dust. Somehow, I have no idea how, but tiny pieces of fabric dust just accumulate everywhere. Two days after I vacuume I`ll be picking pieces off my suits and dusting it off my tables. Oh, the things you take for granted when you have central heating and a dryer with a lint trap. ^_^

Identity crisis!

Fri, 19 May 2006 01:25:27 GMT

Today the `YAY Japan!!` people are out in their big scary black speaker buses. They`re the crazy japanese nationalist party, the ones who want to kick all foreigners out of Japan and make the country a world power. No sissy lovers there. We gaigin just duck, then laugh, and plan our Yay britan and Yay america days to follow.

Oh, and apparently I`m Canadian now. ^-^ We have one student, Yoshimi, who H.A.T.E.S. Americans. He`s one of the biggest asses I`ve ever known. We have Cameron who`s british, so it hasn`t been a problem as far as giving the jerk a teacher, but now he wants to learn English that applies to landscape and engineering, and not from any of our textbooks. ... Tell me what a freak of chance that is. Of course, he`s refused to be taught by Americans until now.. so Cameron told him I`m actually from Toronto. Twenty minutes later the manager told him I`m from Chicago. Oh, the web of lies! Frankly, I don`t want to teach him anyway, since he`s had a history of throwing things at the teachers and trying to correct their english; I have enough trouble with the seven year old children, I don`t need a 48 year old one. But, our class starts next week- Let`s see how that goes!

It`s been a pretty low-key week, actually. No fires to put out, I survived my kids classes quite nicely, and I soothed my poor high level students who I upset last week by teaching them a lesson that was too hard for them.

I`m also enjoying the beautiful weather- it`s just warm enough and cool enough to wear anything you want, from business suit to t-shirt; plus, I`ve seen the sun every day this week. My students tell me that we have about a month of this nice weather before tsuya(?), the month long rainy season, and after that the rediculously humid summer. I do have my windows open every day, and my evening jogs have been gorgeous.

This weekend we`re having a farewell party for one of the Japanese teachers, Sakae. Sakae has been at this school for 8 years, an unheard of amount of time. There will be a lot of drinking, talking, and trying more bizarre foods. I do love going to izukayas with japanese people- without fail, they will order food, then pick it up and go `hmm, what`s this?` Thus, I learn that even if I can read Japanese and order food, I still won`t know what it is until I put it in my mouth.

I`m Aliiiiiive!

Fri, 12 May 2006 02:12:12 GMT

Sorry for sucking so much. Not only have the managers come no closer to getting me internet at home, it looks like I`ll be back in the states before I get it at home. Gwar.

It didn`t help that I, um, forgot my password for this account, and since I`m using school computers, most of the LJ site is in japanese. It required actual effort to figure out how to reset my password, and I`ve been phenomonally lazy with regard to anything not actually work related. Working 12 hour days regularly will do that to ya. =)

From this point forth, I will be posting at least weekly. Since the managers have been sucking so much, I`ve put my foot down and will be using the school computer.

This might be a good point for you to post or email me specific questions, since there`s just too much for me to cover about life in japan without writing a book. That journal I`ve been keeping at home with daily events and interesting things is currently 42 pages long... so I`m probably not going to be posting that. I`ll do what I can to convey the cool stuff without writing an essay every week.

And since this is rapidly approaching essay length, I`ll cut to the good stuff for this week. Like I said, I`ve been working hideously long days. I don`t notice, since I like teaching and I`ve got lots of breaks in the day, but the pattern of sleep-shower-work-dinner-sleep is finally starting to wear on me a bit. It`s really hard to have any kind of social life also, since we all work until 10 at night, the managers later.

Good stuff, right! I got to teach some hilarious english this week. I have a class with a couple of older ladies, and somehow one of them brought up `men who dressed and acted like women,` and wanted to know what the english word was for that. Thus inciting a twenty minute discussion on alternative lifestyles, including such great vocabulary as `drag show` and `transvestite.` Something about fifty year old japanese women talking about transexuals is just really funny and strange. I also ended up teaching children how to say `I`m washing my bum,` totally by accident. The lesson I was teaching was too easy for them (I`m washing my spoon, fork, plate), so I decided to review body parts also (and thus make sure they actually knew what washing meant). So I mimed washing my arm, had them guess, and had the students mime washing body parts to quiz each other. ... yeah, I should have predicted that someone would wash their butt. But... ^-^ It`s useful knowledge, anyway, right?

Ack. Time for work. See you!

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:06:06 GMT

Hello!! Im in an internet cafe, finally, but I wont be here long- expensive, dane! or something- i just got out of japanese lessons

so, i:ve been saving up all my experiences here sofar on my other computer, and i:m　in　the process of getting internet at home- Im sorry it:s taking so long.

The highlights are that I:m having a fantastic time, ive forgotten all my japanese besides hello and thank　you, and i have some totally awesome students. i love teaching. it:s just fantastic fun

I work with two whities, Cody from portland and Cameron from London, and four japanese teachers, michiyo, michiko, sakae, and boku. Ive been enjoying the sights and sounds, and I:ll let you know more as soon as I can. =)

Have to go- sorry. I:ll have real internet with pictures and everything, i hope, within two weeks,. However, things move a lot more slowely in Niigata than they do in the states. miss you,　take care!