hello, eburiwan

OK so instead of making an actual post about my actual life, i will make a pseudo-post with actual answers from the actual tests that my actual students wrote. today. actually.

question: H____ the money
answers include: Hi you are the money Humuch the money How! the money

attempted word: important
answers include: inspirekt interlesheing instrornent impotrument

attempted word: everyone
answers include: evriwan eburiwan

attempted word: second
answers include: sekanbo

attempted word: children
answers include: tiraboren

attempted phrase: take care of
answers include: talk car of take cera

I went to the school to play sfutoball.
I want to be tennis.
I went to the baesboll prepyar.
I went to the ingurando soccering. (translation for those of you who don't teach ESL- I want to play soccer in England.)

When a language dies, the culture a________ dies out.
guess: astoronant astoraunt

listen to speech, think you.

I want to hoom to steby English.

I want is to spuun.

Second, I will thehe a tirub.

I went to shoop to shooping.

I went to be a dog and cat shop. My home in the cat. Is very very puritie.

I want to be a writing mup.

No I whasn't.

If I want car enjineer, many cars supeird.

I want someone to eat.

First, likek space, I will go to the space.

I think that there is her that he to cool.

I want sat the sat.

and to finish it off for today, the classic: I Am Dream. Are You Dream?

November is the best month so far

admittedly, pretty much every month has been 'the best month so far', so that isn't saying too much. my students continue to be amazing, the teachers i work with are gradually wrapping their brains around the fact that i'm not some strange alien creature, and fall is in full swing. the mountains are beautiful. there are a couple views i see all the time while driving that make me want to pull the car over, climb on the roof, and sit and stare.

tomorrow is going to be a long, long day. i'm teaching every period, no breaks, from the beginning of school to the end. this is outweighed by the fact that i'll be spending all of friday watching my students put on plays and sing songs.
for the last month i've been heading to my friend's house once a week to help her with her new twins and entertain her other two kids. i started giving them cooking lessons (mostly eating lessons, admittedly)- all basic comfort food type stuff. so far, apple crumble has been the biggest hit. i don't blame them. apple crumble is super awesome.

i'm crazy tired, for no real good reason that i can think of, so this post is gonna be short. i'll try and remember to write a real one with pictures and stuff fairly soon.

Adventures in Essay-Grading

it's possible that i'm a bad person for enjoying the mistakes my students make in their papers quite as much as i do... but in all fairness, they are EPIC in their level of entertainment.

example: I want to be a baker and eat many people.

it was a good attempt- she'd searched through her memory and picked a word that was allllllmost right. the end result was something rather different than she expected. she looked a little horrified when i explained it to her.

in other, non-essay-related news, i'm still having an awesome time playing taiko. i'm definitely still not good at it, but it's incredibly fun and i'm getting a little better. so- hurray! this is just a mini post to let people know that i haven't died mysteriously, because my taiko group is playing at a shrine festival in... oh about 10 minutes. i should really start booking it, considering they're playing ten minutes away. luckily, i'm not playing this weekend, which is a good thing considering i'm still not perfect on my songs.

the picture is from a couple days ago... it's turning into a beautiful fall over here.

1! 2! ah ah ah

One! Two! One Two Four Three!


went and saw a great show on sunday and that was definitely my favorite count-in of the night. the venue was awesome, the bands were great, and the scene was remarkably similar to the scene in every other city i've been in. the obligatory tall-guy-with-fedora was even there. it was a pretty great night minus a few pitfalls but hey, things are rarely perfect and it was a lot of fun.

saturday i went to the sport festivals at both of my JHS. there is nothing like this in the states and that is the truth. these kids get super intense about the competition (which is mostly relay races and gimmick races) and the losing team generally breaks into tears at the end of it... there's also a dance competition which is pretty fabulous. the music tends to span several genres and is never less than ridiculous- my favorite of the day was probably the vocal-less ska cover of Thriller, followed by what appeared to be the austin powers theme song.

got invited to a few enkais last minute, but couldn't go. also, steph and i failed epically at locating our taiko group in their new location... we really are trying to practice, i swear. really, really trying. after all, if we don't we get to fail horribly in front of hundreds of people on a main stage in a major festival. next month. oh god oh god what have i gotten myself into O_O

so i have a day off today (to make up for the sports day on saturday) and yesterday was a major holiday which is pretty awesome and thursday is ANOTHER major holiday so the long and short of it is that i only have two days of work this week. hurrayyyyyyy! gonna spend a bunch of today on lesson plans and props. i have some good ideas... i hope the other teachers like them.

i spent yesterday on an island drawing the ocean. it was pretty amazing with the exception of the lunch, which was both amazing and completely inedible due to being Creepy In The Extreme. as in, hey here's an octopus on a plate, cut it up with some scissors and eat it. gee, suddenly i'm really not hungry, you can have my share.

i'll add some photos later, when i get around to putting them on my computer.

Two More Days And Then Back To Work

i met the new twins the other day- they're adorable! so cute... they're fraternal twins, not identical. the boys were born just on either side of midnight so they have their own birthdays. maybe it'll make up for having nearly identical names.

this weekend was packed. i spent most of it in Nagoya, listening to bands and chatting with guitarists and watching parades etc etc etc. i met some extremely cool people and got some cds and other people took photos of my friends and i holding said cds in order to display their 'international appeal'.
i'm planning to continue my insinuation into the nagoya music scene. soon i will be a staple at shows, and eventually i will find a band to sing in, and then my assimilation will be complete. bwahahaha.
or something like that, anyway.

my friend ella performed in a dance festival on sunday! she kicked some serious ass. it was incredibly hot... the dancers pretty much collapsed as soon as they left the stage. they all put on some stunning performances though. as far as ridiculous goes, though, the guys who were not in any contest at all won by a long shot. photos are posted... words escape me. they were certainly memorable, that's for sure. the best part is that this is apparently a multi-city phenomenon, there was more than one group of them in the park, and they start and end every song by combing their hair.

Approximately Seven Million Festivals Later

i'm still not done with summer and the festivals keep coming. so far i've gone to... at least five? seven? lots? not sure. the last one was about slugs, which did not make an appearance, and buddhist monks, which also did not make an appearance, and nothing to do with tv crews even though they showed up anyway.

two more weeks until work starts up again. i'm actually looking forward to seeing my students, although i'm not looking forward to wearing unnecessarily hot clothing and standing around like an idiot. in the meantime, i've got EVEN MORE festivals to go to... there's a couple in nagoya and one of them is a mandatory-attendance type thing because my friend is dancing in it.

honestly, even if she wasn't, i'd probably go anyway. she's just a convenient excuse to watch people dance and wear interesting outfits and generally cause some trouble in a publicly acceptable fashion.

today i'm heading out to lunch with one of the teachers from work, and then... something? and then i have taiko practice! first practice ever. i have high hopes that this will be a better fit for me temperamentally than kyuudo was. being very serious and standing very still and posing until it was time to shoot arrows was extremely cool, but i'm neither serious nor cool. maybe jumping around and making a lot of noise will agree with me.

art-wise, i've got another couple of people who are looking for tattoo designs so i'm gonna try and get that done soon. i wish i had some studio space... it's hard to keep focused in a one room apartment that contains all your stuff.

So A Whole Lot Of Stuff Happened

And I Didn't Tell You About Any Of It

because i am a jerk.

it's probably genetic. (love you mom.)

so approximately a week and a half ago, i got a call from my fellow philadelphian expat, a really awesome girl named vash, asking if i'd be up for a trip. to tokyo. in two days.

being insane and bored, i said HELL YES and proceeded to make no concrete plans of any kind beyond buying a backpack covered in ska-check and looking at prices of train tickets. we headed out of nagoya and after approximately a million years on a train with some really pretty scenery and adorable small children speaking bad english at us, we arrived in tokyo.

weirdest question of the trip: "why are YOU speaking japanese?!" said in tones of shock and horror. luckily, every other person we talked to was pretty awesome, over all.

we spent a night in roppongi at a karaoke place and the zombie-march as the clubs emptied the next morning was enough to give a girl nightmares. i was amazed they were all still conscious enough to totter down the street in 7 inch heels, considering they looked like death spat them out and were about 60 pounds shy of a healthy body weight on average.
we ended up spending a big chunk of the next few days in shibuya and harajuku, with a brief jaunt over to akihabara. all places i wanna go again. when i have more money. tokyo is a money-eating machine O_O and i didn't even really do much shopping.

also, i met a kid who was wearing a philly cheesteak t shirt who ACTUALLY KNEW WHAT IT SAID and had worn it on purpose. apparently he really likes oldschool R+B and was pretty excited to meet two girls who were actually from philly. considering he's the first person who hasn't either mentioned rocky, creamcheese or the 76ers who actually knew where philadelphia was, i am super impressed.

also also, a very sweet japanese boy asked me for directions while i was sitting in yoyogi koen, which did not do any good at all as i could barely answer him and had no idea how to get him anywhere. he looked so disappointed... poor guy. however, points to me for not looking like a tourist in a city i don't know! hooray!

in other news: nagoya had a world cosplay summit and i missed it. steph talked me into buying a yukata and i'm wearing it next week at a festival at nagoya castle. i am in the process of conning people into coming to my tiny town and hanging out with me for a few days. everyone i know who lives close is on vacation or busy and i'm going crazy.

oh! and my friend just had her twins! i'm going to go visit them soon- twin boys! i'm so happy for her!

quick post!

ok, so a fancy new outfit has been procured. it is the only one i've found that was 1) not covered in flowers or 2) not pink. i love it. definitely wearing it soon.

Fireworks are awesome, and now I need fancier clothes

i'm less than a week into summer vacation and i can already tell it's going to be epic. fireworks were phenomenal (i'm going to see some more this sunday) although i felt inadequately dressed... everyone was all dolled up in yukata. on top of that, the fireworks took up more than fifty percent of the sky. it was indescribable... and apparently they get better.

i attended a work party yesterday night that involved far too much eating of strange things. i feel like i may have passed some sort of secret test, and now i will be allowed into the special clubhouse and taught the secret handshake. maybe. if i'm good.

the rainy season is officially over! hooray! now it's just the hot and humid less rainy season - read: summer- so i better suck it up and get used to it. in unrelated news, i have figured out how to bake using my new toaster oven. it's surprisingly different from using any other oven ever, but it works just fine.

i'm not sure what's going on tonight but if no one has anything planned, i'm going out anyway. i have no intention of staying in tonight- it's way too much fun to go out.

NATSUYASUMI! yaaaay

So it's now officially summer vacation for me. six whole weeks... i intend to fill them with anything i can think of. this week has been intense- there were flood/landslide warnings three out of five days, which meant canceled classes and me sitting in an office pretending i had work to do. on top of that, someone from my company came and observed one of my lessons...

luckily it went pretty well.

i'm really looking forward to the end of the rainy season. apparently, there's just a couple more days and then i'm in the clear. finally! there's only so much grey humid nasty weather i can take before i start to get a little crazy. i'm planning on having a girls' night this weekend, which will be awesome, and watching hanabi (fireworks) in nagoya on monday. i got invited to a couple of teacher parties, but they're at the same time (laaame) so i'm going with the ones who asked me first.
the other school retaliated by inviting me to the next school party... which is in october. they figure there's no possible way for me to have a conflict with that.
i gotta say, i'm really going to miss my students all summer. they're awesome kids.
i'll probably see them around town, though... it's not a big enough place that i won't run into them. this could be either good or bad. i'm hoping none of them are traumatized by my suddenly visible tattoos and multiple earrings. however, unless they're a little dim, they should have figured out that i'm not entirely respectable- so it shouldn't come as TOO much of a shock.
i hope.

anyway, i can't think of too much stuff to write currently. i'll try and update again in a few days, when i've caught up on sleep and stuff.

in other news, here's a picture of the sunset near my house.

Ok, so i may be a little behind with this.

i think at this point it's well established that i'm very bad at remembering to update blogs. it's something that all two of you who read it will have to deal with, i'm afraid.

I taught at my first kindergarten today- I have five of them but I only visit twice a year. The kids were incredible... I taught them some songs and how to play duck-duck-goose (which is harder than you'd think with three year olds) and some basic colors, and was used as a jungle gym. I've really missed being around young kids... hanging out with twenty 3yr olds made me lonesome for Jay and Alex and Philadelphia in general.

My senseis are taking full advantage of the fact that I can not only draw, but like doing it (to an extent. this is beginning to get silly.) This means I'm basically producing massive amounts of pictures of random things... this weekend's project is adjectives. This is actually insanely hard- for example, how do you illustrate "awesome" and "wonderful"? So far I've managed "loud" "popular" and "difficult/exciting". i think it's exciting, my sensei thinks it's difficult. can't it be both?

In closing, very few things are more difficult than trying to walk with four children attached to one arm, two attached to the other, and three fighting for a space to attach themselves. However, I totally managed it. Also, the shyest 3yr old they've got decided I was there specifically to play with him only. He got very upset when I had to leave. Also, I made one of my JTEs laugh hard enough that he spit out his drink. I feel accomplished.

Also Also, I read my first (non textbook) sentence. It involved ice cream.

You... eto... Have... eto... Very Beautiful.

The weather's amazing right now- sunny and breezy and about 25 degrees c. I'm giving myself excuses to walk around town just so I can bask. I feel like I have to store it up for once the rainy season comes. I'm not looking forward to a solid month of rain, I have to admit. Ick.

It was yet another friend's birthday this past week- there's been some sort of major event every weekend since I moved here it seems. This was the last one for a bit, partially because we have no real excuse to get together but mostly because we're all counting our yen. That's what moving to a new country, going to Nagoya three out of four weekends, and not getting paid for two months will do for you.
Tsushima has a gorgeous park. It's so restful... we ended up hanging out there for hours, watching turtles and blowing bubbles and entertaining small children. Between that and eating awesome food and screaming ourselves hoarse at karaoke, it was a pretty wonderful weekend.

I finally get to make the game I've been working out! I'm test-running it on Friday, so keep your fingers crossed for me. I think it'll go over well, but there's no real way to know until I try it. AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa suspense! Hopefully my ni nensei will like it as much as I do. I'm making a few different character sets to use so there's some variety if we end up doing it every class (which is what my JTE would like to do).

I got invited to chatsumi- tea harvesting- with some of the teachers at my shogakko, but I can't go and that sucks. Turns out I'm only working the morning with them and then switching over to another school and they'll be gone before I get off work. Grr! That would have been kinda cool. Oh well, maybe next time.

Alright, I'mma go work on the characters for my game- there are six sumo wrestlers and one piece of cake that are patiently waiting to be drawn.

Can you show me the way to the way?

I am probably the only person in the history of ever who actually enjoys grading papers. It helps that my students have such awesome translations... one of my personal favorites is the title for this post. There's a poster in one of my 3yr classes that states that it belongs to the "Best Groop". I have to stifle giggles every time I see it... gotta admit it's hard to look professional when you're snickering at the front of the class.

I'm kinda slowly putting down roots here. I feel like I'm sorting out who I am and what I need... and right at the front of those things is learning katakana, because I freakin need to know it. This is getting ridiculous- I can only read a third of the language currently. I'd like to at least be able to figure out the damn menu with some facility. In pursuit of this lofty goal, I'm getting together with one of the other ALTs and we're gonna drink coffee and learn this second alphabet and hopefully remember it and not get distracted (too much).

Another awesome quote from today's papers: "I mast have the way i happy. arong from you, from japan across is this."

Admittedly, I'm Terrible At Remembering I Have a Blog

It's extremely bizarre to look at the date and realize I've been here for a month. A month and a day, actually. I feel like I'm finally getting myself settled in. My apartment feels like home, there are markers and bits of paper everywhere, and I own a plant. My students know who I am and say hi to me randomly. My neighbors no longer look like they're going to bolt away at any second (on the few occasions that I see them).

I'm slowly adding to my minimal knowledge of Japanese- I've figured out wonderful (subareshii!) wait a minute (chotto motte) and how to write the names of my junior highs in kanji. It's a start, right? I'm waiting for some kids' books to get here- I hassled my mother into sending me a few. I have a feeling they'll be useful- one of my new friends, a math teacher at one of my schools, has two little kids who are unbelievably sweet. I'm gonna bring the books over for them to look at as soon as they get in.

My friend Steph and I have somehow become the information hub for the new-ish Nagoya branch kids. We seem to end up in charge of everyone's plans at some point or another, which is kinda fun and extremely funny. This past weekend was amazing- we dragged a bunch of people up into the mountains to visit us and then climbed and drove all over the place. I definitely need to spend more time lounging around on the rocks in Nagiso- best place I've ever seen to curl up and do a whole lot of nothing in the sun.

I've got my first elementary school lesson in two days, a holiday on thursday, and then a five day weekend where I'm intending to town-hop for a few days to visit all the people who came to visit me, with a few additions. Hopefully it will work out perfectly, and even if it doesn't I bet it'll be fun as hell. I'm looking forward to the Iga ninja festival. Seriously- it's a town full of ninjas, and people pretending to be ninjas, and ninja-themed everything. Why on earth wouldn't I go?

Here's a couple of photos: a friend of mine in Nagiso, right before he fell in the river, and a shot taken from the graveyard in Tsumago. This weekend was gorgeous.

Second Day, Second School

I'm teaching at two Junior Highs, one Elementary, not to mention a random assortment of preschools (on a very casual basis- approximately a day and a half every year). I just kinda got settled down after my second day. The kids at both junior highs are great. That being said, I have a feeling I'm gonna have way more fun teaching at this school than the other one. I actually got to use my lesson plan and it went over well, which was awesome, and the other teachers are really friendly which is amazing. I might even actually end up with friends. Shocking! Some of the older ladies were having quiet bets on my age- when I confirmed one teacher yelled "Bingo!"
I teach at this school three times this week, which is pretty awesome. I kinda wish it was my only school... that's how much fun I had. It was really cool- the students got crazy excited to see me and made a point of walking past (in some cases, several times in a row) in order to say Hello! How are you! I like ! Frankly, it's endearing and unbearably funny.
The second year volleyball club took it upon themselves to come over and say hi during break, which was awesome. They found it hilarious that I could only say a couple things in Japanese. It really makes me wonder how atrocious my accent is... We somehow managed to have a little mini-conversation despite it all.
The first school I taught at was fine, but definitely a much more formal, serious feeling place- with a couple notable exceptions. It's a very by the book lesson structure with little creative teaching on my part. This second school seems legitimately fun. I get to suggest games and help shape the lessons, which is awesome. I'm really looking forward to working there again tomorrow.


But right at this exact moment, I have to walk down a mountain in the rain to buy an apron because I need it to help with school lunch tomorrow afternoon. Goody.

At Least I Know Where I Am

So I spent a bunch of today working out where my three main schools and whether or not I can find them again... and I can! I feel relatively accomplished. In a country that believed in street signs, this would not be as impressive. However, everything here is all about landmarks: for example, you go past the gas station but not the first gas station, the second one, and turn hard left... etc etc. It's like trying to follow the directions of the flaky kid you knew in high school who couldn't remember her own phone number. Except that's the entire country. Streets don't have names or numbers except for major highways, so it can be more than a little confusing the first few times you head somewhere.
Needless to say, I'll be repeating this experiment tomorrow and Sunday as well.

I'm getting really nervous- I've been trying to prepare introduction lessons for my Junior High students but I have no idea which classes I'll be teaching on Monday, or what level they're at. It makes it tricky to know what to prepare. Oh well, I'll just make a few easily modifiable plans and come prepared to be giggled at. (This is harder than one might think.)

I'm supposed to bring in objects from home that can be shown to students for my Tuesday school, which is tricky because I really didn't bring any. I have a little bit of money (quarters and stuff) and a massive bag of Hershey's kisses which I'm not allowed to hand out. I'm planning on bringing those in for the teachers, at any rate, so hopefully they like chocolate.

I'm meeting up with some pre-existing ALTs this evening, so maybe they have some tips.

On the cheerful side, this is what I see when I go outside my door... so it's not all nervous energy over here. And actually, I'm enjoying the hell out of myself, freaking out about first classes and all.

BoE Meeting

This afternoon I meet up with the Board of Education. Apparently, I'll introduce myself, chat a bit, and then get a list of schools and a schedule. This is a serious relief, and the current ALTs assure me it's relatively painless... the thing is that afterwards, I have meetings with teachers from three different schools. Most likely, I'm gonna have to be on best 'business professional' behavior til after 8 tonight. Good grief.

Not my idea of fun, really, but I suppose that's why it's work. At least I'll know what classes I'll be teaching after today... and there will be people willing to go get a beer afterwards. Because frankly, I think I'll need one.

So This Is It

So this is where I will be living for the next year at least. Madness! I thought that instead of flooding everyone with all the photos, I'd just put up a video. Work starts properly on the 12th, so I've still got some time to get adjusted to the town and attempt to lessen the language barrier. Wish me luck! I'll need it.

oops. forgot.

So I haven't updated this in approximately... a week? ish? However, I have an excuse. And it's a good one, not some wishy-washy lame one. I AM IN JAPAN. This means that while I do love the internet, it does not compare to wandering around and failing to comprehend people's conversations.

Nakatsugawa is beautiful. I don't think I can really appropriately explain it, so there's just gonna be an image...

I'll have a phone soon, so it's possible for people to email directly to that! OoOoo AaaAaa. Also, the camera on my phone is Better Than My Actual Camera. I have never coveted a piece of technology this much in my life. (except for maybe my laptop.)

In Nagoya!

Finally! I've arrived and am currently chillin in Nagoya, Japan. It's cool as hell- there's a pretty damn awesome assortment of people here, including one of the dudes that I interviewed with. Excellent!

We're planning on hitting up the castle tomorrow, and spent most of today wandering through shops and resisting the temptation to buy video games. Is it a prerequisite to be a super nerd before you get to work in Japan? I'm half convinced. I also found out that one of the other chicks here (one of the few- seems like it's mostly men) is also working in Nakatsugawa. Lucky me, she's a cool kid. Could definitely have been much much much worse.

In unrelated news, I nearly saw some poor idiot fall in front of a train because he was beyond plastered. This, children, is what excessive drinking will do to you if you are not careful.

One Step Closer.

New computer! Sweet! Also, went to the consulate in NYC and got my official piece of paper that lets me stay in the country. Gotta say, the train ride home was very... eventful. That's what happens when you're in New York on St Patrick's Day :)

There was a drunk guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes and singing the filet o fish song on the train. It is locked in to my head. Also, it was pretty awesome. Even more awesome- other drunk people (with and without bagpipes) joining in.

Getting Ready

So! Major apologies to anyone reading this. I've never written a blog before (or really had any desire to write one) so I'm bound to make stupid mistakes.

Now that that's out of the way: I'm counting down the days til my departure from Philly. Only 8 more! My flight leaves Phila Intl Airport early on the 24th. After that, I'll be living in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It's a big switch- I'm going from being responsible for one family's children to teaching multiple elementary schools' worth. It still doesn't feel quite real. It's taken approximately a year to get to this point, and I still haven't quite wrapped my brain around the fact that I was hired and am nearly on my way.

I'm going to miss Philadelphia and the boys I've been taking care of very much- however, I know I'm going to be running around like crazy over there so hopefully I won't get crushingly homesick.