snowboarding! not dead yet.

so snowboarding was incredibly fun, and i now have a brand new hobby to waste lots of time on. i'm actually going again next saturday! hurray for that!
i also went to 2 shows this weekend, did way too much driving, and got hit on by my students (again). also realized that i should avoid the dollar-store-equivalent that's closest to the school i work at, because i walked in and saw six students in thirty seconds.
eeep.
this is just a short post to let everyone know i'm not dead. i'll write some real stuff soon, i promise.

heads up for anyone trying to get a license in japan

ok, so just so everyone knows: i am trying to get my japanese driver's license.

this is possibly the most frustrating thing i have ever attempted.

would you like to know why? too bad, i'm telling you anyway. as you may be aware, i've been living in japan since late last march. my PA driver's license was due to expire in october. in PA, you can't renew your driver's license more than 5 months before it's due. no, i don't know why. it's an annoying, kinda silly rule. SOOOOO, since i was living in japan and wasn't about to go back to the states just to get a card made, i renewed my license online. hurray! できた。 however, when i began the excruciatingly long, unnecessarily complicated process for switching my international license for a japanese one, i found out something delightful-

japan doesn't believe me.

all the pieces of paper i have saying that my new expiration date is in 2014 do me no good, because i don't have a current piece of plastic. which, i might add, i can't get unless i go back to PA to get a photo taken. i'm waiting for a form to be sent to me so i can get a photoless license made, but knowing the sterling DMV turnaround time who knows when the hell that'll get here. after that, i've been assured, i can allow up to 21 days before they make it and send it to me. that's with 1 week mail time in between PA and japan.

then i can start all over again. first i have to send in all my paperwork (again) to be translated. then i wait. then i take my papers to gifu city (2.5 hours away), where they will only accept them between 3 and 4 pm, monday to friday. then i can make an appointment, if they can't think of anything else to complain about. then i can wait until they have time for me to take my test (written and driving), then drive back to gifu city to take it. this is usually scheduled at 8:30 in the morning. again, only monday-friday. if i don't pass, and most people don't on their first try, i have to wait until the NEXT MONTH before i can re-take it.

my international driver's license expires in late march. school starts up again in early april. i have to drive to work, which will be impossible since there is literally no way for me to get my license before then. perhaps i could cheat and drive without a license for a month, IF it was my car- but it's not. it belongs to my company. and they will take it back if i don't have a license. this means, due to the distance of the schools i will be teaching at next semester, that i will be getting up at approximately 4 or 5 am in order to be at work by 8:30.
hip hip hooray.

some days i feel as though i'm fueled by pure rage.

February Has Started and i kinda wish it would stop again

welcome to february! it's been almost a year since i moved to japan. i haven't regretted it at all. some days are easier than others, certainly, but yeah- no regrets. my japanese is still bad but it's a lot better than it used to be, my students are amazing, and the other teachers i work with are mostly awesome people.
i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i can work with some of the same schools next year. i know that i'll be in the same town, and the same school district- but the actual SCHOOLS are in doubt. some people are moving back to the US, and some people are moving elsewhere in japan, and so everything gets shuffled.
i really don't want to lose the kids i teach now.
i know that any school i pick up will be filled with students that are probably just as awesome and fun and fabulous as the ones i currently have- but losing these ones is still gonna suck.

on an unrelated note, i went over to my friend's house to help her with her kids yesterday, like i do every week, as it was starting to snow. she told me 'i was going to call you and tell you not to come, since it was getting slippery, but as soon as i mentioned it kaisei started crying and yelling for you. so... i didn't call.' it's nice to know that 4yr olds like me enough to throw fits over. my friend's twins are getting so big! they're six months old now, and definitely not identical. the younger one is HUGE. they're both adorable and sweet (and loud and heavy) and they're super freakin cute. i'll get a picture and post it at some point. also, ever since i taught them how to make apple crumble, it's been getting made with startling regularity. the recipe is apparently starting to make the rounds of the local moms. bwahahahahaha, new local specialty! i feel special.

anyway, i don't really have anything super extra important to say today except that it's cold, i drink too much tea, and i must have gone crazy at some point in the last few months because i'm going snowboarding in a week.
falling down mountains is supposed to be exhilarating. i will let you know how it goes.
-andrea

Winter Has Finally Started

and by that i mean real winter, the kind with snow and ice and horribly cold mornings. it's a real struggle to crawl out of my nice warm blankets in the morning, i have to admit. it's a good thing i like my job or i'd be very tempted to go riiiiiight back to sleep.
sorry it's been so long since i wrote anything- i'm really not particularly good at remembering about this blog. or any blog-like thing, for that matter. on the few occasions that someone bought me a diary to write in, i'd usually fill out a max of two pages before losing all interest.
the winter term has started- it's a short one. only two and a half months before spring vacation. it's currently snowing big flakes outside and i'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a snow day. liking my job is all well and good, but given the opportunity to sit in a nice warm office and drink tea and draw monsters all day, i will GLADLY take it. no question.
christmas was strange- it's a party holiday in japan. people go on dates and sit around and eat cake and get a little crazy with their friends. looking at the pictures of my family sitting around at home, with the decorations and the tree and everything, was the closest to homesick i've been since i moved here. luckily i've got some awesome friends to spend time with instead. without them, living here would be much more difficult. i really think i got lucky with this job- nice town, relatively friendly people, and cool co-workers. it's a shame a bunch of people are leaving next year, but i'm happy with the thought of staying here. it's a good place to be.
i spent new years' in osaka. THAT was really cool. we went to a countdown party at a rock/metal/punk bar and enjoyed the hell out of ourselves. lots of dancing, giggling (at the absurd song choices) and singing along at the top of our lungs along with the rest of the bar. they played "the final countdown" as it was hitting midnight. best decision ever. it was crazy amounts of fun. two days later, i got sick sick sick and that sucked. it was totally my own fault though- i didn't bring a coat with me to osaka and the hostel i stayed at had no heating, which meant i was insanely cold all week. didn't really help preserve my health, deshou?
let's see... oh yeah! i also went to tokyo and met a cool new friend, went to a dinosaur museum and had the best time ever, and saw my students at a matsuri in town jumping fences in order to cause some sort of trouble somewhere.
i adore my students.
anyway, i hope all 5 of you who read this are having an awesome winter too- and i'll talk to you soon. promise.
probably.
-andrea

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.