Hello all, happy christmas eve ( or at least it is here in Bangkok) its strange to be celebrating christmas in a different country.. here its just one big party, music and beer drinking.
D and I just had a great fondou dinner, and tomorrow our tour officially starts, it should be great! I can't wait to explore some more. So far I've been to a few open markets and took a day trip out of the city today, saw some budhist temples and took a river cruise.
I'm hoping that in the next week I will get to ride an elephant!!
I'm off to relax but i'll have more later
Love all,
Me!!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
off on an adventure
Hello again,
I know its been a while.. but here goes.
Not much has been going on in the last few weeks, a few christmas parties that were really fun, school has been rather dead lately, finales are over so i haven't been teaching at all, just alot of grading and even more fooling around on the internet. I had a great time at a birthday party, and got to play plenty of christmas games which is always great.
As for now, on Saturday morning I'm headed off to Thailand for 10 days. I am soooooo excited I can't believe I will really be traveling. I'm going to spend the first few days of my trip in Bangkok, i'll see a few temples, the water market, and maybe even get a suit made. Then I think on Christmas day I will be flying south to Phuket basically a bunch of islands and beaches. I am staying at a great resort there and I'll lounge on the beach and take a cruise boat tour of the islands.. if you saw the movie The Beach with leo decaprio some of it was filmed in this area.
After that it is back to Bangkok for New Years and back to Tokyo on Jan 2nd. I think the time will fly by but I am so excited for all of it.
I love Japan but I definitely am ready for a break from it, then i will be able to come back and start off the new term well. I also am pretty positive that when i get back I will be signing my contract to stay for another year. I am enjoying my time here and I really think that staying another year will be great, so thats what I'm going to do.
Any way I'm planning on being a total tourist and taking tons of photos so I will make sure to post them as soon as I get back. I won't have my computer with me on break, so I won't be able to call on christmas (tear) but i'll be thinking of everybody and hope you all have a great holiday!
okay off to make some lists and send some emails.
Merry christmas, Happy chanukkah, Happy New Year and all that!!
love Lissie
I know its been a while.. but here goes.
Not much has been going on in the last few weeks, a few christmas parties that were really fun, school has been rather dead lately, finales are over so i haven't been teaching at all, just alot of grading and even more fooling around on the internet. I had a great time at a birthday party, and got to play plenty of christmas games which is always great.
As for now, on Saturday morning I'm headed off to Thailand for 10 days. I am soooooo excited I can't believe I will really be traveling. I'm going to spend the first few days of my trip in Bangkok, i'll see a few temples, the water market, and maybe even get a suit made. Then I think on Christmas day I will be flying south to Phuket basically a bunch of islands and beaches. I am staying at a great resort there and I'll lounge on the beach and take a cruise boat tour of the islands.. if you saw the movie The Beach with leo decaprio some of it was filmed in this area.
After that it is back to Bangkok for New Years and back to Tokyo on Jan 2nd. I think the time will fly by but I am so excited for all of it.
I love Japan but I definitely am ready for a break from it, then i will be able to come back and start off the new term well. I also am pretty positive that when i get back I will be signing my contract to stay for another year. I am enjoying my time here and I really think that staying another year will be great, so thats what I'm going to do.
Any way I'm planning on being a total tourist and taking tons of photos so I will make sure to post them as soon as I get back. I won't have my computer with me on break, so I won't be able to call on christmas (tear) but i'll be thinking of everybody and hope you all have a great holiday!
okay off to make some lists and send some emails.
Merry christmas, Happy chanukkah, Happy New Year and all that!!
love Lissie
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
4 months
oh my.. it reallly has been 4 months since i moved to Japan.. crazy!
I really can't believe it is December already. No real snow in Toyama yet but oh boy is it cold! well not really but i'm a wimp and my box of warm clothing is still mia.. soo.
anyway what have I been up to.. hmm. sometimes its hard to think of things.. cause its really just day to day living. But last weekend my school had its Bon Enkai or end of year party. It was interesting to say the least. The party was at a onsen (hot spring) in a different prefecture.. about a 2 hour drive away.
We left around 2 on Saturday afternoon, all the teachers crowded onto the bus.. and it was like a party bus, as you got on you were handed beer or a cocktail, and a bag of snacks.. that was cool. The resort we were staying at was really nice, it had a view of the ocean (sea of Japan) and the fall colors were great... The rooms were also pretty, and we had a balcony, in the room was one of those tubs that you can fill up forever, and the water just flows over.. except it was the hot spring water.. so that was cool.
After arriving we had cake, and if we wanted we could go use the public bath (i wasn't up for that yet, more later) and then at 6:30 our dinner started. It was really cool.. instead of long tables or tables at all really it was in the Japanese style.. on a tatami mat floor.. we sat in long rows on floor cushions... and each place had a raised tray with all your food on it. (sorry forgot my camera so no pics) but the food was definitely interesting, in Japan they have a very wide variety of foods and many courses, but they are all very small. I had crab yummy!, sashimi, snail (which the teachers sitting next to me couldn't believe I ate) and numerous other dishes.. the food just kept coming.
Okay let me explain the main point of a Japanese enkai.. the goal is to never let your co-workers glass get empty, and to pour drinks for as many people as possible... and you can't turn someone down if they want to pour you a drink, so if your glass is already full you have to drink some and let them pour more. Generally people drink beer but i hate beer, so i drank Sake all night long.. oh my goodness.
Anyway after this really great dinner, during which we played a game of bingo and all won prizes... we went to the karaoke after party. and then at about 12 the other ladies in my room and i went down to the public bath. Sounds great, that is if you don't mind bathing naked in public with your co-workers..cause onsen in Japan means hot springs, but it also implies naked bathing.
at least I had, had plenty to drink before hand, the baths are great, the nakedness not so much.
The next morning after a truely not pleasant traditional Japanese breakfast we piled back in the bus and headed home.
Sunday afternoon I was going to a charity bowling event, but oh my i was still not feeling well after the enkai.. but it was for a good cause and i wanted to see other ALT's so I went.. and suprisingly I did really well, (for me anyway) I bowled a 93!! thats an all time high, yay.
It was an insane weekend, but now I am back at work, with nothing much to do. I have spent the last 3 days grading papers, and final exams.. it was probably close to 800 papers.. but i'm done now!
The next 2 and 1/2 weeks are pretty boring school wise. I don't actually have any classes between now and when I leave on break. but I have to be at school every day! I'm hoping to get some lessons and assignments made for next term. But I do have a lot going on the next few weekends.
Saturday (8th) birthday/christmas party, and another christmas dinner/dance that night
Friday (14th) english teachers party
Saturday (15th) children's christmas party
Saturday (22nd) I LEAVE FOR THAILAND!!!!
plus any other random JET stuff that always pops up in there.
Anyway this is long so I'll wrap up, hope everyone is enjoying the snowy weather back home, and that you enjoyed your snow day if you had it.
Good luck to my Yoh's this weekend!!!
later all
ME
I really can't believe it is December already. No real snow in Toyama yet but oh boy is it cold! well not really but i'm a wimp and my box of warm clothing is still mia.. soo.
anyway what have I been up to.. hmm. sometimes its hard to think of things.. cause its really just day to day living. But last weekend my school had its Bon Enkai or end of year party. It was interesting to say the least. The party was at a onsen (hot spring) in a different prefecture.. about a 2 hour drive away.
We left around 2 on Saturday afternoon, all the teachers crowded onto the bus.. and it was like a party bus, as you got on you were handed beer or a cocktail, and a bag of snacks.. that was cool. The resort we were staying at was really nice, it had a view of the ocean (sea of Japan) and the fall colors were great... The rooms were also pretty, and we had a balcony, in the room was one of those tubs that you can fill up forever, and the water just flows over.. except it was the hot spring water.. so that was cool.
After arriving we had cake, and if we wanted we could go use the public bath (i wasn't up for that yet, more later) and then at 6:30 our dinner started. It was really cool.. instead of long tables or tables at all really it was in the Japanese style.. on a tatami mat floor.. we sat in long rows on floor cushions... and each place had a raised tray with all your food on it. (sorry forgot my camera so no pics) but the food was definitely interesting, in Japan they have a very wide variety of foods and many courses, but they are all very small. I had crab yummy!, sashimi, snail (which the teachers sitting next to me couldn't believe I ate) and numerous other dishes.. the food just kept coming.
Okay let me explain the main point of a Japanese enkai.. the goal is to never let your co-workers glass get empty, and to pour drinks for as many people as possible... and you can't turn someone down if they want to pour you a drink, so if your glass is already full you have to drink some and let them pour more. Generally people drink beer but i hate beer, so i drank Sake all night long.. oh my goodness.
Anyway after this really great dinner, during which we played a game of bingo and all won prizes... we went to the karaoke after party. and then at about 12 the other ladies in my room and i went down to the public bath. Sounds great, that is if you don't mind bathing naked in public with your co-workers..cause onsen in Japan means hot springs, but it also implies naked bathing.
at least I had, had plenty to drink before hand, the baths are great, the nakedness not so much.
The next morning after a truely not pleasant traditional Japanese breakfast we piled back in the bus and headed home.
Sunday afternoon I was going to a charity bowling event, but oh my i was still not feeling well after the enkai.. but it was for a good cause and i wanted to see other ALT's so I went.. and suprisingly I did really well, (for me anyway) I bowled a 93!! thats an all time high, yay.
It was an insane weekend, but now I am back at work, with nothing much to do. I have spent the last 3 days grading papers, and final exams.. it was probably close to 800 papers.. but i'm done now!
The next 2 and 1/2 weeks are pretty boring school wise. I don't actually have any classes between now and when I leave on break. but I have to be at school every day! I'm hoping to get some lessons and assignments made for next term. But I do have a lot going on the next few weekends.
Saturday (8th) birthday/christmas party, and another christmas dinner/dance that night
Friday (14th) english teachers party
Saturday (15th) children's christmas party
Saturday (22nd) I LEAVE FOR THAILAND!!!!
plus any other random JET stuff that always pops up in there.
Anyway this is long so I'll wrap up, hope everyone is enjoying the snowy weather back home, and that you enjoyed your snow day if you had it.
Good luck to my Yoh's this weekend!!!
later all
ME
Sunday, November 25, 2007
happy thanksgiving
hey all,
Hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving holiday. Its hard to believe its the end of november already! I had a good holiday over here. last sunday we had a thanksgiving dinner at a fellow ALT's apartment, she made turkey in her microwave/oven, and we had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and numerous other yummy dishes.. it was great! Really nice to have a break from Japanese food. I made pan roasted apples with cinammin sugar syrup and brandy.. yummy! and I had another Thanksgiving dinner on Friday! at another apt. It was really nice too.
I was really tired all day cause I woke up at about 5:30 am my time to call home and talk to everyone at my house for thanksgiving dinner. But it was so great to talk with everyone and to hear voices from home.
It was a slow yet busy week at work last week, and this week is going to be pretty crazy... I have to grade a crap load of papers, and I have to finish writing the final for my oral communications classes, plus I have to prepare a lesson to turn in for the Toyama Jets hand book. I have 2 full days of meetings on wed/thurs and finals start on friday.. so i'm cutting everything a little close. Monday I have 5 classes in a row.. so not excited about that one.. but oh well.
Its getting really cold here!! it snowed briefly the other day but it hasn't accumulated to anything yet.. just wet and cold. Here they use water to melt the snow.. they have pipes that run under all the main roads and most of the sidewalks.. and when it rains these things that look like little sprinkler heads pour out water to melt the snow.. its weird.. and it means that the roads are really wet all winter long. I'm working on finding ways to stay warm in my uninsulated apartment.. apparently they don't really believe in insulation here... so my apt gets cold at night... so far I'm making alot of use of my hot carpet.. an electric carpet.. and my electric blanket that I can sleep on top of. I also have a heater.. its my AC unit and also does heat.. but apparently its really expensive to use.. so sometime soon i need to go buy a small electric heater.
well thats it really.. not much going on as of now. I'm really starting to look forward to my christmas trip to sunny and hot Thailand!
hope everyone is doing well! miss and love yall
me
Hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving holiday. Its hard to believe its the end of november already! I had a good holiday over here. last sunday we had a thanksgiving dinner at a fellow ALT's apartment, she made turkey in her microwave/oven, and we had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and numerous other yummy dishes.. it was great! Really nice to have a break from Japanese food. I made pan roasted apples with cinammin sugar syrup and brandy.. yummy! and I had another Thanksgiving dinner on Friday! at another apt. It was really nice too.
I was really tired all day cause I woke up at about 5:30 am my time to call home and talk to everyone at my house for thanksgiving dinner. But it was so great to talk with everyone and to hear voices from home.
It was a slow yet busy week at work last week, and this week is going to be pretty crazy... I have to grade a crap load of papers, and I have to finish writing the final for my oral communications classes, plus I have to prepare a lesson to turn in for the Toyama Jets hand book. I have 2 full days of meetings on wed/thurs and finals start on friday.. so i'm cutting everything a little close. Monday I have 5 classes in a row.. so not excited about that one.. but oh well.
Its getting really cold here!! it snowed briefly the other day but it hasn't accumulated to anything yet.. just wet and cold. Here they use water to melt the snow.. they have pipes that run under all the main roads and most of the sidewalks.. and when it rains these things that look like little sprinkler heads pour out water to melt the snow.. its weird.. and it means that the roads are really wet all winter long. I'm working on finding ways to stay warm in my uninsulated apartment.. apparently they don't really believe in insulation here... so my apt gets cold at night... so far I'm making alot of use of my hot carpet.. an electric carpet.. and my electric blanket that I can sleep on top of. I also have a heater.. its my AC unit and also does heat.. but apparently its really expensive to use.. so sometime soon i need to go buy a small electric heater.
well thats it really.. not much going on as of now. I'm really starting to look forward to my christmas trip to sunny and hot Thailand!
hope everyone is doing well! miss and love yall
me
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
update
hey all,
realize its been a while.. promise not slacking. So lets see what has been going on. A few weeks ago one of my teachers had mentioned a freind from Kureha who teaches english to elementary aged students, and was doing a sunday party/camp like thing, and asked if I wanted to help. I was really excited to help. So on sunday the 4th I got picked up by one of the teachers along with her husband and daughter. They both lived in England for several years and spoke great english, so that was great. We drove into the Kureha hills to the Kureha outdoor center, we were going to be making curry with the kids and doing some english activities.
It was really fun, there were kids from pre-school to middle-school there, and there parents, the kids all had pretty good english and some of the parents had some basics as well. What made it really great was that the kids and their parents were all from Kureha, so i met alot of people in my neighborhood, infact I met the family who owns the flowershop I live behind.
Any way I learned how to make curry, which was yummy, we cooked it over fires outside, and the kids did all the work, it was great.
Infact tonight I am going to make curry for dinner! lets hope it turns out as good as the kids.
Also last week I went to a musical, there is a group in Japan, its all women and they put on plays and musicals and dance. There are a like 5 different troups, and each does different plays and shows. But one was on tour in Toyama so a group of ALTs got tickets and went. It was really cool, all in Japanese so I didn't understand much of the play but there singing and dancing was awesome.
The JET halloween party was also on Friday night, it was really fun! it was about a 30minute train ride up in the mountains, I went as the cheshire cat (pictures coming) and one of my freinds was the Queen of Hearts, and another was the Mad Hatter. It was fun! of course the pary lasted until 2am and there aren't any trains that late, most of the alts who live out there had full houses, so my friend and I slept in her car. That was an experience.
Any way I made it home and spent the entire day sleeping. It didn't help that I managed to catch a major cold, so I actaully spent all weekend in bed sleeping and feeling all around gross. What really stinks is that I didn't bring any cold medicine from home with me, so I didn't even have anything to take.. I just drank alot of tea and felt sick.
I still feel kinda gross, but I can't miss work, so I found some cold medicine and hope that I feel alot better soon.
I have a quiet next couple of weeks/weekends coming up in November, and then December picks up again.
So thats about it, I really can't believe its already the middle of November!
Hope things are going great back at home for everyone!
Love all!!
Me
realize its been a while.. promise not slacking. So lets see what has been going on. A few weeks ago one of my teachers had mentioned a freind from Kureha who teaches english to elementary aged students, and was doing a sunday party/camp like thing, and asked if I wanted to help. I was really excited to help. So on sunday the 4th I got picked up by one of the teachers along with her husband and daughter. They both lived in England for several years and spoke great english, so that was great. We drove into the Kureha hills to the Kureha outdoor center, we were going to be making curry with the kids and doing some english activities.
It was really fun, there were kids from pre-school to middle-school there, and there parents, the kids all had pretty good english and some of the parents had some basics as well. What made it really great was that the kids and their parents were all from Kureha, so i met alot of people in my neighborhood, infact I met the family who owns the flowershop I live behind.
Any way I learned how to make curry, which was yummy, we cooked it over fires outside, and the kids did all the work, it was great.
Infact tonight I am going to make curry for dinner! lets hope it turns out as good as the kids.
Also last week I went to a musical, there is a group in Japan, its all women and they put on plays and musicals and dance. There are a like 5 different troups, and each does different plays and shows. But one was on tour in Toyama so a group of ALTs got tickets and went. It was really cool, all in Japanese so I didn't understand much of the play but there singing and dancing was awesome.
The JET halloween party was also on Friday night, it was really fun! it was about a 30minute train ride up in the mountains, I went as the cheshire cat (pictures coming) and one of my freinds was the Queen of Hearts, and another was the Mad Hatter. It was fun! of course the pary lasted until 2am and there aren't any trains that late, most of the alts who live out there had full houses, so my friend and I slept in her car. That was an experience.
Any way I made it home and spent the entire day sleeping. It didn't help that I managed to catch a major cold, so I actaully spent all weekend in bed sleeping and feeling all around gross. What really stinks is that I didn't bring any cold medicine from home with me, so I didn't even have anything to take.. I just drank alot of tea and felt sick.
I still feel kinda gross, but I can't miss work, so I found some cold medicine and hope that I feel alot better soon.
I have a quiet next couple of weeks/weekends coming up in November, and then December picks up again.
So thats about it, I really can't believe its already the middle of November!
Hope things are going great back at home for everyone!
Love all!!
Me
Thursday, November 1, 2007
random
okay this just amused me.. this last week I have been telling my first years about halloween.. and in my presentation I mention that older students like to play pranks on Halloween.. I mentioned and described TPing someones house.. or the trees out front.. and oh my.. in one class the eyes of this one student just opened up.. i could litterally see that gleam in his eye that means trouble..
it was fantastic!! Totally a Sam moment.
anyway.. off to not enjoy the rain
me
it was fantastic!! Totally a Sam moment.
anyway.. off to not enjoy the rain
me
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
cursed apartment
hey all,
haven't written alot lately, sorry. Been busy, and I'm so frustrated with my apartment, that I didn't really want to do anything. (more about that later)
I had a great time at the children's halloween party I went to. The kids were soooo cute, it felt really wonderful to be working with elementary aged children rather than the "lovely" high schoolers I deal with every day. We played english games and judge the little kids costumes (don't worry they all got prizes). It was nice.
What else.. last Saturday I spent all day judging a speech contest. Here they have english speaking contests. High school students compete in research, speaches, and recitation. I had to help 3 of my students prepare for the contest. 2 wrote speaches, and another was in the recitation part.
So I judged the recitation section. 54 students.. they could pick one or 5 different pre-selected pieces. It was really hard and tiring to judge them all. one piece was the most popular and was read by 16 students.. so by the time number 16 got up to recite i was so tired of hearing it, it was hard to judge fairly. But all the students did a great job.. well except that is for the student from my school.. who refused to practice with me.. so didn't have it memorized at all and forgot nearly all the lines. Anyway, it was kind of fun, but definitely made for a long day.
After the contest I went out for a birthday party for one of my friends.. followed of course by an hour or so of karaoke!!
okay back to the cursed apartment.. grrr... apparently my apartment is leaking on to the apartment downstairs.. I keep getting notes from my landlord asking if I see a leak.. which of course I don't. so 2 weeks ago now.. he asked that I not use the shower in my apartment and use the one in the empty apartment 2 doors down.. and he will pay for the water/gas bill. I figure.. okay not a big deal.. I'll do this for a week and he will have someone come in and fix it.. its inconvenient but not terrible..
oh no.. end of last week and still nobody had come by.. instead i got yet another note from my landlord.. asking that i try to systematically check my pipes.. so i have to use one appliance/pipe each day.. with out any of the others.. so one day i can use my kitchen sink.. but nothing else, the next my toilet but nothing else.. needless to say this is REALLY ANNOYING, not to mention inconvenient.. i have to go 2 apartments down to wash dishes.. and use the bathroom.
I'm almost done testing everything.. and I've definitely cheated.. cause i don't see it really making a difference...
So now I have to have him tell me what is going to happen with fixing it.. he hinted that he may have me move apartments.. i don't know if temporarily or permenently.. but this is deffinitely not happening.. i am not moving! i would have to change all my billing.. and not to mention all my foreign resident registration papers, plus it would probably take another 2 months to get phone/internet set up in that apartment.. It would involve me having to take vaction time from work.. which is so not happening.
ahhh... so annoyed.. if this was home.. i could just sit down and have a conversation with my landlord.. instead I'm doing everything through a 3rd party (my supervisor) who is listens and is very sympathetic.. but can't really do much.
so annoyed.. not to mention this isn't the first issue my apt has had.. about a month ago my electrical box kinda blew.... leaving me with out power on a friday evening.. I had to chase down an english teacher from school and wait around for the electrical co. .... plus I haven't mentioned it to my Landlord.. but my AC which is also my heater.. sometimes makes radom blue sparks (its electric).. but yeah.. my apt seems to be very bad luck right now.. but i still don't want to move..
ohh well hopefully it will get fixed soon.. basically cause i'm not going to be patient with it much longer.. and am really going to get on my landlords but about it... I refuse to shower/use water next door for more than a week longer with out getting something for it.
Anyway. sorry this is a big rant.. but thats whats going on with me lately.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the fall.
lots of love
me
haven't written alot lately, sorry. Been busy, and I'm so frustrated with my apartment, that I didn't really want to do anything. (more about that later)
I had a great time at the children's halloween party I went to. The kids were soooo cute, it felt really wonderful to be working with elementary aged children rather than the "lovely" high schoolers I deal with every day. We played english games and judge the little kids costumes (don't worry they all got prizes). It was nice.
What else.. last Saturday I spent all day judging a speech contest. Here they have english speaking contests. High school students compete in research, speaches, and recitation. I had to help 3 of my students prepare for the contest. 2 wrote speaches, and another was in the recitation part.
So I judged the recitation section. 54 students.. they could pick one or 5 different pre-selected pieces. It was really hard and tiring to judge them all. one piece was the most popular and was read by 16 students.. so by the time number 16 got up to recite i was so tired of hearing it, it was hard to judge fairly. But all the students did a great job.. well except that is for the student from my school.. who refused to practice with me.. so didn't have it memorized at all and forgot nearly all the lines. Anyway, it was kind of fun, but definitely made for a long day.
After the contest I went out for a birthday party for one of my friends.. followed of course by an hour or so of karaoke!!
okay back to the cursed apartment.. grrr... apparently my apartment is leaking on to the apartment downstairs.. I keep getting notes from my landlord asking if I see a leak.. which of course I don't. so 2 weeks ago now.. he asked that I not use the shower in my apartment and use the one in the empty apartment 2 doors down.. and he will pay for the water/gas bill. I figure.. okay not a big deal.. I'll do this for a week and he will have someone come in and fix it.. its inconvenient but not terrible..
oh no.. end of last week and still nobody had come by.. instead i got yet another note from my landlord.. asking that i try to systematically check my pipes.. so i have to use one appliance/pipe each day.. with out any of the others.. so one day i can use my kitchen sink.. but nothing else, the next my toilet but nothing else.. needless to say this is REALLY ANNOYING, not to mention inconvenient.. i have to go 2 apartments down to wash dishes.. and use the bathroom.
I'm almost done testing everything.. and I've definitely cheated.. cause i don't see it really making a difference...
So now I have to have him tell me what is going to happen with fixing it.. he hinted that he may have me move apartments.. i don't know if temporarily or permenently.. but this is deffinitely not happening.. i am not moving! i would have to change all my billing.. and not to mention all my foreign resident registration papers, plus it would probably take another 2 months to get phone/internet set up in that apartment.. It would involve me having to take vaction time from work.. which is so not happening.
ahhh... so annoyed.. if this was home.. i could just sit down and have a conversation with my landlord.. instead I'm doing everything through a 3rd party (my supervisor) who is listens and is very sympathetic.. but can't really do much.
so annoyed.. not to mention this isn't the first issue my apt has had.. about a month ago my electrical box kinda blew.... leaving me with out power on a friday evening.. I had to chase down an english teacher from school and wait around for the electrical co. .... plus I haven't mentioned it to my Landlord.. but my AC which is also my heater.. sometimes makes radom blue sparks (its electric).. but yeah.. my apt seems to be very bad luck right now.. but i still don't want to move..
ohh well hopefully it will get fixed soon.. basically cause i'm not going to be patient with it much longer.. and am really going to get on my landlords but about it... I refuse to shower/use water next door for more than a week longer with out getting something for it.
Anyway. sorry this is a big rant.. but thats whats going on with me lately.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the fall.
lots of love
me
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
happy birthday mom!!
Hey all.. realized its been a little while
Things are still going well. A little bummed this week cause i hate missing mum's birthday! But since I am 13 hours ahead of eveyone else I defiinitely was the first to wish her happy birthday.. sorry matt.
anyway. I had a great weekend. There is a huge Brazilian population here in Toyama.. i think the largest in Japan. anyway, that means that in Takaoka.. a city next to mine, they have this great Brazilian restaurant. Which also allows JETs to host parties... but a new Japanese laws means that the restaurant can't have parties anymore.. to bad.. so this weekend they hosted a huge final party. It was great, dancing all night with other JET's and english teachers from the area. I really had a blast.
Thats about it.. things have been quiet at school because its mid-terms... they had tests friday, sat, mon, tues.. and the 2nd and 3rd years still have tests today. so other then writing an oral communications listening test.. i don't have much going on. Well other than having to grade all of those listening tests.. 230 to be exact... the multiple choice and t/f parts were easy... it was grading the essays that sucked.. it litterally took me about 9 hours to get through them all. Luckily I get to grade at the office and don't have to take papers home with me.
But I'm done now. I'm hoping that when classes start back up I will be taking a more active role.
Lets see what else is new.... oh.. kind of strange.. but I came into the office one day last week and was handed my recontracting papers! Yikes! I've only been here 2 months and already they are handing me paper work asking if I want to stay a second year. Luckily I don't have to actually turn the paper work in until February.. but they would rather I did it sooner.
so far it looks like I will stay a second year, but I'm not making any firm decisions until after the new year. Although, lets face it.. I would totally regret it if I didn't stay longer.. from all I hear and see, the 2nd year is definitely better. Who knows.. still up in the air about it all.
Well thats all thats really new in my life. Hope everything is going well back home. feel free to drop me an email! I don't have any big trips coming up but do have a halloween party for some little kids, an english elementary school day camp, and the big JET halloween party coming up.. so I'll have those pics up as I take them.
Love
Lissie
Things are still going well. A little bummed this week cause i hate missing mum's birthday! But since I am 13 hours ahead of eveyone else I defiinitely was the first to wish her happy birthday.. sorry matt.
anyway. I had a great weekend. There is a huge Brazilian population here in Toyama.. i think the largest in Japan. anyway, that means that in Takaoka.. a city next to mine, they have this great Brazilian restaurant. Which also allows JETs to host parties... but a new Japanese laws means that the restaurant can't have parties anymore.. to bad.. so this weekend they hosted a huge final party. It was great, dancing all night with other JET's and english teachers from the area. I really had a blast.
Thats about it.. things have been quiet at school because its mid-terms... they had tests friday, sat, mon, tues.. and the 2nd and 3rd years still have tests today. so other then writing an oral communications listening test.. i don't have much going on. Well other than having to grade all of those listening tests.. 230 to be exact... the multiple choice and t/f parts were easy... it was grading the essays that sucked.. it litterally took me about 9 hours to get through them all. Luckily I get to grade at the office and don't have to take papers home with me.
But I'm done now. I'm hoping that when classes start back up I will be taking a more active role.
Lets see what else is new.... oh.. kind of strange.. but I came into the office one day last week and was handed my recontracting papers! Yikes! I've only been here 2 months and already they are handing me paper work asking if I want to stay a second year. Luckily I don't have to actually turn the paper work in until February.. but they would rather I did it sooner.
so far it looks like I will stay a second year, but I'm not making any firm decisions until after the new year. Although, lets face it.. I would totally regret it if I didn't stay longer.. from all I hear and see, the 2nd year is definitely better. Who knows.. still up in the air about it all.
Well thats all thats really new in my life. Hope everything is going well back home. feel free to drop me an email! I don't have any big trips coming up but do have a halloween party for some little kids, an english elementary school day camp, and the big JET halloween party coming up.. so I'll have those pics up as I take them.
Love
Lissie
Monday, October 8, 2007
catch up
hey all!!
so i realized its time to catch everyone up on whats new...things at school haven't been to busy, but they are going well.. i have had a few lessons go over really well.. and am looking forward to the work that i get to do after midterms which start at the end of this week.
I just got back from a long weekend spent in Kyoto City. It was supremely awesome!! I went with about 18 other JETs from Toyama. On friday night we meet and headed off in two tiny vans, and one car.. it was tight but fun. We didn't get to Kyoto till after midnight, but the van ride down was great. We stayed at a hostel in the south part of the city. And I was so psyched to explore. Kyoto is the old capital of japan, and its got great temples, shrines, castles, and tons of stuff to see. Saturday I headed out with a small group and did a huge amount of sight seeing, we wandered temples, saw a famous rock garden and best of all for me was going to Nijo castle. This castle is cool because all the corridors have wooden floors that we intentionally built to squeek as a person walks over them. so image 100s of people walking around on this floor, they call it the Nightengale floor cause it sounds like hundreds of chirping birds. you don't even notice it at first.. but all of a sudden you are like woo thats cool. It was neat. We ended the nigth by eating at a great Irish Pub recommended in my guide book... nope it wasn't traditional Japanese but it was really good fish n' chips and guiness and cider... Then we wandered into Gion- this is the part of the city thats still has many traditional houses and where all the geisha's come out at. We were really lucky and saw 3 geishas walking around with their escorts.. it was neat, but odd cause it felt like we were just staring at them.. but i guess we were lucky to see them.
I was so tired when we got back to the hostel.. just a note city transportation ends at 11:30.. so the last bus you get on, may not actually be going all the way to the stop you want... so we ended up walking a lot and finally hailing a taxi.
So Sunday, I decided to do a little less cause I was beat, but I went off with a friend and we went to this mountain area, which has thousands of orange gates going up a mountain and you walk up it.. its some sort of shrine.. i don't really know what its called but it was neat.. I walked part way up the mountain under the gates.. and then headed back down. I saw a pomagranet tree!!
after that I wandered off and saw some more temples, and did some shopping... i was so tired at this point that I just found a place to chill and hang out.. meet up with another JET for dinner and had a semi-early night at the hostel.
We had to leave at like 10 on monday morning so I didn't do anymore sight seeing, but of course it was pouring the whole ride home.. and i had to bike back from the station in the rain.. i got so soaked..
anyway it was really fun, and I can't wait to go back to Kyoto.. there are so many things to do. i didn't even make it to half of the things i would have liked. But hey... I live here.. I can go back anytime I want.
I took a bunch of pictures which I will post soon on flickr, I have an interesting rest of the week coming up, tomorrow and wednesday are normal classes, and wednesday night the english teachers at my school are having my welcome enkai (pary) so that should be fun.. and thursday afternoon I have no classes... friday mid-terms start and then all of next week are midterms so it should be a quite next week or so.. I will work on posting my pics when I am work with nothing to do.
Anyway it was fun, meet some new JETs in my area that I hadn't seen before and had fun.. It was the start of a crazy month for me though.. i have something going on for the next 5 weekends in a row so it should be fun.
I can't believe that I've been here 2 months already!!
okay enough rambling, hope everyone is doing well.
Love
Lissie
so i realized its time to catch everyone up on whats new...things at school haven't been to busy, but they are going well.. i have had a few lessons go over really well.. and am looking forward to the work that i get to do after midterms which start at the end of this week.
I just got back from a long weekend spent in Kyoto City. It was supremely awesome!! I went with about 18 other JETs from Toyama. On friday night we meet and headed off in two tiny vans, and one car.. it was tight but fun. We didn't get to Kyoto till after midnight, but the van ride down was great. We stayed at a hostel in the south part of the city. And I was so psyched to explore. Kyoto is the old capital of japan, and its got great temples, shrines, castles, and tons of stuff to see. Saturday I headed out with a small group and did a huge amount of sight seeing, we wandered temples, saw a famous rock garden and best of all for me was going to Nijo castle. This castle is cool because all the corridors have wooden floors that we intentionally built to squeek as a person walks over them. so image 100s of people walking around on this floor, they call it the Nightengale floor cause it sounds like hundreds of chirping birds. you don't even notice it at first.. but all of a sudden you are like woo thats cool. It was neat. We ended the nigth by eating at a great Irish Pub recommended in my guide book... nope it wasn't traditional Japanese but it was really good fish n' chips and guiness and cider... Then we wandered into Gion- this is the part of the city thats still has many traditional houses and where all the geisha's come out at. We were really lucky and saw 3 geishas walking around with their escorts.. it was neat, but odd cause it felt like we were just staring at them.. but i guess we were lucky to see them.
I was so tired when we got back to the hostel.. just a note city transportation ends at 11:30.. so the last bus you get on, may not actually be going all the way to the stop you want... so we ended up walking a lot and finally hailing a taxi.
So Sunday, I decided to do a little less cause I was beat, but I went off with a friend and we went to this mountain area, which has thousands of orange gates going up a mountain and you walk up it.. its some sort of shrine.. i don't really know what its called but it was neat.. I walked part way up the mountain under the gates.. and then headed back down. I saw a pomagranet tree!!
after that I wandered off and saw some more temples, and did some shopping... i was so tired at this point that I just found a place to chill and hang out.. meet up with another JET for dinner and had a semi-early night at the hostel.
We had to leave at like 10 on monday morning so I didn't do anymore sight seeing, but of course it was pouring the whole ride home.. and i had to bike back from the station in the rain.. i got so soaked..
anyway it was really fun, and I can't wait to go back to Kyoto.. there are so many things to do. i didn't even make it to half of the things i would have liked. But hey... I live here.. I can go back anytime I want.
I took a bunch of pictures which I will post soon on flickr, I have an interesting rest of the week coming up, tomorrow and wednesday are normal classes, and wednesday night the english teachers at my school are having my welcome enkai (pary) so that should be fun.. and thursday afternoon I have no classes... friday mid-terms start and then all of next week are midterms so it should be a quite next week or so.. I will work on posting my pics when I am work with nothing to do.
Anyway it was fun, meet some new JETs in my area that I hadn't seen before and had fun.. It was the start of a crazy month for me though.. i have something going on for the next 5 weekends in a row so it should be fun.
I can't believe that I've been here 2 months already!!
okay enough rambling, hope everyone is doing well.
Love
Lissie
Saturday, September 29, 2007
ahh i spend way to much time online
so yeah, living alone, and not having anyone around who speaks english leads me to spend a crap load of time online doing random things.
today is saturday, and other than a trip to grocery store and kahma where i bought a clothes rack, a curtain rod, and clothes hangers.. whoopie
i have spent most of the day playing online:
thus far i have checked my email and face book about every 5 minutes, played on cnn and watched all the interesting videos, got my daily doss of cuteness from cuteoverload.com, checked out the fashion foaxpaus on gofugyourself, and taken a rediculous number of silly quizes:
lets review... if i was a disney princess I would be: Belle You are Belle. You are strong, deep, and you are not a slave to petty superficial things. You are independent and allow yourself to see inner beauty without sacrificing your values. You are almost too good of a person.
If i was going to be a disney villian i would be: the evil step mother from cinderella
If I was a sex in the city character I would be: Carrie
apparently I should be living in Paris-because I'm a romantic... Tokyo wasn't an option
The type of guy I will fall for: You would fall for the sensitive guy. You'll find your future man wherever turtlenecks are sold. He will have depth, introspection, and a disturbing knowledge of musical theatre. And he may be a little weird. But hey, while your girlfriends cry over broken hearts, you'll be having Shakespeare read to you every night.
If i was a ninja turtle I would be Leonardo
If i was in at hogwarts I would be a Ravenclaw
If I was a Harry Potter character I would be: Hagrid You're an outcast with a heart of gold. Despite your own problems, you always find time to help those in need.
If I was a female action hero I would be: rogue from the x-men
take some of these quizes at http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/
plus its also fun to type my name into google in quotes and see what happens..... okay i really did this while at work on thursday:
To lose Elisabeth is like losing a limb
Elizabeth" is like a big sailing ship coming into theaters with Oscar written all over her
I am most sorely vexed to contemplate a world without Elizabeth
working with Elizabeth is “like a breath. of fresh air.”
Listening to Elisabeth is like finger nails on a chalkboard..
not really complementary but hey i have some students who might agree.. infact I was really tempted to try this in class the other day (all classes here have big chalkboards no whiteboards)
Listening to Elisabeth is like listening to poetry!
well thats it for today.. I obviously need to find something productive to do.... nah.. more randomness later
Lissie
today is saturday, and other than a trip to grocery store and kahma where i bought a clothes rack, a curtain rod, and clothes hangers.. whoopie
i have spent most of the day playing online:
thus far i have checked my email and face book about every 5 minutes, played on cnn and watched all the interesting videos, got my daily doss of cuteness from cuteoverload.com, checked out the fashion foaxpaus on gofugyourself, and taken a rediculous number of silly quizes:
lets review... if i was a disney princess I would be: Belle You are Belle. You are strong, deep, and you are not a slave to petty superficial things. You are independent and allow yourself to see inner beauty without sacrificing your values. You are almost too good of a person.
If i was going to be a disney villian i would be: the evil step mother from cinderella
If I was a sex in the city character I would be: Carrie
apparently I should be living in Paris-because I'm a romantic... Tokyo wasn't an option
The type of guy I will fall for: You would fall for the sensitive guy. You'll find your future man wherever turtlenecks are sold. He will have depth, introspection, and a disturbing knowledge of musical theatre. And he may be a little weird. But hey, while your girlfriends cry over broken hearts, you'll be having Shakespeare read to you every night.
If i was a ninja turtle I would be Leonardo
If i was in at hogwarts I would be a Ravenclaw
If I was a Harry Potter character I would be: Hagrid You're an outcast with a heart of gold. Despite your own problems, you always find time to help those in need.
If I was a female action hero I would be: rogue from the x-men
take some of these quizes at http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/
plus its also fun to type my name into google in quotes and see what happens..... okay i really did this while at work on thursday:
To lose Elisabeth is like losing a limb
Elizabeth" is like a big sailing ship coming into theaters with Oscar written all over her
I am most sorely vexed to contemplate a world without Elizabeth
working with Elizabeth is “like a breath. of fresh air.”
Listening to Elisabeth is like finger nails on a chalkboard..
not really complementary but hey i have some students who might agree.. infact I was really tempted to try this in class the other day (all classes here have big chalkboards no whiteboards)
Listening to Elisabeth is like listening to poetry!
well thats it for today.. I obviously need to find something productive to do.... nah.. more randomness later
Lissie
Thursday, September 27, 2007
school festival
Hey all, so last weekend was my school festival, and I had the best time. It started on Friday. We had a choir competition first. All the classes have chorus class. All of the first years sang the school song, some classes you could tell were dreading it, but one class the class that won, got up and sang with gusto it was great. Although all in Japanese and I had to hear it 6 times over it was still neat. the 2nd and 3rd years get to choose their own songs.. or at least they all sing different songs.. probably chosen for them. But each class has one person who plays the piano, and one student who acts as the conductor. It was impressive.
After that some of the music students preformed, I am constantly impressed by the amazing musicians at my school I think they are truely remarkable.
After the opening ceremony the friday portion of the festival really got underway, and I was so shocked by all the work the students had put into this event. Each class of first and second years, are responsible for doing something as a class. And its not just a little booth its pretty impressive. Here's what the classes did:
First years
11- did a alice in fairytale land skit, it was all in japanese but it was cute, and they incorperated many different fairy tales. From what I saw and could understand Alice kept ending up in the wrong fairytale.
12-did a photo booth, you went in and put on some costume and they took digital pictures which you could then come and pick up later.
13-showed a romance movie, that they had filmed... of course being in all japanese i didn't understand, but it involved 2 students and the nurses office, in a totally innocent japanese high school kind of way.
14-did a mini carnival, they had darts, a ball toss, ring toss, bowling, and fishing for a prize-the prizes were small painted balloons blown up with a little water and attached to a rubber band.. so they were fun to bounce
15- did a fashion show/skit. Also really creative and fun
16- did a dance, a type of traditional dancing done to modern music- also really neat
Second Years:
21-did a dance, I'm not sure of the name but its a very popular dance in Japan, apparently they have been practicing since May!!
22- did a haunted house, they turned several 3rd floor classrooms into a great haunted house (although I didn't make it through)
Classes 23 and 24 were in charge of the festival food, they had tents set up in the courtyard and sold all sorts of yummy Japanese Festival food, I had bought a bunch of tickets ahead of time so it was great. I had Yakisoba-fried noodles, dondon yaki-crepe with seaweed and minishrimp inside (actually it was gross..), my favorite festival food of crushed ice with flavored syrup yum!!!, and little donut like cakes.
They were really proud of it.
From what I could tell the 3rd years don't have any responsibilities during the festival cause they are so busy studying. But the sports teams and 3rd years, did a sports round robin with basketball (yeah i wasn't so good at this), badmitton (suprisingly successful), baseball (lets not go there), Tennis (those lessons never paid off), Table Tennis (sorry Mr. Whitney I'm still bad at it), and Soccer (which I kicked but in)
Also the music students put on an operetta of Hanzel and Gretle and had numerous music concerts and small groups. Also the brass band preformed and it was so awesome.
The festival was both friday and Saturday, I was required to come into work on Saturday, but basically got to spend the entire day wandering around and having fun. All the clubs also had things up in classrooms, I got to do art stuff.. I made some fans.
It was fun.
Even better was that I had the next 3 days off Sunday-Tuesday. Here when a national holiday falls on a saturday, sometime in the year you get a substitute holiday on a monday, so monday was one of those, plus since all the teachers had to work on a saturday we got a day of Daikyu or a day off to make up for it so that was tuesday.
I think I fully enjoyed my long weekend, it wasn't very eventful, except with my run in with a fishbowl of Chuhai (japanese liquor that tastes like water) and the events that followed.
Anyway its a really slowday at work today, my classes were moved to the morning, but since I don't teach at Kureha on Thursday mornings I wasn't here for them. So I spent my afternoon grading papers and dying of heat in the teachers room.. its like an oven in here.
Japan can't make up its mind.. yesterday was perfect weather, cool and breezy, it felt like autumn.. today its hot and humid again.. grr
Allright well I am off almost time to go home for the day.
Later all
Lissie
oh pics from school festival are up on my flickr account!! check them out
After that some of the music students preformed, I am constantly impressed by the amazing musicians at my school I think they are truely remarkable.
After the opening ceremony the friday portion of the festival really got underway, and I was so shocked by all the work the students had put into this event. Each class of first and second years, are responsible for doing something as a class. And its not just a little booth its pretty impressive. Here's what the classes did:
First years
11- did a alice in fairytale land skit, it was all in japanese but it was cute, and they incorperated many different fairy tales. From what I saw and could understand Alice kept ending up in the wrong fairytale.
12-did a photo booth, you went in and put on some costume and they took digital pictures which you could then come and pick up later.
13-showed a romance movie, that they had filmed... of course being in all japanese i didn't understand, but it involved 2 students and the nurses office, in a totally innocent japanese high school kind of way.
14-did a mini carnival, they had darts, a ball toss, ring toss, bowling, and fishing for a prize-the prizes were small painted balloons blown up with a little water and attached to a rubber band.. so they were fun to bounce
15- did a fashion show/skit. Also really creative and fun
16- did a dance, a type of traditional dancing done to modern music- also really neat
Second Years:
21-did a dance, I'm not sure of the name but its a very popular dance in Japan, apparently they have been practicing since May!!
22- did a haunted house, they turned several 3rd floor classrooms into a great haunted house (although I didn't make it through)
Classes 23 and 24 were in charge of the festival food, they had tents set up in the courtyard and sold all sorts of yummy Japanese Festival food, I had bought a bunch of tickets ahead of time so it was great. I had Yakisoba-fried noodles, dondon yaki-crepe with seaweed and minishrimp inside (actually it was gross..), my favorite festival food of crushed ice with flavored syrup yum!!!, and little donut like cakes.
They were really proud of it.
From what I could tell the 3rd years don't have any responsibilities during the festival cause they are so busy studying. But the sports teams and 3rd years, did a sports round robin with basketball (yeah i wasn't so good at this), badmitton (suprisingly successful), baseball (lets not go there), Tennis (those lessons never paid off), Table Tennis (sorry Mr. Whitney I'm still bad at it), and Soccer (which I kicked but in)
Also the music students put on an operetta of Hanzel and Gretle and had numerous music concerts and small groups. Also the brass band preformed and it was so awesome.
The festival was both friday and Saturday, I was required to come into work on Saturday, but basically got to spend the entire day wandering around and having fun. All the clubs also had things up in classrooms, I got to do art stuff.. I made some fans.
It was fun.
Even better was that I had the next 3 days off Sunday-Tuesday. Here when a national holiday falls on a saturday, sometime in the year you get a substitute holiday on a monday, so monday was one of those, plus since all the teachers had to work on a saturday we got a day of Daikyu or a day off to make up for it so that was tuesday.
I think I fully enjoyed my long weekend, it wasn't very eventful, except with my run in with a fishbowl of Chuhai (japanese liquor that tastes like water) and the events that followed.
Anyway its a really slowday at work today, my classes were moved to the morning, but since I don't teach at Kureha on Thursday mornings I wasn't here for them. So I spent my afternoon grading papers and dying of heat in the teachers room.. its like an oven in here.
Japan can't make up its mind.. yesterday was perfect weather, cool and breezy, it felt like autumn.. today its hot and humid again.. grr
Allright well I am off almost time to go home for the day.
Later all
Lissie
oh pics from school festival are up on my flickr account!! check them out
Thursday, September 20, 2007
fine chez
so according to chez I am bad at updating my blog.. I guess thats a hint.
Schools been crazy this week because all the students are getting ready for the school festival which starts tomorrow and is also on saturday. all week we have had a shortened schedule to give students time to get ready, and today we didn't even have afternoon classes.. which was no fun for me, cause i spent the morning at my special school and came back to Kureha and have nothing to do at work all afternoon. But tomorrow instead of classes we have the festival, and on saturday, technically I am required to be here on saturday for the festival. Which I was planning on attending anyway. but because teachers and students come to school saturday we get what is called Daikyu.. or a make up holiday. Monday is a holiday so i have no school, but now thanks to Daikyu i also have no school on Tuesday...
I have been able to go to a bunch of other festivals in the area so far, and am planning on hitting up one or 2 more this weekend. Last week we took the train for about an hour and went to the Mugiya festival or rice festival. It has people doing the traditional japanese dance, but also groups doing much more modern dance.. traditional moves to like hip hop music. it was pretty good. Plus I am really starting to love Japanese Festival food I think it might be even better than fair food back home.. except for the no fried dough thing. Still pretty good.
I finally got internet in my apartment so a few of you should be getting some phone calls soon. I am using skype to call and its really convinient not to mention really cheap to use, 2 cents a minute to the U.S. land or cell phone. If you have a skype account let me know that means I can call you for free!! i'm all about free.
Work is starting to pick up, I think I understand better what the teachers want me to do.. so once we get back on a normal schedule I hope things work well. As it is mid terms are only like 2 weeks away, which is strange cause I've only been teaching like 3 weeks. they have mid-terms after 5 weeks.. even though the semester is about 13 weeks long.
Whats been really great are all the people I am meeting, there are some really awesome JET's and I love just being able to hang out with people.. it never fails that we are busy on the weekends, and even during the week. Last night after my japanese class a group of us ended up going out to dinner and having a great time. I am already planning trips to go on with JET.. in a few weeks a group is going for a 3 day weekend to Kyoto, and I am hoping to get to a castle in Nagano sometime in October.
Plus best of all is my trip at christmas/new years. I am going to THAILAND for 10 days.. I am so excited. I am going with another ALT and one of her friends from the states.. we are going on a 10 day tour.. run by some travel company. I am really excited!! and I will still have about 4 days of my christmasbreak left once I get back.. so I'm going to spend the day/night in Tokyo and probalby go to Tokyo Disney Sea for the day and wander around. I know I will be a little bummed to not be going home for the holidays, but I don't think I could have turned this trip down.. a little pricey but very worth it.
allright thats all the news for now.. I still have another 3 hours of sitting at work with nothing to do.
Pictures are coming.. i just need to update my flickr account, now that I have internet at home it shouldn't be a problem.
Lissie
Schools been crazy this week because all the students are getting ready for the school festival which starts tomorrow and is also on saturday. all week we have had a shortened schedule to give students time to get ready, and today we didn't even have afternoon classes.. which was no fun for me, cause i spent the morning at my special school and came back to Kureha and have nothing to do at work all afternoon. But tomorrow instead of classes we have the festival, and on saturday, technically I am required to be here on saturday for the festival. Which I was planning on attending anyway. but because teachers and students come to school saturday we get what is called Daikyu.. or a make up holiday. Monday is a holiday so i have no school, but now thanks to Daikyu i also have no school on Tuesday...
I have been able to go to a bunch of other festivals in the area so far, and am planning on hitting up one or 2 more this weekend. Last week we took the train for about an hour and went to the Mugiya festival or rice festival. It has people doing the traditional japanese dance, but also groups doing much more modern dance.. traditional moves to like hip hop music. it was pretty good. Plus I am really starting to love Japanese Festival food I think it might be even better than fair food back home.. except for the no fried dough thing. Still pretty good.
I finally got internet in my apartment so a few of you should be getting some phone calls soon. I am using skype to call and its really convinient not to mention really cheap to use, 2 cents a minute to the U.S. land or cell phone. If you have a skype account let me know that means I can call you for free!! i'm all about free.
Work is starting to pick up, I think I understand better what the teachers want me to do.. so once we get back on a normal schedule I hope things work well. As it is mid terms are only like 2 weeks away, which is strange cause I've only been teaching like 3 weeks. they have mid-terms after 5 weeks.. even though the semester is about 13 weeks long.
Whats been really great are all the people I am meeting, there are some really awesome JET's and I love just being able to hang out with people.. it never fails that we are busy on the weekends, and even during the week. Last night after my japanese class a group of us ended up going out to dinner and having a great time. I am already planning trips to go on with JET.. in a few weeks a group is going for a 3 day weekend to Kyoto, and I am hoping to get to a castle in Nagano sometime in October.
Plus best of all is my trip at christmas/new years. I am going to THAILAND for 10 days.. I am so excited. I am going with another ALT and one of her friends from the states.. we are going on a 10 day tour.. run by some travel company. I am really excited!! and I will still have about 4 days of my christmasbreak left once I get back.. so I'm going to spend the day/night in Tokyo and probalby go to Tokyo Disney Sea for the day and wander around. I know I will be a little bummed to not be going home for the holidays, but I don't think I could have turned this trip down.. a little pricey but very worth it.
allright thats all the news for now.. I still have another 3 hours of sitting at work with nothing to do.
Pictures are coming.. i just need to update my flickr account, now that I have internet at home it shouldn't be a problem.
Lissie
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
i know i know
okay.. I guess its time for an update. School has finally picked up and I am actually getting to be kind of busy, or more like I have spurts of productiveness, with boughts of severe boredome in between. I am starting to get into the swing of things and understand exactly what is expected of me and what isn't. I am not sure exactly what I expected but I think I hoped to be a little more involved then I am. I have 5 writing classes and 6 oral communication classes. In the majority of my writing classes I am a bit of a tape recorder.. I repeat the key sentences for the lesson and I correct the practice exercises done in class. My only real responsibility is to come up with a writing assignment each week and correct it.
In my oral communication classes I have more of a responsibility I actually have to make a lesson for each class and lead it, after we have talked about the text book. Of course since OC only meets once a week. I basically have one class each day (of different students) I only am really writing one lesson per week because I do the same lesson all week long.
so its not as much actual teaching as I thought I would have.. or as I experienced during my student teaching. But it is going well. some classes are better than others. I hope that as I become more comfortable I am able to do more with the classes and have the students be more involved and less bored. Its hard because the education system and expectations are very different. Where as I elected to study a foreign language in HS and only had one class 2 or 3 times a week. here english is mandatory and they have written classes, oral classes, grammer classes, reading class... they actually study a surprising amount of english.
oh the best thing though is my special school, I went for the first time last thursday and I get to go again tomorrow. It's a hospital school and it only has 6 high school students. they are all pretty severely disabled, several in wheel chairs, and a few with no real language, but I already love them. I get to do much younger based activities with them because of their ability level, its really fun and I feel like they need me there. sometimes I feel like I am just extra at my base school. Anyway I think that seeing my special kids once a week will be a great treat.
Anyway I had yet another great weekend which always makes me happy. I went to a picnic in the park on Sunday.. it was a surprise b-day party for another ALT and it was a potluck... my cooking failed.. so I stopped at the bakery on the way.. but it was fun, we played some frisbee and just hung out for a couple of hours.
I did find a place to post all my pictures... they are on flickr.com my user name is yohgrl23... i haven't really organized them yet because I have to actually pay to do that.. but I have put up most of the ones I've taken thus far.
Hope you enjoy looking at them.
allright more later.. I'm at school making some lesson plans. still no internet at home.. but it should be happening in about 2 weeks.. yeah its taken over a month.. but it should be worth it when it comes. Pics of my apt are up at flickr
Later.
Lissie
In my oral communication classes I have more of a responsibility I actually have to make a lesson for each class and lead it, after we have talked about the text book. Of course since OC only meets once a week. I basically have one class each day (of different students) I only am really writing one lesson per week because I do the same lesson all week long.
so its not as much actual teaching as I thought I would have.. or as I experienced during my student teaching. But it is going well. some classes are better than others. I hope that as I become more comfortable I am able to do more with the classes and have the students be more involved and less bored. Its hard because the education system and expectations are very different. Where as I elected to study a foreign language in HS and only had one class 2 or 3 times a week. here english is mandatory and they have written classes, oral classes, grammer classes, reading class... they actually study a surprising amount of english.
oh the best thing though is my special school, I went for the first time last thursday and I get to go again tomorrow. It's a hospital school and it only has 6 high school students. they are all pretty severely disabled, several in wheel chairs, and a few with no real language, but I already love them. I get to do much younger based activities with them because of their ability level, its really fun and I feel like they need me there. sometimes I feel like I am just extra at my base school. Anyway I think that seeing my special kids once a week will be a great treat.
Anyway I had yet another great weekend which always makes me happy. I went to a picnic in the park on Sunday.. it was a surprise b-day party for another ALT and it was a potluck... my cooking failed.. so I stopped at the bakery on the way.. but it was fun, we played some frisbee and just hung out for a couple of hours.
I did find a place to post all my pictures... they are on flickr.com my user name is yohgrl23... i haven't really organized them yet because I have to actually pay to do that.. but I have put up most of the ones I've taken thus far.
Hope you enjoy looking at them.
allright more later.. I'm at school making some lesson plans. still no internet at home.. but it should be happening in about 2 weeks.. yeah its taken over a month.. but it should be worth it when it comes. Pics of my apt are up at flickr
Later.
Lissie
Monday, September 3, 2007
hello
so another eventful week has passed, and yet again i had a great weekend. I spent my weekend at the biggest festival in Toyama it is the Owara festival and is all based around a dance. My principal or kocho sensei invited me to his house for dinner and to see the festival. It was great.
His wife made a massive amount of food, yummy all this japanese food and i got to try lots of differnt things. I'm not sure what it all was, some of it I felt safer not knowing, but I did have some awesome Tofu, that my kocho senseis friend made.
Also when I got to his house his daughter who is like 29 did a tea ceremony for me... its really weird here, children live at home until they are married, she is getting married in a few months, but still sorry m&d but i know we both hope i'm not living at home at 29. any way, it was really cool and the first time I had seen the tea ceremony in person.
Before we left his house to go see the dancing, the principal told me his wife wanted to dress me up in the japanese style, and asked if that was okay. So I got dressed up in a Yukata, like a kimono but cotton and a little less formal. It was so cool, I of course couldn't bend because of all the parts and the ties its a little uncomfortable.
also had my first actual day of school today!! It was nice to actually come to school and know that I had something to be doing.
I had to introduce myself to the teachers at the staff meeting, and then give an intro speech in japanese to all the students. It was a little freaky, but then I realized that I didn't know what I was saying anyway so I wouldn't know if I messed up. I liked most of my classes today, students here act a little differently than high school students in america, but they were good. I gave my self introduction over and over again, basically thats what I will be doing all week.
On Thursday I am excited because I will get to go to the special hospital school I will be visiting once a week. It should be interesting.
anyway thats it, a fun weekend and now I'm starting to be busy at school I love it.
I will post photos online soon, the photo loader on this page will only let me do like one at a time.
more soon,
Lissie
so another eventful week has passed, and yet again i had a great weekend. I spent my weekend at the biggest festival in Toyama it is the Owara festival and is all based around a dance. My principal or kocho sensei invited me to his house for dinner and to see the festival. It was great.
His wife made a massive amount of food, yummy all this japanese food and i got to try lots of differnt things. I'm not sure what it all was, some of it I felt safer not knowing, but I did have some awesome Tofu, that my kocho senseis friend made.
Also when I got to his house his daughter who is like 29 did a tea ceremony for me... its really weird here, children live at home until they are married, she is getting married in a few months, but still sorry m&d but i know we both hope i'm not living at home at 29. any way, it was really cool and the first time I had seen the tea ceremony in person.
Before we left his house to go see the dancing, the principal told me his wife wanted to dress me up in the japanese style, and asked if that was okay. So I got dressed up in a Yukata, like a kimono but cotton and a little less formal. It was so cool, I of course couldn't bend because of all the parts and the ties its a little uncomfortable.
also had my first actual day of school today!! It was nice to actually come to school and know that I had something to be doing.
I had to introduce myself to the teachers at the staff meeting, and then give an intro speech in japanese to all the students. It was a little freaky, but then I realized that I didn't know what I was saying anyway so I wouldn't know if I messed up. I liked most of my classes today, students here act a little differently than high school students in america, but they were good. I gave my self introduction over and over again, basically thats what I will be doing all week.
On Thursday I am excited because I will get to go to the special hospital school I will be visiting once a week. It should be interesting.
anyway thats it, a fun weekend and now I'm starting to be busy at school I love it.
I will post photos online soon, the photo loader on this page will only let me do like one at a time.
more soon,
Lissie
Monday, August 27, 2007
whats new
Hello again,
So how is Japan... actually Japan is pretty darn good. I have been getting used to everything and although talking and communication is still a big issue, (more about that later) everything else is more or less falling into place.
I've been exploring and hanging out with other JETS I went to the beach last weekend it was awesome! the water was so warm, and even though it was a little cloudy you could still see the mountains in the background, the difference here is that the beach and water can be really dirty, like filled with trash dirty, but it was okay when I went.
I also finally went furniture shopping, and it was fantastic. two second year ALT's took me and it was great, I went to a bunch of different stores and got book shelves, a wire rack for my kitchen, a table, pillows and, coach... I got some great deals so it was well worth it. My couch was to big for the car so I had to have it delivered, but it was really inexpensive and easy.
My apt finally feels like home. and even better I went out this weekend and bought a toaster oven, I think between that and my 2 burner stove I can make basically anything in my kitchen.
Its really been fantastic, people are really friendly, and helpful. Yesterday was my first adventure with an atm... one would think it would be easy.. but no.. it wasn't... because the pictures I had in my book weren't what the machine had, finally some really nice Japanese women took pity on me and showed me what to do.
This week was a busy week, instead of sitting around school everyday all day, I had orientation in the city. Technically I am a Toyama City ALT, but I live one train stop out, about 25 minute drive. But all of the Toyama region had orientation on Monday, basically a bunch of workshops some usefull some not, on Tuesday we had regional orientation so just the people in my region (toyama city) it was actually really useful, lots of information about living and doing stuff in Toyama. Wednesday was a whole group trip to the Toyama Mountains, mainly the tallest one in the region MT. Tatayama. Luckily although its been hot its been really great weather since I got here, sunny and no rain. Wednesday the day we were to climb the moutain was aweful weather... rainy cloudy, you couldn't even see the mountains, but to them we went. I was so not climbing.. I don't climb mountains normally, unless theres a great view at the top, but climbing for the sake of climbing.. nope. thank goodness I didn't. I had a great time hanging out at the bottom playing cards and chatting with people and staying dry. The poor group who tried to climb the mountain, they were soaked..not just wet, dripping. They didn't even make it all the way up.. the weather was so bad they had to turn around half way up. The 3 pictures I did get show how gloomy it was.
Thursday I was at school, but it was actually a good day, one of my JTE's asked me to come to one of his summer classes.. about 13 1st and 2nd year music students, and introduce myself and talk to the class. It was great. I got to talk with them and show them photos. I was really excited. Then in the afternoon I had to go back to my apt to wait for the phone people to come... I was all excited because I thought great I'm going to get phone and internet.. wrong... they just came to tell me that yes I could get internet, but no they weren't going to set it up yet... blahh, sometimes the simplest things take forever here.
I also went to get my Ketei (cell phone).. its cute and purple.. and it only took about 2 hours to get it. once again simple made complicated in Japan. but it has a camera so I can take pictures, I can text, and with my plan I can go online. Its a good plan cause its cheap.. 980 yen a month.. that less then 10$.. but I also have to pay about another 10-15$ in other fees.. still a really good deal.
what else..... Friday I had a really boring workshop, and this weekend was quiet, I did laundry, and just hung out.. I did go out to dinner with another ALT but thats it.
I am having a good time for the most part. This week is a little slow, but I do have alot to do to get ready for classess, school opens next week, and this weekend I get to go to my Kocho Senseis house (principal) there is a big festival in his town and he has invited me. It will be interesting.
Anyway here are some more photos.. check out my facebook if you want to see more. Love you all and miss you.
Lissie
so the photo loader isn't working.... I'll have to work on it, I will have to find a photo host for my pics
So how is Japan... actually Japan is pretty darn good. I have been getting used to everything and although talking and communication is still a big issue, (more about that later) everything else is more or less falling into place.
I've been exploring and hanging out with other JETS I went to the beach last weekend it was awesome! the water was so warm, and even though it was a little cloudy you could still see the mountains in the background, the difference here is that the beach and water can be really dirty, like filled with trash dirty, but it was okay when I went.
I also finally went furniture shopping, and it was fantastic. two second year ALT's took me and it was great, I went to a bunch of different stores and got book shelves, a wire rack for my kitchen, a table, pillows and, coach... I got some great deals so it was well worth it. My couch was to big for the car so I had to have it delivered, but it was really inexpensive and easy.
My apt finally feels like home. and even better I went out this weekend and bought a toaster oven, I think between that and my 2 burner stove I can make basically anything in my kitchen.
Its really been fantastic, people are really friendly, and helpful. Yesterday was my first adventure with an atm... one would think it would be easy.. but no.. it wasn't... because the pictures I had in my book weren't what the machine had, finally some really nice Japanese women took pity on me and showed me what to do.
This week was a busy week, instead of sitting around school everyday all day, I had orientation in the city. Technically I am a Toyama City ALT, but I live one train stop out, about 25 minute drive. But all of the Toyama region had orientation on Monday, basically a bunch of workshops some usefull some not, on Tuesday we had regional orientation so just the people in my region (toyama city) it was actually really useful, lots of information about living and doing stuff in Toyama. Wednesday was a whole group trip to the Toyama Mountains, mainly the tallest one in the region MT. Tatayama. Luckily although its been hot its been really great weather since I got here, sunny and no rain. Wednesday the day we were to climb the moutain was aweful weather... rainy cloudy, you couldn't even see the mountains, but to them we went. I was so not climbing.. I don't climb mountains normally, unless theres a great view at the top, but climbing for the sake of climbing.. nope. thank goodness I didn't. I had a great time hanging out at the bottom playing cards and chatting with people and staying dry. The poor group who tried to climb the mountain, they were soaked..not just wet, dripping. They didn't even make it all the way up.. the weather was so bad they had to turn around half way up. The 3 pictures I did get show how gloomy it was.
Thursday I was at school, but it was actually a good day, one of my JTE's asked me to come to one of his summer classes.. about 13 1st and 2nd year music students, and introduce myself and talk to the class. It was great. I got to talk with them and show them photos. I was really excited. Then in the afternoon I had to go back to my apt to wait for the phone people to come... I was all excited because I thought great I'm going to get phone and internet.. wrong... they just came to tell me that yes I could get internet, but no they weren't going to set it up yet... blahh, sometimes the simplest things take forever here.
I also went to get my Ketei (cell phone).. its cute and purple.. and it only took about 2 hours to get it. once again simple made complicated in Japan. but it has a camera so I can take pictures, I can text, and with my plan I can go online. Its a good plan cause its cheap.. 980 yen a month.. that less then 10$.. but I also have to pay about another 10-15$ in other fees.. still a really good deal.
what else..... Friday I had a really boring workshop, and this weekend was quiet, I did laundry, and just hung out.. I did go out to dinner with another ALT but thats it.
I am having a good time for the most part. This week is a little slow, but I do have alot to do to get ready for classess, school opens next week, and this weekend I get to go to my Kocho Senseis house (principal) there is a big festival in his town and he has invited me. It will be interesting.
Anyway here are some more photos.. check out my facebook if you want to see more. Love you all and miss you.
Lissie
so the photo loader isn't working.... I'll have to work on it, I will have to find a photo host for my pics
Friday, August 17, 2007
Its Friday,
not sure that much has changed, still working on getting furniture for my apartment... but i promise as soon as it has some semblance of order I will take some pics. I don't want to now because it is empty and a little depressing.
I also will be taking some photos of work.. I think this afternoon I might go exploring around my school. I have nothing else to do. Its realy been a pretty boring week.. the best is when the other JTE's and I get to leave for lunch... thats about it. other than that I sit around the work room and make myself look productive. I have made my self intro powerpoint, and I have written one lesson...
but i am at school from 8:30-4:15 every day so there is only so much work that I can do.
I think I am starting to get more comfortable living here, I do know that it would help immensly to speak the language but aside from that, I go grocery shopping, I can mime my way through the appliance/home goods store, (except for the delivery part), and I have even gone out to eat on my own.. okay fine they did have an english menu.. but i at least knew how to ask for it. I still have a long way to go.. knowing some more simple vocab would really help... but that means I have to study, which I will. And I have made several edible meals at my apartment..... last nights especially.. and it included vegitables. So far so good.
This week has been slow, but next week I have all kinds of stuff going on, we have a prefectural orientation in the city on monday and tuesday, wednesday is also orientation but we are going hiking up MT. Tatayama.. I might stick to reading a book at the bottom though, considering that Saturday/Sunday I will be attempting to climb MT. Fugi. And on Friday I have a work shop... so that basically gets me through to the week after... and not long after that school starts.
I like being busy. It makes things better. I have to find some stuff to do this weekend though... I think furniture shopping is a big one.. but I might also find my way to the mall again so that I can get stuff for Fugi.
Anyway I'm off to have lunch with another ALT in my area.
Lissie
not sure that much has changed, still working on getting furniture for my apartment... but i promise as soon as it has some semblance of order I will take some pics. I don't want to now because it is empty and a little depressing.
I also will be taking some photos of work.. I think this afternoon I might go exploring around my school. I have nothing else to do. Its realy been a pretty boring week.. the best is when the other JTE's and I get to leave for lunch... thats about it. other than that I sit around the work room and make myself look productive. I have made my self intro powerpoint, and I have written one lesson...
but i am at school from 8:30-4:15 every day so there is only so much work that I can do.
I think I am starting to get more comfortable living here, I do know that it would help immensly to speak the language but aside from that, I go grocery shopping, I can mime my way through the appliance/home goods store, (except for the delivery part), and I have even gone out to eat on my own.. okay fine they did have an english menu.. but i at least knew how to ask for it. I still have a long way to go.. knowing some more simple vocab would really help... but that means I have to study, which I will. And I have made several edible meals at my apartment..... last nights especially.. and it included vegitables. So far so good.
This week has been slow, but next week I have all kinds of stuff going on, we have a prefectural orientation in the city on monday and tuesday, wednesday is also orientation but we are going hiking up MT. Tatayama.. I might stick to reading a book at the bottom though, considering that Saturday/Sunday I will be attempting to climb MT. Fugi. And on Friday I have a work shop... so that basically gets me through to the week after... and not long after that school starts.
I like being busy. It makes things better. I have to find some stuff to do this weekend though... I think furniture shopping is a big one.. but I might also find my way to the mall again so that I can get stuff for Fugi.
Anyway I'm off to have lunch with another ALT in my area.
Lissie
Monday, August 13, 2007
one week
so its hard to believe that I have been in Japan for one week now! It feels both like it has been forever and like it just happened yesterday.
I had a great first weekend in Japan, on saturday, I had the adventure of buying a bike.. that was interesting, it was just me at the store, and of course i speak no japanese and they don't speak any english, so it took me like 30 minutes just to get up the courage to ask for help... basically to wave someone over and point at the bike i wanted. that actually was the easiest part. After that I had to work out registering the bike and paying for it. it was a little bit of a mess but in the end I have a bike and it makes it much easier to get around. I am close to school, but to go to the grocery store and bank... it is to far to walk. My bike has a big basket in the front, and i think that I am going to buy a basket for the back so i have extra room.
I also think that today and tomorrow after school, I am going to start getting things for my apartment. right now all I have is a fridge, washing machine, a very thin futton (mattress), and a tv. I think it will feel more like home once I can add a bed and some tables.. it will be better.
I have been able to call home using skype, but since I have no internet at home, I have to use it at school, all the teachers are very interested in the fact that I can use my computer to call my home phone and actually talk to my mom. They all walk by while I am talking into my computer and think it is very strange. But it is really nice to be able to call home often.
okay I have to head back to work, more later
Lissie
I had a great first weekend in Japan, on saturday, I had the adventure of buying a bike.. that was interesting, it was just me at the store, and of course i speak no japanese and they don't speak any english, so it took me like 30 minutes just to get up the courage to ask for help... basically to wave someone over and point at the bike i wanted. that actually was the easiest part. After that I had to work out registering the bike and paying for it. it was a little bit of a mess but in the end I have a bike and it makes it much easier to get around. I am close to school, but to go to the grocery store and bank... it is to far to walk. My bike has a big basket in the front, and i think that I am going to buy a basket for the back so i have extra room.
I also think that today and tomorrow after school, I am going to start getting things for my apartment. right now all I have is a fridge, washing machine, a very thin futton (mattress), and a tv. I think it will feel more like home once I can add a bed and some tables.. it will be better.
I have been able to call home using skype, but since I have no internet at home, I have to use it at school, all the teachers are very interested in the fact that I can use my computer to call my home phone and actually talk to my mom. They all walk by while I am talking into my computer and think it is very strange. But it is really nice to be able to call home often.
okay I have to head back to work, more later
Lissie
Friday, August 10, 2007
photos!
okay so I have all this down time at work.. litterally all day. So I decided to post some of my photos from my Tokyo excursions, and from my going away party, and other funness. Hope you enjoy.
so a back note to these 2.... my old laptop (pictured here) was a disaster and after 7 years of working only half the time, I felt the strong need to put it out of its misery, and what better way then to well... shoot it.
I think some of these bullet holes are actually mine
so we took Sam's 30 30 and decided to trouble shoot.
on a slightly less scary, creepy note, this is from my grad party, this is some of my dads side of the family, grandmother, aunts, and cousins
a new way to have watermelon, a huge success. Thanks to the boys
These are my cousins just around. I was so happy everyone came up to visit!!
so they take karaoke serious here.. no shady little bars.. this building went up at least 10 floors and had little rooms all throughout where your private group went to do karaoke.
yup true japanese experience singing sometimes questionably translated 80's songs
Tokyo is huge.
okay i have to go look lie I'm doing stuff now... more photos from this weekends beer garden coming soon
lissie
so a back note to these 2.... my old laptop (pictured here) was a disaster and after 7 years of working only half the time, I felt the strong need to put it out of its misery, and what better way then to well... shoot it.
I think some of these bullet holes are actually mine
so we took Sam's 30 30 and decided to trouble shoot.
on a slightly less scary, creepy note, this is from my grad party, this is some of my dads side of the family, grandmother, aunts, and cousins
a new way to have watermelon, a huge success. Thanks to the boys
These are my cousins just around. I was so happy everyone came up to visit!!
so they take karaoke serious here.. no shady little bars.. this building went up at least 10 floors and had little rooms all throughout where your private group went to do karaoke.
yup true japanese experience singing sometimes questionably translated 80's songs
Tokyo is huge.okay i have to go look lie I'm doing stuff now... more photos from this weekends beer garden coming soon
lissie
Thursday, August 9, 2007
a quick hello
hi everyone!
I am in Toyama and trying to get used to all the new things at once... but it is very strange and everything takes so long to happen that it is a big change. I dont have internet at my apartment or at school yet, so I wont be on alot but I think that I will figure things out soon.
until then everything is going well and I am safe and almost completely happy with my new Job.
gotta run I am out of time.
Later
Lissie
I am in Toyama and trying to get used to all the new things at once... but it is very strange and everything takes so long to happen that it is a big change. I dont have internet at my apartment or at school yet, so I wont be on alot but I think that I will figure things out soon.
until then everything is going well and I am safe and almost completely happy with my new Job.
gotta run I am out of time.
Later
Lissie
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
orientation
hello again,
so its Tuesday night here in Tokyo and in the morning I leave for Toyama! I am so excited to actually head out to my new home and to meet all the people that I will be working with and everything. okay I won't lie I am extremely nervous about seeing my apartment.
anyway, orientation in Tokyo has been a true whirl wind to say the least. Between meeting hundreds of new people, all the new sights and sounds, and being extremely jet lagged I have some how managed to go to workshops and learn some hopefully helpful information. There are about 700 of us at least here at the hotel. About 19 of whom are headed to my prefecture.
I will say that last night was my first experience with Karaoke... and oh what an experience it is... people here take their karaoke seriously... none of this geting on stage in a front of strangers at a bar... oh no.. over here you rent a private room with its own karaoke machine and you sit around with friends and drink and sing. People have special songs that they practice just so they can do that one song.. its strange to see these older Japanese men in buisness dress, in their private booth just singing away. Crazy. I will say that it was a blast, a little backstreet boys, bon jovi, queen, I will survive, grease.. among many others were sung last night.
I have pictures they will be up soon (probably)
Well I am off to bed I am still tired and a little disoriented but still really excited for tomorrow.
stay tuned for Karaoke pictures, photos of my apartment, and other Tokyo randomness.
Lissie
so its Tuesday night here in Tokyo and in the morning I leave for Toyama! I am so excited to actually head out to my new home and to meet all the people that I will be working with and everything. okay I won't lie I am extremely nervous about seeing my apartment.
anyway, orientation in Tokyo has been a true whirl wind to say the least. Between meeting hundreds of new people, all the new sights and sounds, and being extremely jet lagged I have some how managed to go to workshops and learn some hopefully helpful information. There are about 700 of us at least here at the hotel. About 19 of whom are headed to my prefecture.
I will say that last night was my first experience with Karaoke... and oh what an experience it is... people here take their karaoke seriously... none of this geting on stage in a front of strangers at a bar... oh no.. over here you rent a private room with its own karaoke machine and you sit around with friends and drink and sing. People have special songs that they practice just so they can do that one song.. its strange to see these older Japanese men in buisness dress, in their private booth just singing away. Crazy. I will say that it was a blast, a little backstreet boys, bon jovi, queen, I will survive, grease.. among many others were sung last night.
I have pictures they will be up soon (probably)
Well I am off to bed I am still tired and a little disoriented but still really excited for tomorrow.
stay tuned for Karaoke pictures, photos of my apartment, and other Tokyo randomness.
Lissie
Monday, August 6, 2007
hello
so its bright and early in japan, my body thinks its 5pm... but over here it is 6 am. I still am tired but I feel better than I did last night. I really am excited and can`t wait to start doing more and meeting more people.
Hey mum I have no idea what I ate last night, the little shop had pictures in the window with numbers next to them, you walk in the door and put money in these little vending like machines, depending on how much you put in different numbers light up, then you pick a number and take your reciept, you give it to the cook and they make it. I had soba noodles in a broth, with seaweed, a poached egg, some fake crab, and some other stuff... not really sure what. It wasn`t all that bad.
I think I am going to wander off during some of the optional meetings this afternoon and either nap... cause I will probably need it or I will wander around this part of Tokyo, I am afraid to go futher away, mostly because I would have to battle the train, and I don`t think I am brave enough to try that.
Any way there are like 1000 jets here at the hotel, a bunch of us are already up and wandering around the hotel, everybody looks a little dazed.
Well my time on the computer is almost up, more later.
Lissie
Hey mum I have no idea what I ate last night, the little shop had pictures in the window with numbers next to them, you walk in the door and put money in these little vending like machines, depending on how much you put in different numbers light up, then you pick a number and take your reciept, you give it to the cook and they make it. I had soba noodles in a broth, with seaweed, a poached egg, some fake crab, and some other stuff... not really sure what. It wasn`t all that bad.
I think I am going to wander off during some of the optional meetings this afternoon and either nap... cause I will probably need it or I will wander around this part of Tokyo, I am afraid to go futher away, mostly because I would have to battle the train, and I don`t think I am brave enough to try that.
Any way there are like 1000 jets here at the hotel, a bunch of us are already up and wandering around the hotel, everybody looks a little dazed.
Well my time on the computer is almost up, more later.
Lissie
Sunday, August 5, 2007
hey all
so its official I am in Japan! I am so tired I haven't slept in like 30 hours just finished up at 13 hour plane ride. And am now giddy because of lack of sleep.
I had my first experience with Japanese food and of course I forgot my camera... I will try to remember it next time. it was good though.. i looked at a picture, put money in a machine, pressed a button, and got what ever they handed me....
anyway, I am off to do some ironing and get some much needed sleep.
Leave love...
Lissie
I had my first experience with Japanese food and of course I forgot my camera... I will try to remember it next time. it was good though.. i looked at a picture, put money in a machine, pressed a button, and got what ever they handed me....
anyway, I am off to do some ironing and get some much needed sleep.
Leave love...
Lissie
Friday, August 3, 2007
dude I'm going to Japan
so this is it, I can not believe that tonight is my last night home for a year!!!
Saturday I board a plane bound for Tokyo Japan, and from there another plane to Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture Japan!!
What will I be doing in Toyama? well for those of you who haven't heard I will be working with the JET programme (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) I will be an Assitant Language Teacher (ALT) and working in a public Japanese high school. I will be teaching classes to 15, 16, and 17 year olds. And of course living in a shoe box apt. in Toyama.
So this is where I will be posting the latest and greatest: pictures, fun tales, embarrassing moments, the good, the bad, and the ugly... hopefully mostly the good. Pictures included.
I really am excited, I think that this will be the best experience and will be fun.. gulp I hope.
I will try to update often, well at least once a week. Let me know what you want to hear about.
Here are my addresses in Japan, you can get to my school or my apt.
thats all for now folks, I'll let you know whats what when I actually know more!
until next time
** just a note.... I never spell anything right anyway, and this is my blog... so you can tell me about my typos but I'm not fixing them.... (so there mom)
Saturday I board a plane bound for Tokyo Japan, and from there another plane to Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture Japan!!
What will I be doing in Toyama? well for those of you who haven't heard I will be working with the JET programme (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) I will be an Assitant Language Teacher (ALT) and working in a public Japanese high school. I will be teaching classes to 15, 16, and 17 year olds. And of course living in a shoe box apt. in Toyama.
So this is where I will be posting the latest and greatest: pictures, fun tales, embarrassing moments, the good, the bad, and the ugly... hopefully mostly the good. Pictures included.
I really am excited, I think that this will be the best experience and will be fun.. gulp I hope.
I will try to update often, well at least once a week. Let me know what you want to hear about.
Here are my addresses in Japan, you can get to my school or my apt.
thats all for now folks, I'll let you know whats what when I actually know more!
until next time
** just a note.... I never spell anything right anyway, and this is my blog... so you can tell me about my typos but I'm not fixing them.... (so there mom)
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