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
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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
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