I've been having a really good week teaching-wise. I've started this new lesson where I put the kids into groups and give them handouts with keywords about a certain topic, and then have them ask me questions based on the topics. It's been working out really well so far, because it forces each of them to speak in English, which usually is a challenge. They seem to enjoy it too- one of my students (with a bit of help from my supervisor) asked me what my favorite scene from Bleach was. It was kind of awesome.
Last weekend I went to Kyoto with my friend Daisy to meet her brother's girlfriend Fran. Fran was there for 2 weeks studying art at the university. She's really awesome, I'm glad I got to meet her. I love how close we are to Kyoto, it's only about a 2 hour train ride.
I'm starting to plan out all my vacation days for the rest of the year. I'm going home in December, then I'm going to Hokkaido in Feb. for the snow festival in Sapporo, then I'm going to China in March to visit Sproffee, and then I'm going to Tokyo in April to meet up with Olivia :-) My birthday falls right before Golden Week, so I might take a trip then too, it's just a matter of deciding where.
Today one of my first year classes got to make soba noodles. They had these soba chefs from the next town over come to our school and teach them how to make the dough and cut the noodles and everything. It looked like a lot of fun. The soba guys were really nice, I will probably check out their restaurant at some point.
This entry was a little boring. Sorry!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Weekend Update
We had Monday off this week because of "Health and Sports" day which was awesome. I had a particularly bad week due to school issues and other things, so naturally I did my best to enjoy the weekend.
I spent the day on Saturday shopping in the city with my friend Erica. We went to 2 foreign food stores and stocked up on stuff for Mexican food, then we hit up Uniqlo, which is this cool clothing store. Apparently they have one in NYC, but I had never heard of it before. Later that night was my friend Kurtis's birthday at this really cute thai restaurant and then later headed to the bar we JETs have basically claimed as our own. I did karaoke for my friend's Japanese friend Macchan who was visiting. He's super cool, I really wish we had gotten to hang out with him more.
Sunday I went to the Maruoka castle festival, which included this really cool parade which we randomly got pulled into. We walked up and down this one street for an hour doing traditional Japanese dances. It was ridiculous and awesome. At one point the festival coordinators started throwing free mocchi into the crowd. Again, ridiculous and awesome. Maruoka is beautiful, I really regret not bringing my camera. :-(
Yesterday, the orphanage I volunteer at had Sports Day, which was massively fun. The kids totally loved it. We had races and relays and I led the Hokey Pokey at the end. It's amazing how much they seem to be warming up to us- when we first started going, a lot of the kids seemed really shy and reluctant to open up to us newbies, but now they are so much more friendly and affectionate towards us. I'm amazed that in this short period of time I've gotten so attached to this kids. They really seem to enjoy the time we spend with them, and that makes it such a rewarding experience.
That's all for now :-)
I spent the day on Saturday shopping in the city with my friend Erica. We went to 2 foreign food stores and stocked up on stuff for Mexican food, then we hit up Uniqlo, which is this cool clothing store. Apparently they have one in NYC, but I had never heard of it before. Later that night was my friend Kurtis's birthday at this really cute thai restaurant and then later headed to the bar we JETs have basically claimed as our own. I did karaoke for my friend's Japanese friend Macchan who was visiting. He's super cool, I really wish we had gotten to hang out with him more.
Sunday I went to the Maruoka castle festival, which included this really cool parade which we randomly got pulled into. We walked up and down this one street for an hour doing traditional Japanese dances. It was ridiculous and awesome. At one point the festival coordinators started throwing free mocchi into the crowd. Again, ridiculous and awesome. Maruoka is beautiful, I really regret not bringing my camera. :-(
Yesterday, the orphanage I volunteer at had Sports Day, which was massively fun. The kids totally loved it. We had races and relays and I led the Hokey Pokey at the end. It's amazing how much they seem to be warming up to us- when we first started going, a lot of the kids seemed really shy and reluctant to open up to us newbies, but now they are so much more friendly and affectionate towards us. I'm amazed that in this short period of time I've gotten so attached to this kids. They really seem to enjoy the time we spend with them, and that makes it such a rewarding experience.
That's all for now :-)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Live from Fukui!
So I clearly am terrible at updating this thing! But I come bearing tales of my Japanese adventure...in List Form!
1. I've been teaching for almost a month now, and so far it's pretty good. I'm at at "lower-academic" high school, which means the students are preparing for the workplace instead of college. Which is not a bad thing at all. My kids are always really excited to see me, and they do their best. My teachers are awesome too. The woman who sits next to me in the teacher's room has totally taken me under her wing. Her name is Sakamoto and she's working really hard to teach me Japanese and to make me feel welcome here. She's my favorite.
2. The town I live in is called Katsuyama and it's completely beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains and it has the Kuzuryu river running through it. I live right next to the Echizen Daibutsu, which is the largest cast-iron statue in the world. Check out our giant metal neighbor!
3. I took a mini-trip to Kyoto with a few friends before school started, and it was tons of fun. I got to meet up with my friend Masako, whom I hadn't seen in 4 years. It was awesome. Kyoto has about 23801492330 temples and shrines, there's still tons of stuff I didn't get to see. I'm def going back there at some point.
PICTURES!!
4. I climbed Mt. Fuji!!!! Well, mostly. I didn't make it all the way to the top, but I made it to the 8th station (which is almost 11,000 feet high) and was able to watch the sun rise. Oh yeah, we climbed it at night. Which, at the time seemed terrifying and awful, but had we climbed in the day time it probably would have been even scarier. It was almost better that it was dark, because I probably would have freaked out if I had been able to see exactly how high we were. It was really really cold, and a pretty hard climb for someone who's never climbed a mountain before, but it was totally worth it. And I'm totally stoked that I never have to climb it again.
That's all I can think of to write right now, but I'll try to update more often. I still don't have internet in my house which makes it a little difficult to stay on top of this. I'm writing this at school, which I have to be covert about. Later!
1. I've been teaching for almost a month now, and so far it's pretty good. I'm at at "lower-academic" high school, which means the students are preparing for the workplace instead of college. Which is not a bad thing at all. My kids are always really excited to see me, and they do their best. My teachers are awesome too. The woman who sits next to me in the teacher's room has totally taken me under her wing. Her name is Sakamoto and she's working really hard to teach me Japanese and to make me feel welcome here. She's my favorite.
2. The town I live in is called Katsuyama and it's completely beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains and it has the Kuzuryu river running through it. I live right next to the Echizen Daibutsu, which is the largest cast-iron statue in the world. Check out our giant metal neighbor!
3. I took a mini-trip to Kyoto with a few friends before school started, and it was tons of fun. I got to meet up with my friend Masako, whom I hadn't seen in 4 years. It was awesome. Kyoto has about 23801492330 temples and shrines, there's still tons of stuff I didn't get to see. I'm def going back there at some point.
PICTURES!!
4. I climbed Mt. Fuji!!!! Well, mostly. I didn't make it all the way to the top, but I made it to the 8th station (which is almost 11,000 feet high) and was able to watch the sun rise. Oh yeah, we climbed it at night. Which, at the time seemed terrifying and awful, but had we climbed in the day time it probably would have been even scarier. It was almost better that it was dark, because I probably would have freaked out if I had been able to see exactly how high we were. It was really really cold, and a pretty hard climb for someone who's never climbed a mountain before, but it was totally worth it. And I'm totally stoked that I never have to climb it again.
That's all I can think of to write right now, but I'll try to update more often. I still don't have internet in my house which makes it a little difficult to stay on top of this. I'm writing this at school, which I have to be covert about. Later!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fukui, Here I Come!!!
I have exactly one week before I leave for Japan, and right now I am feeling a huge jumble of emotions. I probably won't delve into them here too much, that's what livejournal's for, haha. I created this blog strictly for posting pictures and stories about my time in Asia, and for keeping my friends and family updated on my new life abroad. Let the blogging begin!!
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