Fun Times with the Adpoted 'Rents
9:45am: Jarred awake by poundings on my leg… my hung over buddy, Virginia, reminds me that we need to get up to catch a bus home. I mutter something about leaving later but decide that due to plans I have at noon, I probably shouldn’t sleep any longer. We gather our stuff and try to pull it together to depart from our oh-so-kind friend’s pad (Big Hands for Hiyadeh for letting us crash).
10am: We stumble out the door, Virginia doubled over in post-party nausea and I with broken feet from dancing and still wearing heels, throw on the shades (“WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT OUTSIDE?!) and proceeded to find the bus home.
12pm: FREAKIN’ FOREVER later, I arrived home (the bus took about 1.5 hours and the trolley to get to Virginia’s, where I parked my car, was 30 mins) in time to put on something a little decent, take a French shower and head out to my host family’s house.
1pm: Met up with the host family and grabbed a quick bite to eat (FOOD & WATER= SOOOO good). Did I mention I was an HOUR late? Yah. Great track record I’m making here… but I suppose some things will never change with me. Anyway, we ate and then dashed off to a host family party with other host families. It was ALL I could do not to fall asleep in the car. Cool thing I learned today: MANY cars have some sort of TV/ GPS in their car. You can input the phone number or address of the place you are looking for, or look it up in a directory and it will give you perfect directions. AND you can watch TV on it too. The best 2 parts are that you get multiple channels and it only turns on when the car is stopped (I guess they have similar laws as at home)… but its automatic! So stopped= TV, go= back to map. Awesome.
2:30pm: We got to the party, meet, greet and mingle. Other JETs were there with their host families, most were still hung over from last night’s festivities (if they made it at all!) but managed to put on a happy face. It was a pot luck so there were lots of good eats. After the eating each family performed some kind of little act. We had a hula dance, old MacDonald, 3 national anthems, a karate skit and MY family’s concluding song & dance number of Abraham’s children (it was new to me… and INCREDIBLY embarrassing). I felt a little stupid cause it’s a kid’s song and there are NO little children in my host family… so it was not really cute… just 3 adults doing this song. The shame. BUT my host mother really seemed to love the song & dance so, it was nice to see her happy (it was HER idea… and how could I turn down that smile!).
7pm: got home and prepped for bed. Took the longest bath ever. My dogs were KILLING me at that point and I needed to relax from some hard core rockin out (from Saturday’s party… NOT the host fam thing!).
10pm: Out like a light! First time I have been to bed “early” since July. Sleep is a beautiful thing.
Dinner with the Host Fam!
I had dinner with my host family tonight! Man, the food was good.
We had a big platter of sushi and home made stuff. She made a sort of lasagna using mochi instead of pasta. It was interesting... but really good. I couldn't eat it all! I also got to meet theri daughter who lives in Yokohama. They were all really great. It was almost like being at home again... awwww!!!
I also had a cheesecake. My host mom made it but she left out the sugar so it just tasted like cheese. It was weird & at first I thought it was a 'Japanese' version of cheesecake but I was relieved to find that she just forgot the sugar. It was a good night.
We also decided what we are going to do to the host family party. My host mom suggested this song and then she proceded to preform the whole thing in front of me. It's basically like the hokey pokey except its 10x more ridiculous. I'm going to look like a complete ass. But she looked so excited to do it, how could I say no? I would say that its OK, except that it's a little kid's song and we have no little kids for the audience to say "awwww" about. So its just going to be me & my host mom... doing this song. Something about the hands of Abarham? I don't know. Please, oh please don't let anyone have a video camera.
PS- thet have an AMAZING bathroom! Automatic faucet & toilet that opens when you stand in front of it! SWEET!
Jr High visits Sabae
Today the JHS stutents came to our school to check it out.
In case you didn't know, in Japan mandatory education is only up to middle school. After that, you have to apply to high schools. So, every year, JHS students come from all over the area to check out different high schools.
It was nice lieel change of pace from the normal go to class routine. We put up the posters the ni-nenseis (2nd years) made in my class. They were really cute posters. I'll be sure to get pictures of them sometime. The poster assignment was to write bits about the school, teachers, classes, an average day, etc. so that the JHS students could get an idea of Sabae high school. Of course they weren't really read by the JHS students (they were shuffled around from the moment they walked through the doors), but it was a good effort.
I 'taught' a sample class to some JHS students with another JTE (Japanese teacher of English). We put up pictures of American and Japanese celebrities and had the students pick a picture (in pairs) and describe the person and why they chose the picture. After that, the pair presented the picture and explanation to the class. It went well and I was really impressed with their English! It rivaled that of some of my second years!
Anyway, it was an easy day. Yay for Junior high schools!
“If you came to my school, the students would give vigor to you.”- K. Tatumi, 2-2
Grading. It is the best of times and it it’s the worst of times. Piles and piles of notebooks and worksheets seem to have found permanent homes on the sides of my desk. I think I am officially a teacher. I even took stuff home with me to grade yesterday!!! Eek! How could this be?! I thought it was going to be one big party in Jap-iz-an with a little bit of high school sprinkled on the side. I’m not sure if this is what I ordered!
Haha… but it really is GRAND reading through all their stuff. Since I haven’t really TAUGHT them any grammar, style, vocab, etc. I don’t feel such pressure to grade and evaluate how much they have learned, which I feel makes things a WHOLE LOT easier. I can kick back and grade as the mood strikes me… AKA higher scores for all when I’m watchin Monday Night Football (on Tuesdays at a local ‘family’ restaurant- Skylark Gusto?!?) and eating a big plate of pasta marinara (coincidentallysome of the BEST pasta I’ve ever had… for reals. Go J-Italy!).
However, grading also becomes a bit more objective and maybe a little less standardized? Hmmm… I seem to remember having similar complaints about several university profs back in the day (“what do you want from me?! It is SO unclear!!!!”). In any case, they’re always a fun read and these kids say the darndest things! I have never encountered so many kids who have been “moved” by fireworks, movies, festivals, etc. or come from a school that “has a good tradition” (what does this mean? why doesn’t it make sense to me?). Additionally, I think it is high time they learned to replace “and so on” with a simple period…”Seriously boys and girls! It’s OK to end a list with JUST a period!”
So, is there anything else going on at school besides grading, you ask? Well, yes, I am the native English speaker so I do get questions about ‘stuff’ relating to grammar once and a while. Although lately I have been used more as a human thesaurus- basically dumming down vocabulary (is there any more of simple way to say hire???). So if I come back without much of a vocab (or speaking engrish s-l-o-w-l-y) cut me a little slack, ok? I make stuff for presentations and prepare games every now and again but then that’s about it. It’s nice and despite the grading complaints, I SWEAR I have not been jaded or EMBITTERED (eh, hem… you know who you are) by it. I am having a fabulous time and it ain’t that bad a’tall.
