Saturday 2/25 (10pm-4am) After the camp, I came home and crashed. I was dead tired and I figured I should get some sleep before going out later that Night. Side story- My friend had been talking about doing a girly night for a few weeks before the camp. She mentioned a local club was going to have a gues DJ and that we should go party it up & meet some j-folks. Of course, I'm always down for some hip-hop and dancing. :D So, I agreed. We also decided to keep it low key and have just thie girls go. Not that we wanted to be exclusive, but sometimes JETs tend to take over venues and scare away the natives. So, anyway, earlier in the week before the cam we were discussing the plans for this outing. Turns out that some other people have been invited and some guys too. Fine. The more the merrier, right? (End side story) However, right as I was closing my sleepy eyes I get a text saying that my friend is really tired and not feeling like clubbing tonight. But if I wanted to catch a few beers at a local pub, give her a call. BLAH! Flaking so so not cool, people. Especially if you've been talking about it and planning it for weeks and YOU're the organizer. I decided to go anyway. Another friend of mine was going so I just met up with him at 10pm. So, I slept for maybe an hour before I heard my doorbell ring. I tried to ignore it, and my lights were all out but I hear it again anyway, and whoever it is would not go away. So I, dragged myself up to answer and who should it be? The NHK man. BLAH!!!!!! He tried to get me to pay 4000 yen for 2 months worth of the channels but i said (lied?) that I didn't have money so I only paid half of it, all the while arguing that i don't even watch TV (seriously, I haven't watched cable in ages... there is more crap than funny stuff and my TV gets no reception anymore... the antennas I have suck). So, he went away, and I hope he never comes back. I was very pissed. And I have vowed to rip the head off the next NHK guy that comes for money and says I need to pay it. I refuse... he claimed I had to but apparently it is just a strongly suggested donation. Stalkers!!!! I hate NHK! Back to sleep. 10pm rolls around, I meet my friend and we head out. The club is called Creme and is one of the more popular hip-hop clubs in the area. Wasn't so packed in the beginning but later, there was barely room to breath & it was mad hot. The scene was all Japanese people, mostly young (yay! finally we see the youth!) and into hip-hop (duh? Gear and all). The music was pretty decent althought I could not realy figure out what they were trying to do. Sometimes the DJs would just be trying to show off their mixing skills (OK) and other times they played music that was really fun and dancable. I think I would have preferred more dancable music but maybe thats not how they get down over here. Mostly people just stood around facing the DJ and watched him/ her spin. Some bobbed their heads but thats about it. There were lots of guys & all the girls seemed to be hiding out on the sides of the wall. Mayebe they were shy? Anyway, it was crazy... girls, guys, booze (there was a small bar in the back, so people were drinking & getting drunk) and NO grinding. Inconcievable!!! There were some guys who loked to take up the floor and break at times. That was interesting. They also brought in dancers every now and again for perform for the crowd. They were mostly good dancers. This one chick did some crazy ragge/ dance hall stuff... booty shaking, splits, standing on her head w/ splits and butt shaking... it was like moves from a 2 Live Crew video! But before you get excited... I have to say that I was impressed with her moves but at the same time it was almost silly to watch because she had NO BOOTY to shake. So it was more like doing the moves without the equiptment... just looks silly. Too bad. On the plus side, I saw my hip-hop teacher (yes, I take hip-hop lessons every Monday for something to do... and the teacher is WAY cute! :D)... . It was kind of cool to see he and his crew do their thing. He has so much energy... its nuts. So, the night was good. We finished at about 4am and decided to head back. I was practically asleep the whole way back. At least I got to sleep in a little more that night. Finally
Friday- 2/24 Went to school for a half day & just mucked about as there was no work to be done (goodness, do I love exam period!). Got home & had lunch and then went to the gym after narrowly escaping the NHK man! Side story- NHK is a 'network' I guess, in Japan. It owns about 4 channels. I had heard that they send people around to collect money for NHK for viewing the channels but that it may not be mandatory? I'm still unclear. Anyway, I was running out the door to the gym and the guy was at my neighbors door. He asked what time to come back & I stupidly said an hour. But I made sure to take my time getting to and from the gym, as well as taking a detour on the way back. Strategy: avoid the NHK man at all costs!!! This aslo meant lights out and not a sound when I got back home. STEALTH!
Saturday- 2/25 (9am-5pm) Rise and shine for the Takefu Higashi Winter English Camp! Woo hoo!!! Blah. I had volunteered for this awhile ago because 1) It paid 5000en for the day (every little bit helps) 2) my friend was organizing it, and other friends were going (yay! following the crowd!) and 3) I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about for this school. Apparently, this high school has an international program in addition to a regular English program and it is one of the best in the country. So, they get lots of funding from the government and the kids that are accepted into the program must have very good English skills. It's the only school in Fukui to have 2 ALTs (and they are getting a 3rd next year). Of course I had to check it out.
The only reason I said, "blah" above was that I had to wake up at 8am to be at the camp by 9am. Yay. Everyone knows how fond I am of waking up early. Anyway, it was very interesting. Each ALT had a group of 4 students to work with. I had 3 girls and a boy. First the students read an English news paper article, summarized the events and did a mini news broadcast. Then they shared other articles the had found. After that, the groups split up into pairs and there was 2 rounds of proper debating. The ALTs acted as moderators and 2 pairs of students debated the issue of Article 9 in the Japanese constitution (If you haden't heard, Prime Minister Koizumi wants to remove this article from the constitution. The removal would allow Japan to have a standing army again). So, we had to moderate and judge which groups had the better arguements. The last activity was a presentation of candidates. Students had to pretend they were a candidate and they had to present themselves and their platform. My group's platform was peace and truth. Yay. So, basically they said that the world could be ruled through peace and truth... whatever that means. These were pre-assigned platforms so, some of them were kind of weird. Eg. the Earth group (that seemed to pronounce it "ass"- I had to keep a straight face in the back). These presentations were incredibly long and BO-RING. Sorry kids. It might have been better to do something a little more interactive. The kids worked hard on the presentations though, so it was very interesting to watch them at work. Some groups were very lively & others were a bit more quiet. One of my friends had a group of girls that seemed to cry after every activity! I guess the pressure & their desire to achieve was so great that they cried when they thought they didn't do well. It was a little nuts. He had no idea what to do.... a boy and a 4 japanese high school girls crying. Oh the hilarity of the situation.
It was a good day. The kids were great & the legends are true. Their English was fantastic. Worlds ahead of my kids. It was very nice to talk with the kids and actually have a nice conversation with them. I liked getting to know them a bit better. It was a welcome change of pace. On the other hand, I was crazy tired so I was struggling to stay awake the entire day. I did have some coffee, which I thought would help me wake up a bit. Instead, it wired me and I was a little hyper towards the end of the day. BAD COFFEE- never again will I be fooled by your false promises of wakefulness!
The crowning glory of my teaching skills was that I taught my kids the 2-fingers to the forehead "looser!" AND I got them to constantly use it on my friend, Chris. This is a sort of running joke... I meet a Japanese person around Chris and I teach them to call him a looser. Works every time and is hi-LAR-ious every time. Yes. I am a good sensei. Chris, the "roosa"-------------------------->
Yay yay yay... school is almost over and a new year will begin! Yes, it is February, but here the school schedule is a little different from the States. Basically, their school year begins in April and finishes in the following March. Sounds like a long school year... BUT they still get a month or so off from school in the summer. They also ge a spring break... but that break is when they change grades. I hope that's clear. Ok, part 2... so, the kids have to take midterms and final exams for each subject at the end of each term. However at the end of each school year, the 1st years and 2nd years have to take placement (covering all subjects) exams. These exams will determine what class they will be in for the next year. So, for each grade, there are 5-6 classes (here, the teachers move from room to room, rather than the kids moving to each classroom... so students have all their classes with the same classmates). For example, the second years have 6 classes, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, and 2-6. The 2-1 and 2-2 are the top classes, meaning over all, the students in these classes score highly on their placement exams. Yesterday, the first years took their placement exams. Things were all quiet on the front until the end of school bell rang. Then it was a flurry of teachers and papers around the ole office and then... complete silence as the room was completely vacated. Of course, except for me. Actually, I was helping a student prepare for an English speaking exam. :D After helping the student, I was to go to the room at the end of the hall to help... GRADING! When I stepped in, the room was crazy with teachers at tables flipping though exams and marking student work. Apparently, all the teachers in the department get together to grade the students' exams. Most of the exam was multiple choice and only 2 sections were written. One of the writing parts was a 2 sentence translation while the other part was a 4 sentence (at least) long composition. And what was the ALT to grade, you might ask? The multiple choice? The translation? NO! Of course, as the native English speaker I graded the compositions. Yay. I was overjoyed at the thought of staying late after school and grading about 200 1st year compositions. Oh the thrills. I had to grade for content, fluency and grammar (4 points each). It was a wreched task. I'm still not sure how to grade "content" for a 4 SENTENCE composition! Is that even enough to get content?! Well, I did it. Of course it took me forever longer than the other teachers (da bums!) but I still finished in a decent amount of time. I must say that I think I have done quite well at mastering this speed grading thing. Yata!
Hooray! This makes the 2nd out of prefecture trip for the season! Yay-hoo for expanding my snow boarding horizons. The place I went to this time was in Ishikawa prefecture. Not nearly as far as Gifu (only about an hour or so) and I got to hang out in a bigger city for the evening. :D Unfortunately, I didn't get any shopping in :(. I think I had my mind set on a haircut, so nothing else would really do. Blah. Anyway, my friend Doug & I just cruised the city, found some boba (OMG it was so great! BTW... if you didn't know, Boba is not huge in Japan ... yet... so it's a bit hard to find), ate some yakitori (walked into this place and watched soem Japan vs. Finland soccer, talked with one of the chefs that lived in Hawaii for 2 years and paid WAAAAAY too much for yakitori- boo) & played some video games (Bomber man rules). Good times. The next day we headed out pretty early to hit the slopes near Hakusan mountain.
The weather was gorgeous! Sunny and almost warm. I went beanie-less cause I was boiling under those layers. So, despite the nice weather, the conditions were not ideal for snowboarding. The snow was a little icy/slushy and the runs were a bit plowed down and slick, aka, not fun to fall down. I tried my best to carve my way down, but because a lot of the runs were VERY steep, I wasn't too bold this time. :( But I hada grat time nonetheless. Tried some slightly off course riding (on the sides of the run) and had a good time with that. Overall, it was a really good day on the slopes. I just have to mention that on the way back, we ate at this all you can eat restaurant near my apt... it was FAN-TASTIC! They had so much food. GAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
So this is what the mountain range in Hakusan area looks like. It was so pretty! I'm not sure if the "lake" down there is swimmable in the warm weather. It was a strange and unntaural blue-ish green... so I'm thinking maybe it's treated water? I don't know... but it looked really nice in the picture :)
Just thought I'd post some pix of my school in winter for y'all. In case you were curious
This is the parking lot in December before I left. The snow just DUMPED on us. The front of my school in winter.
The drive to school. It's beautiful but trecherous! Thank goodness for snow tires and my cat-like reflex abilities! It's slippery stuff, folks, and yet another reason to hate winter; icy roads.
My Desk! Don't I look so busy with all my papers everywhere? (It's all facade!)
The main teacher's office. The Vice principal sits in here as well as my supervisor & me! The two "thingies" on the floor are kerosene heaters. They don't have insulated walls OR central air and heating (yet one MORE reason) so they bring these things into the rooms during winter for heat. There's also one in every class room. They're so ridiculous! It's messy to deal with & they smell! Also, you always need some kind of vent or to open a door a bit cause the carbon monoxide could kill you! What a pain! I have refused to get on board with this one & have stuck with electric heaters at my apartment.
So, as some of you may know, I started snowboarding this year. Hoorah! Something to pass the weekend times in cold weather. I have found ONE good thing about the snow... well its kind of cute on the trees so, maybe the SECOND good thing about snow. But that's it. I still stand firm with my negative opinions of snow and cold. SPRING & SUMMER COME QUICK!
I've been boarding for the last few weeks now. I go about 2x a week, but seriously, don't think I'm any good, cause I ain't! It's just really convenient here! :D There is a place about 30-45 minutes from my house called Imajyo 365 (http://imajyo365.town.imajyo.fukui.jp/index.htm). It's only open to snowboarders at night, but it costs about 2000 yen (less than $20US!) and is open from 5-9:30pm. Only about 2 of the runs are actually open at night, but they are small gradual slopes and perfect for me to practice on!
This is a little something I did when I was trying to learn to carve. :)
There is also a jump. The advice I got was to get a little speed and then go for it. Yeah. And the landing??? NOTHING! But I tried it last week anyway, with disasterous results.
Don't worry! I was totally fine. There was a good amount of powder so it was a pretty soft landing. But it looks like I just kind of went of by accident! Haha! Well, I got a bit of air which was nice :) I'll work on it and hopefully have some better clips later. Bye for now!
