Penpals all set up!
So, thanks to everyone's help, I was just able to send off the emails telling the ESS girls' new American friends how to contact them. I also sent pictures, so if you are reading this and haven't checked your email, check it!
Yesterday I went to the calligraphy club for teachers. It was pretty fun. It was cool to hang out with the office girls outside of work (well, I guess we were still at school, technically...) It took me an hour to almost properly write two kanji. It's much harder to write with the calligraphy brush than it is to write with a pencil.
Today we had ESS and we made up a plan for parties and general ideas for the year. Tomorrow is one of the girl's birthdays, so I bought a cake (but no candles - one, the store I went to had none and two, I don't know if the school would be down with me lighting fires in their classrooms) and some "colorful chocolate" which I'm hoping to use as icing. I'm going to decorate the cake after I get to school tomorrow so I don't squish the letters up on the way to school or anything. I hope it's a tasty cake. I could only find one kind. It's some kind of cake log rolled with cream filling. Cause yeah, while I like the girls a lot and there's only 4 of them, I'm not buying the $45 cake from the bakery. (This cake was like $12. Which I found to be a bit absurd, but whatever). Next week we are going to do purikura (those tiny, sticker pictures) and in October we're going to make Halloween costumes for the Halloween party. Fun times.
Other general plans include other holiday parties (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Leap Year, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July, etc), birthday parties (unless I recontract, we can't have Mami's on her birthday. I would have to do it the month before), watching English language movies with subtitles, playing games, etc.
Last night I made eggplant parmesan. Like hardcore made it. All the breading here has meat in it, so I had to make my own from flour. Tonight I'm making spring rolls and Tai Pan Tofu (I hope). I had to make my own duck sauce from marmalade. I hope it tastes ok. But I'm having fun experimenting with new recipes. Most of the stuff I used to make is either impossible or SO EXPENSIVE. I saw a lady buy a bunch of grapes (like 15 grapes) today for almost $4 and thought, "Wow! That's really cheap!" Sick, isn't it? I'm going to be thrilled when I go to the grocery store again in the US and can get (for example) a block of cheese 4.5 times the size for half the price. Or when I can get tomatoes for less than $1 a piece.
These are the things I miss the most about being at home:
1. Tigger
2. Family/friends
3. Being able to easily communicate
4. Talking at a normal pace with normal enunciation in all of my conversations
5. It's easier to scan for meaty things on prepacked food in English, though I'm pretty good now.
6. The cheap, cheap food
7. Having a dryer
8. Having an oven
9. Going to the bookstore and reading books
10. The normal cell phone plans
11. Grass
12. Not standing out
But, some things here are great:
1. The students are thrilled with me and make me feel very special and cool
2. I like teaching
3. I love edamame, melon cream soda, Japanese mushrooms, Japanese tofu, etc
4. All the vending machines are great
5. Their ones and fives are coins!!
6. I can buy any kind of alcohol anywhere, anytime
7. I get to use my Japanese
8. I don't need a car, and don't feel deprived not having one
9. There are so many things to take pictures of.
10. It's warmer here, and less cloudy
11. I'm tall here
12. Karaoke places. OMG the karaoke places. Japanese songs, you get the booth to yourself - just greatness. If America's gonna do it, they should do it right. (At least the private booth part!)
Yesterday I went to the calligraphy club for teachers. It was pretty fun. It was cool to hang out with the office girls outside of work (well, I guess we were still at school, technically...) It took me an hour to almost properly write two kanji. It's much harder to write with the calligraphy brush than it is to write with a pencil.
Today we had ESS and we made up a plan for parties and general ideas for the year. Tomorrow is one of the girl's birthdays, so I bought a cake (but no candles - one, the store I went to had none and two, I don't know if the school would be down with me lighting fires in their classrooms) and some "colorful chocolate" which I'm hoping to use as icing. I'm going to decorate the cake after I get to school tomorrow so I don't squish the letters up on the way to school or anything. I hope it's a tasty cake. I could only find one kind. It's some kind of cake log rolled with cream filling. Cause yeah, while I like the girls a lot and there's only 4 of them, I'm not buying the $45 cake from the bakery. (This cake was like $12. Which I found to be a bit absurd, but whatever). Next week we are going to do purikura (those tiny, sticker pictures) and in October we're going to make Halloween costumes for the Halloween party. Fun times.
Other general plans include other holiday parties (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Leap Year, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July, etc), birthday parties (unless I recontract, we can't have Mami's on her birthday. I would have to do it the month before), watching English language movies with subtitles, playing games, etc.
Last night I made eggplant parmesan. Like hardcore made it. All the breading here has meat in it, so I had to make my own from flour. Tonight I'm making spring rolls and Tai Pan Tofu (I hope). I had to make my own duck sauce from marmalade. I hope it tastes ok. But I'm having fun experimenting with new recipes. Most of the stuff I used to make is either impossible or SO EXPENSIVE. I saw a lady buy a bunch of grapes (like 15 grapes) today for almost $4 and thought, "Wow! That's really cheap!" Sick, isn't it? I'm going to be thrilled when I go to the grocery store again in the US and can get (for example) a block of cheese 4.5 times the size for half the price. Or when I can get tomatoes for less than $1 a piece.
These are the things I miss the most about being at home:
1. Tigger
2. Family/friends
3. Being able to easily communicate
4. Talking at a normal pace with normal enunciation in all of my conversations
5. It's easier to scan for meaty things on prepacked food in English, though I'm pretty good now.
6. The cheap, cheap food
7. Having a dryer
8. Having an oven
9. Going to the bookstore and reading books
10. The normal cell phone plans
11. Grass
12. Not standing out
But, some things here are great:
1. The students are thrilled with me and make me feel very special and cool
2. I like teaching
3. I love edamame, melon cream soda, Japanese mushrooms, Japanese tofu, etc
4. All the vending machines are great
5. Their ones and fives are coins!!
6. I can buy any kind of alcohol anywhere, anytime
7. I get to use my Japanese
8. I don't need a car, and don't feel deprived not having one
9. There are so many things to take pictures of.
10. It's warmer here, and less cloudy
11. I'm tall here
12. Karaoke places. OMG the karaoke places. Japanese songs, you get the booth to yourself - just greatness. If America's gonna do it, they should do it right. (At least the private booth part!)