Responsibility sucks
Actually, the suck will come later. For now, I want to talk about school.
So, my school has had some problems with bullying lately. For those who don't know, this is a fairly big issue in Japanese schools right now, and I, for one, get new and exciting kanji-filled bulletins about it at least once a week. We've had several incidents, one of which led to the expulsion of a student. (which almost never happens in Japan. Seriously. I would just say "never" except that it did in this case) Now, bullying is of course very serious and I would not normally mock it, but last week, I walked into one of my first year classes to find that TWO GIRLS from a different class had somehow managed to terrorize the ENTIRE class (all 22 of them). That takes talent, man. Skill, forward thinking, the ability to be pretty gosh-darn intimidating.
Anyway, this incident, which ended up with us taking half the class to calm the students down, led to about 500 staff meetings as well as great stories from my JTE about how when she was young she was once ambushed by 18 of her classmates and beaten for having suggested that they study during a free period. It has also led the girls to start referring to the boys as "fried rice" since apparently the boys just calmly sat and ate their lunches (of fried rice) while the girls were getting intimidated. All of which led me to recieve, on a "practicing emotion vocabulary" worksheet the following sentence: "When I do not help because I was eating oh noes! fried rice, I feel sorry." This was from one of the boys, so hopefully they feel guilty and it won't happen again. (i just want to know where he got "oh noes" from)
I had a discussion about this with my JTE afterwards, wherein she expressed her opinion that the teachers shouldn't do anything about it and that the students should try to take care of it themselves. I understand where she is coming from, but I am not sure I agree. I mean, what can the students do? Gather a large enough force and beat up the bullies themselves? I'm not sure that we should be endorsing that sort of thing. THe other option is to wait for it to go away. Now, while this approach does ensure you the high moral ground and keeps things from escalating, I speak from experience that it is just not particularly pleasant.
While we are on the subject, the aforementioned incident also caused the teachers to start looking hard at the behavior of some of the second years. Now, there is one 2nd year student who is a little...odd. He seems to have problems focusing on class and in general does not seem to have the firmest of connections with reality. Quite frankly, he almost certainly should be getting psychiatric treatment of some kind. Anyway, the 2nd year boys tend to pick on him a lot, but he honestly doesn't seem to mind and, in my opinion, even needs it because otherwise he would just disconnect completely. I am not sure that this is bullying, since the students in question seem to be genuinely fond of him. This is all tied in with my inability to actually distinguish boys being dumb and roughhousing from bullying.
Ok, enough on that topic. Let's talk about how Katori Shingo came to Monzen High School on Tuesday and gave them a free screening of the new Saiyuki movie and I am totally jealous.
Actually, I don't have much to say on that topic beyond what I just did. Except that one of my JTEs goes between my school and Monzen and totally got to see it. He seemed willing to try to sneak me in, but I am kind of conspicuous.
So, I feel that I should warn you that an extended part of the next few paragraphs will be whining and can be summarized as follows:
-Being responsible for organizing something sucks-
So, this Friday, the Noto JETs decided to hold a cabin party at Kenko no Mori (The forest of health - a park in between Anamizu and Wajima) as a sort of joint farewell party to those who are leaving, a birthday party for Alex, and a thank you party for some of our JTEs and the Japanese people that we know. Now, the person who usually organises this sort of thing (the Suzu CIR) was unfortunately in the hospital, which left the position up for grabs. As is usually the case with this sort of thing, nobody wanted to grab it and the event ended up being loosely organized by me, Eliza, and one of the Wajima ALTs (Cyndi). I also volunteered Seika on grounds that she knew Japanese and would be able to actually reserve the cabin for us.
We decided to try to do a barbecue (since the place had barbecue tables to rent). This was probably our first mistake because when you do a barbecue that means that you must basically take care of the food yourself. (as opposed to letting people bring their own in a potluck-type-manner) Since people were showing a fairly characteristic apathy with regard to telling us if they were going to show up and whether they were bringing friends, it was rather hard to figure out how much food we were supposed to be. Which is, incidentally, how I ended up with enough yakisoba to satisfy even the most ravenous of matsuri crowds in my fridge. I don't even LIKE yakisoba that much. The whole "not knowing who is coming" thing also made it somewhat difficult to know how much space we would need and whether we should rent one cabin or two.
Eventually we got things settled and even met the night before the party to get all the food ready. We had three kinds of potato salad (In Cyndi's words "if someone doesn't puke potatoes by the end of tomorrow night, it means they didn't have any salad" Deep, isn't it?) about 12,000 shish kebabs, some marinated meat for grilling and the obligatory partridge in a pear tree. We were SET.
Now, those of you reading this who live in Ishikawa will know what is coming next and may even be giggling quietly to yourselves. For those who don't live here and/or don't remember last Friday, allow me to explain: it rained ALL DAY. There were a few half hour periods where I began to delude myself that the rain was gone and then BAM. Raining harder than ever.
So, when it comes time to go and check in and rent the barbecue tables, it turns out that they won't let us, because it's too wet. Naturally, this put a bit of a damper on all of our plans. (hah hah, get it? damp - cos it's raining). The cabins all had full kitchens, so we decided to rent two and just cook everything on the stove. This was all done via phone, as we had sent my JTE ahead to negotiate (in Japanese) while we got stuff ready. I only managed to make it there about 40 minutes later, due to the appearance of the DOOM FOG. And the fact that it was already pretty hard to get there. I am amazed that no one died trying to get to the place, cos seriously doom fog. We had some maps, too, but they were utterly and completely useless in all respects.
Anyway, all of this served to put me in something of an annoyed mood during the evening, which no amount of alcohol seemed capable of bringing me out of. Fortunately, I basically sat in the kitchen the entire time and cooked things, so I did not inflict said mood on other people. I was also accompanied by my partner in crime, Cyndi who was also feeling antisocial.
I think by and large people enjoyed themselves, and I have to say that the day was saved by my JTE, who brought her family`s hotplate which served as a kind of grill substitute. The day was also saved by Satoshi (from Suzu) who brought his panda suit, a sound system, and a bunch of fireworks. The day was not saved by the people who started the food fight, but they cleaned up after themselves, so I guess I should not grump too much. The fireworks were a lot of fun, too. Actually it was a pretty fun night, really. Just annoying in parts.
I spent the night at the cabins, and was woken up by Eliza declaring that she was going to die. We listened to her whine for a while and eventually told her to just go and throw up and be done with it. We realized our mistake a few moments later when it became clear that the bathroom fails at being sound-proofed. Suffice to say we were up and out of the cabin pretty fast.
I would have stayed and helped clean up but I had to leave fairly early since I had been roped into being my school's representative for the pan-Noto High School Staff Bowling Tournament. This would have been fine, except it was in friggin' Nanao, which is a good 40 minutes away. I made it in time (ok, it wasn't THAT far away) and met Kim and her husband, who had also gotten roped in. Kim, a tiny Japanese teacher, and I were all on the same team which totally should have won the prize for "most squealy" since we basically screeched any time anything happened.
I played my usual awesome game and came in 29th (out of 31 people - I was actually one person away from getting the "booby prize" which is kind of a shame, because curious as to what it was - coupons for bowling lessons, maybe?). But Richie, who had kept his status as bowling genius hidden for reasons of his own, came in first. With some sort of astronomical amount of points that isn't even possible to attain if you are a normal human being. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Would go again. I also went to the shopping center next door and got myself some bits for my yukata. Now I just need to learn how to tie an obi and I am set! (ha ha) I would have bought one of those ready made obi bows but I am HardCore (and cheap).
So that was last weekend. This week was interesting in that yesterday we had some cleaning volunteering at my school (volunteering in the Japanese sense in that everybody did it), so we all got to tramp out of the school and pick garbage up around town. It was a beautiful day, but fairly warm and I forgot to bring my P.E clothes (also, nobody ever explained that we were doing it to me, but I understand enough of staff meetings these days that that is not as good of an excuse as it once was). Also, the previous day had been pretty weird, since I had gone down to KZ to do drivers license things. (yeah, I left it pretty late. If anyone asks, I'm blaming the earthquake) That meant driving back and forth in one day and I was pretty tired afterwards. (It was fun though! My JTE went with me, and we went for kaiten sushi and shopping afterwards. I bought a 2kyuu kanji study guide! Because I am a nerd! I also bought a cute person (this should be "purse" but I'm going to leave it there because it is a pretty funny slip of the keyboard), proving that despite everything, I am actually female. By the way, does anyone know why everyone and their mother were at Forus on Wednesday in the middle of the day? It was REALLY crowded.) Anyway, I had a full day, so I feel that a little absentmindedness was justified.
Anyway, I really lucked out because the class that one of my JTEs was attached to went to clean by the station, which is about three minutes from where I live. So, I popped back home really fast, changed and was back before anyone missed me. It was nice to see the kids behaving normally instead of sullenly wishing that they were somewhere else (it wasn't my best class). Allow me to relate to you the following Completely True Conversation That Actually Occured.
Student1: Ewa, do you have any friends?
Me ( a little confused): What, at all? Yes.
Students 1 and 2 then took turns drilling me to see if my friends were real people instead of imaginary.
After they had satisfied themselves that I actually did have friends, Student1 turned to my JTE who was walking with us.
Student1 (to JTE): Wow, did you know that Ewa actually has friends?
JTE: Yes, it's surprising, isn't it?
Thanks guys. I love you, too.
And now, I shall finish up because it is almost time for me to go home and I have a Fire and Violence Festival to attend tonight (and tomorrow night)
So, my school has had some problems with bullying lately. For those who don't know, this is a fairly big issue in Japanese schools right now, and I, for one, get new and exciting kanji-filled bulletins about it at least once a week. We've had several incidents, one of which led to the expulsion of a student. (which almost never happens in Japan. Seriously. I would just say "never" except that it did in this case) Now, bullying is of course very serious and I would not normally mock it, but last week, I walked into one of my first year classes to find that TWO GIRLS from a different class had somehow managed to terrorize the ENTIRE class (all 22 of them). That takes talent, man. Skill, forward thinking, the ability to be pretty gosh-darn intimidating.
Anyway, this incident, which ended up with us taking half the class to calm the students down, led to about 500 staff meetings as well as great stories from my JTE about how when she was young she was once ambushed by 18 of her classmates and beaten for having suggested that they study during a free period. It has also led the girls to start referring to the boys as "fried rice" since apparently the boys just calmly sat and ate their lunches (of fried rice) while the girls were getting intimidated. All of which led me to recieve, on a "practicing emotion vocabulary" worksheet the following sentence: "When I do not help because I was eating oh noes! fried rice, I feel sorry." This was from one of the boys, so hopefully they feel guilty and it won't happen again. (i just want to know where he got "oh noes" from)
I had a discussion about this with my JTE afterwards, wherein she expressed her opinion that the teachers shouldn't do anything about it and that the students should try to take care of it themselves. I understand where she is coming from, but I am not sure I agree. I mean, what can the students do? Gather a large enough force and beat up the bullies themselves? I'm not sure that we should be endorsing that sort of thing. THe other option is to wait for it to go away. Now, while this approach does ensure you the high moral ground and keeps things from escalating, I speak from experience that it is just not particularly pleasant.
While we are on the subject, the aforementioned incident also caused the teachers to start looking hard at the behavior of some of the second years. Now, there is one 2nd year student who is a little...odd. He seems to have problems focusing on class and in general does not seem to have the firmest of connections with reality. Quite frankly, he almost certainly should be getting psychiatric treatment of some kind. Anyway, the 2nd year boys tend to pick on him a lot, but he honestly doesn't seem to mind and, in my opinion, even needs it because otherwise he would just disconnect completely. I am not sure that this is bullying, since the students in question seem to be genuinely fond of him. This is all tied in with my inability to actually distinguish boys being dumb and roughhousing from bullying.
Ok, enough on that topic. Let's talk about how Katori Shingo came to Monzen High School on Tuesday and gave them a free screening of the new Saiyuki movie and I am totally jealous.
Actually, I don't have much to say on that topic beyond what I just did. Except that one of my JTEs goes between my school and Monzen and totally got to see it. He seemed willing to try to sneak me in, but I am kind of conspicuous.
So, I feel that I should warn you that an extended part of the next few paragraphs will be whining and can be summarized as follows:
-Being responsible for organizing something sucks-
So, this Friday, the Noto JETs decided to hold a cabin party at Kenko no Mori (The forest of health - a park in between Anamizu and Wajima) as a sort of joint farewell party to those who are leaving, a birthday party for Alex, and a thank you party for some of our JTEs and the Japanese people that we know. Now, the person who usually organises this sort of thing (the Suzu CIR) was unfortunately in the hospital, which left the position up for grabs. As is usually the case with this sort of thing, nobody wanted to grab it and the event ended up being loosely organized by me, Eliza, and one of the Wajima ALTs (Cyndi). I also volunteered Seika on grounds that she knew Japanese and would be able to actually reserve the cabin for us.
We decided to try to do a barbecue (since the place had barbecue tables to rent). This was probably our first mistake because when you do a barbecue that means that you must basically take care of the food yourself. (as opposed to letting people bring their own in a potluck-type-manner) Since people were showing a fairly characteristic apathy with regard to telling us if they were going to show up and whether they were bringing friends, it was rather hard to figure out how much food we were supposed to be. Which is, incidentally, how I ended up with enough yakisoba to satisfy even the most ravenous of matsuri crowds in my fridge. I don't even LIKE yakisoba that much. The whole "not knowing who is coming" thing also made it somewhat difficult to know how much space we would need and whether we should rent one cabin or two.
Eventually we got things settled and even met the night before the party to get all the food ready. We had three kinds of potato salad (In Cyndi's words "if someone doesn't puke potatoes by the end of tomorrow night, it means they didn't have any salad" Deep, isn't it?) about 12,000 shish kebabs, some marinated meat for grilling and the obligatory partridge in a pear tree. We were SET.
Now, those of you reading this who live in Ishikawa will know what is coming next and may even be giggling quietly to yourselves. For those who don't live here and/or don't remember last Friday, allow me to explain: it rained ALL DAY. There were a few half hour periods where I began to delude myself that the rain was gone and then BAM. Raining harder than ever.
So, when it comes time to go and check in and rent the barbecue tables, it turns out that they won't let us, because it's too wet. Naturally, this put a bit of a damper on all of our plans. (hah hah, get it? damp - cos it's raining). The cabins all had full kitchens, so we decided to rent two and just cook everything on the stove. This was all done via phone, as we had sent my JTE ahead to negotiate (in Japanese) while we got stuff ready. I only managed to make it there about 40 minutes later, due to the appearance of the DOOM FOG. And the fact that it was already pretty hard to get there. I am amazed that no one died trying to get to the place, cos seriously doom fog. We had some maps, too, but they were utterly and completely useless in all respects.
Anyway, all of this served to put me in something of an annoyed mood during the evening, which no amount of alcohol seemed capable of bringing me out of. Fortunately, I basically sat in the kitchen the entire time and cooked things, so I did not inflict said mood on other people. I was also accompanied by my partner in crime, Cyndi who was also feeling antisocial.
I think by and large people enjoyed themselves, and I have to say that the day was saved by my JTE, who brought her family`s hotplate which served as a kind of grill substitute. The day was also saved by Satoshi (from Suzu) who brought his panda suit, a sound system, and a bunch of fireworks. The day was not saved by the people who started the food fight, but they cleaned up after themselves, so I guess I should not grump too much. The fireworks were a lot of fun, too. Actually it was a pretty fun night, really. Just annoying in parts.
I spent the night at the cabins, and was woken up by Eliza declaring that she was going to die. We listened to her whine for a while and eventually told her to just go and throw up and be done with it. We realized our mistake a few moments later when it became clear that the bathroom fails at being sound-proofed. Suffice to say we were up and out of the cabin pretty fast.
I would have stayed and helped clean up but I had to leave fairly early since I had been roped into being my school's representative for the pan-Noto High School Staff Bowling Tournament. This would have been fine, except it was in friggin' Nanao, which is a good 40 minutes away. I made it in time (ok, it wasn't THAT far away) and met Kim and her husband, who had also gotten roped in. Kim, a tiny Japanese teacher, and I were all on the same team which totally should have won the prize for "most squealy" since we basically screeched any time anything happened.
I played my usual awesome game and came in 29th (out of 31 people - I was actually one person away from getting the "booby prize" which is kind of a shame, because curious as to what it was - coupons for bowling lessons, maybe?). But Richie, who had kept his status as bowling genius hidden for reasons of his own, came in first. With some sort of astronomical amount of points that isn't even possible to attain if you are a normal human being. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Would go again. I also went to the shopping center next door and got myself some bits for my yukata. Now I just need to learn how to tie an obi and I am set! (ha ha) I would have bought one of those ready made obi bows but I am HardCore (and cheap).
So that was last weekend. This week was interesting in that yesterday we had some cleaning volunteering at my school (volunteering in the Japanese sense in that everybody did it), so we all got to tramp out of the school and pick garbage up around town. It was a beautiful day, but fairly warm and I forgot to bring my P.E clothes (also, nobody ever explained that we were doing it to me, but I understand enough of staff meetings these days that that is not as good of an excuse as it once was). Also, the previous day had been pretty weird, since I had gone down to KZ to do drivers license things. (yeah, I left it pretty late. If anyone asks, I'm blaming the earthquake) That meant driving back and forth in one day and I was pretty tired afterwards. (It was fun though! My JTE went with me, and we went for kaiten sushi and shopping afterwards. I bought a 2kyuu kanji study guide! Because I am a nerd! I also bought a cute person (this should be "purse" but I'm going to leave it there because it is a pretty funny slip of the keyboard), proving that despite everything, I am actually female. By the way, does anyone know why everyone and their mother were at Forus on Wednesday in the middle of the day? It was REALLY crowded.) Anyway, I had a full day, so I feel that a little absentmindedness was justified.
Anyway, I really lucked out because the class that one of my JTEs was attached to went to clean by the station, which is about three minutes from where I live. So, I popped back home really fast, changed and was back before anyone missed me. It was nice to see the kids behaving normally instead of sullenly wishing that they were somewhere else (it wasn't my best class). Allow me to relate to you the following Completely True Conversation That Actually Occured.
Student1: Ewa, do you have any friends?
Me ( a little confused): What, at all? Yes.
Students 1 and 2 then took turns drilling me to see if my friends were real people instead of imaginary.
After they had satisfied themselves that I actually did have friends, Student1 turned to my JTE who was walking with us.
Student1 (to JTE): Wow, did you know that Ewa actually has friends?
JTE: Yes, it's surprising, isn't it?
Thanks guys. I love you, too.
And now, I shall finish up because it is almost time for me to go home and I have a Fire and Violence Festival to attend tonight (and tomorrow night)