Two Weeks of Update
Week of May 18th
So this week was my first week at Touyou Junior High School. It's by far the farthest school from where I am, so it takes almost a half hour to get there. Once we got there, Mr. Nagaoka and I did the usually routine of "Here's the ALT. Show her the desk. Meet the English teachers." So just as Mr. Nagaoka was leaving, the Principal (I think...) said for me to come with him. So we walk out to the gym where the ENTIRE school was there. I was like "oh crap!" So we walk in, and he goes up to the stage and talks to the students. About 5 minutes pass, and I think, hmmm....maybe he's just /telling/ them that I'm here. Oh no. So, I'm freaking out cuz I know I'm going to have to speak in front of at least a hundred people, and then the Principal says THE WORST POSSIBLE THING. He says, "And Julie is REALLY GOOD at Japanese, so please listen to her." I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As if I wasn't nervous enough!! Now the whole student body is going to expect me to speak perfect Japanese. AND if that wasn't bad enough, the Principal basically told them all about me, pretty much all that I was going to say. So I get up to the microphone and stutter out that I'm excited to be there and to learn English together. Then a student came up and gave a little speech in English welcoming me to the school. So, as I am leaving the stage, I hear a big THUMP. We turn to look, and a student had collapsed! The teachers rushed over, but he seemed fine. So I went to classes and all the students seem really nice. Except for 2-1. Bad Bad class from hell. No respect for the teachers at all. So,yea. But mostly we have been playing language games and I've really been enjoying the students and teachers. Most of the teachers want to talk with me and I feel very welcomed. Except from the Principal and Vice Principal. They are nice enough, but they REFUSE to talk to me. They'll talk to an English teacher or a different teacher with me standing right there. Even though they know I speak Japanese. They don't look at me and generally don't speak directly to me. It's really weird.
So all week, the students have been having Sports Day practice. What's Sports Day you ask? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Sports_Day) It's basically a field day that all students have to participate in. So, all week they practiced marching together (it looked like an army!), the presentation of the flags, teams, etc as well as practicing for the events. Everyday, including all of Wednesday, all the teachers as well as I, changed into "sportswear" and headed outside to help the students. It was interesting, and of course I didn't have any track suit or anything, so I went to UNIQLO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIQLO) and bought a light zip up hoodie and some sweatpants, which turned out to have a weird pant bottoms, so I just wore the dark grey sweatpants that I got in the US. Gotta say, it's pretty weird to be hanging out at school is comfy clothing! So on Saturday, Touyou JHS had their Sports Day. I got there at normal time (around 8am) and went to out to the field. The start of Sports Day was very much like the Olympics. Marching students, that came out in two teams, the red and white teams. They marched behind their respective flags in groups according to their class number. Once all the students had come out, they rose the Japanese flag with the anthem, then a student came out with a lit torch, did a lap around the track, and then lit a fairly large cauldron! It was all very exciting! So they students began their competitions, some sprinting, relay races, obstacle courses that involved hurdles, crawling on a mat, picking up a paper with a number and then putting their head on a baseball bat and spinning around the number of times written on the paper, and finally, doing rock paper scissors to advance to the finish line! There was also group "3 leg" races and a 3 legged race for parent and child. There was also a massive tug of war as well as a tug of war for about 5 logs. It was very fun to watch! So the log tug of war was only for the girls of the school, so the boys had a different competition. It involved 4 students in a team, and three of the students hoisted on student in the air by supporting their legs and back. It's just like in the swimming pool when two people are going to wrestle on while being held up by someone else's shoulders. Except with more people. And half naked. Yes, all the boys only had shorts on. So they did wrestling to try to get the other person down. It was so crazy!!! So then they also introduced all the sports teams, and all the students had to participate, so I think if they weren't involved in a club they just marched together with the club they liked. So lunch came around and all the teachers ate together in the teacher's room. We ate bento (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bento) and I could eat about 2/3 of it, so I was happy. Then the principal told us that one of the teachers had gotten hurt while participating in a relay race and had to go to the hospital! After lunch, I was walking back to the field, and these high school students came and started talking with me. They were so cute. They wanted to try on my sunglasses, touch my hair, talk to me in English, shake my hand, and this one girl was like "I LOVE YOU!!" and would NOT stop saying it! She was like hugging me and saying "Julie's MY FRIEND!". I felt like a rockstar. LOL But it was at the moment I realized what a hard position I'm in. I'm closer in age to these high school students, but I can't ever be friends with them. I'm in an authoritative position. It's hard because part of me wants to act younger and you know, act like a student and not like a teacher. So it's a hard balance to get used to. When Sports Day resumed, they had a game where there was a small wicker basket attached to a long pole in the air and the two teams with their parents threw little bean bags trying to get as many in as possible. So I helped with the red team :) The Day came to end around 2pm and the white team won :) Which I was excited about since I had talked with some students and that was their team. So after the event ended I helped put the chairs and tables away and stayed until 4:30pm talking with students and teachers. Then, I came home for about 10 minutes, changed, and headed out to go to Kawagoe for Krystle's birthday party. I got there just as they were getting ready to leave from dinner, and then we all went to karaoke. It was good fun :) Krystle and I sang "Endless Sorrow" and talk about nostalgia! After karaoke we all went our separate ways and I went with Krystle to her apartment. It was nice to catch up and have a sleep over :D So I woke up on Sunday around 10am. Krystle didn't get up until 3pm because she had hardly slept the previous night, so I just chilled out and read. Once Krystle woke up, we went and got some lunch. She had to be somewhere at 4:30pm so she walked me over to the bus stop to take it to the station. Now, a)buses and I DON'T work well and b) for some reason I was COMPLETELY zoned out. So Krystle tells me what stop to get off at 3 times and I repeat it back to her 3 times. I get off at the wrong stop. So, I walk to the 7-11 to find out where the station is. Turns out it was like a 20 minute walk. So I ask them to call me a taxi. The taxi arrives, and since I can't seem to retain anything, I couldn't remember what the station's name was, so I got in and just said "station", hoping the driver would know and take me there. So he says somethingsomethingstation. And I say yes. So he starts driving and it all looks familiar from the taxi drive last night. Then, about halfway there he says "somethingsomethingstation, somethingsomethingstation." and I say yes. So he turns, and drives and drives. Then, he gets ready to turn onto something that looks like a highway. And I'm like WTF?? So I ask him how much longer to the station and he's like "10 minutes." I was astounded. I knew that it wasn't that far and looking at the meter, I knew that from last night, it was NOT that much. So I ask him isn't there a closer station. And he's like "oh I asked you and you said somethingsomethingstation was ok." I was fuming. Why on earth would I want to go to a farther station?????? So I was super pissed off by the time we got to the station and having to pay a ridiculous fare. Turns out that it was one station away IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. So I get on the train and start to have a panic attack. Ever since I was younger, I've had this "sixth sense" about if something is wrong. So I am panicky, worried and anxious. I did all I could to not break down on the train. So I finally got home (after missing a direct train and having to transfer trains an extra time) and got online. No emails. But I just knew. So I waited for Andrew to get on Skype. He got on, and as I was about to ask him if he was ok, he wrote "Can't talk now, I love you." and got off. I was like, crap. I knew something was wrong. He got on about an hour later and told me that Pepper had gotten out of the apartment. So I was really upset about that and encouraged him to get out there at do everything possible to find him.
Week of May 25th
Luckily I had Monday off from working on Saturday's Sports Day, so I got to talk to my parents on Skype for a little while. Then I went to Utsunomiya to meet with a friend of the coordinator for one of my senior learner English classes. He wanted to meet with me to talk about how English was being taught in Japanese public schools. He also works for the UN. Crazy! So, yay for networking! So we talked for a awhile and had lunch. Then we parted and I went to the post office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Post) to exchange money. Then I went to Parco (http://www.virtualjapan.com/wiki/Parco), stopped in Starbucks and headed back to the station. Utsunomiya seems like a really cool city, I can't wait to get to know it better :)
So on Tuesday I went back to Kurodahara JHS. It was nice to not have to do my self introductions anymore and actually be BUSY almost all day. So all this week I have been distracted because Pepper has been missing so both my English senior learner classes went just ok. But I finally got paid for one of the classes, and it was upfront, so it's hard to not want to spend all of it and only distribute it to myself per week.
So yesterday, I went to Utsunomiya Station to wait for people that said they were going to come to see Star Trek with me. I waited and waited and waited and no one showed, so I went to the information desk to ask about which bus stop number to go to in order to catch the bus that I had looked up the time and the name for. They tell me it's going to be at #14. Now, as I said, I don't do well with buses for some reason. So I knew I had the right time, the right bus name, and now the right bus stop #. Turns out, because it's ME and this random stuff can only happen because it's ME, there were TWO buses scheduled for THAT bus stop AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. Of course, not knowing this, I get on the wrong bus. ARGHH!!! So I'm waiting and waiting on the bus for the stop, and it's rainy outside and people are getting off the bus until I am the only person left, and I think, this can't be good. So we get to the final stop which was the bus terminal. And I'm like, crap, Marius is waiting for me, the movie starts in 25 minutes, I don't have a phone to tell him what's going on, so I go up to the bus driver and ask him about Bell Mall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Mall,_Utsunomiya). He laughs at me and then informs me that it was the OTHER 14:49 bus. So then he tells me to wait inside the bus. Now I'm thinking that either a) he's going to drive me there by bus, b) he's going to call me a taxi or c) point me in the direction of a different bus that can take me there. And of course, its POURING rain. So I'm just sitting there for like 10 minutes, before he comes back and tells me to wait a little longer. He comes back and starts the bus, so I figure we are doing option a. But no, he pulls into the bus parking spot. I have NO IDEA what is going to happen now, so he gets out and tells me to wait again. A couple minutes later I see a car pull up in front of the bus. THE BUS DRIVER IS GOING TO DRIVE ME IN HIS OWN CAR TO THE MALL! So, I get in, and gotta say, it's one of the nicest things someone's done for me! We talked a little and I apologized 5 billion times and he's just like "it's better to ask" LOL. So it was slightly awkward, but I was surprised and grateful that he did that for me. Of course it crossed my mind that in America, there would never be a scenario where a young white female would get into a car with a bus driver. But it's Japan. So he took me to the movie theater with 10 minutes to spare! So I met up with Marius and we got our tickets for Star Trek! I got caramel popcorn and melon soda :) And the movie was SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!! I enjoyed it!! Afterwards, Marius and I got a coffee and chatted and then he drove me back to the station. It was a good day!
And now I'm just enjoying a lazy Sunday!
So this week was my first week at Touyou Junior High School. It's by far the farthest school from where I am, so it takes almost a half hour to get there. Once we got there, Mr. Nagaoka and I did the usually routine of "Here's the ALT. Show her the desk. Meet the English teachers." So just as Mr. Nagaoka was leaving, the Principal (I think...) said for me to come with him. So we walk out to the gym where the ENTIRE school was there. I was like "oh crap!" So we walk in, and he goes up to the stage and talks to the students. About 5 minutes pass, and I think, hmmm....maybe he's just /telling/ them that I'm here. Oh no. So, I'm freaking out cuz I know I'm going to have to speak in front of at least a hundred people, and then the Principal says THE WORST POSSIBLE THING. He says, "And Julie is REALLY GOOD at Japanese, so please listen to her." I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As if I wasn't nervous enough!! Now the whole student body is going to expect me to speak perfect Japanese. AND if that wasn't bad enough, the Principal basically told them all about me, pretty much all that I was going to say. So I get up to the microphone and stutter out that I'm excited to be there and to learn English together. Then a student came up and gave a little speech in English welcoming me to the school. So, as I am leaving the stage, I hear a big THUMP. We turn to look, and a student had collapsed! The teachers rushed over, but he seemed fine. So I went to classes and all the students seem really nice. Except for 2-1. Bad Bad class from hell. No respect for the teachers at all. So,yea. But mostly we have been playing language games and I've really been enjoying the students and teachers. Most of the teachers want to talk with me and I feel very welcomed. Except from the Principal and Vice Principal. They are nice enough, but they REFUSE to talk to me. They'll talk to an English teacher or a different teacher with me standing right there. Even though they know I speak Japanese. They don't look at me and generally don't speak directly to me. It's really weird.
So all week, the students have been having Sports Day practice. What's Sports Day you ask? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Sports_Day) It's basically a field day that all students have to participate in. So, all week they practiced marching together (it looked like an army!), the presentation of the flags, teams, etc as well as practicing for the events. Everyday, including all of Wednesday, all the teachers as well as I, changed into "sportswear" and headed outside to help the students. It was interesting, and of course I didn't have any track suit or anything, so I went to UNIQLO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIQLO) and bought a light zip up hoodie and some sweatpants, which turned out to have a weird pant bottoms, so I just wore the dark grey sweatpants that I got in the US. Gotta say, it's pretty weird to be hanging out at school is comfy clothing! So on Saturday, Touyou JHS had their Sports Day. I got there at normal time (around 8am) and went to out to the field. The start of Sports Day was very much like the Olympics. Marching students, that came out in two teams, the red and white teams. They marched behind their respective flags in groups according to their class number. Once all the students had come out, they rose the Japanese flag with the anthem, then a student came out with a lit torch, did a lap around the track, and then lit a fairly large cauldron! It was all very exciting! So they students began their competitions, some sprinting, relay races, obstacle courses that involved hurdles, crawling on a mat, picking up a paper with a number and then putting their head on a baseball bat and spinning around the number of times written on the paper, and finally, doing rock paper scissors to advance to the finish line! There was also group "3 leg" races and a 3 legged race for parent and child. There was also a massive tug of war as well as a tug of war for about 5 logs. It was very fun to watch! So the log tug of war was only for the girls of the school, so the boys had a different competition. It involved 4 students in a team, and three of the students hoisted on student in the air by supporting their legs and back. It's just like in the swimming pool when two people are going to wrestle on while being held up by someone else's shoulders. Except with more people. And half naked. Yes, all the boys only had shorts on. So they did wrestling to try to get the other person down. It was so crazy!!! So then they also introduced all the sports teams, and all the students had to participate, so I think if they weren't involved in a club they just marched together with the club they liked. So lunch came around and all the teachers ate together in the teacher's room. We ate bento (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bento) and I could eat about 2/3 of it, so I was happy. Then the principal told us that one of the teachers had gotten hurt while participating in a relay race and had to go to the hospital! After lunch, I was walking back to the field, and these high school students came and started talking with me. They were so cute. They wanted to try on my sunglasses, touch my hair, talk to me in English, shake my hand, and this one girl was like "I LOVE YOU!!" and would NOT stop saying it! She was like hugging me and saying "Julie's MY FRIEND!". I felt like a rockstar. LOL But it was at the moment I realized what a hard position I'm in. I'm closer in age to these high school students, but I can't ever be friends with them. I'm in an authoritative position. It's hard because part of me wants to act younger and you know, act like a student and not like a teacher. So it's a hard balance to get used to. When Sports Day resumed, they had a game where there was a small wicker basket attached to a long pole in the air and the two teams with their parents threw little bean bags trying to get as many in as possible. So I helped with the red team :) The Day came to end around 2pm and the white team won :) Which I was excited about since I had talked with some students and that was their team. So after the event ended I helped put the chairs and tables away and stayed until 4:30pm talking with students and teachers. Then, I came home for about 10 minutes, changed, and headed out to go to Kawagoe for Krystle's birthday party. I got there just as they were getting ready to leave from dinner, and then we all went to karaoke. It was good fun :) Krystle and I sang "Endless Sorrow" and talk about nostalgia! After karaoke we all went our separate ways and I went with Krystle to her apartment. It was nice to catch up and have a sleep over :D So I woke up on Sunday around 10am. Krystle didn't get up until 3pm because she had hardly slept the previous night, so I just chilled out and read. Once Krystle woke up, we went and got some lunch. She had to be somewhere at 4:30pm so she walked me over to the bus stop to take it to the station. Now, a)buses and I DON'T work well and b) for some reason I was COMPLETELY zoned out. So Krystle tells me what stop to get off at 3 times and I repeat it back to her 3 times. I get off at the wrong stop. So, I walk to the 7-11 to find out where the station is. Turns out it was like a 20 minute walk. So I ask them to call me a taxi. The taxi arrives, and since I can't seem to retain anything, I couldn't remember what the station's name was, so I got in and just said "station", hoping the driver would know and take me there. So he says somethingsomethingstation. And I say yes. So he starts driving and it all looks familiar from the taxi drive last night. Then, about halfway there he says "somethingsomethingstation, somethingsomethingstation." and I say yes. So he turns, and drives and drives. Then, he gets ready to turn onto something that looks like a highway. And I'm like WTF?? So I ask him how much longer to the station and he's like "10 minutes." I was astounded. I knew that it wasn't that far and looking at the meter, I knew that from last night, it was NOT that much. So I ask him isn't there a closer station. And he's like "oh I asked you and you said somethingsomethingstation was ok." I was fuming. Why on earth would I want to go to a farther station?????? So I was super pissed off by the time we got to the station and having to pay a ridiculous fare. Turns out that it was one station away IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. So I get on the train and start to have a panic attack. Ever since I was younger, I've had this "sixth sense" about if something is wrong. So I am panicky, worried and anxious. I did all I could to not break down on the train. So I finally got home (after missing a direct train and having to transfer trains an extra time) and got online. No emails. But I just knew. So I waited for Andrew to get on Skype. He got on, and as I was about to ask him if he was ok, he wrote "Can't talk now, I love you." and got off. I was like, crap. I knew something was wrong. He got on about an hour later and told me that Pepper had gotten out of the apartment. So I was really upset about that and encouraged him to get out there at do everything possible to find him.
Week of May 25th
Luckily I had Monday off from working on Saturday's Sports Day, so I got to talk to my parents on Skype for a little while. Then I went to Utsunomiya to meet with a friend of the coordinator for one of my senior learner English classes. He wanted to meet with me to talk about how English was being taught in Japanese public schools. He also works for the UN. Crazy! So, yay for networking! So we talked for a awhile and had lunch. Then we parted and I went to the post office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Post) to exchange money. Then I went to Parco (http://www.virtualjapan.com/wiki/Parco), stopped in Starbucks and headed back to the station. Utsunomiya seems like a really cool city, I can't wait to get to know it better :)
So on Tuesday I went back to Kurodahara JHS. It was nice to not have to do my self introductions anymore and actually be BUSY almost all day. So all this week I have been distracted because Pepper has been missing so both my English senior learner classes went just ok. But I finally got paid for one of the classes, and it was upfront, so it's hard to not want to spend all of it and only distribute it to myself per week.
So yesterday, I went to Utsunomiya Station to wait for people that said they were going to come to see Star Trek with me. I waited and waited and waited and no one showed, so I went to the information desk to ask about which bus stop number to go to in order to catch the bus that I had looked up the time and the name for. They tell me it's going to be at #14. Now, as I said, I don't do well with buses for some reason. So I knew I had the right time, the right bus name, and now the right bus stop #. Turns out, because it's ME and this random stuff can only happen because it's ME, there were TWO buses scheduled for THAT bus stop AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. Of course, not knowing this, I get on the wrong bus. ARGHH!!! So I'm waiting and waiting on the bus for the stop, and it's rainy outside and people are getting off the bus until I am the only person left, and I think, this can't be good. So we get to the final stop which was the bus terminal. And I'm like, crap, Marius is waiting for me, the movie starts in 25 minutes, I don't have a phone to tell him what's going on, so I go up to the bus driver and ask him about Bell Mall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Mall,_Utsunomiya). He laughs at me and then informs me that it was the OTHER 14:49 bus. So then he tells me to wait inside the bus. Now I'm thinking that either a) he's going to drive me there by bus, b) he's going to call me a taxi or c) point me in the direction of a different bus that can take me there. And of course, its POURING rain. So I'm just sitting there for like 10 minutes, before he comes back and tells me to wait a little longer. He comes back and starts the bus, so I figure we are doing option a. But no, he pulls into the bus parking spot. I have NO IDEA what is going to happen now, so he gets out and tells me to wait again. A couple minutes later I see a car pull up in front of the bus. THE BUS DRIVER IS GOING TO DRIVE ME IN HIS OWN CAR TO THE MALL! So, I get in, and gotta say, it's one of the nicest things someone's done for me! We talked a little and I apologized 5 billion times and he's just like "it's better to ask" LOL. So it was slightly awkward, but I was surprised and grateful that he did that for me. Of course it crossed my mind that in America, there would never be a scenario where a young white female would get into a car with a bus driver. But it's Japan. So he took me to the movie theater with 10 minutes to spare! So I met up with Marius and we got our tickets for Star Trek! I got caramel popcorn and melon soda :) And the movie was SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!! I enjoyed it!! Afterwards, Marius and I got a coffee and chatted and then he drove me back to the station. It was a good day!
And now I'm just enjoying a lazy Sunday!