Too Much Seiza
I've had a really busy week. Today is my last day of this week's classes, but I'm probably going to go to school on Friday and I am going to school tomorrow. I plan on getting some research done and I got roped into a lunch with Milk-Tea Boy...so hopefully it will keep him away for another month or so. Sigh. The things I go through so as to not get knifed....No, seriously. I don't think he's a bad person or anything, I just find his personality atrocious and I don't like him at all. Whatever. No point in making him a scary enemy. I'll dislike him strongly as I pretend to like him, I guess.
I managed to get 11 books on Ainu language from my library at school. @___@ Since I only have to write one five page paper, it's kind of ridiculous. So I took home a few that are newer and less scary to cart away from school and left the ones that are older in my locker. It's nice having a locker, yay.
Yesterday the weather was CRAZY. It was snowing and raining all day and then decided to full on rain. Then it snowed all night and when I woke up there was like three inches of snow on the ground. Of course, since I was planning on buying boots TOMORROW, it had to be all nasty and wet today. I basically drenched my socks, shoes and pants, and had cold, wet feet the rest of the day. During lunch I went to Seico Mart and bought socks so that I'd have dry feet for Sado. We did Sado after lunch and it was fun, and then they so happened to be having a club meeting afterwards so I went to that. So I probably sat in seiza today more hours than I ever have in my entire life and my shins are BURNING from it. I guess I'll get better at it...but ugh. I'm also going on Saturday to Sapporo to attend another Sado event thingy? Not exactly sure what it is, but I'll get to practice, so that will be fun. ^-^
Let me see, I'm taking a Society and Gender class and for the past three weeks we had a lady who works at the Domestic Violence Shelter (they call it DV here) come in and talk to us for three consecutive weeks. She was really nice and told us the story of how she had to flee from her husband with her kids. When she ran away, they basically disappeared and it was technically against the law and considered kid-napping. It was a really heart-wrenching story. I'm glad that she's in a better place now and is able to work with other Japanese women who need her strength. I talked to her after class and asked if she was willing to have any sort of volunteer and she said that she'd love it if some older college students would come and play with the kids and provide good role models. So I have a meeting with her in a few weeks and she's going to explain the NPO and everything and so I guess I'll be pretty busy volunteering there. :D I'm glad that I'll be able to participate in something that really makes a difference.
I had a job interview on Tuesday and I ended up chatting with the lady, Toshiko (in Japanese, lol) for about an hour and a half. She didn't like that I was leaving in April/March, but I guess being a female native speaker of English trumped all the other candidates and I got the job. Yay. So now I'll be working starting on the 4th in the evening for a lesson-planning session, and then on the 13th is when I have my first class. It's going to be from 10am until 1pm. I'm looking forward to it. I guess the class is 9-10 year olds. That's a little bit older than Addie, so I think it should be fine. The pay is pretty good, but I still think I need to look into getting another job. Sigh.
I've been working with Professor LaFey at school and I have been helping out in her English classes. They are going well, but I still can't help but feel that a college English class feels like an American high-school language class. If that is the case, high school must be worse, lol. But I am enjoying it, and Professor LaFey is a really nice person.
I actually feel engaged and rather happy with my classes this semester. They're interesting and I am enjoying being with the other Japanese students. I also recognize a lot more faces in the hallway, so that is a nice feeling. I'm also getting along pretty well with the new ryuugakusei. The girls are pretty nice, and they seem to like me, so I'm happy. Yay.
Mom sent me pictures that Aunt Vicki took at my Sayonara Party, and I showed them to Narumi and she looked at them, looked at me and then looked at them again and said softly, "wow, are you sure this is before you came?" I told her it was precisely before I came and she said, "you've lost a LOT of weight." It's true, I have. I should be proud of myself. I've lost about 11 kilograms. Which equals about 24 pounds. I'm hoping to lose at least another 4 or 5 kilograms before I end the school year, though, so wish me luck with that. It's going to be harder with winter approaching and me not being able to walk as much. But I'm going to try! ^__^
Anyway, I've been busy and busy is good. I prefer being busy than having nothing to do. Nanowrimo is coming up, so I doubt I'll be writing/updating a lot in the month of November due to that.
Well, I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to try to hit the hay. Goodnight everyone! :D
I managed to get 11 books on Ainu language from my library at school. @___@ Since I only have to write one five page paper, it's kind of ridiculous. So I took home a few that are newer and less scary to cart away from school and left the ones that are older in my locker. It's nice having a locker, yay.
Yesterday the weather was CRAZY. It was snowing and raining all day and then decided to full on rain. Then it snowed all night and when I woke up there was like three inches of snow on the ground. Of course, since I was planning on buying boots TOMORROW, it had to be all nasty and wet today. I basically drenched my socks, shoes and pants, and had cold, wet feet the rest of the day. During lunch I went to Seico Mart and bought socks so that I'd have dry feet for Sado. We did Sado after lunch and it was fun, and then they so happened to be having a club meeting afterwards so I went to that. So I probably sat in seiza today more hours than I ever have in my entire life and my shins are BURNING from it. I guess I'll get better at it...but ugh. I'm also going on Saturday to Sapporo to attend another Sado event thingy? Not exactly sure what it is, but I'll get to practice, so that will be fun. ^-^
Let me see, I'm taking a Society and Gender class and for the past three weeks we had a lady who works at the Domestic Violence Shelter (they call it DV here) come in and talk to us for three consecutive weeks. She was really nice and told us the story of how she had to flee from her husband with her kids. When she ran away, they basically disappeared and it was technically against the law and considered kid-napping. It was a really heart-wrenching story. I'm glad that she's in a better place now and is able to work with other Japanese women who need her strength. I talked to her after class and asked if she was willing to have any sort of volunteer and she said that she'd love it if some older college students would come and play with the kids and provide good role models. So I have a meeting with her in a few weeks and she's going to explain the NPO and everything and so I guess I'll be pretty busy volunteering there. :D I'm glad that I'll be able to participate in something that really makes a difference.
I had a job interview on Tuesday and I ended up chatting with the lady, Toshiko (in Japanese, lol) for about an hour and a half. She didn't like that I was leaving in April/March, but I guess being a female native speaker of English trumped all the other candidates and I got the job. Yay. So now I'll be working starting on the 4th in the evening for a lesson-planning session, and then on the 13th is when I have my first class. It's going to be from 10am until 1pm. I'm looking forward to it. I guess the class is 9-10 year olds. That's a little bit older than Addie, so I think it should be fine. The pay is pretty good, but I still think I need to look into getting another job. Sigh.
I've been working with Professor LaFey at school and I have been helping out in her English classes. They are going well, but I still can't help but feel that a college English class feels like an American high-school language class. If that is the case, high school must be worse, lol. But I am enjoying it, and Professor LaFey is a really nice person.
I actually feel engaged and rather happy with my classes this semester. They're interesting and I am enjoying being with the other Japanese students. I also recognize a lot more faces in the hallway, so that is a nice feeling. I'm also getting along pretty well with the new ryuugakusei. The girls are pretty nice, and they seem to like me, so I'm happy. Yay.
Mom sent me pictures that Aunt Vicki took at my Sayonara Party, and I showed them to Narumi and she looked at them, looked at me and then looked at them again and said softly, "wow, are you sure this is before you came?" I told her it was precisely before I came and she said, "you've lost a LOT of weight." It's true, I have. I should be proud of myself. I've lost about 11 kilograms. Which equals about 24 pounds. I'm hoping to lose at least another 4 or 5 kilograms before I end the school year, though, so wish me luck with that. It's going to be harder with winter approaching and me not being able to walk as much. But I'm going to try! ^__^
Anyway, I've been busy and busy is good. I prefer being busy than having nothing to do. Nanowrimo is coming up, so I doubt I'll be writing/updating a lot in the month of November due to that.
Well, I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to try to hit the hay. Goodnight everyone! :D