I can't come up with clever subject lines anymore, I'm afraid...
This is only Part One, part two will be up shortly.
Another week went away. That was kinda fast. And I’m actually updating on a Friday, who knew. Everyone’s watching a play downtown except me and the dour vice-principal. Not the cool one I teach with. This one is so certain that I won’t understand him that he never even bothers to talk to me, just asks one of the JTEs to relay whatever message. Of course he mumbles like nuts and it’s entirely possible that I wouldn’t, but still. At least make the effort. Oh well. I’m just taking a little bit at the end of the day to scribble this out - all my other stuff that I can do here is done. There would be more, but I have no colored pencils. Which means a stop by the store in the rain, yummy. I think it’s rained more in the last week than it did during the supposed ‘rainy season.’ Is this rainy season round 2, perhaps? I dunno. I’m rambling.
So, topics of postersation. Sports Day that was last week, my solo teaching day (Tuesday), and the ALT dinner/meeting/whatever fun thinger.
Alright, Sports Day. Not a whole lot to tell, here. Last year I missed Sports Day because it was on a Thursday and I had to go to Nishiko. So this was my first (and last) Sports Day. It was pretty fun. There were relay races between the homerooms and the clubs. When they ran for their clubs they actually dressed in the club uniforms, the band kids were in their marching costumes, complete with feathered hats. They also dressed up one of the kids in 3 boxes… I still am not sure why they did that, other than to be silly. The kendo guys wore their armor, that was awesome. Unfortunately, the band’s box boy was between me and the kendo kids when they started actually sword-fighting. I was disappointed. The judo guys wore their gi, and that I definitely not one of the clubs I can be in - my biggest problem student is in it. Somehow I get the impression that if he got the opportunity to kick my bum, he would take it. Oh well. I may start staying after and visiting some of these clubs, just cuz I can and I feel like it. As long as I’m not epically tired by the end of the day. Digression. There were tug-of-war matches between homerooms, 100 meter dash races, 8 legged races (my favored team won, yay!), a huge jumprope that was really funny to see 25-30 kids trying to jump, and what I call The Weird Race.
It was homeroom against homeroom, each had a pair, guy and girl. They started out hopping in a burlap-looking sack - the boys went first, then the girls finished that section, they teamed up to haul a tire part way around the field, they ran under hurdles - knocking most of them over - and wound up at a table. From the table, they grabbed a pullover jersey with a piece of paper taped on it from a box. On the paper was the thing (or person) that they had to find and run to the MC(?) kids before going on to the finish line. Some of the things were specific, like Okada sensei (there’s only one in the school), others were more general, like a chair from the student seating section. Each pair had a different assignment on their jersey. This race was where it got interesting, at least for me. I was kinda running around in and out of the teacher seating section and the field itself taking pictures and just watching things, when the pair from 16 homeroom pulled out a jersey saying おもしろい先生, or ‘an interesting/funny teacher.’ I guess they saw me first and figured I was interesting, cuz I found myself grabbed and running into the center of the field before I quite knew what was going on. I was kinda flattered - 16 is the homeroom I have the most difficulty teaching this year, and they still picked me. Maybe just cuz I’m the weird foreigner, I don’t know. Whatever, it was cool. I will put up what pics I can, although since you’re not supposed to put up identifiable pics of students, that may not be very many. I’ll do what I can. Hmmm, perhaps there was more to it than I thought.
Weekend highlight was the Speech contest. The 2 girls I tutored from Nishiko were in it. I didn’t go cuz I didn’t know where it was being held. Sarah had promised me a ‘blow-by-blow’ account of what went on via text message. I got one, saying ‘Yuina rocked! Right now there are only 3 other kids who are really good,’ which was good news for us, because the first 4 kids get to go on to the city-wide competition in October. That was all I heard from Sarah, though, which kinda made me wonder. Later that night I got a message from the other girl, Tae, that she had won 2nd place!!! I was really happy for her, even tho I don’t think her speech was quite as good as Yuina’s. I later heard that Yuina only got 7th place and was really upset by it. She should have gotten better than that, I suspect politics. Tae’s speech was about her experience studying Urdu over the summer, it talked mostly about the importance of studying foreign languages, especially Asian languages, to learn more about the culture and value systems of the speakers. It was good. Yuina’s speech was about her experiences with a homestay she had done in Thailand 2 years previous, and what she had learned about it. The reason I think she may not have won is this - she critiqued Japanese society fairly harshly. She spoke about prejudice and how no one in her school shows how they feel - too much emphasis on appearances and caring what people think. She even said “I feel silly” about judging things just based on their surface appearance. Sarah said Yuina’s performance, pronunciation, and delivery style were all better than Tae’s, so although I am very very happy for and proud of Tae, I really wonder why she placed and Yuina did not. All that is conjecture, there could very easily be other reasons, and we just don’t know them.
And it’s 4 now, so I need to pack up and start walking home in the pouring rain before the vice principal guy wonders why I’m staying over my time. Yarg. I guess the solo day and the ALT meeting will go into a part 2, and I’ll put it up as soon as I get it written. Laters.
And I just got to walk home in rain heavy enough to be close to hail at some points carrying 40 pounds of stuff on my back for half an hour. I'm frickin tired. On the plus side, the rain sounds cool now that I'm inside. ^_^
Another week went away. That was kinda fast. And I’m actually updating on a Friday, who knew. Everyone’s watching a play downtown except me and the dour vice-principal. Not the cool one I teach with. This one is so certain that I won’t understand him that he never even bothers to talk to me, just asks one of the JTEs to relay whatever message. Of course he mumbles like nuts and it’s entirely possible that I wouldn’t, but still. At least make the effort. Oh well. I’m just taking a little bit at the end of the day to scribble this out - all my other stuff that I can do here is done. There would be more, but I have no colored pencils. Which means a stop by the store in the rain, yummy. I think it’s rained more in the last week than it did during the supposed ‘rainy season.’ Is this rainy season round 2, perhaps? I dunno. I’m rambling.
So, topics of postersation. Sports Day that was last week, my solo teaching day (Tuesday), and the ALT dinner/meeting/whatever fun thinger.
Alright, Sports Day. Not a whole lot to tell, here. Last year I missed Sports Day because it was on a Thursday and I had to go to Nishiko. So this was my first (and last) Sports Day. It was pretty fun. There were relay races between the homerooms and the clubs. When they ran for their clubs they actually dressed in the club uniforms, the band kids were in their marching costumes, complete with feathered hats. They also dressed up one of the kids in 3 boxes… I still am not sure why they did that, other than to be silly. The kendo guys wore their armor, that was awesome. Unfortunately, the band’s box boy was between me and the kendo kids when they started actually sword-fighting. I was disappointed. The judo guys wore their gi, and that I definitely not one of the clubs I can be in - my biggest problem student is in it. Somehow I get the impression that if he got the opportunity to kick my bum, he would take it. Oh well. I may start staying after and visiting some of these clubs, just cuz I can and I feel like it. As long as I’m not epically tired by the end of the day. Digression. There were tug-of-war matches between homerooms, 100 meter dash races, 8 legged races (my favored team won, yay!), a huge jumprope that was really funny to see 25-30 kids trying to jump, and what I call The Weird Race.
It was homeroom against homeroom, each had a pair, guy and girl. They started out hopping in a burlap-looking sack - the boys went first, then the girls finished that section, they teamed up to haul a tire part way around the field, they ran under hurdles - knocking most of them over - and wound up at a table. From the table, they grabbed a pullover jersey with a piece of paper taped on it from a box. On the paper was the thing (or person) that they had to find and run to the MC(?) kids before going on to the finish line. Some of the things were specific, like Okada sensei (there’s only one in the school), others were more general, like a chair from the student seating section. Each pair had a different assignment on their jersey. This race was where it got interesting, at least for me. I was kinda running around in and out of the teacher seating section and the field itself taking pictures and just watching things, when the pair from 16 homeroom pulled out a jersey saying おもしろい先生, or ‘an interesting/funny teacher.’ I guess they saw me first and figured I was interesting, cuz I found myself grabbed and running into the center of the field before I quite knew what was going on. I was kinda flattered - 16 is the homeroom I have the most difficulty teaching this year, and they still picked me. Maybe just cuz I’m the weird foreigner, I don’t know. Whatever, it was cool. I will put up what pics I can, although since you’re not supposed to put up identifiable pics of students, that may not be very many. I’ll do what I can. Hmmm, perhaps there was more to it than I thought.
Weekend highlight was the Speech contest. The 2 girls I tutored from Nishiko were in it. I didn’t go cuz I didn’t know where it was being held. Sarah had promised me a ‘blow-by-blow’ account of what went on via text message. I got one, saying ‘Yuina rocked! Right now there are only 3 other kids who are really good,’ which was good news for us, because the first 4 kids get to go on to the city-wide competition in October. That was all I heard from Sarah, though, which kinda made me wonder. Later that night I got a message from the other girl, Tae, that she had won 2nd place!!! I was really happy for her, even tho I don’t think her speech was quite as good as Yuina’s. I later heard that Yuina only got 7th place and was really upset by it. She should have gotten better than that, I suspect politics. Tae’s speech was about her experience studying Urdu over the summer, it talked mostly about the importance of studying foreign languages, especially Asian languages, to learn more about the culture and value systems of the speakers. It was good. Yuina’s speech was about her experiences with a homestay she had done in Thailand 2 years previous, and what she had learned about it. The reason I think she may not have won is this - she critiqued Japanese society fairly harshly. She spoke about prejudice and how no one in her school shows how they feel - too much emphasis on appearances and caring what people think. She even said “I feel silly” about judging things just based on their surface appearance. Sarah said Yuina’s performance, pronunciation, and delivery style were all better than Tae’s, so although I am very very happy for and proud of Tae, I really wonder why she placed and Yuina did not. All that is conjecture, there could very easily be other reasons, and we just don’t know them.
And it’s 4 now, so I need to pack up and start walking home in the pouring rain before the vice principal guy wonders why I’m staying over my time. Yarg. I guess the solo day and the ALT meeting will go into a part 2, and I’ll put it up as soon as I get it written. Laters.
And I just got to walk home in rain heavy enough to be close to hail at some points carrying 40 pounds of stuff on my back for half an hour. I'm frickin tired. On the plus side, the rain sounds cool now that I'm inside. ^_^