Experimental Post

Today we`re going to do something different.  Why?  Because I`m likely to be bored all damn day.  Besides, Wednesday is "Anything Can Happen Day."  True story.  The Mickey Mouse Club told me so.  What are we doing?  Something along the lines of a stream-of-consciousness blog.  I`m aware that I already subject you to some of my strange thoughts and ramblings, but this is going to be totally live, as-I-think-them kind of thoughts throughout the workday.  Minimal censoring (I`d like to keep this PG-13 at the most, but I tend to curse a lot in my head when I`m frustrated, so it won`t be true stream-of-consciousness).  From 8:30-4:15 I will track as many of the thoughts, feelings, and happenings in my head and around me as I can.  Lucky you!

8:32 - "I Put a Spell on You" is stuck in my head.  The version from Hallowishes at WDW.

8:33 - Huh.  I guess we don`t have a morning meeting during exams.  I`d be worried that I won`t know what`s going on at the school today, except that meetings are in Japanese so I never know what`s going on anyway.

8:35 - Alright, now it`s "I Put a Spell on You" spliced with "Teddy Bear Picnic."  No idea where that one came from.

8:36 - Going to have to explain to my students the rule for consonant + y plurals.  I`m sick of seeing "puppys."

8:39 - I don`t understand how students still manage to make mistakes when they`re copying the example directly from the textbook.

8:41 - Seriously.  "Teddy Bear Picnic."  Where did that even come from?!

8:44 - "I think roses are beautiful.  First, they have wang colors."  I...really don`t know what they`re trying to say here.  Thanks, student, for utterly confusing me.

8:48 - It`s right there in your book, kids.  It`s "believe," not "belive."  Stop copying each other and try copying the textbook instead.

8:51 - "Spraises."  The kid`s talking about roses.  I`ve got nothing.  I have no idea what they`re trying to tell me or how to correct that.  Giant question mark.

8:57 - Dear Kids, If you only do half the homework, you`re only going to get half the marks.  The fact that you handed me your notebook does not automatically count as handing in the homework.  Love, Mel

9:02 - Ew.  Katy Perry.  I have some very strongly worded complaints against the DJ in my head right now.

9:07 - "Teddy Bear Picnic" is back.  Head DJ, you suck.

9:18 - Why did no one in this class do the first part of the homework?

9:18 - I want to watch Lilo & Stitch.

9:27 - Maybe it was how the teacher translated my homework assignment?  Because seriously, NO ONE in this class did Part A of the assignment.

9:28 - I really wish the metal window frames weren`t quite so shiny.

9:29 - Pens are sharp.  Remember that.  Can`t tell if this is red ink or blood.  OW.  Also remember that just because you THINK that you`re touching the clicky end of the pen, doesn`t mean you are.  Always check first by actually looking.

9:31 - Is my subconscious trying to tell me to go for a walk in the woods or something?  Because there are snakes and mukade in the woods around here, so that seems like a really, really bad idea.  And bears.  There are bears.  Who would probably have a lovely picnic of honey and Mel salad on bread if I went out in the woods.

9:40 - I really need to cut down on my pen-clicking.  I`m pretty sure it disturbs my coworkers.  But it helps me think!  Or, at least, it helps me stay awake.  There`s not much thinking going on right now.

9:42 - There`s some crazy conglomeration of teachers happening behind me.  Like, right behind me.  It makes me nervous.  Not that I`m doing anything wrong.  Well, okay, I`m reading fan fiction at work to supplement my marking because I have nothing else to do all day, but 99% of them wouldn`t be able to tell anyway.  I just don`t like having a group of people at my back.  It freaks me out.  I`m a back-to-the-wall kind of person.

9:47 - As much as I love being comfortable, someday I would like a job where I have to dress up every day, complete with fancy coffees and meeting rooms, and maybe an office with a door and a plaque?  Yeah, that would be cool.  I don`t feel particularly career-oriented in jeans an a t-shirt, but I also like to fit in with my surroundings, so dressing up when the other teachers dress casually would feel ridiculous, and make me more uncomfortable than the dress clothes themselves.

9:51 - Headbands are a ridiculous invention, and I don`t know why I elected to wear one.  Either they`re plastic and not formed properly for my head and give me a headache and cut into the skin behind my ears, or they`re the full-band fabric ones that just keep slowly slipping back and have to be readjusted constantly. 

9:57 - I want strawberries.

10:05 - These kids make no sense.  They can spell "whimper," but they can`t spell "cute."

10:14 - I`m walled in by all the notebooks I`ve marked, and I kinda really want to build a fort.

10:15 - I miss being able to actually understand the conversations happening around me.  And workplace gossip.  Which is what I usually got from the conversations around me.  Now I get random words that make no sense outside of the context that I don`t have.

10:22 - I both want and don`t want to go to the Halloween party this weekend.  On one hand, I know I need to get out and do things.  On the other hand, I kind of really don`t like parties.  Or any other gathering of more than about 6-8 people I`m meant to socialize with. 

10:25 - "So Close" from the Enchanted soundtrack.  Go home, Head DJ.  You`re drunk.  And the worst DJ ever.

10:38 - On my way to the washroom I heard the dial-up noise.  Never has a noise been so simultaneously nostalgic and grating.

10:41 - I really need to get some better indoor shoes for school.  Something that`s actually meant to be a slip-on, rather than my Disney sneakers that the laces keep flopping out of, and then I get the aglet in the wrong place and step on it with an unpadded section of foot.

11:02 - Yep.  I`m officially work-brain-dead.  I haven`t had a thought that wasn`t an immediate right/wrong response to the homework I`m marking in 20 minutes.  I have six notebooks left, and it`s not even noon. 

11:11 - I made a wish.  Did you?

11:15 - I sincerely hope I brought The Princess Bride with me.  The movie, not the book.  I know the book didn`t come with me.  But now I really want to watch the movie.  More than Lilo & Stitch.  By the time I get home, I won`t want to watch either one.  I know how this works.

11:25 - New song - He Mele No Lilo.  I don`t even speak Hawai`ian and I don`t know 99.9% of the lyrics to this song.

11:27 - Why is Hawai`i so far away from the rest of the States?  And why is Alaska?  Honestly.  Britain is like, "Nah, we don`t want that bit of land up there in the cold."  So America`s like, "Oh, yes!  We will buy it!  It makes perfect sense to have a piece of land belonging to us that`s separated from us by an entire other country."

11:30 - Now researching the Alaska purchase.  Pretty sure it`s a good thing that Wikipedia is blocked on the school`s network.  I don`t even want to consider the Wikipedia spirals I would get myself into on days like this.

11:32 - Why did Russia own Alaska?  Imperialism is weird.  Your country is your country.  Make nice with the other countries.  Don`t make them your country.  That`s stupid.

11:35 - I`m aware that my country only exists today because of Imperialism. 

11:38 - I`m also aware of what "filthy lucre" actually means, but it sounds like a Shakespearian insult.

11:48 - And I`m done marking.  Hopefully my CCS quiz will make me look busy for the rest of the day.  Time to get my Google on, as slowly as possible!

11:53 - I can hear a bunch of teachers starting to unpack their lunches.  Lunch is normally from 12:45-1:20.  Bets that these teachers are just as bored as I am?  Because I`ve been thinking about lunch for the past hour, and I`m not even really all that hungry.

12:01 - Forgot to put salt in my chicken salad.  And garlic.

12:02 - Russia has a lot of uninhabited land. 

12:09 - My saltines taste oddly like goldfish.

12:09 - What do actual goldfish taste like?

12:14 - Why are liquors referred to as "spirits?"

12:16 - Really wish I had access to Wikipedia without using my phone.  It`s just so much more awkward to research random things on there when it looks like you`re texting at work.  Not that I`m working either way, but if I`m researching random things on the computer, then at least it LOOKS like I`m working.

12:24 - Stupid Christmas fan fiction.  Now I have Christmas songs running through my head.  Mostly "Baby, It`s Cold Outside."  As much as I love that song, it`s October, and 21 degrees Celsius.

12:27 - Looked up the nomenclature of Celsius versus centigrade.  This is what I got:
The temperature scale used by scientists in America has been called centigrade, while in many countries it was called Celsius for its inventor. In 1948 the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures, representing 33 nations that subscribed to the Treaty of the Meter, adopted the name Celsius. This name, however, did not come into general use by scientists in America, partly because they were unaware of the official action of the conference and partly because some preferred the old name. At the 11th General Conference in 1960 the scale was defined in a way that makes the adjective centigrade inexact. The name Celsius is correct and its use by American scientists would help make the nomenclature of temperature uniform in all countries.
Oh, `Murica.

12:33 - I love being right.

12:38 - I`d love to start a game of "floor is lava" in here.  Good times.

12:40 - Also really want to have a nap.  Naps are good.  Or just be lazy in my living room, on the floor, in the sun.

12:53 - Werewolf puns are way more amusing than they should be.

1:01 - It smells like nachos in here.  I want nachos.  Nachos from The Ab.  The Ab had the best nachos.

1:05 - Life was easier in university.  Adulting sucks.  Can we go back to the time wherein I was able to vote and drink, but didn`t have to be so responsible?

1:07 - I hate to be a hipster, but I listened to Dragonforce before Guitar Hero made them cool.

1:11 - I shouldn`t read funny things at work.  Hard to keep the snickering to myself.  Again: more obviously not working.

1:12 - Things I shouldn`t be allowed to know: Cake Wrecks is not blocked my my school`s network.

1:13 - Why is Wikipedia blocked, but not my favourite blog, devoted to horribly decorated cakes?

1:23 - Japanese teacher across from me just burst into laughter, presumably in relation to something she was marking.  So I guess it`s not totally crazy if I start to laugh?  I just have no one to explain to like she does about why I`m laughing.  Not sure if that makes it better or worse.

1:26 - Heh.  One of the teachers just did that thing where you go to pick up your stuff on the printer and realize that you forgot to actually hit the Print button.

1:40 - Japanese teacher just came over to tell me that the hospital called yesterday after I left and said how awesome I was and how much they enjoyed having me.  I`m awesome.

1:49 - Things I don`t really understand: Duty Free Shops.  I just... don`t get it.

1:53 - Am I the only one who frequently reads CITES as "cities" when glancing at the CSCB quiz?

1:54 - Oh man, I`m on the last page of the quiz and it`s not quite two o`clock.  I`m gonna die of boredom.  I can tell.

2:07 - A baby rabbit is called a kit, which is short for kitten.  A male rabbit is called a buck, and a female rabbit is called a doe.  I think rabbits have identity crises.

2:10 - A baby ant is called an `antling`.  Google spirals, man.  They`re as bad as Wikipedia spirals.

2:12 - A baby platypus is called a `puggle`.  Is it legal to own a platypus in Australia?  That must be so confusing in pet-owner conversations.

2:13 - It is illegal to own a platypus in Australia.  But if you get it as a baby, and state for records that you own a `puggle`, and no one ever questions you about it later....

2:15 - Not a male platypus, though.  They have venomous spurs.

2:20 - My spirit animal is a badger.  Kinda vicious and grumpy as hell, but also cute and cuddly.

2:21 - A baby badger is called a cub, the male is a boar, and the female is a sow.  Badgers must also suffer identity crises.

2:22 - Badgers eat elder berries.  Now I have John Cleese`s voice shouting with a bad French accent in my head.  That scene had to be filmed in two parts, one with long shots of the castle, and close-ups of John Cleese, taken from close to the ground on a slightly-built-up set piece because Cleese is afraid of heights.

2:25 - If you give a mouse a cookie, he`ll probably want a glass of milk to go with it.

2:34 - So the characters on Teen Wolf should just become the supernatural X-Men of their universe.  Derek could buy back his family`s land and rebuild the house, but bigger, and they could use it as a boarding school for supernatural teens. 

2:35 - I own way too many pink things for someone who kind of despises that colour.

2:36 - It took me three tries to type `colour.`  Japan uses American spelling, and I think it`s starting to get to me.

2:42 - Head DJ is back to "I Put a Spell on You."

2:48 - I really hope one of my teachers tells me what they discussed (if they discussed anything) for my first year lessons soon.  I just realized that I will, in fact, be back to teaching them on Monday, first period, and I have no lesson.  None.

2:49 - Except I actually do.  I`m just not sure how many parts of the lesson (Lesson 6 is in 4 parts) I need to fit into one day.

2:52 - I still want that nap.

2:53 - And nachos.  I want the nachos too.

3:01 - We get a nice breeze most days in the office, but I really wish it would stop blowing my papers around.

3:09 - Reindeer are better than people.

3:11 - A reindeer is a caribou.  In Europe they`re always called caribou.  In America, they`re called caribou when they`re wild, and reindeer when they`re domesticated.

3:12 - Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

3:12 - I want a milkshake. 

3:13 - I want a chocolate peanut butter milkshake.

3:22 - I think someone stopped the clocks and that it`s actually time for me to go home.

3:33 - Need a good stretch.  Still hate yoga.

3:36 - Looks like we`re expecting rain again.  Sky`s getting kind of grey.

3:43 - Might make nachos tonight.  I have chili in the freezer.  Just have to get chips and cheese.

3:44 - But I do have to run tonight, as well.  What are the chances that I eat an appropriate portion of nachos and then digest them in a timely manner so as to go out for a proper run?

3:50 - Chips and cheese.  Now "Cabin in the Woods" from Evil Dead: The Musical is in my head. 

3:53 - I need to learn about baseball.  It`s such a big thing here, and I`d like to understand it better.

3:57 - Want eggs.  Can`t have eggs.  Sensitivities are stupid.

4:00 - 15 minutes!!!!!

4:05 - Why do I put things in such backwards places?  I leave the papers I want to bring home with me out on my desk, and put the ones I need to stay here in the drawer with my backpack.

4:15 - FREEDOM!!!!!!  Thanks for reading through my rambles.  Hope you had fun in my head!

A Week at a Glance

Wednesday morning started out in an exceptionally awesome and totally unexpected way.  I woke up feeling well-rested (unexpected, yes, but not what I`m talking about), got ready, and headed out the door at my usual time to walk to school (still hate biking).  When I turned on the road that takes me through the rice fields, there was a lady a few metres ahead walking in the same direction with her poodle.  I see people around here walking their dogs all the time.  The dogs are invariably adorable, and if they`re walking towards me, I`m usually grinning stupidly at the fluffy creatures, which gets a smile and a greeting out of the owners (Japanese custom is normally not to speak to strangers, even just basic greetings).  For some reason, though, this poodle turned around, stopped walking, and refused to continue until I had caught up to them.  So I had a (stilted and slightly confusing) conversation with a random lady of the neighbourhood!  I felt so local!  Her daughter is apparently studying English somewhere near the mall, and I explained that I was an ALT at the high school.  It was just so incredibly out-of-the-blue!  Rizu (or Risu, or something like that.  The dog, anyway) was just like, "No, Mom.  Stop.  We must speak with this person," or something.  But it was great.

I thought I had class second period, like I normally do, but apparently there was a change in schedule for reasons I don`t know and I didn`t even find out that there was no class until I got to the language lab and no one showed up, so I spent all day at my desk working on something for my hospital class next week.  I`m excited.  The first part of my classes will be self-introduction (again.  I think I`ve introduced myself to more people in the last two months than I have in the rest of my life put together), and then the teacher has some activity sheets, but she also wanted me to bring something Halloween-y.  Having the steel trap memory that I do, I immediately recalled the Five Little Pumpkins rhyme.  And drew pictures.  Because reasons.



On Thursday my first year class had been cancelled (This one I knew about in advance; the teacher talked to me about it weeks ago) so that their JTE could make sure they had all the grammar they needed for the midterm next week.  Third year class was their in-class midterm exam, and then handing out the envelopes for the mystery party at the end of the month.

Friday was Review Day with my first year classes for their exam.  So we played a game of Tsunami (originally Typhoon, but I like Tsunami better, so we changed disasters).  I had a list of words for the different point values, and then they had thirty seconds to use that word in a sentence (aka, find the sentence that uses that word in the textbook).  After that we did the spelling race.  They loved it! (Except my last class.  They`re a little... well.  They`ll only be my favourite class if I ever come to work with a giant headache and need absolute silence and blank stares.)

Things teachers at this school need to work on: communication.  I was in my last class on Friday, and the teacher says to me, "So you know that we don`t have class with you next Friday?"  Uh... no.  No, I did not know that.  But at least they`re telling me now, rather than when I go looking for them like what happened on Wednesday.  And then she says, "And we have a meeting to discuss the lesson plans on Monday."  Yeah, also a thing that no one told me.  I submitted a request to have Monday off when I came in on Wednesday!

I spent my entire (long) weekend doing absolutely nothing of import, and it was glorious.  On Monday, I even took a NAP.  This is a big deal, since I don't usually take naps unless I'm a) sick, or b) running on less than three hours of sleep.  But no, I napped, I read, I binge-watched half a season of Scorpion... It was great.

Today was my first day at the hospital school, and I absolutely loved it.  The kids and the teachers there are all great, and I wish I was there more often than once a month.  My last student of the day was a bed-side visit to a junior high school girl.  We introduced ourselves, I did my usual photos and talk about Canada thing, and then we got into different interests.  She asked if I liked Harry Potter, and I think we talked for about 10 minutes without needing help from the JTE.  Her mom was in the room as well, and she was ecstatic.  It was great!  (Because if there are two things you can mention that will get me talking for hours, it's Disney and Harry Potter.  She was wearing a Disney t-shirt, so we did get into that one, too.)

Not looking forward to the rest of my week.  By mid-Thursday, I'm going to want to gouge my eyes out.from sheer boredom.

Game-Changer

I had an okay first year lesson on Thursday.  The JTE wanted me to do one of the random "extra" lessons from the back of the textbook.  It was about planning and schedules.  I wasn`t sure what kind of activity to do for this lesson, so I looked online and found a premade worksheet with activities.  My plan was to have the kids fill out the schedule portion, and then work on the wordsearch for the rest of class (we had some textbook dialogues to go through first).  But I forgot that if you give kids a word search, they`re going to ignore everything else.  So I had to set a time limit and make them hand them in just so they would finish the damn things.  Then I had ten minutes I didn`t know what to do with, so we had a spelling race.  I split the class into three teams, had one person from each team come up to the board, and they had to write the word I gave them a) correctly, and b) as fast as they could.  They loved it. 

So, my school plays music in the halls at lunch for whatever reason and THEY`RE PLAYING THE FIRST FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST THEME SONG AND I`M IN HERE SINGING AND BOBBING ALONG AND MY SUPERVISOR THINKS I`M NUTS.  Given that it`s usually One Direction, Taylor Swift, or some J-Pop I`ve never heard of, this is kind of a big deal and I`m well within my rights to fangirl a little bit.  Take your judgement elsewhere, thank you.

My mystery game was almost done.  After almost three solid days of working on it, I had enough of it figured out that I knew what few pieces I had left.  I made sure that everyone either talked to or asked about the villain, but not in an obvious way, every came in contact with at least one red herring, it was great.  Then we announced in class that that`s what we were doing at the end of the month.  Two of the students approached us at break with concerns about our Halloween mystery party.  They`re Jehovah`s Witnesses.  They can`t participate in anything Halloween or anything with monsters because it`s against their religion.  I have to change everything.  It`s fine, it`s cool.  It`s not like I felt a little part of me die or anything (I totally did).  It`s not like I have to scrap pretty much everything I worked on for the past three days (I do).  I don`t mean to sound.... whatever the word is when you`re against someone else`s religion.  And really, I`m not.  I get it.  I don`t necessarily agree with it (probably because I have about the same level of religious affiliation as my kitchen chair), but I get it.  I am all about the tolerance and harmony; really, I`m going to break into song about it any second now.  And they were sweet about it, too.  They said if it was too much trouble that they could just not participate in that portion of the class.  I`m so not going to do that.  I want to include everyone.  Plus, even if it`s fun, they`re still learning and practicing English.  I just might go home and cry while eating a bar of chocolate first.  This also means I can stop thinking about Christmas activities before I even start.

Friday was thoroughly uneventful.  I did a metric tonne of marking, taught the same lesson three times over, and sat at my desk resoloutely avoiding replanning my mystery game.

My plans to go to see monkeys in Nagano fell through, so on Saturday I took myself on a day trip to Osaka.  Partly this was because I found a bilingual day spa, which was all kinds of awesome, and partly because I actually wanted to see things in Osaka (not just the shopping district).  It takes about two hours to get there by train from where I'm at, so it's not a bad day trip, but not something I'd do regularly.  Plus, if I want to be cheap (which I am) and take normal trains rather than the faster, pricier trains with the reserved seats, I'm a lot more limited in my travel time.  Anyway.  So my appointment was at 2PM, and once it was done I decided to walk myself over to Osaka Castle.  I didn't go up in the tower, but I still saw some pretty cool stuff.  The park around the castle is a very popular running spot!

 Dotonbori canal, along which the widely popular Dotonbori shopping district is built.

 The moat around the outer castle walls.

 Main tower of Osaka Castle.

 Kendama is a ball-and-cup toy that is a notoriously difficult game. This guy is doing two ricidulously long ones simultaneously while on a ladder.

While wandering through the castle grounds, I came across a random large group of small dogs, milling about leashless, with their owners.  A pile of them were even in a giant stroller!  Must have been 'Take Your Small Dog to Osaka Castle Day.'  I wanted to take pictures, but did not.  Once I was finished with the castle and wandering through the surrounding park area, I stumbled across 'Take Your Trained Hunting Bird to Osaka Castle Day.'  I took pictures this time.

Since Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving, I decided to host a small dinner party (thank you, family, for genetically predisposing me with a need to feed people).  I spent Sunday grocery shopping and baking my rolls and pie, after Skyping with my family.  And cleaning.  We're not talking about the state my apartment was in at that point.  Monday was a relaxing morning (after more Skype time), followed by some cooking.  Turkeys aren't exactly easy to come by here unless you special order them in advance, probably online, so I was doing a pork roast.  I've done pulled pork before, and beef pot roast, but never a roasted pork, so this was new for me.  I decided to do an herb rub on it as well, so I was really just making things up as I went along and hoping for the best (as I usually do).  It turned out fantastic, we had way too much food, and it was so much fun!

Today I was at my special needs school for another lesson with my elementary kids.  We did more head and shoulders, some sports vocabulary, and connect-the-dots with alphabet and number grids (I called out the number or letter to connect to the previous dot, and it made a picture in the end).  Two different teachers who sort of live in my area gave me suggestions for pasta restaurants (seriously, what is with my teachers and pasta?!).  I was also approached by the middle school English teacher about joining a teachers' team for a relay race happening somewhere around here at the end of November.  Of course I said yes!  Running and being part of a group?!  Sure!  It's not a standard relay, though.  It's kind of a distance relay?  She said that each runner goes about 700m.  Should be interesting.  I definitely have to make sure to keep my running up!

This Week, I Join Mystery Inc

In retrospect, the grocery list activity was perhaps not my best idea.  Or, at least, collecting the completed lists for marking was not a good idea.  I now feel like a cashier whose customers all want to price match, and didn`t bring marked flyers with them.  It`s funny going through some of these, though, because I gave some of them them shopping lists for things like lasagna or apple pie. They went through the list and tried to find the items just like they were supposed to, but then they also found the premade variety and added it to the bottom.  I`m so proud of my smart alecks!

I didn`t end up watching dodgeball.  I decided that I was going to start drawing my maps for next week`s conversation class activity first thing in the morning (we`re going to be learning about giving directions), before things got started up, and I got really into it.  Like, I started working when I got here before 8:30 (when morning meeting starts), and while I realized that there were about a grand total of three teachers in the office, I didn`t even know what time it was or realize that the morning chime hadn`t sounded until I looked at the clock and saw that it was 9:06.  I spent pretty much all day drawing maps (I`m only doing five of them, but they`re detailed, and I`m having fun with it), until about 2PM when the day felt like it should totally be over by that point and I so just didn`t care anymore.  Fridays without class are like that.

I made poutine for Friday Night Dinner, because I am Canadian.  And desperate.  Desperate enough to actually consider what I made "poutine".  Fries, yes.  They were frozen, but they were actually fries.  The "cheese curds" were a combination of bits of white cheddar (broken-up snack blocks) and pizza-grade mozzarella.  And I didn`t even know where to begin for gravy, outside of buying a roast and cooking it, so I bought a can of beef stew liquid (it`s not beef stock, because it`s thickened - the instructions are "cook beef and veggies and add to liquid", so it`s literally beef stew without the beef).  What I forgot is that beef stew is a base of beef juices and tomato, so there was less of a beef taste than what I expected.  It was still food, and it was still kind of poutine, but in the same way that Americans can buy that stuff that comes in a spray can and still call it "pancakes" (pancakes in a spray can exists.  I had to talk my roommate out of buying it in Florida).  I need to scour the foreign food store next time I go to see if I can get packet or canned gravy there.

Saturday morning was spent doing laundry.  Nothing particularly fascinating.  In the afternoon, I met up with another ALT in Tsu.  We went to Tsukannonji temple, which was incredibly underwhelming, and then had pizza.  Actual, honest-to-god pizza.  None of this grocery store nonsense with the broccoli and the shrimp and the mayo.  I love pizza.  Pizza and I are good friends.  I would probably write odes to pizza, or haikus if I wanted to bother counting syllables (which I don't).  As good as it was, though, I'm still hitting up a Domino's the next time I'm in a city that has one. 

Sunday was kind of a lazy day.  I had to walk to the mall for a couple of things, cook up what I needed for lunches this week, and do some cleaning.  I also made a decent amount of headway on the JET Japanese course I registered for, which just opened up on Thursday.  I`m really excited about this, because it`s a regimented self-study course.  We got the self-study books at orientation before we left, but with my (lack of) work ethic, there`s a huge difference between, "Here`s a textbook, study some stuff," and, "Here`s a course, each section has a test that has to be completed by a certain time."  I do much better with deadlines set by other people.

Monday was back to regular routine.  Nothing particularly exciting to report.  The only thing of note is that the second year teachers returned from the class trip to Nagasaki.  And they all brought omiyage.

 I did have an interesting conversation with my supervisor as well.  I don`t even know how we got on the topic, because it started with my cancelled plans to go to Nagano over the long weekend, but we ended up talking about murder mystery dinners and escape rooms.  She was very excited about both concepts (I found a site for a Japanese one in Tokyo, which she got really excited about because she had never heard of these things before, let alone knew they existed in Japan), and now I`m organizing a mystery party for my conversation class for our lesson before Halloween.  Not murder, though, because that`s inappropriate in a Japanese school.  I`m thinking a monster-themed robbery.  So I`m going to do some searching, see what I can find in free PDF versions of murder mystery kits, change the crime, and then see if I can`t dumb it down for non-English speakers.  This is either going to be Hell on Earth, or the greatest thing ever.  I`m not sure which yet.

Tuesday was my high school day at my special needs school.  They had a new student enter in the past week, so my class had two students!  

It was yet another self-introduction lesson.  Also, the fact that they were in the same class still means that I only had one class all day.  I spent my morning on Pinterest on my phone (until it died because I forgot to charge it), trying to find some DIY murder mystery kits that I could adapt, and my afternoon alternating between staring blankly at my murder mystery plans and staring blankly at The Monuments Men without actually reading anything.  This was my first day in the high school staff room (elementary and junior high share a staff room in another building), so I was something new and exciting for the teachers there.  One of the Japanese teachers (whose name I forgot about three minutes after she said it, but it starts with `A`) started to come over in the morning, and then stopped partway, and the following conversation took place (roughly):
Japanese teacher: Ah, the new ALT!  Does she speak Japanese?
Other teacher: I`m not sure, but I don`t think so.
JT: Oh.  I haven`t met her yet.  I was going to introduce myself.
OT: I haven`t really met her either.
JT: Screw it!  I`m going to introduce myself anyway!
And she did.  As I sit there, trying not to giggle because I may not speak much Japanese, but I definitely got the gist of that conversation!  Later in the afternoon, the same teacher stopped by my desk and asked if she could take me on a tour of the school.  I`d already been on a tour in the summer before classes started, but at this point I was debating the merits of stabbing myself in the eye with my pen just because I was that bored (exaggeration, obviously), so while I said, "Yeah, sure," all casual-like, inside I was going, "Ohdeargodyes."

Today I only had one class as well, but at least it was at my base school, so I have all of my materials and computer to actually do work.  And there is a LOT of work.  We`re heading into midterm exams in a couple weeks, so we`re wrapping up the lesson we`re on now, and then not starting the new one until after the exams.  The problem is that, due to holidays, some classes have more time with me before the exam while others don`t, so the teachers don`t consistently want the same things for each of their classes.  I mean, it`ll be more interesting for me than teaching the same lesson eight times in a week, but it also means I have three different lesson plans on the go for the same grade level.  So my morning was prepping all of those lessons for next week.  The entire afternoon was taken up with more plans for my mystery game.  I`ll probably have a post entirely devoted to that once it`s done, because there is WAY too much for me to tack it on to one of these rambles.

Every Little Thing I Do Is Magic

Legitimate question: How does `conversation` end up shortened as `convo`?  It seems strange to choose any other letter, since it`s what we`re used to, but really.  Out of the remaining letters in `ersation`, we pick the `o`?  This makes no sense to me. (I was working on my lesson plan for my third year conversation class, and labeled the folder as `Convo`, which is where this came from.)

Moving on. 

Wednesday morning was awesome, because for whatever reason I slept like a rock and woke up actually feeling rested!  It`s been a few weeks since that happened.  Anyway, the math teacher came over after homeroom, and we spent about 15 minutes figuring out the math for today`s lesson.  The modified formula he has for Zeller`s algorithm makes a lot more sense than the code versions I was finding online, thank god.  I also learned about Kaprekar numbers, which are kind of cool, and we`re playing Sudoku.  I`m not actually a fan of Sudoku at all, but hey, I learned that it means "number place", so that`s neat.  And makes sense.

My English classes today were pretty boring.  I had the sports course for second period, and a make-up class for class 2 in period 4.  In between them was the math class, which was a lot of fun.  Turns out it was just the exchange kids, rather than a normal class with our students as well.  I really like this math teacher, because you can tell he`s really passionate about math and the cool things you can do with it, and he wants to share that enthusiasm with the students.  We started out with the "magic trick" math, which goes like this:
Think of your favourite number.
Add 3.
Double that.
Add four.
Divide by two.
Subtract your favourite number.
The number you are thinking of now is..... 5!

So yeah, they were impressed by that.  They also had fun calculating the day of the week they were born on.  The Kaprekar number activity worked, but they were less enthusiastic about it.  I got the, "Miss, what do we do with this?" once they had reached the Kaprekar number (6174).  Answer: "Pretty much nothing.  It`s just cool."  After that was Sudoku, which the kids really enjoyed.  Maegawa-sensei was really surprised that Sudoku was so popular in Western culture!  We also got to chat a bit while the kids were doing their puzzles, which was interesting with his broken English and my broken Japanese, but I think I`m beginning to understand a bit more.  Go me!  Apparently he used to run marathons in college, and he also very much recommends a trip to Okinawa.

The rest of my Wednesday work day was spent working on this week`s conversation class lesson.  I want to do the shopping lesson while the exchange students are here, because they can easily function as English-speaking retail workers, which gives all of my students a chance to practice shopping in English.  I think it`s more important for them to be familiar with customer phrases than employee phrases.  Let`s face it: none of them are going to be working in an English-speaking store any time soon.  They`re more likely to go on vacation and need to buy souvenirs.  So my first part of the lesson is going to be looking at ads.  I`ve printed out copies of the Metro and Foodland ads from home (PS, can someone please try the Cookies & Creme spread in the Metro ad?  And then lie to me and tell me it`s the worst thing you`ve ever put in your mouth?  Because right now I really, really want to try some.  Thanks!), and I`m going to make the exchange students give my students grocery lists; the students then have to find out which of the items on that list are on sale.  The second half, I`ve assigned the exchange students to stores, and made up shopping lists for each of my students.  I thought about making longer lists, and having the shops either be out of some items or not carry them, but I think that might be pushing it a bit.

After school on Wednesday, the exchange students were participating in a tea ceremony hosted by the tea ceremony club, and I was invited to join.  Of course I went, because I'm pretty sure I will only say "no" to tea when Mom is trying to serve me her orange cinnamon nonsense.  So we went down to the tea ceremony club room and had tea and sweets (again with the red bean paste).  The thing about formal tea ceremonies, though, is that they're conducted entirely in seiza position.  For the Japanese people, who are used to this, it's no big deal; it kills most foreigners after about a minute or two.  My supervisor is taking pictures as we're all sitting there, smiling or looking on interestedly, trying not to let it show that we can no longer feel our feet and legs.

I think I may begin practicing seiza at home sometimes, so that I'm not such an obvious failure in the future.  

Today began with me thinking it was Friday.  I hate it when that happens.  So depressing.  Anyway.  My school day began with attempting to explain the phrase "hit it off" to my supervisor, with the help of the Australian teacher.  I also spent some time making a fact sheet about Canada that my supervisor at the special needs school requested for my high school class (one kid) next week.  This meant delving into "Canadian Foods", which means that I have unsatisfied cravings for poutine, butter tarts, and beaver tails.  If someone express mailed me a beaver tail right now, they would be my new favourite person, hands down.  I wouldn`t even care if it was a Nutella and banana one, and I don`t really like either of those things.

Conversation class went AMAZINGLY well!  The kids were so surprised (and a little confused) by the supermarket ads, and had a lot of fun trying to look through for the items on their lists.  The only thing I would recommend if someone else ever wanted to do this, is try to get the original ads sent to you from home in advance.  The printouts on A4 size paper work alright, but the letters are sometimes tiny, so you only know that flour is on sale if you already happen to know that that Robin Hood bag is flour.  My supervisor was also really fascinated by the ads, though apparently the yogurt with M&Ms has been brought back, and the very idea of that absolutely disgusted her.  The shopping roleplay worked really well, too.  It`s definitely a benefit to do this lesson while you have a classroom full of native English speakers.  We could have done a similar activity with just the Japanese students, but I don`t think they would have gotten as much out of it, and they would have had to work with a much longer list of key phrases.  So right now I look like the greatest teacher ever, and I barely had to do anything during the class.  I`m cool with that.

Tomorrow we were supposed to have a field trip to Aoyama Plateau, but it`s been cancelled due to the weather (this might shock you, but it`s raining).  But my classes are still cancelled because the first years had another trip that`s still going ahead (my trip was with the third years), and all of my classes on Friday are first year classes...  So apparently there will be dodgeball tournaments or something in the gym that I can watch?  Whatever.  Lazy day for me!

I Don`t Care How Useful It Is, Math Sucks

For all of you who thought you missed my Friday Night Dinner post on Facebook, the staff at my high school had my enkai (welcome party) that night, so I wasn`t home and therefore did not cook.  Instead I went out with some of the teachers, including the Australian teachers.  I think, all told, there were fourteen of us, which is a decent number.  I was afraid everyone was going to be there, which would be forty-odd people, and that idea is terrifying.

Not because any of the teachers are scary, but just the sheer number of people to have dinner with...   I`m really happy with my posting here, partially because of the fabulous staff here.  There was a ridiculous amount of food, and some great conversation!  The rules of cricket were explained (I still don`t get it, and can really only think of Shaun of the Dead), I practically waxed poetic about animal cafes in Japan (like the bunny cafe in Nagoya or the owl cafe in Tokyo), and got into a discussion with the principal about Martin Heidegger and the merits of studying philosophy.

On the weekend, I did virtually nothing.  I`d still been running on holiday time (aka staying up a lot later than I should have been), so between not going to sleep until after midnight and getting up at 6:30 AM on Thursday and Friday, I was kind of already exhausted!  I did a lot of cooking, though.  In addition to my replacement Friday dinner on Sunday (deconstructed cabbage rolls), I also made a chicken and fruit salad, and salmon salad with roasted red peppers.  And I roasted my own peppers.  Please, take a moment to marvel at my culinary awesomeness.  No, really.  Take a moment.  I`ll wait. 

....Good? Moving on, then.  I also learned how to use my rice cooker, mostly by grossly over-complicating things, texting Ros in frustration, and then finally figuring out that all I needed to do was push one button.  I`m still awesome.

Monday was a couple of English classes (one of which still basically refuses to speak unless I pick student numbers out of a box and force them to answer me).  It was also the day I had to help with math.  I`ll admit, I was terrified.  Then I get into the class and find out that it`s not actually a lesson, so I don`t have to try to translate a bunch of things from the teacher.  Instead, Morita-sensei and I have translated what turns out to be the math section of a practice university entrance exam.  This makes it easier for me, but harder for the students, because there`s really no way for me to talk around a lot of this and try to help them understand.  It`s really just do or do not (there is no "try").  Between having the math presented in a strange way (a bubble sheet for answers in Japanese that we couldn`t entirely figure out, but it wasn`t multiple choice, and odd fill-in-the-blanks more than actually just solving problems), and things being lost in translation between the original text and Morita and I, the result was predominantly DO NOT.  I felt really bad, because the kids were trying, but it didn`t really seem like they had all of the information they needed to complete the work.  Like, they`re looking at a quadratic equation relating to some "Graph G" (which they didn`t have), so they`re working with variables x, y, a, b, and c, and then all of a sudden the instructions start talking about how d equals the square root of 7, and no one knows where d came from!  So we`ve established that I should never be a math teacher, and I should really never be a math teacher in a foreign country whose language I don`t speak or read.  Good to know that`s off the table, because I was so seriously considering it for a while.  (I`m sorry, was that sarcasm not tangible enough for you on the other side of the internet?)

(Live update 3PM Monday: I just got roped into another math class on Wednesday.  How do I get myself into these things?!?!  This is like elementary school softball all over again.  "Oh, Mel`s pretty good at throwing a ball overhand across the field.  Let`s make her an underhand pitcher!"  "What."  And I never played softball again.  Note to self: stop being likeable and helpful.  Or only be helpful in things like art and possibly home economics.  I can do those.)

Today was my day at the special needs school.  This week I had the elementary kids, which was all kinds of awesome.  I only had two classes, third and fourth period, which kind of made for a boring day overall, but the classes themselves were great.  My period 3 class was Grades 1-4, where we sang the ABCs, head and shoulders, and then played 'Simon Says'.  There were nine kids, and they were all super adorable!  Period 4 was Grades 5-6, where there were only three kids, and we had a search and find-type alphabet activity and went over the weather descriptions.  The elementary teacher I work with is fabulous, too.  I swear she skips all over the room, and I don't know how she could possibly keep that energy level up all day!  I spent the rest of the day switching between reading The Monuments Men (so, learning history), studying Japanese, and attempting to figure out how to manually calculate Zeller's congruence for math class.  I got a lot of, "Whoa, you're really studious!" all day.  Add to that the fact that the elementary teacher also knows now that I speak English, decent French, some Japanese, and minimal Korean, and I'm pretty sure what they're actually thinking is more along the lines of, "What the hell is this kid even doing?!"  (Answer: I have no idea.  Clearly a little bit of everything.)  One of the junior high school teachers also randomly came up to me, introduced himself, and taught me some Japanese Sign Language, which was awesome, but since I barely know Japanese, I sort of feel like this:

This evening my package from home arrived, so now I have all of the cozy sweaters, should it ever actually get cold enough to need them (I swear the humidity has spiked again this week).  And also a lot more of my teas.  Thanks Mom!

Silver Week, Plus Thursday

Silver Week was fantastic and I never wanted it to end.  Partly because Ros was here and that was awesome, and partly because I just didn`t want to go back to work.  (What I need is a job where it doesn`t matter when I work, just as long as I`ve put in the necessary hours by the end of the week.)

Saturday morning and afternoon were spent cleaning like a madwoman, and shopping.  And laundry!  For once, it was actually gorgeous, so I was able to hang my laundry out to dry and it actually dried.  Amazing thing, sunshine.  Ros got in just before 11PM, and we commenced with our epic mini-holiday by watching The Emperor`s New Groove and drinking tea.  It`s like we never left university...

Sunday was our lazy day.  Ros accompanied me to the mall and the supermarket so that I could actually learn what some of the things were in my store, buy real sheets, and sign up for a supermarket point card.  Hurray for being a functioning adult, I guess?  Anyway.  The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent in our usual way, with video games, movies, and a massive amount of food.  We made chicken wings (Ros, and I paid attention), nacho dip, and cut veggies, and had a bottle of wine that I loved more than Ros did.  Pomegranate cherry Pinot Noir!  Fabulous stuff.  Like juice, but drier.  We made it through the tutorial and two temples in Zelda, all of The Monuments Men, and half of The Last Unicorn before calling it a night.  During this time, I was also cruising through Facebook (because I have ADD or something and can`t just focus on a movie), and found pictures from a couple of my fellow Mie ALTs who had gone somewhere really pretty.  Ros and I hadn`t really decided what we were going to do yet, so I was like, "Ros, let`s go here."  So we did.

Monday was another beautiful day, perfect for what we had planned.  We left my place in the late morning and took the train all the way out to Akameguchi.  What`s in Akameguchi?  Well, frankly, not much.  But 5km away is something called Akame 48 Waterfalls.  This place is absolutely gorgeous, and fantastic exercise.  There is a bus that runs from the train station to the beginning of the falls trail (and surrounding shop area), but we had just missed one, and would have to wait around an hour for the next one.  So we were like, "Forget that," and decided to walk the 5.2km partway up a mountain to the shop area, and the additional kilometer or so to the beginning of the falls trail.  This area is part of the birthplace of ninja, so ninja-related souvenirs are everywhere.  On our way up, we came across a gate that asked us to make sure it was closed behind us as we ventured along the hiking path so as to not let out the wild boars (um...), Ros bemoaned not bringing her bear bell (there`re a lot of bears in Japan), and we saw the notice asking us not to bother dogs wearing orange bandanas, as these are monkey dogs busy at work.  Yeah.  Monkey dogs.  As in, dogs whose job it is to protect areas and people from pesky and potentially dangerous monkeys.  I can`t make this stuff up! 

Once we actually entered the waterfalls area (there aren`t actually 48; 48 is a Japanese representation of `many`.  Don`t ask.), we were greeted first by tanks displaying giant salamanders.  Japanese giant salamanders, particularly the ones here, are a designated national natural treasure.  Many of the ones in the tanks were older than me, and probably as big as my arm.  And I don`t mean my forearm.  I mean my whole arm.

Beyond the salamander station begins the actual falls trail, which according to the internet is about 4km long, and takes about an hour and a half to walk.  What they don`t tell you (in as many words) is that some of this trail will be flat, some of it will be a dirt hill, some of it will be legitimate stairs, some of it will be tree-root-stairs, some of it will be foot-and-a-half-tall and half-a-foot-wide stone steps, and some of it will just be piles of rocks for you to navigate your way over.  I sort of felt like I was back in Norway, but warmer.  Despite being me, I actually only fell once, and that was on the way back.  The falls were awesome, and I took way more pictures than were probably necessary.

As we reached the last waterfall, we heard the announcement that equates to the ultra-polite version of, "We`re getting ready to close in an hour and a half.  Get the hell off our mountain."  At this point, we`re much, much closer to the other end of the trail (it`s a linear trail, not a circuit), but there aren`t buses to the station at this other end, and we don`t really know that area, so it`s better for us to head back the way we came, from the beginning of the trail and down to Akameguchi.  So we have to go back another not-quite-4km of waterfall trail.  This would be the point when I fell (thankfully not really hurt, but my arm got pretty dirty).  This is also the point wherein we saw the snake (I made Ros walk in front the whole trip for the sake of this eventuality).  We were both quite proud of me, as after her warning I only slowly backed up a few steps instead of screaming and running (narrow, treacherous mountain path may have had something to do with that).  When the snake was a respectable distance off the path and up the side of the mountain, I was able to move past it (while keeping an eye on it the whole time in case it decided to turn around, leap off the mountainside and attack us) and continue our trek down.  By the time we got back to the trail entrance and the souvenir town, we`d missed the last bus back to the station by a lot (we knew we would), so we did the 5.2km back down on foot (but keeping to the road this time, rather than going through the apparently wild boar/monkey infested forest, because the sun was setting and there would be virtually no light in there).  We had a lovely dinner of udon (sitting down has never been so glorious) before hopping the train back home for more movies.

On Tuesday we headed to Ise so that I could actually see the shrine.  This is the holiest and most important Shinto shrine in all of Japan, holding one of the three sacred artifacts belonging to the goddess Amaterasu.  The thing is, every twenty years they rebuild the main shrine housing the sacred mirror (which no one gets to actually see, you just pray at the building it`s in), so it`s a) not old at all, and b) not decorated.  The less important shrines that have stood for a few hundred years are a lot more interesting. 

There was some sort of special dance presentation, though, so we got to see some of that!  It was boring at first, because I could hardly see the stage thanks to the television camera in front of me, but eventually he went away to film something else, and I got a great view of the rest of the performance.

On our way out of the main shrine complex, Ros saw a banner for free tea.  Free tea?!  Heck yes!  So we had a lovely traditional Japanese tea in a very informal setting that we didn't have to pay for.

These are the little sweets that accompanied the tea.  Basically icing sugar paste.  Tasty!

We had an awesome lunch in the temple-town area that was ridiculously filling and tasty.  After that, we hopped a bus to the other side of Ise to see the married rocks.  Yes, you read that right.  Rocks.  Rocks that are married.  I ... can`t really explain it.

Anyway, it`s a really popular spot for couples to visit, for obvious reasons.  Ros and I kind of stuck out a bit, along with the random solo foreigner dude who had been on the bus with us from the shrine.  From there, we tried to make it back to the smaller shrine close to the station, but by the time we caught a bus back into that area, the shrine had closed.  At some point on that bus ride, I got an inexplicable craving for pie.  I said as much to Ros.
Me: I want pie.  Like, I really want pie.  Which is weird.  Other than crumble or meat, I don`t even like pie that much.
Ros: Huh.  Well, we could try to find a cafe?  Maybe?  But I don`t think we`ll really find anything.  I mean, the point of this city is that it`s super-traditional, holy Japan.
Me: Yeah, I know.  I`m not really expecting to find it.  But I still want pie.  Maybe there`s a Starbucks by the station.  They might have pie.
So when we got to the shrine and found it closed, we wandered the small street of shops and restaurants.  We were a bit peckish by this point, even without the pie craving, so Ros pointed out a taiyaki (pastry with filling, usually in the shape of a fish; while other fillings are becoming more popular, the traditional ones are either red bean paste or custard) place.  I said I would have some if they had custard, because red bean paste is nasty as all get-out.  When we looked at their menu, glory hallelujah!  The solution to all of our problems!  They have apple pie taiyaki!  So I was the happiest panda ever, my craving was appeased, and we still had a somewhat traditional Japanese snack.  We headed home after that for a snack-supper, and more movies and video games.

Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Ros at an ungodly hour (it was 7:30 AM) and headed to school.  It was the last day of our holidays, but the Australian exchange students had arrived on Sunday and there was a trip organized for them and their host students (and the teachers) to go to Osaka, and I was invited along.  I`ve never been to Osaka before, so that was an experience.  I didn`t really talk to the students (except through the bus loudspeaker system to translate the important information from my supervisor), but the teachers are really nice.  We pulled into the Namba area, walked to our designated meeting space, and set the kids loose.  The other Japanese teacher who had accompanied us had made reservations for us at a takoyaki restaurant (the female Australian teacher really wanted some too; it wasn`t just me), so the five of us headed there for a great lunch of yakisoba and takoyaki.  After that, Morita-sensei and the other Japanese teacher headed to a cafe to relax.  There wasn`t really anything in the area I was interested in, since I`m not really a shopper, we`d already eaten, and the district is just shops and restaurants, but there was one shrine, so I figured I`d head there and then hit up Starbucks for a frapp and some free wifi so that I could get a new book from the library on my tablet.  We didn`t have enough time for me to head to another district and do something more interesting.  The Australian teachers asked if I minded taking them to Starbucks first, as they needed to connect with home, and needed some help navigating technology.  I ended up staying in Starbucks the whole time, playing tech support and chatting with them.  This was totally cool with me (like I said, I was going to the temple because it was the only thing on the map that wasn`t shopping; also, it was hot and I like AC).  Then it was right back on the bus for the ride home, wherein I finished one book and read two-thirds of another, making me really glad I`d decided to get ebooks that afternoon.

Today (Thursday) was the first day at school for our exchange students and teachers.  The day began with them introducing themselves at our morning teachers` meeting, and again at a school assembly much like my own introduction.  The students are pretty good at Japanese (they`re studying it in school, and the female teacher is their instructor)!  The principal gave a speech to them in English, and seemed to be channeling William Shatner a bit, but that`s totally understandable.  The rest of my day was spent in classes, preparing for classes, and writing this.  Super exciting.  After school the English club hosted a welcome party for the students, which they really seemed to enjoy.  They did a paper balloon relay (imagine that game where you try to keep a balloon in the air, but you're trying to move across the room with your partner, and the balloon is made of paper) and played bingo.  Now I'm relaxing before heading to bed, and there's only one more day before the weekend!