FLASH!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I get my car this Friday!!! Which kind of sucks but is really awesome nonetheless. See, this Friday is the Sayonara Party for all the leaving JETs and it will be held at a beer garden which means all you can eat and drink! But for the new DD, it'll just be eating for me (^^)

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In other news, here's a great post I got on the local mailing list that I thought you'd all find interesting. I love this country!!!

BEGIN EMAIL:

I was teaching a lesson today to some pretty high level students...I do teach occasionally! And one of my students came out with a pearler of a sentence:

"How much underwear have you been stolen from your balcony?"

Where else but in Japan would you hear that!! But I had no idea how to explain the grammatical error.

Why do we have to say 'have had stolen'? I couldn't work out for the life of me any way of having it make sense to them.

HELP! I look forward to your explanations

Cheers!

Hisashiburi!

Monday, June 25, 2007

I don't think I want to make a habit out of writing so little on this blog. Life has been both ridiculously busy and not as interesting and I think it should be to write about it.

But that's not true of course. Everything I do is interesting enough to write about!!!

So, let's see. Two weekends ago I went to Muroto where I spent Saturday snorkeling with about 20 other JETs. That evening we drove up into the mountains and had a Japanese style BBQ.

Mmmm meat.

That night, we all camped together in preprepared tents that fit about 6 people in each. It was quite cozy (^_~)v

The next morning, we woke up to some beautiful drizzly skies. But that didn't stop us from kayaking for a good hour or so! It wasn't exactly white water rafting, but we had loads of fun. With two per boat, people were all over the place! I eventually made it into the water when an ALT from another group jumped in and flipped the kayak. The water felt really warm because it was raining too, so it was all good!

That night, I was off with the Japanese fam again. And that was a great beginning for the week (^^)

Friday (3 days ago) I went out to a cafe where I saw Hercules (Dave) and the Kappa (Nick) play some tunes for about 40 or so people in candle light. Very romantic.

Saturday was the GEEK WEEKEND!!! (finally! Nick and I have only been planning it for two months!) We gathered some of the most geeky of JETs and spent an entire day and night playing video, card and mind games, watching DVDs, listening to geeky music and enjoying plenty of geeky conversation. It was jawesome!

Unfortunately, I had to duck out early on Sunday to catch the hour train home so I could be in time to meet up with the Japanese Fam. When I get my car this friday (holds breath) I don't think that will be a problem again (^u^)b

Largo

Monday, June 18, 2007

I wrote this at work last week and well...maybe I'll write a little later just how busy I've been (^^)v


I suppose I should take this lull to sit down and write about the Largo exchange.

It was quite eventful! The students that came over this time were the best I could have hoped for. They had a good attitude towards everything and they really followed all the rules! I was really impressed with everything they did (^^)

The students were also joined by Deborah (history teacher) and her husband, Guy. As well as the Principal of Largo, Mr. Haynes and his wife Alice.

So we last left off when I had come back to Tosayamada with the Largo kids in tow. It was awesome seeing my students so excited and nervous to meet them all. 5 minutes after getting off the train, everyone joined their host families and they were off! And I went home to relax in my apartment for a few minutes.

After about 5, I was off again to party with the Principals host family! This would be Thursday night. Friday was the welcome party. Saturday was the Lions club welcome party. Sunday was Nina day. Monday...is hazy. Tuesday was a bunch of meetings with the high ups in Kochi prefectural board of education and that night was another small party. Wednesday we went up to the mountains and cooked the famous Katsuo Tataki (only in Kochi prefecture). We cut it out, cleaned it, grilled it, and ate! mmmm it was good. Afterwards we all got nekkid in the onsen next door. That's right, I got nekkid with 7 high school girls, Deborah and April. I love Japan (^^)

That night I went to a goodbye party with the Lions club (those people really know how to drink!) The party started at 6 and I was drunk by 7 when I left to catch the train to another party that Nick was having for his parents. I got home around 11 and was out like a light.

Thursday, the principal and wife were off to Honduras. The rest of the students had a day packed with classes. Friday were more classes and one of the Largo kids got a stomach ache! oooo gas can be a problem. Whereas Deborah and I weren't too worried, everyone at Yamada insisted we take him to the hospital. I somehow convinced them that he was probably fine and just needed to rest. Thank god for that too. Can you imagine if we had taken him to the hospital? Gotten meds for an illness he didn't really have and then getting insurance involved and all that jazz. Bleh. No thank you.

That afternoon was the goodbye party from the students and Saturday morning they were off. There was much flirting and crying. Just the way it should be :) I think in the end everyone had a great time. I'd say out of the three experiences, this one was by far the best!

For now, I'm getting back to work, getting angry at the Thief over and over and over again. Still in the process of getting a car which I should have by the end of this month (holding breath) and tonight I'm off to go hang out with friends then tomorrow I'm snorkeling and kiaking and camping in the mountains of Muroto!

Life is good even if it is the rainy season!

Kobe, hospital visits and Largo

Sunday, June 3, 2007

This is a very long overdue post. I have so much to say and putting it off is just making the list longer and longer!!!

Sunday I spent with Nick and Company over in Katagawa for the first ever Australian Culture Festival!!! Complete with Lamb sausages and Kangaroo Burgers. Mmmm I'm sure they were delicious but I wouldn't know because I woke up with the most horrible stomach ache of my life. I tried to down play it as much as possible but in the end I had to sit out of a good chunk of the festivities even though I was supposed to be helping run the thing! (Despite being American. It's a minor detail that I'm sure all the Japanese didn't even notice)

That night I went home assuming it was just a bout of food poisoning and it'd be gone by the time I went to sleep.

The next morning I was off to Kobe for the recontracting conference! Just FYI people, if they tell you they're going to take attendance, they're fibbing!! They only took it twice on the same day and I made a serious effort to be at almost all the meetings!!! I rushed back from the hospital thinking they were going to report me to my supervisor!!!

That's right. By the middle of Monday afternoon, I was off to the hospital. I've heard so many horror stories of Japanese doctors that I was thoroughly freaked out. But in the end it was a very good experience. I had someone from CLAIR take me and the doctor was very good. He diagnosed me with an intestinal virus and sent me on my way with some medicine that was to keep me from feeling so nauseous but he wasn't going to give me anything for vomiting or diarrhea since that's the only real way to cure it. Up to that point I had had neither but I had the symptoms that led me to believe that my body was threatening me with them.

That night was the worst of my life here in Japan. I woke up multiple times to toss my cookies and the saying goes. It was actually to doctors meds that threw me over the edge I believe. But in the morning I was feeling better and by that night I was able to go out and eat some famous Kobe beef!!! At $1 a piece that stuff was gold! Delicious and highly recommended but I'll never eat it again at that price (^^)v

NEXT

I skipped out of Kobe early so I could meet up with the Largo kids in Tokyo. They had been there since Monday morning and had been touring around having a great time from what I hear. Who couldn't? It's Tokyo!!!

I stayed one night with them in a gorgeous hostel and in the morning we were on our way to Tosayamada. Since getting back it has been one party after another. It's great to see how these things work from the other side of the cultural exchange. And I feel like a god for being able to translate. I guess I really wasn't giving myself enough credit but I've really gotten pretty decent about learning the ropes of the Japanese language! It's a total ego boost (^u^)

For now, I'm off to some more parties!!! WHOO

 
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