Hello hello!
Since I'm stuck inside all day with the bad weather from this typhoon, it seems like a perfect opportunity to write another blog post! I still haven't gotten tired of pouring rain, either. Here's a quick video from my balcony, so you can hear the rain! It has yet to stop today.
Friday, the 13th was filled with more Sports Day practice. I've been trying to split my time watching one of the boys' practices, then one of the girls' practices, and then finally joining up with one of the 6 classes and watching them practice their Sports Day Cheers. (The students from each class choreographed their own routines, and it's pretty amusing watching them teach it to their fellow classmates and teachers. I'll probably film them on the actual Sports Day, so stay tuned for next weekend!)
The boys' pyramids are as amazing as ever. They started practicing a new kind on Friday, that involves three "tiers" of boys standing on top of each other. This one seems pretty tough, but I'm sure they'll get the hang of things by Sports Day!
After practice, I taught another three lessons. I'm nearly done with all my self introductions! I've been inserting more "quizzes" into them, since I went to the Elementary School; I'll randomly mix in pictures of previously-introduced family members, to see if they can still remember who they are. I always seem to stump them if I throw in a picture with me in it: "Who's this?" "Your sister! Your mother! Your aunt! Your brother's girlfriend!" If I fiddle with my glasses a bit, a few bright bulbs will eventually say "It's Julia-Sensei!"
I kid, though. The students are very bright, and they get really excited from my photos. I never get tired of the "Uueeehh!?!" reactions from the class when I unveil some new outrageous fact. Sometimes I get deafened by them, actually. But it is always a blast!
After school on Friday was my first enkai, or office party. (It was the "Welcome Ms. Julia Party.") The saying is: what happens at enkai, stays at enkai. It's a sort of camaraderie-building activity for employees in Japan, a rare chance for coworkers to mingle with each other in their "private lives." The Japanese are very careful to keep their professional and private selves separate! The reputation at these parties, though, is that everyone pretty much cuts loose and that things get pretty wild. (Rather like Las Vegas.)
I was going to be carpooling with some of the teachers, so I stayed after school and got some work done on "pimping my mailbox." The goal is to make something so adorable, that the students will want to write letters to me.
The end project will be a giant Stitch, mouth wide open, who will "eat" the students' letters. I'll post the final pictures once I finish it! (Stitch is really popular here, so I've sort of adopted him as my personal mascot. I've acquired quite a few Stitch-themed goodies already!)
The enkai itself was at a traditional Japanese restaurant somewhere in a red light district just a couple of blocks from the main street downtown. (The video isn't mine, but it shows an area that's comparable with Himeji's. Nothing interesting happens, but I think it does a good job of showing what Japan's 'night life' looks like.)
The food was fantastic! Minus the raw sea snail. That was a little less than appetizing, but I did manage to eat it. It was mostly raw fish of all sorts. And so many courses!
This was the only dish I ended up passing off to a (very happy) fellow teacher. I'm all for eating just about anything, but eating something's face is a bit more than I can handle. And it had some seriously sharp teeth!
Huh?!
I freaked a few teachers out when I said "huh?" to something they were trying to tell me. Their reactions were rather pronounced. Oops.
I have since learned that "huh" is the equivalent of "WTH" in Japanese. Although erasing "huh" from my vocabulary is going to be tricky; I guess I'll try to use the Candian-sounding "eh?" I definitely never learned about this one before I came here. (Like I learned to never put my chopsticks straight up; they talk about this in Wolverine, by the way.) So for anyone interested in coming to Japan someday, never say "huh!"
Overall, though, Friday's enkai was a lot of fun. It was nice to have a chance to interact with teachers besides the English teachers. My Japanese is improving a lot already, so sometimes I was able to follow along on some of their conversations and jokes (and when I didn't, I was usually given some translations by the English teachers).
Although the food poisoning the next day wasn't so fun. It went away by 2:30, though, so I was able to get some shopping done in preparation of today's typhoon. Which is a good thing, because I can't sanely stay stuck in bed for very long before I start to go nuts. But spinning floors kind of forced me to some bed rest.
I would eat raw fish again, no problem! But the raw snail, I'm definitely passing on next time. Bleh.
Since I'm stuck inside all day with the bad weather from this typhoon, it seems like a perfect opportunity to write another blog post! I still haven't gotten tired of pouring rain, either. Here's a quick video from my balcony, so you can hear the rain! It has yet to stop today.
Friday, the 13th was filled with more Sports Day practice. I've been trying to split my time watching one of the boys' practices, then one of the girls' practices, and then finally joining up with one of the 6 classes and watching them practice their Sports Day Cheers. (The students from each class choreographed their own routines, and it's pretty amusing watching them teach it to their fellow classmates and teachers. I'll probably film them on the actual Sports Day, so stay tuned for next weekend!)
The boys' pyramids are as amazing as ever. They started practicing a new kind on Friday, that involves three "tiers" of boys standing on top of each other. This one seems pretty tough, but I'm sure they'll get the hang of things by Sports Day!
After practice, I taught another three lessons. I'm nearly done with all my self introductions! I've been inserting more "quizzes" into them, since I went to the Elementary School; I'll randomly mix in pictures of previously-introduced family members, to see if they can still remember who they are. I always seem to stump them if I throw in a picture with me in it: "Who's this?" "Your sister! Your mother! Your aunt! Your brother's girlfriend!" If I fiddle with my glasses a bit, a few bright bulbs will eventually say "It's Julia-Sensei!"
I kid, though. The students are very bright, and they get really excited from my photos. I never get tired of the "Uueeehh!?!" reactions from the class when I unveil some new outrageous fact. Sometimes I get deafened by them, actually. But it is always a blast!
After school on Friday was my first enkai, or office party. (It was the "Welcome Ms. Julia Party.") The saying is: what happens at enkai, stays at enkai. It's a sort of camaraderie-building activity for employees in Japan, a rare chance for coworkers to mingle with each other in their "private lives." The Japanese are very careful to keep their professional and private selves separate! The reputation at these parties, though, is that everyone pretty much cuts loose and that things get pretty wild. (Rather like Las Vegas.)
I was going to be carpooling with some of the teachers, so I stayed after school and got some work done on "pimping my mailbox." The goal is to make something so adorable, that the students will want to write letters to me.
The enkai itself was at a traditional Japanese restaurant somewhere in a red light district just a couple of blocks from the main street downtown. (The video isn't mine, but it shows an area that's comparable with Himeji's. Nothing interesting happens, but I think it does a good job of showing what Japan's 'night life' looks like.)
The food was fantastic! Minus the raw sea snail. That was a little less than appetizing, but I did manage to eat it. It was mostly raw fish of all sorts. And so many courses!
This upcoming dish looked pretty appetizing when I first got it. Grilled fish with pickled Burdock roots on top.
But it wasn't until I turned the plate around that I realized just what I was being served:
Huh?!
I freaked a few teachers out when I said "huh?" to something they were trying to tell me. Their reactions were rather pronounced. Oops.
I have since learned that "huh" is the equivalent of "WTH" in Japanese. Although erasing "huh" from my vocabulary is going to be tricky; I guess I'll try to use the Candian-sounding "eh?" I definitely never learned about this one before I came here. (Like I learned to never put my chopsticks straight up; they talk about this in Wolverine, by the way.) So for anyone interested in coming to Japan someday, never say "huh!"
Overall, though, Friday's enkai was a lot of fun. It was nice to have a chance to interact with teachers besides the English teachers. My Japanese is improving a lot already, so sometimes I was able to follow along on some of their conversations and jokes (and when I didn't, I was usually given some translations by the English teachers).
Although the food poisoning the next day wasn't so fun. It went away by 2:30, though, so I was able to get some shopping done in preparation of today's typhoon. Which is a good thing, because I can't sanely stay stuck in bed for very long before I start to go nuts. But spinning floors kind of forced me to some bed rest.
I would eat raw fish again, no problem! But the raw snail, I'm definitely passing on next time. Bleh.
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