Stressfulish Day

Insect count: 0

The morning was good. I got ready in time, left on time, got to church early. There are now sisters in the area (a tri-some). They were ... our first meeting didn't go very well. :/ Hopefully things get better. Church was pretty good. We had a district conference. Elder Norawong (who usually translates the first meeting for me) lost his voice so Elder Saunders was my translator. The first meeting went well, then the second meeting neither of us could understand the speaker (he was too technical). Then we had a big lunch and Shinoki-shimai ran over all stormy faced because one of my knees was showing. :/ Sorry. I feel fairly humiliated. My skirt is long enough that it covers my knees, so the way I had shifted or sat down or something made it so one of my knees was showing. In any case, lunch was good other than that.

After lunch I got to skype with my family. I talked to my Papa and Maman and JT! JT is super tall now and has a deeper voice! It was weirding me out! The ironic thing is the only hard thing about leaving on a mission was thinking how much of my siblings' growth I would miss. And here I was thinking, well they're all pretty grown up so at least I won't miss anything. Oh no. My sister had a baby, and now my baby brother has a different voice AND height! Wow. I got some great pics!

After finishing up with them, I pedaled home. It was hot out, but I did well. When I got home I did a bunch of cooking (my lunches for the week). Then I read a little, played some games on my phone (I
got the best word games!), and messaged my best friend. I got pretty down. There's something about weekends and too much time in my own brain. Dang it. I'm still working on it. All of a sudden there was a knock on my door. I had to get dressed (it's hot and I was in my pjs!), and there was Bruce! He invited me over for the pizza night he's been talking about forever. It was a pretty flattering invitation too. "We had a friend coming but he dropped out so wanna take his place?" LOL In any case, I went. I was the only one there who didn't speak Japanese (3 Americans, 2 Japanese people) and most of the time they talked and joked in Japanese. It's fine - just felt left out. :/ I did my best to participate or understand what was going on.. I didn't do very well. That's ok. I just hope I continue to learn Japanese.

Now I'm home and it's late! I had some older stories I wanted to tell (that I thought of today), but I need to get to bed. So, tomorrow! Have a great whenever! XOXO, A

Elder Norawong (from WA) and Elder Iida (my home teachers)

Saturday (very clever title I know - quiet you! I've had a migraine most of today!)

insect count: 0 (mmm!)

Today I am on the cusp of accomplishing things! LOL Well, so I went to bed really late last night (for me here) and (MMM) slept for 9 hours. Glorious! I woke up around 9 am and started to read and played some word games on my phone (heaven bless who made them - I love word games!). Eventually I got up and ate a little bit, finished my book, showered, and read scriptures. I then got out the door to run some errands. I got my first COMPLETE (full salary) paycheck and I needed to get money to pay my tithing, etc and needed to go grocery shopping. So I stopped by the bank, grabbed some money, and went grocery shopping. It's funny, here in Japan the number one question I am asked, OVER AND OVER again -- BY THE SAME PEOPLE -- is, "Are you used to/accustomed to living in Morioka yet?" That question still confuses me. What does that even mean? As far as I'm concerned, I'm still alive so obviously I've adapted. I've either been successful in scavenging for food, or hunting, or *gasp* grocery shopping! I show up at work so I know how to take the bus. I am losing all this weight so my trips to the gym are successful and showing.. so what the heck does that question mean!? There's an upside though, when I make new Japanese friends in America I know what to ask them to make them feel at home. "Are you used to living in America yet?" And I will ask them every time I see them. *rolls eyes*

After those errands were done, I put away my groceries and messaged my best friend. Then I read a short story while I ate dinner and then decided to write these entries up. When I laid down to type, I thought, "I should get a picture of me writing this." I opened my camera and didn't realize it was on video. LOL Here it is (you can tell the exact moment I realize it's taping rather than taking a  picture! -- I've watched the video at least 6 times and it's not failed to make me laugh each time, lol):

(It won't let me write at the very bottom - stupid blogger! But, now I'm going to clean my apartment and wish you all a happy weekend! XOXO, A -- oh! And today makes 100 days in Japan!)

 

my gas meter - close one!! (check out the red numbers at the end)

happy face!

new bruise I found today

suspicious face :D

I made it to another weekend!

insect count: 1 - So, I got up this morning, and there was a big moth in my apartment! Considering I've sealed up all the holes in my places I was terribly confused as to how it got in. I like comparisons for the sake of understanding. So when I saw that moth, I exclaimed (literally), "How did you get in here!? This is like an orc popping up at a tavern in Helm's Deep!" Yep, I went there.

That's maybe a strange thing to say, but did you see my new bruises and scrapes? LOL The weeks are flying and the days are dragging. Luckily for the most part my lessons fly by. That is, times flies when you're having fun and I'm having a blast! :D It's pretty great! I don't care for Friday mornings though. Last night was glorious! It got down to 18 degrees and I was in heaven. I even had to get out my duvet! But I woke up in the middle of the night because it was WAY too hot with it on, lol. Still, I got to use it for an hour or two! (mmm) I had more sleep but Fridays are my early days and I felt pretty tired when I got up. I got ready and I got out the door just in time (a few minutes later than planned). That's terribly stressful for me. And when I entered the bus center parking lot, my bus was already started. Seeing that practically gave me a heart attack! I jogged over with all my stuff (heavy stuff) and got on. Then the bus didn't leave for another minute or two. Dang it! The driver usually starts the bus RIGHT before we leave so he made me panic for nothing! Still, I'm very grateful to be any amount of early versus any amount of late. (Ouch, my kidneys are still hurting! *tries to glare at them*) The walk up to the school was pleasant. Any other person would probably have described today as cold or at the least chilly. For me, it was perfect weather! :D

I did a couple preppy things before class (like taping together the dice I had made) and then off I went. My first class didn't go the way I planned (we only got a third of our stuff done), but it went very well. :) Judging from the students' responses, I believe they understand the concept! The boy who hates school (not just English -- I told you about that, right? I found out that kid who skips me class or lays his head down the entire time hates school in general and does that in every class, not just mine.) played the first round and then sat down. The other students still involved him though he refused to actually play. :) His attitude and heart seemed to soften as the lesson went on. By the end he had his head up and was watching the game. Progress! I'll take it and mmm! :) I then had a prep period that was used up in talking to a couple teachers who were asking me questions about English. It's always fun and interesting to try and chat. We all get our dictionaries out! It's really fun. After that, I got to teach Mai! I changed my mind last minute about what I was going to do, but everything went well. I had an "Uh..." moment at the end of class because I had thrown some things out, but I thought of another game we could play and so we did that. In fact, the second round of the game went over the bell. :) So, whew!

Lunch was good and then I had my last class. I had prepared a lot of stuff (including a giant rail line we laid out on the classroom floor to play a game) but I felt unsure about how the lesson would go. It wasn't my best. I was just unsure and it was just a hard lesson. I had to teach how to take the train and ask for information about the train. That's not very much material for 50 minutes! Still, we only got to play two rounds of the game (they each got a turn), so I think it went alright. I hope the girls understood it. Sheesh.

After that I only had a few minutes until it was time to leave for my bus. I did a little planning and then said my goodbyes and left. The bus ride was nice and I stopped by a bakery on the way home. (I like to go on Fridays because I get home earlier and usually can buy these little bags they have of leftover items from the day before (day old stuff). They are 300 yen and have three different things in them. This way I have a couple treats for the weekend and get to try new things. There have only been a few for which I didn't care (a coffee roll and a pumpkin roll - that I know anyone who loves pumpkin would find divine but I don't really care for it). I thought I would have all night to do things and work on stuff but I got busy doing one thing and then another thing and then I talked on the phone with Limor for 2 hours (again) and then it was so late I could barely keep my eyes open! So I had started writing this yesterday (Friday) and finished today (Saturday). Sorry it was late!

better photo of my vb bruise

Sports' Festival Day 3

(Funny moments included) Today was fun, but a little less fun for me than the other days. Why? Because it all took place outdoors. I brought my fan and my water and mostly stayed in the shade. In fact, I was MAYBE in the sun for 20 minutes altogether and came away with a sunburn! What the!? In any case, I'm grateful today's high was 26 and not 29 because it could have been much worse!

Anyway, back to the beginning of the day. I didn't wake up and want to cry, but I did wake up exhausted. Ick. However, I got ready pretty quickly. I had just enough time to get ready and out the door. The bus ride was great, and when I got to the school I found out ... I forgot my shorts. DOH! I asked if they had spares somewhere, but they didn't. So I thought, "What the heck!" And wore my skirt under my orange dress. After the morning meeting I worked on making some worksheets and putting some finishing touches on the lessons I'm teaching tomorrow. Then at ten to ten, they rounded up the teachers who were going to participate and outside we went. There was A LOT of standing around. I don't know if it was an organization thing, or there was a purpose for it, but I was going NUTS. The first thing they did was have each class jump rope. There had to be 6 boys and 6 girls jumping. They did it two times and then totaled the number of jumps the students got. The purpose, I was told, is teamwork. When it finally came to be the teacher's turn, they told me to turn the rope with another tall male teacher (well technically he's a student teacher). I was willing to jump but they were worried about my skirt. In any case, we got a grand total of... drumroll please... ZERO! We tried FOUR TIMES and couldn't do it. I made a joke to one teacher about how the teachers don't have teamwork. LOL So sad! It was funny when they announced it too. They went through all the classes (the highest got 80 something) and then (a Japanese word I don't know so I figured it must be "faculty"), ZERO! LOL Oh well. We tried. They asked me to stick around for the tug of war. I was happy to do so, and stuck it out in the shade. That also took forever. There are 6 first grade classes, 6 second grade classes, and 7 third grade classes and it took us more than two hours for everyone to jump rope twice (and all the classes went at the same time) and everyone to tug of war best 2 out of 3. In any case, I was hoping we had a good chance against the students and actually we were evenly matched. It was one of those matches where the rope moves a fraction of an inch one way and then the other way. They declared in favor of the students. I figured they won they first round, but I thought WE won the second round. Come on! (If we had had female teachers built like me who like to lift weights we would have easily won, lol!) The rope was one of those gigantic aircraft carrier ropes! (Well, not THAT big, but the size in between.) There were 3 ropes (so each level could go at the same time), and they took 7-8 students to carry each one. Heavy duty stuff. In any case, in Japan you don't get to start holding the rope. You have to have your hands up and then you quickly grab the rope and start pulling after the whistle blows. The matches went quickly and I had already decided to go back inside after standing out in the heat (though I was in the shade) for more than two hours. We had played in the field so I was coated in dirt, sweaty, hot, and disheveled. When I got back into the school, a group of my first grade boys saw me in the hall. They called out, "Beautiful!" I laughed and said, "Thank you!" Then, "Sexy!" followed and then, "You're beautiful!" And then, "I like you!" To each I smiled and said, "Thank you!" LOL Funny kids.

I was overheated and shaky. So first I worked on overheated. I fanned myself and sprayed myself with water. While I was doing that I thought I would feel much better if I could stop shaking so I started eating my carrot (from my lunch). Then they said it was time for the baton races. Well, in the twenty minutes I had been inside I was definitely a little older and a lot wiser. This time I watched the games from a class room on the first floor so I could stay indoors. I stayed cool and I got to see my students race. :) After that I went and ate my lunch. Lunch was AWESOME! LOL I was so hungry! After lunch I worked on my worksheets some more until it was clean up time. Right before it started two girls came to pick up their classes box of cell phones and they stopped by my desk. They asked me why "Spicy Corn," and I was able to explain, in very simple Japanese. :) That's the second time a student has approached me in the teacher's room. My popularity is rising! ;) Then we had the closing ceremony. I was kinda frustrated with the students because they were talking during all the announcements of who won so I couldn't hear. :( I mean I could see which class was cheering but I didn't know what they had won! After that I went back to the teacher's room to work on more prep. Before I did that, I grabbed my phone and ducked into the bathroom to take a picture of my sunburn and to use the school's big (much bigger than mine at least) mirror to get a picture of my nickname. :) And you can also see my giant shirt! I was working on things at my desk when a teacher started passing out popsicles. I was pretty psyched ... but then I didn't get one. :/ Some teachers got one, and some didn't. And I don't know why! If it was participants, I PLAYED EVERYDAY! I want a popsicle! Aww :(

The bus ride was good although I was worried it wasn't coming when it was some 12 minutes late. Don't DO that to me! When I got home I grabbed a quick dinner then went to the office to turn in some receipts and visit. :) The office people are so great! Saori left pretty soon, but I got to hang out with Bryan, Chihi, and Tsukasa for a bit. :) I showed them all my wounds and they said the same thing as my mom, "No more!" When we left the office it was POURING rain. I had my bike and my umbrella but here it is against the law to use both at the same time. I would have just ridden home and said oh well to it all but I was wearing a white shirt that's already a bit see-through (guess it's just my week for that! ;D). Luckily Chihi lives really close to me so we were able to walk our bikes together and chat while mostly staying out of the rain. (My arm and part of my back got soaked, but hey! I love rain!) Then I ate some fruit snacks and here I am! Hope you all had a great day/night! XOXO, A

P.S. I was EXHAUSTED last night writing my blog and I don't think justice was done to the freakiness of the fish. It was STARING AT ME. We had one of those lazy susans (that's the word, right? for the turning circular disk in the middle of the table?) for all the food and every which was that thing was turned, the fish was staring me down. 0.o ALSO! I found a picture in the text book that is almost EXACTLY like last night's fish! The only missing things are another kind of raw fish and the raw craw fish (crayfish), creepy whatevers with their heads and feelers and claws and giant, black sphere-eyes! AAAAHH! Maybe that's why I didn't sleep well. ;)

took this last night and forgot to post it ... looking better, right? ;)

the bruises on my right forearm from vb (taken yesterday)

(sorry, photos removed)

this is almost EXACTLY what that fish was like! I am not exaggerating when I say the head of our fish was bigger - plus we had another kind of raw fish inside and the raw craw/crayfish -- FREAKY!

my nickname (took this picture since in the mirror it was, obviously, backwards)

Sports' Festival Day 2

Bug count: 0! (mmm)

First off, I forgot to write about something yesterday. Right when I got into my apartment and took out my headphones I heard my phone repeatedly buzzing. I ran over to my bag as I knew it was a phone call (here it costs money to make calls but not to receive them). It was Tsukasa! She said that she had not called to tell me anything but that she wanted to chat. She wanted to make sure I was ok since I had not visited the office in a while. And now I know for sure, Tsukasa really likes me! :) We chatted for about ten minutes. She told me a little bit more about her and I told her about what I was doing at the school and about the teacher's party tonight. "Oh! Drinking party?" "I don't know, but it doesn't matter because I don't drink." I thought she knew that already, but I guess not as she gasped, "Really!? I LOVE drinking! That is the best part of summer! Go home to a beer. I LOVE beer." I laughed at her and said I came home to cold water everyday so I was set. Feels really good to be liked so well though! It still sort of blows my mind how often she has emailed or called me about coming into the office. :) I had to go there on Friday anyway! I guess I will try to make it a weekly thing. :)

I was woken early this morning by my phone (I had mail!) but I like emails so it was ok. I am planning on going to bed early tonight. I need it! Getting ready was easy. I actually was ready ten minutes early so I wrote an email (a reply I've needed to make for a while) and then left to the bus stop. The bus ride was pleasant and I got to the school right before the morning meeting started. :D Win! They actually started a minute late because they forgot that they turned off the bells (the chime) for the Sports' Festival, lol. During the meeting I tried to listen (I always see if I can catch any words) and I worked on the nickname (Supaishi Koon ~ Spicy Corn) for my shirt. I had brought my masking tape in my bag. :D I was very proud of my work and showed it off to a few teachers until one of them reacted like, "Ya, so what!?" I was shocked at how curt they were with me (maybe they were having a bad day?) and I decided to not chance another run-in and started working on my worksheet for Monday. Kanamori-sensei was really worried I wouldn't show up for volleyball (as if I would miss it!) and kept coming by my desk asking if I was going to leave yet. (This was an hour before the game was scheduled, lol) I finished my worksheet with 25 minutes to spare. I wanted to be there 15 minutes early and I had to go to the bathroom so about 20 til, I headed out. I arrived just behind Kanamori-sensei and she told me she was worried and looking for me. LOL I'm here!

The game!! Well... we didn't get stomped, thank goodness. We lost each game by 5 or 6. So I felt that we had made a fairly good showing for ourselves. I wish I could have spiked it though. When I was center net (I don't know if that's the official name for the position, but I know what I'm supposed to do!) they kept taking my hits! The second hit of the ball on our side is ALWAYS mine unless I call for help. They kept taking the ball from me! There was only bumping on my side as well. So, at the end of it all, I'm glad we didn't get stomped. I'm glad we had six teachers. I'm very grateful I got to play at all. I had a lot of fun.

Today was 26 and it's amazing the difference 3 degrees can make. I took my fan and spray with me but found them mostly unnecessary. The most I used them was right after I played. Even then it was only a little bit until I felt fine again. :) All day I bounced between men's basketball, women's table tennis, and women's volleyball. I got to watch our (the teacher's) men's team take all. At their second to last bracket I was the only teacher there who wasn't a player cheering them on. At the final game, there was one another teacher. I was the only female teacher to show up at all. I don't know if that will earn me any notoriety but I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I was cheering and yelling and might have jumped out of my seat a few times. The final game was pretty great! Most of the school showed up! :D Before the game started, the girls who had suggested my nickname asked for a picture with me. Then they got one of my back (the nickname itself). (Also while I was finishing up the day, one of my third grade girls asked Suzuki-sensei (male) to ask me if it was ok to take a picture of my nickname. I said sure and jumped up and posed. :D That's the first time I have been sought out by a student in the teacher's room. Feels great!)

After all the games I still had two hours to kill so I headed back to my desk and started working on more prep. Now I have one more worksheet to create and some more materials to gather. I will find out about another lesson for next week tomorrow. Feels great to be ahead. I'm SO glad I have had time to work on my lessons AND to watch and cheer on my students. They're awesome! :)

The bus ride was good, then after I got home I had to hurry and get ready to go to that teacher's party. I actually left a little late. But luckily there were other teachers arriving when I did so I wasn't late. Luckily I had brought money as I found out I needed to pay some money. The dinner was CRAZY. There were some 7 or 8 courses and they were VERY Japanese. Oh man. I ate several new foods tonight. I ate lots of new veggies (yum), salmon roe (... I made sure I actually bit down on one... oh man), a slimy thing that was so slimy it was setting off my gag reflex, a prawn split down the middle with it's body still intact... (it was accusing me the whole time), some raw fish, a beef stew pastry, cashew broccoli chicken (my first time having Japanese cashew broccoli chicken), miso ramen (ok that one wasn't new), and fruit and an inch square of cake (ok the fruits - watermelon and cantaloupe weren't new either). The raw fish was served IN A FISH - the head was PROPPED UP AND IT STARED AT ME! SO freaky! The only things I didn't eat were one kind of raw fish (I didn't see it) and raw crayfish (craw fish?). It still had a head.. you had to dig it out.. no, sorry just no. Each teacher was getting called up to report on their sports and LUCKILY (mmm) I was warned by Hosokawa-sensei, "You will be called up to make a speech." "Me!?" "Yes!" So I got to stress for a few minutes, but also got to plan. The teachers were chatting while the other teachers got up but when I got up... everyone was silent and stared at me. My hands started shaking so badly! This is what I said: "Kinou to kyo spootsu taikai ha tanoshikatta desu. (applause) Morioka Minami no sensei to seito ga arigataku omoimasu. Morioka Minami de hatarakukoto ga ai shiteimasu. (WILD applause) Seito no spootsu ha ganbarimashou! (wild applause again)" What I THINK I said, what I PLANNED to say was: Yesterday and today Sports' Festival (Sports' Tournament) was fun! I appreciate the MM teachers and students. I love teaching at MM. (Essentially) Go, fight, win the students' sports! When I got back to the table my table applauded me, they told me it was great. :D My hands were shaking SO badly. The rest of the evening was everyone pouring drinks for one another (you never pour your own drink). I got involved and they were impressed. :) I got to talk to Oikawa-sensei for a little bit and one little office guy came over (drunk) and talked to my chest. *rolls her eyes* I took off a little after 9 pm so I could go home and write this and get ready for bed. Crazy but fun evening!

Funny moments:

This happened last week but I forgot to write about it. In Morioka we have these GIANT crows. I think they are really cool (but that's probably because I don't have farm land like everyone else). IN any case, they like to sit outside MM on the phone lines and caw to one another. I really like the sound. I don't know, I just think it's really cool! Well Sato-sensei got REALLY annoyed at one point last week because they kept going on and on and on. So he started cawing BACK! I was already laughing because they had been cawing for so long and then when he joined in... golden. That will be one of my favorite memories forever I think. My Japanese Vice Principal (high position in Japanese society) cawing like a crow. :D

At the teacher's evening, one little office guy who is balding and his hair sticks out everywhere (it always looks like he rolled out of bed and came straight to work) came over to talk to me but he was drunk and slurring Japanese at me, well, talking to my chest. It was creepy but I'm laughing at the awkwardness of it all. I just kept saying, "Wakarimasen." LOL oh man.

P.S. Got a phone call and am making it to bed REALLY late. I'm so tired my hair hurts! Hope tomorrow isn't icky. :/

Sports' Festival Day 1

Spider count: 1 and then it disappeared. :< please let me be able to sleep tonight! Insect count: 1 little freaky red bug (another one like before! I got that one though.)

Ok, today! Spoiler alert: today was amazing! So, woke up, got ready, had lots of time and got to the bus stop early. When I got to school I waited until the meetings were finished and then asked if I should change into my orange mini-dress (the tent shirt they convinced me I needed) then or later. I was told to go ahead and then we would have an opening ceremonies. When I think of opening ceremonies I think of the Olympics. I was excited to see what was in store. It was a lot of speaking in Japanese by different people and the end. Ah! No dancing, no music, no performances. I want my money back! ;) After that the games didn't start for 20-30 minutes so I went back to my desk and worked on some prep. I got involved in what I was doing and suddenly I looked up and realized I'd missed the first 30 minutes of the games. There was soccer outside, girls' tennis (I got asked AGAIN to do it, but I told them I didn't know how to play :/ I hope they're not upset I didn't play), boys' volleyball, boys' table tennis... I think that's it. Tennis and soccer were outside and as it was another 29 degree day I decided to attend the indoor sports (plus I don't have any sunscreen or a hat). I watched basketball first and cheered for various teams. I felt torn at first as they are all my students but then I went to the side with less people there to cheer each time. It was really fun to watch the basketball games. (Girls' basketball) While I was cheering one team the coach (one of the male students in the class) called a timeout and suddenly I was sitting in the middle of the team. It was great! I had no idea what they were saying, but I was in the huddle! :D I used my fan to cool down the girls who had been playing. After that I checked out table tennis. I stayed there for 20-30 minutes and then went back to basketball. I asked them where to find volleyball: upstairs in the second gym (above where they were playing table tennis). So I hiked up there. That was pretty much where I camped for the rest of the day. I love volleyball so much. I did the same thing as before, rotating to the team with less cheerleaders or if a student asked me to cheer for them, I would do so. (I still feel fairly guilty for choosing sides, but I thought I would cheer for the opposite team in their next game. Decisions, decisions!) One of the teams when I put a chair on the sidelines, they cheered that I was sitting on their side. One of the players ran off the court, ran up to me, stopped, bowed, then went back. I was very touched. :) After a bit I got very shaky and decided it must be near lunch. I stopped by the basketball gym and found out I was in time for the end of the women teacher's game. I sat down and started cheering, next thing I know, I'm tagged in! DAH! It was hard to play because I was all shaky and had low-blood sugar. I did my best though. We got STOMPED. LOL 24-0. I was there for the last three baskets made against us. I did my best to prevent them, but we had a sorry team. We even had one male (Mr. Hosokawa) since not enough women teachers would play. However, it wasn't so bad that I did horribly as our team was awful. LOL They were grateful that I played at all. So I'm hoping that redeemed me after turning down playing for tennis. I went back to the teacher's room and spent the next 20 minutes cooling down. My heart rate returned to normal quickly but the overwhelming heat really did a number on me. (*remembers she got out the water so she could drink it and takes a drink*) Then I ate my lunch and worked on a little more prep. After lunch I went to rinse my dishes and Kanamori-sensei was in the little kitchen place. I entered saying, "Shitsureshimasu" (as one should) and she turned around, speaking Japanese and stopped when she saw me. "I thought you were another teacher! I mean, a Japanese teacher! Your pronunciation is very good!" :D I thanked her profusely. One word down, how many to go? ;)

After lunch I went right back to volleyball. We have two courts and only one was being used so I got into a pick up game with some of my third grade female students. There were only 3 of us to each side so I tried to recruit some of the males. Over their dead bodies. Sheesh. lol Soon more girls joined and we had a good game going. They alternated calling me, "Sensei," "Ann," "Karairu-san," and I got an honorific! ("Okarairu") It was really fun! They seemed really jazzed that I played. It was also my first injury of the games. I dove for a ball and my knee went sliding across that gym floor and left the skin behind. Pretty sure I have the respect of those girls now, lol. I didn't do it for that, I was just running for a ball.. plus it was nice to get practice before I play for real tomorrow. I hope the other female teachers are decent players so we have a chance of winning. :) After a while the boys needed the court to warm up before their game. We took a seat on the sidelines and the girls starting chatting and taking pictures. They then asked if I would be in their pictures. I gladly accepted. :D YAY! It made me feel great! In the meantime I was spraying with my little sprayer and fanning myself. I also kept spraying my wound because it was stinging. Pretty soon the girls were asking what I had, "Mizu!" "Wataa?" I handed the bottle over then they started chasing and spraying each other with it. LOL All I care about is that they returned it. :) I went through a bottle and a half of water. Yesterday was 29 and so was today. Those are the two hottest days we've had so far.

All the students and most of the teachers have these matching jerseys. Each class had their own style and then (except for class 2.6) their class number on the back and a nickname. Their homeroom teachers also have a matching shirt. I was feeling all left out. I matched the vice-principals! And they are awesome guys, but I wanted to match the students. AND I want a shirt that FITS! In any case, I was determined to fit in a little and 30 minutes before I left the school I went looking for some students. I found a group of girls with whom I've chatted before and asked them for help. I asked them to come up with a nickname for me. They cycled through several and then decided I would be "Supaishi Kaan" (Spicy Corn) since I love spicy food and popcorn. :D I'm the next Spice Girl: Corn. AHAHAHA! I'm going to use masking tape to make the characters and add the nickname to the back of my orange shirt. Take that! :D

After that I worked a little more and found out that they changed one of my Friday lessons. Dang it! I was ready for that lesson! Oh well, now I have another lesson to plan. That's ok. I rode the bus home, sent some emails to people I love, and when I got off, I updated my passbook (my bank book). Then I went home, turned on the dehumidfier for ten minutes as I was OVERHEATING, then I ate, read a little bit and now I'm listening to music. My day was really fun and I hope yours was or will be as well! XOXO, A

Funny moments:

So, when I put on my orange mini-dress and checked myself out in the mirror, I found out it was totally see-through! Yay! I had worn my workout bra which is a dark, olive green. DAH! AND the one good thing about this huge shirt (it covered up the "Touch Down" printed on my bum ~ my sport shorts) was negated. Oh man... LOL

When I got back to the teacher's room the second time I wanted to show off my injury. So I said to Oikawa-sensei, "I already managed to injure myself despite the fact that Hashimoto-sensei said you didn't want me hurting myself!" He was all concerned, but I assured him I just wanted to show off and I was fine. Then I joked, "If he wanted me to keep to that maybe he should have put it in the SLP." :D

Right around the time the games were finishing up, the sky opened and suddenly it was pouring. I was in the teacher's room (this was after the above moment) and many teachers exclaimed, "Sugoi!" I yelled out, "Subarashii!" Oikawa-sensei BUSTED UP. He always doubles over when I yell something in Japanese. I defended myself, "What? I love the rain!" He just kept laughing. (I wasn't offended, I love to make people laugh.)

What my knee looks like without skin!

I have the best students!

(It's true!) Today I taught first period and the class was pretty great. They weren't as excited about the music as I was. But they were very respectful and listened.

I then had an prep period and I busted my behind to get my Friday lessons done. After my prep I taught two more classes. I got to teach big numbers again. This class has been unruly in the past but today they really worked hard. I really appreciated it! After that first grade class, I had another class of third graders. I did a listening quiz at the beginning and then helped the students with their summaries. I have the smartest students! As I was sitting and helping one girl, two girls leaned over to me and said something in Japanese while touching the bottom lid of their eyes. I thought they were saying I had something in my lashes so I tried to brush it off. They then told me (and I can't remember how they said it) but that they meant they thought my eyes (makeup maybe, or both!) were really pretty. AWW! YOU'RE pretty! ;) I didn't say that - but I thanked them. :)

I then had lunch and then some more prep. I am almost completely ready for this Friday! :D That feels REALLY good! I also outlined a worksheet I want to make for next Monday. Sometimes I feel like, "The worksheets never end!" (And that is thus far true,) but I love teaching and I get to make new and different worksheets and as I've said many times I am blessed. I have made three summary worksheets for one class (different parts of the book, but still... summaries three times in a row!) and I've been able to come up with three completely different summary worksheets. They have all been fun (IMO). I feel VERY blessed for all the help my Father in Heaven is giving me. I'm very invested in making worksheets that the students understand and are capable of completing and who knows them better than everyone else? :) I also got to have a conversation with Oikawa-sensei about English grammar. I really enjoyed it. I love grammar and I love discussing those technicalities.

My last class was great. A group of girls saw me coming, in the hall, and they all cheered. :D I felt like a rockstar. They get excited when I walk in the door which in turn feeds my already over-the-top excitement and the class is a thrill-ride! They were troopers too as the subject of big numbers gets a little.. technical and we didn't get to the games. :/ HOWEVER, Hashimoto-sensei said he's thinking of doing Big Numbers part 2 which means I will have very little prep work to do (I won't have to make another worksheet, but I will make a couple games). I'm already excited to teach it! I was given some great game ideas! :D

So tomorrow our Sports Festival starts, wish me luck! I plan on playing volleyball. They asked me about tennis but I told them it would be better that I NOT play it. I said I was very good at watching tennis. :D I also looked at the booklet and it seems as though the games are scheduled through about 1500 which means I'll have at least an hour and forty-five minutes to work on lesson plans for next week and to finish that other one for Friday. I have faith that I will be able to keep up. :)

When I got home, I ate dinner, I did some cleaning, and a little more cooking (made rice) for my lunches for the rest of the week. I did the math and it costs me about $10 to make 4 lunches. :) There's reason I make instead of buy! If I bought, it would cost $5 a meal. However, those meals have several items and are very nice. I am happy eating what I make though. I don't have a fancy lunch like the other teachers but I feel good about my unlocked achievements of cooking and storing and carting around Japanese food. I also finished up a book I got from the library that I picked out to help me really stay positive (since the heat is trying me). It was a book by Jerry Seinfeld and had a bunch of funny stories. :) I also spent some time on reddit and that helped me laugh too. (For those of you unfamiliar with reddit - be careful, it's still the interwebz! Don't click on the NSFW links and stick to the "funny" page and you should be pretty safe. :D) It's getting late so I wrote this. Now I'm going to play a little guitar then get ready for bed.

Funny moments:

I got to cough the answer again for my (last) class and this kid from across the room who thinks I'm awesome (and the thought is mutual) yelled, "What!?" So I said it again. Pretty great!

That kid last week who called yelled, "MY Ann" today said, "Good morning MISTER Carlisle!!" He got a big laugh out of the students and some indignation. I said, "Ok! I accept! Thank you!" And smiled really big. I'm happy he's making jokes in English! I would have liked to say something like, "Yes! My goatee finally came in!?" But he wouldn't have understood it. :/ Still, yay for him! :)

a funny from reddit that made me lol

Great Ward

I have the best ward! I got up, got ready, got out the door, made it to church a lot earlier than usual (the lights were with me today) so I had a chance to cool down a lot before the meeting started, I greeted the members there, tried to chat a bit, and then the meeting started. Elder Norawong did his best to translate for me (as he usually does) and I appreciate it a lot. I know he feels badly because he's only been here since November and sometimes he just gets lost. But I always reassure him. It's the difference between knowing a few words and getting the gist of the talk and 50-80% of the material. It means a lot to me!

Then we had Sunday School. Fujimura-Kyodai read the English teaching manual because he knew I would be there. (I almost didn't go because I felt so sick this morning!) He said he only understood 40% of it, but I was touched that he went to such great lengths to try and include me. The lesson was on consecration and I had some promptings that helped me understand a little bit better what happened to get me to Japan. After church I was visit taught by Rika-Shimai and Fumie-Shimai. They were very nice and so sweet. I love my ward. I barely understand them and I often feel overwhelmed at how little I am able to communicate on my own with them, but I can tell they love me and that means SO much to me. On the way out, Hoshino-Kaicho caught me and asked me about a calling. So yay! The week after next (next week is branch conference) I will get a calling! YAY! I'm so excited! :D

After the meetings I got to Skype with Nod, my Maman, my Papa, Angèle, and Adri. It was so nice to talk to them. We told funny stories and about what was going on in our respective lives.

Then I pedaled home, cooled down, read for a little bit, and cooked my lunches for the week. I just took a shower (to help cool off) and then here I am. I am fairly stressed about how this week will turn out. I'm trying to have faith. I keep praying in my heart that the Lord will help me to use my time wisely so that I will be prepared to teach all my classes. Being in Japan has really made those verses about prayer in Alma 34 very meaningful for me. I've had concerns and wanted some specific help and been prompted to ask for the things that I need and to constantly express gratitude for the small blessings I receive. I say it often, but it's true: God is good. (Really He's much more than good, but the aliteration and the phrase are nice - and recognizable so others usually will agree quickly). I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath (enjoy stake conference family!). XOXO, A

the key in my plan to survive the summer

Wonderful Weekend

insect count:1

Today Limor came up to Morioka. She told me she would be in around 10 am so I set my alarm for 9:30 (and hoped she'd be a half hour late). However, as a mosquito made me his personal bloodbank/buffet last night, I had a hard time sleeping. I got bit 5 times and the bites immediately swelled to large white mounds on my hand, foot, and arm. It itched so badly I woke up. AWFUL. I grabbed some ice and iced the bites and just felt really picked on. I was so exhausted and now this! Anyway, I was able to go back to sleep but this time I put my fan on for an hour. Each time the timer finished and the fan turned off, I woke up. Either the fan stopping or that high-pitched flying mosquito noise had me right back up and turning the thing on for another hour. So I ended up waking up and getting up pretty early. When I put in my contacts, I found the jerk and killed him. I hope he was working alone. :/ So, being up early I was able to shower and get ready at a fairly leisurely pace. I got a call from Limor and soon she arrived at my place.

We took off walking towards the center of town. We went up and down the main drag checking shops and seeing what they had. We also stopped at both of the hyaku-en shops (Candy & Daiso) for things we needed. I need one other thing I have yet to find but someday... someday. Limor needed to get some nylons for work and some places we just checked out because they looked cool. We got lunch in town that was really good. We got marguerita pizza with a soup and salad bar. I put a ton of Habanero sauce on mine. :D It improved the flavor greatly for me (it was fairly bland before that). And guess where this was! -- The Bistro de Crape! HAHA! I didn't end up trying their crêpes (too full), but now I can say that I have eaten there. After lunch we wandered through some more shops and bumped into Bruce. We mentioned to him that we were going to a cake shop that had been recommended to me (Limor and I were talking on the phone last night and we decided we needed to celebrate our mutual un-birthdays. I mean, how often doesTHAT happen!?) As we were walking back to the car, we ran into one of Bruce's friends: Jason. We invited him along and off we went. The cake place was far-ish from my place so Limor drove us (so lovely!). Jason was in town because his motorcycle was getting inspected. He had to leave it in Morioka for a week and was planning on taking the train back to Hachimantai (where he lives - it's an hour North of Morioka). The cake shop turned out to be really nice - very good cake, and we had a great time sharing what we had ordered and talking. Then we drove back to my apartment building and talked outside for a while. Evenutally the party broke up and Limor and I went to my place and Bruce and Jason took off. Limor and I chatted and listened to music. Then the guys stopped back by. Jason couldn't find his wallet. He checked Limor's car (the alarm went off for AGES, lol - she had just given them the keys). We joked about people looking out to see two black men with a car whose alarm wasn't shutting off. LOL Poor guys! In any case, it wasn't there. Limor drove him back to the cake shop and YAY! It was there, nothing was missing. Thank goodness for Japan (mmm). (This isn't a general rule, but I'd say that probably happens 75% of the time. Poor Limor's boyfriend had his wallet stolen last week with everything in it. :( ) He bought us cheesecake in celebration. :) When we got back we said goodbye to him again and then Limor and I went back inside. I put my cheesecake in the fridge for later. (I'm so blessed! I've been craving cheesecake for a while now!) Then we visited for a little bit longer and Limor asked me to go with her to get petrol. So out we went again. The mission was short, but successful. :) Then she said goodbye and we hugged it out and she left. After she left, I grabbed my bike to run my errands. I went down to Aiina to get some new books and I went to the drugstore in Fesan (the station) and got a vitamin B complex! No more mosquito bites for me, thank you! Even though it was evening, it was REALLY hot out but I needed some groceries. So I rode to the grocery store, grabbed some things and then came home.

It was a busy, but very fun day. When I got home, I read a little, made my dinner, and then ate. Today was very full but also very wonderful. I'm so happy Limor came up to Morioka and we got to spend some of our time together just sitting and talking. I like to get a little relaxation time in. -- I also wrapped my foot this evening. It's been REALLY hurting the last few days. I'm wondering now if the insoles I got are too small. They seem to fit me perfectly! They're very snug in my shoes - but I wonder if they're too small. :/ I hope wrapping it helps. It's been aching very badly. (I also wonder if my foot had adapted to the way I walked before. The doctor told me that I had aggravated some old damage to my foot. I'm not sure what to believe but I know my foot is throbbing - pre-wrapping and post-wrapping.) Not only was my Saturday wonderful, I have tomorrow to which to look forward as well. :) I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday! XOXO, A

women's "fashion" in Japan

it's just painful to see!

specal lunch!!

we found these in a shop

one of the freakiest things I've ever seen with the Disney name on it

zombie spongebob, lol

fedora!

sparkly devil hat ... !?

Bruce found us in this shop - I asked him very nicely to put on the hat with the most bling and asked if I could also take a picture and post - TADA!

my cake at the cake shop - it was pretty good but considering I expected it to be cheesecake and it wasn't - a bit disappointing

the picture I took for and sent to Limor to wish her a safe journey home and also to thank her for visiting me :)

Strange Day

ant count: 0 spider count: 1 freaky little red bugs: 1

Today was very strange for me. The morning was weird. I almost didn't make it to my bus on time! So I started out my day with stress. Then I was SUPER nervous about my lessons today. I'm not sure why, but these past couple days have been filled with almost-panic-attacks. On the bus I kept squelching a rising hysteria. DAH! There's no reason for it! (I say.)

When I got to the school I was slightly overheated because I had walked so fast. The day was pleasantly cool though. (It was a little too warm in the classrooms but for the most part I was continually thanking my Father in Heaven in my heart for cooler weather.) My first lesson was with a group of my junior high kids. When I walked in, R said, "YATTA!" and threw her arm up in a gesture of victory/YES!/joy. Oh man I needed that so much. I wanted to hug her! The lesson went pretty well (some of the material was a little hard for them) and I left the other game I had prepared with Kanako-sensei (Ito-sensei) and she was very excited about it (which helped me to feel valued).

Then I had a break and I tried to do some lesson planning. Since I will be teaching only Monday next week at Morioka Minami, I suddenly have almost no prep time for next Friday and then for the following week at Minami. Ouch! So I was busting my behind trying to get some things done. (I have this fear that I will have to teach sub-par lessons when the fall comes and they add all those other classes to my roster. I just won't have time to make these elaborate games. :( ) That being said, in preparation for the lesson I taught after that prep period - my elementary kids - I had worked SO HARD getting ready. I had 6 big games ready, I had made several handouts and pictures (printed color copies)... ya, we got to only two of the games. DOH! I'd MUCH rather run out of time than games, however I felt like .. "But, but.. I worked for HOURS on these and we're not going to play them!?" But the main thing is the students getting the alphabet. So I could have pushed on to the next thing, but I felt like we should continue doing the second activity a different way. I hope that the students benefited from it. I am constantly praying to be blessed with ideas and ways to help my students learn and enjoy learning English. I feel I have been very blessed. That being said, I HAVE had lessons that were flops. :/ I would like to avoid repeats of those, thank you very much!

After that, I went to teach my next class. This is the class in which I made a girl cry my first day at Chokaku Shien. So I always get a little nervous that the material will be too hard and it will make the students feel stupid. I hate that feeling so I never want to make anyone else feel that way. (I dislike it so much I was usually a chapter ahead at uni so that I couldn't be put in that sort of situation.) However, she was the second one to finish her questions! YAY! That class went really well too - so I was very blessed today. All my lessons went over well, and the teachers seemed pleased with what I had taught and how I had taught it. Then I returned to the teacher's room for lunch.

I ate my lunch fairly quickly (so quickly it didn't sit very well for an hour or two, oops) and got back to work on my prep for next week. I made a train line to put on the floor for one of my classes next week! It took a while, but I think they will like having the visual. :D I also worked on a food list for another class. So I'd say for Chokaku Shien, I am 1/4 prepared. It's not where I'd like to be, but it's better than not prepared at all! I'm hoping there will be time after the Sports' Festival to do some work. *crosses her fingers* Before I left the school, I got to chat with Kawai-sensei for a few minutes. Nagano-sensei (funny man) had taught me a new word and I showed it off to her. LOL I'm learning the best words from that school! (geezer, trickster, and today an old slang way of saying ok) I really enjoy chatting with her and we always laugh together. I also learned a bunch of new signs from my students in the classes I taught today. :D Nihon no shuwa, I'll get you yet! JSL is really cool. I feel so blessed that I get to learn it. I also think it helps me with the students. I am able to support the English I am speaking and show them that I care about THEM and their identity as Deaf Japanese kids.

The bus ride home was nice (a lot less stressful for sure!). I stopped by the bank and the bakery to get something for the elders. When I got home I cleaned and put away most of my laundry (it wasn't all dry) in preparation for the elders' visit. I had some time after that and sat down and ate a snack and read for a little bit. I thought it was going to be all four elders who came over, but the zone leaders couldn't make it so Brother Shuwa came with the set of elders who are my home teachers. :) So my home teachers came over. I explained why I wanted a blessing (loneliness, the heat) and we talked for a little bit. Then they gave me a blessing. It was a GREAT blessing. It's always great to hear that your Father in Heaven loves you. :) Especially when you can't calm your mind enough to hear His still, small voice in your heart. I'm so glad I got that blessing. I'm SO grateful for the priesthood. After they left, I cleaned up the crumbs and found a spider. :( Luckily for me it was pretty small and it died with I threw a slipper at it. (mmm) PLEASE no more!

Funny moments:

I made Kawai-sensei laugh today when I was teaching her a few ASL signs. I taught her TOO BAD and then to explain what it meant I said, "For example, we have a test! The students say, 'Oh no! We didn't study!' I will say, TOO BAD! F!" Then I explained why F was bad and why I had signed it as though it were on a paper and I was passing it. Since I explained the grading system, after that a few times when one of us would make the other laugh, we'd give them an A. :D Good times were had by all!

Kawai-sensei asked me if I had gotten my package from my mom (since she was the one who had helped me arrange to have it redelivered). I said I got it and I was so happy and then I did my Legend of Zelda "NA NA NA NA!!!" and mimed holding it up in the air. Kawai-sensei LOST it. Then I pulled up the 2 pictures of myself with the package on my phone and showed her with a, "CHA-CHAN!" Which made a few other teachers look over at us in puzzlement. LOL They started laughing at me. It's great to get a laugh!

An author comes to MM

Today was sunny, ick, BUT ant count: 0! (mmm!)

(Funny moments included) At the bus stop, I saw Bruce. I haven't seen him in a while! We chatted and he asked me if I would be interested in teaching French on the side. Uh... YES! It's not monetary for me at all - I would just love to speak French again! Although I have to admit, getting paid for it sounds like awesome times two!

At the school, it was a momentous day for the staff and students! I was invited to attend the lecture where a famous novelist was speaking, but I decided against it. Considering that the student elections were only 20 minutes or so and I was bored out of my mind, I took a pass. If I could have gone AND done my work at the same time, I would have gone for that option. However there were things that I needed to do to prepare for both the lessons I was teaching. So I stayed back and got a lot of quiet work time. It was when teachers started coming back that I kicked myself for not taking advantage of the alone time and taking pictures of my work space! I made a mental note to do it later. In the meantime, I did the things I needed to do for the lessons I was teaching that morning and finished up working on the ones I will teach tomorrow. I believe I'm completely ready (except for copies) for Minami next week. How!? Why!? Well, next week is the Sports' Festival! I am teaching Monday only and then I "get" to participate in the Sports' Festival Tuesday-Thursday. At first, Hashimoto-sensei said, "We wouldn't want you to injure yourself." I may have heard the hallelujah chorus in my head after hearing the horror stories about sports' days from coworkers. I was slightly disappointed about not being able to play volleyball but then me making a fool of myself was off the table. However, the then followed that sentence up with, "But the women's team probably needs players!" OH NOES. lol I blinked, "Ok, but I don't know how to play handball. I have this small fear that I will be drafted and cause us to lose!" He just laughed at me and walked away. I have no idea if I will be expected to play or not. :/ Eep! If I am, I hope that it will be volleyball only as I'm fairly clumsy at all other sports. And since my school is OBSESSED with sports - I want to play well so my students will have even more respect for me. Hmm maybe if I'm awful they'll be good out of pity. LOL In any case... that's happening next week. ALSO, Hashimoto-sensei invited me to a teacher's party. I'm not sure if this is the party that we were told, "The ALTs are almost NEVER invited, so don't feel bad when they have it without you!" or not. I DO know that my name was not printed on the list, but Hashimoto-sensei wrote me in. I'm excited to see them outside of work and I'm hoping and praying there will be karaoke! Then I will be able to bond with them and (theoretically) wow them. -- Especially since I sing with no alcohol involved.

So my class today... (doh! I just thought of a lesson I need to plan -- I will do that tomorrow) I was doing big numbers with my first graders. In English, we write big numbers with groupings of three. In Japanese, they do groupings of four so it can be a very tricky subject for the Japanese learner (just as Japanese numbers are for me!). In any case, so great! I handed the beginning of the class over to Hosokawa-sensei and he just looked at me like a deer looks at an oncoming train (IT'S GOOD FOR YOU! -- for those of you who get that reference, long distance high-five!). He had forgotten that he had the first ten minutes. I felt bad for him - I didn't mean to surprise him. I assumed he remembered. So he started explaining the Japanese number system versus the American number system. But he would write something, step back, cock his head, shake it, then erase what he had just written. I was so lost. I looked around at the students and they were also incredulous or giggling. Oh man. Then when he got to the English numbers I started supplying answers to the students around me. They were just lost! He was very funny about it though. When it was my turn, I gave them an easy formula (in my mind) to help them remember how to say and understand the big numbers. It seems to have paid off (in having checked their worksheets) for about 3/4 of them. :) I was afraid because the subject was kind of dry that that mini revolt I told you about before would flare back up, but the students worked with me and listened. :D One who had been rude to me before even got up and wrote an answer on the board! YAY! They were troopers and I appreciated it so much!

Then I had lunch and one more prep period before my next class. At the last minute, I decided it wasn't fair that this other third grade class was going to miss out on all the great music I had gathered for the other classes' music lesson. So I found all the different countries from which I had songs and put them in a playlist. I had 19 songs when I was finished and was excited to share some of my music. After that, I ate and corrected worksheets. (I actually was correcting worksheets and then when I looked up it was already time to go a minute before! I jumped up and grabbed my things and went to get Oikawa-sensei.) We went to class and I played the music for them. SO worth it. Especially when they laughed at Reggae and Country. They perked up for Lady Gaga (they LOVE Lady Gaga in Japan), and listened intently when I said, "And THIS is my favorite band." A few eyes went wide when I played the intro to "X" by System of a Down. Man it's a fabulous intro! In any case, now they know what their crazy teacher likes. :) I had this really fun worksheet prepared (I have been SO blessed when it comes to making worksheets and getting ideas for lessons - mmm indeed!). We, unfortunately, didn't get to finish it which was disappointing for me as the last section I asked about the meaning of their name. Japanese names are pretty cool! I only know the meaning of a few names though, so I was hoping to learn some more.

After that, I headed back to the teacher's room. I helped the students clean up and then again the VPs were absent. I tried to ask the students. I said, "Sato-sensei to ..." (Mr. Sato and ...) and I pointed to another finger to try and show another person. They copied me and I asked, "Doko?" (Where?) They laughed at me trying to explain. And really, when it comes down to it, there are SO many Satos here! My branch manager is Sato-san. In any case, the students just laughed and laughed at me. I suppose it was like saying, "You know that guy who lives next door to Mr. Smith?" "Uh.. I know a lot of Smiths." In any case, they had a good laugh at me and I laughed too.

After that, all the teachers disappeared to a meeting. I put my plan into action! I did it just in time too as some teachers came back. When I saw Fujieda-sensei I asked for the name of the other VP. Ya... I then promptly forgot it. Well, I thought it was Minawa. I was pretty sure it started with Mi and ended with wa. Doh. I asked Fujieda-sensei again on my way out... Ya, Moniwa. Close! LOL

The bus ride home was uneventful. I did laundry as soon as I got back (as I needed to do so) and sat down to eat some dinner and read a little bit. Now I am writing this and will do some work. I'm excited for tomorrow evening. The elders are going to come by and give me a blessing! I have been needing it. I forgot to mention, today I was feeling crampy and was confused why I should have cramps until I got home from school. When I got home from school I sat still (for the first time today) and listened to my body. I don't have cramps, I have kidney pain. Uh oh. Even though much respect to Japan for their health system costing a fraction of the US amount, I don't want to have kidney stones again. And I don't mean IN JAPAN, I mean AT ALL. I'm SO done with kidney stones. I've had so many I have lost track of how many there were! >:( Nope. I say no. So there! Hope you all had a good day/evening! My love to you! XOXO, A

(Sorry, pictures removed)

Great day

Ant count: 0 (mmm!) Day count: 90! I've been here for 90 days now!

Today was awesome! I woke up feeling pretty refreshed. It was raining outside. My room smelled like rain because of my open window. A very lovely morning. I got ready in good time, remembered to grab my cord, and made good time to the bus. (Oh and yesterday's ant count: 1.) This morning's ant count: 0! (MMM!) The bus ride was good - the window's were all steamed up but I wasn't choking like last time (the last time the bus was that crowded and humid I had to fan myself the entire time). Because of the rain, several people who would have normally biked or walked were riding. So it was packed and we got to the school much later than usual. That was fine with me. It gave me more time to read. At one point I looked up in complete alarm thinking I had missed my stop, but it was fine and I was panicking about nothing.

When I got to the school, I immediately got working on my lesson plans and worksheets that I needed for Thursday. I only had a brief moment to do that as I was teaching first period. I was teaching with Hashimoto-sensei and we played the review game. It went over SO well. They really loved it and got into it (except for one student who is really struggling with English :/ I'm trying to think of things I can do to include him and make him feel successful). I got out the chair in the corner and dragged it to each table and sat with the students as they played. I had a BLAST. After that class, I got back to my desk and really jumped into my work. I worked so hard I realized I had blocked out the entire world. It was strange to suddenly look up and find myself in Japan surrounded by speaking that I did not, for the most part, understand at all. It was a mini culture shock all over again. A really strange, "Where AM I!?" moment. In any case, it passed and I reflected on how deeply absorbed I had been in what I was doing. I'm not sure yet if it is a good or bad thing, but I sure worked hard! And a very good product of that time: I got two more worksheets done, I made some more dice (since the students had sort of abused the other dice and they were starting to fall apart), and I started working on my alphabet games for Friday. In reflection I find I still have a TON of work to do! Eep! Good thing I have tomorrow! I was hoping I would not have to bring my computer as it is HEAVY, but I will need to do so. Oh well. At least I am not bringing my guitar AND computer. (The Music II lesson originally planned for tomorrow was cancelled because a famous author is visiting our school to talk to the students.) It also means I will have a little extra prep time tomorrow.

After all that prep I had another lesson. This class is so great! One of my favorites. They listened, they worked hard, and they got WAY ahead of the other classes. They are so intelligent I can joke around more with them than some other classes. THAT, for me, is a HUGE blessing. After I left that class and was walking back to the office, another group of my first grade boys passed me. They all shouted hello and then one said, "We love you!" "Oooh! Thank you!" They all laughed at that. :) It's good to be the queen! ;)

Back in the office I waited the few minutes until clean-up time. The two vice-principals were missing so though it was "deep-clean" day, I lacked the ability (and frankly the guts) to tell the students to vacuum. They waited around to be dismissed and so I waited with them for a few minutes. Then they said to me, "Finished?" I didn't want to excuse them in case the VPs showed up so I said, "Shirimasen." (I don't know.) They all laughed at that and after a few minutes, they all bowed to me and left. I worked on some more things until it was time to go and then went to catch my bus. On the way to the bus, I was struck by the beauty of these flowers (and I don't even LIKE flowers - allergies and they smell like rotting garbage to me, seriously). (Sorry pictures removed.)

When I got home I hurriedly ate some dinner, tried to cram in a little reading, and then went to Taiko practice. I really enjoyed myself there. I swear I was born to play drums! Then afterwards I hurried home as I still need to print some worksheets for tomorrow and needed to write this. Hope you all have a great day/evening! XOXO, A

Terrific Tuesday

First: Happy birthday to my dear brother Jean-Michel! Second: Congrats to my sister Elise who had a little girl yesterday - Mercedes Elise Flanagan. :D

(Funny moments included) I got ready with plenty of time, I left early, I got on the bus, I made it to school. I had two class periods before I taught so I had already decided to work on one of my Thursday lessons. I pulled out my computer and realized I had left my cord that connects my phone to it at my apartment. DOH! I was still able to wirelessly use the internet but my time was thus limited as I was teaching another music lesson and all the music was on my phone! (Well, it's on my computer too but my phone is much more portable with the speakers I bought. (Even if I used my computer I'd still have to lug those speakers along so my phone is DEFINITELY more portable.) I also didn't have my laptop cord (which was fine - but it meant that I had to be smart about my battery). I got on the computer and put together the worksheet I blocked out yesterday. I then emailed it to Hashimoto-sensei and it was just about time to get ready for my class. I made my copies, got my things together, and then got inexplicably nervous. (Well, part of that can be explained - I was teaching with Toki-sensei and I'm still a little gun-shy.) He sent me on ahead and my hands were trembling for the first ten minutes or so of the lesson. I have NO IDEA why. I am a confident teacher. I had taught the music lesson already last week once so I had practiced it... I just was really worried. In any case, eventually that passed and the lesson went REALLY well. Mr. Toki especially enjoyed it. He really liked several of the songs I picked and was singing along with me. :)

When that class was finished, we had lunch early because of the Jazz concert we were attending. I had been hungry before class but afterwards I wasn't at all. I had decided to save my food for after until Kanamori-sensei came by and said, "Did you eat lunch?" "Not yet." "Hurry! You must eat it now!" Oh, ok... So I wolfed down my food and we left 30 minutes later. Sheesh! I wish I could have at least taken my time. However, I am grateful to her as she secured us a ride to the hall. The teachers carpooled over and the students rode their bikes! I told Kanamori-sensei and the young woman teacher (who was the one who had asked about my game boards) that in America, we would all have been bus-ed over. I felt loved today though. After Kanamori-sensei set us up with a ride, Hashimoto-sensei asked if I had a ride. Then one of the vice-principals asked Hashimoto-sensei who was going to take me over. :D I'm so glad they were trying hard to include me. AND OH MY WORD!!! The Jazz band was AMAZING. I was dying that I had to sit in my seat (still). Well, I was snapping and clapping and moving around. They were all Japanese men and there was a clarinet player, tuba player, drummer, and banjo player (he was the front man). They had INSANE skills. The guy on the clarinet especially wow-ed me. I wish you could have all been there - I was floored by their immense talent. (Not because they were Japanese, but because this is the first time I have seen this kind of talent in person.) They played old American New Orleans Jazz. I was in heaven. In Japan they don't clap after solos so each time one of the band members would impress me I'd start clapping really loudly and my students would all gape at me. Oops. I didn't want to ruin the show for them so I kept trying to catch myself. Most of the students and Kanamori-sensei (who sat next to me), fell asleep! I couldn't believe it! Kanamori-sensei told me that Jazz just sounded like noise to her. To quote Weezer, "Say it ain't sooooo!" I had an incredible time - although it made me miss home pretty badly. (I especially thought of my Papa and my Aunt Chantal.) Among the songs they played was Amazing Grace, The Mickey Mouse Club, You Are My Sunshine, and Close to You (Carpenters). All in all, the show was 100 minutes long and I didn't want it to ever stop! The front man seemed to be very congenial, but as I don't speak Japanese that well, every time he would do a little routine I was completely lost.

When we got back to the school I blocked out another worksheet that I will make tomorrow and helped Oikawa-sensei with some materials he was putting together. Then all of a sudden Oikawa-sensei stood up and made an announcement that felt serious and all the teachers got very somber and serious and I was like... "What just happened!?" After he finished as he was passing by my desk I said, "What?" He explained that there would be a big teachers meeting about discipline (I don't know if for a specific student or students or just in general) but he told me to go ahead and leave 5 minutes early as that's when the meeting would start and they would be locking the doors. So I said my goodbyes and went to wait for the bus. After the concert when I had been sitting at my desk, I felt terribly nervous. That actually was a little calming to me. I thought, "Well at least it wasn't just that class!" My body and mind kept trying to have a panic attack. As there was no reason that I could see to panic I kept trying to placate myself. "You'll do those lessons tomorrow. You have plenty of time." "The heat isn't so bad today." "Look! You made it through another day!" Even though a teacher hinted this might be the case, "You don't know if you'll be teaching 22 lessons a week come October, so no need to worry about it now." I'm not even sure I can work that schedule at all! I will have all 19 classes at Morioka Minami and have to teach them in 4 days! I mean, I'm physically up to teaching 5 classes a day, I'm just worried since I am getting my SLPs so late I am typically JUST ahead of the students in lesson planning and it doesn't feel possible to prepare that many lessons on so short a notice! I have 5 lessons I have to plan tomorrow for example. 2 of them I need for Thursday and 1 for Friday. I was ahead for a brief moment and it was glorious! Now I'm feeling a little harried (perhaps the source of my panic?).

When I got home, I was STARVING for having eaten my food so early. I ate some crackers (so I wouldn't eat too much of something else) then went out to go pick up my skirt! YAY! 10 days later! Still, it's wonderful - they did a beautiful job! On the way home, I grabbed some pain reliever as I have been getting a lot of migraines recently. So I felt all sorts of accomplished when I got home. Then I sat and wrote this. Hope you all had a great evening!

Reminds me of my first or second date with Jerod. After me chattering on as I usually do, he asked, "Are you nervous?" "No. Why?" "You're talking SO MUCH." *a few minutes later* "Can we just have some quiet time?" LOL

The skirt and I are reunited!

The day in which my students shock me

(Funny moments included) Wow, what a day! First, good luck to my sister Elise who is being induced today! Love you Bisou!! Ok, so the morning was fine, the bus ride was great (read a book), and school started just fine. I taught the first class period and it went pretty well. I taught one of my third grade classes and they worked hard and really impressed me. :)

After that class, I had a break and worked on some prep then I went and used my review game with a first grade class. I usually am accompanied to this class by another teacher. However, that teacher was busy so Hashimoto-sensei went with me. I really enjoy teaching with him so I looked forward to it. His classes are used to the way that he greets them and I have tried to incorporate it into these other classes, however... So, we walked in and asked the students to stand up. Then Mr. Hashimoto asked them to greet me by name. Well one boy near the front yelled, quite loudly, "Hello MY Ann!" The students around him busted up and it's been a long time since the days when I knew how NOT to blush. Those waggling eyebrows from my students made me all red! DOH! I joked about it, of course. "YOUR Ann? I am MY Ann, thank you." Oh man.. then during the game I heard some students make a very dirty joke. I stopped, thought about saying something to them, then thought better of calling attention to it and walked away. Sheesh! When I had them switch groups they didn't divide evenly so one group was short a person. As I walked around the room talking to the students and watching them play, I saw this group. So I took up the chair and said, "Me too!" The three boys cheered and we janken-ed to see who would go first. They all threw paper and I threw scissors! HA! So I started and they cheered wildly when I gave my answer. Then they enthusiastically started their turns but the bell rang. I was disappointed I didn't get to be there while they EACH took a turn, but I'm so glad they were happy I joined rather than stricken. :)

After that I had a game planned for another third grade class. I really thought they were going to love it (I planned it with them SPECIFICALLY in mind).. it was a GIANT flop. I felt really badly. I sat in on the rest of the class and tried to participate. When I knew the answers I would whisper them to the students around me so they could answer Oikawa-sensei. It was great to watch them beam as he congratulated them. When I moved seats and started giving answers this one kid cracked up. Every time I would start talking, he'd start laughing. That's a GOOD thing, right?

Then there was lunch and more prep time. Oh man today magnet-head almost won. I was BUSHED. I didn't nod, but I closed my eyes and the sounds around me got really far away and my mouth started to taste funny and suddenly I was fighting tooth and nail just to raise my 1000 lb eyelids. I don't like that game! However I got two of my lessons ready for Friday and blocked out a worksheet I need to make for Thursday. I also tried to brainstorm for my toughest lesson this Friday. I'm supposed to play alphabet games with my Deaf elementary kids and we went through the alphabet last time I taught them (first exposure). It's really tough to think of good games for them (for me). I game them all kinds of tools last time so they could succeed with it but they didn't care much (can't blame them) until I taught them the ASL alphabet (which I think would be more useful ANYWAY). Hmm.. I'll keep thinking about praying about it.

My last class was another first grade class in which we played the review game. Oh my word! I saw and heard and student yell "#*$! you!" while throwing up his middle finger. I was standing right next to him! (In his "defense," I don't think he saw me, still!) I said, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Be nice!" The boys started saying, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Which was fine with me - I'd rather THAT! Yeesh! After they changed groups, a boy from that original group said something very dirty to me in English. I took it at face value (that is pretended I didn't realize he was being dirty) and I think he was disappointed (good). I mean, no offense to my students but being dirty is not going to earn them attention and whatever from me. Since I disappointed him, I hope he won't try it again. That class is my most energetic about English so I'm glad they're trying to speak to me, new subject matter though! Thank you!

After that class (which was the last period of the day), I helped clean and actually it was at this point that I blocked out that worksheet. Then I talked to one of the teachers and saw it was time to go and left. I played a word game on my phone (yay for free games!) on the bus. I forgot to mention (or I don't remember mentioning) yesterday: Ant count: 4. Today, ant count: 0! :D (MMM!!!) I read a book, tried to eat some food (still feeling a little gross), OH! and I gave my neighbors a show. *facepalm* -- When I got home, it was cooling outside so inside of putting on the dehumidifier, I opened my bedroom window and set my fan there. It was MUGGY inside my place and I was overheating so I quickly started changing... with my window open. *hangs head* I just didn't think! However, I didn't see anyone see me... so I may not have inadvertently flashed anyone! :D Just recently I returned from the grocery store as I needed to get food. I was quite disappointed to not find my favorite ramen. :/ I thought about getting a different variety but I wasn't in the mood to try something new and the last couple times that I have, it feels like a punishment that I have to eat that other ramen and not my favorite one. I wonder what's in it.. something my body needs I guess! When I got home (I'm getting really good at pedaling my bike with my groceries), I put my groceries away and managed to accidentally spear one of my hard-boiled eggs with a carrot! LOL Poor egg! Then I did the dishes in my sink. Afterwards, I remembered to close my window before I changed into pajamas. (Victory!) I then sat down to type this. I hope you are doing well and having a good Monday! XOXO, A

Oh! Also the home-ec teacher at my school gave me a bag of fresh peas. I think she grew them in her garden. They smell INCREDIBLE. I was sure to thank her!