last week 2

　Last week I went to my cooking class and made pasta. It was tasty. But I have to say that I was really surprised while I was there.
So when we go to the cooking class, we get ready and then wait for the teacher at a place around the island that we are going to be cooking at. Since there’s a max of 5 students, we can all fit. Basically we stand in front of one of the cutting boards and knives. Then the teacher explains what we are going to be cooking and how to cut up the ingredients etc. Well, the teacher was stuttering a little bit and acting a little funny, so some of the other people in the class (who had met her before) were asking what had happened to her. She replied that she was nervous and she didn’t say it directly but it was because I was there. (She said something about not being able to speak English) I was so surprised because for one, I had never asked or expected anyone there to speak English to me. And she had asked at the beginning of class if I could understand Japanese. Actually, I felt really hurt by it. I guess it underscored the point that I will always be different, and not really accepted. I’m quite sure that she didn’t mean anything bad by it and I don’t think she meant for me to feel bad, but I really did. It turns out that she is a friend of one of my friends, so I really don’t think she knew how bad it made me feel.
My next cooking class isn’t for a while as I have Hiroki’s sports day and the school’s sports day coming up. Feeling really busy!!!

last week's post

Yup, at work again. I have been really busy lately-therefore slack at updating. The kids at school are really busy-they have their sports day and culture/display/choir contest day coming up and so every spare moment the kids have is spent practicing for these big events. On top of all of that practicing, 9 students also had to practice for the English Speech contest which was held yesterday. (have I mentioned before how boring speech contests are?) My students did well, everyone finished their speeches. Some of the students give a speech and suddenly look up at the audience and freeze, forgetting their speeches and running through the whole speech in their mind to try and find the spot where they stopped. I feel really bad for them. I think anyone who participates in these contests do really well just getting up and speaking in another language in front of many people. I don’t think that I could have done it at their age. But the contest is extremely boring for me, and not many parents come to watch because a lot of them can’t understand the speeches.
I have been feeling very happy this week as I have finally decided to take my extremely generous parents up on their offer of flying me (and of course the little man) back to Canada. All I can say is I CAN’T WAIT!!! It’s been so long. (That and of course THANK YOU to my parents.
I have to go video my students who are doing a play in English for display day-I think next week should be a little calmer!

PC or not to PC?

I am at school again, I love my ipod shuffle. I looks so busy typing hee hee. So yesterday at our ALT meeting, a person from the International Association came to speak with us. (He can actually speak English-one of the few who can) He had told us before summer vacation that he wanted us to teach a conversation style of class to the citizens of this fine city I work for. We were supposed to decide what we wanted to teach them and we had to decide by a certain day. So the way this works is that we all have to teach once, and since there are 7 of us, it takes 7 weeks to finish. I thought that I would take the first spot and do introductions: self-intros, ice-breakers, that type of thing. (Supposed to be a maximum of 20 students) This whole teaching thing is supposed to take place of our ‘Relay Lecture’ where we each had to do a speech for an hour to an hour and a half. None of us like to do it, and last year the Association leader (who couldn’t speak English) told us that we wouldn’t have to do another lecture. (He asked us for other ideas of things we wanted to do for ‘the citizens’—ya, nothing springs to mind :P)
Anyway, yesterday Mr._________ comes in and asks for our topics. I was just getting ready to write my topic when he adds that, by the way, he had a talk with his boss and his boss didn’t want to do it that way- he wants us to do the lecture thing instead. Oh and could we please write down or topics today. Uhhh, sure. I am not sure why Mr. ____ didn’t think that we needed that info before deciding our topic. *deep breath*
Well, I think I’m going to do politically correct language, what to say and what not to say. I expect the students to do a lot of talking because I’m not doing a lecture. I was thinking of getting them to introduce themselves to each other first and then go over some politically correct language and then getting them to re-introduce themselves. In Japan people will say their age when they introduce themselves, so I am hoping that they will realize the culture difference.
Must go and get ready-parents coming to watch the next class!
Edited to add-if you have any fabulous ideas about what to do with these people, I would love to hear them!

Not terribly impressed

Monday morning, got up early to exercise a little. Woke up Hiroki (like I always do) at 6:30 so we could be together a little before I left around 7:00. This is usual. He was not happy with me waking him up and he kept saying that he didn’t want to go to daycare, so what should we do (and on and on) I had to go, so when we were saying goodbye he started crying and calling me saying he wanted me to hold him (and he wouldn’t let go of my hand) I felt so bad but I had to go catch my train (had to run, actually). I also (foolishly) called to check that he was okay and then he started saying that he wants to be with me and where am I and when am I coming home, etc. He started crying again  Then I came to school and found out that at least 2 out of 3 of my classes are cancelled due to tests. I feel like it’s such a waste to be here when I could be spending time with him (but at least I get paid for being here) Poor guy. I know that he will be alright after he gets to daycare and starts playing with the other kids but it’s pretty hard to listen to him crying on the phone.
We had a good weekend, anyway. Hubby came home on Friday night and Hiroki was very happy to see him. They spent a little time together (very little as hubby has deadlines coming up) Yesterday Hiroki and I went to the library and got some books that he was very happy with. (I did, too) I was so surprised at the library- we have a limit of 3 cds/dvds. I found 2 cds that I wanted to take out and Hiroki found 2 dvds that he wanted. I told him we only were allowed 3, and I was thinking about which one I should put back (and am I going to remember where it is next time-can’t read the artist’s names very well, often pressed for time when I am looking for cds as Hiroki’s always saying that he wants to go and play with the toys in the library, etc) when Hiroki says that he will put one of his back. Wow! I was so impressed!


While we were at the library, I found a short story book that I had only read 1/2 of and wanted to finish so I was happy to see that again. In one of the stories there was a thought/idea that I liked. (The story was okay.) The main character in the story (I have to look up the name and the author) thought that there were 2 kinds of people in the world-Order people and Chaos people. It went on to say that the Japanese were Order people and they knew it (definitely!), the Americans (I assume he means North Americans) and the English are Chaos people who think they are Order people (again, I would have to agree.) and the French were the worst because they were Order people who thought they were Chaos people (no real first hand experience with that culture so ?) but I really liked that part of the story. I guess because I am still learning about the Order people here (there is sooo much to learn!)
The last week of summer vacation I took Hiroki to see a concert-it’s called Mommy and me. (my translation-the direct translation would be Together with Mommy) It’s a popular tv show that has a lot of songs and some weird looking monster type of characters (lots of weird looking characters in Japan) Anyway, Hiroki likes it a lot and I thought he would be happy to see it. (Maybe I wrote about getting tickets and how difficult that was?-we could only phone a special number 1 time from each phone line-we phoned from home, cell phone and hubby’s cell phone. My friend also phoned from her house, cell phone, and she got her friends to call. It’ s a lottery. Anyway, we won the right to buy tickets from only one of these phone calls!) We had really good seats, we were in the 16th row, right up front. Pretty good, especially when you consider that all of the tickets are the same price. He really enjoyed the concert although he was too shy to get up and dance. We had a great time.

Anyway, that’s it for now, I think.