So this is a conversation I heard between a couple of teachers at my school last week...
Teacher A: I was standing outside smoking this morning and one of the parents who dropped their kid off asked me if I thought it was a good idea to be smoking and greeting the students.
Teacher B: Really? You should have said to him that he shouldn't be dropping his kid off. He's spoiling her.
Teacher A: Yeah, it takes all kinds of people.
Teacher B: Yeah.
Meanwhile I'm thinking uh, (WTF?) you shouldn't be smoking in front of the students
I have issues with Japanese school boards as they feel that dropping your kid off teaches your kids to be dependent (or something?) Even at the elementary school level, when kids start grade 1, parents are not supposed to walk their kids to school. GRADE 1! They feel that the kids will be safe because they are asssigned groups to walk in. After the latest incidents here (2 separate incidents of grade 1 girls being taken and killed in less than a week last November)the only thing that changed was there are some more adults on the streets as part of a patrol. But the thing I don't get is even in groups, I don't think it's much safer. Especially the last part of the group-the kid walk together until they get home, so the group gets smaller and smaller, until there's only 1 kid left. So when there's only a couple of kids, what's to stop someone from trying to take them? And if your kid is the last kid, what happens? I don't like it and I live in a small town. I can't imagine living in a big city and not being able to walk my kid to school.
That's it for now.:)
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
keep your fingers crossed
Oh I am just saying that because I am sooooo superstitious...but I haven't been laid out flat with the flu this week so I think? I'm ok. Having written that I'll probably get struck with something, some way, some how.....
I have to say that I am soooo very disappointed with the election and the (freak)new PM in Canada. Anybody who agrees with Bush and what he is doing should have his head examined, IMO. I sincerely hope that because he is in a minority government that he won't be able to reverse the laws that he said he was going to.
My brother Mike came for a visit and brought me some goodies that I'm enjoying-especially music! It has been fun listening to bunch of new music. Also peanut butter cups (huge box of them) and my sister in law (thanks Jackie, you are so smart!)made him bring a people magazine about the 20 years of sexist men. Nice.
Ok I don't have much more to say and everything I was thinking about writing has simply disappeared? so that's it for now.
xoxox
I have to say that I am soooo very disappointed with the election and the (freak)new PM in Canada. Anybody who agrees with Bush and what he is doing should have his head examined, IMO. I sincerely hope that because he is in a minority government that he won't be able to reverse the laws that he said he was going to.
My brother Mike came for a visit and brought me some goodies that I'm enjoying-especially music! It has been fun listening to bunch of new music. Also peanut butter cups (huge box of them) and my sister in law (thanks Jackie, you are so smart!)made him bring a people magazine about the 20 years of sexist men. Nice.
Ok I don't have much more to say and everything I was thinking about writing has simply disappeared? so that's it for now.
xoxox
Saturday, January 21, 2006
oh sh*t
Well, I've spent the last couple of days at home with Hiroki as he has Type A Influenza. What?! I said to the doctor, amazed when she told me as I had just been at her office twice in December to get him vaccinated against the flu. She said that that's why he had such light symptoms. Great.
Weds night he woke and his cough was an eerie sounding whooping type of cough. That and his breathing really freaked me out so I checked his temp and it was 39 degrees. Thankfully I still had some medicine Mom sent to me.
Thursday morning I went to school for the morning and came home to take him to the dr. We were there for about 2 hours, waiting with a whole bunch of people who looked really sick. (I was just hoping that we didn't get something from everyone else - I HATE going to the drs)
Hiroki didn't sleep all day Thursday (after having been up for a couple of hours the night before) and didn't go to bed until about 8:30. He as running around and playing, he did NOT look like a sick boy!
Yesterday all of his not sleeping caught up with him and he took a 2 hour nap in the morning. But that's it. He didn't sleep until after 9:30 again last night!
I hope he's feeling better, I have yet to take his temperature today (was still 38 yesterday)
Atsunobu's mom and I have been even wearing face masks to try to avoid getting sick. She just came and told me that she has a sore throat and a fever. Shit! Shit!She also was vaccinated. I was NOT! (sick when I was planning on going)ARGH!
I am hoping that it won't get to me (I am supposed to make treats with the grade 8s on Monday, and then I'm supposed to go to 2 kindergartens next week!) Also hoping that we won't pass it on to my brother who's coming for a visit today!
Argh!
Weds night he woke and his cough was an eerie sounding whooping type of cough. That and his breathing really freaked me out so I checked his temp and it was 39 degrees. Thankfully I still had some medicine Mom sent to me.
Thursday morning I went to school for the morning and came home to take him to the dr. We were there for about 2 hours, waiting with a whole bunch of people who looked really sick. (I was just hoping that we didn't get something from everyone else - I HATE going to the drs)
Hiroki didn't sleep all day Thursday (after having been up for a couple of hours the night before) and didn't go to bed until about 8:30. He as running around and playing, he did NOT look like a sick boy!
Yesterday all of his not sleeping caught up with him and he took a 2 hour nap in the morning. But that's it. He didn't sleep until after 9:30 again last night!
I hope he's feeling better, I have yet to take his temperature today (was still 38 yesterday)
Atsunobu's mom and I have been even wearing face masks to try to avoid getting sick. She just came and told me that she has a sore throat and a fever. Shit! Shit!She also was vaccinated. I was NOT! (sick when I was planning on going)ARGH!
I am hoping that it won't get to me (I am supposed to make treats with the grade 8s on Monday, and then I'm supposed to go to 2 kindergartens next week!) Also hoping that we won't pass it on to my brother who's coming for a visit today!
Argh!
Friday, January 20, 2006
I knew it
| You Are a Powdered Devil's Food Donut |
 A total sweetheart on the outside, you love to fool people with your innocent image. On the inside you're a little darker, richer, and more complex. You're a hedonist who demands more than one pleasure at a time. Decadent and daring, you test the limits of human indulgence. |
Monday, January 16, 2006
nothing really
Well, here I am at school, adding to my blog. I am taking some advice from another blogger, Andrea (thanks!) who says she updates her blog between classes and uses Word while at school. So I decided to give it a try, too. I tried once before only to find out that I didn’t have a floppy disk drive on my computer at home. (heh heh) I need some reburnable cds.
It’s not terribly cold now but last week was a first for me. It’s the first time I have seen snow here (not that much but still it was snow) and also the first time I have taught in a classroom with absolutely no heating in it while it was snowing outside. The high for one of the days last week was (brrrrr) 3 degrees. 3!! I know that that sounds warm for many people who may be reading this, but the whole no heater thing makes it very uncomfortable. I had 3 classes in a row, no stops to the heated teacher’s room (and even that could be warmer!) and so I absolutely froze!!! All of my muscles were sore from trying to stop shivering while in class. At least I could hold a couple of Hotshot type of things in my hands while I was walking around the class to get warm. I felt worse for the students, who are not allowed to walk around in class. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I also have a hard time getting what used to be my feet and are now just blocks of ice warm. I have gotten chillblains from the cold weather. Don’t know what that is? I didn’t know either. It started last year, my toes started to really hurt and it felt like my shoes were too small. Parts of my toes went red and hurt and got itchy whenever they were warm (means in the bath). It sucked. But this year I know that I can use a cream to stop them from being itchy (got red hot peppers in it) and now I have figured out that if I change my socks 2, 3 times a day, my feet aren’t as cold. (But feels strange, sitting in the staff room, changing my socks, too lazy to go to another (unheated) room to change ha ha). Ok, finished my whining about the weather.
I think influenza is going around here. Last week I was at 2 elementary schools. I didn’t ask about the flu at the first school but unfortunately at the second school I was at there were some students away due to the flu. Actually it happened to be the class I ate lunch with. I washed my hands a lot and hope that nothing will come out of it. Here at the jr hi, there are so far only 3 official cases of the flu but there is one homeroom with 9 students away!
Hiroki is growing up so much and is enjoying life. He would rather stay with us than go to school but I think he likes going to school and playing with his friends and teachers. He especially enjoyed the snow (even though he thought that it was dust hee hee) because his grandmother was worried about driving in the snow and he ended up having another day off.
Right now his thing he wants us to jump out (yelling BAAA!, the Japanese version of boo!)and scare him after he's gone to the bathroom. Don't know why it's such a thrill for him but it is. He knows we are there and waiting for him and still gets scared. (hee hee)
So now I am even busier than before in the evenings-I teach Mon, Tues, Weds, and Fri nights. I used to teach on Sat but I moved those classes to during the week so now I truly have weekends. I think that I’m going to try and start going to yoga again. I have been doing nothing fitness wise and that and my winter weight gain has led to me feeling extremely blob-like. I hate it. I think the only way I could exercise is to get up at around 5 (yah, like that’s going to happen) but Hiroki goes swimming every Sat morning and Atsunobu tries to be the one to take him there, so that frees me up for yoga. 1 class lasts about 2 hours! It’s not very aerobic or strenuous or anything but at least I would be moving and stretching which feels good.
I’m really looking forward to Mike’s visit here. Not really sure what we will do yet but it should be fun anyway. Hiroki was delighted yesterday when we moved the bed upstairs for Uncle Mike but for some reason he kept talking about ‘Banpa’ (Grandpa) sleeping there. I think he’s got it straight now.
Well I think that’s a long enough post about nothing! Hope you are all well!
xoxo
(ha ha now you really are updated on my exciting life!)
EDIT: Typing at school was good as I had lots of time to write what I wanted but the only worry is if I can stay awake long enough after putting Hiroki to sleep to add to the blog! My neck has a permanent crink in it as I'm trying not to put my head down on the pillow (but still end up nodding off!)
It’s not terribly cold now but last week was a first for me. It’s the first time I have seen snow here (not that much but still it was snow) and also the first time I have taught in a classroom with absolutely no heating in it while it was snowing outside. The high for one of the days last week was (brrrrr) 3 degrees. 3!! I know that that sounds warm for many people who may be reading this, but the whole no heater thing makes it very uncomfortable. I had 3 classes in a row, no stops to the heated teacher’s room (and even that could be warmer!) and so I absolutely froze!!! All of my muscles were sore from trying to stop shivering while in class. At least I could hold a couple of Hotshot type of things in my hands while I was walking around the class to get warm. I felt worse for the students, who are not allowed to walk around in class. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I also have a hard time getting what used to be my feet and are now just blocks of ice warm. I have gotten chillblains from the cold weather. Don’t know what that is? I didn’t know either. It started last year, my toes started to really hurt and it felt like my shoes were too small. Parts of my toes went red and hurt and got itchy whenever they were warm (means in the bath). It sucked. But this year I know that I can use a cream to stop them from being itchy (got red hot peppers in it) and now I have figured out that if I change my socks 2, 3 times a day, my feet aren’t as cold. (But feels strange, sitting in the staff room, changing my socks, too lazy to go to another (unheated) room to change ha ha). Ok, finished my whining about the weather.
I think influenza is going around here. Last week I was at 2 elementary schools. I didn’t ask about the flu at the first school but unfortunately at the second school I was at there were some students away due to the flu. Actually it happened to be the class I ate lunch with. I washed my hands a lot and hope that nothing will come out of it. Here at the jr hi, there are so far only 3 official cases of the flu but there is one homeroom with 9 students away!
Hiroki is growing up so much and is enjoying life. He would rather stay with us than go to school but I think he likes going to school and playing with his friends and teachers. He especially enjoyed the snow (even though he thought that it was dust hee hee) because his grandmother was worried about driving in the snow and he ended up having another day off.
Right now his thing he wants us to jump out (yelling BAAA!, the Japanese version of boo!)and scare him after he's gone to the bathroom. Don't know why it's such a thrill for him but it is. He knows we are there and waiting for him and still gets scared. (hee hee)
So now I am even busier than before in the evenings-I teach Mon, Tues, Weds, and Fri nights. I used to teach on Sat but I moved those classes to during the week so now I truly have weekends. I think that I’m going to try and start going to yoga again. I have been doing nothing fitness wise and that and my winter weight gain has led to me feeling extremely blob-like. I hate it. I think the only way I could exercise is to get up at around 5 (yah, like that’s going to happen) but Hiroki goes swimming every Sat morning and Atsunobu tries to be the one to take him there, so that frees me up for yoga. 1 class lasts about 2 hours! It’s not very aerobic or strenuous or anything but at least I would be moving and stretching which feels good.
I’m really looking forward to Mike’s visit here. Not really sure what we will do yet but it should be fun anyway. Hiroki was delighted yesterday when we moved the bed upstairs for Uncle Mike but for some reason he kept talking about ‘Banpa’ (Grandpa) sleeping there. I think he’s got it straight now.
Well I think that’s a long enough post about nothing! Hope you are all well!
xoxo
(ha ha now you really are updated on my exciting life!)
EDIT: Typing at school was good as I had lots of time to write what I wanted but the only worry is if I can stay awake long enough after putting Hiroki to sleep to add to the blog! My neck has a permanent crink in it as I'm trying not to put my head down on the pillow (but still end up nodding off!)
Saturday, January 14, 2006
hihair
We bought an electric hair-cutter thingy and used it on him. We started it before New Year's but he cried so much we had to stop (about halfway!) Last week I was able to finish it without to much trauma!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
what can i say?
I have been wanting to write again for such a long time. First of all, Happy New Year! I wish everyone all the best in 2006! (2006!!)
Winter vacation was , well, busy. We had a lot of cleaning to do for the end of the year. We made o-mochi, and we also went to the shrine for hatsumode. Good but waaay too many people. Hiroki and I got our own mikuji (kind of like fortune-telling or advice for the upcoming year) and they were exactly the same which seemed to be a rarity.
Hiroki has been growing so much, both physically and mentally. (I miss my baby-sniff!) He had to get a flu shot (2 actually) and was quite unhappy about the first one. For the second one, tho, he told the doctor "I'm not going to cry." and then didn't! I was so surprised!
He has been saying and doing so much other cute stuff that I couldn't possibly list them all (that could also read as-so sleepy, can't type much more.)
He gets weighed every month at school and for most of last year he was 11 kgs to about 12.5 kgs, but from Nov to Dec he gained a whole kg and was 13.5! (He still weighs less than most of the other kids we know.)
Ok can't write anymore, but I'll put in some pix. You should check flickr for other shots of Hiroki's sport day and also his Christmas Pageant (not what it's called but you can figure out what it is.)
love to all
Winter vacation was , well, busy. We had a lot of cleaning to do for the end of the year. We made o-mochi, and we also went to the shrine for hatsumode. Good but waaay too many people. Hiroki and I got our own mikuji (kind of like fortune-telling or advice for the upcoming year) and they were exactly the same which seemed to be a rarity.
Hiroki has been growing so much, both physically and mentally. (I miss my baby-sniff!) He had to get a flu shot (2 actually) and was quite unhappy about the first one. For the second one, tho, he told the doctor "I'm not going to cry." and then didn't! I was so surprised!
He has been saying and doing so much other cute stuff that I couldn't possibly list them all (that could also read as-so sleepy, can't type much more.)
He gets weighed every month at school and for most of last year he was 11 kgs to about 12.5 kgs, but from Nov to Dec he gained a whole kg and was 13.5! (He still weighs less than most of the other kids we know.)
Ok can't write anymore, but I'll put in some pix. You should check flickr for other shots of Hiroki's sport day and also his Christmas Pageant (not what it's called but you can figure out what it is.)
love to all
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Again
it's been too long between posts and I have a whole litany of excuses but anyway. I can't really hook up to the internet at work anymore so I thought I was so clever the other day when I typed it on word, saved it on to a floppy disk and brought it home only to remember THEN that I don't have a floppy disk drive. Of course, was my most profound writing in my life, ha ha.
Hiroki is doing well. I am trying to teach him that he can't ALWAYS get something, for example, when we go out shopping, so lately I have been tlling him that Christmas is coming and that he has to wait until then for something. So now he has a Christmas list. It's pretty funny. He wants (obvious ones) anything to do with trains or bullet trains. But some of his other choices are funny-like berries. Yes, berries. Not to eat or anything, he just likes round things, especially small round things. Berries, seeds from fruits, stuff like that he'll carry around all day, and want to sleep with them at night, only to wake up in the middle of the night to ask me where it is. We've gone to sleep with unripe mini tomatoes, because he loves green. Thankfully they've never squished! Other kids sleep with teddy bears, but not my kid. He sleeps with whatever strikes his fancy that day. Trains (big hard metal ones) books about trains, papers, pamphlets, ads of trains, the aforementioned berries, or anything round, and tonight he said he wanted to sleep with a huge bucket of Duplo blocks. I told him no way and we comprised on just some of the blocks (the ones used to make a train!) Anyway, back to his x-mas list - tonight he was remembering when we went camping this summer. Apparently the bunk bed ladders made quite an impression on him because he wants me to buy him a BIG ladder. Uh, yeah, I'll get right on that. I can't remember the rest of his list but it's all stuff like that.
I, on the other hand, am not so well. I have caught a cold 3 times this month (I don't even know how that's possible!) And last weekend I got me a big ass bruise, uh, well on my big ass. I was going down the stairs and slipped, taking the fast way down. Between that and coughing, my ribs on 1 side aren't terribly pleased with me.
Anyway, please take a look at this documentary. It's pretty funny (and lengthy! 8 min-but worth it!)
Good night!
Hiroki is doing well. I am trying to teach him that he can't ALWAYS get something, for example, when we go out shopping, so lately I have been tlling him that Christmas is coming and that he has to wait until then for something. So now he has a Christmas list. It's pretty funny. He wants (obvious ones) anything to do with trains or bullet trains. But some of his other choices are funny-like berries. Yes, berries. Not to eat or anything, he just likes round things, especially small round things. Berries, seeds from fruits, stuff like that he'll carry around all day, and want to sleep with them at night, only to wake up in the middle of the night to ask me where it is. We've gone to sleep with unripe mini tomatoes, because he loves green. Thankfully they've never squished! Other kids sleep with teddy bears, but not my kid. He sleeps with whatever strikes his fancy that day. Trains (big hard metal ones) books about trains, papers, pamphlets, ads of trains, the aforementioned berries, or anything round, and tonight he said he wanted to sleep with a huge bucket of Duplo blocks. I told him no way and we comprised on just some of the blocks (the ones used to make a train!) Anyway, back to his x-mas list - tonight he was remembering when we went camping this summer. Apparently the bunk bed ladders made quite an impression on him because he wants me to buy him a BIG ladder. Uh, yeah, I'll get right on that. I can't remember the rest of his list but it's all stuff like that.
I, on the other hand, am not so well. I have caught a cold 3 times this month (I don't even know how that's possible!) And last weekend I got me a big ass bruise, uh, well on my big ass. I was going down the stairs and slipped, taking the fast way down. Between that and coughing, my ribs on 1 side aren't terribly pleased with me.
Anyway, please take a look at this documentary. It's pretty funny (and lengthy! 8 min-but worth it!)
Good night!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
long time no post
Well, I haven't been very good at updating, even tho there's so many things I have wanted to say. I wanted to talk about so many things, like the still moving fish that my mother-in-law ended up ordering at a restaurant, thankfully it was her and not me, I couldn't possibly have eaten it. Also, I wanted to talk about how I'm reading some English books to kids once a month now. I talked to somebody in the library in August about volunteering to read Eng books to little kids. The librarian told me that some committee was taking care of it but that she would happily pass my name along to that committee. Someone phoned me later that week and said that they were interested but the head of the committee wanted to check me out first and that they would be meeting in September sometime and could I please come then. Okay. Sometime in October they give me a call and say they're meeting. So I show up to the meeting, and basically get ignored while they do their business. (A couple of members were saying that maybe they should talk to me first but the head decided that I would have to wait.) They talked to me a little bit and then say okay, get up and show us what you do. I was thinking a little notice would have been nice, but okay, whatever. Anyway, they decided that they liked me well enough to let me volunteer with them and now I'm a committee member! I did my first reading in October, and my second one today. I'm also doing something for the Christmas party, too. I will be reading something on the second Saturday of every month. (They put it in the local newspaper to get more people to come.)
Well, that's it for now.
Well, that's it for now.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
Anpanman_1
He watches anpanman at school-he was so happy to have his picture with him! (A Japanese cartoon hero-sweet bean paste bread man who apparently throws his bits of his face at his enemy, Germ-man!)
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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