Let's see if I can get this right...
Friday night I went to Rehab, this bar on Kokusai street (not actual rehab). I walked there with Nick and Tony and seeing that Nick had already gotten a head start on the drinking in his room, I was more accurately walking with "Drunk-Nick." Also known as, "Loud-Nick." Either way, it's really funny when he's drunk. We met up with Jillian and her BF who is visiting for a week or two and Aika. And Paul. I keep forgetting about him. He showed up later, though. Anyway, we had a good time drinking and talking and making fun of Nick's awkward/loud combination of the two. To his credit, he got a Japanese girl's number (without falling out of his chair like I had hoped...) Aika and I are very surprised and disappointed that he managed to get a Japanese girl before we got a (Japanese) boy.
Saturday I went shopping with Aika. I didn't buy anything exciting though since I haven't been paid yet. (Friday! Friday!) Saturday night I went to a salsa club called Salsatina's. Which is great, because I dance salsa. Oh wait, my body is more suited for napping, I forgot. I guess going to a place that specializes in salsa and not napping was a bad idea. It was fun, actually. I didn't get there until about midnight. I took a taxi and met up with Julia at the monorail station. Then I got to see Rudy and Wonton. Yay!! I was so happy to see them. I even danced with them (and Julia) a couple times. But I turned down the damn military guys who took it a lot harder than I thought they should have. They're such girls. All in all it was a fun night, but I didn't get to bed until 5am. So I was a little tired the next day.
Sunday I spent most of the day sleeping. And watching youtube. Mike, Ayaka, and Yurie called while they were waiting in a three hour line for a roller coaster ride, so I got to chat with them for a bit. Then I went shopping with Aika again. I bought conditioner. Wooooo. I had to walk to Kokusai street to get on the monorail to get to her house. On the way to Kokusai street I sort of took a wrong turn and ended up backtracking a giant circles worth of walking. My 35 minute walk took about an hour. Lame. But now I can easily get to Aika's! So that's good.
Monday I....did something. Oh yeah, I went with Tony to Shurijo castle. It rained on us right when we got there, so that sucked. But whatever, it was still cool to see the castle. We went to this tomb thing too, but it was super lame. I bought mango ice cream. Yummm. What else? I complained the entire walk back to the monorail station from the castle and to our apartments from the monorail station. Poor Tony.
I talked to my parents on Skype once, Laura twice, and my sister once within this past weekend. Yay for internet in my room!!
Tuesday I went studying with Aika, which really meant talking a lot at the different places we said we were going to study. I bought a book to study my Japanese because I want to take the level three Japanese proficiency test thing in December. Then Aika decided we should go drinking. I spent the night over at Aika's in her brother's old room. He's a (not gay?) hair dresser in Tokyo, so his room has these two mannequin doll heads on a shelf up near the ceiling. Only a little creepy. Thankfully Aika's mom volunteered to keep them in her room for the night so I could sleep. Aika tried to assure me that the hair didn't grow....I wasn't sure how that bit of information was supposed to make me feel better. Anyway, Aika's mom dropped us off at a small bar nearby. It was really fun. Aika's hairdresser and some guy came over and very loudly tried to talk to me. She kept saying, "I want to study English!" I swear she said it about 5 times. But I had a really good time and the owner gave us both a free drink. Yay for free drinks! He also tried to talk to me in English, but he wasn't very good. "nana-ten" is what he would say (I think). It means he only scored 7 out of 100 on the English test or something. He was really nice with the free drink, though, so I forgave him.
Today I woke up early enough to get to school by 8 because that's when Aika had to be there. I didn't have to go into school, but I did have to get ready to go back out (instead of back to bed like I had wanted) because I was going to meet up with a couple girls on Kokusai street so I had to leave my apartment around 9:30am. I've basically been at Kokusai street from 10ish until 4ish. I ate foo-chanpuru, did purikura, and hung out at Starbucks. We also did some shopping, but again, I didn't buy anything. No money!!! Argh.
Tomorrow it's back to school. Nooooooooooo..... . . . . . oh well. Only two days and then another weekend! YESH!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Yeah yeah
So I still love Okinawa. Quick update before I forget to do this again...
I've had classes all week and in the morning I've had to say "good morning" in Japanese to the high school students. There's this one teacher that stops a couple students every once in a while and forces them to introduce him/herself to me...which is just as awkward for me as it is for them but they don't realize it.
I know no English grammar. For real. But I'm studying, so that's good/hugely delayed. I've had to wake up a kid in class once, otherwise I just stand there still. And question whether what I'm saying in English sounds okay or not. I felt a little bad waking up the kid in class though because I think he's just too smart for the class. Um, wow, I feel like I haven't really done anything exciting this week. Hold on, it'll come back to me....
Oh, well I had a Japanese class. Except it was more for the other three TA's so I just had to say things in Japanese for them. Kinda like what I do for my English classes except the opposite! Wow, I'm good at being a tape player. Anyway, the class was fun. We were taught by the VP's wife. I now feel like I know almost the entire family that runs the school. I probably shouldn't tell her about her son's disappointing inability to stay awake...
Um, speaking of the very important people, I also saw the Principle. He asked if I am homesick. I'm not. He was really nice, too. I think that was right after one of the kids yelled down the hall at me...hmm. So yeah, it was a fun day.
I remember something...I talked to the kokusai department kids and shared some chocolate with them, but not before I made them tell me their names. Now when I see them in the hall they quiz me! I'm glad they at least talk to me.
Today I went to the bank and was completely useless with any Japanese knowledge which was okay because there was a woman there to help us out...even though she didn't speak English. I think Japanese people are way nicer about our not speaking Japanese skills than Americans are about people who can't speak English. I only had one class today, and it was boring. I saw Toshihiro and Hiroshi though. But just in passing. And now I'm going to be correcting some extra essays once in a while in order to help out the Kokusai department. Aaaaand, I also agreed to help this (16 year old) girl prepare for the SAT's. I'm such a helpful person. Does that sound right...?
Sorry about the random way I'm typing. It's more like whatever I'm thinking than anything. ps. I'm listening to Jonas Brothers still. I'm not sure why. I watched 5 episodes of House last night, too. Which would explain why I didn't get to bed until late. By late I mean like, 11ish. 10pm is my bedtime.
This weekend is Silver Week so I get a long vacation. I hope to go visit some other islands and just kinda chill.
Anyway, this post is boring. Bye.
I've had classes all week and in the morning I've had to say "good morning" in Japanese to the high school students. There's this one teacher that stops a couple students every once in a while and forces them to introduce him/herself to me...which is just as awkward for me as it is for them but they don't realize it.
I know no English grammar. For real. But I'm studying, so that's good/hugely delayed. I've had to wake up a kid in class once, otherwise I just stand there still. And question whether what I'm saying in English sounds okay or not. I felt a little bad waking up the kid in class though because I think he's just too smart for the class. Um, wow, I feel like I haven't really done anything exciting this week. Hold on, it'll come back to me....
Oh, well I had a Japanese class. Except it was more for the other three TA's so I just had to say things in Japanese for them. Kinda like what I do for my English classes except the opposite! Wow, I'm good at being a tape player. Anyway, the class was fun. We were taught by the VP's wife. I now feel like I know almost the entire family that runs the school. I probably shouldn't tell her about her son's disappointing inability to stay awake...
Um, speaking of the very important people, I also saw the Principle. He asked if I am homesick. I'm not. He was really nice, too. I think that was right after one of the kids yelled down the hall at me...hmm. So yeah, it was a fun day.
I remember something...I talked to the kokusai department kids and shared some chocolate with them, but not before I made them tell me their names. Now when I see them in the hall they quiz me! I'm glad they at least talk to me.
Today I went to the bank and was completely useless with any Japanese knowledge which was okay because there was a woman there to help us out...even though she didn't speak English. I think Japanese people are way nicer about our not speaking Japanese skills than Americans are about people who can't speak English. I only had one class today, and it was boring. I saw Toshihiro and Hiroshi though. But just in passing. And now I'm going to be correcting some extra essays once in a while in order to help out the Kokusai department. Aaaaand, I also agreed to help this (16 year old) girl prepare for the SAT's. I'm such a helpful person. Does that sound right...?
Sorry about the random way I'm typing. It's more like whatever I'm thinking than anything. ps. I'm listening to Jonas Brothers still. I'm not sure why. I watched 5 episodes of House last night, too. Which would explain why I didn't get to bed until late. By late I mean like, 11ish. 10pm is my bedtime.
This weekend is Silver Week so I get a long vacation. I hope to go visit some other islands and just kinda chill.
Anyway, this post is boring. Bye.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
OKINAWA
Oh my god! I can update all about my life in Okinawa now. YESH!
This is more or less my email to Erin, but I feel it is a good enough summary of everything that has been going on, and really, what's the point of retyping the same thing? Enjoy.
About my stay in Okinawa. First, about the first couple days. When we first arrived we were picked up by Ric. It was night time, but he drove us around to show us some important things which I promptly forgot because I was tired. Then we got our rooms. We live in apartments right next to the school. Literally. It's basically on school grounds. So we randomly picked our rooms. There are two rooms on the 10th floor, which is the top floor. Then one room is available on the 8th and one on the 6th. The one on the 6th floor is the smallest, the 8th floor room is fine, and the two rooms on the 10th floor actually used to be one room, so one is quite big and one is teeny tiny but it gets good internet connection and the a/c unit is good and new. I am in the big room on the 10th floor! Yay!! I was so happy. It took a bit of cleaning, but I really like having all that space. I brought a ton of stuff.
The next day we figured out banking stuff, taxes stuff, and other boring stuff. Then at night Ric drove us around the southern half of the island. We still had jet lag and I had a horrible horrible headache and really didn't feel well. He also brought us to Nitori which is a good place to buy things for our apartments. It was good to go there, but I wanted to slam my head into the wall. Or throw up. I couldn't decide.
The next day he drove us up north. We saw some sweet beaches and then went to the giant aquarium and botanical garden. It was so cool! I love that aquarium. And the botanical garden is pretty awesome too. We also went swimming at the beach there. The water is so nice! That night we went to eat and saw some eisa drumming from the restaurant. We also tried awamori which is strong alcohol. I ate squid ink with noodles. It turned our tongues and teeth black for a while! Then we stayed in a hotel for the night because the next day Ric drove us around the entire rest of the island. I literally spent 12 hours in a van looking at pretty beaches.
The day after that we bought our cellphones! Yay! I love my phone. It is pink. It took foreeeeever to get that phone, though. But I don't care. I love it I love it I love it.
Okay, the days between our trip around the island and starting work are a little fuzzy. Um. Some highlights of things I remember: I ate pig heart. There's a giant turtle on the roof of one of the buildings near our apartments. I can cook Okonomiyaki. We went to American village and I saw my friend Julia. My supervisor took us all out for dinner and drinks (he's seriously the coolest). Oh! We went to another eisa festival thingy and drank while we followed these kids around (the ones doing the drumming obviously, not just random kids). We went to an all you can eat/drink type place that rules way more than any similar type of place in the States. That was a TON of fun. Nick doesn't remember some of it. I've walked to Kokusai street a couple times. That's the international street. It is pretty sweet, especially at night. I also talked to my friends Mike and Taichi on the phone for a long time.
So then this past week I have been working. I've introduced myself probably 8 million times now. "Good morning. I'm Andrea. I'm from Minnesota in America. I graduated from St. Ben's/St. John's. I was an English major. My hobbies are reading, writing, and traveling." That's basically what I say.
I have gone to at least three or four meetings here. Two of which were longer than 2 hours. And no, it was not translated for us at all. I think it must be some sort of joke.
In the mornings we have to help the kids who clean (sweep and pick up garbage). By helping I mean my supervisor let's me off easy and I just watch the kids who came late. Their punishment is to clean the stairwell. I'm not sure how that is worse than sweeping outside...but I feel awkward just standing there. Actually, I think I made a friend with one of the girls I had to watch, so that's nice.
For class I just stand there and read whatever Ohama-sensei (my supervisor) wants me to read in English. I'm a tape recorder. It's not difficult, but I get bored. A couple girls have introduced themselves to me, though. Oh yeah, I forgot...I had to help give a test a couple days before real work started and one of the girls I gave the test to also seems to like me. She always waves when she sees me in the hall. I'm glad she likes me because she's the VP's daughter!
So yeah, classes aren't too exciting. I watched some kid in the back of class clip one of those black paper clip type deals to his elbow. (they clip paper, but not actually a paper clip...you know?) I had to try really hard not to laugh.
For lunch I buy cheap bento box. It's awesome. And did I mention cheap? This makes it twice as awesome.
Back to school type things....Um, two days ago we had "Open Campus." This means nothing to me except I had one class in the afternoon. It was so potential students could have a look at the school and see if they want to apply here. The high school department didn't have much to do though, because the high school gets all of its students from the junior high. So the junior high department had been busy and that's who I helped. I work in the high school, otherwise.
I also have to help with SIBA on Tuesdays in the morning. Nick does too. I will have to teach for two class periods by myself. Yay! I'm actually looking forward to this. It's the voacational school that is connected with Okisho. But they're way more relaxed. This guy, Mark, has the most calming voice I've ever heard. We went over to SIBA to check it out and introduce ourselves to the important people. Then a couple days later I had to meet with Mark again but this time at the radio station. They make tapes for practice tests for some of the kids learning English. I'm the girl voice! It was kinda weird doing that. Mark was the guy voice. I had to speak really slowly. They said I did a good job, but how would I know if they're telling the truth?
OK, ummm...what else? Last night I ate pig bone and pig tongue. Did I mention I ate pig heart here too? I'm trying new things. Still hate tofu. But I tried to eat some again the other night.
So I've seen a bunch of the kids from SAP (the camp I worked at these past two summers). Some of them are too cool to talk to the new teachers, but a lot of them seem happy to see us. This one kid, Kosuke, yelled "ANDREA!" and jumped over a table the first time he saw me. Literally. Scared me just a little. I saw him again the other day when I was bored and walking around. He is so loud. A couple of the girls have visited me in my office type area and there are some kids from camp in my classes. When I walk down the hall I can hear them talk about me in Japanese, the kids I don't know. It's kinda funny seeing their different reactions. I get, "hosoi!" a lot. It means "slim."
Today I got a package from Laura! I was so excited. I shared some of my chocolate already, though. I'm trying to remember the names of students on my floor and it's easiest to introduce myself if I have some form of American candy.
Oh yeah, two nights ago I went to a beer festival with my supervisor and a bunch of other people. It was sweet. We watched fireworks, too.
Anyway, I know this is long, so I'll stop now. Just know (for those of you skimming to the bottom) that I am having a really good time :) ...and I miss Laura and my family and all my friends. Yeah.
This is more or less my email to Erin, but I feel it is a good enough summary of everything that has been going on, and really, what's the point of retyping the same thing? Enjoy.
About my stay in Okinawa. First, about the first couple days. When we first arrived we were picked up by Ric. It was night time, but he drove us around to show us some important things which I promptly forgot because I was tired. Then we got our rooms. We live in apartments right next to the school. Literally. It's basically on school grounds. So we randomly picked our rooms. There are two rooms on the 10th floor, which is the top floor. Then one room is available on the 8th and one on the 6th. The one on the 6th floor is the smallest, the 8th floor room is fine, and the two rooms on the 10th floor actually used to be one room, so one is quite big and one is teeny tiny but it gets good internet connection and the a/c unit is good and new. I am in the big room on the 10th floor! Yay!! I was so happy. It took a bit of cleaning, but I really like having all that space. I brought a ton of stuff.
The next day we figured out banking stuff, taxes stuff, and other boring stuff. Then at night Ric drove us around the southern half of the island. We still had jet lag and I had a horrible horrible headache and really didn't feel well. He also brought us to Nitori which is a good place to buy things for our apartments. It was good to go there, but I wanted to slam my head into the wall. Or throw up. I couldn't decide.
The next day he drove us up north. We saw some sweet beaches and then went to the giant aquarium and botanical garden. It was so cool! I love that aquarium. And the botanical garden is pretty awesome too. We also went swimming at the beach there. The water is so nice! That night we went to eat and saw some eisa drumming from the restaurant. We also tried awamori which is strong alcohol. I ate squid ink with noodles. It turned our tongues and teeth black for a while! Then we stayed in a hotel for the night because the next day Ric drove us around the entire rest of the island. I literally spent 12 hours in a van looking at pretty beaches.
The day after that we bought our cellphones! Yay! I love my phone. It is pink. It took foreeeeever to get that phone, though. But I don't care. I love it I love it I love it.
Okay, the days between our trip around the island and starting work are a little fuzzy. Um. Some highlights of things I remember: I ate pig heart. There's a giant turtle on the roof of one of the buildings near our apartments. I can cook Okonomiyaki. We went to American village and I saw my friend Julia. My supervisor took us all out for dinner and drinks (he's seriously the coolest). Oh! We went to another eisa festival thingy and drank while we followed these kids around (the ones doing the drumming obviously, not just random kids). We went to an all you can eat/drink type place that rules way more than any similar type of place in the States. That was a TON of fun. Nick doesn't remember some of it. I've walked to Kokusai street a couple times. That's the international street. It is pretty sweet, especially at night. I also talked to my friends Mike and Taichi on the phone for a long time.
So then this past week I have been working. I've introduced myself probably 8 million times now. "Good morning. I'm Andrea. I'm from Minnesota in America. I graduated from St. Ben's/St. John's. I was an English major. My hobbies are reading, writing, and traveling." That's basically what I say.
I have gone to at least three or four meetings here. Two of which were longer than 2 hours. And no, it was not translated for us at all. I think it must be some sort of joke.
In the mornings we have to help the kids who clean (sweep and pick up garbage). By helping I mean my supervisor let's me off easy and I just watch the kids who came late. Their punishment is to clean the stairwell. I'm not sure how that is worse than sweeping outside...but I feel awkward just standing there. Actually, I think I made a friend with one of the girls I had to watch, so that's nice.
For class I just stand there and read whatever Ohama-sensei (my supervisor) wants me to read in English. I'm a tape recorder. It's not difficult, but I get bored. A couple girls have introduced themselves to me, though. Oh yeah, I forgot...I had to help give a test a couple days before real work started and one of the girls I gave the test to also seems to like me. She always waves when she sees me in the hall. I'm glad she likes me because she's the VP's daughter!
So yeah, classes aren't too exciting. I watched some kid in the back of class clip one of those black paper clip type deals to his elbow. (they clip paper, but not actually a paper clip...you know?) I had to try really hard not to laugh.
For lunch I buy cheap bento box. It's awesome. And did I mention cheap? This makes it twice as awesome.
Back to school type things....Um, two days ago we had "Open Campus." This means nothing to me except I had one class in the afternoon. It was so potential students could have a look at the school and see if they want to apply here. The high school department didn't have much to do though, because the high school gets all of its students from the junior high. So the junior high department had been busy and that's who I helped. I work in the high school, otherwise.
I also have to help with SIBA on Tuesdays in the morning. Nick does too. I will have to teach for two class periods by myself. Yay! I'm actually looking forward to this. It's the voacational school that is connected with Okisho. But they're way more relaxed. This guy, Mark, has the most calming voice I've ever heard. We went over to SIBA to check it out and introduce ourselves to the important people. Then a couple days later I had to meet with Mark again but this time at the radio station. They make tapes for practice tests for some of the kids learning English. I'm the girl voice! It was kinda weird doing that. Mark was the guy voice. I had to speak really slowly. They said I did a good job, but how would I know if they're telling the truth?
OK, ummm...what else? Last night I ate pig bone and pig tongue. Did I mention I ate pig heart here too? I'm trying new things. Still hate tofu. But I tried to eat some again the other night.
So I've seen a bunch of the kids from SAP (the camp I worked at these past two summers). Some of them are too cool to talk to the new teachers, but a lot of them seem happy to see us. This one kid, Kosuke, yelled "ANDREA!" and jumped over a table the first time he saw me. Literally. Scared me just a little. I saw him again the other day when I was bored and walking around. He is so loud. A couple of the girls have visited me in my office type area and there are some kids from camp in my classes. When I walk down the hall I can hear them talk about me in Japanese, the kids I don't know. It's kinda funny seeing their different reactions. I get, "hosoi!" a lot. It means "slim."
Today I got a package from Laura! I was so excited. I shared some of my chocolate already, though. I'm trying to remember the names of students on my floor and it's easiest to introduce myself if I have some form of American candy.
Oh yeah, two nights ago I went to a beer festival with my supervisor and a bunch of other people. It was sweet. We watched fireworks, too.
Anyway, I know this is long, so I'll stop now. Just know (for those of you skimming to the bottom) that I am having a really good time :) ...and I miss Laura and my family and all my friends. Yeah.
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