Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her.
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| We're Not in Japan Anymore... Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her. |
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Monday, September 29, 2003 Hi again, everyone! I got back about 12 hours ago from my short visit home to Michigan for Marisha and Arnel's wedding. I had such a good time! Even though I was only home for 36 hours... The wedding was lots of fun, I got to see so many people I've been missing (Mom, Jeremy, Misha and Becca, the list is long!), and I was even able to pick up a few things for my kids at school here. I took several pictures, but I haven't even loaded them into my computer yet. :P When I got back at 6:15 last night, the first thing I did was take a shower! Ugh... it felt good to be clean again! Then I made myself some dinner and unpacked my suitcase. I went to bed pretty early, too. So not much got done last night. (: But today, perhaps, I can upload tons of pictures and get some pages ready. Yay. (: I don't have much going on today-just another meeting with the young girl in the speech contest. (: And sitting around at home sounds kinda nice to me today... Jeremy drove around 1,780 miles in 57 hours... I wonder how many miles I walked in that same amount of time...? Cuz my feet are sooo sore! I might just have to treat myself to a nice soak in that little tub. Stay tuned! I'll write a bit about the wedding and stuff soon. (: posted by Katie Suttles | 4:43 PM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, September 25, 2003 ****WARNING! Loooooooooooong post ahead!**** Alrighty! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, after the Sports Day practice. I had to worry about getting my bank card to work, and some other things, so.... sorry! (: Today was pretty bland, so I can dedicate this post to Wednesday's action. (: And just to ease your worried minds, I DID get my cash card to work. Yatta! So now I can access my big bucks stored away at Suruga Bank. Hoo-rah. So, Sports Day practice! Despite the foreboding sky, I left my umbrella at home. I thought maybe this 'typhoon rain' had swept past us over the weekend. And Tuesday here was GORGEOUS. I'm so sad I didn't have access to my money that day, so I could go strolling around and shopping. ): Anyways... it wasn't raining when I left, so I left the umbrella--maybe being hopeful for the kids, too. About 8AM I got to school and everyone headed out to the field/grounds/track thing in the center of the school grounds. All the kids brought their chairs. (: We teachers got a little tent/tarp thing to sit under, with tables and everything. I'll get my pictures up soon, so you can see. So they practiced some of the formalities; moving to the center of the feild, standing a certain distance apart, bowing to the principal and vice-principal and etc.... I guess there were some 'group meetings' too, and then everyone 'streched' as a group to this really lame piano music. (: (You could tell the kids thought it was totally lame, too... hehe) By now, it's about 9AM, if you can believe it! So then back to their seats, and they all shuffled around, and then the practice race started. Only the first year students, though... the "7th graders". First the boys raced, around about 3/4 of the track. Then the girls... but they only ran about 1/2 of the track...? Guess it's cuz they are 'weaker' and stuff. :P Oh well. I'm not here to debate taht kinda stuff... I'm just teaching English! Then the second year students ran their relays; girls first, then the boys. Each set of races lasted about 5 minutes, and with 'set up' time in between... so now it's about 9:30. So then the first year kids all get up again and take the field while the second years sit back down. They start adjusting themselves into three long lines, and three of the boys each run up to the teachers' table and grab three different colored shirts and head back to the lines. I was still a little lost, until I saw the kids standing shoulder-to-shoulder and spacing themselves apart, then bending over... It was time for the first years' special athletic event! So the three boys with the T-shirts? They climb up on the students' backs and walk along them! When the first students have been walked over, they rush to the end of the line, so the kid on their backs makes it all the way to the far end of the field! Then guess what! They head back to the begining! It was really something! I got it on video. (: Hehehe After that, it was about 9:45, and the third year students got to do their race. At about 10, they had all finished, and some of the boys starting to haul out all this random gear from another tent near the track. They bought out long bamboo poles, several car tires, a bunch of basketballs, and some orange road pylons.... they put all of this stuff within a circle on the center of the track. Five minutes later, the girls (in seperate groups, by classes, I think...) were all standing around the square edge of the field. A few minutes later, someone shot off the pistol-starter-gun and all the girls ran like crazy and grabbed what they could! It was kinda intense. (: So they dragged their prizes back to their area of the track, and I was all excited to see what would happen next! But a few minutes later... the girls took all the stuff back to the circle, and the boys put it away... what a let-down! I wonder what will really happen on the real sports day...? So right about now it was around 10:15... and it started to rain! It wasn't too bad, so they teachers kept the kids outside, which seemed kinda mean to me... ): But it let up after about 5 minutes, so the second year students began to prepare for their special athletic event: a 40-legged race! Or something similar. (: There are about 39 students in the class, they tie all their feet together (like we'd do at a three-legged race) and then they have to march down the field together! It's really something to watch them all work together! (: I got a bit of video of that, too. (: At about 10:35, it started to rain again! But 5 mintues later, the boys were all gathered around the circle on the field, getting ready to start the next activity anyway. It's something like a 'chicken fight' that we do in the States... putting someone on your shoulders and having them try to push someone doing the same thing off. Except they had three boys standing together, and a fourth boy put his feet in their hands and sat on their shoulders.... I've got pictures, so you can see how this worked out. (: So there were about 10 of these 'groups' and they all stood around the circle and waited for the pistol... in the rain! Eventually it went off and they all went after each other! And it was like the rain was waiting for the shot, too, cuz it just started to pour at this point! About five minutes later-about 10:45-we had to retreat! So everyone grabbed what they could and we hauled it into the gym. (: By 11 everyone was back in the school, and it was still raining hard, so the teachers had to adjust the schedule. So from 11:10 to 11:30 they had lunch, and from 11:30 to 11:55 they had "lunch break." :P hehe At 12 we met in the gym so they could practice their positioning for the rest of the program, since we only got through about half of it that morning. This part was kinda boring... I spent the majority of the next hour and a half leaning against a wall. But the kids kept me entertained. (: I'd watch them fooling around and they'd catch me and start giggling like crazy. (: I got a bunch of waves and "Kya-sa-rin sensei!"s too. (: They're so fun. (: Well, that's about it, really... and this has been another massive post, so I appologize! I'll try to get my pictures up soon so you can see what I saw on Wednesday. (: And I've started on my Festival pages, so maybe they'll be ready soon. But some of you may know that I am headed home (yes, Michigan home!) this weekend for Marisha and Arnel's wedding! I'll really only be around for about 36 hours... sigh... but it's better than missing out on the big event! I'll be back Monday evening, and I have Tuesday off of school, so perhaps I'll get some stuff done that day. (I'm sure I'll bring lots of pictures back from the wedding!!) So stay tuned, loyal readers! I shall return! Til then, have a wonderful weekend! posted by Katie Suttles | 2:09 AM Comments-[ comments.] Monday, September 22, 2003 Rar... I can't decide if today ended up being a good day or a bad one. It did stop raining in time for school, which was nice. But I underestimated the chilliness outside, and should have worn a warmer shirt. Sheesh... one of the few days I've been here that I would have been comfortable wearing a long-sleved shirt. Well, I only had one class today... which is good and bad. Less work is always nice, right? But I always feel bad if I leave early, so I feel a little obligated to sit around on my butt doing nothing til about 3pm. Well, luckily, around 10-ish one of the teachers I met at my little party last week called. Her student was the girl who wrote about "Brissett" at the speech contest. At the party, I told her that I would be happy to help her in any way, so she decided to take me up on the offer! She said she would bring the girl to Dai Ni around 3:40 that day. So, there, I had something to do! Too bad it was still about 5 hours away... sigh... But I had a few things to do for my Dai Ni classes, and I found a few exercises to practice with her. That passed the time relatively well... good thing I bring my paper to school too, huh? So they showed up about 3:45 and we went to a conference room and I had her perform the speech again so I could hear her weaknesses. She still needs some pronounciation work, so I helped her out on a few words: foreigner, Japanese, sister, preconceived, etc. She is really eager to perfect her speech, so she was really intent on learning from me... which was great. Next, I read her speech one line at a time, and she repeated me, and that was recorded. Then we went over the words she should try to emphasize. Then they got a recording of just me reading the speech. Then I had her read it again with her new notes, and her coach and I making comments. Then I showed her the tongue twisters I found for her to try. (: We read them together, then I recorded them for her. I hope they help! Personally, I think it's a great idea... I found some repeating "F" and "TH" and "R/L" twisters, which are sounds most Japanese usually need help with. I also showed her the "Dear John" punctuation letter, to help her see how important emphasis is in English. If you aren't familiar with that, I'll see if I can get around to putting it up on the site. (: It's really cool. So that was really fun. I offered my services to them again, and Yuko-sensei said they'd certianly call me again! I'm happy... I really liked helping her out. I helped Sasaki-san with her speech a little, too, and really enjoyed that. I guess it's the one thing I can do here that I know for certain I'm doing right... telling people how to speak English, that is. Well, I found out about a place to buy cheap Shinkansen tickets, but I think they closed at 6 today... It was just about 5pm when I finished my 'session', so I decided to haul it to an ATM and get money so I could try to get a ticket. (Tomorrow is another National Holiday, so the office will be closed.) Well, I came across a Suruga Bank ATM... but there was no "English Guide" button... sigh.... and there's so much kanji... and there were people standing around, so I didn't feel brave enough to try it on my own (their machines SPEAK--everyone would 'hear' me banking...) or ask for help.... So I got dejected and went home. But then I found some fire again, and decided to find a Post Office ATM, cuz they have English guides--even if I couldn't make it to the Shinkansen ticket office in time... at least I would have figured out how to access my money, which would be one plus. So I tried to find this random PO that looked like it was closest to my apartment, according to the map. No luck.. and it was getting dark. (It was almost 6pm, after all. Sigh...) So I decided to just bike out to the main PO, waaaaaaay far away, because I KNOW they are open late, and I figured for CERTAIN they'd have English guide ATM's there. So off I went. As I bike out there, I pass a big Suruga Bank building. Yeah... but it was past business hours, so I just kept on my way. I get to the PO, and indeed there was a small group of ATM machines, with "English Guide" buttons waiting there for me. <3 I stepped up and put my card in. And got it spat back out. It said it couldn't process it. 'Maaaybe... this isn't a Suruga Bank card accepting machine...?' I hoped... and tried another. Same thing. CRAP! So I got pissed and headed back. Just for the heck of it, I decided to give the bank a shot. Of course, no one was around, but there was small army of ATM's waiting for me. No English guide... but then, I was the only one there this time, so I decided to push some buttons. I got it to ask me to insert my card and enter my pin. Yeah... it got spat back out again here, too. By now I was just angry and frustrated and depressed... so I pedaled my way home... So I don't know what to do. Tomorrow is a National Holiday, so the bank won't be open to ask for help. I doubt City Hall would be open for me to ask Miwako or Ms. Mochizuki for help. Even if I could ask them, I doubt anything could get done tomorrow; I'm betting I have to visit the bank to fix this... Maybe I needed to call to activate the card or something..? ... sigh... Well, I did finally break into the last box of junk that got left behind. Go figure I found a handful of 'clearfiles' the day after I bought at stack... ugh... at least I only paid 100yen. God bless that store. I found a lot of interesting stuff... which is nice. (: But I still haven't gotten to talk to Jeremy... and I'm getting tired.... ): And Inuyasha was preempted by a Conan special... At least I don't have school tomorrow. Maybe I can fix up those festival pages, and put that "Dear John" letter up... here's hoping, ne? Sorry for another long post... ): I think I need some "Crunky" cookies. posted by Katie Suttles | 7:56 AM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, September 20, 2003 I 'fixed' the archives links down on the right sidebar on this site. If you've tried to check them before, often they haven't worked, right? Well, I took care of that! All the links should be working nicely, now... in case you care to read my posts from waaaaay back in May and such. (; And in case you didn't notice, I added a little "info" section to the top of the sidebar. My e-mail, and MSN and AIM names are there. Do with them what you wish! ...or, maybe just use them to get ahold of me when you wanna, okay? posted by Katie Suttles | 7:57 PM Comments-[ comments.] Sorry about the recent long posts. Hope they weren't too much of a bore to read. :P I've just been bad about posting this week, I guess... I suppose it was kinda busy. Anyway, I'll try to make this one short, and post a bit more often from now on! It's still raining. I can hardly believe it. It hadn't rained since I arrived, as far as I can remember... nothing that lasted more than a few minutes anyway. This started around noon yesterday. It's just about 9:30am. Sheesh. BUT, at least it's cooled down a LOT! I have my 'patio' window open wide. (: It's nice to get a fresh breeze, instead of relying on poor, old AC. Although, this rain makes it hard for me to want to go outside... I need milk. ...sigh... I suppose I can walk, the grocery store isn't THAT far--and if Western taught me anything, it was: You can walk anywhere, anytime--even through 5 feet of snow. I don't think I'll risk praciticing the riding-my-bicycle-while-holding-an-umbrella trick again today. It just isn't worth it. Ahh geez... I think it's getting heavier... Oh! I just remembered! The Senbon Elementary School's Sports Festival was today! I wonder what happened...? Oh well... good thing I bought two new Inuyasha comics yesterday... Translating can be my 'rainy day' project. posted by Katie Suttles | 7:36 PM Comments-[ comments.] Waa... what a crappy pair of days. Friday I was tired again, and had an accident at school, so I had to come home and change before my next appearance in class. Naturally, because I had already made plans to run to City Hall to finish up some business... something has to try to interfere. So I had to try to manage both in 2 hours. No problem, really... but do you know how hard it is to bike in a skirt? And then, the Jr High is about right between my place and City Hall. So first I had to bike aaaaaall the way home. Then, I had to bike back past the school and aaaaaaaall the way to City Hall. I was not feeling good by the time I made it. :P Then I got to bike aaaaaaaall the way back to school. Luckily, lunch was there waiting for me--and I was starving. Oh well... no permanent damage done. Just a really frustrating afternoon. So then after classes were over, I got interviewed by the Shizuoka Shinbun (Newspaper). Shizuoka is the 'state' I'm in, as well as the name of the capital... so it's probably a pretty widely published paper. I dunno when the article will be printed, though... hopefully someone will let me know, like the last ones. (: If I can, I'll get it posted here. After I got home I felt sick and covered in sweat... these Japanese summers are awful. I guess this is a rather unusual one, the heat sticking around into late September. Go figure, huh? The year I decide to visit... So I showered and tried to rest. Of course, that meant I slept during the day... I ended up sleeping through a movie I wanted to see, and a TV show I like to watch... and woke up around 4 or 5 AM. Oh well... at least I know when the sun wakes up now. So today I rolled around in bed until I figured it was okay to get up... didn't bother with a shower... ugh... and I pedaled out to the 100yen store and got some new notebooks for class, since I've used up the ones that were left here. (::reacts to strange noise outside her door:: Waa... I think my newspaper just arrived... at 2:40 in the AM...weird) Well, you know my crappy bike? The tire blew at the store. So I biked home on a flat tired, which is no fun let me tell you, and headed home to wait for Japanese class to start. Well today's weather has been better... it was cooler and really breezy today. And so, of course, just before class starts at 1:30, it starts to rain. I guess I should be glad... I've been hoping for rain for a while. I guess there's a nasty storm down by Okinawa that will blow up over the whole Japan island chain this weekend... in fact, it's still raining now. Have you ever riden a bike while trying to hold an umbrella? Well, don't, if you can help it. The wind today didn't make it any easier, and neither did the flat tire. Halfway to class I gave up and stowed the umbrella. Class was fun--I worked with two teachers and a Peruvian lady, just playing some "Japanese" games (ones that you can find variations of in America--and apparently Peru, too). It was fun and I learned some new words. Afterwords, I asked my teacher in my own special Japenglish way, what should I do about my bike? (I did think of just going to one of the gas stations I've passed... but, can you imagine that? Some gaijin would bike up on a natsy, beat-up, flat-tire bike and ask in crazy Japanese if they had air for the tire..? What if they didn't? "What the heck did she come HERE for??" they might think. And I would have felt totally stupid, and it would have depressed me even more, I'm sure... so I decided to just wait to ask someone in class.) So, of course, I get a whole army of concerned Japanese women huddled near me, dicussing in busy Japanese, 'what should we do?' Well, they called a bike shop, and soon some guy showed up to get my bike. (Much to the joy of my Japanese women's army.) I got a ride to the shop and then biked myself home on a brand new tire. Which is really peachy.. except I was hoping to get a new bike, I think... but after spending about $20 on a new tire and an 'air fill up'... I think I might wait a bit.... sigh.... So I wasn't able to find something at the first 100yen store, so I stopped by another on my way home, and also managed to find some asprin. I haven't come across it in the grocery store I normally shop in, and I really wasn't sure where else to look. I know there are drug stores, but I haven't really seen one... at least, not one who's location I know well.... oh well. Either way, I found it. Thank goodness... because my headache from earlier really hadn't gotten much better. So I came home, took one of my new asprin, and took another nap... And so, I've woken up around 11pm... and just figured I'd update you on my happenings. Sorry it's kind of a bummer post... Maybe next week will be better? I only have one class at 8:40am on Monday, I guess we have a holiday on Tuesday, Wednesday classes are cancelled in lieu of practicing for the "Sports Festival" that is this weekend, Thursday there are classes, and Friday I only have one class again, then I start my trek home for the Lecea-Almendral wedding. ...sounds kind of like a boring week... what to do on Tuesday? Wednesday... I don't have to come to school... there really isn't any way I can help with the activities, since I won't be here for the festival. But I figure I'll go take pictures and junk since I can't see the real thing. I hope I have a lot of classes Thursday... and Friday..? I'm excited to go home... but, I wish my trip could be longer... Man, it'd be nice if THIS slow week would FOLLOW my trip, huh? Oh well... I know it will all be worth it in the end. Anyways... I think I'll go watch a movie.. hopefully I can fall asleep soon. posted by Katie Suttles | 12:56 PM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, September 18, 2003 Okay, so I had some fun today. There's this really nice lady who works at the school as an "office lady." She serves tea to guests when we have them, takes calls, helps with copies... basically she's a gofer/secretary. She's learning English and loves to practice with me. (: Today she asked me about popular music and TV shows in America. I had to check the Billboard Top 40 ONLINE because I feel so out-of-touch. Even after just three weeks! So, okay.. when did Hillary Duff start singing?? Geez... Anyways, so I started telling her about TV. I can't say anything about the new shows this season, since I have no clue what they are... but I went on a mini-tirade describing America's latest "Reality TV" stint. She thought it was hilarious! And somehow, those shows ("The Bachelor/Bachelorette", "For Love or Money", "Who Wants to Marry My Dad?", etc) sound even stupider when you are explaining them to a Japanese Office Lady. As I was telling her about this sad trend in American TV, I realized that maybe it isn't so bad being in a country where I hardly understand what I see on TV... I think I'll take that over having to flip past all those "reality" shows every night. Strangely enough, Japanese TV has an astonishing lack of "reality" shows. Maybe it's because they are completely moronic and are the farthest thing from real reality? Guess me and all the peoples livin' in Japan are just lucky! AND we get Inuyasha and Meitantei Conan. We really ARE luckier! posted by Katie Suttles | 7:14 AM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, September 17, 2003 AAAAA! I'm so tired! Today was a busy day! This morning I taught two classes. This afternoon I was a speech contest judge. Tonight there was an enkai (company party). It was fun! I met a lot of Numazu teachers. They were all very nice people. But, now.... I'm so tiiiiiired! (: I had first and second period classes today, and they both went pretty well! Then, I was done about 10:30, so I left the school and went to City Hall where I picked up my Gaijin card! Yay! Now *I* am an offical alien in Japan. (: (Gaijin is slang for foreigner, for those who don't know) Then I headed home, got there about 11-11:15. I grabbed some stuff around my apartment for a quick lunch and played online a bit before Seki-sensei arrived at my apartment around 12:30 to take me to the speech contest. I was taken to the 'judges room' where I met the other two judges. They were both Japanese men who teach English at local schools. Their English was excellent! (: We talked for almost an hour (also being briefed on the contest's procedure, and what we should be looking for as we judge, and etc...) About 1:25 we were taken to the contest room where the students, their coaches (usually their English teacher from school--like Seki-sensei! He was there for Sasaki-san), some parents, and random others (representatives, journalists, etc) were waiting. After some ceremony (welcomes, introductions, etc) the speeches began. There were two parts; the first part was for students who memorized a written work. Some students chose pieces from their textbook, others chose famous books/stories ("Gift of the Magi", Guess How Much I Love You!! (that always makes me think of my momma! hehe)), and some summarized movies (Snow White, The Lion King... I'm not sure how they got text of them... maybe children's books?). Some of them were very animated and were a lot of fun to watch. (: There were 12 students in that group. After they all finished, we three judges were taken back to our room for a few minutes to finalize our points and decide on the winner. The second part was for students who composed an original piece to recite. There were 10 students in this group, and they were all pretty amazing! It was soooo difficult picking a winner... All of the students had written really excellent pieces, and many of them spoke and pronounced English so well! A few of them had really fluid speech and very natural gestures. It was obvious that they had all worked so hard! And I think I even learned a few lessons today, from these kids... One girl wrote about how she made "e-pals" to improve her English. As she kept writing to her new friends, though, she became very interested in the cultures of her e-pals. She wants to be a translator, and believes that we can't translate books with only dictionaries--we need to know and understand the culture of the story's 'birthplace'. She has gained many new friends, and wealth of information about many cultures just because she wanted to practice her English. "You worry about your English skills?" she said. "Don't worry about that! Even if I make several mistakes in my e-mails, my friends understand me. English is a means to exchange our thoughts and feelings." Man... what excellent advice... I can't count how many times I've had the opportunity to speak Japanese with the people I've met here... but have 'thought better' of it and used English instead... ugh... I should listen to this brave, young girl. Another girl wrote about the new foreign student at her school. She said that they heard rumors a foreigner would be coming to their school within a few days. They were all so excited! They knew she would be fair-skinned, with beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. And of course, she would speak English. They were very surprised, then, when Brissett, a young Peruvian girl arrived in class soon after. "Why was I so disappointed?" the girl said. "It wasn't her fault... it was mine." She realized that she and her classmates had stereotypes about foreigners, and that we need to educate ourselves better about people different from us. So she has become very good friends with Brissett, not just because she is the 'mysterious foreigner' but because she is very nice and she likes her a lot. She thinks we can learn a lot from people different than us, and she's right. Why else would I be here...? So, after all of those AMAZING speeches, we judges taken to our room again where we decided on the winners, and finalized our decisions of the top 7 students. It was tough, but I think we did a pretty good job. It was about 4pm when I finally was walking away from the building! Whew! Luckily, it is only about 4 blocks from my apartment. (: (Seki-sensei had left a bit earlier to take Sasaki-san home.) So I had about 2 hours to relax and get ready for the 'welcome party' for me, at 6:30. Waaa... So about 6:15, Seki-sensei arrived again to take me to the restaurant. Lots of people were there already when we arrived; well, really, only about 14 people were there... and maybe 5 were there already. They were (mostly) all English teachers in Numazu--some of them were teachers I will be working with in upcoming months, so it was really nice to meet them all! One of them is another ALT--he came here last year and works in the Numazu schools--so I got to speak some 'normal English,' heh. But it was a lot of fun, and the food was really tasty! (; I even got ANOTHER bouquet of flowers! He he he... I will post the pictures when I finish with this post. And then soon after that, I'm going to bed! Remember? I'm TIRED! posted by Katie Suttles | 8:32 AM Comments-[ comments.] Monday, September 15, 2003 Check it out, y'all! I've got PICTURES to see! posted by Katie Suttles | 8:47 AM Comments-[ comments.] Gold star for me! I actually used today for what I said I would! Yatta! I cleaned my apartment (after getting up kinda late--ha!) and did some laundry, and was able to take a few shots of my place! (: I even got some video, but it might take me a while to figure out how to post that... that's really just for mommy and the other people I'll see when I go home for Misha's wedding. (: But, it's something I'll look in to. So maybe tonight (after I eat something! ::grumble::) I will arrange my new photos on a website for your viewing pleasure. (: Savvy? (; Hehe.. sorry, had to. Oh, and so you know... I bought an awesome album the other day. "Do As Infinity"--they are a Japanese band, and have done 2 or 3 songs for Inuyasha. (So if you're an IY fan, you'll know the songs "Fukai Mori" and "Shinjitsu no Shi" are theirs!) I got the "Deep Forest" ("Fukai Mori" in Japanese) CD. It's soooo good. (: I listened to it, like, 4 times today while I cleaned. I hope the neighbors like them too. (; posted by Katie Suttles | 2:05 AM Comments-[ comments.] Sunday, September 14, 2003 Hi everyone. (: I appologize for my laziness, as there are no pictures on my site yet. :P I still don't have a whole lot of interesting ones yet. (; But I did take some pictures of the OUTSIDE of my apartment building. Noooo... you can't see the INSIDE until I do a little cleaning. (; Heh.. I think tomorrow, since we have a holiday for "Aged Peoples' Day" (no joke) I can clean up and FINALLY put some pictures on here. Sound good? I hope so! (: I got to play with AIM this morning. (: And I got to talk to Jeremy <3, Sarah G, Liesl, Evan-san and Doug (who is in Japan as well, right now). It was so nice! (: Like old times... it kinda even felt like I was back in Michigan, typing away in my dorm room. So this being halfway around the world and all by myself thing might not be so hard after all. (; Man, computers rule. posted by Katie Suttles | 8:03 AM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, September 12, 2003 Ya-HOOO!! I got the 'net to work at home! Yay yay yay!! I'm so happy. <3 Except I'm realizing how used to the Japanese keyboard I became, from going to the computer lab every day! Sheesh... I'm looking for appostrophes and ~ marks in all the wrong places! BUT, so the good news for YOU, loyal readers, is that I shall be adding PHOTOS to my website soon! Yahoo! (: I JUST got a phone call from Fusako (who put me up for about 4 days when I first arrived in Numazu), and she's invited me to dinner because a Kalamazoo friend is visiting her right now. So maybe after dinner I can come home and work on spiffing up my site. (Not that it matters a lot to you at the moment, I think... it should be about 4AM for the lot of you! (; So maybe after you wake up, you'll find I've added pictures already! Wow!) Anyways, I should get ready. As much as I'd LOOOOVE to putz around on the 'net again all day. <3 Hehehe... it's been so long! Since before I graduated, really! Ah, wow... I love high-speed internet. (; Can you guess the FIRST thing I did when I got connected? Hehehe.... Downloaded 'Inuyasha' 120! Who guessed right?? I'll be back later! Stay tuned! posted by Katie Suttles | 3:23 AM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, September 10, 2003 Waaaaaaa! Hehehe... the time should be right on my posts now! Der... I forgot to change my time zone when I got over here! Silly me! posted by Katie Suttles | 2:39 AM Comments-[ comments.] Hi again. So I stopped by my apartment and checked my mail on my way over to the lab... and lo and behold! I have the first of (what should be) 2 letters from Yahoo!BB! Yahoo!! (: That means my application was successful. I now have Yahoo!BB mail, I guess... all of this crap is in Japanese. :P I have found a site for English support, but it's a few months out of date. Oh well. I figured it out and now have my mail registered. But I will continue to use my MSN mail (I'm almost certain I still can, even with Yahoo!BB...) so you can still email me there! In fact, please use that one! I probably won't use the Yahoo!BB one too much, since the ID name they gave me totally sucks. I wish I could change it... but I think I'm stuck. Oh well! So, hopefully, soon I will be hooked up at home! That means more frequent updates, PICTURES on my site, and... well, the ability to download things again! Sugoi! Hee hee.. So, I'm looking forward to it. AND, I think I get 3 months free for signing up before November, AND I get Yahoo!BB Phone for 2 months free. It is possible that some of my calls to America will be free (Yahoo!) and my calls to other Yahoo!BB subscribers is free! (Yahoo!) Since Yahoo!BB is the most popular broadband service in Japan, it's likely that many of my friends will have it! Yay! Aw, and I FINALLY got a call from Jeremy last night! He's had trouble getting his long distance to work... so we'd only talked on the phone ONCE since I arrived--can you believe it?? But.. sometime around 1AM last night, he figured out how to call me. (; Heh heh... yeah, he woke me up, but it was a good thing to wake up to, ne? I'm happy he's figured it out! <3 Now we just have to work out the details of the time difference. (Which will change during daylight savings! Which the Japanese do not observe--faaaaaaaaaaaart!) Well, I got some research to do now, so I'll type at ya later! posted by Katie Suttles | 2:34 AM Comments-[ comments.] Tuesday, September 09, 2003 Hi again everyone. So my second week of school has gone well so far. The 'flight attendant' lesson went well Monday--of course! The kids loved getting drinks! They were a little rowdy while I went around, since I was only talking to one student... so I guess that's something we have to fix. And the last two games of 'Katharine-sensei Jeparody' went good too. The kids took great notes! (Of course... it helped that Seki-sensei explained some stuff in Japanese to them...) But they had fun! Me too. (: I found out today I was in two more papers over the weekend. So that makes two local papers and the Shizuoka paper (which is, like, the 'state' I live in). Neat, huh? The articles are a little misquoted... For example, it says I used 'Spirited Away' ('Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi'--remember, my old 10th graders??) to teach the students Japanese... when all I really did was show them a great movie! Hehehe... I did have to explain some stuff about Japanese culture, to they would understand/appriciate it better... but I didn't really give a JAPANESE lesson... Oh well. I guess those are the pitfalls to being interviewed in a foreign language. (; Nothing more besides that... weekend was pretty bland. I looked around at some shops, but I guess they looked more interesting from the street. :P Heh... or maybe it's cuz I'm relatively poor at the moment and spending money is a no no! Ah, no... I'm really not POOR, per se... I just have to pinch my ... er, yen? until payday. (: Hold back on buying those Inuyasha comics and such until I can really afford to spend the money on books, not food! (; Heh.. Well, that's about it. I think I'll go home and relax in my AC. (; Bye all! Thanks for reading! posted by Katie Suttles | 2:50 AM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, September 06, 2003 Hello! How are y'all? Good over here--not much going on. When I left the computer lab Saturday, the ladies who worked at the reception desk stopped me. "Oh God..." I was thinking, "Am I in trouble? Can my mediocre Japanese skills help me??" Turns out, though, that they just wanted to point out my picture in the paper! So, my meeting with the mayor? Page 19 of the Shizuoka Newpaper. (; Heh hehe. Check it out HERE! The picture is a little blurry, I know... but I can't really edit it on these public computers... So I'll have to wait until I'm hooked up at home. Hopefully that won't be much longer! My newspaper subscription, however, has been achieved! My first paper came last night, and I got one this morning, in time to check out the morning cartoon listings. (; So yesterday I went to Japanese class at the library. I figured it'd be a good chance to improve my Japanese, and maybe make some friends. My first class was spent trying to figure out which group I'd be best in, since there are people there of all different levels. I think they decided to put me in level two... And next week there's no class! Crud... So I'll just have to wait 2 weeks. I also managed to sign up for a library card, afterwards. Man! Whatta cooool library! They have these video screening rooms, and laser disc booths, and these funky chairs that look like $1000 black leather recliners that have salon hairdryer-looking things at the heads... they are speakers, I guess, and the chairs vibrate! Geez... And it doesn't cost any money... I'll see if I can't get some pictures up sometime soon. That's about it... this weekend was pretty nice--nothing too special. Fusako and Toshi invited me to their home for dinner, and we had a 'sushi party'--she put several different 'toppings' on a tray, and a bowl of rice, and a plate of seaweed (nori) squares on the table, and we helped ourselves. It was kinda neat! And VERY tasty! (: Well, better go. I think I might explore the area around the train station some today... Toshi told me there is another Hyaku-en (￥100=$1) store right nearby. Man, I love that store! (: Talk to you later! Bye bye! posted by Katie Suttles | 10:47 PM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, September 05, 2003 DANG! I just wrote this HUGE post... and when I clicked *post*... the friggin' 'net sent me back to the login page! God the internet can bite!!! So I had written all about how school is still fun, but I'm looking forward to this weekend. It will be nice to relax after a week of getting up early and working all day. And after my mini-adventure to the Post Office, I found the 'Book Off' store that a fellow teacher told me about, and got myself some birthday presents: book #1 of a Watase Yuu comic called 'Ima Doki', I think... it's hard to read... and also 2 issues of 'Meitantei Conan' = (Great) Detective Conan. It's the cartoon that's on after Inuyasha, and it's really popular here. The only thing is, it's a mystery show, so a lot of it is based on talking, so a lot of it I don't get! (; Unlike Inuyasha... who just shouts and fights most of the time. (; Heh heh. Speaking of! Today, some girls walked by as I parked my bike at school, and they saw my keychain. One girl said, 'Aaa! Inuyasha da!' (Oh! It's Inuyasha!) Hehehe.. they think it's kinda funny and neat that I like the show. Oh, and some interesting news... I met the mayor today. Yeah! He was pretty nice.. spoke a bit of English, and was very surprised when he realized I understood a bit of what he was saying. (: Miwako was there to translate, but I would nod and stuff in response to some of the stuff he said, and so he asked if I understood some Japanese. It's always fun when someone I meet realizes I can understand some Japanese. Everyone is so impressed at my miniscule skills... even with chopsticks! I swear, at lunch every day, I get a bit of a compliment on my chopstick usage. And it's not like I do tricks or anything! I just eat. And, like, EVERY person in Japan can use them--so it's not like some amazing skills. Oh well! It's just the Japanese way of being extra nice, I guess. So yeah, the mayor. We only talked for about ten minutes... and he gave me his card! Ooooo... I have the mayor of Numazu's card! *I* think that's kind of impressive! (: BUT... I forgot mine at home... ): So I missed what will probably have been my only chance to give Mayor Saito my card. Fart. But.. he asked the normal stuff: Do you like Numazu? Do you like the school? Can you use chopsticks? heh... etc. After that I answered a few questions for the press--wow!--and then met the superintendent of the Numazu schools. He asked the normal stuff.... do you like Numazu..? etc... and was surprised I knew Japanese... he knows even less English than the mayor does. The SI can speak some German, though! Hehe. After that I was free to go. I gotta find out what paper(s) I may be in... (: I'll see if I can't scan anything for my gracious readers. (; So yeah... I should get going. I went shopping after school, and now it's about 7pm here--and you know what that means, right? It's dark out! Black! Outside the window here, it's like 9pm for Michigan! Hehehe... I hope the train station stand is still open to sell me a paper... :P Dumb 'Yomiuri'.... Oh well... I'll probably be back tomorrow! JAA! posted by Katie Suttles | 5:09 AM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, September 04, 2003 Hi everyone. Been good? Things are pretty good here, too. School is still lost of fun--I really love working with the kids. (: I will miss them when I have to change... but, that means a whole new group of fun kids to meet, I guess. And DaiNi Jr High (where I am now) is very close to my apartment. So maybe I can visit from time to time. (: Thanks to all who sent birthday wishes yesterday. (: It turned out to be not-nearly-so-lonely as I thoght it would be. THANK YOU! And again, it's almost 6... so it's getting dark! Weird... I still have to visit the Post Office, so I better go. But I sent in my Yahoo! BB (broadband) application today, so maybe withinn a week I'll be all set up. Yahoo!! posted by Katie Suttles | 3:58 AM Comments-[ comments.] Tuesday, September 02, 2003 Hi again! I got out of school a bit ago and headed over to this computer lab. So after checking email and bank accounts and all that jazz, I get to blog! (: Today was not too bad. I taught my first lessons in Japanese classrooms! The students are soooo shy! Hehehe, but they are also very curious. I talked about myself, and about Michigan, Kalamazoo and American Jr Highs. They really liked hearing about how the schools are different. And they really really are! The students must clean the school themselves, and there are so many more school activities in Japanese schools. It helps strengthen their 'group over individual' ideas. The school sports festival is the weekend of the 27th, which is Misha's wedding! So I will have to miss it... but I can catch the elementary school's the weekend before. (: Other than that... Still no internet in my apartment.. I am going to start on that now, since I've kind of gotten settled. And I just emailed a subscription to the 'Daily Yomiuri' English paper before I started blogging--my first paper should be here Friday! Yatta! And this morning I conquered the Japanese garbage system, which is in a word, crazy.... and in another, hectic.... e heh... But very eco-thoughtful! They recycle a lot of their waste, so, even though it's hard for a poor foreigner to grasp, the trash system is a very good one! America should follow it's lead... Oh! And for those who are curious, I got to watch episode #125 of Inuyasha last night! <3 Hoooray! And Detective Conan too. But I understand less of Conan than Inuyasha! Oh well! It was good to see some of my favorite shows on 'real' TV again! Alrighty! Better go. It's only about 6pm here, but it's starting to get a little dark. SOOOOO weird! It will be dark out by 7--honest to god. I saw fireworks on Saturday, right? They started just after 7! But, when I wake up around 6am, it's already soooo bright. I don't know when the sun wakes up, yet! Hehehe... he's too early for me. Jaaa! posted by Katie Suttles | 4:04 AM Comments-[ comments.] |
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