Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her.
|
|
| We're Not in Japan Anymore... Just a little something to help Katie keep up with all those who matter to her. |
|
|
Thursday, January 29, 2004 Hi there. I suppose it's been a while. ): Sorry. Haven't felt much in the mood for posting, and there really hasn't been anything exciting going on. Tuesday some lady wasn't looking both ways as she edged her car out of a side street and, as I tried to bike out around her, hit my back tire. I think she mighta bent something in my stupid bike, so now it's three times as crappy as when I got it (since that's my third 'accident'--see my math here?). It happened on my way home, and that just made two very long, crazy days at an elementary school even worse. Sigh... Not that the kids aren't cute and fun and all that... I just got tired of autographing stuff and shaking hands. 'Can't I just sit and drink my frigging tea?' It's funny how the kids at Japanese elementary schools treat me like some sort of celebrity... but the kids at the junior highs treat me like some sort of disease, or perhaps a rabid animal. Until they get to know me, usually. Speaking English becomes twice as hard when they have to speak it to me. :P Either way, I much prefer working in the JHS. At least communication is a lot easier here. Wednesday, some other fool was inching out of a side street on a motorbike, only looking to his right as I biked up on his left. He turned just before I got next to him, apologizing profusely once he saw me. Sigh... If anything, perhaps I will wake a few drivers up to what awful motorists they really are... If I don't get killed before. I've caught my first cold, too. I'm guessing it has something to do with singing 6 verses of 'Bingo' twice (after slowly teaching 120 2nd graders the words), 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' three times, three verses of 'Old McDonald' all by my lonesome, 'Twinkle, Twinkle' twice, 'Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree' (a new one for me) twice in English and once in Japanese, reading two children's books, and introducing myself another 7 times (I think--thought it was a considerably shorter introduction)--all in a school with no heaters. For some reason I ended up with a sore throat Tuesday afternoon... Imagine that. And it quickly developed into a stuffy nose, too. (Biking 30 minutes to and from school probably aided that... since every morning I walk into the school, sniffing so hard I could vacuum the floor...) I've been nursing myself with tea & honey, and a few Luden's I managed to find. See, Becca? Even in Japan, "I [still] have Luden's." (: (You better be reading this, you little Radish.) Only one more day to go, before the weekend arrives. <3 posted by Katie Suttles | 12:47 AM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, January 23, 2004 Well, I wasn't going to write about my bike accident earlier this week, but the fact that I got into a second one this morning kind of made me feel like I had to or something. So I got into my first cycling accident in years (I don't recall any accidents at JCMU) Tuesday morning. I guess it had to happen sometime--and considering my trip to school is now a 30 minute bike-ride down busy streets, I'm not too surprised it happened now. :P However, it didn't really happen on one of the busy streets.... Ah, you're probably getting frustrated... 'just tell us already!' and such, right? Okay, okay... I had gotten off the busy roads and was going up the winding road that leads to the school's front door. It's one of those "THIS is a two-way street??" streets--I doubt it's wide enough for two cars, but in turns and stuff they've widened the road a bit so one car can pull over and wait while the other passes. I prefer to bike down on the street, instead of on the sidewalk, on this road because there are so many students on the sidewalk and it's annoying to bike around them. Besides, the road is NOT busy at all. I might see one or two cars every time I ride on it. Well, Tuesday morning I was biking in the road and I saw a car coming. The road was pretty narrow where I estimated we were going to meet, so I decided I should get up on the sidewalk out of consideration. The curb it quite high, even where it drops down for driveways there's still a big, uncomfortable bump that you have to bike over to get on the sidewalk. But up ahead I saw one house had this plastic 'easy ramp' thing in front of it's driveway, so I went to bike up that... except I was coming at it practically parallel to it's length... so instead of going UP, I came DOWN. My front tire slid down the ramp, towards the street, and out from under me, and >splat< I land on the ground. I had to put my arms out, so the heel of one of my hands got a little cut up. There was a stone stuck under my skin. :P The guy called out to me, "[Are you okay?]" and I said I was, and he drove off... looking a little concerned still. I figure he felt that he couldn't communicate with me (even though we had spoken in Japanese...) and so he drove off. Sheesh. Yeah, so that's all. I guess it is hardly an accident, since it really only involved myself. :P It was extra-special because there were students all down the street behind me, who must've seen my spectacular bicycle ballet... ugh. Can't say for sure, though, since no one's said anything about it. Anyway, I got to school and went to the nurse's room but she wasn't in. Crud. So I was forced to ask one of the teachers where she was, which of course I was asked 'why' and I had to show her my bleeding hand, which of course sends her into a tiny fury. She quickly found the nurse and I got all patched up. Wee. See? Not really anything exciting. My hand still has little scabs on it, but they are healing fine. I found a bruise on my leg the other day, which must've been from the fall... but other than that, I'm alright. (: So I wasn't going to write about it cuz it just wasn't worth it. But, I had another fun encounter today, and that is just so weird to me (two accidents in the same week, after 4 months here without ONE) that I had to write. Biking to school is no fun, because the roads I ride down are not only busy with cars, but with people too. There are tons of men and women walking to work, boys and girls walking to school, and old people going who-knows-where. While cars drive on the left side of the road here, people seem to not bother with sticking to one side or the other, and thus, not out of anyone's way. This is especially true for small groups of students walking together to school. :P So I found myself behind a young boy on a bike, as we made our way down the wide street in front of the big department store. The sidewalk is nice and wide, too, but it doesn't do a lot of good--people still wander anywhere, and small groups spread out over the walk. I figured biking behind this kid would help keep me from hitting any people, since they'd most likely get out of his way first. Well, up ahead there was this group of about 5 girls--he pulled to the left to go around them (there was only about enough room for one bike on either side of them and left was closest) and so I followed. He got past them fine, but as he went ahead and less of my view was obstructed, I saw a woman coming straight at the same opening I was aiming for. Crash. We didn't quite hit head-on, since we both saw it coming but couldn't do much to avoid it. I just ended up on my left leg, holding my bicycle up--but when I looked over at her, she was on her knees, getting up. She looked okay, and we didn't hit very hard, but I asked if she was okay, and she said she was as she was climbing back on her bike, appologizing to me. I took that as a sign that it was okay to bike away... I biked off with no damage done (to ME, anyway... the crappy bicycle has now gotten twice as crappy, with two (more?) accidents under it's ... fender?) and I hope the young woman is in the same shape... So, there. Two accidents in one week. Ugh. Now, more uplifting news! I was working on a "Twister" mat this afternoon (should be fun for kids, right?) when three girls walked into the room I was working in. We stayed in there for about 45 minutes and just talked about a lot of random things--in broken Japanese and English. (: They are really sweet girls, I ended up giving them my email address. One inparticular was very out-spoken. She, of course, was the girl who's first words that afternoon were, "Me... English no. Don't like." (: But she tried the hardest to speak with me. They told me about the sports they play and the boy-band boys they like, and they dished on some of their teachers. (: Ha ha... doesn't matter much, I don't know many of them anyway. Only the English teachers, really... I don't get spoken to much by any of the others... However, today at lunch I spoke a bit with the three teachers that sit near me. I tried some Japanese, and they tried some English. I caught a bit of what they would say to one another in between... It was kinda nice. Still, looking forward to Japanese class tomorrow... where I'm spoken TO, and so I can understand. :P Ah well. Ahh, yeah... I'm looking to get cracking on my pages again this weekend.. Wish me luck, I SO much feel like being lazy. That said, I think I'll make dinner and then play a video game. Ha. posted by Katie Suttles | 4:39 AM Comments-[ comments.] Tuesday, January 20, 2004 Well, while I am not finished, I decided to share what I have done with you. (: So you can visit Himeji, Miyajima, Fukuoka and Hiroshima on my site now. ENJOY! I will try to get the other cities finished soon. I hope the pages I have done can tide you over for a while! (: posted by Katie Suttles | 8:22 AM Comments-[ comments.] Sunday, January 18, 2004 Okay... it was about 10:30 when I decided I should stop... now it's pushing 11pm. I worked on my page all evening, and it's still not done. ): You can read more about my pitiful excuses on my page. Sorry all... But hopefully it will be worth the wait when I'm done! I'm going to work on them all week after school. And maybe even AT school, if I have time. I just have a lot of pictures and info I want to share... I guess I didn't estimate the time it would take very well. ): At least I cleaned my apartment and did my laundry, though... posted by Katie Suttles | 8:51 AM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, January 15, 2004 Hi there. I've taken my computer to work today in an attempt to get some pictures ready for uploading onto my page this weekend. Hooray! Now let's just hope I can get some work done... Not that there should be much to stop me. The teachers will all be too busy to chat with me, because they are dishing out exams to the students. I don't really have any work to do, just a tiny bit. Hmm... There is a copy of "Howl's Moving Castle" in my bag though... (thanks, honey!) It's going to be the story of the next Studio Ghibli film, and it's pretty good! At least, it's got me hooked to find out what all the secrets are! I hope I can keep my mits off it enough today to get some editing done for my page. (: Of course, I only have a few more chapters to go.... hmm.... Ta for now! Look for updates this weekend! (Or appologies as to why there are none... he he) posted by Katie Suttles | 6:22 PM Comments-[ comments.] Hi there. I'm here at school, sitting at the computer to give the cleaning kids a chance to clean under my desk. I went to check if anyone commented in my blog and my comments have disappeared AGAIN. Have any of you noticed this? Well, I have a few times, and a few times is enough to make me want to switch comment provider software offering thingies. So I did. Let's hear it for 'Comment This!' and hope it does a better job than the last program I was using. :P Give it a try! It's nice to get comments once in a while. It shows that people are reading! (; Thanks to all who have commented before--and I'm quite sad that I have lost all those old comments... ): Please put up some new ones, to help ease the pain! (; posted by Katie Suttles | 12:40 AM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Well, we left for Tokyo a few days ago, and I came back alone a few hours ago... It will be nice to get back into my normal routine again, but--of course--very lonely. I had a really nice time with Jeremy here. I got used to him being around... and I really enjoyed being 'just another tourist' in all the cities we visited. It was nice not being recognized, or started at (so much), or have responsibilities to worry about. But now I'm back to Numazu--to my job and all that it entails. Not that this is a horrible thing, mind you... I just really enjoyed having a vacation, I guess. I've taught about 10 lessons at my new school: Ooka Junior High. It's about a 20-25 minute bike-ride from here. It was about 15 minutes the first day Jeremy and I biked out there together, but then that was in the middle of a nice, sunny day. Every morning since has been nasty--cold and windy--which makes biking to school hard and very crappy. I stumble into the building on weak legs every time, sniffling like crazy. Unless the weather betters, I'll be catching a cold soon, I guarantee. >sigh< The ride home isn't so bad, since the weather is usually nicer, and I'm not on a schedule. There are about 600 students here at Ooka--compared to 150-200 at the three other schools. There are 16 classes of students: 5 first years, 6 second, and 5 third. I see each class about once every two weeks. I don't imagine I'll be getting very close to the students this time... not that I became extremely close with anyone at the other schools, but I was on the verge of learning names and interests well. I work with 4 different female English teachers. (It's nice that they are all women, it means I won't ever get questions like, "What do you think of Mr. ~~~? Be honest.") So I've met about 10 classes, recited my self-introduction another ten times... still have six more to go. I'll double-check the number that this school will bring it up to, but I bet it's more times than any of you have introduced yourself, family and home country to anyone. (This is, of course, excluding my ALT friends.) Ooka does not have school lunch, and no one offered the restaurant box lunch to me (like they did at Dai Ni) so I am forced to bring something to school. I've only had to worry about this twice now, however; one day was convienience store salad and a mikan orange, the next day I got Cup Noodle to which you just add hot water. (It's like instant ramen in a Styrofoam cup--not so healthy, but cheap and convenient.) I ate in the teachers' room those two days, and it was kind of nice... Sitting with the kids is fun, but sometimes I hardly got talked to... and I'm just there for practice, you know? For them. I'm there for them all day long... and it's nice to get a break from it in the middle of the day. I really don't do so much work, lesson plans and all that... But this job is hard, in a mentally exhausting kind of way. It's a little rough on my heart, too, leaving all these schools. Since I've wanted to become a teacher, I've known that I wanted to start working in one school and stay there... leaving is too hard. This is only strengthening that desire. Haaaaaaa..... SO! Tokyo, right? Well, it was... BIG. And crowded. But not so bad. I guess my favorite part was getting to go to that museum I've been mentioning. (: The Ghibli Museum. It was really cool. There were about 5 rooms that were just FULL of his sketches and notes and resource materials (books, photos, etc). It was really amazing to see how he works. Jeremy mentioned that he studies life incredibly; you can see this in his movies too, how the characters move and behave. This museum just helped me appriciate his work even more. (: There were some really beautiful works there by a Russian artist, too (his name espaces me, but I have a pamphlet somewhere....). Hayao Miyazaki (the founder of Ghibli) really enjoys this man's work, so he was the 'guest artist' at the Museum. So it really WAS a museum. (I was a little surprised to see another artist's work there, but I guess Miyazaki has a rotating exhibit of sorts.) There is a small theater at the Museum also, that shows original short films you can't see elsewhere--two short animations by this Russian artist were being shown. Jeremy and I didn't go see them however... we only had two hours in the museum before it closed, and there was a lot of other stuff we wanted to see first. And I have to appologize to my friends who asked for pictures... they aren't allowed!! Isn't that so sad? I have a few from outside, though... and of the super-cute bus we got to ride. I'll get them posted soon. (: I know where to find some pictures, though, so maybe I can throw a page together soon. Jeremy and I also checked out Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, and Ueno (where our hotel was). We brought home books and anime toys and lots of phamplets. I finally ate at a Hard Rock Cafe--in the Ueno train station. We made good use of the Tokyo train and subway systems, as well as our feet. :P I've got a few pictures of some famous sights we saw, so I'll get those ready soon. Alright? (: For now, I think I'll go relax a little... alone. It's weird being all alone now. I don't think I've actually said a word for the last three and a half hours... Anyways. I'll try to write again soon. Bye bye. posted by Katie Suttles | 6:27 AM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, January 09, 2004 Hi there! Sorry it's been a while. But Jeremy's around, so you understand. (: We had a very nice vacation, then had a very nice rest afterward, and since I've been a bit busy with school. Yesterday and today we made quick visits to Dai Ni and Oohira Jr Highs, so I could introduce him to the students. (: We had a nice time. The visit to Dai Ni was a little short, but it was good to see the teachers and students again. (Except, the third graders had all gone home to start preparing for their entrance exams that start this month.) We also dished out some candy to three of the four classes (we ran out!! But that just means I have to go back--aw shucks! Hehe) Today at Oohira, we talked a bit about Christmas and New Years in America, then shared some candy. (; (Jeremy brought a TON of Halloween-sized bars at my request. Whatta sweetie!) We had some more time after that, so we joined Morisue-sensei's homeroom, as they made jigsaw puzzles out of newspaper and then put them back together. It was fun. She kept increasing the number of pieces on them, so they gradually got harder--so at one point, it was taking them longer than 5 minutes to put them together again. (: Tonight, Jeremy will join me for the English teachers' class. And tomorrow I have Japanese class. Whether he'll sit in on the beginners group, or just spend time in the library, hasn't been decided yet. (: Then early on Sunday, we will start our trip to Tokyo. I want to visit a city called Kamakura on the way, then we will spend three nights in a Tokyo HOTEL (I'm hoping for beds, and chairs, a tub that I don't have to sit in with my knees at my throat). We aren't really sure what we want to see there (there's just too much!), but we have a few plans. On Monday we are going to the super-cool Ghibli Art Museum. Do you know the animated movie "Spirited Away"? Well, it's originally Japanese, and the director has a studio (Studio Ghibli) and so there's the really great art museum all about him and his works. We are SOOOO excited! I hope to see my college friend Mayu, too. (: (She's gotta ask about vacation time...) Other than that, we'll probably just walk around and look at all the skyscrapers and beautiful people and stuff we can't afford. (: Should be fun! I'll write more soon! posted by Katie Suttles | 4:15 AM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, January 03, 2004 Alright! We've returned to Numazu. We actually got back last night, around 8pm, and were too eager to finally get a good night's rest to allow blogging time. (: Sorry! Today we did LOTS of laundry, dishes, and such. Then we went shopping and also got me a new VCR. It took about 30 minutes to get it working. (And it was all in Japanese, too!) Then we watched this really funny video that my buddies Becca and Dan made for me. (; Thanks guys! Ooooh, and I forgot the best part about today! We saw the new Inuyasha movie! Finally! It was pretty good--for what we could understand. (: I had to whisper a few translations to Jeremy... what I could figure out... but it's a cartoon, so it's pretty easy to follow anyway. We had a good time. (: We also got these cool souvenir books about the movie--with pictures and character bios and a story synopsis. So eventually I'll be able to understand it all. (: The bad part is, we missed the last show yesterday, on "Ladies' Day," when it would have only cost me 1000 yen to see the flick. That's about 10 bucks, American. So it cost EACH of us 1800 yen to see it. Ugh. But it was worth it. I just hope some fan subtitles it soon and gets it on the internet so I can understand all the stuff I just saw. (; I've got a few pictures to give you a sampling of our trip that I will get on my site soon. Maybe tonight. Maybe they are already up as you read this! Maybe you've already seen them...? Weird. Anyway, I'll be working on that sometime soon. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy some relaxing time with my fiance. Bye! posted by Katie Suttles | 7:59 AM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, January 01, 2004 Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great evening. Jeremy and I had... an experience, I guess I'll say. We went wandering around to check out temples, and there was a HUGE crowd of Japanese everywhere we went. We got so tired of putting up with it that we started heading home around 11, and so we were on some street in Kyoto when it struck midnight. :P Not quite the best story, but it was an experience. (: I think our temple and shrine count is up to 16 now, and will hit 18 tomorrow. And that doesn't include any of the sights we saw in Hiroshima, or Oosaka this evening. We've been so busy! And we are actually looking forward to 'boring' old Numazu! Tomorrow we will wake up early, see two final temples and then head to Hikone. There, I'll show Jeremy my old school, the Hikone Castle, and maybe we'll do some shopping, if we have time. We'd like to be back to Numazu decently early, so we can rest before going to the movies that night. (We have to see the 'Inuyasha' movie!!) It's just about 10:30 for me now, so I'm going to get some sleep! I was going to get some pictures up, but this computer doesn't have the right port for my memory card. ): Sorry! I'll make up for it after I get home! Take care, and hope you had a Happy New Year!! posted by Katie Suttles | 8:30 AM Comments-[ comments.] |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||