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. |
|
|
Sunday, February 29, 2004 Hi all. Sorry I didn't get around to posting this weekend... Lazy, I guess. ): Didn't do a whole lot; Japanese class, shopping, mailed some packages, had dinner at Fusako's again. And I have some free time now at school. (Also, I forgot my pen case at home, so I have no pencils or pens to write with, so that severely limits my options of things to do. (: ) So I figured I might as well write about the dolls I saw last weekend and the funeral I went to a while ago. ): Sorry it's taken so long. The funeral was interesting. It was actually called a tsuya, and I'm not quite sure what it means. The kanji used to write it mean 'crossing' and 'night'--so you kind of get the idea. I think it is like a wake or a visitation for us Westerners. The reason for the tsuya seemed to be to pay respects to the deceased, and to his family left behind. It wasn't a celebration of life, it was more a mourning of the passing of one. The tsuya was in a building called a 'hall,' which might be there especially for this purpose. I followed the signs bearing the deceased's last name, and found a lot of people gathering in a room. There were chairs set up to sit down; two aisles among them that lead to the front of the room, where a large altar was set up. It looked like it was made of unfinished pine (the wood was very light and yellow-looking). There were boquets and baskets of flowers standing next to it, each with a sign with the giver's name/company/etc on it. There was a large, black-framed picture of the deceased on the altar. In front of it, there was a long table-like thing... It kind of looked like it could be a coffin, but I really doubt it was. There was insence buring on top of it. The family sat off to the left side of the altar and table, facing it. Everyone else sat in front of the altar, or stood just outside the room (there were a LOT of people who came--I believe the man was a teacher/principal). Before things really started, there were two 'ushers' there who were calling out that there were still seats available inside... ??? It felt more like a play or something, not a funeral... It was strange. Soon, one usher came outside and cleared a path across the hall. Then we heard chanting, and a Buddhist monk, all dressed up in his ceremonial costume, came slowly shuffling into the hall. I'm not quite sure what he was saying, whether it is Japanese or not, but it is a holy Buddhist chant. He walked before the altar, and knelt in front of it. (I was standing outside, with some other teachers I knew, and the wall was kind of in my way of him, and on top of that... the one usher stood right in front of me. Sigh) So then the monk started chanting, and sometimes clacking this wooden instrument he must have had. This went on for a really long time... maybe 15 minutes. Then he said something to the family, and they all pulled out these little black books, and followed along as the monk continued chanting. Then he finished and they put the books away. ??? Next, the oldest son and his wife, and the other son (the teacher I work with) and his wife, approached a microphone near the altar. The oldest son spoke for a few moments, maybe 2 minutes. Then they all sat down. After that, all of the guests lined up and walked down the two aisles to the family, who were standing just behind the table-thing in front of the altar. They bowed, and maybe said a few consoling words. Then they headed out of the room. When I went up, the older brother's wife did this double-take. She turned to her husband (I'm sure, to ask if he knew me) but then, remembering where she was, turned back really quickly. (: It was kind of funny. So I just bowed and smiled and left the room. (: After we were all done, the monk chanted s'more, then the usher cleared the way, and then he shuffled back to his room, chanting along the way. After that, it was over. On our way out, these ladies were handing plastic bags with cans in them. I took the bag I was offered and glanced inside. I got a beer and an oolong tea.... ? I think I wrote about this before. (: I traded Kimura-sensei my beer for her oolong. (: I just finished off the tea the other day. :P Living alone sucks. So there, my funeral story. (: That was quite a lot to read, so I'll get the doll story up in a day or two. I've got a few pictures I still need to download to my 'puter, too. Come back soon! (: posted by Katie Suttles | 8:55 PM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, February 27, 2004 So another week is ending. This one has been a little boring, though. Wednesday and Thursday were the school-wide final exams. Why we have school today, AFTER exams is beyond me. But it's weirder than just that. We have school for another THREE WEEKS before the closing/graduation ceremony. I do not believe there is another school-wide exam period like we had the last two days. ....??? You got me. I tried asking someone about it, but I got an answer I really didn't understand. Chalk up another one. Here's another example: I had to help give the listening parts of the three tests (first, second and third years') over the last two days. I gave the second and third years their test 'live' over the school PA. Wow, that was fun. :P However, both times, after finishing the broadcast, I was taken to a small meeting room where a few students were taking the test. Wednesday was the third years; after leaving the broadcast room, Sumi-sensei took me to the meeting room. She explained that some students were taking the test in here. There were three boys in there, unsupervised, taking the exam. There was this air about all three of them that said they really didn't have a good grip on English... Two of the boys kept glancing around, trying to get answers from Lord knows where. Sumi-sensei didn't do anything to discourage it. So we gave the test. Then we left... Left them alone, to cheat no doubt. Walking back to the teachers' room I asked Sumi-sensei why they were in there. She said that they could take the test in the classroom. I figured they might be bullies, or that they had misbehaved and weren't allowed in the class, so I asked something of the sort. No, she said. Then something I really didn't understand about them not having any friends. What? What could that have to do with taking a test...? I shrugged it off, Sumi-sensei was busy anyway. So Thursday, the same deal. This time Kudo-sensei took me to the broadcasting room, and afterwards we went to the same meeting room to give the listening test to a few stuents. There were three boys and one girl in the room this time, as well as a young woman supervising them. We gave the test and started back to the teachers' room. I tried again, asking Kudo-sensei why those students were in that room. She gave me the same answer... that they have no friends in the classroom. It seemed kind of a touchy subject, like no one really should be asking questions about it... That's just the way it is. But I really don't get it. And I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find out. >sigh< The people that held that Numazu Guide Class have asked me to do it again before I go. I guess it was such a success or something... So I get to try again. Fusako asked me to fix any of the errors I found in the 'textbook' we used, and I'm adding the worksheets I made for the students before to it. Actually, I'm adding quite a bit more. I hope it's not too much... I hope it's useful stuff... Guess we'll see. At least... working here for a while has given me some ideas about what should be changed about English language education over here, and now I have my own class to do this stuff in. Excellent. They'll all be speaking fluently and writing novels when I'm done with them. (; Ha ha. So yeah, having no classes for the past two days, I brought my laptop to school to work on the 'textbook', and another file Fusako asked me to fix: a booklet for the Kalamazoo-ians who volunteer to host a Numazu-ian when they visit. I didn't even get to the booklet. I didn't even FINISH the 'textbook'... even after two days. Oh well... I'm not done, and I have a nasty neck-cramp to top it off. ): Sleeping on a mat on the floor with a pillow full of beans don't help much either. And, as my schedule said I had three classes today, I decided not to lug my stupid computer to school because 1) I had classes to worry about, 2) it is heavy, and 3) it must be carried over my shoulder because my crappy bicycle has only one (relatively small, and now broken) basket, which carries my bookbag. Plus it's been really windy the last few days. Yeah, you remember. I hate biking the wind about as much as I hate biking in the rain. And trying to bike though strong gusts of wind with a heavy laptop computer slung over your shoulder is not easy. So I left it. And two of my classes got cancelled. Go figure. And so today was quite boring. A few minute ago, the teachers' room suddenly cleared out. Sumi-sensei was straggling, so I asked what was going on. A lecture of some sort... that's all I know. Guess it wasn't important to tell me. Not like she would understand anyway, right? I feel like that a lot here... I get skipped quite often. Newsletters, info about meetings and stuff, even treats that the teachers often share with each other. I imagine they are afraid to try to talk to me. The other day, a teacher was using the desk across from mine (no one usually sits there, his desk must have been swamped in junk or something), and another teacher called to him from the coffee corner. I couldn't understand what the other said (I wasn't really paying attention) but the teacher across from me looked at me and was like, "Anoo.... (Uhm...)" like he was going to share the info with me. Then they called to Shibata-sensei, who happened to be in the room. She asked what they wanted to tell me. 'The coffee is ready,' the guy said (in Japanese) from the corner. 'Oh...,' I said. 'I'm fine, thank you.' They were a little surprised. Then Shibata-sensei said I'd been studying for three years. 'Really?' They were pretty surprised... A short converstation (in Japanese and English) started after that, about why I began studying Japanese and the comics I have. It was nice. It would be nicer if stuff like that happened every day... Well, that's about all. It's only 2:30, and everyone is still gone, and I can't go home until 4.... But I guess I'll find something to do. I hope to write this weekend about my experience at the funeral and seening those festival dolls. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :P posted by Katie Suttles | 12:22 AM Comments-[ comments.] Thursday, February 19, 2004 The weekend isn't getting here fast enough! I dunno why I felt so tired this morning. It just feels like this has been a 6-day work-week already or something. Pah. So, nothing really exciting to tell. I just had some time, so I figured I'd tell whatever I could think of. Let's see... Nothing exciting at work. A lot of my classes are getting cut and/or moved around now. The Japanese school year is ending soon, and the 3rd year students (9th graders to the Americans) are in the midst of taking the high school entrance exams. So I guess this means that the ALT is not needed so much. Well, whatever. I study kanji at school now. This weekend I'll be having dinner with Fusako, talking about round 2 of the Numazu Guide Class that will begin in April. Perhaps I can do a bit better job this time... On Sunday, one of the teachers has invited me to his home to see the decorations he has put up for the upcoming "Hina Matsuri." It is a celebration of daughters, and putting up this huge stack of a Japanese doll wedding party is a tradition, I guess. I'll tell you more about it when I learn more about it. (: Maybe I can do some sort of 'culture post'.. since I need to talk about the funeral last week still. Sorry! Wow... I guess that's really about it. :P My mom and her sister have bought tickets to come visit me here next month! I'm quite excited. (: I've got some good ideas about where to take them. My doggie is going in for some surgery this weekend. ): She's had these lumps growing on her for a while now, and there's a large one on her shoulder. The vet said, when my mom first asked about them years ago, that they were harmless and that putting her under the anesthetic would be more dangerous than letting them be. So we let them be. But she's gotten older and mom says that the lump on her shoulder is starting to irritate her... so she talked to the vet again. I guess anesthetic science has made leaps and bounds, because my pup's going in on Friday. Please send your happy thoughts her way. (: Oh yeah.. I've also kind of been inspired to start on a bit of a research project. One English teacher here asked me some questions about what I think of all this new stuff around me, and I got thinking more and more about foreign language education here, compared to that in America. I haven't gotten a lot together about what I'm really out to discover, but it's got me excited/curious. I feel like I'm in college again. (: posted by Katie Suttles | 5:03 AM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, February 14, 2004 Ahhhh... what a nice day. (: First, I got to talk to Jeremy. He'd been off in Des Moines for a conference or something since Wednesday. ): But he got back a few hours before I woke up, so we chatted for quite a while this morning. (: I puttered around and did some laundry, had some breakfast, and mostly played on my computer. :P I stopped at McD's for lunch before going to class, which was, as always, very fun. (: Our teacher this time wasn't as good as some of our others, but my 'classmates' still make things lots of fun. (: I shared some of the candy I have stockpiled here (thanks to Jeremy and many family memebrs!) since it was Valentine's Day. (: Then Tackas (?) remembered it was the opening day for "RotK" and I said I was meeting a friend afterward to go. So they asked if they might join me, and (I figured Kazuyo wouldn't mind) I said 'sure.' (: So after class we (me, Tackas, Li and Yudhi) headed over to the theater where I was supposed to meet her. She showed up a bit after and we got our tickets and went on in. I really enjoyed the movie. (: It's not my favorite of the three, perhaps... but then, I've only seen it once. (: The action and special effects were amazing--many people told me so before I went, and they were right! And it sure pulled at my heartstrings! I got all teary all througout the end. Dang, I love Sam. His is such a great character. So strong and loyal. And Sean Austin did an amazing job playing him. But he isn't up for any awards, is he...? >mumble, grumble< Oh, and Billy Boyd (Pippin) has a beautiful voice! What a pretty song... I can't wait to get the soundtrack. I might go look for it tomorrow! (: I do have a few complaints about it, but I won't bore you here. Things from the book that were not a part of the movie... The way a few things were handled... etc. But overall, it was an amazing adaptation of an amazing novel. It makes me want to read it again! And see all the movies again! And again and again and again... (: Afterwards, Li had to go home, but the four of us decided to stop in a cafe nearby for some dessert and to chat. We talked about all sorts of stuff... a lot about language. Differences in American, British and Australian English, and Ebonics, and 'mutations' of Japanese... it was fun! I'm glad the three joined us today. (: I had a nice time with some new friends. (: posted by Katie Suttles | 8:45 AM Comments-[ comments.] Friday, February 13, 2004 Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!posted by Katie Suttles | 8:33 PMComments-[ comments.] Cocoa making was fun. I can't believe it took a class of 30 students two hours to do it... but then again, I think about it and I'm not surprised. >sigh< But I think they enjoyed the class, and the cocoa, and I had a few chances to practice Japanse. (: Sumi-sensei asked me to teach them how to make 'American cocoa', which I was kinda at a loss... I mean, like... "Step one: Go to Meijer and buy a big can of powdered Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix..." I didn't think that was what she meant, so I turned to the only place I could: MOM! She sent me a great recipe, along with two bags of mini-marshmellows! So we made that cocoa, and I shared a whole bag of marshmellows with them. They really loved them! They had never seen marshmellows in cocoa before. (: So that was fun. In the evening, I had another class with the Numazu English teachers. I found some really great advice for English teachers over the past few days, so I copied a lot of things to share with them. We were going over the 'Common Mistakes Made by Japanese Speakers of English" sheet when I realized it was 20 minutes after 9! Class ends at 9... yikes. So I quickly brushed through the rest and then went to the 'Advice' sheet. There are some really awesome tips on there, for any teacher who teaches a foreign language, or for anyone learning a foreign language. One piece I loved was, "USE ENGLISH". Well, duh, right? But, too often in the schools, the teachers only speak English in the classroom. This subconciously teaches the students that English is just a subject, not a real, living, breathing language. We can COMMUNICATE with English. So do it!! Speak English with your students in the hallways, in the teachers' room. There are many other teachers (besides those teaching English) who can speak English--speak with THEM in English! Show your students that it's fun and easy to use English outside of the classroom. English is not a chore!! (: >whew< Okay... ::hops off her soapbox:: I got about as passionate when I was speaking to them, perhaps. (: But I feel this is important, and it is something I haven't seen in any of the schools I've visited. Also, I encouraged them to tell the kids they are still learning; like, that they are coming to a class taught by me. We are Life-Long Learners! (Right, Sarah??) Let your kids know that the learning never stops! And read ANYTHING. I read comic books. (: They are fun and it is "real Japanese" you know? Not "textbook Japanese." I buy cheap comics and translate them, by writing in the book itself. I brought one to show them. (: I think it kind of impressed them... I don't know why. I mean... I try to study when I can, but I still feel like it's not nearly enough... Anyways, after class, one of the teachers said to me, that he could see I was very passionate about teaching. That I was the best ALT that he's worked with... That's about the coolest thing I've heard since I came here. It sure made a great ending to a Friday the Thirteenth. posted by Katie Suttles | 8:32 PM Comments-[ comments.] So today/yesterday/tomorrow/what-have-you was Friday the thirteenth. The day was halfway over before I realized it. I was so surprised. Not that I am supersticious at all, but the coming of a Friday the thirteenth has just been something I've always been aware of, you know? Always a bit of a joke, right? Just another part of American culture that is a part of me that I realize I'm missing while I'm here, I suppose. Boo hoo. posted by Katie Suttles | 4:27 AM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, February 11, 2004 So, I was lazy and didn't work on my webpage. ): Sorry. Pictures of Tokyo will perhaps be up this weekend. The funeral last night was quite interesting. And very different! I'll write about it after I talk to one of the teachers at school tomorrow to find out a little bit more about what I saw, heard, and even did. I will tell you, though, that I walked out of the funeral hall with a can of oolong tea and a can of beer that I didn't come in with! It was my 'thank you' gift. I don't drink, but I felt it would be kinda rude to take the beer out and hand it back to the lady that gave it to me, so I just kept it. (: As I was walking out of the building with two of the teachers I work with now, I said, peering into the little plastic bag they came in: ".... I got a beer...." The ladies didn't seem that phased by it. Naturally, they had beers and oolongs, too. So I said, "Well, I really don't like beer..." (To be honest, I don't drink at all, but being too blunt/honest in Japanese culture is a little frowned upon, and I didn't want to take chances.) "Oh," Kimura-sensei said with a smile, "I like beer." And she reached into her bag, pulling out her oolong tea can. "And I really like oolong tea!" I told her. So we all ended up happy after a lovely Buddhist funeral. Ah yes... and this was after a day of teaching the first-years how to use "can"... "Can you do this?" "Can you play that?" They had to make their own sentences and ask the other students and us teachers, so Kimura-sensei and I were starting them off with ideas. Since I've arrived in Japan, I am constantly asked, 'can you eat Japanese food?' so I said, "can you eat...?" leaving it open, so I wasn't doing ALL the work for them. Dumb idea. The kids decided that "Can you eat me?" is a funny question. I tried to tell Kimura-sensei that this really isn't something they should be saying, and she caught my drift. However, telling a class full of thirteen year olds that they are saying something bad is HORRIBLE idea. So she tried to reason with them that eating a person is, in fact, impossible... No luck. One boy asked me, "Can you eat [student's name, which I forget]?" ...Sigh... Well, Thursday is another day. PS: I watched "The Pianist" this evening. Very good, beautiful music. But... seen it? Some parts are in German, right? Guess what?? No English subtitles!! This is really getting on my nerves. :P Some parts weren't so important, but when the pianist met up with the German soldier... I was forced to turn on the Japanese subtitles and do my best! I think I got the gist of what they were talking about, thank God. Good practice for RotK this weekend! Okay, that's all! Bye! posted by Katie Suttles | 8:56 AM Comments-[ comments.] Monday, February 09, 2004 I found out yesterday that the father of one of the teachers here has passed away. I'm not even sure what subject he teaches here, but I think I'll go to the funeral/wake/tsuyo this evening. I've been lucky enough to attend a Japanese wedding, and seeing a Japanese funeral sounds interesting... not to make light of what has happened, of course... But I must admit I'm curious. I guess traditional Japanese funerals have a service the night before the actual funeral. I think it's called a tsuyo. It begins at 7:00 tonight and might last one hour, Sumi-sensei told me. I think it's somewhat like our 'services' or 'wakes' in the states... Okay, well, to be honest, I haven't been to that many 'American' funerals, so I don't know a lot of the terms and junk... But I think tonight will be some sort of 'farewell'/honoring the deceased ceremony. I'm supposed to wear black, pearls are the only acceptable jewelry, and most people bring gifts of money to the family. (I hear I'm exempt, though. Being a foreigner has it's benefits, sometimes.) Tomorrow is the actual funeral. It starts at one'o'clock. Most Japanese are not buried, though, the are cremated, (I think it has something to do with the amount of land available, but it might also have religious reasons, too.) so I'm not certain what this ceremony will consist of. Sumi-sensei said it will be long, though... but tomorrow is a National Holiday, so many people will be able to go. However... I'm not sure if I want to spend my entire afternoon at a funeral for a man I've never met... Though I'm battaling because I'm sure it will be interesting.... I think Sumi-sensei won't be going, though. So that might mean the other teachers I know here won't be going either. I'll probably just skip it... Plans are in the works to see "LOTR:ROTK" this weekend! Kazuyo and I should be hitting the theater sometime Saturday evening. Yatta! I'm also talking to my mom and my Aunt Robin about a week-long trip they are planning to Japan! Weee! They'll probably arrive late in March, when I'm on spring vacation. (: I can't wait to see them! I miss my mommy lots. (: Hey! I have more good news too! Have you ever clicked on the link on my sites: Jim In Japan? Have you been a little disappointed by what you saw there? As in... nothing? (: Well, Jim finally got his butt in gear and has some stuff on his site! I found out this morning before work, so I haven't explored it all that well, yet. But he's got some nice stuff to see! Go and find out what my old JCMU buddy is up to now! Well, that's about it. Perhaps I will be back later tonight, with an account of the tsuyo. See you! posted by Katie Suttles | 7:58 PM Comments-[ comments.] Saturday, February 07, 2004 Well, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" will FINALLY get released here this weekend. Last night, "The Fellowship of the Ring" was on TV, so that was fun to watch. However, a small fear of mine has been confirm. Y'see... I speak Japanese (to some extent...) but I don't speak Elvish. >sigh< Last night, the Elvish was subtitled into Japanese... So I'm guessing the same is going to be true in the theater. Last night was no problem... I've seen "FOTR" enought times to have the few lines that ARE in Elvish memorized--or close enough to have my memory jump-started from what kanji I can read in the subtitles. But "ROTK" will be a bit more difficult. Ah well... Guess I'll just have to try. And I'm hoping to see it with a Japanese friend of mine, so maybe she can help me out. (: Sorry if my weblog has been acting up lately. I've had a few people tell me that sometimes they are getting a blank page. I'm lost as to why. I've done little things here to try to get it to work, but no dice. However, my JAPANESE blog would work, and my friends' blogs... Maybe the internet just hates MY blog. Well, either way... it's back and working again. Yay. You can read my random typings once again. Oh, sit down and stop dancing... (: Not a whole lot going on. I'll try to work on my pages later today. (: Promises, promises... Japanese class on Saturday has been a lot of fun lately. For the last few weeks (and months?) my group has been the largest; that really only means we've been averaging 5 members... which isn't that big. The other groups tend to be 2 or 3, so... But all the members make it fun. (: We are always joking around and stuff. Like, yesterday, Li-san--who is from China--kept getting lost. He's usually one of the quicker members (speaking Chinese probably has something to do with it... the languages are more similar than English and Japanese are, by a longshot) but yesterday he kept getting caught off-track when it was his turn to answer questions. (: It was pretty funny. (: A few weeks ago we read a 'Who Am I?' paragraph; the answer was "Santa Claus" but one line said, "I'm not married." Takas(?)-san (Australian) and I both said, "It's a lie!" when we finished reading, and had to explain to the others that Santa is indeed married. (: It was fun. We always end up off-track like that... but as long as we are speaking in Japanese, it is no problem. (: I went shopping about two weeks back and got a load of new stuff, which makes me happy. I had to buy bigger jeans over the summer. ): Probably had something to do with working in a fast food restaurant, huh? Well, since I've come here, thankfully, I've lost that bit of weight... but it made my jeans uncomfortable to wear. So I got two new pair, along with three pairs of pants for school. I finally bought this sweater I've had my eye on since before Christmas (when it was over $60.. yuck), and a few other shirts. (: It was a nice haul, and I didn't spend all THAT much on it. I mean, I laid out a few bucks, of course... but it was a decent amount for what I went home with. (: And now mom and my Aunt Robin are talking about coming to see me together! Yay! It would be near the end of March, when I have spring break. Marisha wants to visit, too. (: And Becca will be here in May! Wee. Hehe... Jeremy's talking about a second visit, but we haven't decided on a date yet. School's been nothing exciting. No more bike accidents lately. Yay. But it's been friggin' cold and windy. >grumble< I hate biking in the wind. Especially for 30+ minutes. Oh well. February 3rd was 'setsubun', which is kinda like the Japanese Groundhog's Day, the turning point to spring. The weather should be getting nicer any day now... Well, guess I'll go. Just some random updating today. Bye bye! posted by Katie Suttles | 10:28 PM Comments-[ comments.] Wednesday, February 04, 2004 I decided to change the title of my weblog. I was never a big fan of "Strimple Says," but it was as clever as I could be at the moment of christening. >sigh< How sad to have to admit that. Perhaps I should have had a naming contest... That's not such a bad idea, actually... I'm quite open to suggestions. (: Anyways... "English Machine"... That's often what I feel like here. I was brought here to speak English; I get paid to speak English. Kind of a sweet deal, honestly... I mean, to get paid to do something that requires hardly any effort. Well, there's the whole teaching thing, and biking to work thing, and random after-school classes I am asked to teach thing... But it ends up boiling down to one simple fact: I was brought here to speak English. To become an English Machine. And you know... one of the reasons I decided to take this job was so that I could become a Japanese Machine. That dream has faded somewhat... The reality has struck, I guess I should say. It is preferred that I speak English when I talk to the students at school, to help them practice. In the classroom, speaking Japanese is unnecessary for me, since there is a fluent Japanese teacher standing next to me. More often than not, the other teachers (meaning the not-English-teachers crowd) do not speak with me. (However, that is kind of changing here, at Ooka.) But I do what I can. I go to the Japanese class offered at the library on Saturday... but that's only an hour and a half every week. I watch TV shows, and read comic books, that interest me. I try (not as often as I should... shame, shame) to write a Japanese journal here on blogger.com. So, while I am not practicing Japanese as much as I thought I might, or even as much as I wish I was, I'm practicing. In other news, not much is going on. News of Janet's half-time strip show reached me, across the big pond. Wow, what fun, huh? I feel really bad for her (but, at least she was wearing that stupid decoration, right?), but... well, I kinda feel they got what they deserved, trying to pull a stupid stunt like that. What nitwit thought that would be a good idea? Geezus. It rained on Monday and put me in a bad mood. Biking in the rain sucks. Period. I had to change my pants when I got home, and laid my bag out on my 'hot carpet' (like electric carpet, I guess...) to dry. But it's 'Inuyasha' night, so that helped make it a bit better. Tuesday it was windy. What do I hate most, after biking on rainy days? Ya, biking on windy ones. It is no fun being blown in towards moving cars. No fun at all. There was nothing on TV to pick up moody spirits that night. Today has been nice. The second-years went to Shizuoka's Art Museum. I guess the work of Rodin (French sculptor--'The Thinker' artist) is on permanent display there. Does Shizuoka really own 'The Thinker'? Eh, whatever. They went, I'm here. >sigh sigh sigh< At least, Shizuoka is not far from here. I might just go on my own, danggit. Anyways, I guess classes were cancelled today..? Or maybe just for me..? Teachers have been going in and out of the teachers' room, but I was told I didn't have to go to classes. So I sat around here all day. I read some of my book ('Watership Down'), read some of the paper, and talked a lot with Sugimoto-sensei, who sits next to me. He is learning English, and likes to try to talk with me--in both English and Japanese. Though, I'd say he's probably learning more from our conversations than I am. Oh well. I also worked on my kanji a bit, and got some stuff ready for the English Teachers' Class next Friday. Wee. Sorry updates have been next-to-nil lately... I guess I haven't been much in the mood. I suppose I should try to finish my Kyoto and Tokyo pages this weekend. We'll see what I can do. posted by Katie Suttles | 1:34 AM Comments-[ comments.] |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||