On the up

So when you're as low as I was...things can only get better...which they are starting to.

It's Thursday evening for me...my last few entries haven't been too informative of my daily life - but I think it's becoming more routine now. I don't want to bore you all on crap about how every minute of my day went - so I think I'll stick to stories that stick out for that day. Like my last few entries. Ya'all are in for a long entry here.

So the up & up. Classes are going okay. Some classes I really like, others I feel like I just stand there. I still am in mass confusion all the time as far as my expectations. I really don't think I'll understand what I am expected to do in each and every school for about 6 months. Some schools I'll only have visited maybe 3 times in 6 months - so it's understandable.

Today was the speech contest that I have been preparing 4 students for. Two from each Junior High School I'm in. The day was really long - and to be honest, kind of boring. The first half of the day consisted of recitation English speeches. The second half consisted of speeches that the kids (or rather the English teachers such as myself) wrote. The recitation was the same 5 speeches over and over by probably 20 students. It got really old, really fast. Thankfully, the people gave all us western English teachers some stuff to decorate for the students as kind of a Good job from us native English speakers. The second half was better - but not much cause I was just tired at this point. It was good to see all the other English teachers so we could discuss plans for the weekend. We have a long weekend coming up (thank goodness!). Two of my girls made the top ten!!! Top ten out of 55, i'm really proud. It was disappointing because both girls were from the same school, so the two girls from the other school that I worked with didn't get anything. I truthfully thought the two girls who didn't win had a better chance than the two that did. I have no idea what they based this on I guess. Good job to my girls!

Tonight, Brian & I had our English conversation class. The class broke up into two parts. I told Brian I would take the beginners and he would take the more advanced group. It went over well - we reviewed our self introductions. Then, we played MYSTERY BOX!!!! I gathered a bunch of crap from my house, put it into a box and then they had to pull something out. The other students had to ask WHAT questions. EX - what color is it? what does it taste like? how does it work? what do you use it for? what does it look like? what does it smell like?
You get the idea. They loved it - and I loved it. I have three men and three women in my beginner's section. The one guy is 22, married, and his wife is due in two weeks. He just turned 22 too in August. I can't imagine that lifestyle right now. I have a hard time determining if I'm effective or not. I really need to practice talking slower and using examples. I am pretty sure I'm just going to bring all my teaching materials next week to be prepared for stuff. I have no idea what they want to do. They know more English than I do Japanese - so it's really tough teaching them. It was a lot of fun though tonight. I made it to and from the place with no problems driving - almost. I hit a red light on a hill - and I had to put my flashers on and it took me three lights before I finally got off that hill. Other than that - no stall outs and no problems. Niiiiceeee.

Ok, so one of adult conversation class students saw me dancing. She wrote an essay about it. She asked me to edit it, but I figured I'll put some of it up here and then post the pictures she gave me. Remember when I said Pictures can tell 1,000 words. Well, read my small exerpt from her essay and then check out the pictures and prepare to laugh your head off. She writes very well!

"The dance was wonderful than Nebuta Odori in Aomori, I thought. They used two fans while dancing. The movement of fans, legs and arms looked beautiful. Many junior high school students followed after the dancing team who go to Australia. Suddenly I found Sara dancing.
"Sara" I called her name while taking out my camera from my bag. My husband and I called her name again and again so that I could take a nice picture. But our voices were drowned by the sounds of flutes and drums of the festival. She passed by in front of us without noticing us. I followed the parade running to take her picture. When I came back to my husband, another team was dancing. The team was consisted of lovely elementary students who came from Tokyo. An old woman who was sitting next to me said to herself clapping her hands."Thank you for coming here, coming to such a distant town Thank you very much lovely boys and girls. My eyes are getting watery because of your kindness." All the team went and returned. When Sara team returned to my seat, I was surprised because she was very good at dancing after 1 hour later."

Cute =)

Here are my pictures that she took...laugh your heads off, cause I did. Oh yea, I don't know if you've figured it out but if you click on the picture, it opens up larger in another window. You really need to see my face to get the effects. These aren't the most flattering pictures of me but hey it's great.




I often fell behind because I suck! Look how my fans are completly wrong!


Oh, what have I gotten myself into now?


This one looks like I know what I am doing, except for my fans!



These women are what I should be looking like