Yellow Tail, Cheese & Blogspot

Hello all. How are things stateside?

I've got a bottle of Yellow Tail, some cheese, the internet and my solitude. This means you all get a long winded update from me. Lucky you!

First of all, Happy Birthday Dad! I intended on doing this yesterday but I didn't post.

Thursday

I was back at Kanan Higashi (East) Junior High School. Today I actually did some real teaching. I did my self intro to the remaining classes in the school. I went back into the some of the classes where I got to teach with Takahashi Sensei. I was pretty psyched. We were really teaching how to order in a McDonald's restaurant. It was actually a lot of fun. It sucks because since I am in so many different schools, I don't have the opportunity to lesson plan or really decide what goes on in the classes. I have to fill out monthly progress reports since this is my first year here. This is something I fully intend on bitching (excuse my language here) about every single month. It is so stupid that I am in 8 schools. I did the math - on average I am seeing 1,600 students per month. This gives me no opportunity to meet anyone or really get to know anyone on a personal basis. It really sucks. I was really hoping to learn how to be a teacher since I should be team teaching most of the time, which is really similiar to student teaching until you prove your abilities. I really feel that I am ineffective as an English teacher because I don't ever see kids for more than maybe two days a week at the VERY most. What can I possibly teach anyone? At most I fully hope to be a positive ambassador of Americans and leave the kids with the image that Americans are good people. I see the elementary kids maybe once a month. It's a bunch of crap. Basically, they got rid of 3 English teachers, and only have two. Brian and I have to pick up the slack for the missing third English teacher. It's really a waste of their money to even have us here at all. Of course, I won't express that, I want a job here =)

Okay, off that rant, I taught at Kanan Higashi and actually got to teach. I also worked with two special ed students. I did my self intro, and then we played a memory game with animals. The two kids were cute, the boy kept just mimicking me, so part of the day was "My name is Sara" Just repeating what I had already told him. haha. Kuwaii (cute). I had to do another speech here. These stupid speeches are getting old. I got to witness a "cheer" assembly. Some of the students I guess are on a track team and so they do this ceremony. Very interesting. Every single student on the team runs out and then there is a cheer squad (not cheerleading) - and a traditional drum player. Every student in the audience claps to the beat of the drum and it's just this whole process that takes like 45 minutes. Quite silly. After school, Saijo -san picked me up and I was in a pretty great mood. On the way home, we were joking around. My English class in Monou Junior High had a worksheet that was in English that had missing words that the students had to fill in. I took that sheet and translated it into Japanese. I memorized some stupid phrases like:
"I am a Junior High School Student"
"Do you like mathematics?"
"Do you like Physical Education?"
"What is your favorite subject?"
When we couldn't communicate, I just threw out one of those stupid sentences. Saijo -san thought it was fantastically (is that a word?) hilarious. I had a great ride home. Then, we went to Monou JHS for one reason or another. I don't want to really get into it here but they told me some information that really upset me. I had to actually walk away from the conversation and sit at my desk. Crying in public is one of the worst things you could do in Japan. Basically, I'd be ostracized. I sat down at my desk and was writing the days of the weeks over and over, trying to keep myself calm. I went home and lost it. This was the first day that I've felt like giving up. This is the first time I haven't been able to handle things that are going on here. I was super upset.

Yosco came over at night and we practiced the dance some more. I took an ambien (thanks, Shannon!) and went to bed.

Friday
Woke up, had no motivation to even want to go to school. I am glad I did go though. I was at an elementary school today. I love elementary school because I don't have to follow a text book and I get to run the show. I had been to this one last week so the students already knew me. They just went crazy over my hair. I really love the sensei's in this school. Everyone is so kind to me. I prepared a game called Fruit Basket that I wrote about in my entry prior to this one. It's a competitive game to learn fruits similiar to musical chairs.
Lesson Plans for all grades
Greetings (hello , how are you today? I am feeling - happy, sad, cold, hot, hungry, fine, etc)
Have students work in pairs and practice
London Bridge
Teach Fruits
Fruit Basket Game
Goodbye Greetings
Yon - Nensei (grade 4)
These students were awesome at following directions so the period went awesome.

San Nensei (grade 3)
Everything went decently. One kid got upset over my game and ran out of my classroom crying. The teacher ran after him. It's hard to predict children's behavior. These kids got pretty rowdy over the game - maybe next time choose a game where students sit in their seats and not run around their room.

Ichi Nensei (grade 1)
Students were surprisingly good with learning their fruits. Teaching them greetings like "How are you?" was hard. These kids are freaking adorable.

Ni Nen (Grade 2)
Ahh, this class was hard. The teacher had no control over the students and doesn't know much English. Where the students were supposed to pair up into partners, they would not listen to him, so I used my creative juices. I made them all shut up and then counted them of by 2's. One's went to one side, Two's went to the other. Whoever, they faced then had to practice their "how are you?" speeches. It worked! I was so proud. I had one girl sprain her ankle during my game - I gave her a sticker. Note to self: have plenty of extra back up plans for this class.

Lunch with 5th graders - practiced my Japanese - not so bad. I could get through who were friends and ages. They love watching me try to speak Japanese. =)

Go Nen & Roku Nen (5th & 6th graders)
The teachers are really great with these classes, everything went well.

The energy and love I receive from these kids helped improve my mood and emotions about being here. They really reminded me as to why I'm here. They are just so great. Again, I was like a celebrity and had my picture taken all day long. I really hope they give me like a picture book when I leave here from them. I had two cards given to me and tons of little pictures drawn for me. These kids are just fantastic.

After school, I was able to talk to my advisor about the things that are going on that are making me upset. It was good, he offered some good advice. After that I went to Monou JHS to practice my dance with Yosco. I get there, and I had dinner with everyone. Then, I spend maybe only 20 minutes dancing. I suck. I really was not in the mood to be at school. Then, one sensei informs me that I have a package from the post office that I have to sign for. I sign and open and read the card. Wow, Dianna & Brian - I can't even express to you how this package made my day, my week, altered my attitude. I was in utter shock to have this package. I'm giving you a shout out here, but works are in the process so I can actually call you. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I got the best package ever - filled with food, halloweeen decorations, everyday needs, and a most encouraging. Honestly, I wanted to just cry from the kindness. Words can't express how shocked, happy, flattered I was. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

After that quick stop by to my JHS, I had another welcome party for me from Kanan Higashi. I went to Ishinomaki again. I guess something happened at this school where kids got into a fight or got into big trouble. Most people got late and the only teacher that is fluent in English didn't come. I spent the night translating for myself and using my dictionary and limited Japanese abilities. It worked out okay. Everyone is so kind, but again it's so hard to remember Japanese names and then being in 8 schools is such a challenge to remember everyone and everything.

Today, I went out and practiced driving by myself. It went okay. I only stalled out maybe two times. I even mastered the half clutch going in reverse. I am not confident at all, I was but now I'm not by how much I am being babied here. I then went grocery shopping and stopped at Narizen - my liquor shop. I got some everyday items like milk, bread, rice, etc. And my yummy wine from Narizen. After that I napped and woke up. I went to school where they had dinner waiting for me. I was half expecting it. I wasn't expecting it that i thought they needed to provide dinner for me but I figured they would have.

After some time, I am lined up and ready to go. This is my moment of glory. By glory, I mean absolutely, utter embarrasment. I picked the end of the line and tried dancing. After a while, I realized I either am going to suck at it all or be really good at my footwork and suck with my fans. I decided to go with the footwork and suck at fans. Whatever, I made no eye contact with anyone. My name was called out constantly, and I had my picture taken atleast a 100 times. I wanted to give my camera to someone to get a shot of this but I couldn't find anyone I knew that was not in the dance. Anyways, if someone gives me a picture of my absolutely horrible dancing, Ill for sure post it. That picture will be my weekly entry as to my life in Japan - because truly, a picture like that could speak 1,000 words. I mean i REALLY made an ass of myself. I can't even express it. Whatever, who cares, i'm in Japan. After that, we went back to the school and waited for all the students to get back. At this time, I experienced my first earthquake in Japan. I was like, ummm, the ground is moving...uhhhh. Saito-Sensei (who I love, he's really outgoing and laughs at me all the time) used some broken Eigo (english) and hand motions to explain. Then, hanabi (fireworks) went off. I went around and checked out the festival with Yosco. Again, I was a celebrity.






(Me in my dancing gear)








Today, before my dance I got to interact with my favorite punk kid. I love him - he was wearing all hello kitty gear to dance in. What a cutie. Kocho Sensei was really kind to me and some of the teachers that didn't ever pay too much attention to me are starting to have slow Japanese conversation with me. What I don't write too much about is my learning this language. It' hard , it's really hard - but it's necessary. I realize, that by being myself - people like me. Hiromi told me that many people are concerned about me because I am being overworked and I seem tired all the time. The truth is, the past few days, I've just been down. All these challenges, being completely isolated from everyone has really started to take a toll on me. I'm trying, i'm trying really hard to remain positive. This is what I want - I want to be here. Tonight was great - even though I didnt want to dance . Daily, I face difficult cultural differences by being :
#1) a woman
#2) 22 years old
#3) from America

I remind myself, I am in Japan, not America. I - and I am sure most of you take for granted a lot of things that you don't realize. I am starting to realize how wonderful our country is. I love Japan - I love this experience but daily I am starting to recognize things where women in America just have it amazing. I am lonely - I miss my college life - I miss speaking to people - I miss a lot of things. But, hey, this is temporary. As much as I miss things - everything could be worse. Let's just hope it doesn't.

Alright, I'm ending this entry before I end my bottle of yellow tail. Thanks for reading - shoot me an e-mail sometime. My picture below are some of my elementary students. the little cute guy in the front is my favorite first grader. Isnt' he just adorable????