Whew! I fun couple of days!

whew! It's been a silly couple of days, but I've loved it! So, Monday, I woke up late, because I had been up writing that last blog entry, and I get dressed and start to head off to school. Well, it's cold and rainy, and since my umbrella broke last week in a strong wind/rain storm, this smaller umbrella left a bit to be desired. Anyway, I'm moping my way to school like a zombie, but then get there and realize that it seems awfully empty. I try the doors and they're locked. So then I go around the back towards the gym, because the gym isn't built right into the school, and there's an open air entrance. Well, I start making my way in there, and I hear some students saying my name, so I turn around and go up to them (it was the girls from the 1-1 class who are adorable and really nice) and I ask them if we have classes today. They tell me we don't, that it's vacation. So I make my way to the teacher's office just to be sure, and upon getting there, find one of the teachers who's shocked to see me there. I confirm with him, that since the Seiryusai was on Saturday, we got monday off. I was pretty eccstatic, and didn't even mind getting soaked on my left side walking home in the cold and rain.

I proceeded to just relax and have a nice war day inside on Monday, which included a thorough cleaning of my apartment and just loving the fact that I could be a bum again.

Tuesday (yesterday) wasn't particularly intense, with classes with the teacher's being light and easy. Since it was the last day of September, it was my last day of eating lunch with the 3-1 class. I laughed, was thanked by the class for joining them, thanked them back, and received and gave new nicknames to one of the students in class. We had been explaining the english and japanese names of foods early on, and he had loved the word 'dumpling', so now I called him 'shumai-kun' and he called me 'dumpling-kun', which everyone else thought was hysterical and we laughed pretty hard too.

I met with the principal of the Nanakubo school that's one town over, since the 2nd week of October I start going to two different elementary schools. He covered the schedule with me and how I'd get there (i'm going to ride in his car w/ him there, and then take the train back). He seemed very nice and I think it'll be lots of fun working with the elementary school kids. It's part of a new law passed that elementary school kids have to have a total of like, 20 hours of exposure to english before entering jr. high. I read an interesting article on it in the newspaper a week or two ago.

I also woke up early Tuesday morning and went to school early to join the band for practice. I got there a bit later than I had hoped, but I always love showing up and spending time with the kids, because everyone is just so damn nice. I'm really going to miss the politeness of this country. When I got there, they were doing small group practicing, so I joined up with some of the low brass, and I have to say, not only are they amazing, but I realized how much I missed playing the baritone. :-) The students introduced themselves and then we practiced. Yay! Near 8, we went to the main room and I totally caught the music teacher I had not told I was coming off guard being in the room. But she's cool so it was fine. :-P For some reason, still unbeknownst to me, this school loves having me get up and say something for groups. This was no different for the band. I was totally blindsided by this, but I told them how I was so impressed by how good they were, and how I had taken a video of their work and shown you guys back home, and how impressed you were. They really liked this :-)

After school, I picked up some ingredients I needed to finally sit down and cook an American meal. Lemme tell you, I pulled out all the stops for this one. I did this a couple of times at Kansai, and it was a welcome change of pace (in terms of food) to have mashed potatoes and a cheeseburger for dinner. But let me tell you, this cheeseburger turned out to be one of the best i've made, ever. :-P

Garlic and pepper on the meat, sautee onions, mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, bacon, and a fried egg on toasted bread. I practically wept as this touched my tongue: Behold, in all it's glory:


Today was a rainy day again, but it was more drizzle than anything else. :-P At school, first period, I played a game with Kawai sensei's 3-f class, and we played a game I played at kansai to work on numbers. Everyone gets some cards, and goes in order counting from 1-13 and then repeating as they drop cards down on a pile. if the number they say matches the number on the card, everyone slaps the pile. this game was fantastic, and always has an element of violence that goes into it that people love too. This was borne out as I proceeded to hit hands with another kid and both of us bent our fingers back. Yewoch!

I then had a class with Kasuga sensei with the lvl one kids, who have big english test coming up that Kasuga is trying to get them prepped for. Unfortunately, this meant lots of rote drilling with the kids today, which was kind of a bummer. I did do a crude introduction of my family though, with pictures I drew, which they got a kick out of. I heard them practicing saying 'read and write' so much that I was joking that it sounded like 'peas and rice'. I then also had class with Kasuga's advanced english students, who will have an open class here in a couple of weeks.

Unlike Bethany's issues with a 'staged' class, this one will be genuine. :-P Kaori also gave me a painting she did last year and talked about it today for the class. I was so happy! :-D I made sure to frame it and hang it up in my apartment, and an old frame Jon left me works perfectly! :-)


I found out today that Bethany was able to get a flight to Japan, and that she has some extra days off, so that she'll be here for 5 days! I'm so happy! :-D

This then prompted me to ask for a couple of days off in a few weeks, and then Kasuga, my vice principle Kyoto sensei, and one other teacher all finding out I have a girlfriend, which was hysterical. I explained to them how she's teaching english in Korea, and she's not team-teaching like I am, but is on her own!

The best part of all this, hands down, was kyoto-sensei, who's a nice guy, but normally has a serious / stern look on his face, go wide eyed and say in an enthusiastic voice 'mitai!' which means 'i want to see (her)!'. I was laughing so hard. Kasuga was like, 'oh! that's why you were asking me about bus schedules!' lolol.

I also found out this afternoon that the all-nagano-ken JET meeting I had sworn was on Monday is actually on Friday. Whoops! Oh well, I'm glad I figured it out now than on Saturday, especially since it's mandatory. Lolz.

I signed up to go to an all you can eat-and-drink (yes, alcohol) place afterwards, which will be a ncie way to kick off the weekend. :-)