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Kindergarten! How Cute!

Yesterday was my first kindergarten class. It is actually the first class I’ve taught so far. Since coming here nearly a month ago, the majority of my working time has been spent sitting in the middle school faculty room, looking busy and otherwise being thrown as to what the elementary schools actually want me to teach (they send me the wierdest faxes).

I might not have clarified the type of work I’ll be doing as a municipal ALT *ALT’s hired by cities to teach middle and elementary schools*, so I’ll do so now.

• My base school is Yoshii Middle School. I will be there for the majority of my time. I have a sheet in which teachers can request for me to attend their classes one period at a time. Most likely, I’ll be doing repetition work, and won’t have to worry about actual lesson planning.

• I go to four elementary schools and one kindergarten, each once a month. For the elementary schools, I have a very minimal, bizarre lesson plan sent to me (usually consisting of singing some song I don’t know, and teaching vocabulary or some kind of basic greeting), which I’m sure I’ll be teaching without much help from the teachers. Kindergarten is the same, only there is no lesson plan, and I basically humor them in English for about an hour, then eat and play with them for another.

• I have Wednesday night English Conversation classes that I need to teach at least 3 times a month. The classes are mainly adults, and I am the teacher. No help from anyone on this one. I hear that they’re good people though, so I’m looking forward to my first classes (kindof). One of the teachers at the kindergarten will be attending.

Speaking of kindergarten, the lesson revolved around Oklahoma *a kind of self-intro thing* and games. They loved “Duck, Duck, Goose”, though they didn’t quite always get the whole running as soon as you called goose. It made for some very close races around the circle. One of the little five-year-old girls sitting next to me during the game let me know that my boobs were big. I’m so glad. I had totally forgotten. Thank you for reminding me. She also practically dragged me, afterwards, to sit with her at the microscopic tables (with even more microscopic chairs) that lunch was served at. My knees were taller than the table. She kept getting rice stuck on her face. A grain on her cheek.  A grain in her hair.  A grain on her eyelid (that one must have taken talent).

After they finished eating lunch, a group of kids started playing with some English alphabet cards. Bless their hearts, but doesn’t it look like they’re playing poker?

かわいいね！

My Little Bulb

Well, my fridge was making a terrible racket a few weeks ago, and during the process of at least temporarily fixing it, several things were found behind my fridge.

One such thing was something that, seriously though, I thought was poop. I was like, “eww gross, there’s a big poop behind my fridge”. On closer inspection though, I realized that it was a bulb. Whether it was alive or dead, I had no clue. Who knows how long it had been back there. Anyways, it was put on top of my oven/ microwave until I thought of something better to do with it. Unfortunately, I forgot it was there, and that the oven gets very hot when used. I lamented that I may have killed it. Before I mourned too long though, I decided to test the bulb.

I took a sake cup, filled it with water, and in went the bulb. Nothing happened for several days, and I began to lose hope (yeah, I’m discouraged easily). Next thing I know, little white dots are starting to appear, the first signs of roots. Within the next few days they’ve grown a bit more than half an inch, and the plant tip is starting to lengthen. Soon now, I expect the plant tip to really shoot up. I need to transplant it into some dirt soon. It’s a shame though. I have no clue what kind of plant it is. I don’t know either the depth or soil type needed.  I’m guessing it needs high light though.  Everything here gets high light.
Won’t it be fun though to see what it turns out to be? If this were a proper story, it would end up being a magical plant that grants me several wishes for believing in it, even when it looked like poop.

Here’s a pic of its roots in action. Go roots!

By the way, this kind of stuff is very interesting when you live in the inaka.

Miffy is Mine!!!

Finally, the Miffy dinner plate is mine…

They are having a campaign at Lawson *a popular Japanese combini* where if you collect thirty points, you get a Miffy dinner plate.
I’m going to walk you through your average combini campaign.

First, you buy too much of their food. Ooh, look! I’ve bought a sea chicken *tuna* mayonnaise onigiri *rice ball wrapped with nori* ! The white circle used to contain a sticker. Just go with it.

Next, you buy even more of their food. You collect the points. You may have a card to put them on, such as this (note the square-shaped keitai barcode that I had mentioned in my earlier post…they really are everywhere!):

After you get the proper amount of points, you give it to the clerk, and voila! Puresento!

Ok, they don’t just hand you a plate. It’s in a box, but you know…details…. Speaking of, the pic below is the design on the box.
This just cracks me up. Tell me that doesn’t look like a gang symbol! I think that in the original illustration they took the design from, he was flying a kite. It’s one of the images on the Miffy site. Nonetheless, gang symbol.

And now that I’ve eaten so much at Lawson’s, I’ve forgotten how to cook… It was their plan all along, wasn’t it!!!

Where’s the Internet, Man?!?

I’ve been alive for 26 years, 2 months, and 2 days.
Which equals 1352 weeks + 8 weeks + 2 days
Which equals 9464 days + 56 days + 2 days
Which equals 9522 days!
…but wait. We can’t use months in our measurement. They’re inaccurate.

• Instead of the 8 weeks and 2 days that add up to 58 days, it’s 64 days.
• Ok, so I’ve got 9464 days + 64 days
• Which equals 9528 days.

…but let’s not forget leap years! The year I was born was a leap year, though it doesn’t affect the count, since February is before my birthday.

• +6 leap year days.
• =9534 days!
• 9534 days = 228,816 hours

…and let’s not forget that the day isn’t complete yet.

• -7 hours

…and that I am 14 hours ahead from my place of birth

• -14 hours

…and that I wasn’t born at midnight on the 20th

• -7 hours
• 228,788 hours = 13,727,280 minutes

…I was actually born at 7:49am

• -49 minutes
• =13,727,231 minutes

Which comes to 823,633,860 seconds as of 5pm today, when I plan on posting this.

*edit* plus 14 seconds for the leap seconds due to the Earth’s rotation.

823,633,874!

It’s probably wrong. The point is that I’m still not a billion seconds old yet. I’ll have to wait until I’m into the second half of my 31st year to appreciate the honor. Maybe I’ll have a billion-second-old birthday party. It’s not every day you turn a billion. You’re only 3 years old when you turn 100,000,000 seconds. Talk about a big step for just one zero!

If you have ever wondered what happens when the Internet is temporarily down while at work, I hope I have answered your question for you.
You’re not allowed to ask what I do when there is Internet. I work hard every day, of course. On work. All day long.

…

Do you ever feel dirty too when you lie so blatantly?

Oh goodness, does that mean that I should be a responsible sort and see if I can live without my computer while at work for at least a day? Would I actually survive such an experiment? Would I be the slightest bit more productive than I am already?

I guess we’ll all have to find out together tomorrow!

“Get” (don’t bother if you find English boring)

Ok, so I had been fussing with the feeling that “gotten” wasn’t a proper word *from my blog on my new keitai*, and finally broke down and looked it up in my lovely mac Dictionary and Thesaurus program. Indeed, it is correct.

Charity=1 Bad Grammar=0

For some reason, I’ve been interested in the English language. Scrolling down to the bottom of the definition of “gotten” has this lovely passage describing the different words that can better reinforce what you’re trying to say instead of using boring old “get” every time. I include this because I found the usages humorous.

:THE RIGHT WORD: *from Dictionary and Thesaurus*

Get is a very broad term meaning to come into possession of. You can get something by fetching it (: get some groceries), by receiving it ( | get a birthday gift), by earning it ( | get interest on a bank loan), or by any of a dozen other familiar means.

Substituting obtain sounds less colloquial. But it can also sound pretentious (: all employees were required to obtain an annual physical exam) and should be reserved for contexts where the emphasis is on seeking something out ( | to obtain blood samples).
Acquire often suggests a continued, sustained, or cumulative acquisition (: to acquire poise as one matures), but it can also hint at deviousness ( | to acquire the keys to the safe).

Use procure if you want to emphasize the effort involved in bringing something to pass (: procure a mediated divorce settlement) or if you want to imply maneuvering to possess something ( | procure a reserved parking space). [But beware: Procure is so often used to describe the act of obtaining partners to gratify the lust of others ( | to procure a prostitute) that it has acquired somewhat unsavory overtones.]
Gain also implies effort, usually in getting something advantageous or profitable (: gain entry; gain victory).

In a similar vein, secure underscores the difficulty involved in bringing something to pass and the desire to place it beyond danger (: secure a permanent peace; secure a lifeline).
Attain should be reserved for achieving a high goal or desirable result (: if she attains the summit of Mt. Everest, she will secure for herself a place in mountaineering history).

Good times.

And the Thunder Rolls

The weather here is interesting. There have been many days where it has just thundered non-stop, yet little rain is had of it. Today is putting up quite an impressive show of non-stop thunder. One rolled for about 30 seconds. That’s quite impressive… Go thunder.

There was an orientation scheduled for the new ALTs in Fukuoka prefecture, but was cancelled…because of a typhoon. It rained pretty hard, and I was stuck inside until the rain let up mid-day. Apparently they’re quite common here.

I now know what the metal sliding doors are for on my house. They’re to weather out typhoons. Here’s a pic of them in action:

I think my house is screaming “I need a little flair!!!” I’ll see about it. Maybe a garden, or at least some potted plants. Maybe a little scrub.
I’ve become sucked into watching ドラマ *dorama=Japanese drama* again. Sadly, my TV doesn’t get the best reception, so I’m still going to d-addicts. I’ll start up a list of must-see ドラマ one of these days… one of these days…

My New Keitai

I have finally gotten my keitai *cellphone*! It took so long because I had to wait until my alien registration card arrived. Here’s a pic.

It might look like a regular cellphone, but those of you not used to Japanese keitais might be interested to hear what features this one comes with:

• 4 megapixel flash camera w/ dual sided feature (take pictures from either the outer camera lens, or the lens near the inside display *for pics of yourself*)
• mp3 player
• video phone with conferencing capability
• tv
• internet shopping
• electronic wallet
• infrared scanning feature (for keitai barcodes *on everything* and data transfer)
• Japanese and English dictionaries
• talkback feature (speaks out messages in Japanese)
• scrolling news feature on display screen
• sight recognition of printed Japanese and English (via camera feature)
• DragonQuest2 (talk about nice games!…shame it’s in Japanese…)
• among others that I have yet to find out about

I’m glad I’m able to be connected again, even when not at my computer.  Makes me feel better knowing that I can be contacted by my friends even when out exploring the inaka.

Some Things To Think About

What’s on my mind right now?

• Why are Western mattresses shorter than Japanese futons? I’m not exactly shorter than the vast majority here.

• Why is it that Western guys get all the girls here, and Western women scare all the men? I hear it’s something about being dominant and aggressive. That just makes me wanna smash things!

*edit* Apparently there may have been some confusion as to the above statement.  It’s rhetorical, and I am thus not trying to elicit a response, but a statement.

• And why is it that when I’m on mixi *a Japanese social network site, kinda like facebook or myspace*, the total opposite applies, and Japanese guys are messaging me all the time, and the western guys are left high and dry?

What’s up with that, man?

Under Construction

Bear with me while I change the look of the site.  It should be finished by tomorrow.

A Winner and a Thanks

First of all, I had someone correctly guess what was on top of my fridge. It’s not a microwave (otherwise there’s be no contest). It’s not an oven. It’s a microwave oven (sounds kinda like the Jagainu-kun post, huh?)! Sadly, when I posted it, I also thought it was an oven first, like the three other people who guessed before the winner.

*edit*  I’ve already been here too long and forgotten that most people take the word “microwave oven” to mean microwave.   It is a dual feature oven AND microwave.  I hope that clarifies a bit more.

Seriously though, isn’t that great? It warms up my refrigerated rice AND toasts my grilled cheese sammich! At the same time!!! (naw, I’m just joking on that last one, but it still rocks)

Way to go, Nicole!

And also, I just wanted to say thanks for everyone who’s commenting. It makes me look like I actually have a popular blog! Woo, yeah! Go friends and family and the occasional random appearance by people I don’t know!
And thanks to the moderate function on my blog program, so that I can remove spam before you guys ever have to see it!

And now I’m off to deal with the green onions I bought. No joke, they’re the length of my arm and as big around as my thumb. I hope they don’t put up a fight going in my fridge.