ku gatsu
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9-1
well it's been a week and of course a lot has happened so i don't know where to start. well today i made a speech in front of the whole school (like 300 plus students) it was fun actually to my surprise.
i also met all of the teachers and introduced myself in front of them all in the teachers room. i have my own desk too.... all of the kids were looking at me and i overheard two girls say "kakkoii" which means "cool, handsome, stylish". it was funny. the work doesnt look too hard, its pretty basic. the teachers were all nice and one of them even drove me to the station after the "opening ceremony" (it was a half day).
its so wierd, it was like i wasnt even there or something. i feel like in the u.s. i woulda been so nervous, but i wasnt much at all today. oh and the principle is really nice too, which it seems sets the standards for the whole school, it had a very happy feel. it was interesting to see all of the students form straight line (in the gym) and bow in sync to the principle.
well i still have so much to do, time totally flies here.
oh and thank the lord the weather has been much cooler the last few days (altho still very humid)
[ this oji-san wouldn't move out of the way. ]
[ this a house on the way to kyokai. ]
[ this is the apartment building im staying at now (mike and chikage's) this is from across the street. ]
[ this was interesting, i was trying on clothes at a clothing store and i removed my sandles before entering the fitting room (as is the custom) but i guess i left them less the straight and probably facing the other way. while i was in the fitting room, one of the works came by and straightened my sandles so i could easily slip them on when i was finished. ]
[ this is at an okonomiyaki resturant, it is common to have a grill at your table ]
[ mike and chikage's toyota ]
[ this is where i went for training ]
[ in front of the same building, nagoya loves naked women ]
[ this is bread, it was yummy ]
[ this is an indian resturant we went to during training. notice the gaijin invasion. ]
[ this is looking out the window of the building we had training. ]
[ in the bathroom, my first engrish pic! ]
[ my new keitai! ]
[ the guy here is Tadd the one kind of in charge of all happenings at my company, interac ]
[ this is from one of our training sessions before i began working ]
[ this is nishi middle school, the school i work at on fridays. i began working here last week, this is the school where i gave the speech in front of the whole school. i go to three schools every week. one on monday and tuesday, one on wednesday and thursday, and another on friday. i dont have the same class twice in one week and there are approx. 40 students in each class and 20 classes. so that means i will see about 800 students every week. obviously remembering their names is impossible... this week went well on a whole. i had no idea of energy consuming teaching was. most of classes are back to back, sometimes i have 4 or so classes in a row with only 5 - 10 minutes breaks in between. the good thing is, since i dont see the same class twice in week, i only have to prepare 3 lessions for every week. a lesson for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students each. everyone is for the most part friendly and everything has gone smoothly so far. and by the way, there is no air conditioning in any of the classes. i swear sometimes i think it's 100 degrees and 90% humidity in those rooms. ]
[ this is terebi-to dowtown nagoya, you've probably seen it before in my photos. i found an apartment in this area, called sakae. sakae is basically nagoya's "downtown". the apartment is about 3 minutes walk from the subway entrance. i am super excited about this apt. it's basically what ive always wanted, to live right downtown. if all goes according to plan, i will move in on september 30th. ]
[ more sakae ]
[ more sakae ]
[ more sakae ]
[ this is also in sakae, it's about 4 or 5 minutes from my new apartment, on foot. ^_^ ]
[ this is the subway station i see everyday. its about one minute from mike and chikage's apt. look close for a surprise. ]
[ this is owariasahi station. two of my three schools are in owariasahi. ]
[ this sign is right next door to the interac office. ]
[ this is me in one of the schools' news letter. ]
[ so when i went to trainging they told me about the "wonderful" school lunches at the school. they said they usually has like 5 or 6 different things all cooked fresh that day. called a "bento" and that they were the best food you could get for ¥200... well they were wrong, my school lunches are nothing like that, in fact it seems they're importing them fron the U.S. and we all know how yummy U.S. cafeteria food is. today i had beef soup and maceroni, know maybe you dont think that's strange but you hafta remember, im in japan, i dont think i even seen either of those things here... another one of my favorites is the speghetti and beef with mushy noodles. once again ive only seem this stuff in the U.S., i didnt even think they had it here. so i was puzzled about this for a while but today one of the teachers helped shed some light on this mystery. she said 10 years ago, the department of education decided to drastically change the public school systems, mainly modeling them after the U.S. system. why they thought this was a good idea is beyond me... but that would account for the lack of discipline and the general roudy nature of some of the students... i wonder what will happen when the new generation grows up and enters the super polite adult world... interesting. ]
UPDATE... the food got much better over time, it was mainly at the beginning that was bad.
[ this is atsuta jingu, a shrine in a nagoya. i went here on a sunday after a failed attempt to go to a japanese class. the class seemes to have quit years ago (old website).. ]
