Emails from Japan: April 30, 2008

Hello all! I hope everyone is well and happy and still alive. At least somewhat. I hope you didn't think that since I hadn't written since early this month that I'd forgotten you? Silly people, getting your hopes up like that. And now, my life for the last few weeks!

Has been school. Pretty much. That's all. School and preparing for school. Though last weekend my neighbor - the other ALT out here in our lonely corner of the country - and I went down to some kind of peninsula where I don't know quite where it is. We got lost in Ishinomaki at the very start, so that general direction. It was about two to two and a half hours of driving, stopping along the road and some little towns/villages/holes in the wall along the way for pictures and food and such. It was a really pretty drive. At the peninsula there was a nice little park type thing, that was really some kind of Nazi training ground for toddlers. Some of the...equipment? was definitely not stuff we get in our boring normal parks in the States. Lame, I say. We should have some of that. I was almost defeated by a neat little wooden maze, though I managed to find my way out in the end. And then there were the...ball slidy things. You sit on it and slide down the rope. Which doesn't explain anything. But it was way fun.

Naturally I've been sick all week as well. Some little germ infested bratling with mucus hands gave me their disease and it's been hell trying to play with the kids and keep my voice. Today it almost died on me. Totally sexy yo, the way I croak. So excited for Golden Week. Hello bed. Anyone out my way have any plans? I may go into Sendai, if I decide I can afford to spend the money. I can't go much farther than that, alas. I have bills to pay. If I can figure out how to get money from here to the states. Curse you paypal and your obstinate ways.

Mostly, though, my life is school. Oddly enough, however, I don't actually teach any classes. I wonder if any other ALTs are pretty much just classroom decoration as well? At my Junior High School I stand there for all of the 3rd year classes (...9th grade is Junior High here, for those stateside) while the Japanese English teacher (JTE) rattles off rapidly in Japanese, and sometimes has me read out loud from the textbook while the students repeat after me. This is the teacher that will turn to me as we're entering the classroom and ask if I've prepared any games or anything. This, of course, being before I even know what the hell he'll be going over in the class. So I have to pull something out of my ass, which usually isn't all that great and has him frowning. Not that that's unusual for him. I call him Mr. Scowly pants in my head. Because I'm 5 years old. I like my 1st year (7th grade) teacher though. Her classes are fun, and she lets me get theatrical.

Elementary school's are the best though. The kid's aren't as shy, they'll actually speak to me, and they'll play the games like they're having fun, rather than sitting there and wishing they were somewhere else. Like a lava pit. Freaking teenagers. They do wear me out though, when I get to do more than stand there. My main ES has its own lesson plans and stuff, which are in Japanese, and I get these script things that I can't read, so that's exciting. Then in class the teacher will be speaking, and then she'll pause for a while during which time I'm supposed to be saying something, but my script isn't in English and my cues are in Japanese and I have no idea what the hell is going on for the most part. so I make weird noises and faces and that seems to work. At least the staff will speak to me though. During lunch and planning time I'll get people that stop and talk to me in JapEnglish. Yes. japenglish. Not engrish. I go to my Kindergarten next month.
These last couple of weeks have been pretty easy though, since in the afternoon all the teachers leave for a home visit to their student's houses. Which is interesting. I have no idea what they do there though.

I still live off of cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The foods of the gods, I tell you. And instant ramen. And sometimes fruit juice and eggs to balance out my diet. Sometimes I get sick of my non-cooking, but really, there's not much you can do when 1. you can't recognize most ingredients in the supermarket and 2. you wouldn't know what the heck to do with them anyway. I need a live in slave that cooks. And cleans. My house is a sty. Anyone know a good place for a cheap, small vaccum? Lint rollers can only do so much...
And that's my life. Well, that and the anime channel, which I say is part of my education, and therefore justified. Since it's really the only Japanese television I remotely understand. I have officially survived my first month living and working in Japan. Go me!

......

11 more to go.

Dammit.