melrudin

Here's a link to my blog about what I did over my long weekends. :)

http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/long-weekend-travels/

If you want to read about what I've been up to lately with the sports festivals at my schools, you can read about it at my Japan blog:
http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/?p=64

I've also been working on knitting a dalek. :p But I messed up at the beginning in that I couldn't count properly and didn't pay enough attention to how I would make up for my improper ocounting. i.e. making sure if I added/subtracted a stitch (if the line was too short or too long) I did it at a place that would actually make it look decent.... So I'm going to say that my dalek was wounded in battle. -_- I may need to make another dalek later since it's really bothering me....

Last Monday, classes started! Work is a lot more interesting when there's more to do than sitting in the office all day.

I've basically been doing my self introduction many many times all week (once to each class). It's been fun, though. I brought a bag of things to each self intro to show the students. I had maps, pictures of my family and various things to show what I like (such as Disney, Totoro, manga and American comic books, French, etc.) and the students really seemed to like it! ^_^

Then, in all classes, the students had a chance to ask me questions. I got all kinds of questions, the weirdest one I think being one from an elementary school student at Yamanomura. "What's your favorite shape of the moon?" haha. Not something I'd been asked before. And, since I mentioned Disney in my intros, I inevitably got asked if I'd been to Toyo Disney Land or Tokyo Disney Sea, to which I replied "No, but I want to."

My middle school (and elementary schools too, for that matter) is busy preparing for its taiikusai. (sports festival) It involves various sports and and cheers and other sports-related things. The whole school is split up into two teams, red and yellow, including the teachers. I'm ont he red team. It's a huge deal and the classes, since the start of the term, have been shortened to 45 minutes instead of 50 to allow extra time at the end of the day to prepare. Also, 6th period (there are 6 total) is often cut out to allow for even more time. I've been attending some of the after-school practices to watch them practice their cheers and they're really coming along with it. :) It looks really cool. Go, red team!!

At my elementary school, I did the same thing. However, I was able to show the students pictures on the TV instead of having to pass them around. I also ate lunch with the students which was fun. :)

Lunch at Japanese schools is called "Kyuushoku" which is a set lunch that everyone in the school eats. I think it's about 300 yen ('I think' because we pay at the end of the month). So everyone eats the same thing and it's a surprise what day what it will be. haha. So far they've been good, though.

Friday is Yamanomura day, my tiny mountain school. And I mean tiny. It is 13 students total and that's including elementary and middle school. The 1nensei (first year in middle school) and 3nensei (3rd year) classes each have one student in them and the 2nensei class has 2. The other 9 are elementary students, with 3 kindergarteners as well.

It's a really nice school, though. The teachers all greet the students at the start of the day, high fiving them and saying the foreign language greeting of the day. (last Friday was Italian) Also, the teachers all eat with the students and then play a teeth brushing song with everyone brushing their teeth together after kyuushoku.

It's certainly different to have a class with just one student Should be fun, though.

We also had a karaoke party with my English conversation circle which was very fun. The circle has really great people in it so it was fun getting to spend time with them. (and karaoke is always fun :) )

I've also started knitting a dalek (from Doctor Who). It's taking awhile (and will take much longer) since you have to do each of the little black dots on its body individually and they're a little strange to do.... also, it's supposedly like 8" tall (and I may be knitting mine looser than you're technically supposed to so mine may even be larger...)

Here's a link to my most recent post on my Japan blog. It's about what I've been up to recently, festivals and there's a video tour of my apartment.

http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/what-ive-been-up-to-and-my-apartment/

My modem arrived today so I have internet finally!!!  :DD


Here's the latest post in my Japan blog:
http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/49/



I'll likely start copying and pasting them here when I get more settled in but I'm not sure... there are lots of things I've been meaning to do when I got internet so I'm just going to throw the link up there for now.  :)

I got pictures of my apartment last night!  ^_^  It looks really nice.  You can hold your mouse over an image to see what each picture is. (just what the BOE titled each picture when they sent them to me)  It’s a nice big apartment, one of the perks of living in the inaka.  :)   I’m excited ’cause it looks like I’ll have indoor parking!!!

To see the pictures, check out the post on my Japan blog:
http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/apartment/

It's now almost 12 days 'til I leave.  :O  I have a 'Japan corner' in the living room now with my suitcases and stuff I'm bringing.  It's making it infinitely more real.  This is crazy.  I mean, I've lived abroad for study abroad, but nothing like this before.  I've always lived with my family, in a dorm/campus house/campus apartment or with a host family.... so living on my own is new, let alone living on my own in a foreign country.  I just have so much to think about and prepare for.  My mind is swimming.  I'm already having trouble sleeping as a result of everything and I still have 12 days.  o.o  There's no way I'm going to be able to sleep the night before I leave.  And I get bad enough jet lag as it is...

Currently I'm rather worried about visa stuff.  I realize it's most likely unfounded worry... but that doesn't change the fact that I'm worried about it.  Basically, the visa application stuff is due on Monday.  I mailed my passport and paperwork in last week and they received it on Wednesday.  However, I got a call on Wednesday basically saying that I was a moron and forgot to sign the paperwork.  -_-  (it's a form you fill out online and then have to sign it by hand and I guess I forgot to sign/date it after I printed it out....) so they said all I had to do was mail out another copy of the form.  So I filled out a new one, SIGNED AND DATED IT, and shipped it off by express mail on Friday.  It came in this morning (Saturday morning), but the visa office was (obviously) closed.  So they left a notice saying that my package can be picked up at the local post office.  So I'm sure they will receive the notice on Monday, receive my paperwork from the post office and everything will be fine.  But I'm still really paranoid that they won't get the memo or will decide not to get it until Tuesday or something.... and the deadline is on Monday.  So I'm going to call the visa people Monday morning to make sure they got it all and that I can get my visa.  It's just instilling this kernel of (probably unfounded) doubt in me that I won't be able to get my visa and won't be able to go to Japan.... ><  So yeah...  I'll be happy once I'm able to call them on Monday and getting all that figured out.

Also, new post to my Japan blog:
http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/2-weeks-and-counting/

Just a quick update that I've changed the link to the blog I will use when I'm in Japan.  Here's the new one:

hidaadventures.wordpress.com

I finally got my placement!  :)  I am going to be living in Hida City in Gifu Prefecture.  It's between Kyoto/Osaka and Tokyo, but (being very very rural) it still takes a little while to get to either and the nearest shinkansen station is 3.5 hours (I think) away.  But still, it's in central Japan where I wanted to be so I'm happy with it.  I'm also in the prefecture next to Nagoya where I have a friend who's a current JET.

Once I get to Japan, I am going to be keeping a blog about it.  I will likely have plenty of free time there so my current plan is to keep up-to-date with both this journal and my new one:
http://hidaadventures.wordpress.com/

However, this is going to also remain my personal journal which I can use to talk about things non-Japan-related, while the other one is going to just be Japan stuff, so my relatives and others who care can see what I'm up to without having to read rants about Doctor Who or whatever.  I will probably end up copy and pasting (or at least posting links to) entries on my Japan blog onto this blog, but I'm not 100% sure yet.  I'll have to see how it goes.

I'm going insane waiting for my JET placement.  :/  No new news and the one official person who I saw post on the message board said that they don't know when either and it really could be any day now.  It's incredibly frustrating.  >>