Toi with Me
I know. I have been a slacker as of late concerning my blog. However, I will do my best to inform you of this week's past happenings. My schedule has becoming a bit busier as people are recognizing that I am friendly and I am capable of handling more than two or three things on a given day. Apparently, they were trying to ease me into it. I have been participating in more classes at school. I was under the impression that I visited all the English classes on the day I am at a certain school. However, they have more than one English class on a given day and I usually only go to one or two a week. Now that everyone is warming up to me (and that the students really like me) I am invited to several more English classes.
Last weekend was tons of fun. On Friday we went to the Japanese tutor. I have noticed much improvement between classes with her and my intense language immersion. People have been mentioning how much I have improved. Now the only problem is that since several people in my town have warmed up to me they usually want to speak English with me. So far, I speak the most Japanese with the children (who are the people I am paid to speak English too) and the office lady. It is a real hoot communicating with her. She is this older woman that breaks all stereotypes of how you would imagine an older Japanese lady to be like. She is very quirky and reminds me of the absent minded professor.
Saturday, I invited some some ALTs over my house. Cristina and I were originally going to just buy sushi but ended up making tapas instead. We made salsa, spanish omelettes, ground beef, guava and cream cheese, guacamole and I forget what else. Jill brought some delicious pumpkin and Laura, Kaz and Alex brought wine and gifts. Since they were coming over and Alex and Kaz were sleeping over, I bit the bullet and did some deep cleaning. I am happy to say that now my toilet room is up to par, my kitchen is a lot closer than it was before, and my tatami rooms are simply amazing. It seems like a trivial thing to mention, but if you saw the condition of my house when I first arrived, you would beg to differ. We ate, drank and were merry.
The following day, Sunday October 10, was Health and Fitness Day and Cristina and my 4th year anniversary. Cristina and I had to split and go to our respective sports days. She was able to participate in most event because she was part of a team in her town. My sports day is a little different because the Board of Education is not really on any team. I participated in one relay race that I am still sore from running in. At first they were scared that they were not even going to be able to hold the event because of an approaching typhoon. However, the typhoon missed us and it was an amazing day. They held it on top of a mountain which made it even more stunning. After the festival, I had to go to a party at the town hall. These work parties are an opportunity for everyone to get drunk and talk about things that they would never ordinarily talk to each other about. In my case, several people sat around me and spoke or tried to speak English to me, even the Vice Mayor of my town who I had never met before. After that, I drove to Cristina's house so we could spend the rest of the evening together. Since I was driving, I was able to not drink which is often a blessing in one of these things because people are continuously filling your glass with beer or liquor. Cristina and I exchanged gifts. I got her a green coat she wanted, a matching purse and white scarf. She got me a 256mb memory card for the digital camera for our upcoming trip. After gifts, we enjoyed dinner at a dingy Denny's-type restuarant called Ringer Hut and some dessert at a Mister Donut.
Since they do the Sports Days nationwide on Sunday, Monday is a holiday so everyone can recover. We drove to the prefecture above us to visit Cape Toi. It is a nature park with a cliff side shrine and wild horses on large mountain greens. We saw a few herds from far away and three really up close in a wooded area next to the street. ( It is cleaning time at my school so I will continue later. )
Last weekend was tons of fun. On Friday we went to the Japanese tutor. I have noticed much improvement between classes with her and my intense language immersion. People have been mentioning how much I have improved. Now the only problem is that since several people in my town have warmed up to me they usually want to speak English with me. So far, I speak the most Japanese with the children (who are the people I am paid to speak English too) and the office lady. It is a real hoot communicating with her. She is this older woman that breaks all stereotypes of how you would imagine an older Japanese lady to be like. She is very quirky and reminds me of the absent minded professor.
Saturday, I invited some some ALTs over my house. Cristina and I were originally going to just buy sushi but ended up making tapas instead. We made salsa, spanish omelettes, ground beef, guava and cream cheese, guacamole and I forget what else. Jill brought some delicious pumpkin and Laura, Kaz and Alex brought wine and gifts. Since they were coming over and Alex and Kaz were sleeping over, I bit the bullet and did some deep cleaning. I am happy to say that now my toilet room is up to par, my kitchen is a lot closer than it was before, and my tatami rooms are simply amazing. It seems like a trivial thing to mention, but if you saw the condition of my house when I first arrived, you would beg to differ. We ate, drank and were merry.
The following day, Sunday October 10, was Health and Fitness Day and Cristina and my 4th year anniversary. Cristina and I had to split and go to our respective sports days. She was able to participate in most event because she was part of a team in her town. My sports day is a little different because the Board of Education is not really on any team. I participated in one relay race that I am still sore from running in. At first they were scared that they were not even going to be able to hold the event because of an approaching typhoon. However, the typhoon missed us and it was an amazing day. They held it on top of a mountain which made it even more stunning. After the festival, I had to go to a party at the town hall. These work parties are an opportunity for everyone to get drunk and talk about things that they would never ordinarily talk to each other about. In my case, several people sat around me and spoke or tried to speak English to me, even the Vice Mayor of my town who I had never met before. After that, I drove to Cristina's house so we could spend the rest of the evening together. Since I was driving, I was able to not drink which is often a blessing in one of these things because people are continuously filling your glass with beer or liquor. Cristina and I exchanged gifts. I got her a green coat she wanted, a matching purse and white scarf. She got me a 256mb memory card for the digital camera for our upcoming trip. After gifts, we enjoyed dinner at a dingy Denny's-type restuarant called Ringer Hut and some dessert at a Mister Donut.
Since they do the Sports Days nationwide on Sunday, Monday is a holiday so everyone can recover. We drove to the prefecture above us to visit Cape Toi. It is a nature park with a cliff side shrine and wild horses on large mountain greens. We saw a few herds from far away and three really up close in a wooded area next to the street. ( It is cleaning time at my school so I will continue later. )
posted by Jesse Montano at
1:18 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Jess, I would love for you to take pictures of Cape Toi and post them. xoxoxoxo
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Anonymous, at 3:26 AM
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