I think this will be decently short?
Well today I was supposed to do some activities with class 6. This is a class of 2 students. Two 2nd year (8th grade) boys. The difference is just that they're more behind their classmates. So I got a battleship game prepared and gluing and cutting pictures of food to play a really large memory game on the floor.
But then when the teacher and I got to the room, the homeroom teacher for class 6 and class 7 told us that the boys were absent. xD So I didn't have that class...next time I guess. xD
Next I went to 2-5 with a different teacher, and we were reviewing "When I ____, (whoever) was ____ing _____." and that kind of structure. So for my part, I had them get in a circle, and the head teacher would play my music, and stop it randomly as the kids passed around my cat ball. Speaking of, I've named him NekoMaru-san. Neko is Cat. Maru is Circle. I feel it's fitting. xD The kids like it.
When the music stopped, the kid holing Nekomaru-san would have to draw a slip of paper from 3 different bags. One was the "When I was" bag, then the "My" bag, and then the "was" bag. I purposely included some dumb things. For example, one student drew and repeated "When I was reading a book, my cat was cooking ramen" xD There was also a "When I was listening to music, my rabbit was going to school." It was a lot of fun.
For lunch, I get the same 2 girls interested in chatting with me on the way to and from the classroom. I really like that they feel comfortable with me, so I speak to them more personally. By that I mean generally commenting about how she feels about gym class, and about how exhausting elementary kids are to teach. I'm considering asking the head English teacher soon about a class-wide optional homework for the 3rd years. They could each have a notebook that they'd write to me asking questions about whatever in English and I'd respond. I'd expect only a small amount of them to do this, but as middle school is writing-focused for English, it would be a good opportunity for them to speak to me one on one, practice, and they can learn cultural things about America. I'll give it a little longer, maybe not until after summer break to ask. But I feel encouraged by some of the kids.
Today, a group of them during lunch were using the words "hentai" and "ero". They both are used under different contexts generally, but they basically mean....um....inappropriate, pervy people or things. Just hearing it made me laugh a little and a nearby girl caught on what I was laughing about and immediately reported to her friends about how i knew those words. xD No, I'm not worried about it.
Lunch today included milk (of course) soup with carrot, onion, potato, little shreds of pork and green onion. There was a kind of lightly fried rice with seafood in it, another variety of cucumber-green things salad and then what looked like an egg roll, but its basically cooked salmon inside with something leafy and a lemon taste. It was really good. But in Japanese, the girl who walked with me asked if I liked it and I assured her I liked fish. I was funny, before we left the classroom she did a salute at me, asking if I was ready to go. xD And just after I was done eating, a boy asked in English if I liked the salmon. They get surprised when foreigners say they like fish. I thought it was great and I was really happy he approached me and used English and then didn't look too awkward about it after. xD
So that was pretty much today, I enjoyed myself a lot~
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesdays coming, did you bring a coat?
Today was Nanbu elementary again-- I spend the first 4 periods of the day there and then go to the middle school for lunch and afternoon. Only thing is, I don't usually actually teach every period- just a couple and then I have prep.
But today I had four classes in a row before dashing to the middle school. 5th grade, 6-1, 6-2, and 4th grade. The two 6th grade classes are on the same lesson, so I was able to make one lesson for both classes. We've been working on months and how to say the dates and today we moved into birthdays- asking when and answering. We played bingo with the days of the month as a review, and they all enjoyed it in both classes. I struggled somewhat with the introduction of birthdays, there were parts of my presentation I forgot with 6-1, but it worked out alright in the end. But 6-2 as usual is very quiet. They like me alright, but they just never talk when I need them to or anything. Makes things a bit harder but I'll keep charging through it. That one shy kid I mentioned before? He's still really shy. Like others I can't get him to volunteer for anything, but he does answer when I walk up to him and try to get a response so there is that. Though he won't look at me at all which is different from the others. xD Oh, to be 11-12 again.
The 5th graders I had never had before. But they were quite enthused to see me and my self-introduction went on for quite some time. Their lesson was introducing "I am (hungry/tired/sad/happy/etc). Though I had learned quickly that their teacher had already covered it pretty well. Luckily, my self-intro (they had so many questions for me including "are you married?"....the 4th graders asked this too. I even ended up explaining what languages we learn in the US) lasted for a lot of the time and I played a review game with them. I've done this game with the other classes as well. What I do is put the flascards for the vocabulary on the board. I tell the kids they are policemen (have I explained this already...? oh well) and I have them turn around and not look while I take some of the cards and move the others around. I laugh evilly, saying a robber has stolen things and have them look again. One at a time, they'll say which ones are missing. Then, I through my squishy cat ball at them, and the kid who catches it is the next robber. This game can go up to 15-20 minutes, especially if the kids are really enthused. So even though they all really knew the words it doesn't matter, they had a lot of fun. My cat ball is also really popular. It's a stuffed animal cat that is in the shape of a ball, and really squishy. I bought it in America for this expressed purpose actually. xD
The 4th graders were really cute. There is no book for them or actual laid out curriculum for this grade and lower as I'm aware, so the plan will always "free" whatever I want basically. I have not had this class before either like 5th grade. I decided to go with numbers and colors. I had no idea what they already knew. If they didn't know them already, it would be something easy to teach with limited time and if they did already know it, then more game time. As it is, they also asked me a lot of questions though it took up less time. I discovered they knew 1-10 and all the colors. So, again I played police with them, focusing on the colors because I had more of them. Cat ball was again extremely popular. xD After this, I put up colored numbers all over the room. I'd call out a color or number and they'd go to whatever was, say, a "3" or "orange" and then I'd say "purple 3" and the ones who had chosen the purple 3 out of all the 3s would win the round, etc. In the end, I had made a lot of those papers and I let them keep the papers, so everyone had at least one. xD It was just xerox with a big colored number on it, but they were so thrilled. (Man, these kids are so cute).
As it is, I left on time but still when I got to middle school my tray for lunch had already been brought to the class I'm eating with. This week, it's 3-1 (9th graders). Like yesterday, I'm finding that this class seems to enjoy looking at me, giggling when I notice, then laughing because I make dumb faces at them. xD Lunch time is pretty limited though, and most of the 9th graders don't try to talk to me much. But I'm finding as time goes on that they actually seem more "whoa, this person is here with us, it's crazy and I don't know how to react" but it was hard to tell at first. xD
But the girls who walk with me to and from the teachers room with my lunch tray really seem to like that I'm there, and I was actually chatting with one of them on the way back. She seemed to express her worry about a lack of English ability, and was glad at my (however limited) Japanese ability. I told her that I felt English was probably the hardest language, so it's nothing short of amazing to me when there are people that are really really good at it. She seemed cheered up by that. It's true though, our language is no walk in the park.
It's sleep time, mmmmmmmmkaaaaay~?
But today I had four classes in a row before dashing to the middle school. 5th grade, 6-1, 6-2, and 4th grade. The two 6th grade classes are on the same lesson, so I was able to make one lesson for both classes. We've been working on months and how to say the dates and today we moved into birthdays- asking when and answering. We played bingo with the days of the month as a review, and they all enjoyed it in both classes. I struggled somewhat with the introduction of birthdays, there were parts of my presentation I forgot with 6-1, but it worked out alright in the end. But 6-2 as usual is very quiet. They like me alright, but they just never talk when I need them to or anything. Makes things a bit harder but I'll keep charging through it. That one shy kid I mentioned before? He's still really shy. Like others I can't get him to volunteer for anything, but he does answer when I walk up to him and try to get a response so there is that. Though he won't look at me at all which is different from the others. xD Oh, to be 11-12 again.
The 5th graders I had never had before. But they were quite enthused to see me and my self-introduction went on for quite some time. Their lesson was introducing "I am (hungry/tired/sad/happy/etc). Though I had learned quickly that their teacher had already covered it pretty well. Luckily, my self-intro (they had so many questions for me including "are you married?"....the 4th graders asked this too. I even ended up explaining what languages we learn in the US) lasted for a lot of the time and I played a review game with them. I've done this game with the other classes as well. What I do is put the flascards for the vocabulary on the board. I tell the kids they are policemen (have I explained this already...? oh well) and I have them turn around and not look while I take some of the cards and move the others around. I laugh evilly, saying a robber has stolen things and have them look again. One at a time, they'll say which ones are missing. Then, I through my squishy cat ball at them, and the kid who catches it is the next robber. This game can go up to 15-20 minutes, especially if the kids are really enthused. So even though they all really knew the words it doesn't matter, they had a lot of fun. My cat ball is also really popular. It's a stuffed animal cat that is in the shape of a ball, and really squishy. I bought it in America for this expressed purpose actually. xD
The 4th graders were really cute. There is no book for them or actual laid out curriculum for this grade and lower as I'm aware, so the plan will always "free" whatever I want basically. I have not had this class before either like 5th grade. I decided to go with numbers and colors. I had no idea what they already knew. If they didn't know them already, it would be something easy to teach with limited time and if they did already know it, then more game time. As it is, they also asked me a lot of questions though it took up less time. I discovered they knew 1-10 and all the colors. So, again I played police with them, focusing on the colors because I had more of them. Cat ball was again extremely popular. xD After this, I put up colored numbers all over the room. I'd call out a color or number and they'd go to whatever was, say, a "3" or "orange" and then I'd say "purple 3" and the ones who had chosen the purple 3 out of all the 3s would win the round, etc. In the end, I had made a lot of those papers and I let them keep the papers, so everyone had at least one. xD It was just xerox with a big colored number on it, but they were so thrilled. (Man, these kids are so cute).
As it is, I left on time but still when I got to middle school my tray for lunch had already been brought to the class I'm eating with. This week, it's 3-1 (9th graders). Like yesterday, I'm finding that this class seems to enjoy looking at me, giggling when I notice, then laughing because I make dumb faces at them. xD Lunch time is pretty limited though, and most of the 9th graders don't try to talk to me much. But I'm finding as time goes on that they actually seem more "whoa, this person is here with us, it's crazy and I don't know how to react" but it was hard to tell at first. xD
But the girls who walk with me to and from the teachers room with my lunch tray really seem to like that I'm there, and I was actually chatting with one of them on the way back. She seemed to express her worry about a lack of English ability, and was glad at my (however limited) Japanese ability. I told her that I felt English was probably the hardest language, so it's nothing short of amazing to me when there are people that are really really good at it. She seemed cheered up by that. It's true though, our language is no walk in the park.
It's sleep time, mmmmmmmmkaaaaay~?
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Sick
Got strep throat right now, nothing amazing happening too much lately, had a shorter work week. Will update within a week or so.
Also, this:
It's how I generally feel these days.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Everyday I'm Shufflin'~
Hurr hurr, I'm back~
So today marked my first day at one of my elementary schools. It's funny how kids always manage to remark that they've confirmed about how I can, indeed, speak English. The kids at my internship school did that too. Dude, it's random foreign white girl- chances are, I'm the English woman~ xD But they're so cute~!
This school is called Nanbu. Honestly, the building's structure is pretty cool. A lot of it has that old hardwood look to it, and actually helps keep the school looking like it's new. I don't have my own desk at this school, so I hang out in the room within the teacher's room, where they keep...stuff. Like a table, chairs, and snacks and coffee/tea. It seems to be a lounge. I spend 1st through 4th hours (mornings) every Tuesday here from now on. I don't teach every hour, so I get there later/leave sooner than that.
I went around the school during my first hour, greeting random kids and teachers and exploring the whole place. The landscape they did is really nice as well. 2nd hour was my first elementary lesson ever. It was on lesson 2, called "When is your birthday?". This is for the 6th graders, highest in the school. All of the grades have just one classroom except for 2nd grade and 6th grade, which have two this year. Unlike middle and high school, teachers do have their desks in the teachers room, but they stay and remain with their one class, similar to our elementary schools.
So my lesson for the 45 minutes was all about getting them to learn the months in English. First, I did a short self-intro. The kids asked me about things I liked, didn't like, Japan stuff too. My family and pets as well. I started by asking them what months (Japanese) some of their holidays are in. One for each month. With the numbers on the board, I introduced American holidays, one for each, and put flashcards of those on the board too. Also, I then had flashcards for the months in English, though I know they have limited English reading abilities. After some drilling with stupid gestures and dumb voices (you have to keep them as interested as possible!), I discovered my impromptu abilities are pretty good. From here there was a page in the textbook/workbook I had them go over, matching their holidays to the months in English. And then we went over the answers. I also had a game lined up, but here wasn't time for it. There was one student in this class particularly. He had been a straggler coming into the room from break before class, he also seemed to be pretty tall. Crazy. In the beginning, he kept his down, looking at nothing on his desk. He sat near the front so at one point, I snuck up on him, all "Hello" and such. Poor kid was all shy and embarrassed. But he was so adorable! His eyes bugged right out of his head when I brought the American holiday pictures out! It doesn't take too much. ^^
There was a bit of a break between classes, and a bunch of other teachers came to lounge. There were awesome snacks and pickled vegetable things, that one of the teachers grew in his garden, and his wife pickled. He brought them in. It was good. I received tea and coffee too, both were pretty good, actually. Only a couple of the teachers have much English skill. But I got to chat with all of them a little. They saw the cats on my purse, and they discovered about my relation to the teacher who was here before me. Sarah, it turns out, actually went to MSU as well, is from sort of the area I'm from in MI, and did JCMU as well. But she's 1-2 years above me, so it's no surprise I didn't know her before. Main point, these teachers seem real friendly.
The 3rd period was much the same as the 2nd period for me. Main difference being that the first question I got was "Do you have a boyfriend?" which I had expected. xD They also asked about my kanji skills (which I wrote some and they were impressed, hahaaha) and that of course, I know of Lady Gaga. Also, in this class especially, it blew their minds to find out that our school years start in September and end in June. For theirs, they start in April and end in the beginning March, with 3 terms. (Their longest break, summer, is between the 1st and 2nd terms). So we end school shortly after they begin it. Interesting, huh? This one girl's eyes opened sooo wide! xD
It was after this that I went home. I used 4th period to travel to my middle school, since I was slated for nothing at Nanbu, not even "prep". I had lunch with the 3rd years class number 3, as the same this week. The homeroom teacher is also the English head. Today was tofu miso soup, rice, milk, potato salad (a bit different from ours, you can really detect the mayo), and this pork dish. It was like...pork with a red sauce- like marinara with something else- with green peppers, and onions. I told the teacher that the pork dish reminded me of American cooking. He seemed to agree. Since he did, (and his English isn't half-bad), I winder if he was in America or England or somewhere at some point.
Skipping 5th hour, I had a lesson 6th hour with a first year class (7th graders). A couple of the girls from this class had bombarded me in the hall yesterday, being like "you're going home? but we have class!" I assured them it was tomorrow (today). xD
For this class, they were to review "I am ___" and learn new vocabulary- hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty.
I did an awesome warm up game though. I had them all get in a big circle, and I handed out pictures of sushi. There were...33 of them, and I had 15-16 sushi pictures. I put the "Party Rockers Anthem (Everyday I'm Shufflin')" by LMFAO into the CD player. They were to pass the sushi around (like at a rotating sushi place) and when the music stopped, I had the sushi holders say something in English. Anything at all. They really loved it, especially this group of boys kept saying "one more!" But the main sensei had us stop after a while. After which, I had silly flashcards showing the 4 words and I had them learn off of that. Then, sensei took over for her half of class.
But during my worm up thing, some of the kids were cute. The group 4 boys I mentioned before said "crazy kids", a group of three girls did this: Girl 1: I Girl 2: love Girl 3: you
I pretended to be ecstatic and all "of course you do!" at them. xD
Then the boys went like Boy 1: I Boy 2: love Boy 3:cute Boy 4: girls
Also, since they really like word play here, I told the teacher about how we'll use that "I am ___" to tease. Like "Mom, I'm hungry!" "Oh, nice to meet you, hungry!" and such. She did enjoy it. xD Plus, it always feels awesome to understand foreign jokes.
These kids are so adorable. xD So today was pretty cool. Thursday I go to my other elementary school. It should be about the same. Regardless, I did a lot of lesson work yesterday and on the weekend, so from here it's less so for the week.
Anyway, it's time for pasta~
So today marked my first day at one of my elementary schools. It's funny how kids always manage to remark that they've confirmed about how I can, indeed, speak English. The kids at my internship school did that too. Dude, it's random foreign white girl- chances are, I'm the English woman~ xD But they're so cute~!
This school is called Nanbu. Honestly, the building's structure is pretty cool. A lot of it has that old hardwood look to it, and actually helps keep the school looking like it's new. I don't have my own desk at this school, so I hang out in the room within the teacher's room, where they keep...stuff. Like a table, chairs, and snacks and coffee/tea. It seems to be a lounge. I spend 1st through 4th hours (mornings) every Tuesday here from now on. I don't teach every hour, so I get there later/leave sooner than that.
I went around the school during my first hour, greeting random kids and teachers and exploring the whole place. The landscape they did is really nice as well. 2nd hour was my first elementary lesson ever. It was on lesson 2, called "When is your birthday?". This is for the 6th graders, highest in the school. All of the grades have just one classroom except for 2nd grade and 6th grade, which have two this year. Unlike middle and high school, teachers do have their desks in the teachers room, but they stay and remain with their one class, similar to our elementary schools.
So my lesson for the 45 minutes was all about getting them to learn the months in English. First, I did a short self-intro. The kids asked me about things I liked, didn't like, Japan stuff too. My family and pets as well. I started by asking them what months (Japanese) some of their holidays are in. One for each month. With the numbers on the board, I introduced American holidays, one for each, and put flashcards of those on the board too. Also, I then had flashcards for the months in English, though I know they have limited English reading abilities. After some drilling with stupid gestures and dumb voices (you have to keep them as interested as possible!), I discovered my impromptu abilities are pretty good. From here there was a page in the textbook/workbook I had them go over, matching their holidays to the months in English. And then we went over the answers. I also had a game lined up, but here wasn't time for it. There was one student in this class particularly. He had been a straggler coming into the room from break before class, he also seemed to be pretty tall. Crazy. In the beginning, he kept his down, looking at nothing on his desk. He sat near the front so at one point, I snuck up on him, all "Hello" and such. Poor kid was all shy and embarrassed. But he was so adorable! His eyes bugged right out of his head when I brought the American holiday pictures out! It doesn't take too much. ^^
There was a bit of a break between classes, and a bunch of other teachers came to lounge. There were awesome snacks and pickled vegetable things, that one of the teachers grew in his garden, and his wife pickled. He brought them in. It was good. I received tea and coffee too, both were pretty good, actually. Only a couple of the teachers have much English skill. But I got to chat with all of them a little. They saw the cats on my purse, and they discovered about my relation to the teacher who was here before me. Sarah, it turns out, actually went to MSU as well, is from sort of the area I'm from in MI, and did JCMU as well. But she's 1-2 years above me, so it's no surprise I didn't know her before. Main point, these teachers seem real friendly.
The 3rd period was much the same as the 2nd period for me. Main difference being that the first question I got was "Do you have a boyfriend?" which I had expected. xD They also asked about my kanji skills (which I wrote some and they were impressed, hahaaha) and that of course, I know of Lady Gaga. Also, in this class especially, it blew their minds to find out that our school years start in September and end in June. For theirs, they start in April and end in the beginning March, with 3 terms. (Their longest break, summer, is between the 1st and 2nd terms). So we end school shortly after they begin it. Interesting, huh? This one girl's eyes opened sooo wide! xD
It was after this that I went home. I used 4th period to travel to my middle school, since I was slated for nothing at Nanbu, not even "prep". I had lunch with the 3rd years class number 3, as the same this week. The homeroom teacher is also the English head. Today was tofu miso soup, rice, milk, potato salad (a bit different from ours, you can really detect the mayo), and this pork dish. It was like...pork with a red sauce- like marinara with something else- with green peppers, and onions. I told the teacher that the pork dish reminded me of American cooking. He seemed to agree. Since he did, (and his English isn't half-bad), I winder if he was in America or England or somewhere at some point.
Skipping 5th hour, I had a lesson 6th hour with a first year class (7th graders). A couple of the girls from this class had bombarded me in the hall yesterday, being like "you're going home? but we have class!" I assured them it was tomorrow (today). xD
For this class, they were to review "I am ___" and learn new vocabulary- hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty.
I did an awesome warm up game though. I had them all get in a big circle, and I handed out pictures of sushi. There were...33 of them, and I had 15-16 sushi pictures. I put the "Party Rockers Anthem (Everyday I'm Shufflin')" by LMFAO into the CD player. They were to pass the sushi around (like at a rotating sushi place) and when the music stopped, I had the sushi holders say something in English. Anything at all. They really loved it, especially this group of boys kept saying "one more!" But the main sensei had us stop after a while. After which, I had silly flashcards showing the 4 words and I had them learn off of that. Then, sensei took over for her half of class.
But during my worm up thing, some of the kids were cute. The group 4 boys I mentioned before said "crazy kids", a group of three girls did this: Girl 1: I Girl 2: love Girl 3: you
I pretended to be ecstatic and all "of course you do!" at them. xD
Then the boys went like Boy 1: I Boy 2: love Boy 3:cute Boy 4: girls
Also, since they really like word play here, I told the teacher about how we'll use that "I am ___" to tease. Like "Mom, I'm hungry!" "Oh, nice to meet you, hungry!" and such. She did enjoy it. xD Plus, it always feels awesome to understand foreign jokes.
These kids are so adorable. xD So today was pretty cool. Thursday I go to my other elementary school. It should be about the same. Regardless, I did a lot of lesson work yesterday and on the weekend, so from here it's less so for the week.
Anyway, it's time for pasta~
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
30%
So about school today:
Pretty much nothing happened. Yaaaaay. Seriously. I did the 4 class periods once again doing "prep".
Lunch time was with class 3-4 again. Nobody said a single word. Granted, for me, I was trying to make sure I could eat to try and keep up with everyone so as not to be the last one eating. But I was otherwise pretty much ignored. Worse, I ran out of my medicine a couple days ago and I was feeling the effects. That might have something to do with it. Either way, 3rd years do tend to be not giving a damn about the whole foreigner thing. I think maybe I'll bring a Japanese textbook with me tomorrow...? I don't know if that would help at all.
After that, I did get my schedule for almost the rest of the month. I'll be at one of the elementary schools for the entire mornings every Tuesday. But I don;t know what I'm doing, what lessons, etc. That would be really nice. It really would, but....ugh. Guess I'll figure it out and see.
I stopped at home to change and grab a few things and I set out for this place called Kono Clinic. I was told about it by a couple other ALT's in the area. They said the doctor and his wife are good with English, and really nice. So I went.
Clinics here are a bit different. You know how Doctors have different offices? Instead of being like "well, the doctor is here at thistimethattime and he's at this other location at blahblah", the clinic is simply open when the doctor is there. The doctor is always there during pre-defined times. For example, 3 days out of the week, 8-11:30AM and 3-6PM. And then similar but adjusted hours for the other 2 days. And that's just the clinic's hours end of story.
Additionally, there aren't really any private rooms. There are some beds I saw but they weren't used for anything. You check in, wait at in the waiting room, and they call you in at basically order of appearance. There are more chairs beyond the door, facing a curtain. There are never more than 2 or 3 of us sitting at the curtain. You get called in one at a time. The doctor's desk, a stool, and a bed are there, with one or two nurses. You sit on the stool, and he asks you stuff, examines you, or has you lay on the bed for blood pressure and the *feels your stomach* "Does that hurt?" thing. Once done, the nurses and receptionists give you the prescription or medicine and your insurance card back and stuff. It was about $13 for me with the national health insurance. Not too bad, I thought.
For my meds, I came back over towards the hospital, where there's a pharmacy outside of it. TUrns out they needed one of my meds from another nearby pharmacy. The guy was like-- sorry, it could take 10 minutes.
Seriously? It takes at least 15 back at home without having to get it from somewhere...plus, I got to sit down and watch TV. It didn't even take 10 minutes. It also turn out that I pay 30% of the price with my insurance. Also, for my anxiety medicine, I can only receive a prescription of 14 days worth- that's Japan's policy. So I have to go to the clinic and pharmacy every 2 weeks now... xD
But well, for the 2 weeks worth of both medicines, I was charged about $16-17. I won't lie. I think that's really really good. I am okay with this.
Salad time.
Monday, May 7, 2012
So I see you be teachin's
So I hear y'all wanna know about my school and teaching. Fine then.
First of all, school is run quite differently than what we're used to at home. Elementary school is a little different from middle and high school (which are fairly similar to each other), so I'll mention it later when I actually start work there.
Anyway, Japan has the same number of school grades, but arranged differently. Typically at home, it's 5 years elementary, 3 in middle school, and 4 in high school. 5-3-4. But here, it's always 6-3-3. And for each year, they are called first years, second years, etc. Never "7th grade" or something. Our 7th grade is "Middle school, 1st year". Our 9th grade is middle school, 3rd year. 10th grade is high school, 1st year, etc.
The day typically goes something like this. In the morning, (at my school its just Mondays, but some schools do this everyday), there is a teacher's meeting.
First, I should mention something. Teachers don't really own classrooms, so to speak. Not even in elementary school. Teacher's desks and their work is all done in the teacher's room. This is always connected to the principals room, which tends to be next to or near the secretary's area and visitors window (like check in).
Every teacher's desk is a part of a group. The head teachers and principal, vice principal, etc., have a line at the front of the room. The other desks, have three big groups. For 1st year, 2nd year, and 3rd year. Teachers aren't always strictly a certain year teacher, but they do have their particular coworkers.
For the meeting, there are usually the same teachers standing up from their desk to talk, but different people will say something sometimes.
Also, the students have their set classrooms and classmates which means they all share the same schedule. They don't leave the room, it's the teachers who do that. Most classes have about 30-35 kids. This differs between schools. Some have fewer, some have as many as 40.
Today, I've spent most of the day "prepping". I put that in quotations because I didn't do any prep at all. Now before you get on my case for that, let me ask- how do you prep for nothing? Soon as you give me any lesson details, I'll prep, and I prep good. But for now, I await my completed schedule so I can see what topics and themes I'll be working on.
Today I looked through some of my old notes from training and previous little lessons that I made. Very short, mostly activity based thus far. For 4th hour (there 6 in total, lunch is between 4 and 5, each period is 50 mins.), I went with the teacher who sits next to me, Kawakami, to a 3rd year class of hers. Mostly, I introduced myself, in both languages (this tends to make them like me a little more), read out some dialogue for pronunciation. When they had that, I did it more, this time, in stupid voices. Also, someone pointed out a sticker on my pants. I don't know how it got there, but I went ahead and put it on my face. I knew they'd like that. xD That was pretty much it in there.
For lunch, unless a teacher brings their own (which I have yet to see), everyone eats the exact same meal. It's generally like this:
-rice or noodles (for soup) or bread
-thin soup, containing a little bit of veggies, different each day, sometimes potatoes, sometimes a little meat.
-a cold salad of some type
-a main dish, usually centering on meat or fish
- a bottle of milk (we'd call it about 4-5% I think)
-Sometimes there is fruit of some sort or yogurt as well, called dessert
The students eat in their classroom. Cafeterias are nonexistent. They group their desks together, and set their dishes on clothes they bring. Each day, different students head to the room where the food is prepared, and they bring back their classes' portion.
For teachers, a few will eat together at a table in the teachers room. But most of them are either homeroom teachers (for example, one of the English teachers runs a second year's class so he is their main teacher), or they are otherwise occupied with a class and are eating there.
Each class is called something different. For example, the first years and the second years both have 5 classes of students and third year has 4. For example, there is second year, class three. That' shown like this: 2-3. So you'll see thing like 1-2, 3-4, 2-2, etc. If the students need to come to the teachers room, they have to say "excuse me, this is (name), of (class)." and then state their purpose. Upon leaving, they bow slightly, and say "pardon the intrusion".
Real quick, middle schools and high schools have their students wear uniforms. They've got the same school bags as well. Same shoes, only differing by colors of the stripe- which indicates their year. If you don't know, in Japan, when you go to someone's house, or a lot of places really, you remove your shoes, and wear indoor shoes or slippers. Same at school, we've got indoor shoes.
For today's lunch, I've started eating in a classroom. This week, I'll be with 3-4. I haven't actually taught them yet, and as I thought, they were not all that interested the way younger kids are. Still, the small group I sat with did ask me things. One boy was standing by today's dessert (a strange fruit cocktail-jelly combination) asking if I wanted any of the extra in Japanese. I decided to play dumb, and the other's were like "In English, dummy!" He tried, and almost had it right, but they all realized his mistake "Do you give dessert?" and he sorta gave up, laughing with everyone. He tried in again in Japanese, so answered in Japanese. xD From there, they did rock-paper-scissors for the rest among each other. Myself, I sat with two girls, two boys, and a male teacher who was eating there today. I don't know if he's there everyday or what, but he was across from me today. Actually, I had met him before, at the new teachers welcoming party a few weeks ago.
The menu today was milk, soup with carrot, lettuce, pork and mushroom, with udon noodles (thick noodles) to put in it, fried mashed potatoes in ball form (not deep friend though, just lightly), and a dessert of that fruit-jelly thing. Honestly, I always at least like the lunch pretty much everyday.
The kids at my table (no english this time. are they 3rd graders, or not? xD), asked my hobbies, favorites sport and things like that. But then, they asked my age. The teacher who sat across from me is also a new teacher and also my age. Though he clearly has the hang of this more than me. I'd say it's because he's Japanese and was one of these kids some years ago. xD
But yeah, he's my age. The boy next to me immediately alluded to something about the teacher and myself. I knew what he meant, but decided to play dumb- they were already trying to embarrass him, so why make it worse? I made confused gestures, and the teacher said not to worry about it. xD
It didn't end there, though. A girl ask if I had a boyfriend. Upon hearing "no", the same boy from before told the teacher that this means he could make an "attack". I really couldn't play dumb here, so we both just sorta did the "no no no". xD I did expect questions like this at some point, but not today....oh, kids.
Now after this, there was the two class periods. After 6th hour, is when it is my time to leave. This is at about 3:30. Another thing, there aren't janitors here. Everyday, there is this designated time for 20 minutes to clean. Everyone rolls up their sleeves, and puts a bandanna over their heads for cleaning time. Cloths, brooms, sponges, mops all are put to work. On the grounds as well. After this, some students go home, and many other stick around until 6 at the latest for a club activity. My school does have some buses provided. I don't believe every school does though.
That's what I got for now, ok? Tomorrow I'm prepping more but it would seem that I'll get the rest of my month schedule on Wednesday, and elementary school will likely start next week. Slightly terrified, but here we go. In other news, I've finally found a at clinic which there is some English. I'll be going to tomorrow and I'm hoping I'll me able to get my meds.
First of all, school is run quite differently than what we're used to at home. Elementary school is a little different from middle and high school (which are fairly similar to each other), so I'll mention it later when I actually start work there.
Anyway, Japan has the same number of school grades, but arranged differently. Typically at home, it's 5 years elementary, 3 in middle school, and 4 in high school. 5-3-4. But here, it's always 6-3-3. And for each year, they are called first years, second years, etc. Never "7th grade" or something. Our 7th grade is "Middle school, 1st year". Our 9th grade is middle school, 3rd year. 10th grade is high school, 1st year, etc.
The day typically goes something like this. In the morning, (at my school its just Mondays, but some schools do this everyday), there is a teacher's meeting.
First, I should mention something. Teachers don't really own classrooms, so to speak. Not even in elementary school. Teacher's desks and their work is all done in the teacher's room. This is always connected to the principals room, which tends to be next to or near the secretary's area and visitors window (like check in).
Every teacher's desk is a part of a group. The head teachers and principal, vice principal, etc., have a line at the front of the room. The other desks, have three big groups. For 1st year, 2nd year, and 3rd year. Teachers aren't always strictly a certain year teacher, but they do have their particular coworkers.
For the meeting, there are usually the same teachers standing up from their desk to talk, but different people will say something sometimes.
Also, the students have their set classrooms and classmates which means they all share the same schedule. They don't leave the room, it's the teachers who do that. Most classes have about 30-35 kids. This differs between schools. Some have fewer, some have as many as 40.
Today, I've spent most of the day "prepping". I put that in quotations because I didn't do any prep at all. Now before you get on my case for that, let me ask- how do you prep for nothing? Soon as you give me any lesson details, I'll prep, and I prep good. But for now, I await my completed schedule so I can see what topics and themes I'll be working on.
Today I looked through some of my old notes from training and previous little lessons that I made. Very short, mostly activity based thus far. For 4th hour (there 6 in total, lunch is between 4 and 5, each period is 50 mins.), I went with the teacher who sits next to me, Kawakami, to a 3rd year class of hers. Mostly, I introduced myself, in both languages (this tends to make them like me a little more), read out some dialogue for pronunciation. When they had that, I did it more, this time, in stupid voices. Also, someone pointed out a sticker on my pants. I don't know how it got there, but I went ahead and put it on my face. I knew they'd like that. xD That was pretty much it in there.
For lunch, unless a teacher brings their own (which I have yet to see), everyone eats the exact same meal. It's generally like this:
-rice or noodles (for soup) or bread
-thin soup, containing a little bit of veggies, different each day, sometimes potatoes, sometimes a little meat.
-a cold salad of some type
-a main dish, usually centering on meat or fish
- a bottle of milk (we'd call it about 4-5% I think)
-Sometimes there is fruit of some sort or yogurt as well, called dessert
The students eat in their classroom. Cafeterias are nonexistent. They group their desks together, and set their dishes on clothes they bring. Each day, different students head to the room where the food is prepared, and they bring back their classes' portion.
For teachers, a few will eat together at a table in the teachers room. But most of them are either homeroom teachers (for example, one of the English teachers runs a second year's class so he is their main teacher), or they are otherwise occupied with a class and are eating there.
Each class is called something different. For example, the first years and the second years both have 5 classes of students and third year has 4. For example, there is second year, class three. That' shown like this: 2-3. So you'll see thing like 1-2, 3-4, 2-2, etc. If the students need to come to the teachers room, they have to say "excuse me, this is (name), of (class)." and then state their purpose. Upon leaving, they bow slightly, and say "pardon the intrusion".
Real quick, middle schools and high schools have their students wear uniforms. They've got the same school bags as well. Same shoes, only differing by colors of the stripe- which indicates their year. If you don't know, in Japan, when you go to someone's house, or a lot of places really, you remove your shoes, and wear indoor shoes or slippers. Same at school, we've got indoor shoes.
For today's lunch, I've started eating in a classroom. This week, I'll be with 3-4. I haven't actually taught them yet, and as I thought, they were not all that interested the way younger kids are. Still, the small group I sat with did ask me things. One boy was standing by today's dessert (a strange fruit cocktail-jelly combination) asking if I wanted any of the extra in Japanese. I decided to play dumb, and the other's were like "In English, dummy!" He tried, and almost had it right, but they all realized his mistake "Do you give dessert?" and he sorta gave up, laughing with everyone. He tried in again in Japanese, so answered in Japanese. xD From there, they did rock-paper-scissors for the rest among each other. Myself, I sat with two girls, two boys, and a male teacher who was eating there today. I don't know if he's there everyday or what, but he was across from me today. Actually, I had met him before, at the new teachers welcoming party a few weeks ago.
The menu today was milk, soup with carrot, lettuce, pork and mushroom, with udon noodles (thick noodles) to put in it, fried mashed potatoes in ball form (not deep friend though, just lightly), and a dessert of that fruit-jelly thing. Honestly, I always at least like the lunch pretty much everyday.
The kids at my table (no english this time. are they 3rd graders, or not? xD), asked my hobbies, favorites sport and things like that. But then, they asked my age. The teacher who sat across from me is also a new teacher and also my age. Though he clearly has the hang of this more than me. I'd say it's because he's Japanese and was one of these kids some years ago. xD
But yeah, he's my age. The boy next to me immediately alluded to something about the teacher and myself. I knew what he meant, but decided to play dumb- they were already trying to embarrass him, so why make it worse? I made confused gestures, and the teacher said not to worry about it. xD
It didn't end there, though. A girl ask if I had a boyfriend. Upon hearing "no", the same boy from before told the teacher that this means he could make an "attack". I really couldn't play dumb here, so we both just sorta did the "no no no". xD I did expect questions like this at some point, but not today....oh, kids.
Now after this, there was the two class periods. After 6th hour, is when it is my time to leave. This is at about 3:30. Another thing, there aren't janitors here. Everyday, there is this designated time for 20 minutes to clean. Everyone rolls up their sleeves, and puts a bandanna over their heads for cleaning time. Cloths, brooms, sponges, mops all are put to work. On the grounds as well. After this, some students go home, and many other stick around until 6 at the latest for a club activity. My school does have some buses provided. I don't believe every school does though.
That's what I got for now, ok? Tomorrow I'm prepping more but it would seem that I'll get the rest of my month schedule on Wednesday, and elementary school will likely start next week. Slightly terrified, but here we go. In other news, I've finally found a at clinic which there is some English. I'll be going to tomorrow and I'm hoping I'll me able to get my meds.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Lazy?
Who, me? No, no, I simply...was far too busy to be bothered with such things as this, yes! Yes, that's the reason I haven't started up a blog or anything until now. Yes, that is the reason and that is what I'm sticking with. I trust you will learn to live with it.
So, I currently reside near the city of Ina in Nagano prefecture for those who don't know. It is rather nestled between two mountain ranges towards the Southern part of the prefecture. Just google-maps it. Now, I have put up all of my photos onto facebook so far, so there they shall remain. I might put some here too sometimes, but for the most part anything I take will go there completely.
So this week has been Golden Week. Longest holiday of the year, so there is a lot of travel happening across the country. There's children's day, emperor showa's birthday, and greenery day. One fell on Sunday, giving us Monday off. The others fell on Thursday and Friday, so there was only a little bit of work this week. There aren't any particular celebrations or traditions, just...they're holidays. Like there's one in July called Ocean Day. It's just meant to provide a 3-day weekend for the most part.
So, after about 2 weeks of my being here, we had an English teacher "enkai" - it's basically a little party where we go out and eat, drink, whatever. It was to welcome me, and to say goodbye to the ALT I am essentially replacing called Sarah. Oddly enough, she's from around where I lived back home...we also were one year apart in schooling and went to the same university....hmmm... xD
I really liked the enkai, because it meant we could all really chat together without work. ^^
Now, I was surprised by the number of us foreign teachers there are in Nagano- a lot! SO a couple weekends ago, a bunch of us gathered in a town called Matsumoto in a big park and we held a competitive (by region) field day event thing~ we did life-size Sorry! game board, had lunch, and did relay races-- like the eggs on spoons and everything xD We did jump rope as well! We all wore colors according to our regions- mine was yellow.
Also, we played kibasen. This is a game younger kids and middle schoolers play. What you do is you have three people hoist up one person, and you call it a horse. The person on top attacks other "horses" in our case, you had to get the hat off of the other horses heads. If you're curious, look up kibasen, it's really funny. In the end, it was our team who won the whole thing, and I was told it had been some time since we won, so it was a really big deal. xD
After this, some of us went back to this guys house for a BBQ. I made stir-fried beef noodles for my dinner with this other girl Molly. It was nice to just sit with other teachers and hear stories and such. Also, I had a horrible sunburn, and it's taken these 2 weeks to make it go away. xD But well, that day happened to be really hot and sunny which I had not at all anticipated- all week the forecast kept saying rain everyday, but....well it seems weather here likes taking after Michigan. xD
Now last weekend, my friend Annica came from another prefecture, Shiga (where I have always been the other times I came here) to see Nagano and hang out. We had fun foreigner times in which I had to pick her up at an unexpected train station at night, and of course, I had gotten lost on the way...not a big deal! It was an adventure, of course~
Next day, we went all over town to various shops and places from the supermarkets to clothing stores, and she bought this huge cute pillow for a good price~ we also walked along the river- called Tenryuugawa or "Sky/Heaven Dragon River" xD but you can get mountains and flowers in photos of the river too~
Lately, they've been flooding the rice fields in the area-- that's what those little...sort of "lakes"! They do this in the spring, so it isn't like that forever. I took this photo from my window, actually!
So, I currently reside near the city of Ina in Nagano prefecture for those who don't know. It is rather nestled between two mountain ranges towards the Southern part of the prefecture. Just google-maps it. Now, I have put up all of my photos onto facebook so far, so there they shall remain. I might put some here too sometimes, but for the most part anything I take will go there completely.
So this week has been Golden Week. Longest holiday of the year, so there is a lot of travel happening across the country. There's children's day, emperor showa's birthday, and greenery day. One fell on Sunday, giving us Monday off. The others fell on Thursday and Friday, so there was only a little bit of work this week. There aren't any particular celebrations or traditions, just...they're holidays. Like there's one in July called Ocean Day. It's just meant to provide a 3-day weekend for the most part.
So, after about 2 weeks of my being here, we had an English teacher "enkai" - it's basically a little party where we go out and eat, drink, whatever. It was to welcome me, and to say goodbye to the ALT I am essentially replacing called Sarah. Oddly enough, she's from around where I lived back home...we also were one year apart in schooling and went to the same university....hmmm... xD
I really liked the enkai, because it meant we could all really chat together without work. ^^
Now, I was surprised by the number of us foreign teachers there are in Nagano- a lot! SO a couple weekends ago, a bunch of us gathered in a town called Matsumoto in a big park and we held a competitive (by region) field day event thing~ we did life-size Sorry! game board, had lunch, and did relay races-- like the eggs on spoons and everything xD We did jump rope as well! We all wore colors according to our regions- mine was yellow.
Also, we played kibasen. This is a game younger kids and middle schoolers play. What you do is you have three people hoist up one person, and you call it a horse. The person on top attacks other "horses" in our case, you had to get the hat off of the other horses heads. If you're curious, look up kibasen, it's really funny. In the end, it was our team who won the whole thing, and I was told it had been some time since we won, so it was a really big deal. xD
After this, some of us went back to this guys house for a BBQ. I made stir-fried beef noodles for my dinner with this other girl Molly. It was nice to just sit with other teachers and hear stories and such. Also, I had a horrible sunburn, and it's taken these 2 weeks to make it go away. xD But well, that day happened to be really hot and sunny which I had not at all anticipated- all week the forecast kept saying rain everyday, but....well it seems weather here likes taking after Michigan. xD
Now last weekend, my friend Annica came from another prefecture, Shiga (where I have always been the other times I came here) to see Nagano and hang out. We had fun foreigner times in which I had to pick her up at an unexpected train station at night, and of course, I had gotten lost on the way...not a big deal! It was an adventure, of course~
Next day, we went all over town to various shops and places from the supermarkets to clothing stores, and she bought this huge cute pillow for a good price~ we also walked along the river- called Tenryuugawa or "Sky/Heaven Dragon River" xD but you can get mountains and flowers in photos of the river too~
Lately, they've been flooding the rice fields in the area-- that's what those little...sort of "lakes"! They do this in the spring, so it isn't like that forever. I took this photo from my window, actually!
The next day, we found a really great bread shop in the area and we were able to eat outside. ^^ We stayed inside for the most part after that though. But the next day, we went up to Matsumoto to explore. We walked around to go to a mall, and we went to the castle. It is fairly famous, never having been re-built or anything, as I'm aware. There were huge koi fish in the moat too-- wanting to eat a lot. xD
It was from there that Annica went back home and I came back- the next day was work after all.
But because of Golden Week, I only had 2 days of work. Actually one of the days one of my teachers (that I work with) was using a dialogue that we actually looked at in Tokyo training, interestingly enough @@;
The first day of this break, I went up to Nagano City by myself. I wasn't really sure what was there, but I really felt like an adventure. So I got to a surrounding stop, and I ended up walking quite a way to go to a sushi place for lunch, and then going back to wait for a train. I got into Nagano, which is a fairly big city. In any case, it was kind of nice to be in an urban type of place, go to Starbucks, stare at the buildings and the people. XD The train ride takes a few hours, but it's not so bad.
Also, on the way to Nagano, an old woman sat next to me. I had borrowed a book from my schools library called "I Am A Cat" in English. This was written by Natsume Soseki, and for those who don't know, he's basically one of the most famous Japanese writers in history. He lived from 1867 to1916, and he wrote several books and pieces of writing. I had read a bit of his work in some of my classes in school, and I had heard he wrote this book, about a cat basically observing how selfish humans are and such. It sounded interesting and I was really surprised that my middle school's library had an English version, so I borrowed it.
I was reading it while this elderly woman sat next to me. Not long before her stop, she started to talk to me in Japanese, as she said she didn't know English. But she commented on my book (it had the Japanese version of the title written on it as well), and she asked me all kinds of things like where I got the book, if I liked it, what I knew about the author, where I'm from, what I do, etc. She was pretty nice, and I'm not really used to people talking to me on a train, it doesn't happen all that much. Usually people ignore each other on the train. She got off at the Matsumoto stop, which, by the way- does a little jingle whenever a train comes in, just saying "Matsumooootoooo" three times. I don't really get it, but I'm amused nonetheless, since I've never been at any other stop that does this at all.
On my way back, I didn't have any problems until I got back to the train station parking lot for my car. It costs about 100 yen (80 cents) per hour to park. My fee was 1000 yen (about $10-$11). Now the lowest I had on me was a 5000 yen ($50-$60) piece on me, and it turned out the parking thing didn't accept higher than 1000 yen pieces. Mind you, it was also already dark, and pouring quite heavily. I had already put the ticket in, and I couldn't take it back. So, I had to use the intercom and call someone- the guy said to exchange my money at a nearby shop. I didn't want to go back to the station, since the guys were just leaving, plus I didn't want to stray too far from my car, which I had to keep by the gate because of the ticket...
However, there weren't even convenience stores nearby, that's why I kinda was figuring the intercom would help, but no....xD So with the heavy rain, I dashed across the road like a drowned rat into an "izakaya"- this is kind of liek a bar, but it also has a fair amount of food there-- mostly bar food: things that are fried, things on sticks, munchies, etc. I had to call one of the women workers over and ask her about it. Luckily she understood me and she was nice so it wasn't a problem. Still, I don't get why 5000 yen pieces are a problem... >>; and I got all wet. xD
However, there weren't even convenience stores nearby, that's why I kinda was figuring the intercom would help, but no....xD So with the heavy rain, I dashed across the road like a drowned rat into an "izakaya"- this is kind of liek a bar, but it also has a fair amount of food there-- mostly bar food: things that are fried, things on sticks, munchies, etc. I had to call one of the women workers over and ask her about it. Luckily she understood me and she was nice so it wasn't a problem. Still, I don't get why 5000 yen pieces are a problem... >>; and I got all wet. xD
I know you probably wanna hear about things at school, but deal with it. They days seem to run together more or less, so clear memories are few for me. I'll start recording them once work starts up again. I will relay this much, though. Once I went to the bathroom, and when I came out of the stall, some of the girls who had just come in to chat were so surprised that they were visibly shaken. Is it bad that I find that hilarious? After that, a few of them spoke at me like "I like Lauren" before running off. xD
Another one of my hobbies is making dumb faces to get them to pay attention. Also, when walking around the class during activities, I enjoy creeping up behind kids who aren't doing the activity, and freaking them out by being right there when they turn around. ....Is that bad? xDD; I'll explain about school structure and days later on when work starts up again and I have clearer things to remember.
As for today, I have a Japanese friend, who helped me settle in originally. Today she invited me over for a BBQ at her house. There was supposed to be other friends of hers, but one of the kids of her friend's got chicken pox, so they didn't come. But I met her husband, her 2 kids (6-year-old- boy and 3-year-old girl), and the boy's 2 little friends, both 5. The Dad made all kinds of things on the barbecue, chicken, onion, beef, squid, shrimp, meatballs, mushrooms-- it was really cool, we were eating on the back porch with an overhead tarp thing- the weather was so nice, there were even some final sakura trees around, and the wind was blowing petals around like it was snowing-- so beautiful, but I was in a rush to leave the house and forgot camera. Uuugh I really need to stop doing that. She told me her husband is quite shy ( I can relate xD ) so I didn't have a lot of interaction. But her, Sayaka, is very friendly so it was easy to make friends. ^^
We also had broccoli, pickled items, and kimchi, and wrapped up in lettuce. It was really really good. The kids spent a lot of time running around. I made faces a them, of course. xD Actually, I originally wasn't fond of kimchi but to be honest, I really enjoyed it! So maybe I actually do like it~ xD I dunno...But my hatred of natto will never change- that much I confirmed at my last lunchtime at school. >>; (natto = fermented soybeans. Nasty smell, nasty taste, stringy and creepy texture. But very good for you of course). No offense to you natto lovers out there- I'm actually pretty jealous- I want to like natto, but it's just not possible.
We also went into their garden area, which has a kind of backdrop- the kids were exploring the area, getting their feet super dirty. Sayaka had made cheesecake and banana cake too- we ground up some coffee and had snack time- it was really good and we talked about a bunch of things for a while. At this point it began raining outside....even though it was sunny and there weren't any clouds. I still can't figure that one out...
Still after this, we drove out to this zoo/organic market. Basically there's a small zoo of horses, rabbits, goats, a couple of monkeys, a black bear and some peacocks. You can feed them carrots. The kids went crazy with it, and again, were running around everywhere. xD I went with Sayaka to the organic vegetable/fruits market across the road- it looked like good stuff, for actually decent prices-- I'll be returning at some point for sure!
But the highlight of that trip was probably...well, it seems that sometimes a food here is bugs. In one area, you could try a sample. Dead bug eggs and dead grasshoppers. At first, I outright refused but then at the end, I tried a grasshopper. xD I know- me, do such a thing? Crazy, right? But I did it! It was rarther sweet- reminded me of something caramelized I think. Honestly, it wasn't bad, though I did buy a cheap hot cocoa to wash it down. xD
From here she took me back to my place and gave me curry and bread. She's sooo nice! I'm excited to hang out again!
So aside from work, that's about it for now. Like I said, later on I'll talk about work.
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