Friday, Apr 9

IN A NUTSHELL: A Relaxing Saturday

Screeching Symphony There's nothing quite like waking up after a nice, restful sleep when birds are singing, life is good, and you just can't get that Linkin Park song out of your head.

IN A NUTSHELL: An Unexpected Cake

HTML I spent most of the day fulfilling my Donation of Services To The Habitat for Humanity Auction. I taught someone HTML and even grabbed a couple tricks myself. That stuff is always fun. And in return, I got a big, delicious chocolate cake! Definitely a good Easter for me (especially since none of my Easter chocolate actually lasted until today.)

Flowers Odagawa-san randomly came over and drove me north on 375 which I've never done since I've been here (which is silly since it's right by my house.) She was listening to my karaoke CD! There were some flowers lit up at the next town which were pretty enough but I was just glad we stayed in the car and did not get out to join the yakiniku barbecue party. I was in my pajamas.

IN A NUTSHELL: Back to Reality

New Kids! Today was my first day back at elementary school. It would have made calendar sense to do my Easter lesson today, but since it was my first lesson of the term, I wanted to teach greetings, basically: "What's your name?" Today was the first time in this class for the 1st graders. I recognized most all of them from the preschool, but it was a different thing entirely to see them all in uniform and lining up. Really strangely, the girl who I took to kind of be the leader (or maybe the mom) of the preschool - a 6-year old named Momo - was the most shy! I don't know if it was because she wasn't used to me being a teacher (instead of a playmate) but it surprised me. I have one new student in 4th grade and she is smart and outgoing. Like last year, my classes alternate between rowdy and quiet. This year, it's the 5th and 3rd graders who are energetic and the 6th and 4th graders who are quiet and meek. They nicely arranged my schedule so I start and end on a high note with the happy, loud classes.

Now That's a Realistic Practice Dialogue I was going through Book 5 in the JET Japanese Course. I turned to the dialogue at the beginning of the next lesson and saw my name. I thought that was pretty cool. Then I started reading and realized the conversation in the book had not only my name but Maruyama's! It was a conversation between Melissa and Maruyama! It even looked like one we would actually have! What a strange coincidence!

IN A NUTSHELL: A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Alphabet I'm already sick of the alphabet and we've just begun. The kids sing the ABC song all through elementary school, why so much more repetition in Junior High? They must know the alphabet by now. I had my little 7-year olds singing it a couple months ago. Anyway, the version we sing (with cheesy CD accompaniment) is slightly different than the one I learned as a kid, but I haven't screwed up yet.

Party Time Tonight was the welcoming party for the half-dozen or so new Sakugi Junior High teachers. We met at a highly acclaimed restaurant in Miyoshi that is apparently almost impossible to get a reservation at. Therefore, I expected the food to be as good as they said. Maybe it was? I couldn't tell the difference. It was fine, I guess. I didn't drink because I was driving, so maybe it would have tasted better otherwise? Anyway, my favorite thing about the restaurant: Hanging on the wall of the room we were in was a historical-looking picture of two women in kimonos... on skis! It was great! I want one!

IN A NUTSHELL: Um, Karaoke Practice?

First Day of Actual Classes in Miyoshi My shortened self-introduction is going pretty well. I've been putting on a CD with grooving music, saying the obligatory "My Name is Melissa," passing around stuff like flags, money, and pictures of my family, then taking out my Envelope of Doom. Minokuchi-sensei (the youngest English teacher who has a desk next to mine - yay) was kind enough to tell me the pronunciation of all the students in 2nd year so I typed them up and filled an envelope. I picked a name out of an envelope and had that student ask me a question. The most common question was "How Old Are You?" It takes about 10 minutes tops unlike my Melissa Bingo which takes a whole lesson.

Volleyball I tried to be all involved, so I went to the gym. The gym was PACKED. Basically, the gym was split into four with the girls basketball in one corner, the boys basketball in another, the table tennis team in another corner, and the volleyball team on the closest corner to the door. The track and field and tennis teams were outside. I guess when every single student does an activity, it gets crowded! I was tempted to go join the basketball team since I kind of wanted exercise, but they were in the far corner and I saw some girls I knew standing by the volleyball court, so I walked over to them and talked for awhile. I asked to join in on the practice and soon after, quickly realized I wasn't very good at volleyball anymore. These girls were pretty high level for Jr. High. The practice and drills were very boring, though, partially because the captain (a girl very good at volleyball and being a leader, but not very good at making practice interesting) had almost half the team stand around and catch stray volleyballs while the others took turns bumping balls she hit. I only had a few turns. Since there were so many volleyballs available, I would have had the girls get in pairs and threes and hit the ball to each other instead of waiting forever for their turn. But, since there's no coach, you get what you can get. It was impossible to have a game because there was no room. I was pretty bored most of the hour and had a feeling the other girls were, too. I know I'd probably be making a good impression if I kept going, but I think I'd rather being doing something else.

Karaoke Practice Should I have been surprised? It's been a long time. No one remembered that we had agreed to do a karaoke practice tonight to prepare for Friday's contest. Or did they not WANT to remember... I'm well aware that I have an obsession with karaoke. You don't have to ask me twice. In fact, if you mention karaoke within 10 feet of me, I latch myself to you until a decision is made. I think I sort of projected my obsession onto my eikaiwa. I still thought they would show up, though. Well, Akiyama-san (who was baffled when I showed up at the now much quieter bunka center) called Maruyama for me and Maruyama-san and Odagawa-san sportingly agreed to come over right away and practice with me. Since the other regular woman can't make it Friday and since Yuji-kun suddenly moved to Hiroshima, it looks like my eikaiwa is down to two. Better than one I guess.

Utah Elections On the "Heeey" show tonight was a bit of trivia from the USA. They said that, in Utah, when two candidates receive the exact same number of votes, they roll dice to determine the winner. They even had footage of such an event happening! It looked legitimate, but it HAD to be old footage. What are the chances of that happening when the trivia people want to know? Still, though, they got the two candidates together and did a re-roll with big plastic dice. It was hilarious!

IN A NUTSHELL: Message to Miyoshi

Signs of Spring The trees are green and jungly - I forgot how beautifully thick the Sakugi hills get with trees. Red flowers are blooming everywhere. But the advent of spring means the advent of more bugs, which is no fun. It also is rice planting time apparently. All the rice paddies in the area have been flooded and it almost seems like I am driving along a series of lakes. In addition, this time of year, the election vans are making their rounds. I thought that Sakugi, being so remote, would be spared. No. Not only do we get the vans with megaphones blaring, the absurdly loud message echoes through the valley for miles so disembodied voices continue to go long after the van is gone.

A Message to the City Nishida-san (my new supervisor) sent me a fax at school this morning asking me to "write a message to the city" and fax it back by 1. Eh? I did, but that was an awfully random request with an awfully quick deadline. I wish she told us what it was for so I knew what kind of message to write.

Exchange The rate jumped from 106 to 108 yen to the dollar the day I got paid, dammit. I wish I understood economy better.

Koto The koto teacher is randomly back! Apparently, the wink*wink reason is because the vice principal wants to learn koto. I can't tell if we're resuming classes because I first thought she was just visiting and didn't understand when she said "Let's practice."

IN A NUTSHELL: Karaoke Night

Letters! I received responses to the letters my kids sent to America. They were great responses, in neat print on cool stationary! My kids loved receiving them and trying to work out what they said. One of the letters said "I don't like English" and that had my kids rolling.

The Mix-up Dinner We were all supposed to meet for dinner before karaoke, but no one was there when we arrived and I couldn't get a hold of Deon, the organizer, so the four of us, Carina (a judge), Odagawa-san, and Maruyama-san just ate at Italian Farm ourselves. I finally got a hold of Deon and he said the plan had changed and that we were eating at the karaoke place. I have no idea what the reasoning was behind that. Anyway, after we ate, Odagawa-san accidentally went to the wrong karaoke place (and she DOESN'T HAVE A CELL PHONE so we couldn't even call her -- how does this woman survive? She has no cell phone, no computer, no TV, nothing!) but eventually found her way to PAL. Our group was in the party room. Two other eikaiwa groups were there, one small one and one huge one. We sung some songs together and finally, we had the actual "contest." Poor Odagawa-san and Maruyama-san struggled through "Sing" and I felt like I was the one holding the song together. Since they both drove separately, they couldn't even drink to loosen themselves up (neither could I, but then again, I don't need alcohol to karaoke.) Luckily, the two judges called it a draw. Afterward, they went home but most of us stayed until about 1am singing karaoke. Woo hoo!