Some good old retail therapy

So, I survived a whole week of school and teaching! I even had a class that was actual teaching, rather than me reading my little shutterfly book for the 82nd time. However, it was a long week, and I decided to go to Nagano city today for some retail therapy. Actually, I was going to get a JLPT application, but somehow I spent a TON of money today! I did get my JLPT application, so if I can jump through all the hoops correctly, I will be taking the test in December. I also got a yukata, so that is exciting. It is beautiful royal blue (my blue) with flowers and I got a pinkish obi that matches the flowers on the yukata. I just took it out of the package, however, and I have no clue what sort of Japanese woman would EVER be able to wear it because it is like 8 inches too long for me! I am not tall, but I am taller than quite a few of the women here, so I am a little confused. Perhaps there is something I am supposed to do? (any advice, anyone?) It is nearing the end of summer anyway, so I will probably not wear it until next year, but all that means is that when I bought it, it was half price!! YAY

I ALSO went into an arcade of sorts. That is the wrong word, but I cannot remember, ANYway, it is just a whole room of the claw machines and they all have different things and I managed to win this HUGE hello kitty pillow. It is so cute. Do not ask how many times I had to play to win it, or if I could have bought it for cheaper. There is just a nice feeling that comes with winning it, so whatever.

The one productive thing I got today is an external hard drive. My computer has been acting up (blue screen of death at least 8 times in the past three days) so I decided to play it safe, and I will save all my music and pictures, just in case. Of course, now that I have come to this decision, the computer will play nice for 5 more years. Thats just how it works, isn't it?

Actually, I got a totally cute desk/chair set and another set of bookshelves today too, so those also fall under "productive." I was trying to put the shelves together and I killed the screwdriver. I just have one of those hand held ones that does not have, like, an actual handle, its just sort of the metal part with a triangley piece to grip, and I guess you could say I stripped it. Instead of having the little plus sign on the end, it just has a piece in the middle and all the ridges are gone completely. I think tomorrow I will use my hammer and just pound the screws into place. Stupid cheap screwdrivers!

So this post did not really have a point. I just thought I should share that retail therapy is very effective in Japan, too!

First day of school take 2!

FIRST:  everyone gets to learn two words in Japanese!  Principal is kocho-sensei and Vice Principal is kyoto-sensei.  Everyone got those straight?  Good, because I still mix them up.  Why am I teaching you these words?  Because in the interest of me NOT confusing the two, I will be typing them in Japanese in any posts from now on instead of in English.  I wanted to make sure everyone would know who is who (hah!)

Aaaaanyway.....

Today was my first official day of school, like, at my school.  I woke up extremely early, as in 2 whole hours before my alarm and I could not get back to sleep, so I ran through my self-introduction and ate breakfast.  It was pouring when I got up, so it was actually cold in my apartment.  Not just comfortable, but, like, needed a sweatshirt cold.  Crazy, right!  I did not need the fan at all, which I suppose is a good thing.

Anyway, my school is really chill (haha, no pun intended after the talk about the cold weather).  All the teachers wear watches, and they have not said anything about my various piercings (when I was at ni-chuu, I was told to take care of them and "mind my appearance").  Also, the female teachers here who wear skirts do not have pantyhose on.  I had heard that it was unacceptable, but, again, my school seems to be pretty chill, so no pantyhose here.  I may brave up and wear a skirt tomorrow, just to see what happens!  Alright, back to my day, I get there at 8:05 (I am supposed to arrive at 8:15) so I walk in early and say my "ohayo gozaimasu"s to everyone I pass, including some students who just look at me and then giggle.  Oh well.  At 8:20 the meeting started in the teachers' room, and I completely embarassed myself here.  I was told that the kocho-sensei would introduce me, and he stood up and said something about Lynsay left and I am the new AET and this is Elissa.  Then he looked at me, and I thought he was done, so I started my little intro, and then the kyoto-sensei who speaks English was like, "wait! He is not done!"  So I turn beet red, everyone laughed (including the kocho-sensei, thank goodness) and I apologized like 17 times with a full 90-degree bow, and then he continues.  He talked for like 3 more minutes about where I am from, and that I can speak English (duh) and French, and some random facts about Virginia.  He did his research.  So then he stops and looks at me again, and I waited a minute, just to be sure, and he nodded, so I did my short intro.  I essentially said my name, where I am from, something like "I am looking forward to working with all of you as a teacher in your school."  and "nice to meet you."  and then all the teachers clapped. 

Next part of my day:  Introduction for the WHOLE SCHOOL!  I had to get up to the podium with  a microphone and introduce myself.  I started in English and then I said the same things in Japanese.  I had tons of help with my Japanese part (thanks, Sarah!) and as a result, I think the teachers have the impression that I speak Japanese better than I do.  Oops.  I told them at lunch that I am studying, and doing my best.  They told me I use chopsticks very well.  It was a high quality conversation.

I actually did not have any classes today, so I sort of sat in the teachers' room and played online.  I made some worksheets for classes that I may or may not use, but I wanted to look like I was being productive.  I also studied Japanese for a bit and then managed to give my omiyage (souvenir/present) to the vice principal.  It is probably a faux pas to give omiyage to the kyoto-sense before the kocho-sensei, but the timing was right so I just did it.  I will give the kocho-sensei his tomorrow or sometime this week and hope that it goes ok.  He is more difficult to pin down, and his office is across the hall.  The kyoto-sensei is in with the teachers.  Also, my kyoto-sensei lives right next door to me.  Or rather, he has the apartment next door to me, but his family lives in Nagano city, so he stays there most of the time.  He did give me some cucumbers when I first moved in, becuase I happened to run into him outside.

So that was my first day.  Only one major gaffe and everything else was fine.  Tomorrow I have two classes, so I will post about them at some point in the future!

First day of school and one more gaijin moment

Today was the first day of school at ni-chuu (not my school) but I am there until Friday. this morning there was some school cleaning because they just got back from the holidays, and that was very interesting. Yesterday Ishida-sensei told me to bring a towel for cleaning, and I assumed he meant that I needed a towel to clean with (dust, wipe, etc). As it turned out, I needed a towel to wrap around my head, while cleaning, like a bandana of sorts, but bigger. Its still cotton, but a rectangle instead of a square. Ishida-sensei called it a Japanese towel yesterday, and I figured, a towel bought in Japan is a Japanese towel, right? NOPE! I am not sure why they wear them on their heads, I guess to cover their hair? Men/boys do it too, so its not a girl thing. Anyway, I had brought just like a hand towel from my house, so there I was standing in the library holding this random green towel watching the kids clean. Then Kovayashi-sensei told one of the kids in Japanese to show me what to do. He was sweeping, so he just looked at me and continued sweeping as he looked at me, to make sure I understood how to sweep. Then he handed me the broom and watched to make sure I was sweeping correctly. I also missed the memo about how teachers change clothes before they clean, so I was there in my nicer pants and button down shirt, cleaning.

Kobayashi-sensei asked if I had ever cleaned the floor before, and I said at my house, yes, but not at school. I explained about custodians, and she told the students who were on their hands and knees cleaning the floor, and they just looked at me and were like "hontou?!" (really?) I just nodded, and they were in utter disbelief that kids do not clean schools in the US.

After cleaning, there was an assembly, and all the students and faculty were there and after listening to the principal talk and the school song (a student played the piano and the music teacher conducted!) I had the pleasure of being called on stage to introduce myself. To the whole school. Remember that this is not my school, but still, I got to go up there and say my name, etc. I did it in Japanese, too, so that was insane (I had help)

After the assembly I had about an hour to kill in the teachers' room and I spent most of that trying to figure out how to get the internet working on my computer. I had teh cable plugged in and it was just not working at all, and then I looked under the desk and figure out that the other end was not connected to anything! Duh. I never managed to figure out what to plug the other end into, so I just made some worksheets that I can use later and I typed in my journal of sorts. Hopefully I can make it the rest of the week without internet, but tomorrow, I think I will have a lot of time to kill between classes, and it would be nice to be able to go online.

The rest of the day was fine, but I should tell about lunch. Wow. I should mention that the students serve lunch. Each homeroom has a schedule, I think, and they put on doctorish white coats, hair nets, and masks, and they get the food, carry it to their classroom and serve it! Craziness! Anyway, I have been dreading the whole school lunch thing because I heard that the "protein" can be very random at times. Guess what we had today? You guessed it, SQUID!! Thankfully, it was not the dreaded whole grilled squid on a stick, because that would have been bad. It was rings and they were fried. They tasted OK, but I have some mental issues with certain sea creatures where I imagine them whole and swimming around, and it freaks me out. The worst are the tentacles, because they still have the little suckers on them, and I really cannot handle that yet. Normally the taste is fine, but my brain gets in the way. There was also salad, tofu, soup, rice and milk for lunch, so plenty of food. More than plenty, in fact. I could not finish all of mine! I also offered my milk to the students and like 6 of them got up and had a mini janken (rock, paper, scissors) tournament to decide who got to drink my milk. I guess they are growing kids, so more food is better. I almost drank my milk, because in my stupidity this morning, I forgot a bottle of water, so I was incredibly thirsty by lunch, but I decided that I would be better off thirsty than having some...issues if you catch my drift. The kids also think it is funny when foreigners do not like certain foods. I did not advertise my issues with squid, but someday the students at my school will see it, and it will be the day that they serve the whole squid on a stick. I am sure I will end up tasting nattō at some point, and that will be a hit, too. Nattō is like fermented soybeans, and it is very smelly, and very popular, and the kids love to ask foreigners if they like nattō. I got asked once today. If you say yes, they will be astounded, and want to watch you eat some, and if you say no, they will be like, "oh of course, cause you are a foreigner so you won't like nattō." Anyway that was a random tangent, but I am sure Nattō will get its own post at some point in the future.

Alrighty, so on Wednesdays I go to city hall at 3:30 for a meeting with Sakaguchi-san (my supervisor) so I left school at 3:15 today. Tonight I will buy a "Japanese towel"