Lately I've been able to speak to more and more people from home :) and have noticed that the conversations are following a similar pattern: What exactly am I getting up to over here? So today's entry will be dedicated to filling you all in on exactly what I'm 'getting up to', as I've so aptly named it (cue horrible British accent) "A Week in the life of.."
Due mostly to the disgusting humidity and hot weather, August was spent mostly indoors on my couch, eating my way through a plethora of delicious ice cream delights that Japan has been so kind to provide for me, and basking in the wonderfulness that is my air conditioner. Sadly this kept me from going out and meeting any of the locals..which I mostly alright with as the majority of them are older and would so 'smartly' veer towards me with their cars on one of my very rare outings on my bicycle (probably to just go to the grocery store for more ice cream ). Alas, I am sad to report that this veering continues; however I have my own car in which to scare them back to their own side of the road with. I see that I am rambling now...what I was trying to get at was since spending so much time inside and more or less alone, I, as much as I hate to admit it, was beginning to become a little homesick. So on a sweaty bike trip up to see my Supervisor to inquire about local sports teams and the like, I was happy to learn that on Wednesday nights there's a group that gets together to do both aerobics and Yosakoi (a type of up-beat traditional type dance that I've always wanted to try). And even better, it was already Wednesday. Score!
Fast forward 3 months and the involvement has peaked to an all time high. I'm seriously having to turn people down now due to all of the things I'm doing! Never thought it would've turned out like this! So without further ado, here is an example of my typical week:
Monday: Work at the Junior High School during the day from 8-4, learn Tea Ceremony from 7:30-9ish. (From an earlier blog you can see that I've only just started doing tea ceremony and am still up in the air about continuing with it as it absolutely KILLS my legs and the tea keeps me awake late at night :S But the free sweets are just so good!)
Tuesday: Work at the Southern Elementary School 8-4, run an Adult English Conversation Class from 7:30-9 (at first I really wasn't looking forward to doing this, but my 8 students are all very nice and like to give me advice on places to visit in the area, as well as bring me food...that pretty much won me over right there!)
Wednesday: Work again at the Junior High from 8-4, then attend aerobics from 7:30-8:30 and Yosakoi practice 8:30-9ish. Thankfully they're both in the same place...with mostly the same people. (I've been able to take part in 2 festivals so far with my Yosakoi group, with another one tomorrow afternoon actually. Plan on doing something specifically Yosakoi related in a later blog entry)
Thursday: Work at the Northern Elementary School 8-4, and go to "Mama-san Volleyball" from 7:30-9ish. When I was first invited to go, not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive since I'm completely horrible at sports or anything else that requires hand-eye coordination. Everyday life can be a danger in and of itself, but all that ice cream in August was catching up with me and thought that a little extra exercise wouldn't hurt me. That and the lady who invited me said that most of them were older ladies, so I didn't think that it would that intense. Man, I was wrong! They consistently kick my ass in everything we do, except for running laps during warm up (thank you god for gracing me with long giraffe legs! even though it sometimes makes shopping for jeans a pain in the ass). They endure my horrible clumsiness though, and to be fair, I DID warn them that I was complete crap at it in the beginning anyways. I think that I've maybe gotten a little better in the past few months..no one has openly asked me to stop coming anyways, and I take that as a good sign. My absolute favourite moment since starting happened a few weeks ago. They thought it was smart to put me up by the net to block and spike the ball, cause hey I'm a freaking giant who doesn't even have to jump to reach the top of the net. Well, the ball came my way and I rushed up to spike it (or something that resembled a spike anyways) when my right foot got tangled in my left and I literally tripped myself mid-air, flying a few good feet under the net into the other side of the court...and then burst out laughing, cause in this type of situation what else can you do but laugh?! Everyone else was worried that I was hurt, and for some strange reason still insist I stand up by the net. I believe that I am their comedic relief. hahaha
Friday: Work 9-11 at one of the two pre-schools in the area, then back to the Junior High till 4. Friday evenings are my 'free' night, though there was a time when I went to my Junior High Volleyball teams nightly practices, and then life got in the way and that stopped. I love love LOVE my two pre-schools! This may shock some people, as I've constantly disliked small children for the past few years, but Japanese children are just too precious! And they love me too!!! They literally scream when I walk through the door and throw their little bodies at me in a chorus of "Gina-sensei!" and "Good Morning"s. They make my day. I'm always in my best mood all week after spending two hours running after and being chased by little kids, who are so excited to hear what lessons I have planned for them, and can't wait to rhyme off what words they remember from the last time I was there. They make me want to have little half Japanese babies.
Weekends: Weekends are usually a toss up, spent with the other ALTs in Murakami, or like recently, performing with my Yosakoi group somewhere, or my least favourite of all, being spent at school :( In fact, I had spent the entire weekend working during Culture Festival. At that time I still hadn't had my breakthrough with the kids yet, so it wasn't pleasant.
This is my only free Saturday this month! And I spent it making soup (yum! Mom will be proud!) and watching You-Tube allllllll day while sprawled under the cozy loveliness that is my kotatsu (a type of heated coffee table). Even glanced at my Japanese lesson book that the JET Programme more or less makes everyone take. Probably the most Japanese I've studied since coming here this time.
Anyways, have to work next Saturday due to Parents Day, when the parents come and look into how well their kids are learning; then traveling to some random part of the prefecture for Musical Practice. Yes, that's right..musical practice. The JETs in Niigata Prefecture put on a charity musical every year and I wasn't going to do it since I'm so far away from everyone else, but they made up a special part for me, Nicole and Bryan, so I more or less have no option in this. Doing a home stay weekend with a local family the next weekend, and then Murakami is hosting the musical practice/having a Thanksgiving dinner the last weekend of Novemeber. Makes me sad that yet again things are based on the American Thanksgiving while Canada's was completely and utterly ignored (pfft!), but we're seriously outnumbered here anyways. Nicole once told me that there's a total of 4 Canadian JETs in all of the prefecture...and that's including us. Sadness.
This post is long. I'm done.
