So it`s finally summer vacation here! Sadly, Japanese schools don`t work the same way as home and everyone still comes into work everyday. Currently it`s the 3rd week into break and even with an extensive list of projects to keep myself busy I`m finding that I`m either a) too freaking lazy to do them, or b) doing them and still incredibly bored. Don`t really understand myself how I can be bored while keeping busy, but it`s definitely something I`ve come to know quite well during the last year. A little stimulation please! Too much routine is driving me crazyyyy! So far this is a break down of my summer days--> Slide into the staff room by 8:15 and check out emails and online news, slowly prepare regional information for the new JETs, wander around and talk to students during club activities (which can take up to an hour at times), study kanji and other Japanese stuff, study Korean, and now then I`ll dabble with French. Random short-lived conversations with co-workers, running from bees that fly into the staff room until someone saves me, planning weekend activities and future prospective trips, 10 minute naps at my desk, and sometimes help tutor the basketball team in English, and leave at 3:30 on the dot. So as you can see there`s no end of things to do...but the days still seem to stretch on. Originally I planned on joining in some club activities every other day, but during basketball practice over a week ago I had a bit of a mishap (which was really no surprise) and will now be hobbling around for the next few weeks. The saddest part was that the girls were really excited that I was there and wanted me to come again :( Clumsiness strikes again. dun dun DUNNNNN
On a much brighter note, it`s now officially my second year here on JET! Sadae-san, an older lady who is interested in English, invited me out for dinner last week to celebrate this. A lot of people around town have been asking me if I`m going anywhere or leaving Japan, and seem happy to hear that I`m staying for another year. I myself am feeling kind of ambivalent on the matter, and would like to blame it on having to work everyday.Yes, yes I shall.
Just realized I haven`t updated since April. Hahaha..ha...oops.
Quick update time...cue music~
May consisted of Golden Week, my birthday, and finishing up Musical performances. The first week of May here has three consecutive days off in a row, so I took two extra vacation days and headed 5 hours south to Kanazawa to visit old friends and host families from my high school exchange. As usual it was great to see everyone and was strange to see how much my younger host brothers and sisters have grown. My youngest host sister is looking into universities and has even done a year abroad herself in Australia. It really just throws me on how much time has passed since I was living there. Anyways, there was also a huge classical music festival taking place throughout the city, and was invited to three shows by one of my host fathers. I miss Kanazawa :( Many of the people I know there suggested I look into working there after JET, and I`m seriously tempted to. My birthday was a great time! Some younger teachers/neighbours invited me over to have an okonomiyaki party, which was followed by the best chocolate mousse cake ever! My neighbour likes to cook, so I let her know that if she ever feels the need to whip up a huge sprawl to just let me know. So that was lunch time, and the evening was spent in Niigata City with other lovely ALTs at an all you can eat okonomiyaki restaurant. A lovely carb-filled day. And after that we headed to Round 1, an indoor activity place with mini-bike racing (I won our round! woo!), a plethora of sports, and arcade games. I also somehow broke my baby toe by banging it on the corner of some door. At the time it seemed better to play tennis barefooted...? But in all seriousness, is there really a reason to question yet another injury? Not so much...
June. Ohh June.. Any dreams I`ve had of becoming a rice planter were all over in the fraction of a second one Sunday morning. After really enjoying the harvesting part of the process last fall, Bryan, Nicole and I (plus Aimee) decided to come full circle in our harvesting experience. We even bought the triangular shaped hats to wear like the old people do, and rubber boots or socks to muck around the muddy water in. One look at that field though and it was game over for me. Thousands of tadpoles, water spiders, leeches, and one particularly disgusting bug that made me want to throw up, even now just thinking about it, ended my journey right there. I slopped into the paddy a foot or so in borrowed rubber boots, to plant maybe 10 baby rice roots, and then got my ass out of there. I ended up throwing the rice roots to everyone else for the rest of the morning. Bryan bravely went in barefooted and had no problems, and even Nicole was in and out, but I was more than happy to stand on the edge taking pictures and, more importantly, staying away from the things living in the water. I`ve decided that I`ll redeem myself with harvesting again this fall. A lot drier and barely any bugs. Cool beans.
June 16th~20th was spent with the lovely Nicole in Seoul, South Korea. We were both really interested in going to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the north and south, as well as just checking out the country in general. I`ve been told that Korea is a `less cool version of Japan`, but I have to disagree. (I actaully enjoyed it a lot more in some ways, though that could have been because we spent the majority of our time in Seoul.) We were able to do lots of shopping at the markets and in the trendy downtown area. It was extremely hot and sunny our entire trip, which was nice but made walking around harder. We checked out the Namsan tower the first night we were there and enjoyed the cable car journeys up and down the mountain. One day I was even able to meet up with my friend, Mana, who was studying in Korea. So she showed us the Palace, a history museum, and then grabbed some food. I was surprised how much my Japanese came in handy when we were out shopping and such. If English wasn`t understood Japanese usually was, and we were even treated a little better by some shop keepers when speaking it! The DMZ tour was intense. Everyone had to dress conservatively (in 38 degree heat =/ ) and were given specific instructions for when were were in the DMZ area. Our tour bus was stopped at two checkpoints to check our passports, and then we changed to a military bus that took us right up to where the south and north have their talks. We were able to spend 2-3 minutes inside one of these little buildings, and got some photos with South Korean guards on the North Korean side of the building. So would this mean that we were `technically` in North Korea for a fraction of a minute??haha Then we were herded back out to take some photos. While this was going on, the North side was keeping tabs on us, and one of the women from our group started pointing at one of the guards, which just so happened to be one of the things we were warned against doing. From their perspective we could be holding a gun, so all of us near her were like `What the heck are you doing lady?!` All in all it was an interesting experience. Our hostel turned out to be more of a guesthouse and super laid back, but a little dirty and loud. Our room was located right beside the main living area where everyone hung out and drank every night, so it was hard to sleep, but overall I didn`t have any problems with the people themselves. Though it`ll come as no surprise, the food was probably one of my favourite parts of the trip. Bakeries with whole wheat bread, bibimbap, bbq meat restaurants, kimchi, and a fun yogurt place, just to name a few. :) I would go back for the food..and the men weren`t hard on the eyes either. Nicole and I found ourselves questionning why we were living in Japan. I am a full supporter of the 2 year mandatory military service hahaha!
July was super busy! Took the proficiency test at the first of the month ( don`t think it went so well =/ not a fan of the new system), had one of the best Canada Day`s ever with sushi followed by a bonfire on the beach! a Yosakoi performance, musical script writing party, RA Meeting and Harry Potter, flute concert with Sadae-san (her cousin was the flutist), and lots of end of semester/ good-bye parties. When all was said and done, I ended up going to 5 parties in one week. From our area 3 JETs left, Nicole being one of them. She`s gone to work at an Alberta International School in Macao (near Hong Kong) for the next few years, but we have plans to meet up for Christmas and to go visit her next Golden Week :) She will be missed, but we also have 5 new JETs in our area this year; 2 Canadian, 1 American, 1 from the UK, and 1 from Jamaica. It`s nice to have a bit more diversity among our ALTs cause last year was just American and Canadian.
The weekends this month are shaping up pretty well. Went to my first soccer game Saturday night with Katrina and a new JET. Niigata has its own team, The Niigata Albirex, who are rumoured to not win a lot, but we kicked some butt there that day 4-0! Definitely a great first game. Also went to Marinpia, Niigata`s Aquarium, with Katrina and thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin show. I want to be one in my next life hahaha (I`m serious though). Sunday was spent showing Adele and Jhana around the Niigata Station area, and then we met up with some other JETs for a fireworks extravaganza. Two hours of almost non-stop fireworks. Some of them were really nice, but all of them were more or less set off at once and just became a huge mess in the sky. This upcoming Friday is the new JET Orientation where I have to do a presentation on Lesson Planning and Time Management, so we`ll see how it goes. Next Friday is a Beer Garden on top of some fancy hotel; Saturday is a KPop concert (EEEK!!!), and the last weekend is musical auditions/ home stay information session.
Never a dull moment. Well, the weekends aren`t anyways. haha
