Internet

Hi all, just wanted to let you know that I will have internet hooked up in my apartment tomorrow. So I will be able to post more, email more and call more! Sorry if I have been slacking on that, been busy trying to figure out my stupid washer =( Anyways just wanted to let you all know that!

Hello! This is going to be a quick post because I am downstairs in my apartment complex and just so happened to pick up someone’s wireless internet, except there are no plugs around for me to plug my computer in to and the battery on this thing only lasts for about 10 minutes! Anyways I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has sent me letters and cards! My mom and John “tested” out my address last week to make sure I receive mail and I do! The only thing though, if you want to send a package, or anything other than a letter or a card, you have to send it to Justin’s address on his ship. My mom asked the lady at the post office about sending a package to my address at my apartment, and she said it would cost around $50 to send the same size package that I send to Justin’s ship for $10. So if anyone needs me to post his address on here let me know! Not that I expect packages or anything from anyone, but just a heads up!

I also wanted to tell Christina that I got your engagement announcement today and it looks great! I really love the pictures you choose! Thank you so much for sending me one all the way in Japan and for thinking of me!! You’re the best!

And Mom, please tell Canda that I received her card today also. I will send out her thank you card hopefully this weekend, if I can make it to the post office, which I am hoping to do!

Anyways, nothing really new with me. Just super excited for all of my furniture to come tomorrow, and for my 3 day weekend! I will take and post pics as soon as I get my furniture arranged and everything. Ok well I better go before my computer dies!

Oh and also, I never posted information about how to call me. If you are using a phone card, to dial internationally is 011, then Japan’s country code which is 81 and then my phone number 080 6621 7655. =)

First I want to start off by saying that today was a beautiful day! For once, in the 3 weeks that I have been here I have had one nice day! It was like a perfect day in San Diego. It wasn't raining, and it wasn't too hot. The sun was out but it wasn't humid and there was actually a breeze! I think its the first day that I have actually made it somewhere without being drenched in sweat!

Anyways aside from that, my day wasn't half bad either, or my weekend for that matter. My weekend was actually pretty boring. I came on base both days to use the internet, chatted with a few friends and my family. Sunday I went out into town and tried to find a furniture shop that a lady on base told me about. Justin and I want barstools for our bartop, and not to mention I don't think we will have enough room for a dining room table and chairs. I didn't manage to find the shop though, despite my map!

Monday I had 3 classes. All went well. In several of my classes they are learning the phrase "are you alright?" and expressions such as "I have (a headache, an earache, a fever...)" or "I feel (sick, tired, sad...)." My lesson plan was having them play the card game Go Fish. I made decks of cards with several different expressions and they took turns asking "are you alright" and trying to match their "I have"/"I feel" cards. I think they all really enjoyed the game, and they got the target language down! =) After one of my classes, 2 students came up to me and asked me if I was at Yokosuka-chuo yesterday, which I was. That's where I was trying to find the furniture store. They said that they had seen me. How embarassing!! I probably looked like such a goober! In fact I know I did because I had my stupid map and I was on such a mission to find this place. Oh well what can ya do, right?

Today I had 4 classes. All did the same Go Fish activity. I finally got my computer today, so I dont have to use someone elses anymore. I was pretty stoked about that. Now I can really pretend to look busy!

On Thursday I am leaving school early because I have furniture being delivered =) 2 loveseats, a coffee table with 2 end tables, washer and a fridge. I'm pretty stoked to get all of that! This weekend is a 3 day weekend for me. I have Monday off and then work Tuesday-Sunday. I am working the weekend because Friday and Saturday is the school festival and Sunday we have to clean up. To make up for having to work on the weekend, I get the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, then Justin comes on Thursday! That Friday my school is having a welcome party for the new alt's. Kind of sucks cuz its the night after Justin gets here. Hopefully it doesnt end really late or anything!!

Alright well its time for me to go home and microwave some mac and cheese. Thats right I have graduated from eating bread and peanut butter! You dont know how excited I was to be able to buy microwavable food at the store the other day! Mac and cheese has never tasted soooo good before! And just think, this weekend Ill be able to buy anything and everything I want with the delivery of my fridge on Thurs. No more bread and peanut butter for me!! Yay =)

More silly questions!

Pretty much my students are awesome, and I think you'll be hearing me say that a lot. During 1st period today I had more self introductions, 2nd period I taught a lesson in Speaking and listening class, I had 3rd period off, self introductions again 4th period and was free for the rest of the day. During my classes where I was introducing myself, I got asked more silly questions =) One girl asked me "Why are you so beautiful?" Unsure about how to respond to that question I pointed at the picture of my family on the board and said "My parents." Another student asked me "Why do you all wear sunglasses?" refering to the picture of my family. It was taken at my college graduation and we were all standing outside on a sunny day. One thing I have noticed is most people dont wear sunglasses here. I thought that question was cute. Another student asked me where I want to visit in Japan and one of the places I named was Mt. Fugi, so the guy that asked the question after her asked "Can I take you to Mt. Fugi?" I laughed and pointed to the picture of Justin and said "Ask my husband." I really think I am going to enjoy working with the different classes.

So for as much as I love my students, the fact that I despise David evens it out. Today he was late for our lesson, and he came unprepared!! The activity we were doing was a worksheet for the students which was a copy of an article that I read allowed and as I read it they were following along on their worksheet filling in the missing words. Well half way during my lesson, David interrupts me and tells me that he didnt bring his copy of the full article without the missing words, so he needed to borrow mine. I was a perturbed, but used the time that he borrowed my article to show my half of the students a picture of Justin, since they had all insisted the day before that I bring one =) He is very famous in my classes, they are all so interested in him, but hey so am I =) He gets here 3 weeks from today! I am so excited! It will be so much fun to show him our apartment for the first time, I wonder what he is going to think about our fun journey home! I wouldnt be surprised if he decided to stay on the ship!! Haha just kidding, the 204 stairs arent that bad. Alright well thats it for now, I have only one class tomorrow so its going to be a pretty relaxing, and probably boring day. OH! I guess my company called my school to ask them how I am doing and my school said that they are very happy with me and that Im a hard worker. I had to laugh when I heard that because I thought back on all the times last week I fell asleep at my desk while pretending to go through the text book and create lesson plans. What a hard worker I am =)

My Students!

Hi all! =) Sorry it has been a few days since I have posted. Every day I get off of work and I stop by the base since it is on my way home to use the internet. Well the past couple of days there hasnt been a good connection, or one at all for the matter. Anyways, I will finish where I left off with my last post... the microwave. So I get off at my stop and begin walking towards my apartment carrying this heavy microwave, and my backpack with my laptop in it. Justin always nags me about taking a taxi, but I am against them because I think they are a waste of money. I have never taken a taxi in the states so I am not sure if it is similar, but the taxi's here start out at $7.00. That is the minimum price you will pay, and depending on the distance it only increases from there. I think its absurd which is why I choose to walk everywhere, hence carrying heavy items. Well that night I decided I wanted to take a taxi because I really wasnt in the mood to carry the microwave up the hundreds of stairs, and not to mention is started raining the minute I stepped out of the train station. So I am walking towards a taxi and I thought I better check how much money I have because I need money to get to and from work the next day. Come to find out I had just enough money to cover my train cost for the day, so taking a taxi was out of the question. I began my journey into the rain. I had my umbrella with me, but there was no way I could hold that and carry my microwave, so I soaked up the rain =) As I got to the street I turn up to go up the stairs, I saw that it was blocked off because of construction. So I had to go the other way to the house which is all up hill, and there are no are no stairs, but it takes a lot more time. As I started my way up the hill, carrying my microwave in the rain, hating my life and wishing that Justin would call so I could vent to him, a car drives past me and pulls to the side of the road just in front of me. So Im thinking every curse word in the book about how nice it is that this person is now blocking my path and how nice it must be to be in a car and Im getting soaked in the rain, struggling with this damn microwave, when a Japanese man gets out of the car and asks me if I want a ride. Well I dont really know what he asked me because it was in Japanese, all I know is that he took my microwave from me and put it in his trunk and opened the car door for me. I handed him my notecard that has my address on it (in both english and Japanese for this sole reason) he reads it and says "Hi, Hi" which means he understood where I live. So he drove me up the hill and to my apartment and it was then that I realized why I love this country so much, and how lucky I am to be spending the next 6 months to a year here. The people will bend over backwards to help you, so next time you see a Japanese person in the states, smile at them!!

OK enough with that time to tell you about my students and how awesome they are! On Tuesday I had to give a short introduction about myself to my Oral Communication 1 class. I had pictures of my family, of Justin and I, postcards from back home, of CSUSM and my high school and just shared with them a little about me and where I am from. The class only has 9 students so it wasnt bad. After I was done the teacher made them stand up and they werent allowed to sit down until after asking me a question. The students were very shy and took a long time to ask a question. They would rather be the last person standing with nothing to say than the first person to ask a queston, but when they finally started asking me, I got questions like "What are you crazy about?" and "Where do you want to visit in Japan?" but my favorite question was, "Why did you pick your husband?" =) My students never fail to make me smile! So that was it for Tuesday. The rest of the day was creating lesson plans for the rest of the week.... or failing to do so actually because the other alt I work with (David) is a procrastinator and to be honest Im not a fan of his. His is from Texas, which is the first strike in my book, and he walks around like he is better than everyone else. He is very arrogant, and I speak with him as little as possible. He talks to the students in ways that they dont understand. Just because they are high school students doesnt mean that their english is high school level like we would think of it back home. He uses big words, and speaks really fast.

Today I had 2 classes of Speaking and listening. The first class there were about 20 students in it, and the second one there were 9. For the first class we divided the studentds in half and David and I each took half. Then we interviewed the students, getting to know them, asking them questions and them asking us questions. We were evaluating their level of speaking english which I would have to say is quite well! After about 15 minutes with the first group, we switched groups so we could get to know the entire class. Since there were only 9 students in the second class, we did 5 minute one on one interviews with each student. A popular question I was asked between both classes was "Do you have a boyfriend?" When I would explain that I have a husband, I am Married they would cheer and clap! Then from there they were very interested in Justin and insisted that I bring pictures of him to our next class meeting. Again I got funny questions about Justin like "Is he handsome?", "Do you love him?". and "Is he cool?" All in all my students are pretty awesome and I think Im really going to enjoy teaching them! One girl told me that I am pretty, and another girl came up to me in the cafeteria during lunch to talk to me. =) Im glad that they are warming up to me!

Alright well this is a long post and I need to finish my dinner and get home! Goodnight =)

1st Day of School

Hey guys! Im going to be really quick because I am at an internet cafe right now cuz the internet wasnt working on base, plus its getting late here and Im tired. Anyways today was the first day of school! Right at 8:30 I had to go to the staff room for a meeting. It was during this time that I had to introduce myself to all the staff members at the school. It was really brief. I just told them my name, where I am from, how old I am, how long I have been living in Japan (2 weeks already can you believe it?!) and where in Japan I live. I also told them how excited I am to be working at their school. That was it, the rest of the meeting was in Japanese so I have no idea what they said. Then at 9:30 there was a earthquake evacuation drill and we had to go outside onto the track and field. I didnt know that during that time I would be introducing myself to the whole school! So I had to stand on this little tiny platform in the heat and give the same speech I gave the teachers, short and to the point. After the drill was over we went back into the school and I learned that everyday when school lets out at 3:25, the students have to clean the school. So during this time, the students were told and shown which part of the school they are responsible for cleaning. I have to oversee that the students clean what they are supposed to, and the section I oversee is one of the girls restrooms. I felt like the evil stepmother in Cinderella as I just stood there and watched these girls clean the restroom, and then when they were done with that they had to scrub the spots on the carpet outside of the restroom. I know kids in America would never even think about cleaning their school. Of course I watched as one girl sat there and scrubbed the same spot on the carpet for 15 minutes, and the 2 girls that sat in the corner and chatted, but I didnt say anything. After practicing the after school cleaning, I went back to my desk and did what I have been doing for the last week... sat at my desk and pretended to look busy. When Justin called I snuck off to the bathroom to talk to him, seeing as I had nothing better to do =) Tomorrow I have one class in the morning and all I am doing is introducing myself and showing the class pictures from back home, my family and my hubby! (thanks dad for the pics!) Then the students have testing for the rest of the day tomorrow, so Im assuming thats when the other assistant language teacher and I can get together and start some lesson planning. All of the students at my school are really nice. They smile at me when we pass each other in the hall, or say hello to me in either English or Japanese, and wave to me if they see me from a distance. Well I better get going. Its getting late and I have a mircowave to carry up 204 stairs...

Much love!! <3