| Ah, it must be tuesday! |
[Oct. 2nd, 2007|01:08 pm] |
I always seem to post on tuesdays. That is probably because tuesday is my laziest day. I'm sat in my Elem, killing time because I found out when I turned up that 2 of my lessons had been cancelled. Thanks for the heads up, people. So now I have to find enough stuff to entertain myself between 8:20am and 5pm, with only 1:40 hours of actual stuff to do. Hence the postage on lj. It's not like I could even do any work. My work is all up in my JHS (which I found out the other day has the charming nickname Hayachu. Yes. I work in a bizarre and as yet undiscovered evolution of Pikachu.) I've already played myself out on my DS. I have a fair amount of fanfic to catch up on courtesy of lack of home internets, so that'll probably be next. OH YES!!! I'm getting connected to the internets on 10th October. I will be back in the world of the technologically able. I desperately need to download the final two episodes of the last season of Doctor Who, so that'll be a good first test of my new, shit-off-shovelMbps internets. I will be having dreams about internet until next week. It's been so long.....
I have come to the conclusion that whoever was dishing out the brains to the hayashima boys, they should probably be fired. Because they, simply put, are morons. In a hysterically funny way, mind you. One kid, managed to knock his pencil case off his desk, a few pencils fell out. He picks it all up, puts it back in the case, and then not 2 seconds later, does it again. Except this time was a pencil case explosion. Pens, pencils and other assorted crap goes everywhere. I could not help but laugh hysterically, completely involutarily. Then, this bright spark decides, because he apparently has the common sense of a small pea, that he will just lean down and pick everything up. Except, he overbalances and ends up, arse still on the chair, balancing by his head on the floor, surrounded by the remains of his pencil case explosion. I am most definitely not surrounded by genius. |
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| Fuji and the YMCA.... |
[Sep. 27th, 2007|03:47 pm] |
I climbed Mt Fuji on the weekend. Hells yes. Praise and reverence accepted gratefully aka. WORSHIP AT MY FEET, BITCHES!! It was hard work and the top of Fuji is less "Ooh, amazingly beautiful mountain!", more "I feel tremendous sympathy for the Martians and/or Clangers." Describing it as barren would be a kindness. Still pretty cool though. Afterwards there was naked bathing, because the Japanese love that kind of thing. I feel I now know my fellow female ALTs exceptionally well, having seen a whole bunch of them butt nakie. It's amazing how no-one ever breaks eye contact in that situation. You should try it sometime, it's hilariously good fun.
Oh, and the YMCA thing. I was teaching "You look happy/sad/angry" etc and one of their vocab words was 'young'. After they learnt the phrase we played a sort of charades where one of the group did a mime and the other players had to say the corresponding phrase. Well, the gesture one bright spark came up with for "You look young." was doing the village people YMCA dance. I cracked up laughing, but didn't have the heart to expand their vocab to include "You look gay." |
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| One mad weekend and an enkai..... |
[Sep. 18th, 2007|09:48 am] |
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Dear. God. That's about all I can say about the weekend just gone. It was a long weekend with a holiday on the Monday, but I got even less sleep than normal. First I had to work on Saturday for the school sports day, of which I have loads of photos, so when I finally have internets at home (which is coming closer to being more than an impossible dream) I will be able to show you video and pics of Japanese schoolchildren fighting each other to the death over bits of bamboo and pretending to be mukade. Good times. I didn't have a race, so basically I was a glorified cheerleader, but it was a laugh. After sports day, I had my first enkai. Basically, the Japanese love to drink until they fall over, and make drunken speeches, and sing karaoke. I had to make a speech, since it was technically my welcome party. I was drunk, and they cheered when I said 'konbanwa' because any attempt to speak Japanese by me is met with "SUGOI! SUGOI!" and other obviously untrue flattery. My Japanese is appalling, although I now know how to tell people that I or someone else has drunk too much and would very much like to go talk to god on the big white telephone, which will always come in handy. There was karaoke, and there was drunken stumbling around Kurashiki. There was also the 5 teachers, including myself, who skipped down a main road arm in arm, and who rubbed kyoto-sensei's head for good luck....... |
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| "Yochien" translates approximately as "Barely Controlled Madness" |
[Sep. 11th, 2007|02:50 pm] |
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Well, that's a close enough translation. Today I worked at one of my kindergartens (yochien) and, damn, those kids are loud. I am exhausted from 4 year olds screeching "SENSEI!! SENSEI!!! ISSHO NI ASOBU!!!!111!" and dragging me in the direction of their chosen form of play, up to and including making mud pies in the sand pit. But now I am lazing in the staffroom of my JHS, since the yochien finishes at 2pm and I work till 5. Chill out time, since there's nowt for me to do on a tuesday after my visit school. I have two JHS lessons tomorrow, but all the worksheets and so on and so forth are in a folder on my desk. Now I just have to actually get into my normal schedule and start teaching some Engrish rather than just introducting me and Scotland. I've lost count of the number of times I've done my jiko shokai...... |
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| Dude, I need better internet access.... |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|03:48 pm] |
Well, hi there! It's been a while since I posted, but I've been busy. Well, that's not strictly true of any day but today, but I haven't had great internet access.
Today has been awesome. First day I actually had to team teach lessons today, but not in my normal junior high. I was in my elementary today, and the kids are awesome, but have waaaaay too much energy. I have a feeling I will go home and sleep for approximately a week. It doesn't help that it's hotter than the proverbial hell today, with a helpful zero cloud cover. Hiding out in the staffroom at the moment, because as always, it's the only place with aircon and a freezer to stick my head in. Today I was teaching "I like ice cream." and I have the feeling that 4 lessons worth of suggestion may just drive me into the freezer section at the conbini for some haagen daaz.
Anyway, must go, am being hounded by teachers attempting to decipher what I'm doing. That's one thing about a country where next to no-one has a decent command of the language - you can do pretty much what you like on the internets, and nobody has any clue what you're up to. |
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| Tokyo, baby, yeah! |
[Jul. 29th, 2007|11:21 am] |
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As I sit here in my extremely shiny hotel room with free internets in the middle of Shinjuku in Tokyo, my life is good. Just the difficult decision of where to go for dinner.... There will be pictures soon :D |
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| Gah... |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|05:58 pm] |
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I still haven't had anything from my contracting organisation. I'm gonna need to put a redirection on my mail in case it comes after I've left - I'm moving down to Wales next Sunday because my contract on the lease doesn't cover July. Bummer. If it did, I could have avoided any of this needless moving around... |
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| *sulk* |
[Jun. 13th, 2007|04:38 pm] |
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Another day passes without hearing anything from my contracting organisation. I'm trying to be patient, but when other people are hearing from their contracting organisations about their apartment, rent and all that other exciting stuff, it's hard. Even an email from them would be nice. Maybe they're just taking extra long to put together an awesome welcome pack. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.... |
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| Hayashima |
[May. 27th, 2007|08:01 pm] |
So, yeah, I keep harping on about this place, but it is kind of the point of this journal. Anyway, it's 62 days until I leave for Japan! Awesomesauce. I'm leaving on 28th July, and although it seems forever away atm, it really isn't that long. I should get one of those counter things, like this one I just went away and made:
Flash Countdown
Ah, yes, I thought I better edit this post, since I realised halfway through writing it that if I didn't leave pronto I was going to miss the film at the cinema. I found out during my reading that Hayashima, small and insignificant a place as it it is (I personally think I'll love it anyway - I'm going to see real life Japan, not the Lonely Planet version) it is known for several things, one of which can be deduced from the satellite images on google maps (follow the link on this page to find its exact coordinates Hayashima)
I'm not gonna tell you yet, because I want to see if anyone gets it. Bet you won't :D But the other two things are interesting. For some reason only known to the mysteries of the universe, the people of Hayashima are proud of their history of... waiting. w...t...f...bbq. Weird people. I like them already. Oh, and it was also apparently an important town for storage of wealth, being as it is on the way to Shikoku and things. I quite like the place :D |
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| My School!! |
[May. 26th, 2007|06:09 pm] |
Today I found pictures of my school. Although I haven't heard from them directly, it's not too much of a stretch to guess that this is mine, given that there's only one Junior High School (JHS) in Hayashima, other than a special needs school which I hope to god I'm not working in. I couldn't cope with that. I might be making elementary visits too, but there's only one elementary school as well.
So yay! Picspam ahoy! These are all of my JHS :D
( かわいい！！ ) |
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| For some reason, this amuses me greatly.... |
[May. 25th, 2007|02:21 pm] |
My town of Hayashima is squished in the middle of two small cities, Okayama and Kurashiki. Okayama has a pretty garden, a castle and a river named after a popular Japanese beer (it could be the other way round, I'm not sure :D) but Kurashiki beats these attractions hands down. Bearing in mind it's not exactly an enormous town (nowhere in Okayama is enormous), listen to this. It has a large DANISH themed theme park. Not Legoland Japan - actually with Danish buildings and restaurants, almost like a small Danish town. In the middle of a pretty insignificant small city. In Japan.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *ded from amusement*
Here's the website if you don't believe me - Kurashiki Tivoli Park |
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| I got my placement!! |
[May. 23rd, 2007|10:29 am] |
Ok, so I'm gonna start using this journal now for all my Japan ramblings. I got my placement today! I'm going to a tiny little town called Hayashima in Okayama prefecture :D As you probably have as much idea of where that is as I did when I opened my enormous packet of information, I have provided you with a handy map under the cut
( map )
It's a tiny little place, with a population of only 12000, so even smaller than St Andrews! As far as I can tell on the badly translated town website, it has only one junior high school and no senior high (I guess they must travel to a nearby town), which means that in all likelyhood that's where I'll be working, and probably only in that school, since I put down on my application that I can't drive. From this point on I have to wait for information from my contracting organisation, not JET, so it could be a while until I find out the particulars of my job, or it could be tomorrow. Who knows?
Also in my information pack, I received the General Information Handbook, which is a book of everything that is hefty enough to beat someone to death with. GOod thing I already read the pdf version... |
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| Welcome to my lair... |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|12:29 am] |
Why hello there. This is the public travel journal of the friends-locked user ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) doublenatural, intended for her family and friends whilst she away being a jammy sod on the 2007-2008 JET Programme, although anyone and everyone is welcome, hence the non-friends-lockyness of the thing :D |
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| Useless English bureaucracy.... |
[Apr. 16th, 2007|11:24 am] |
Imagine the situation - you've got yourself a job offer that requires you to send in police clearances from all the countries that you have lived more than 12 months for the last 5 years. So you send off applications, one to Scotland, one to England and one to Germany (in german, which you aren't quite sure you understood correctly) all on the same day. Which one makes it back first?
The Scottish one, logically, comes back first. It only went to your local force, and they probably have a man sitting round all day who gets about 3 applications a month. In fact, it comes back so quickly that you are a little freaked out, like that time you submitted a passport application only to get a new passport 3 DAYS after you submitted it. So which one comes next? Bear in mind you live in the UK. The English one? Don't be so stupid. The English wouldn't know efficient bureaucracy if it came and smacked them in the face with a pregnant trout.
Yes, I got my German police check back before the English one. Bloody useless bastards. There are times when I really miss Germany. This is one of them. Germany just works. They don't make a fuss, they just get on with it. No nonsense, with the added bonus of funky double decker trains and a full kerbside recycling programme. And currywurst and pomme frites with ketchup and remoulade..... Mmm, imbiss food.... |
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| Ho. Ly. Crap. |
[Apr. 11th, 2007|03:35 pm] |
I went to the health centre today to start sorting out one of the many bits of paper I need to send back to JET, and found that they'd charge me £45 for the privilidge of filling in a form and doing a physical. Shit. It's not like I can get out of it, I have to pay. Therefore I am selling my life on eBay. It's probably nothing compared to health care costs in most countries, but this is the country of the NHS and free health care for all. Bleh.... Oh well, I have an appointment for next week. |
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| So... Japan! |
[Apr. 8th, 2007|03:01 am] |
When I posted my previous entry about going to Japan, I was a) hyper, b) hungry and c) late for a meeting with my supervisor XDD So, I guess I should say a little more, now that I'm none of those things. Well, maybe a little hungry :P Well, anyway, after all the frustration, hairpulling, worrying and crazy that was the JET application process, I finally got my letter. And any letter which starts "It is our great pleasure to inform you that you have successfully passed the 2nd stage," is a good letter. So yeah, it's all good. Just have to sort out the mountain of paperwork they sent me to get filled in, and I'll find out my placement in May, and be off to Japan on either July 28th or Aug 4th. It's all very exciting and terrifying at the same time, but at least I don't have to worry about what's going to happen after uni anymore, and, hey, I'm moving to Japan! AWESOME. |
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| FUCK. YEAH. |
[Apr. 6th, 2007|10:55 am] |
GUESS WHO'S GOING TO JAPAN?
THAT'S RIGHT. ME. |
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| A fairly painless procedure.... |
[Feb. 2nd, 2007|11:11 pm] |
The interview itself wasn't too painful an experience. I remained calm and collected throughout, and I think I answered the questions well. However, what was more of a trial was the journey down to Edinburgh. I got up nice and early, got all washed and dressed, and then headed off for the train station. Managed to catch the 8:12 service, was on the train 5 minutes before I realised I didn't have my passport, without which I was kind of buggered. So ended up jumping off the train at Cupar, dashing round town trying to find a taxi and then catching a bus back to St Andrews, demolishing my room looking for my passport, getting a taxi back to Leuchars, and getting on the train for the second time. Finally made it to Edinburgh, waited to get off at Haymarket, when, to my annoyance and steadily mounting panic, the bloody thing didn't stop and continued down to Waverley, resulting in me having to get another taxi to the consulate. I arrived at 11:11 - that's a whole 19 minutes until I was going to be hideously late. Punctuality is everything in this interview. Late = not good. I wandered down to the cathedral at the end of the street, and attempted to not turn into a big ball of panic by breathing real slowly. Then I actually went in the consulate and did my thing. The interviewers seemed happy enough, so hopefully I'll have done well enough to get a placement. Now I've just got to wait again.... |
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| On a scale of zen to crapping oneself, please rate your state of calm. |
[Feb. 1st, 2007|11:21 pm] |
CALM?! WHAT FRICKING CALM?!!!
*hyperventilates into a bag*
This is worse than the time that JET phoned and I had to wait all weekend to find out what they wanted. Much worse.
Next time on "The JET application process is going to put me in an early grave" -
I have my interview tomorrow - eeek
I'm probably going to get to Edinburgh ridiculously early. I can't help it, I'm an uber-paranoid traveller. Always totally convinced that something is going to go drastically, horridly wrong. I'm going to find the nearest coffee shop to the consulate, and ensconce myself in a chair with a book. Probably Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami - what better excuse to finally finish it than an interview at the Japanese Consulate?
Hopefully my brain will have absorbed the nuggets of knowledge about Japanese current affairs gleaned from an afternoon surfing the Japanese English language newspaper sites. Now I know such wonderful things as the fact that Hakuo Yanagisawa, the Japanese health minister, is in a bit of trouble at the moment for referring to women as "baby-producing machines". Dude, that's just not clever. A retarded baby monkey wouldn't make such a magnificently politically dumb mistake.
God bless wikipedia for filling my head with useless information about the fact that the Japanese monarchy currently follows pure Salic law in the determination of the successor. This is crazy because many of the traditions of the monarchy, dating back millenia, directly contradict strict agnatic primogeniture. Wacky, huh? Until recently however, the government was having to consider changing the law to follow equal primogeniture, since there was no male heir and no male had been born into the imperial family since 1965. As luck would have it though, Princess Kiko gave birth to a son just last September, meaning that Princess Aiko won't get to be Empress. Shame. XDD Although I did find out that the current prime minister is Shinzo Abe, that the current emperor is Emperor Akihito, and the era name is Heisei. Which was what I was looking for in the first place XDDDDD
Now I need sleep. I have to get up at 6 so I can wash and blow dry my hair. I don't want to look like a bush. |
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| YAAATTTTAAAA!!!!! |
[Jan. 24th, 2007|02:25 pm] |
*dances the victory happy dance*
I GOT A JET INTERVIEW!!!! HELL YEAH! |
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