Monthly update

I keep wanting to post here, yet I never seem to be able to write.

That’s not new though. When I read other people’s blogs (especially those of my friends who can WRITE) I really feel that I can’t quite compete… but hey, for the sake of trying, here’s a recap of the last few weeks. Where I shall attempt to be brief, instead of losing myself in loads of superfluous details, something my stories usually abound in.

So what’s up?

Well, countdowns to the end of February are over. Stix opened up again, and thus my winter cravings for club sandwiches have been taken care of.

I’ve been to Ibaraki and Akashi, took care of the highly unpleasant business of getting a Japanese Driver’s License, lost an entire day to that, but hey, at least it’s done.

Fall Out Boy’s concert in Osaka was an effin’ blast, the concert itself, as well as the aftermath and the beforemath. Ran into two of the boys, Joe at RockRock before the concert and Andy the day of the show, wandering Dotonbori by his lonesome, trying to find some vegan food. (Good luck with that…) Approached them, managed to talk in something more than gibberish – which I am intensely proud of – and took a pic with Andy at Rock Rock later after the show. The rest of the weekend was spent running around with Eric, his friend Lauren and Rebecca, drinking ourselves silly, karaokeing till 4h30 AM and stuffing our faces with the most oishii Mexican food I’ve had in quite a while. Also, I finally got to indulge, and danced my ass off to my favorite music with an amazing crowd on the Saturday night. Indescribable. The best feeling in the world, booze, music and the endorphine kick. Though Mexican was pretty awesome too. ^^

Since that Epic weekend, the job’s been kind of a drag, especially now, as I am left by my lonesome in the staffroom while the kids trudge on through exam after exam. Highlight of my day is usually checking my McGill inbox and finding the daily e-mail from Kozue, my one very good student, to which I reply with enthusiasm. Though pretty basic, it’s still fun to have someone to correspond with, and to whom I can actually “teach” sometimes.

Speaking of teaching, my eikaiwa is now over, so Monday nights are free again. Though I wouldn’t take on another class so soon (vacation coming up and heading to Tokyo), I’d be glad to do it again in the future since, hey, it’s good money, plus I get to plan my own activities and TEACH them. For real. To students who understand! …most of the time anyways.

Last weekend was spent hanging with the expatriates from home, as part of the Montréal Genki Crew gathered at Luc’s girlfriend’s place in Kurashiki for Hadaka Matsuri. Drinking and gossiping on Friday night was followed by a lovely outing in DT Kursahiki, before heading to Okayama to morally support our courageous boys who were participating in the Naked Men fest. It was COLD. And I was wearing a couple of layers. Winced in sympathy as I saw our guys run past us in Saidaiji (after yelling my head off in encouragements of course). We recuperated slowly the next day, chilling and sleeping around Sumie’s house while her family fussed over us dead Gaijins. They were also busy assembling the doll display for Hinamatsuri, which, for some odd reason, reminded me of how me and my family put up our Christmas tree. Then, for dinner, Sumie’s mom made us a plateful of tempura, salad, rice, miso and veggies. We were so stuffed when we got on the train home…

Coming back was pretty harsh, as is every Monday after a great weekend. We’re now Wednesday. Two more days to go before another weekend of fun.

And for some reason, I find that life is funner with countdowns. So without further ado:

Yoka Lodge party: 9 days
Rebecca’s birthday party in Kobe: 16 days
Mom and Dad’s visit: 20 days
Punk Spring 09: 38 days

*EDIT* Oh, and I forgot, silly me, that for once, my V-day didn't suck this year as it was spent having dinner in an Izakaya with Dan, Lydia, Allie, Tania and Rae before heading out for drinks and getting thoroughly plastered. Fun times ^^

*Insert crappy metaphor here*

I don’t know if that’s the case for everyone, but I’ve noticed something about my students.

They can all draw. And draw WELL.

It’s incredible! My san-nen-sei had comps due today, and they were putting the finishing touches on their final drafts and completing their accompanying pictures. I was walking down the rows in awe. Now I’m not total crap at drawing, but I certainly am out of practice. Plus, when it comes to drawing cartoons, I suck tons of ass, always have. What these kids draw, it’s freaking amazing! I swear, most, if not all of them, have their own chibis (cutsey cartoon version of themselves) and I swear that looking at these cartoons, I can know who’s who. Amazing.

I am also deeply, deeply jealous. Meh.

On a side note, January is almost over, and my posting for the month has been lacking, nearly non-existent. Not for lack of trying, but because I just thought everything I typed sounded so overly emo, I was ready to tear my eyes out and carve names into my arms with a razorblade while listening to My Chemical Romance. (Just poking fun here, I <3 that band).

Well, I am glad to say that while I still listen to MCR, as well as FOB’s latest album, I am decidedly un-emo now, back on track, being the cheery if slightly bored ALT of Minato JHS. Life is picking up the pace, the last few weeks were slightly fuller than the ones upon my return to Nippon land and coming up are a bunch of cool things that are bound to make life all the more enjoyable. Stix is opening up, mercifully, at the end of the week, Fall Out Boy’s concert is fast approaching, my folks have booked their ticket to here and I think I just thrilled my JTE by telling him we would ALL be coming to Minato’s closing ceremony on March 24th. Add up to that that my eikaiwa is definitely not as bad as I thought it would be, that the weather has suddenly decided to turn nice and that snow is melting (hopefully we won’t get any more… *crosses fingers*), life is lookin’ mighty fine at the mo’.

Cheers peeps, I’mma head home and watch some Dexter.

Oh, winter...

Well, I’ve been postponing writing here since the beginning of the year. I wanted the first post of 2009 to be merry, stating how much I had fun in Taiwan and how stuff is cool and blah and blah. Unfortunately, the New Year’s cheer has left me decidedly Emo. So apologies, my friends, if I sound like a whiny brat for the beginning of the year. My only hope is that my morose mood melts away, along with the damn snow, come springtime.

Taiwan was cool, if not overly planned. It was a nice change of scenery, a nice change of temperature too. Though I look enviously at the pictures of the peeps who went to Thailand – beaches, the sea and palm trees – I did have a nice time running around a Chinese New York with the Inaka King and Gunma Pimp.

And now it’s back to my freezing Inaka, to my boring ass job. Luckily, the partner in crime has returned from Amerika and will save me from the boredom of the first week of January.

Still… winter (pre and post Christmas) has never been my best season. It seems worse this year. Away from home, constantly cold, I keep thinking longingly of my basement, the fireplace, blankets, and my stack of Buffy DVDs. I’m back to making countdowns for stuff. Looking forward to things makes it easier to get through the days. I just wish I knew how much longer I have to hold out till spring.

Countdowns: Kobe conference: 2 days
Stix reopening: 17 days
Visit from the folks: 8-9 weeks
Montreal: 7 months

A Christmas Message for the people at home

Dear Mom and Dad, family and friends,

I am about to depart for Taiwan in a couple of days and am very excited about it! So far, this trip away from home hasn’t been all I expected it to be… sometimes it was much better, and other times it was slightly disappointing. But overall, I am very happy about my time here.

As many of you may already know, I decided not to recontract. The decision weighted on my mind for a bit, but as the November cold settled in, it dawned upon me how I missed you too much to be an expatriate for another year. I watch the Christmas lights twinkle in my Japanese countryside and think of you all. I miss you more than my words can ever truly express, and I wish you, from the bottom of my heart, a very merry Christmas and lots of joy in the New Year.

Yours truly shall be returning to her country of blue and white sometime in late August… Y’all better be ready for me.

Sincerely,
Inaka Princess V

***

Chere Mom, Cher Pops, chers famille et amis,

Je m’envole pour Taiwan dans quelques jours a peine et j’ai bien hate! Jusqu’a present, mon voyage ici se passe bien, meme si parfois tout n’est pas toujours tout a fait a la hauteur de mes attentes. Mais en regle generale, je suis tres heureuse de ma situation.

Comme plusieurs d’entre vous le savez déjà, j’ai decidé de ne pas renouveller mon contrat avec JET. J’ai sérieusement consideré avant de prendre une décision, mais alors qu Novembre arrivait avec le froid aussi, j’ai constaté que vous me manquiez tous beaucoup trop pour que je reste loin de vous une autre année. Je regarde les lumieres de Noel dans ma champagne perdue et je pense a vous. Vous me manquez énormémentt, et je vous souhaite a tous, du plus profond de mon coeur, un tres joyeux Noel et beaucoup de bonheur pour la nouvelle Année.

Je vous reviens au mois d’aout… et vous etes mieux de vouloir m’accompagner chez Cora et Nickels dans les jours suivants mon retour!

Sincerement,
Val –xxx-

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

I had elementary school yesterday and as usual, it was less awful than what I had anticipated. I don’t know why I am always paranoid about my elementary schools… It’s like I’m reading the crap all the other JETs have to endure and I interiorize their fears or whatnot that my day is gonna be a new form of torture. Though the predominance of the Fruits Basket game (and all its derivatives – animal basket, color basket, numbers basket) is still ever so painful, the truth is that for the most part, my day is quite bearable. Even sometimes… fun!

I believe I have Inaka King Luc to thank for that. As I step out of my house every elementary school day, feeling my stomach churn in unwanted anticipation, I close my eyes, take a deep breath and hear his voice in my head. “JUST LET GO!!!!!” And then I open my eyes and feel much better.

I get to school as early as they request, read whichever book someone generously lent me until it’s time for me to get to class. Then I go, practice the good morning greeting, and teach whichever boring topic they’ve asked me to teach for the lesson, turning to the homeroom teacher when my kids’ drooping eyelids and yawns tell me we’ve practiced enough and they’re bored with this crap. Usually, that’s the teacher’s cue to make me endure the Fruity torture of watching the kids run around, switching chairs with glee while I call out whatever three words are used in the game for that day.

However, sometimes the thought of over 25 minutes of Fruits Basket is unbearable even to the teacher. And so, yesterday, as my kids had recited animal names for the past 15 minutes, got them all down, plus pronunciation practice, I turned to the teacher. She looked at the clock, her expression clearly telling me to go on as it was “Too early for game yet”. I shrugged. And turned to the board. And before anyone could stop me, I wrote down: “My favorite animal is ________________.” And started teaching THAT, to the great distress of the teacher. And what a surprise, the kids ALL said it, nearly perfectly, with barely any prompting. I think I nearly gave her a heart attack when I substituted the word "animal" for "color" though.

Seriously, we wonder why these kids don’t know English… well if the homeroom teachers didn’t force us to drip-feed English to them, maybe they’d stand a better chance at learning it! But, heh, in a way, I can understand why the teachers do that… after all, you wouldn’t want a 5th grader to be better at something than you, now would you?

Countdowns

Bon ben… ça a l’air que j’ai hérité d’une plante verte… moi qui est pas capable de s’occuper de rien de vivant, j’ai bien hâte de voir combien de temps elle va tougher.


Elle est jolie par contre. C’est un cadeau de Nakata-sensei. Drôle de madame, Nakata-sensei… Elle travaille à l’école primaire où je vais 2 fois par mois. Elle est ben fine, des fois un peu trop, faudrait que je compte combien de fois par 5 minutes elle peut me dire « Arigato gozaimashita » quand elle me demande quelque chose, ouf, j’ai pas fini… Pis là, ben elle m’a donné une plante verte. Soit pour Noël, soit parce que c’est ma dernière visite de l’année à Koto…

Weird. De savoir que c’est ma dernière visite de l’année à Koto. On est déjà en Décembre, il reste 35 fins de semaines avant la fin de mon contrat avec JET. Je compte les weekends parce que ce sont les jours le fun. Je me suis dit que ça passerait plus vite et plus agréablement si je me concentrais sur ce qui est le fun et effectivement, ça améliore de beaucoup les choses. Je compte tout en terme de countdowns. 1 journée avant le party de Ed. 15 jours avant mon congé des Fêtes. 18 jours avant mon voyage à Taiwan. Entre 14 et 16 semaines avant que mes parents viennent me voir. Et 35 fins de semaines avant d’être libérée de mon contrat de JET.

Indicatif que je m’ennuie de Montréal? Peut-être. Sauf qu’en même temps, ça a l’avantage de me rappeler que mon temps ici est limité et que j’ai le devoir d’en profiter au maximum. Je fais de mon mieux, mais ya des soirs que c’est difficile de pas juste rester à vedger devant mon compu…. C’est facile vedger devant son compu! ….mais quand on fait déjà ça à la journée longue, ça devient long des fois. Anyways, j’ai encore 2 saisons de Dexter à me taper si je deviens désespérée. Mais bon… j’aimerais ça avoir de la compagnie plus que d’écouter des DVDs sur mon laptop. Sauf que je trouve ça un peu ardu, toujours essayer de me trouver de la compagnie… j’aimerais ça que du monde m’appelle parfois, pas que ce soit à moi de toujours faire les premiers pas avec le monde du coin. Je sais ben que c’est moi la nouvelle, donc que c’est un peu ma job, mais pourquoi ya jamais personne pour faire « Ok, je m’emmerde à soir… qu’est-ce que je ferais ben…? Ah ouais, yavait une nouvelle au party, je pourrais la caller et voir ce qu’elle fait? », han? Anyways…

Pis là j’ai une rage de fajitas. Oh well, 35 weekends avant que j’en remange! Clo, t’es mieux d’avoir des histoires à me conter pis du temps de libre au mois d’août!

To counter the emoness of the previous post...

Heh, we’re in December. I’ve survived thus far, happy to say!

Seriously though, I often think back on my arrival here in September and it already feels like a distant memory. I feel like I’ve been here a loooooong time, much longer than it has been, but really, I’m not tired of it quite yet. I’m enjoying life here, the bouts in between the mind-numbing boredom of the staffroom. But apart from the fact that my job sucks, really, life isn’t bad at all. I’m having all kinds of fun with the people from around here, road trippin’ and talking, hanging out… Still, sometimes, especially with X-mas coming on, nostalgia hits.

A partial list of stuff I miss from home:

Bookstores
My folks
Real pizza
Central heating
Eggs, bacon and little roasted potatoes for breakfast
REAL COFFEE
The buddies
Downtown Montreal

But there is stuff to counter balance.

A partial list of stuff that kicks ass here:

The Stix
The people
The pay
The scenery (don’t laugh, I still hold my breath when I see the mountains in the right light)
The parties
The stuff I do outside of school
The fact that, fuck man, I’m in JAPAN!!!!

Oh, and Taiwan will probably make that list too ;)