Me, Adam and some guy at the Mitsue Mikoshi Matsuri
Halloween... I just love that guy in the middle! He made our trio complete!
Aren't we scandalous?! Yeah, I think I'll stay unpregnant for awhile! Not so hot!
So, last time I attempted to post a blog i was doing so from a computer at work and, therefore, everything was in japanese..... Of course i spent over an hour typing my posting and then at the end, hit the wrong button due to my kanji illiteracy and deleted it all! Exhausted and frustrated i went back down to the office and proceded to teach a bunch of 15 year olds about Thanksgiving. (its harder than it seems, trust me!)
Anyway, what I had posted about last week i will briefly (your welcome) summarize now. We had the mid-year seminar last tues and weds which actually turned out better than I thought it would. Got to see a bunch of friends and hang out a bit between seminars. They were pretty interesting, most of them, and I got some good lesson ideas. Some of which I will definitely use in my upcoming lessons. They were much needed as my creativity seems to wane after a period of time. Anyway, all was cool and normal until we hit our last seminar. Andy, a fellow ALT had to do a presentation with this guy his principal set him up with. Wow... is pretty much all I can say about this dude. He was totally nuts and Im NOT exaggerating! Cutting Andy off to babble on about random things that had nothing to do with the presentation. For instance, at one point he brought out a steering wheel and acted out this scene where he went to a gas station and then continued on to Pachinko (strange japanese gambling game)..... very strange. Anyway, Andys presentation was good besides the nut brain. We came to find out later that he had JUST gotten released from a mental institution about 2 weeks ago due to a mental breakdown (that he obviously was NOT recovered from!). And this guy was a teacher with the "highest" credentials! scary stuff....
Then came the Mitsue Mikoshi Matsuri which for those of you who dont know, is a festival in the village of Mitsue where they carry a portable shrine all around the village and get drunk at the same time! yippee! and whats even more, it weighs a total of 2 tons, you carry it on your shoulders and there are 4 not so skinny kids sitting in the shrine itself beating a drum and chanting to keep the rhythm. Anyway, we were lucky enough to be able to participate in this lovely, cultural and spiritual (kinda...) event! There were about 50 people, i think, carrying the shrine 5 km around the village. Of course we would stop every 15 mins or so and run back to the sake and beer trucks behind us to load up on liquor! I didnt end up getting drunk but the old men in the back sure did! the drunker everyone got, the funnier they thought it would be to start pushing the shrine sideways so the people on the sides would either fall into peoples gardens or rice fields (me, twice!) or get slammed into the concrete walls on the other! It was all in good fun though and no one got hurt. We even ended up getting to wear robes for the event! At the end there was a raffle for lots of prizes and I even won one! Struggling to get the rather large box back home and hoping the prize was good enough to be worth the touble, I opened the package to discover I had won 6 boxes of Kleenex!!! Wooohoo! Actually, Adam and I have just caught a nasty cold, so they came in handy, who knew?!
ok so after that there was the big Halloween party on Saturday night/Sunday morning. It was loooooads of fun! There were some excellent costumes there and Adam even won "Best Overall" for his creative and offensive guise! He was a Catholic priest with a little boy on his front and I was the white trash, pregnant virgin Mary. Most people thought it was pretty funny, even if it was quite offensive. Some family members (who i didnt even know were slightly religious) ended up getting on my case about it, but whatever. I got a little crazy on the dance floor, as did we all, and ended up stubbing my toe pretty bad. it hurt a bit at the time but I didnt think much of it until someone looked down at my feet and started freaking out that my whole foot was caked in blood. Ooops! guess i banged it a little harder than i thought! its not that bad though, no stitches needed or anything. But, you know when you bite your cheek once and then keep biting it over and over and over again. Yeah, well it happens with stubbed toes too apparently! Today i must have smacked it against random items at least 5 times! figures.... Oh well.
My classes are going alright so far. The highs and lows of teaching are so extreme, though, its exhausting. I can go from pissed off and frustrated one class, where the kids are sleeping and ignoring me, to elated in the next because some girl wrote on her assignment "Im thankful for Angie because she teaches me English"! It might be sucking up, it might not be, but hey, its better than apathy and much more appreciated! My mom asked me the other day if I think im doing a good job and if the kids are learning English. Honestly, I think im doing alright, but as far as the kids learning English... I have no idea. I teach 540 students a week. Its hard to tell if theyre learning anything when you see them so seldom and you dont get to know them at all. I just hope Im leaving a good impression of myself, Seattle and America in general. i also hope to open their eyes a bit to our culture. Who knows if its working. I dont think im allowed to even see their grades. Anyway, I hope that puts things in perspective for people. Im not a teacher really, more of an American/foreign novelty who does her thing once a week and leaves it at that. Kind of sad and cynical, I know, but its the truth. Aaron was telling me a couple days ago that he doesnt think he could survive here without being cynical at times, and I totally agree. There are so many good things and then there are things that arent quite so good and things that are just downright annoying. I think if i was positive all the time my head would explode.
Ok well I think ive babbled on for waaaaay too long and was not brief in the least bit. Eh, if youre still reading this, it obviously means you were semi-interested! Adams birthday is on Friday!!! He'll be 24.....whoa.. were getting so old....
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