Unforgiving

Unforgiving
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Have you over noticed how unforgiving some things can be? Take trains for instance; they are just plain hateful. You make one mistake like leaving your apartment one minute late or choosing one route over another only to get caught by a light, or the worst (today’s problem) your pants leg snags on your bike as you are parking and it sets into play a domino effect of about five bikes tumbling over while tearing your new pants at the same time. Of course that’s when inevitably the train pulls up and you know that you are going to miss it. I didn’t miss it today because I hauled it across the bike lot, up the stairs, across the station, and down the stairs FIGHTING to make that train. I’m a fighter and that man knew not to pull away without me. He saw the determination in this girl. He knew that I had made the mistake of arriving a minute too late (maybe he didn’t know about me knocking down all the bikes), but he saw that I wasn’t giving up to make that train.

And yes, he did hold the train for me.

Amanda Sensei Extraordinaire

Amanda Sensei Extraordinaire
Thursday, October 18, 2007

Thursdays are fun because the school is small and I know everyone, all the way down to the last baby. They children are so sweet, and some are a little crazy, but I love them. I love my teachers too. There are three young girls that I work a lot with and we always have a great time. Today was no different than any other, except that we were two teachers down for the morning because they were observing somewhere else.

Today I was making jack-o-lanterns with the three year olds because the principals and teachers want me to teach Halloween to the children (they do not celebrate in Japan). It was pretty much a gluing activity but it was fun nonetheless. I had already cut out pumpkins, eyes, noses, and mouths, but I encouraged them to cut the teeth on the mouth if they wanted. It was so funny watching them.

In the middle of our activity a four year old came racing in from the other room talking animatedly in Japanese. This didn’t faze me because children do this all day long. It did alarm the three year old teacher though and she ran out of the room leaving me to glue with the kids. She came running back in quickly explaining to me that a child had thrown up all over the four year old room and the teacher and she was going to have to help clean it up. She told the three year olds that she would be right back and not to leave the room.

So…there I was with 15 three year olds who didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Japanese so…yeah. They also had glue all over their hands and couldn’t go wash them because there was no sink in the room! It was kind of funny but really not. We finally got the okay to run to the sink and wash up and then come back in the room.

I spent about 45 minutes with the three year olds that morning by myself while everyone else cleaned up the mess (no complaints here!). I did pretty well considering the language barrier. You would be amazed what you can do when you have to!

Extra Letters

Do you ever notice in my blogs how there are random capitol J's thrown in the text at the end of lines?

I do...I don't do it on purpose, they just show up there sometimes.

That's just what I'm thinking about right now so I thought I'd share it with you.

Camp Bernie

Camp Bernie
Saturday, October 5 – Sunday, October 6

Who doesn’t love spending time with just the girls? Let me tell you, I have met some amazing people here and three in particular have some to be my greatest friends while in Japan! It’s so strange…moving to a new continent, knowing no one, missing your friends from home like crazy, and then meeting people who you connect with and become the people you hang out with every weekend!

All of you reading this from home, no, you have NOT been replaced, as a matter of fact, you are here in spirit. The four of us know each other, but we also know each other’s friends from home. I might not have ever met or even talked to them, but I have heard so many stories about these friends of my friends that I feel like I would fit right in and just be part of the Aussie or Canadian gang! J

So on this particular girls night, Meghan, Amy, and I all arrived in Wake on the train. Bernie was waiting for us in her car at the station. We piled in and headed to the grocery store to get food for dinner. Yes-we were going to cook.

The funny thing about all four of us is that we have distinctly different diets and food preferences, yet we can always find somewhere to eat or, in this case, something to eat that we can all agree on and eat. First there’s Bernie who is a vegetarian. Then there’s Amy who is mostly a vegetarian but will eat some chicken. Meghan eats pretty much anything. And then there’s me who is Atkins friendly only these days.

As we troop through the grocery store, each throwing random things into the buggy/cart/trolley (four people from different places and we all call it different names), we all agree on the common meal that we are going to be sharing and we just enjoy each other’s company while we laugh and tell jokes and stories.

Home at last at Camp Bernie’s, we unload the car and get to work in the kitchen. We were all chopping veggies and adding ingredients to make vegetarian chili (chicken to be added in to ours later!). We were laughing and dancing as we sang to the radio. The phone rang and we all talked to Bernie’s Aussie friends from home.

Eventually dinner was ready so we set the table and ate together, telling more stories from our week. It was like having a little family, all sitting together over supper. Isn’t that cute? Can’t you just picture it?

After dinner we had to initiate Amy into the club for people who had seen Top Gun. I am the worst about not ever seeing some of the staple movies of my youth, but I can at least say that I have seen Top Gun before. We had the best time as we watched and acted out the scenes. Poor Bernie sat at the table listening to the rugby game though and was devastated to hear that her precious Aussie team lost and was not out of the running for the World Cup.

We watched an Australian movie after Top Gun. It was called The Castle. It reminded me a little of Napoleon Dynamite because of the humor. It was terribly funny and we laughed throughout the whole thing. Amy made up for never having seen Top Gun by showing us The Castle.

Afterwards we all passed out only to wake up early the next morning. We had to get up early though because Amy, Bernie, and I were heading off to Lake Biwa to Indian Summer for a music festival.

Japanese Lessons

Japanese Lessons

Yes friends, I am trying to learn the language. So far I have been to two classes at the International Center and I am in the most basic class you could ever be in but I guess you have to start somewhere! It gives me a whole new perspective on teaching my little ones (in America and in Japan) how to read and write.

I don’t remember ever not knowing how to read or write in English so even though I teach 1st grade and see it everyday, it sometimes feels hard to relate to a brand new learner. I watch them, with those frustrating looks and then there is a breakthrough when it all makes sense! I am having those moments while learning Japanese.

I am NO WHERE near speaking, reading, etc, but when I am at my lesson and I am learning new letters and sounds and writing them over and over I feel so compelled to keep trying because I have to survive here in Japan.

I keep relating everything here to my study of education and literacy and everything I do as a teacher and I feel like I am performing a human experiment on myself. I am actually my own guinea pig starting over with a new language, learning how to read and write again.

This is probably one of the most unorganized blogs, with my random thoughts and my dinner burning on the kitchen, but sometimes I just have these moments of realization and I do what I tell my kids to do, “write about it.”

Glass Blowing

Glass Blowing
Sunday, September 23, 2007

Today we went to Kurashiki with some of our teachers to make drinking glasses. When we arrived we went into a little workshop place and met the teacher. He showed us a lot of different styles that we could choose from. There were many different sizes and shapes. We also chose the colors and the pattern. I chose pink and black and a random pattern.

These are jars of the colors that the glass was rolled in.
The hot, firey oven.
I'm modeling the latest in glass blowing fashion.
I went first while the teachers and Tara documented this experience through cameras and video. The glass making was such a cool experience. I had to blow through a long metal pole a few times to help give it a shape and open up. After every time the man would put it back in the fire. I got to turn it once and I was terrified that it was going to fall off of the pole and into the fire. The fire was so hot that it kept the glass melted and pliant. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Rolling the glass.
After I did the glass blowing, I had to roll the pole while the man put the pattern glass on. That was tricky and I had to be really fast about it. I rolled the pole back and forth until the pattern was what I wanted then he cut the class (yes, cut it) and we stuck it back in the fire to melt again.
It was SO hot.
My glass, as a baby.
Glass blowing again.
Next up? Putting a bottom on the glass. He pulled out a glob of glass and rolled it in the black stuff and stuck it on. Next we fired it some more and then he rolled the pole and smashed the bottom flat with a wet piece of rubber until it was nice and flat.
My glass, as a teenager.
Cutting the glass...
After that it was time to open the glass up so that it would hold something. First he had to attach it to another pole and then I had to cut it off of the first pole. That was scary because I thought I was going to break my glass. I had to hit it with a little file but it didn’t break. Thank goodness!

Into the fire again (are you seeing a pattern?). Afterwards I used some tool that looked like pliers to open the mouth of the glass. That took a little while since we had to put it back in the fire repeatedly.

Finally I had the finished product. It was a little wobbly shaped but it was just beautiful! It went into the cooler where it will slowly come down from 500 degrees!

Tara made a glass too. Actually, she made three because the guy dropped the first one and it melted on the floor (bizarre to watch) and the second broke when the mad took it out of the fire (just plain aggravating to watch). We were all so hot and just wanted to get out of that workshop but her glasses were getting to the very end and then becoming disasters! The third time was a charm though.

To see my glass as an adult, visit me at Christmas. :)