Not a chance, but I'll try. :D (Post edit: The pictures are from Fugendake... it was a mountain hiking trip)
I know it's been a long time since a post, but I keep finding other things to distract me (Such as watching season 2 of Dexter... holy crap, AMAZING show... but... rated R as far as TV shows go... sooooo.. yeah). Here's an attempt to fill in what all has been going on since the Kyoto trip! Annnnnnd GO!
Friday, the 17th, we had the English Recitation contest. The three groups of students got to compete with all other schools in Kikuchi with their english skits. I think overall, they did... well. Not exceptional, but well. My ichinensei needed to LIGHTEN UP more and be more ENERGETIC!! My Sannensei did fantastic, but there were just others that did better... they read this story about a girl who died from radiation from Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped... sad, sad story (but after you hear it by 5 different groups, it starts to lose it's touch. How many times can that freaking girl die??? GEEZ!!! (...Too soon?)). My ninensei did a GREAT job and got 3rd place overall!!! Something like 13 schools total, maybe. It was great, because there was another ALT that was kinda... nasty about it. Insulting of my students, and completely stunned about it when they won (and was very vocal about their opinion). Whatever. It's not about the ALTs. Everyone did a fantastic job and the students all worked VERY hard, so it doesn't matter who won! (Annnnd let me tuck away "teacher-Colin" for the night)
The following Wednesday, The school had their culture festival. Basically, it's a day of plays and music stuff put on by the students. The english kids did their skits again for the rest of the school (I had to stand in for an absent student... it got a couple of chuckles from the student body when they saw a line of students in uniform, and then tall, lanky Mr. Sandall following them). The koto group performed (I wanna learn to play), the taiko drum group performed (I wanna learn to play... I didn't know the schol HAD a taiko drum group!!) and the marching band performed. (I wanna play...) scratch that, I WILL play. I got invited by the director to join them for their March concert. :D Hopefully it pans out and I get to rock out on some drums for the first time in over a year. They played Take The A Train at the concert, so I can only hope I get to play some jazz. :D ANYway, the culture festival was kinda fun. I got to see the students do things other than sit in their desks and fall asleep during english class.
Day 2 of the culture festival was actually Monday. It was a choral competition. All of the classes learn two songs. One that they sing with the rest of their grade, and another that just their class sings. here''s the format, though. The entire grade sings the group song first. Then, ea
ch class from that grade takes their turn on the stage... and they sing that song again, just by themselves. So... I heard 3 songs (one for each grade)... 6 times. 6 TIMES. Ah well. In any case, it was fun to get to listen into a choral contest again. The poeple I figured would win won, so that's a plus. I also got to throw out some Japanese conversation with teachers I usually only say "Ohayo gosaimasu!" to. A few came up to me and asked what I thought about being at a choral contest, since they know I'm a music geek. It was kinda cool to talk music again, not gonna lie. :DWhat else is going on? My wednesday night Japanese lessons are going well, I think. Last week, my tutor wanted to know about my kyoto trip (in Japanese), so we talked about that. I think I carried about 1/2 the conversation staying in Japanese... but the interesting stuff, I had to break into English. (I got sick of saying everything was "sugoi." Note to self: learn more adjectives.)
I also started my Eikaiwa class, English Conversation class for adults, last week. It's on Tuesday nights, and it's going to be a lot of fun. I have 21 students registered for the class, but only 16 showed up the first night. Tonight, only about 14... I hope the trend doesn't continue. Anyway, I just gave them surveys last week to find out their ability levels... everyone seems pretty good at english, so it makes my job easier! Now we can relax and play some games and enjoy the conversation side of things! Like tonight... we had a pretty good discussion about Halloween in America. THEN we played this awesome party game called Alibi. I won't go into the details or anything here, but basically, 3 people have to think up an airtight alibi about a crime while the rest of the class asks them nitpicky questions, trying to get one of them to slip up in the story. It worked VERY WELL. And was a lot of fun. (and made me miss all those group games that my sister and her friends would play. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! *tear* :( ) The class is going to be great, though, I think. next week, we'll get more structured and crack down some actual conversation, but I had to win them over in the first few classes being super-genki Colin-san!!
Oh. Sunday, I climbed a mountain. And by climb, I mean hiked... hiked really steep trails over rocky terrain, but still. STILL. It was fun. I went with Kuroda-san and this School board/mountain climbing group. I was the youngest there by about, oh... 10 years. I think the average age had to have been about 50, and if you took me out, it raises to 60. I had no problem keeping up. ;) (I'm
going to hate young upstarts like me when I get that age... now all I need is a porch, a lawn, and neighbor kids to yell at to stay off) At the top, we had a spectacular view of the active volcano right next to it. Unfortunately, it was raining, so all morning, we watched the clouds pour in and fill up the valleys. Not to mention, it was COLD. Basically, imagine this group sitting at the top of a mountain n the pouring rain with sack lunches huddled under raincoats, but smiling proudly. That was us. Though I did get to ride the ferry over to Nagasaki prefecture! That was neat! I guess 17 or 18 years ago, the volcano erupted and flooded the port town with lava, so while on the ferry, you're watching this mountain and seaside town get closer and closer, and you start to see the trails the lava would have taken. Pretty spectacular ("sugoi!" *sigh*), says I.After that, a small group went out and had some Yakiniku (yaki-niku = "cooked/burnt - meat"). It's that type of restaurant where they give you all the raw stuff, and you grill it at your table. It was fun, and DELICIOUS!! ("Tottemo oish-katta desu!") Let's see.. other strange food I've tried. Oh! Sukiyaki. ("Suki = like," and yaki was covered earlier... can you figure it out??? (Hey, wait, I thought teacher-Colin went to bed!)) I finally had sukiyaki. Basically, you have a pan/hot plate thing in the middle of the table that you cook things in. Each person has a bowl that you crack an egg into... you mix the egg around... then, you chopstick out some stuff food the pan (yes, I used chopstick as a verb) and dip it in the raw egg... then... you eat it. Raw egg and all. Ok, at first, I was nervous, but it was actually quite good! There's a video that might be showing up soon that one of the other ALTs took of our first bites, so I'll keep you all posted, if you're interested in seeing us shove the stringy messes into our mouths. ;)
Ok, I think that about wraps up the major events of the week (or two). I'm getting excited to start Halloween lessons this week with the sannensei. Sadly, no costume for me, but eh. We'll have fun. :) And there's a rockin' ALT halloween party this weekend that is supposed to be one of the biggest events of the year. Man, I love Halloween (and I really wish Japan celebrated it more... dangit).
Things at school have been... good. I continue to love my ninensei classes, continue to feel awkward in my sannensei classes, and continue to feel annoyed/frustrated at my ichinensei classes. Such is the gamble that is the JTE. Ah well. C'est la vie! ("wtf, french now??" I know, I know. Shut up.)
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