tiring day today

I was a bit refreshed after getting up today. I was taking my time and going pretty slow since I didn’t have class till the afternoon. I was checking my email and deciding what to wear today since it was starting to get pretty hot. We will change into summer clothes starting tomorrow, so I was thinking that I should just wear one of my winter suits, since I have so many of them. I will need to get a new suit soon, but I’m also thinking if it is worth it since I won’t need to have one on after I leave Japan. So I might not end up getting a new one after all.

I was really tired getting to the station and going to school, but at least I got to sit down for the whole trip there. There really aren’t that many people on the trains in the afternoon time. I decided to have lunch at Yoshinoya, but they changed the menu from what I’m normally used to and they added a spiciness change that I wasn’t aware of till today and after I had ordered. I must have sounded pretty stupid in front of them, but I really didn’t understand what they were talking about till I looked at the menu and read it. I guess my Japanese really hasn’t improved. That was a pretty rocky start for me today.

I got to school during lunch time and it was pretty hot when I arrived. I was just trying to relax a little bit before I got started with getting things organized for class. The first class 5th period for me was 10th grade yuri and they were working on their composition paper for their speeches next week. I was surprised that CP used my idea about the composition and pretty much copied what I did. I was really flattered by it and it didn’t bother me at all that she did it. I really felt validated by it actually. The students did have trouble connecting things together from last week, or rather two weeks ago to this week. They don’t know how to use a paper from the previous class to help them with the class that they are currently in. They have a problem with linking things together, and I’m really having trouble trying to figure out a way to get them to link things together so that they can retain all the information that I’ve taught them. I need to work on making things more cumulative and to get them working on things. The students spent most of the class working on the composition part of the papers.

The last class I had today was with 8th grade fuji and we were working on a new chapter today. It was about suggestions. We did the dialogue, but showed them the new way that they should practice and they are actually going with it and I think it will help them with their fluency. So that’s a good thing. They did some listening comprehension and listening practice before they got stuck on the communication goal. It was a bit tricky and I’m not sure what the authors of the book had in mind for that kind of activity.

After school, I went over to the part-time teacher’s office and talked with some of my friends there. I had a California travel guide to show them and it came with a good map of California and I thought that would really help them out for their trip to California this winter break. I will have time since I will be living in LA and going to UCLA and it will be my winter break too. So it works out perfectly. We were talking about various things too and the plan that the organizer has is a very ambitious one. I don’t think she has the grasp of how large the United States is. I gave her an example of the size by driving distance. And I think it helped her a bit. But I think she will still plan a very vigorous trip for a week.

Then I helped with the English Performance girls. They were having trouble pausing after the breaks in the sentences like periods, and commas. They would just read the whole thing over and just know when to go next, but really it seems like they don’t know what they are talking about. It just sounds like they are nervous and it sometimes doesn’t seem to be clear. It’s a bit hard to understand and these are supposed to be the best girls for the performance since it will be for the prospective students and their parents. So they will have to do it a lot and perform it well too.

After that, I joined the tennis club for the first time this semester. It felt good, even though it was very tiring since I was still sick with whatever I caught from Europe. But I was able to do it. I realized why I was asked to join since there weren’t any other teachers on the ground to watch over the students. I was the only teacher on the field to make sure that everything was ok and no one got hurt. It was a good thing that nothing happened to anyone, and it was nice to be out there. During the practice, many students were asking me if I was leaving the school or not. I finally caved and told four of the girls in the tennis club and who are in the 11th grade that I teach why I was leaving and about when I will be leaving too. It was a good practice though, even though I think that the girls have much to improve on and I think that I will go to their Tennis Camp thing this summer to help them out a bit.

After I finished, I went to the computer room and helped with the folding of the textbook for the next section for 11th graders. We got them all printed out and folded and stapled so everything is set for tomorrow. I was happy about that, even though it will be the last time I will do that. We were talking a lot about the Da Vinci code since all of the teachers have finished the book. But thing was they read the Japanese version and I read the English version, so I was wondering if anything got lost in translation. It was pretty interesting the conversation we were having. From that point, I left the school to get some dinner at MOS burger. I wanted something quick because I left school at 7:30pm and I will have an extra class tomorrow too. And I will actually have to start school earlier than usual. So I’m bummed about that. I would have liked to get some rest, but I don’t think that will happen since it’s now midnight and I have to get up in 6 hours to get ready and go. I also have a meeting with the head master tomorrow too. I should take the opportunity to give him some of the gifts that I got for him too.

School after a very long break

It really felt weird going to school today. I had noticed that that my left ear really couldn’t hear things very well. I thought that it wasn’t that big of a problem yesterday, but it seems that it did turn out to be a problem after all. I thought I had gotten up sluggishly, but in actuality, it was normal. I even got up and ready earlier than usual. That was weird for me since my normal routine has been messed up, I don’t feel like I have anything of a normal routine anymore. I’m surprised that I have gotten my sleeping patterns back in line. I was very exhausted yesterday, but I was ok today. Not really energetic, but just ok.

I was sluggish to get to school today. I got to sit on the train going to school, which was nice since I had to carry all the souvenirs with me to school. That was a bit annoying though since it was a bit heavy. But I arrived safely and it was good. I got to stop off at the bank to get some more dough, since I was running out. Then I bought lunch and was off to school. When I had arrived at school, I saw the headmaster leaving the school. He said that he wanted to ask me a question about SDSU when he got back, but I had no idea when he would get back. So I’m a bit worried about what kind of question he will ask me about that.

When I walked into the teacher’s office today, it was empty because all of the teachers were busy either with teaching classes or working for the information session. It was an open school today for parents and future students to check out the school in action to see if it’s something that works for them. It was regular class for me as usual though. The first class that I was working with today was with 10th fuji, which was actually quite pleasant. I did get one comment from a student that said some rude comments, but I wouldn’t expect anything else from this class, so I just brushed it off. I really did feel sick in this class with a cold though, so that wasn’t very good. They were working on a paper that will help them with composing for next week’s oral test. I’m very happy that CP has been following in my footsteps to lead the students to learn what they are writing and teaching them how to compose better. It was really cool to see her do that and it made me feel validated that my ideas were being used to improve the student’s learning capacity.

The second class I had today was with 11th grade ran and we had an oral test today. I wanted to give them a few minutes to prepare for it and I was taking my time knowing that they would finish on time. So I took it easy and made sure that I explained everything very clearly for them. Then we got started. They did ok, but it wasn’t that hard of a test to begin with. Some students just started memorizing from the time the class started and they were able to do it, which tells me that they need to work a bit harder for the next test and I will really push them to think and work harder next time. Their scores were rather high, I thought and felt, but I really didn’t give them any opportunity to get a lower score since I didn’t ask for much. At the end of class, we played a few rounds of hangman to get them to think and to use English and for me to get them to practice the pronunciation of a few words.

The last class of the day 5th period was with 8th grade kiku. Last class, we worked on self-introductions, so this class we needed to catch up with the other classes. We worked on the chapter about asking permission and then did the dialogue a few times for the students to learn a new way of practicing. I think that it really works out well and the students actually do it the way that we tell them to. Then we played a little classroom object activity where they got post-it notes and went around the room to label things that were there. That was fun, but it seemed like CP ran out of energy to keep it going and just read them off instead of going to the object to make sure that they knew it. But for the most part, they didn’t have much trouble. There are a few words that they struggle with and that are scissors, bookshelf, and ruler.

After school, I worked on finishing up the grading for today’s exam and making sure that everything is set for the next 11th grade class this Thursday. Nothing has been set since we haven’t started copying the books yet. It will be a bit of a problem and I imagine that it will get done tomorrow at least for the first two classes on Thursday. I really didn’t have anything else to do so I just hung around school and talked with the part-time teachers because I had the time to. It was cool and they were teasing me asking if I had a girlfriend or not and why I had gone to Amsterdam.

I left school around 5pm with another teacher and then took the train to Shin-Sugita station to grab dinner there. There is a nice Chinese restaurant there and I like to eat the food. It’s actually quite delicious and I’m glad that I stumbled upon it. I usually get noodles there, but today I got a pork rice bowl with ramen on the side. It was pretty good and hit the spot.

I came home and started working on my computer since I have been behind for a very long time. I needed to check all the email for the past week and see my stuff for UCLA to see if everything had gotten through or not. But at this moment, it seems that most of the things that I have submitted have gotten through. So I really am a UCLA student now. I’m so happy about that, but it still feels unreal to be able to say that. I’m wondering what I can do for a study abroad. I need to think about a place to go to study in another country. It would be fun. Anyways, I should head to bed soon. Actually YSki just woke up and signed on so I might talk to her for a little bit before I go. I think I should bring my computer to work tomorrow to work on updating some things. I think that I would work better if I had the right tools there, but I really don’t feel like lugging the heavy thing back and forth to not use so much of it. So I probably won’t. I also need to get my house ready for the summer. I still have my heater in my room and it’s starting to get humid hot. So I won’t need that anymore.

I also found out that my best friend at Grossmont got married last month too. I was a bit shocked since he announced it after he got married and then I didn’t read his blog until another month later. She he has been married for two months already and I just found out. I guess I need to go to Hokkaido to find out what his wife is all about. What a punk ass for not letting me know earlier.

From Hong Kong to Tokyo

I hung out at the Hong Kong airport to write this, but was extremely sleepy. I almost missed my flight to be honest with you. I wanted to eat something, but I wasn’t hungry at this time. I was one of the last people to board the plane, but that didn’t matter because I wasn’t sitting next to anyone again. This time I got an aisle seat too. I watched a little bit of speed and Hercules. I was mainly watching Glory Road. It’s a basketball true story about colored people in a predominately white East Texas, El Paso. It’s about a black basketball team that wins the national championship. I liked it though. The trip was very short since it only took 3.5 hours. It felt good to be in Japan. I was comfortable again. The problem that I had was when we were landing. The last 10 minutes of the flight, my ears plugged and I couldn’t hear anything out of my left ear. The ride home was horrible too. I took 2.5 hours on the train and I had to wait 50 minutes for the train.

Flight Home

I got up a little after SEK and that was around 10am. She thought that it would take 1.5 hours for me to get to the airport. I had to finish packing, but that was really quick. Then we headed to central station by tram. I didn’t like the attitude from the conductor. I feel the people work in the service sector suck. They have all been fairly rude and unwelcoming. That put a damper on the week.

Soon after that I was off to the airport. I had bought more souvenirs there on 2 separate occasions. I kept on forgetting who I had gifts for. I don’t like the way of checking in at the airport either. Once you went through the metal detectors, you’d have to wait in the waiting room. You couldn’t go shopping or anything.

I got on the airplane and was relieved that I would be heading back to Tokyo. It was a really long flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. The flight time was 10 hours and 30 minutes. I ended up at a window seat and the person next to me moved to another seat since the flight was fairly empty. I watched underworld, underworld evolution (twice), match point, Linda Linda Linda, a little bit of Brokeback mountain. The problem I had was that I couldn’t sleep on the flight. I did get some pretty awesome views at night and sunrise. I was very dehydrated during the flight and probably had 8 cups of water plus a water bottle. I also had to go to the bathroom a lot.

The last full day

I’m nearing the end of my trip since this is the last full day I have left. There were many places that I did not end up seeing, but I did peek into SEK’s life which was probably more interesting.

The plan today is to go to Rotterdam, but we were supposed to leave at 10am and it’s 10:30am now and I believe everyone is still sleeping. I got up at 9am because I couldn’t sleep. But I need to start getting adjusted to Tokyo time now. I will probably go make some breakfast now since I’m starting to get hungry. I don’t know what I would do today if I didn’t go to Rotterdam, but I think this would be a wasted opportunity.

To my surprise, we actually ended up going. It didn’t seem so likely since we got off to a late start. They got ready pretty quickly and we were off to Central Station Amsterdam. It was the first time I rode a bike in years and I mean since elementary school. I picked it up really quickly although the bike was a little big for me. It was a quick ride over. SEK rode on the back of Xavier’s bike and I rode on my own. We bought a ticket to Rotterdam around 12:20pm. We bought some things at Albert Hejms then we got on the train. The train ride was exactly an hour from central station to central station. We had a little problem with tickets we bought because they weren’t stamped. I thought that it was weird and we almost got fined 35 Euros for it. But they gave us a warning and we were ok after that.

When we arrived in Rotterdam, the rain was falling, so it was a miserable day. We walked down the Chinatown district there and to some museums. We went into one of them and spent about an hour there. The museum wasn’t really so interesting, but it was fun to chill out there. From that point, we hung out at a café near the museum because they had a map of Rotterdam on the menu. We probably stayed there an hour or so talking. I ordered an apple pie and hot chocolate which were both good, the apple pie the other night was much better though.

We decided to go out, even though it was raining a lot. We walked to a place where there were buildings were shaped like a cube on its corner. So it looked like diamonds. There happen to be a marker (flen) at that time too. So we walked around there for a bit too.

From there, we walked towards the bridge and there was a WWII memorial there. We headed towards the New York Hotel. We decided to have dinner there. I ordered onion soup with a chicken wrap with guacamole and jalapeños. The soup was good, but the chicken wrap was rather average. It was a fairly expensive restaurant to eat at.

From there, it was about to be 7pm so we started to head back to Amsterdam. It took an hour to get back. SEK and Xavier were sleeping pretty much the whole way and I wasn’t sleepy so I stayed awake.

When we got back, we biked to Renee’s house to pick up Xavier’s cell phone, which he left at her place. She’s a Canadian student that is a friend of Xavier. We stayed there till 10pm before we started looking for a place to buy some alcohol for Peter’s and Steven’s farewell party. We found a place and biked quite a distance to get there. There living arrangement was much better than SEK’s. It was much cleaner too. It was a big enough place to fit everyone.

At first, I felt left out because I really didn’t know anyone, but I just started walking around joining some conversations. I was happy that I wasn’t shy about it. It was a bit difficult at first since everyone was very cliquish. The food there was excellent. I couldn’t stop eating, it was really that good.

Another first for me was that I finished half a beer. It was Amstel which wasn’t so bad, but had a poor after taste. I knew that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea because I will be flying back to Tokyo tomorrow. I was glad to have met new people, although some of them weren’t cool. But a majority of them were. I didn’t hang out with SEK for most of the night.

We left around 2:30am and didn’t get home till around 3am. I think that I might have over stayed because I could sense SEK not wanting to spend more time with me. When we got back, she crashed and I showered and slept.

Lounging and hanging out with friends

The plan today was to go to Delft, but we had slept in very late. I didn’t get up till around 1-2pm and from there we made breakfast/ lunch to eat. It was all the stuff we had bought from the grocery store the other day. So I was trying out new things like pancakes and some bread spread. All of which, were pretty damn good. By the time we finished, Xavier was talking with us and the time seemed to fly by. We left the house around 3:30pm and got to central station around 4pm. The line was fairly long to get a train ticket and the place is about 30-45 minutes away. So we scrapped the idea about going there. Everything in the Netherlands closes at 6pm, so what we decided to do was walk around and go shopping.

We went inside of Magna Plaza, which looks big on the outside, but not so much on the inside. I bought more souvenirs, which ended up being more money than I expected. It was for 5 things but around 30 Euros, which is around $40. It was ok since I would have spent that money in Delft, had we gone there.

We walked around some more and we went into a place where I could get some apple pie and eat French fries with mayonnaise. I think I ordered incorrectly, but luckily SEK saved me. The fries with mayo actually weren’t bad. It was rather tasty. The apple pie at this place was extremely delightful. Really it was the best apple pie I’ve ever had.

From there, we went back to the university apartments. We were just hanging out there for a little while. The plan at this point was to eat dinner at home, but when we met up with Xavier, he had said Manny wanted to go out to have dinner with Tyler, Matt, Xavier and us before going to see X-Men 3.

The problem was Manny fell asleep and everything was a little disorganized. In the end, we never went to see a movie, but we did go get dinner at an Italian restaurant near the university. Tyler and Matt had already gone to dinner, so they didn’t join us. I had lasagna, which was heaven. It was excellent. We had talked a lot there too about cultures from different countries.

After we finished, we headed back to Manny’s apartment and had some wine. We stayed there for an hour or so, then we went back to SEK’s place. Manny and Matt were going to go clubbing at 2am. There were some unfriendly people, mainly Kelly from Santa Barbara. I showered and then slept.

China Town, Hanging out

Well I got back late last night so I was tired, but I still had to get up early to check out. The check out time was at 10am, so after I checked out, I hung out in the lobby, checking email and eating breakfast. After that, it was about 11am and I decided to walk to Central Station.

I had an appointment to met SEK at noon so we could head out to the Hague, but we never ended up going. There was a bank holiday today so all the embassies were closed today. We decided to drop my stuff off at her place. Before we did, we stopped off at the grocery store to get some food for the next few days. I bought a lot of my souvenirs there for my co-workers and other people. It was a lot of stuff and really became heavy. After we finished the shopping, we went to a really excellent soup place. I got tomato soup, which was really good. We also had a rather large salad.

When we finished, we went back to her place and then just hung out there. I didn’t realize how long we stayed there though. Time really went by so quickly. We were talking about our friends in San Diego. It was such an interesting conversation. Something I felt I’ve never had with SEK before in San Diego. It was nice to have it though.

We left her place around 8pm to have dinner with her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother Jimmy and his Japanese friends Shinobu and Maki. We went to a Thai restaurant next to the Red Light District in the China District. The food there was really good. It was called Bird restaurant but the service there wasn’t very good. I ordered Pad Thai, which was too much for me to finish. I really can’t eat all that much food anymore.

We talked during dinner and after we had finished, we headed over to a Dutch pub to have some drinks. Shinobu and Maki could only have one before they needed to leave to pack to travel some more. We stayed after a little while longer to hang out and talk.

Around midnight, we left the pub and then we headed over to a club where her final party was being held for all of the international students. I think tonight was more fun than it was last night. I think it was because I was more familiar with the people there since I had met more of them earlier this week. We stayed till around 2:30am. Then we started to head home. I was really exhausted at this point, but didn’t want to take away from SEK’s fun since it would be one of the last times she could hang out with her friends. It was a bit colder today than it has been recently. I slept in her bed since, we forgot to grab an extra mattress earlier today. After a shower, I died.

Van Gogh, MI3, Club Paradiso

I woke up later today than I did yesterday. I got ready and left for the Van Gogh Museum. I spent about an hour there which was something pretty surprising for me since there really wasn’t much to see. It was cool to see all the originals of some famous works. There were other artists’ famous works too like Monet and Picasso. So that was pretty cool. It was really raining hard today too when I left the museum.

Even though it was raining, I decided to skip going to wait at Anne Frank’s house and walked to Central Station. I saw many things going there and had a good chance to take some photos. I arrived at the information booth right when SEK arrived there.

It was perfect timing. From there we jumped on the canal cruise around the city through the canals. It wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. I was getting a headache sitting there because it got hot on the boat with all the windows. We had lunch at Maoz and ate falafels.

From there, we decided to go back to the hostel and pick up my stuff to go to drop it off at SEK’s place. Then, we stayed there and talked for a bit before we went to a seminar at the University of Amsterdam about Cuban-American migration. It was informative.

Then we went to pick up her bike at Central Station. I had to ride on the back to her apartment. We got changed to go clubbing, but then we went to go to meet her boyfriend and go see MI3. It was an interesting movie, but the end was cheesy. From there, we had dinner. Shawala or something like that. It was pretty good. Then we went to club paradise. The line to get in was extremely long about 30 minutes to get in. But we waited in the rain. We stayed there till around 3:30am then I walked home from there. I didn’t get to bed till around 4:30am. I will check out at 10am and get ready to move to SEK’s in the morning.

Market and strappwaffles.

I got up around 8am because that’s when my roommates got up. I let them get ready first and then I did. I had breakfast ready for me, so I was just taking my time. After I finished, I hung out in the lobby area waiting for SEK to come pick me up. I took the time to read the news, check email, and write up last night’s journal entry. I’ve already done a lot here, and I can’t wait for what’s next.

Now I’m just waiting for SEK to arrive. She finally arrived around noon-time. The first thing we did was head out to a street market area. I like these kinds of markets because it really reflects the culture. We got some drinks – I got mango juice that tasted exactly like orange juice. I also got the strappwaffels, which is a waffle with syrup sandwiched in between. It’s quite delicious, and I decided that it will be my souvenir for teachers. I have to work out more ideas for specific people that I should get gifts for. After the market it started to rain a bit more. It was much colder today that it was yesterday.

We took the subway to Niewmart, which is where the red-light district is. We walked around there for a little bit, just to check it out. It was pretty interesting and you did get a sense that it’s not that safe. We ate some fries at FEBO and there was a fight outside. We went to the old church where there was a picture gallery for events that happened around the world in the past year. It was a really interesting church. Rembrandt’s wife was buried there.

After that, we left to have some coffee at a Café at the Dutch East India Co. or VOC. It was ok, but the part that got to me was being part of history. It was cool just to be there. We made a plan for the rest of my stay, so it was good.

We took one last stop to a church in the attic. It is a catholic church and you that in Amsterdam, they are very tolerant of religion, but before it was hush-hush. We talked more inside, but it soon became 5pm and she needed to leave for her school thing. I took the tram back to the Riks Museum and went inside there for a little bit. I had to speed through it. After that, I went to the supermarket to get some bar soap and water.

After the supermarket, I went back to the hostel to warm up my dinner. After dinner, I went on the internet to check some things out. From there, I went to get some postcards to mail to family. It was hella expensive to buy, not including stamps. So each one was about $2.

I came back to write them and then I wrote this entry. I’m getting tired so I might consider going to sleep earlier tonight. I will have a very busy day tomorrow. I plan to go clubbing and watch MI3.

Plane to Amsterdam

Getting on the plane at midnight, I was starting to get a bit tired. I didn’t realize that it would be a 12.5 hours flight to arrive in Amsterdam. It’s one of the longer plane rides I’ve been on. The first movie I saw was Memoirs of a Geisha, which was ok. I don’t see what the big deal was about it though.

The dinner I had was fish, but it wasn’t good at all. I was also flying alone on this flight too. So I was watching a Korean movie on the seat TV next to mine. I really like this movie even though I’ve seen it before on my previous flight when I was coming back from Korea. The movie is called Mr. Housewife. I was successful in sleeping on the plane for about 6-7 hours and without getting sick. That was the more important part, not getting sick.

We are about to have breakfast in a few moments and there’s still about 3 hours to go. It’s pretty cold right now on the plane and I haven’t experienced that before.

The breakfast really wasn’t that great. This was the first time that I didn’t like the food on the plane. Usually it is tolerable, but it was harder to tolerate it today. We landed about 3 hours later. I was watching Hercules, the animated movie by Disney. I thought it was good and I also watched Mr. Housewife again too.

When I was leaving the airport, I got stopped by police twice and they were only 3 feet from each other. I was wondering what was up with that. I didn’t like the airport that much. It wasn’t as convenient as I have read. It was a pain in the ass to get bills converted to coins. I had to buy a $2 Snickers bar to get change in order to make a phone call using the pay phone. Then I got charged extra to use the person at the ticket counter instead of using the ticket machine. The trains are smooth, small in seats, and a bit slow.

When I arrived at Central Station Amsterdam, I had to figure out how to get to the hostel. The people at the counter were only semi-helpful, not very enthusiastic either. It was very easy to locate the hostel though.

Once I got there, I dropped off my stuff and decided to walk around and explore. I walked all over the place for about 2 hours. I saw some magnificent views of the city and to major places that I saw in the maps and tour books. I’m staying in the museum district so I saw the famous museums like the Van Gogh, Rijks, and I continued and found a Meidi-ya store too. I was a bit shocked to find it and it was in the outskirts of the city too. I went inside to take a look, it was interesting. There weren’t any Japanese people working there, as I would have imagined.

Another thing I noticed is that the Dutch are very tall. It’s a world designed for tall people. I went back to the hostel to check in and go check out the room.

The room was ok, just 3 bunk beds. I’m in a room with 5 other people all in the same group, which didn’t work out for me very well though. They were all from Belgium and they were a bit loud too.

SEK came soon after that. I was talking with the guy at the counter, who actually knew SEK, so we talked a bit more before we took off. It was great to see SEK today. I haven’t seen her in about a year.

We just walked around and talked. We talked a whole lot, which was great. We walked a bit far and we ended up at a Dutch Pancake place. It was awesome. The taste was great. I ordered a bacon and cheese pancake and it was really good. It reminds me a lot of crepes, so it was good.

We went walking around a bit more. It was mostly going to different areas and I was taking some pictures. The weather is a bit schizo, and it rains all of a sudden and then becomes sunny. It would warm then cool. It would be warm then cool. We went into many stores to see things. It is very interesting because everything is very liberal and most places had bongs and XXX things. It was very interesting to see all of those things on display and in many stores. We went to a flower market, which is supposed to be very famous and to the area where Anne Frank’s house is.

We stopped at an area near Dam Square at a place called Australian. We chilled there till we got hungry and we decided to search out a nice Indonesian restaurant. There’s a restaurant in the area that is called FEBO and that place has food in vending machines. Food I mean like having hot dogs and hamburgers in vending machines. It was really interesting to see that.

It took us a little while to locate an Indonesian restaurant and we were walking all over the place. We talked more and decided God was being cruel to us and moving it around. About 2 hours later, we found one. It seemed nice from the outside.

We got into more serious conversations about our exes while we were there and didn’t do much eating. We barely ate and we had to bag it and take it home. The conversation was very good. I found out a lot more things about people that I have never known and probably never would have found out either. I was surprised that I lasted this long since I haven’t been getting that much sleep, but still I’m ok.

We took the tram back to the hostel, and there was one guy there talking to us. It was ok, kind of freaky. He kept on “raining” on me and his accent was killing me. It was a unique experience for me for sure, but not one that I wanted tonight.

Soon after that I arrived back at the hostel. My roommates were all back already and ready for bed. I showered and then headed for bed. They were a bit messy and loud.

Gone to Hong Kong

I got my things ready and headed out for the airport. I was only going to be making half of the trip today since that’s what time permits me to do. I will get to spend two lovely hours in the new Hong Kong International airport. I was packing all last night. I didn’t get to bed till around 4-5am, but I managed to pack everything that I was planning to bring. I still felt like it wasn’t enough though. I know it will be cold there and I did my best to accommodate for that, but I think I will still freeze.

I took my time in the morning making sure I got all the details covered. I talked to my sister for a little bit and with another friend, YSki before I left my house. I also didn’t talk to one of my friends that messaged me, but I was busy packing. I had lunch right before I left the house.

I managed to get on the bus and the trains that I needed too, so that worked out well for me. I almost missed it, which would have been tragic. The only problem was that I felt sick half way to the airport. I don’t know what it was, but I immediately felt a sharp stomach pain. I wasn’t sure what I could have been too, but I was terribly afraid of having the stomach flu again, and it was too early to tell.

Getting on the plane and going to Hong Kong wasn’t bad at all. Looking at my seat number before boarding the plane, I was a bit afraid. It was 66A, but I thought that when I sat down it was on of the best seats in Economy Class. I got to fly solo and no one was sitting next to me. I got to spread out, which was nice. I watched the Chronicles of Narnia, which wasn’t all that great. The flight time was about 4 hours. I also watched the beginning of Underworld: Evolution. I was semi-watching Linda, Linda, Linda on the seat next to mine, since no one was sitting there and I was just reading the subtitles.

I enjoyed Hong Kong Airport. It was my third time there. The stores were opened till midnight, which was great since my flight wasn’t until midnight too. I was looking around for some things I will buy on the way back. I’m thinking about getting instant Shark’s fin soup.

Da Vinci Code Released

I was packing like a mad man for Amsterdam today. I wanted to go see the Da Vinci Code, but I didn’t think it would be possible because all the tickets would probably be sold out. But I think that if I get a chance I should try to see it in Amsterdam. I heard there are many great things about the movies there, so I want to try it out. I think the only thing in Amsterdam that I won’t do, but have everywhere else is have a massage. It would actually be very nice to have too.

Today is also CP’s birthday and I guess she won’t have a party because I haven’t heard anything about it. I would have liked to go and I think that was partly the reason why I’m leaving tomorrow instead of today for Amsterdam. I’ll still get her something nice from the Netherlands though. I got a call from a co-worker today too, but she was busy, which was weird because she called me when she was busy.

I also got myself a skypeout account so I could call my friend in Amsterdam. It was such a relief to talk to her and things were very clear. I was so psyched after talking to her and my anxiety became excitement. I’m fucking leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow!!

I stepped out to get some stuff, but found everything I needed at the 100 yen store that is right next to my house and the 7-11 so that was incredibly convenient. I also did laundry today too so that I would have some freshly clean clothes to wear during my week-long trip.

I didn’t start packing till late because I wanted to get my body ready for the switch in time zones. It is pretty bad since I will be flying all night and be on a plane for so long too. I hope things will be fine since I will be a tourist right from the get-go.

Song of the moment: Utada Hikaru – Keep Tryin’

The last four classes before Amsterdam

I decided to do things different today. I got up really early, well earlier than usual. I looked outside and saw that it wasn’t really raining very hard so I wanted to wear the new suit that I got too see the difference. It’s really nice and I like it. It feels good and I really did feel like a million bucks having it on. It really does boost morale and brings in all things positive. I’m glad to have gotten it and it was great. It just felt great having it on and it fit perfectly actually it was still a little bit big, but I wanted to prepare for when I go back to the U.S. because I know it is inevitable that I gain weight there.

I wanted to go to the bank today to get some Euros and send some dough back to the States in case there is something that goes terribly wrong while I’m in Amsterdam. The thing that really annoyed me was that I got to the bank around 9:15 am, which is only 15 minutes after it opened its doors. I was the first in line for the “foreign” section, which deals with all things banking with other countries. But I couldn’t send money to the U.S. because the rates don’t start till 10am. That sucked for me because I had to wait some 45 minutes before I could even do what I intended to do. I got up early for nothing. I was really sleepy and tired today too. I exchanged some yen to euros though and learned that they have some small bills. It’s very interesting. I hope that 500 Euros will be enough for me for a week. But for some strange reason, I highly doubt that it will be even though that’s around \60,000 at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Much better than the rates I would have gotten according to Google. It had things trading at around \70,000 for a little less than 500 Euros. So I was thinking if I should have gotten another hundred or not. But I think that I’ll just take some yen with me and hope that I won’t have to use it.

I had to wait in line to take care of sending money back to the U.S. because a little line developed while I wasn’t looking. The lady said that everything looks ok and that if there was any problem, she would call me. That is a little bit of a problem for me because I won’t be in the country if she calls. And it would be too late actually. I’m debating whether I should bring plastic money with me or not. I know not many places accept it, but if I’m in a tough jam, I might need to use it. I’m just trying to prepare for the worse. I know things are hella expensive there. I finally finished everything around 10:30am, which only gave me about 10 minutes to get to school, buy and eat breakfast. It really was a bit rushed for me and I wished I could have taken more time to just relax a bit.

The first class today was with 7th grade kiku and we were working on more practice for the recitation contest. We went over the scripts today and did the linking thing between words so they have a more fluent speech. They had time at the end of class to practice their own scripts for the contest and the teachers signed off for them.

The next class was with 8th grade ran and we reviewed the dialogue in the book for asking permission. Then we went over the words for the unscramble activity from last week. They had about five minutes to study and finish it. They did and then we had them use the post its and label the classroom objects.

The 5th period class was with 8th grade yuri and we also did the dialogue for asking permission. We also did the listening comprehension for that. They had a few more words to figure out from the unscramble activity from last week. Then we did the post it activity for the remainder of the class.

The last class of the day was with 11th grade kiku. They had their oral tests to present today. They did fairly well on it too. They were able to adapt to the questions and it turned out well. We finished with plenty of time afterwards we talked a little bit about war and poverty at the end. Then we played hangman, they didn’t know I was giving Bryan Bucks out or they would have guessed more and tried to get an answer, but they knew it and it was quick.

After school I started and finished grading the 11th grade papers and corrected the papers for the Ran class in the same grade level. I was able to get it back to their homeroom teachers before I left for the little break that I have. I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of so I wouldn’t have to worry about it on my trip in Europe.

Worried I suppose

I got a late start today. I woke up when I planned to wake up, but didn’t get up till much later. I just didn’t feel like getting up for some reason. I just liked to lie there in my bed. I was dead for some reason, and I don’t think that I’m tired or anything. I think that there has been a lot on my mind recently and I’m probably worrying myself sick.

I got to school about 10 minutes before my class started, which is very late for me actually. It was the latest I’ve gotten to school without any train problems. But I still made it and got ready in time. The first class I had today was 9th grade yuri. We were working on the taking the subway topic again. We continued with the book and going through the dialogue and the listening comprehension and ending with the speaking practice. I had to take over some of the class because CP informed me that she has the stomach flu. I know her pain and really that scares the shit out of me. I really don’t want to be so close to her anymore because of that. I will be going to Europe for week and I don’t want to be sick while I’m there. So I was doing some of the class and it was weird to be in front of the room. I haven’t taught any of these students before, even though I know all of them and am the assistant most of the time. I’ve known them since they joined the school and I’m really sad to leave. They were a bit zombie-ish today though.

The second class today 4th period was with 7th grade ume. We practiced for the recitation contest again, but this time we were working on linking words. Japanese tend to say each syllable with equal stress, but that doesn’t work well with English. So we are trying to speed them up. We went through all the scripts for the contest and they had an opportunity to work with the individual teachers at the end of class.

The next class was with 11th grade yuri and they had their oral test today. It took them awhile to get started because they had so many questions and didn’t understand what I was talking about. But after I got them started, they breezed right through it. We finished with about 20 minutes left. They did ok, but I thought they could have done better. It was too easy for them, but they really didn’t perform at their best and I know it. It was bad from the start and I didn’t push them hard enough to get the best results. We reviewed some more of the global issues and talked about War and what it was all about. Then we played hangman at the end with some of the words that they are supposed to know.

The last class of the day was with 11th grade fuji. They also had their oral test today. They were really really slow at the beginning and really loud as they asked their questions. It was good that I had yuri before this class and knew that time would go by really quickly so I let them be loud and noisy as we were getting ready for the test. I was taking my time with everything to make sure that I could get the best results from them. They did, much better, than I thought they would. I sort of changed some things in order to get them to do better and I was surprised that even the lowest students were able to do it. I did have to give a student a really bad grade though because she deserved it. I didn’t ask more much of the students, but if they tried, I was nice. The next time around though, it will be harder with more questions to answer.

After school, I was stuck grading all their papers. That was a nightmare because there was too many to do. I was able to finish around 6pm though. I was working for about 3 hours straight to get the entire test scores recorded and all the corrections. I was also correcting the papers for another class so that they would be ready for the test after midterms. It was very busy for me today and I really don’t like grading and scoring and correcting. But I got it all finished today and now I don’t have anything to worry about so that’s great for me. I’m down the final stretch now.

I took my new burberry suit home today because it stopped raining. I had dinner and watched Apollo 13 on TV. That’s a really good movie, even if it is all dubbed in Japanese. I haven’t ever seen the whole movie and I still think I didn’t see all of it. But it was great. I was having mad coughs today. I don’t know why either. After the movie, I decided to cut my hair. This was like at midnight though. My hair has been going out of control because it is much longer than I’ve had it in like 6 years and my wavy hair is coming back so my spikes weren’t really spikes as more like a flat tire. I finished showering and everything around 1am and then I started typing this.

I was also talking with my sister before her last final. I will send over some more money, in case I don’t make it back alive from Amsterdam since its one crazy ass place. I thought I should just make sure things are set, just in case things don’t go well. It’s always better to be prepared for the worse.

A quick day

I started today off today different from usual. I met up with CHda at Jiyugaoka at 11am for lunch before going to school. We went to a hole in the wall pasta place. Actually the name of the restaurant is hole in the wall, but in Japanese. I thought that was interesting. It was pretty good and it actually wasn’t a hole in the wall since it was on the 3rd floor of a shopping building. It was nice, I had ordered a weird pasta mix, which was sea urchin and dried fish. It sounded interesting and the problem that I had with it was that it was too dry. I had to use Tabasco to kick up the flavor a lot. We had a pretty interesting conversation about many things today. I really enjoy spending time with her and will really miss her of all the people in Japan.

From there we went to school together and lunch had already started so the school was all in a hustle and bustle. I was talking with some of the teachers during lunch and I wanted to find out what the students did while they were in Santa Barbara so I asked for a schedule. I decided to translate it myself too. I didn’t have time to finish before the first class started for me.

The 5th period class today was with 10th grade yuri. They were working on comparing the similarities and differences between America and Japan. They had some pretty interesting answers and it was good because they were really thinking about it. Most of the students were pretty serious with it and really worked at it even though they were in groups of 4. They usually don’t do well in groups, but I was glad that they were doing it today.

The last class today was with 8th grade fuji. They were very chatty today and they were working on the section about asking permission. We did the dialogue and then we went over the answers for the puzzle of unscrambling words. After we finished all of that, we had the students stand up and get into groups to put post it notes on the items that they learned. It was pretty interesting and the students know where things are and what they are, so that’s good. I think they enjoyed it, but they were really chatty. So they were assigned homework to complete since they ate up a lot of class time being all chatty.

I stayed after school till around 5pm. I finished all the work that I wanted to do and was just sitting there most of the time. I finished translating the schedule for Santa Barbara and even had a teacher check it. It was perfect, so that was good for me and my Japanese ability. I really didn’t have much to do after that, but help students with the recitation contest. I was helping them practice. I decided that since I wasn’t doing anything and it was raining and I couldn’t play tennis with the club, I left. I wanted to go out and eat, but I will wait till after Europe to go eat out since I want to save up some spending money while I’m there. I finished off the dinner that I made a few days ago. I don’t like having leftovers that many days, so it was good that I finished it. I watched some TV tonight too, which is pretty usual. There wasn’t really anything that interesting. But there is a show that I really like about taking trips. It shows the houses of really rich people, but they seem like normal people. It is a game where other celebrities have to guess how much things are. After that I showered and now I’m going to sleep since its a little past 1am. I have been sleeping late recently and I feel like I’m not getting enough.

Song of the moment: Yuna – houki hoshi

Amsterdam - HERE I COME!

I had three classes today. The first class I had today was with 10th grade fuji and like usual they were lazy and loud. They didn’t really feel like doing the activity that they were assigned to do. They were to report what they did in Santa Barbara because that will be their speech test on June 6th. They had a paper that they needed to fill out with things they did, people they met, foods they ate, restaurants they ate at and things like that. Most of the students put one word answers on the papers and really didn’t fill it out the way that it was intended. But I’m surprised that most of the students wrote something because some of the students didn’t.

4th period was with 11th grade ran and I was supposed to have a substitute teacher with me because the one I’m normally with is ill with the mumps. But she came right before this class started, which was great because she’s been gone for a whole week. So I started off like usual and it wasn’t pleasant because this was the class that they have right before a test. So the next meeting we will have will be their oral test. So we had a lot of work to do today since they are actually behind all of the other classes. We had a little catching up to do today, so we started with the listening practice. During this time, I had read the dialogue with the other teacher and asked them the questions. They did very well since it was all oral and they didn’t have any of the answers in front of them, which was what I intended, but couldn’t pull off in time. But they were able to answer it and some of the students, actually 3 of them got perfect so I gave them some Bryan bucks. Then we moved on to making groups and me explaining the test and what I expected of them. At the end, there was only about 10 minutes left. So I gave them the rest of the class and then told them to turn in their books to me by Thursday so I could check them and make an answer sheet and hand them all back by Friday so they have one whole week to memorize it, which is more than I gave any of the other classes.

During lunch time, I was working on recording a new script for the Beauty and the Beast for the recitation contest. There was a recorded mistake the first take and no one caught it, so we had to redo about 35 discs. I had to show the teachers how to do it again, but they knew it. I think that they will manage without me. We did the recording and then I showed the teachers how to put it on CDs using the school’s computers.

The last class of the day 5th period was with 8th grade kiku. CP had to leave school early today because she was feeling sick, so I took charge of this class. It was really weird for the students since they haven’t really had me as a lead teacher before. So they were all giggling and being cute. It was a bit annoying since we were doing self-introductory speeches today. I gave them a few minutes to memorize it and then I let them go up to the front of the room to give it. We went in reverse order because I was worried about the level of some students in the beginning. That’s why I started at the end, and it turned out ok. We had enough time at the end and I just reviewed vocabulary.

During my off period, I went to pick up my new Burberry suit from the office. It was cool that I was able to get it. I left it in my locker though since I didn’t want to be lugging it around when I was going home in a rather crowded train. It didn’t rain, so it would have been a good time to take it home though.

After school, I was working on getting some of the things ready for the oral tests. I made all the listening comprehension sheets and then all the score sheets too. I hope things work out well and if they don’t at least I tried. I stuck around till around 5pm. Then I left. I wanted to go to Yokohama and get the tickets for the trip to Amsterdam. I have decided that I will get it and go. I gave myself no choice and made sure that it was a sure thing since I was getting the tickets.

I was at the Across Travel agency for about an hour, but they took care of everything that I needed, which was flight and insurance. I was really prepared and guided the agency to get everything that I wanted and for the times and days too. I had a discount coupon for about $10, which doesn’t really save me much because it was about $950, but at least I got a discount on that. I will take Cathay Pacific, which left a good impression on me when I went to Thailand since it was nice and comfortable and I had a TV and all. The food was good too, so I will fly with them again. It was also the cheapest flight I could find to Amsterdam in May. I will have to make a two hour stop in Hong Kong though, which is fine with me because I could get some food while I’m there.

When I got home, the first thing that I needed to do was secure a place to stay. I was looking online at hostelworld.com. The place that I was looking at yesterday got all booked up, so I needed to find another place. The price kept on changing on me today too. I was checking a lot of places and to see which had high ratings and the area. I will arrive in Amsterdam at 7am after a 17 hour flight and my check in time is 11am. That should be more than enough time to find the place and be able to hang out for a little bit. I don’t plan to pack that much since I’m going to be backpacker style and I just want to enjoy. I also have to worry about things getting stolen since I will stay in a hostel with 5 other people in a mixed dorm suite style. I chose Hotel Annemarie, which is a hostel / discount hotel. They had very good comments on their website and things seemed reasonable enough for me. It was close to a lot of the things that I want to see, even though it is a bit far from the main part of the city. I think things should be fine though. It took about 3 hours to find and decide on the place to stay though. The other place I was planning to stay was at stayokay vondelpark hostel, which is only across the park from where I decided. The price I was looking at yesterday would have been a bit cheaper for 3 days and I would have been with 3 other people in a mixed dorm. So I should have taken care of things earlier since this place had a higher rating then the one I decided to stay at. But all of the places seemed fine.

I took a shower and then watched some TV and ate dinner then slept. I was sending emails back and forth with CHda asking her if she wanted to go to the Utada Hikaru concert with me. She said yes, so I’m incredibly stoked about it. I really had a wonderful day today.

My plan for Amsterdam

I was mainly working on the flight plan for my trip to Amsterdam. I made the decision today that I will go and pay the large amount that is asked of me for a few reasons. It is one of the few times probably in my life that I will have a chance to go and the money for it. My friend is there and will show me around at least for a little while. It will be my first time to Europe. It will probably be the cheapest price I’ll ever pay to go to Europe too. It’s still a lot, but under a grand for the plane tickets, which I think is pretty good. I could have saved an extra $100 if I booked it early, but I guess I’ll have to pay it since I’m buying it less than a week before I take off.

I’ve been weighing in on this decision for a long time. I could have used the money to pay off some of the school since I won’t get financial aid this year and probably next year too. I mean, but I think I could always get a loan for that and pay it off when I start to make money again. So I should just go. I also decided where I will stay. I decided that it would be more of an adventure to stay at a youth hostel, which is something foreign for me. I’m not sure how they run, but I’ve read some good things about the one I plan to stay at. It is a little bit far from the city center, but it should still be nice with breakfast included and about $80 for two nights in pricey Amsterdam. So I do save some money there, which will be nice.

Since I was planning to go to the travel agency today, I was getting things ready to go, but I remembered that I needed to pick up my suit at the dry cleaners, so I did that before, and then forgot my coupon and decided that I didn’t have enough time to get there to pay and talk about things, so I will have to go tomorrow after work, but that means I have to leave work early, which I’m not sure if that is possible. But at the very latest, I could go Wednesday morning. By then I will have more of an idea of what I want to do while I’m there. I got most of the things taken care of already though.

I went shopping for groceries tonight to supplement my dinner. I wanted some fruit, but didn’t end up getting any since they didn’t seem that fresh and they didn’t have what I wanted. So I will go to a different one tomorrow. I watched some TV tonight, although I didn’t see what I wanted to see. I was distracted by Amsterdam for most of the day. I talked to my sister for a little bit today too. She is having wireless internet problems. But I couldn’t help her with that since I’m here and usually I tried things out through trial and error. But perhaps later, I will work on that. It’s very late now, about 1am and I have to get up early tomorrow so I’m going to bed now.

Mother's day

I didn’t do anything today again. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to my mother. We were joking yesterday that I was being “hikikomori” which is someone who stays indoors and away from society, but I really feel that it exactly what I’ve been doing. Not only is it what I’ve been doing, but it’s all that I want to do too. That makes things worse.

I watched a lot of TV today, even though there wasn’t anything good on. So I was just tuning through the 5 channels that I have. I really do have humble surroundings and truly appreciate everything that I have. I realize all that I had before too and things that I’ve taken for granted.

I made the soup that my mom has made before since its mother’s day I thought I would cook up something that would remind me of what my mother would make. That was it actually. I spent a lot of time cooking and preparing to cook. I forgot some vegetables for the soup, but it still turned out ok. It was still tasty and a bit sweeter than it was when I did it before. My stomach hurts though, but not like the pain that I would have to go to the bathroom, but it’s a dull pain near the back of my stomach. I think that’s weird, but I won’t worry about it until it persists for a little bit longer.

Going to Roppongi

I got to sleep in very late today. It was actually much cooler today than it has been this week, which is a little nice since usually this time of year it’s very hot.

I was preparing a lot of things for this little trip, but only finding out the train stations and last trains and things like that. But I was a bit late leaving the house. I was almost late for the train and almost missed it, but I arrived just in the nick of time. About 2 minutes before. I met TUda at Totsuka station and we went in and barely made it onto the train. We met up with ESto at Yokohama station. We were talking for a little bit on the train, which actually seemed to go by really quickly. We took the shonan-shinjuku line, so that was fast.

When we got to roppongi station and walked out, I ran into another teacher from the school. It was one of the male teachers and he was with his friends, so it was pretty cool. I was really worried about running into some of my students, but I’m glad that I didn’t. We were right next to Roppongi Hills at that time. We were going to go in and it was raining at this time. I don’t like the way that the shopping area is like a jig-saw puzzle and it isn’t easy to navigate through. We didn’t spend much time there. After that we left and walked around outside. I wanted to take them around to the club area, even though we wouldn’t go in. I was starving at this time since I didn’t eat anything except for breakfast, which was about 8 hours before this time.

I decided to show them the Wolfgang Puck restaurant next to CP’s house. I wanted to see if they wanted to try it. I think that it was decided that we would eat something foreign or not Japanese food. I was cool with that and actually wanted to try Wolfgang puck. So we went in and had dinner there. We spent a few hours there starting from 7pm. I got to watch the soccer game between Japan and Scotland, which ended up in a scoreless draw. We had some awesome dishes, and even the free bread was delicious. We had a Tuna salad dish, which reminds me of the Asahi Super Dry commercial. We ordered a nice Italian sausage pizza and the day’s special pasta. We had cheesecake and apple pie for dessert, which were all excellent. The total was around \9000 for 3 people, which in Japan is actually fairly inexpensive. It would be unheard of if I were in the states. But in Japan, it’s a reasonable price. What a difference it is living in a different country.

Soon after that, we left and went back home. I went shopping at the grocery store like a midnight walking back home. I want to cook up something nice for tomorrow since I will probably stay home for a few days. I couldn’t sleep till late though. I didn’t like that. I don’t think I went to bed till around 3am. But I wasn’t doing anything in particular; I just didn’t feel like sleeping.

Another long day at school

The first class I had today was with 7th grade kiku and all we did today was work on the recitation contest. We practiced the TH sounds again with them. They were really concerned with the number of “th” words there were in the dialogue. I think that I caught a mistake from CP that we didn’t catch earlier. She misreads the dialogue and the students become confused, but I think that it might be more than just her mistake. They were a bit friendlier than before and even joked with us, but some of the girls were afraid of me. They were supposed to practice their speeches with me, but they would all try to avoid me. I thought that was interesting since they seemed friendlier, but I really didn’t care since I was feeling really sick at this moment. I just wanted to leave the room.

4th period was with 8th grade ran was on the topic of asking permission. We introduced the topics and things that they would need to ask permission. We used the classroom as a topic of course. I felt much better at this time so I was able to help them more. I was really bored in the last class and it probably carried over into this class too. They listened to the dialogue and then CP and I demonstrated how they should practice. They were able to do it and even memorized it. They are really at a high level and more so than I would have expected. I really do see improvement in these students and it’s amazing to me. At the end of class, we played a little game where they would have to unscramble some words on the board.

5th period to day was with 8th grade yuri was also on the topic of asking permission. We did a little bit in the book and then we played a little game with them. I think that I wasn’t so bored in this class because I was participating more. We did the dialogue for them and showed them how to do it. I think that they did even better than the last class. That’s really impressive to me. There are some higher level students in this class too. And they too memorized it and are really learning the materials. At the end we played the unscramble the word game. In this class, some of the students were actually able to solve them all, which was different from the last class.

The last class today was with 11th grade kiku was getting their things read for the test next week. I asked them what they did during golden week and what they did in Hakone. No one got me any souvenirs, how punk-ass is that? I got them started with their vocabulary quiz and then started talking about the topics that they would need to know for their oral test next week. I got them started on that and they had the whole class time to work on that. There was a little problem today because the Japanese English teacher that usually comes with me wasn’t here today and I actually didn’t realize that until I needed to go to class. There was someone else who came with me to class, but as we started the normal teacher showed up. Her grandmother just passed away yesterday, and I found out just a few moments before class.

I haven’t been to English club for a long time since I’ve been behind on all of my work. I was also helping with the Recitation contest preparation. I was finishing up grading all the vocabulary quizzes and then printing out some photos for the classrooms and the new textbooks for the next section in the 11th grade. I still haven’t been to English club this semester and probably won’t get a chance to go since I’ll probably be busier and they will too. It’s not looking good for the club though.

I didn’t end up leaving school till around 7:30pm, which again is very late. But since it’s the weekend, I decided to go to Bamiyan to get dinner. I missed it there and the food was good too. I stayed there till around 9pm reading and then I left to get home. It takes about an hour from there as I found out. I stayed up late since I have nothing to do, but just stay away and sleep. I decided to go surfing on the internet for useless information, which seems to be usual these days.

Back to school

After having such a long break and going back to school today will be a bit difficult for me. I was pretty tired for most of the day since I was still sore, but I was feeling much better than I was when I was in Gotemba or yesterday for that matter. I got up a little earlier so I could get some things done, but that never happened. I went to 7-11 to try to get my transcript faxed over to UCLA, well from Grossmont to UCLA, but there was a problem with the fax machine.

The first class I had today was with 9th grade yuri. It was sad to see them since they know my little secret that I’m leaving. They had a fun time there in Gotemba, but they had a test today, which I know that not many students remembered or even prepared for. They did very well though and some earned really high marks from me since I’m the easier teacher anyways. They are a high level class, and they finished it pretty quickly. We started on the next chapter after we finished the test.

The second class 4th period was with 7th grade ume and we worked on the recitation contest scripts. Today we were working on the “th” sounds and having the students get that right. We read over all the scripts for Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, and Beauty and the Beast. We were working mostly with the sounds and the fluency for the students and most of them got it all figured out. They are doing very well at this stage in the game. It’s late since the contest is less than a month away, but they are doing pretty good since they didn’t have much time to prepare for the contest as the other students in the past have.

The third class 5th period was with 11th grade yuri. I got them started on their topics for their test since it will be next week. I passed out their papers for the vocabulary test, which they all still do pretty poorly on. I hope that they are at least trying to remember them and learn the words since we cover it every week. I talked a little bit about Golden Week and Hakone with them, which was good. Then I gave them the rest of the class time to finish up, well actually start and finish their topic and research for their test next week. Everything was a bit rushed, but I think they can still do it. They have the ability, but a lot of them are lazy. That’s the problem with students they are lazy to do the work and some of the easiest stuff too.

The last class of the day was with 11th grade fuji. They did surprisingly better than the last class, which I really have no reason why that is. They are a lower level, and really they are at a lower level. So how they were able to do better is a mystery for me. They were more into it than the last class, but they were also more confused. But their sentences and ideas were a little more creative and that’s what I was looking for in the assignment. It was good that everyone was able to finish it though. We have enough time at the end too and we weren’t rushing too much.

After school I had a lot of grading of vocabulary quizzes and making the answer sheets for the test. I have to make some revisions on the listening comprehension papers too. The grading took a very long time since some of it was in Japanese and I needed a lot of help for that. It was very hot today too, actually just humid so it was very bad. I felt like I was going to melt and die and it wasn’t that hot temperature wise. I didn’t end up leaving school till around 7:30pm which meant that I had to stop at Yoshinoya for dinner since it’s quick and good.

I came home and worked on the transcript form and realized that it was the fax machines. I’m unable to fax to the states, so I emailed it to my sisters to be able to take care of it. I hope that they don’t become lazy with it and take care of it quickly for me. But like all things, they will drag their feet with it.

I also got accepted to UCSB today too. That was something I was very happy about that. I won’t go, but at least I got accepted. It was a mixed day for me today.

Sore all over

I woke up earlier than I thought I would get up since I was all tired and didn’t get back till very late last night.

I went out to get some things done today. I was talking to some of my friends, but I was so tired that I really didn’t even do that. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone today. That is a completely weird feeling for me.

I finally got my formal acceptance letter from UCLA today in the mail. It was great as I opened it. I’m so happy that I’m going to UCLA. It’s unbelievable. Now all that I worry about is how to pay for it. I have saved up a lot of money to go as it was the plan, but I have seen the money just disappear recently. I have invested it to hopefully make enough money to pay for my schooling, but things haven’t materialized for me yet and I’m a bit worried about that. I haven’t even applied for financial aid either since I’m waiting on some information about that.

I went to do some dry cleaning today and then I got some groceries and came home to eat. I also went to 7-11 today because I wanted to fax a request to Grossmont so that they could get cracking on my transcript. But because of the time difference, it wasn’t possible. I made a bunch of copies of photos from the past Gotemba trip for some of the students that asked me to. I think I will need to make more copies later though. Again, I wasn’t able to sleep till late even though I was tired. There has been a lot on my mind these days. Even though I’m not doing a lot, I’m still thinking about a lot and I think that has a lot of added stress in my life.

Going back to Tokyo

Today the morning assembly was cancelled due to the rain like yesterday and then we started with the clean up process. The teachers had to get all of our stuff packed in the morning so that we could usher the students with all of their stuff to get ready to go back to Tokyo. The cleaning process is very boring for me because I don’t have anything to do. Usually the male teachers are just instructing the students how to do things and the students do the rest. But I just stood there not knowing either and I probably couldn’t since I was already sore from yesterday. My legs were aching today and I’m not sure why either since we really haven’t done any serious walking or hiking this trip.

After clean up was breakfast at 8am. We always have to eat in a hurry, but I eat slower than the other teachers, so I usually don’t get so much food to eat. The food this trip hasn’t been the best either. I have had better meals at this facility, but recently they have been serving things that just haven’t had the best taste, so I just refrain from eating too much.

We also had another time to clean up too, but this time it was the other teaching facilities. It wasn’t where we were staying. I think that it was a way to get us to clean more since we used the facilities and it was the help the place. There is always a very big clean up job to do before we leave and I’m never sure why either. But we did it actually the students did it because no one gave me a job to do, but just watch. They don’t because they don’t want to foreigner to do anything because I’m just a special guest for the event and not really part of the core teachers in charge of the event. I was just there to help with the English game.

We had lunch and then we had the ending ceremony in the auditorium. We all needed to switch back into our dress clothes and the students into their formal uniforms. We always have to do this in such a hurry and we just used an empty classroom to change too since we already had checked out of the rooms that we were staying in.

I was a bit sad because we came back. But it was nice because tomorrow I have the day off. I think that today, I finally realized my dream came true. During the final ceremony, Takagi sensei announced to the students that I will be leaving the school to go after my big dream. I was shocked that she revealed that. I was shocked that she knew that actually. But after that everything was sad. But I know that I have left an impact on their lives and I know it was for the better, so I accomplished what I came here to do. I was commented as being only a guest for this event and had experience with it last year. I had hoped that they enjoyed themselves and by the end of the ceremony, it appeared as if they did.

On the bus ride back all the students were talking to me in English. They were more curious about what I was going to do and just asking about various other things. I was still surprised that all the students were trying to speak in English with me, when it was announced that I spoke and understood Japanese. But I still played dumb and had the students speak to me in English. It’s better for them. We made a stop half way and got out and hung out for a little bit. I think all the teachers wanted to get some ice cream and just hang out, but we didn’t. We needed to only make a pit stop and make sure that the students were being good.

We stayed at school for a little bit after cleaning up and unpacking everything. We didn’t leave to eat shabu-shabu until 6:30pm and we didn’t finish eating till 9:30pm. The food was great and I really like shabu-shabu. We set up the room in a very good way. I didn’t have to sit in a troublesome position and it just worked out for me. I didn’t even have to give a speech like I did last year. Some teachers, mostly the newer teachers had to give an impression of what they thought but since the headmaster wasn’t there, only a certain amount of people talked. It wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, but I didn’t end up getting home till around midnight carrying my stuff. It was hard work. I was in much need of a rest.

The meat of the trip

In the morning, we had to get up really early because there was supposed to be a morning assembly, but it was cancelled because of rain. So they just went straight to cleaning up the facilities and getting ready for the days’ events. They needed to get all of their gear since they wouldn’t be allowed to go back and forth to their dorms. In the morning after breakfast they had manner lessons. They had someone come from JAL and teach them about etiquettes. It was good for them because they had a professional come and teach them about something that I think a majority of other schools won’t learn. It was something that I didn’t experience last time since I was climbing Mt. Fuji last year. So it was good for me to listen and learn too. It was new to me too and it was something that I thought was important for the students to learn. I’m glad that I had the chance to experience it.

The weather today was also bad and it was raining throughout the majority of the day. The weather forecast was really off when I checked it before we went there. It had said that today would be sunny and warm, but it was raining and cold. So everyone pretty much chilled out in their rooms in their dorms, while the teachers got things ready for the backup plans for the day. Time seemed to fly pretty quickly because before I knew it, it was already lunch time. I think that the timing between meals is very short and since I was on vacation the week before this trip, I hadn’t been eating that much, which meant that I couldn’t eat as much as everyone could or needed to.

The next thing after lunch was to prepare for the candle ceremony tonight. We needed to get all the students ready for the ceremony and for their trip to the United States. So they did a bunch of drills and things to get them ready for a major trip like that. They learned how to make lines and to count members in a hurry because I assume their schedule will be very busy and they will need to make sure that everyone is on the bus and accounted for. They did a bunch of other things in the gym too and one of the teachers made an interesting mistake that was funny, but embarrassing at the same time. She told the students to look forward and bow, but she was the main teacher and teaching, which is unusual for her to say. Usually someone (not on the stage) would say that, but she did herself, which was weird. We also did some fun games and had the students participate in that before we passed out some drinks for them to relax before they practiced their songs for the ceremony and their performances.

From around 2pm, we started working on getting dinner ready. We would have about 4 hours to get started on this. Now you might think, why would you need 4 hours to prepare dinner, especially if it is curry rice. Well, we would have to chop wood and build a fire and prepare the vegetables and meat to be cooked and cook it and then eat and clean. That takes up about 4 hours and for those who couldn’t cook it, they wouldn’t have dinner for the evening. So it was sort of a trial to see if they could do it. Of course all the students would be able to do it since no one wanted to starve and the teachers would all have to help. The male teachers would help with the chopping of the wood and starting up the fire. The female teachers would help with the preparations and clean ups and the students themselves would have to cook. That was pretty easy to be honest with you.

The wood chopping was easier this year because I had some experience, but I cut myself pretty badly with the wood chopping. It was because of a stupid mistake and not really because I was going for a chop and my arm got in the way. I was removing some wood pieces while still holding the ax and it cut me, which is pretty silly. It was a pretty deep cut, but I was surprised that I didn’t feel it. Like it didn’t hurt at all and it was only a few millimeters away from my veins, so I was really lucky that it wasn’t worse. I was much more careful after that, but everything went pretty smoothly. The teacher’s dinner was finished first and was eaten first, which really motivated the students work a bit harder to get theirs cooked and eaten. I went around and took a lot of pictures of them cooking and eating. I wanted to get a good amount since it would be my last Gotemba trip and I have taught these girls somewhat the longest. Something they don’t know is that I will probably meet them when they go to America.

We also had a candle light ceremony in the evening after the hard laboring work making the curry rice. I had to help set up and move the huge ass stage around to the center of the room for the ceremony. That was a bit tiring and stressful since all my muscles were already getting sore. The ceremony was more relaxed than it was last year. The headmaster was not in attendance this year. I got to be more involved with the students this year though. I sang two songs in Japanese and played a game with another teacher. It was a fun event and I think the students appreciated it. They did their performances and dances and played their games. I like to see the students really working with their classmates, it’s really rewarding for a teacher to see that. The event went on for a few hours and then we had to clean up, which was a bit easier since we had more students helping. But it ran over time and we needed to get the students to bathe and ready for bed.

It was so over time that the male teachers weren’t able to get into the shower room before it closed. We had the nightly teachers meeting where we had more snacks and talked about the plan for tomorrow and getting ready for clean up and dressing and leaving Gotemba. So after the meeting, we had to go to the log house to shower, which was the place that the female teachers were staying. It was nice and you’d have more privacy there.

We didn’t get to bed till really late since some of the students started to get a fever and become sick because of the heater. In the night, I decided to play a trick on the new teacher, but one of the teachers laughed before I did it and sort of ruined the surprise. But it was still fun. We all laughed about it and it was pretty silly. We didn’t get to bed till around 1am and needed to get up at 5am.

Going to Gotemba

I had to get up butt early from when I usually get up on my days off. I actually couldn’t get to sleep last night. I really don’t know why. I think it was because I was getting nervous about everything. I put too much pressure on myself to do a good job and it has started to prevent me from getting enough rest. I finished gathering all my things in the morning and rushed to get ready since I needed to leave my house at 5am. I usually give myself an hour to get ready and stuff, but I wanted to have enough rest because I knew I wouldn’t get enough during the trip. I caught one of the earliest buses to get to the station and when I got to the station, I realized that I had missed the train. I had to wait a few more minutes and catch a different train on a different line, which actually turned out to be faster than I thought.

I saw some students as we were on the train. I decided to take a local train, since all the express trains were gone and none of them would stop at the station I needed them to stop at. It was a fairly long ride to school. I couldn’t really listen to music on the train too since the students were there and technically we aren’t allowed to have music players. They were all looking at me weird and talking amongst themselves and even about me, not knowing that I knew what they were saying.

I got to school a bit later than I wanted to get there. We would be leaving at 7:30am and I got there around 7:15am. It didn’t give me enough time to eat the breakfast I bought just a few moments before getting there. So I was pretty hungry on the ride there. I was the assistant teacher for the Ran class. We all met in the Gym and then we had a morning assembly before we walked to the bus. On the bus, many of the students were sleeping and it wasn’t so loud. Some of the students were awake and talking, but it wasn’t very disturbing. I was talking with the other teacher about the English game time that we would have tonight. We were working out all the details on the bus. I think she wanted to get some sleep, but she couldn’t because she was worried about all the things she had to do and all the responsibility that she has.

When we arrived to sen nen no ie or Camp Fuji, it was sprinkling a little. The clouds filled the sky and Mt. Fuji wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It’s regretful that the students couldn’t see how close we were to the mountain. I think they would have been impressed. We all went to the auditorium to have the introduction ceremony. The person from the Camp came and gave a brief introduction of the program, facilities, and told us to enjoy and learn. Then the students filed out to get changed into their sports uniform. Because it was raining, we really didn’t do much afterwards. There was supposed to be something else, but we cancelled it and just waited around and situated ourselves before lunch. The male teachers were working on setting things up for the assemblies and meetings and the next activities.

After we had lunch, we all were supposed to go hiking up Mt. Fuji, but it was raining and we went to another area in Shizuoka that is sort of famous for caves. So we pretty much went into a cave and walked around down there. It was very humid, but it was interesting. Too bad it wasn’t too interesting. I think the students would have enjoyed going up Mt. Fuji more, even though they would have complained a lot about having to climb up that far.

In the afternoon we did eventually go up the mountain by bus just to take a look around. There was an area that didn’t have clouds there and it was clear for about 30 minutes and fortunately for the students they were able to go up and experience it. They really couldn’t get any good pictures of it, but it was a great experience for them just to be there. We took class pictures on the mountain, which was nice since it was clear enough to do that. I jumped in and took many pictures as well.

There was supposed to be an evening hour there, but that was cancelled because of the rain, so most of the students just stayed indoors and in their respective dorms. The teachers were getting everything all set for the evening activities. I was helping with the setting things up and moving things around. It was pretty important for me to get things ready for them.

Then we had dinner for the evening. I didn’t eat that much since I would have to be in charge of the main event for tonight. I was getting all nervous before it too. I know I shouldn’t be since I did it last year and I know that it all went well. I was pretty sure that things would be the same if not better.

In the evening we had the English game in a big room. I was able to get them all motivated and learning and using English. At first we played hunter, woman, bear to get them active and moving and practicing the “R” sounds. They needed to listen and think about what they needed to do. I think that it went pretty well and it was all filmed too. Next we played games were they needed to make groups like, if I said 5, everyone would need to make a group of 5. At first, everyone got to stay in, but after a few minutes and enough warming up and understanding the game and rules, I started kicking people out, and eventually we would get a winner and they would score points for their team and class. There was a problem at this point, but it wasn’t anything with me. There were some large insects “making babies” in the middle of the room and being in a room full of young girls whom don’t like insects is a little cause for disturbance in the flow of things. So I had to take action and jumped in the way and pretty much caught them with my hands and threw them out of the room. It was pretty daring since it was in front of all the teachers and students, and I didn’t want to look stupid in front of them. So I was able to solve the problem and things got back to normal and the students were able to focus.

The main event for tonight, was “How many words do you know that start with…” which is a game where I have all the members of all the classes line up and run back and forth to write words that start with a certain letter. I would let them go for about 5 minutes before I changed letters. It was good because it would get them to exercise their mind and body at the same time. And they had to do all of this in English too. They needed to have their spelling correct too. Each correct word would equal a point for their teams so I let them rack up a lot of points so that no team would have 0 points. I think the letters I chose were “C” and “S” and maybe “T” even. We had some trouble at this point because I had called out the positions incorrectly and the papers needed to be moved around. But that was ok, my bad. They did fairly well for the most part.

The last game for tonight was a game that didn’t have much time left, but it was “guess the number” and I would have a number 0-100 and the students would have to guess what number it was and it would score 3 points for the winner. We didn’t have much time, so I didn’t get to go at it two times like I wanted to, but we finished just in time to have them get ready for bath time. Things went very well and I received compliments from all the top people and all the students, so I was happy with that. I felt accomplished at that point and was ready to call it a night, but of course, there is always more work to be done. We had the clean up effort for the room and the facilities.

Then we had to move things around to get ready for the morning activities. It was a lot of lifting and moving of things from one place to another and in the rain. It was horrible because my feet were drenched and all soggy. Not a comfortable feeling I must admit.

Then, the male teachers were able to go shower. It was a weird feeling because we needed to use the same area where all the students would be and damn they were loud. They were screaming a lot and you know playing around. All the male teachers were a little uncomfortable there. But everything was ok; it was a bit warmer than usual though. I think they had the heater cranked up on high, when it really wasn’t that cold. So as soon as we finished, we would be sweating some more. Soon after that we had the students go back to their dorms and we did bed checks and the nightly meeting with student leaders. There were a few rooms in the dorm that was at that were talking a lot. And also there was a heater problem because some of the students couldn’t sleep because it was too hot. It was a bit hot for all of us too. So lucky for me, I found the switch, which no one else could find and turned it lower, but I think it really didn’t change anything because it was still damn hot after too.

Better News

I also heard news that UCLA doesn’t need my unofficial transcript, so it’s just UCSB. So I’m in for sure at UCLA. I felt much happier about that. I check my email very often and I read the acceptance letter over and over. It is written exceptionally well and I’m so happy about it.

I finally left the house today to get the Europe book. It was nice to finally get out of the house. It felt weird to be outside and my vision was blurred most of the time. I guess that’s what happens when you stay indoors for too long. I was reading a lot of the magazines and some other books to see which one would be good for me to buy. I decided on getting another book since it was slimmer and more feasible to carry around since all the books on Europe are big and heavy. The one I got was actually more expensive than the book I originally planned to get, but it has more color and details about what I could do there. I think that I could use it over and over whenever I decide to go to Europe, so I look at it as an investment since I could use it over and over again and the other books that I’ve bought for my trips are only one time use.

I went to queen’s square, since I was in the Landmark Tower to buy the book. I wanted to buy Subway for dinner. But they changed their menus because of golden week. They only had some things that were specials, but the prices were jacked all the way up. I usually get a foot long, but today I settled for the half foot one because of the price. Then they changed the menu back after I ordered, which made me a bit pissed. So I could have saved a few bucks if I had waited like 15 more minutes. I just missed that one.

I also could have saw Hitomi and Yuna Ito at Queens square, but I was too late to arrive there because they already performed. Usually in Queens square, they have an area where they display a few things and do promotions. There was a radio station in Yokohama that was sponsoring concerts there since there is a fairly big train station underneath the building. It would have been nice to go see it since it would have been free and I was already there. It kinda irked me a bit because it seemed as if I was missing a lot and getting fairly close to things, but not actually getting it. But over all it was nice to get out of the house. I think that was the biggest benefit for me and finally able to breath the fresh air.

I came home and packed for Gotemba. I was getting the last minute things done as I was talking to my friend KHma. We were having a conversation all in Japanese. It was a bit hard to understand her, but it was good for me to practice it though. We were basically talking about Golden Week and what we did. I did nothing, so that wasn’t so exciting, but she went to Mt. Fuji, which where I will go tomorrow. I also heard that Darren will come back to Japan for a week at the end of May. So I could see him I guess. I think most of the time, I will be out of town or busy, but I’ll see how things work out. I need to make a schedule of when I have the time to visit people before I leave. I don’t think that things will work out the way that I want because no one has really expressed any thing to me yet. But I think that things will work out since they generally always do.

Mixed news

When I woke up today, I was notified by my sister that both UCSB and UCLA need unofficial transcripts from Grossmont. That is mixed news for me because my acceptance is provisional. I’m not sure how to respond to that other than to give them what they want. I didn’t want to worry about that today though, so I did other things.

I decided what song I will sing for the 9th grade trip to Gotemba. I will sing Yousui Inoue’s Shou nen ji dai. It’s a bit old, but very famous in Japan. The problem that I’m facing now is that I have to memorize it.

I’m also running low on food, so I might have to step outside to get some things so I can survive for a few more days living like a hermit. But I didn’t end up doing it, which is a sad thing. I just found some stuff at home and just tried to live off of that.

I talked to my friend YSki and not my family today. It was weird because we had a 3.5 hours conversation. We were mostly talking about relationships though. I think that once you are single and you see that other people around with someone, you become to feel lonelier than you really are. I mean, I’m like a hermit these days, not going out and interacting with anyone. Every one of my friends has a boyfriend or a girlfriend and they all seem happy. But I know that for myself, I’m not ready to jump into a relationship. I’m enjoying my freedom for the moment, yet it would be nice to have someone there to share the experience with me too.

Home all day

I was working on all the UCLA paperwork today. I needed to get all the papers filled out and submitted. I just worked on the preliminary things yesterday. I got to see the questions again and started filling out all the forms that I needed to declare my intent to register at UCLA. There was a whole bunch of things I had to do today for that. It took so long to get it all accomplished, but I was finally able to get it done and I paid all the non-refundable things, so I’m set as far as that’s concerned. I was able to talk to family to get some information that I needed for all of that.

I also paid my rent today too, which is about 5 days late. I have been so focused on the whole UCLA thing that everything else has taken a back seat. I’m sure that I did more today, but I really can’t think about what I did. Everyday just seems like a blur from the last day and since I’ve been home almost everyday this week, I really can’t distinguish one day from the next.

I spent a lot of time in front of the computer like usual and then in front of the TV too. Some vacation this has become. I made a rather large dinner tonight. I had rice with Egg Rolls with Miso soup and I decided to make Soumen today too. It was a bit much and I was watching baseball. It was the hanshin tigers versus the yomiuri giants. The thing with baseball games in Japan that are on TV is that they always cut it out at the end if it is going too long. They never finish a televised game. That gets frustrating sometimes because you’ll never know who won.