Friday, March 24, 2006
Marching on...
Three weeks today until Miriam arrives! Exciting times.
Not a lot is going on with me just now. It is spring holidays so I am at the office every day. 8 hours is a long time to have no work to do but I seem to be filling it without resorting to keeping up to date with my Japanese course. School starts again the week after next and today all the leaving teachers are coming into the office and bowing a lot. I try to keep up with the bobbing but always manage to miss a few or interpret someone looking down as wrongly and do one extra...
Recent events.
The Vagina Monologues went really well. I think we raised about NZ$900 for the women's shelter which was good and there is a group of Japanese women who are interested in doing it next year which is exciting. I was much more nervous than I thought I would be but I managed to get through my bit okay. I can't get to the photo album on the web from these computers but I'll put some up when I get back to school.
The Chinese CIR who works in my office and lives upstairs left on Tuesday. It was very sad. I am sure I will be just as much of a mess when I leave. She came over for (really odd looking) cake on Sunday and we exchanged email addresses. It will be hard to keep in touch in my crappy Japanese though. I will try! Would be good to have a friend in Beijing.
Tomorrow I am going mushroom picking but otherwise I'm having a quiet time of it. Plenty of time to get my house in order for the family visit (yay!).
Thursday, March 09, 2006
When where what?
Just a quick note to clear up some confusion. When I said I was moving to Hamada this year I meant when my new contract starts this year in July. July 25th to be exact. I'm on the island until then. I must say I appreciate the place much more knowing I'll never see another Spring here, another winter (yay oh so yay) another graduation etc. So I won't be readdressing or nuffink until after then!
One thing I will miss about this place is the random innundations of produce. When it rains it certainally does pour! First it was squid, then radishes and now we are in the month of the mushroom. Last week three sources gave me them by the bagful and I have been chowing down on the fungus day and night.
That's all.
One thing I will miss about this place is the random innundations of produce. When it rains it certainally does pour! First it was squid, then radishes and now we are in the month of the mushroom. Last week three sources gave me them by the bagful and I have been chowing down on the fungus day and night.
That's all.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
The Visitation
Sorry I have been terribly remiss in my writing. More than a whole entire month! I have wrangled some computer time to write a happy birthday email to my brother and am now abusing the privilege.
What have I been doing so secretly?
I had a visitor! and not just any visitor, I had Pam to visit. She is the first homeperson who has seen my funny little world. She didn't get to see much of it though cos it snowed lots and we had to go to school both days that she was here. She was terribly confusing for the poor students. They just couldn't seem to get their heads around the fact that she is a Kiwi with Indian parents who was born in Mozambique. They are still talking about her.
Pam and I also built a lovely snowman (and woman) together, much to the amusement of my students who were walking home past my house. I guess we must have been a sight in the thick snow, alternately doubled over with laughter and crawling around making snow-body-parts. I developed an excellent method I dubbed the hug and roll. You make a wee snow-ball and then hug it downwards to collect the underneath snow. I'll post pictures next time I'm at the BOE.
It was soooo lovely to have someone to talk to who I knew. My wee house seemed terribly lonely when she left and she was only here for four days.
Fortunately I went to a Prom that weekend which prevented my sitting at home and brooding. The Prom was fun. It was 50's themed so I made a 50's dress. I forgot to take the appropriate bra with me and had a terrifying experience buying one. I was still pulling up the straps when a woman came into the dressing room, said "chotto mate" (just a moment) pulled on some white gloves and started ah, rearranging things. It was deeply odd and apparently I had things positioned all wrong. I wasn't keen for more of the same so I bought the bra and left. It made me so busty I kept a cardy on all prom.
Um... what else?
I taught my kids to say arse last week. Inadvertently. I was high on sugary coffee and no breakfast (damn 7:30 taxi) and I snickered when student after student read:
"I'm standing on the moon. I see stars all around. I also see the arse. It's shining over the horizon just like a ball. The arse is blue and white and beautiful..."
It got worse when they started reading about mother earth. I know, I know, I have sunk so low, but really I think someone needs to tell them what not to say. Otherwise they will end up like the poor woman on TV who made the classic Japanese 'L' 'R' mix-up when saying how surprised she was by the prime minister's election. Apparently many people were surprised by the election. Oh dear.
This weekend I am off to Matsue again to participate in the Vagina Monologues. The theme for the V-day campaign (which raises money for victims of domestic violence) is comfort women. This puts us JETs in a rather uncomfortable position as we are not allowed to make political statements (it's a condition of our job and therefore our visa). I haven't said anything about it to my superiors and we are not performing the actual comfort women monologue, so I am sure it will all turn out okay. It's pretty challenging stuff for this country as it is. For those who have seen it I am doing part of "I was twelve, my mother slapped me" (the period one) and "The Vagina Workshop".
I'll let you know how it goes down.
Loves to all.
Keep in touch!
Happy Birthday Mark.
What have I been doing so secretly?
I had a visitor! and not just any visitor, I had Pam to visit. She is the first homeperson who has seen my funny little world. She didn't get to see much of it though cos it snowed lots and we had to go to school both days that she was here. She was terribly confusing for the poor students. They just couldn't seem to get their heads around the fact that she is a Kiwi with Indian parents who was born in Mozambique. They are still talking about her.
Pam and I also built a lovely snowman (and woman) together, much to the amusement of my students who were walking home past my house. I guess we must have been a sight in the thick snow, alternately doubled over with laughter and crawling around making snow-body-parts. I developed an excellent method I dubbed the hug and roll. You make a wee snow-ball and then hug it downwards to collect the underneath snow. I'll post pictures next time I'm at the BOE.
It was soooo lovely to have someone to talk to who I knew. My wee house seemed terribly lonely when she left and she was only here for four days.
Fortunately I went to a Prom that weekend which prevented my sitting at home and brooding. The Prom was fun. It was 50's themed so I made a 50's dress. I forgot to take the appropriate bra with me and had a terrifying experience buying one. I was still pulling up the straps when a woman came into the dressing room, said "chotto mate" (just a moment) pulled on some white gloves and started ah, rearranging things. It was deeply odd and apparently I had things positioned all wrong. I wasn't keen for more of the same so I bought the bra and left. It made me so busty I kept a cardy on all prom.
Um... what else?
I taught my kids to say arse last week. Inadvertently. I was high on sugary coffee and no breakfast (damn 7:30 taxi) and I snickered when student after student read:
"I'm standing on the moon. I see stars all around. I also see the arse. It's shining over the horizon just like a ball. The arse is blue and white and beautiful..."
It got worse when they started reading about mother earth. I know, I know, I have sunk so low, but really I think someone needs to tell them what not to say. Otherwise they will end up like the poor woman on TV who made the classic Japanese 'L' 'R' mix-up when saying how surprised she was by the prime minister's election. Apparently many people were surprised by the election. Oh dear.
This weekend I am off to Matsue again to participate in the Vagina Monologues. The theme for the V-day campaign (which raises money for victims of domestic violence) is comfort women. This puts us JETs in a rather uncomfortable position as we are not allowed to make political statements (it's a condition of our job and therefore our visa). I haven't said anything about it to my superiors and we are not performing the actual comfort women monologue, so I am sure it will all turn out okay. It's pretty challenging stuff for this country as it is. For those who have seen it I am doing part of "I was twelve, my mother slapped me" (the period one) and "The Vagina Workshop".
I'll let you know how it goes down.
Loves to all.
Keep in touch!
Happy Birthday Mark.
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