Week 2 - 終わり～

So week 2 of work is over. Monday I spent the whole day at the BOE, Tuesday I went to my base JHS for the morning and basically met and talked to my JTE and other teachers. The art teacher who sits across from me had all these blocks (some one square, some longer rectangular shapes) and she showed me how to glue them together and make a coaster. LOL so I have this coaster on my desk now. After eating lunch, I went back to the BOE to twiddle my thumbs.

OK, oddly in my post last week I didn't talk about me getting a car!! So last Friday me and 2 of my supervisors went to get a car about an hour drive away. We pulled into the rental place and there were a few cars sitting there. None of them very appealing but if and old car means cheaper rental price, I'll take it... but I just knew I was going to get the ugly red one. BUT I drove off in the cute little blue car. I didn't drive anywhere that weekend since I had just gotten the car and still a little nervous about driving.

So back to Tuesday. I come into the BOE and they tell me we are changing the car. So I thought maybe the found a better deal on a better car or something. So we go back to the same place..... and guess what is waiting for me? The ugly red car -_- Well I got some free service... I got to drive the blue car for free and didn't have to refill the tank before returning it AND I had free fireworks in my new red car. It'll do I guess.

Wednesday and Thursday I continued to twiddle my thumbs (this is why I haven't been updating).

Today I spent the day at my base JHS. I did a short self intro to 7 of my students that were present (boys were at a baseball game, 3rd yrs at a meeting at a high school, 3 students absent... so I talked to 7 girls). Then I twiddled my thumbs all day at the JHS. I can't wait for summer to end LOL.

I found out that the largest amount of students I have is 49 (and I think that is at the ES). The base school has 29 or so students. All the other have 30 or so. SMALL SCHOOLS!

This weekend I don't have any plans but I'm going to try to walk to the beach. Get a little exercise. Get out of the apartment. This time next week hopefully I will be arriving at Enmachi eki and can spend some time in the city :) And about a week after coming home I get to back again :D YAY FOR BUSINESS TRIPS!!

Anyways... nothing going on. I study Japanese all day. I think I pretty much decided to not enroll in JET's course. I'm just going to use my own book which I hope to be almost finished with by the time JET's course begins. People speak so fast here that basic phrases are shortened... like otsukarasama and arigatougozaimasu and ohayougozaimasu... LOL. I still have that problem of people speaking to me and I don't realize it until all I hear is "OUHOEGAO DESUKA?" (that first part is jibberish by the which is what I hear when I'm not listening).

I'm watching Hachi now on TV :) Cute puppy ^.^



I want an Akita... and I'm gonna name it bobo. Get a kitty and name it lala. We'll be a happy family <3

Almost FRIDAY!

I'm not sure if I'm should be excited or not. If I was in more of a city area, heck yeah, I'd be happy... but no. I'm in the country side... like, I'm pretty sure it doesn't get more country than this... and nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody to see. I mean there are only so many things I can hold off to do for the weekend (finish unpacking, organizing, reorganizing, snooping through stuff left here).

Anyways... a summary of the interesting stuff:

I went with a group on the 4:30 am bus to Atlanta airport, it was too early. We sat for 2 hours at the gate. Our plane was late, thus they held our international flight for us =D It was nice. I have found that I shouldn't eat airplane food unless I have to. It just doesn't agree with me :( At one point I stood around the bathroom for an hour... but there was a whole party in the back, hence the hour of standing there. (FYI, I just saw the CUTEST japanese commercial LOL).

Anyways, we arrived safe and sound and not a minute too soon (thank god there wasn't a repeat of last years flight... Me: "YAY WE'RE HERE!" Pilot "There's a lot of traffic we are going to fly around for 10-15 minutes" Me: "NOOOOOOOOO GET ME OFF THIS THING!!!"). The customs/immigration line was SO.F*N.LONG! I've NEVER stood in a line that long. Except at Disney World. I think it was seriously 1 hour. Put it this way, by the time we made it through the airport and on the bus, it had been 2 hours. So we ride the bus to the hotel...

The hotel was nice, but the food was mediocre. Orientation was, no offense to people who worked so hard, boring most of the time. There were some speakers that were able to hold my attention and make me laugh... but you know I swear "Every Situation is Different" is the key phrase to the JET Program... so how can these people tell me specifics about me job? Maybe general information... but we are big enough to read the handbook right? Oh well...

After orientation I headed with the other JETs from my area by shinkansen to our placements. Once I met my supervisors, I hopped in the car, and on my way I went. I said goodbye to civilization as it slowly disappeared behind me. I'm soooo inaka that my softbank doesn't work (which has unfortunately disappeared... hopefully when the alarm goes off tomorrow I'll find it). We stopped to get groceries then finally arrived. It's as big as I imagined. It's too big. Oh well.

I hardly slept last night. It's so hot in this apartment. I took a cold shower the next morning LOL. I was off after 8 with my supervisor to the BoE. I filled out my tax paperwork, gaijin card paperwork, then sat at my desk, then visited the schools. Somehow... I now speak chinese and play tennis =/ The tennis I can explain but I'm not sure about Chinese. I told my boss I studied Spanish in high school and French in middle school. At some point he decided I spoke Chinese too LOL. He asked me about my sports and I told him I use to go to the gym and play racquetball. He says "oh soft tennis". I figured this is racquetball... because there is a word for tennis (tenisu). So at a school he's announcing I play soft tennis... and outside I am shown the girls playing soft tennis... which is tennis -_- ooyyyyy... OK. Well at least I can say some words and chinese and can possibly play some tennis (just for fun). oy...

Then I went back to the supermarket for things I forgot. My male supervisor took me. LUCKILY we ran into a female teacher... because I needed to my female stuff :p and he hid on another aisle and didn't want to touch the female stuff... or acknowledge its presence LOL. It was pretty funny to me.

Anyways... tomorrow is Friday! yay? we'll see... I can at least catch up on sleep.

My Blog and the JET Program

To make things easier for everyone, I will continue to use THIS blog as my blog for the JET Program. So nobody has to deal with changing links, I don't have to set up ANOTHER blog and link it to facebook, yada yada yada. So maybe this is just easier for me....

But anyways... I did find out at the end of January this year I had an interview for JET in Atlanta. In February, after a 5 hour drive with my brother to Atlanta, and another drive back, I went through another lesson in patience. Tips for future JETs: during the interview, be yourself, know your application, and SoP. Do not memorize your strength/weakness speech and why you are the perfect candidate. This interview is much different than the one for your current low pay job. Also, with JET, get use to long waits.

In April, I received my acceptance, and recently I received my placement: Kyoto. I did not even request anywhere NEAR Kansai (the Osaka, Kyoto region, where I stayed during my most recent study abroad). I applied for this before I met my boyfriend. I was very surprised and VERY happy to get Kyoto as my placement, since it is the same prefecture as him :)

I am the only JET in my area, the next JET is 45 minutes away. At first I was pretty nervous about being placed out in the middle of nowhere. But then I see a lot of JETs being placed so close together in these bigger towns and little cities... and I just think that I can really learn Japanese faster being in this little town, I can learn more of the culture, spend less money... a lot of good things will come out of this placement and after emailing my predecessor, I'm excited about the activities I can partake in and learning new things.

So my new life starts this yaer. Nervous. Excited. This is will benefit me so greatly... I can see my goals so clearly now :)