Farce Over

Yesterday’s demonstration class actually went off without a hitch yesterday.  How?  I don’t know.  Why?  I’m not sure.  It coule have been the military presence of English teachers and 4 (yes, four) foreign teachers in the classroom staring everybody down, but somehow evil-JTE’s potential Titanic of a class turned out alright.  She walked up to me today and asked if I would like to do another demonstration class with her at the beginning of November.

Ha.

I plan on ‘Office Spacing’ out of that one, since I’ve already made plans to take care of other arrangements.  5 demo classes in one month is just too much.

The better part of today was spent with first year students and the new Japanese/English teacher, though.  I’m happy to say she’s a good teacher to work with– that plus the 1st years were really Andy-starved (I don’t think I’ve taught them since summer break)– which meant they were high as a kite for the whole 50 minutes.  Plus we did a game using horror movie characters, apparently ‘Jason’ is a punchline all by himself.

I even brought a mini-Japanese-Jack-O-Lantern for my Halloween presentation, but by sixth period he was getting pretty stankified.  He’s currently double-plastic wrapped right now and will be deposited somewhere in front of my house this evening.  I won’t horrify the elementary kids tomorrow with him.

The best news though– there was a kid who was totally afraid of me last semester and this semester has done a complete 180 and now we’re buds… Well, he was buying something at a vending machine but his friend pushed the button before he could choose– and ended up with a mini-Grape Fanta.  Well, with me in sight he let out a loud, Japanese katakanafied “F$%# YOU” to said kid.  Crude as it was, glad to see the kid is putting his English to use.

There’s no doubt about it– demonstration classes suck.  Japanese English teachers get all antsy, big wigs from the powers that be come and stare at you, and you get long meetings entirely in Japanese with your only sustenance being one cup of watered-down Oolong Tea.  Not good at all.  Your average Japanese teacher or foreign teacher only gets the pain of being inspected once a year, or once every two years, which I suppose makes the pain, trauma, and annoyance of the whole ordeal comfortable.

Lucky me– I’ve had four of these things in the last 3 weeks.  Today will be the fourth, the “Grand Finale,” if you will, where not only big wigs will come and stare.  It seems almost every English teacher in the collective universe that is Northern Akita has decided to descend on my school.

Can you guess who I get to teach with?  None other than evil-JTE.  After watching our “practice session” yesterday, it’s no wonder they swept her under the rug for last inspection.

Anyway, enough complaining for now.  Complaining gets you nowhere.

The good news:  I have now nearly beaten two adults at table tennis– it will be a glorious day when I actually beat one.  Then I can stop bragging about beating 10 year olds.

I know…

… I promised ya a picture post.  You’re just not gonna get one, that’s all.

But, last Saturday the Noshiro English teaching team got together to join in the prefectural photo scavenger hunt.  We posted our results online, all you have to do is click the link below and enjoy:

Captions explain what categories the pictures were for…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrissam42/sets/72157594327295767

The Relief of Coming in 73rd

This weekend marked the 12th annual Kimimachi Marathon hosted in my rusty shack encrusted hamlet.  For being in the middle of nowhere, the marathon is a surprisingly big event, bringing runners from all over this region from Japan who come to totally exhaust themselves to be rewarded with an energy drink and rice ball after they cross the finish line.

I have to say, I hate running.  I’ve always hated running.  If it weren’t for my high metabolism in child-hood, I would have been a tub of lard.  I’m convinced that ‘tag’ is merely an evil conspiracy orchestrated by adults in order get kids to run.

Despite this, I decided to torture myself and sign up for the 4k (other options being the 10k or the half-marathon, neither of which were very appealing).  I went with Claire, another area ALT who wanted to give the whole marathon experince a go as well– though she was slightly more suicidal and put herself down for the 10k.

I got my number sheets and a little chip to attach to my shoe, which apparently kept track of my time.  Heading up to the starting line with the throng of people kind of felt like getting on a roller coaster you know was going to be boring and painful and heading up the lift hill.

It went better than expected though.  Loads of people cheering the runners from the sidewalk along with the rare bizarrely costumed and likely deranged middle aged men ( a group of whom ran as the Power Rangers) provided some entertainment.  That and the thrill of passing the elementary and Jr. High students, who were given a 5 minute head start.

Anyway– I can happily say I managed it without stopping or really walking, though I slowed down for a paper cup of water.  By the time it was over, I was thrilled to be 73rd place, out of 150– a little better than half!

Glad to say it’s over– now I can concentrate on this week– two demonstration classes and an orientation, which promises to be as fun as getting my nails pulled out with rusty pliars.

It’s looking like two busy weekends in a row for me– even though a three-day weekend just ended, this week I have two demonstration classes, a photo scavenger hunt, and a marathon to prepare for.

Wish I had time to elaborate and post photos.  That will have to come later.  Promise.

Akita Prefectural License Center PWNED

Passed on my second try yesterday– the license dude judging my mad skills had no choice but to call me “skillful.”  He gave me some criticism, but prefaced it with “You really don’t need to worry about this, but…”  Part of me knew then and there it was all said and done.

They don’t let you smile for your license picture– but mine still turned out better than usual– and I’ve discovered I look like a sexy beast without my glasses.

I came home and drove my quaint-matchbox-non-pink-rocket-powered-English monkey-navigated Maroon Balloon all over town.  Then I went for a run, since in less than two weeks I have the town marathon.

My Maroon Balloon

Another year, another car.  The White Blight (successor to the White Knight) has lived up to its name and is officially on its last legs.  Tomorrow evening, he will be sent to the scrap yard for cremation to be replaced by my new car.

My new wheels (tentatively named the Maroon Balloon, though it’s not actually Maroon) is a kei-car.  The car dealer described the color as ‘wine red’ but that sounds like spin for ‘pink.’  I do not own a pink car– I own a non-maroon car.  Discussion over.

Anyway, kei-cars are supposed to have weaker engines, but mine apparently has a turbo charger that gives it some kick.  And it has a CD player, which I’ve heard is better than the sound of wind, which I’ve been used to for the past year.  The car dealer also threw in free disposal of my old car, new tires and a free tire change come winter, and the offer to stay in his home in Akita City if I keep failing the driving test.

Also, last night I managed to make a mini-meatloaf in my mircowave’s oven feature– it was freaking good and tasted like home.