Photobucket

So i've also updated my photobucket. If you people want to see some more pics and a few videos of my little vacation just go to the link under My Photos on the side --->
or go to the bottom of the page .

enjoy ^^

Little vacation

We had a nice three day weekend so instead of just going into the city and shopping me and Rebecca went to Niijima Island ^_^
A three day camping trip on a nice little island off of Tokyo bay...with a 8 hr ferry ride sleeping on a deck.-_-
It was nice, people having little picnic parties, i brought vodka, some one else had juice, some had snacks. We meet some nice Japanese people on this trip who were really kind and helpful throughout the whole trip.

We played on the beach, got sunburned. Went snorkeling(another FIRST) the next day, i burnt my back. oh good burning times ^^ the onsen was beautiful and the water felt great both at the beach and in the onsen. We were able to meet a lot of great people from around the world (the group that we went on the trip with is called "Tokyo Gaijins") but don't know if we'll ever see them again.

I had fun during the trip but at the same time i didn't enjoy the whole experience.
I was eaten alive by mosquito, they just loved me. We had a cramp small tent, my ass was hurting from the bike we had to ride around in for the three days ( i haven't ridden a bike for like more than 5 yrs). My bag was heavy and had to put the straps on my burnt shoulders which made them a nice raw skin color.
other than that i had fun and would luv to go snorkeling again and hiking....just stay in a cabin or even hotel next time.
Well here's some pics of the island.

first week of class

So my first day at school i gave my self-introductory,one to the office staff and then in front of the students. after that i did nothing all day. ok thats a lie, i looked thru all the stuff that was on my desk.

After that i've been a human tape recorder ^_^ YAY!....-_- this makes the first half of the class kinda boring. in the last 10 minuets of class we get to sing a song. if i know the song the teacher has me first do a run thru of the songs words and then makes me sing them with them repeating after me. after that we sing the song along with he music. thats like the best time of the class.

other than that i'm sometimes asked to play a game with the students to go along with the lesson plan. now those can get out of hand once the kids get a hand of it especially if it's getting them out of there seats.

this is all with just the jr high kids.

now with the elementary school, the head teacher tells me what he wants me to teach the kids for the week and i have to make up a lesson plan for that. so far this has consisted of greetings, flash cards of the lesson and then a game to follow that. I love going to the elementary school since they're more energetic play also they're so freakin cute you just want to hug them ^^

Typhoon

ok so I was going to talk about my first week teaching but not anymore.

I am currently at the tip of a typhoon YAY :D
I'm so lucky, my first big storm.
This year will have a lot of first times for me ^^

The storm will really hit us (Gunma prefecture) around 9am tomorrow but we won't be under the eye of the storm. There really hasn't been any big announcements... well there has been announcements i just can't understand them. The last one they made is about the tv going out, but thats ok I got the good old internet to entertain me ^_^

So I got let out of school early since I don't have a car and have to take the school bus home (yes i take the bus with most of the students so I get to go home earlier than the other teachers^^) all due to the storm, even though it wasn't that bad yet.

I got back to my part of the town, so I decided to go to the bank just so i have some cash on me (this is a cash based society, not much for cards here) and to one of the local stores. I bought a few things and a pair of rain boots and i'm kinda glad i did now. While i was in the store the clerk took out the town hall's type of monthly paper which had a picture of me and a introduction( i've been doing A LOT of these) that i wrote when i first got here. She kept pointing at it and trying to talk to me. The only thing I understood was how this is my second time here in Japan. As i started walking home, thats when started pouring, a few minutes after i got into the house it REALLY started raining hard.

A couple of hours after I got home the English teacher that i team teach with called me to inform me that there would be no school tomorrow. YES my first time staying home from school because of the weather!

So yes a big storm is a comin'...kinda here already cuz it's getting hella loud out there. the wind is REALLY picking up and it's starting to rain a lot harder now. Tomorrow will be a lot worse thats for sure.

I'll talk about my first week in school once I get the pictures downloaded from my camera.

oh, the power just went out for a bit, kinda used to that back home ^^
good thing i had a candle burning just in case it did.
i wasn't that upset about the light, i was upset cuz i had no more internet :(
But it's ok now, we got POWER hahahahaha, i'm going to get ready for bed now...or make some somores ^_^

Ja nee.

here are before and after pics of the river in my town

Meeting people

Ok so before i left from the states they kept saying at the orientation that we should join a club here while in Japan so that way we get to meet natives. So yesterday I decided to go to the badminton club that meets every Monday nights. I go and there are only 5 people there, 3 guys and two women. None of them speak English, Miko, the aunt like figure there, can say a few English words and me who can only understand a few words. Next thing i know one of the younger guys left to get the English teacher at his school ( i thought this guy was one of the students at the local highschool).

well they come back a few minutes later and they are both apparently in their early 20's teaching at the Manba Highschool. After a few minutes of introduction we start playing, i haven't played in like 4 yrs and the English teacher, Aiko, doesn't really play she plays tennis instead so its been a while for her as well. After 30 min of just hitting the bird back n forth they tell us to play Ja Kin Po (RockPaperScissors) and then we start a little competition pairing up with the guys.

It was a good thing that me and Aiko get to play against each other b/c we were both pretty bad. Aiko team won the first round, I won the second. It was a pretty fun experience and they're expecting back next week and even want me to join the a tournament they'll be having on Sept 9th, so i guess i just joined a club.

Tomorrow will be my first day teaching even thou I won't be doing anything until 3rd period.

KEITAI!!

I'm so happy i got a keitai ^_^
YAY!

i got a DoCoMo FOMA SO704i in silver it's soo pretty ^^
i luv just looking at all the new functions and video chat and the cute characters i can use and put on my main display screen, i'm using the LocoRoco characters :)

the phone service is cheaper than in the States (i think it is at least)
i can only talk for 55 min/ month which is fine for me since i generally want to use it if i get lost or if something happens to me while driving (hopefully none of that will happen).
i can email 100x per month for 1000 yen on top of the service i got.

i felt so weird not having a cell phone to use my first few weeks here, especially when I got a bit lost trying to find the main post office in Fujioka City (the closest city to me). i'm so glad Ahmed was able to rent a phone when he first arrived and was able to call my supervisor for help.

That's all that's new

Settling in

I finally have internet, it only took them a week to set it up.
Now that I have it i've been on everyday talking to my family and Ahmed almost everyday.

Since I arrived to Kanna-machi, hachi gatsu youka (aug.8th), I've been able to unpack everything, fix the desk and bookshelf area, clean up a bit, do some laundry (do that almost everyday), etc...

After have a few days to myself Ahmed arrived and was able to spend a few days of showing him around and just hanging out. After having him here for a few days I had to go to Maebashi, the capital of Gunma, for a three day orientation. The best day of the orientation was the last day, we were able to have culture days and got to do calligraphy, shiatsu and play with traditional Japanese instruments the Koto & Shakuhachi.

But the best outing was on the second night tons of us all went to, yup you guessed it KARAOKE!!!! All you can sing and drink for 2 hrs for just 2600 yen. It was hella fun and we all had a blast!(especially those who drank all the alcohol they cud ^_^).

The 19th was a bit of a sad day, Ahmed had to go back to the States :(

Since then I finally got my Alien ID and was able to open a checking account.
now all i need is a car.

What I do on my free time is study Japanese and watch weird Japanese tv game and shows. Some of them are hella out there but i luv watching them ^^

So I've also been taking lots of pics and have now opened a account at photobucket, thou i'm still trying to dwnload pics and short movies i've been taking with my new digital cam.

Chat with you all later.