A Preview of Next Year

No thanks to my laziness in updating and my urge to immediately post about Winter Vacation and my recent dentist visit, I have neglected to post about many things that happened before winter break! These next few posts will be a bit out of order, but please bear with me!

Recently, I re-visited Aomori (I'll save topic for another post). One of the first few orders of business the morning after I arrived was to meet my new supervisor, Saito-sensei, and sign the new re-contracting papers.

Everything went very well, albeit me, unknowingly, going into awkward/meek mode. Pumpkin was with me during my meeting, and he was laughing at me while Saito-sensei went to go get the paperwork, saying that I just needed to take a deep breath and just relax. *sigh* I hadn't even noticed I was doing that, so I tried to calm down ^^; Anyways, Saito-sensei brought back the papers and told me that I'd be teaching at Junior High Schools and Elementary Schools through the Aomori City Board of Education next year.

Now, I already knew that I'd be teaching at JHS and ES next year, a fact that could be inferred from my transfer request to the Aomori City Board of Education (and not the Prefectural Board of Education, like the one I work for). It was just something about talking it over with Pumpkin over Skype on various occasions and then actually signing the papers that made it sink in a little bit more...

This is most definitely not going to be the same dynamic as teaching at a high school.

As I tried to wrap my head around how it was going to be different, I had to pull from a few different sources: 1) anything Pumpkin has said about his students or teaching in general at these schools, 2) International Day, and 3) the most recent Nanshin Regional Block Meeting at another ALT's JHS.

What's International Day? Well, a long time ago (it really was a long time ago...sorry for posting about it now, about 3 months after...I know, I know, I'm awful!! lol), there was an event post in the Nagano Facebook group about an International Exchange Day at a JHS in Matsukawa-mura. Normally, this would be too far for me to venture out for, but the post had said that transportation was paid for by the school and that lunch was free!

Free lunch and free transport?! I'M IN!

All freebies aside, I was actually really interested to see how different the students would be. I don't often get the opportunity to be around JHS kids, so I decided to pounce on that opportunity, full force!!! At the time, I think I had already sent in my transfer request, so I was trying to prepare myself for what I could expect from JHS next year, but I didn't know for sure that my transfer request would be granted (but it did, thank goodness).

It was an amazing experience. Basically, all I did was get paired up with some local JHS 3rd graders and a few other ALTS, and then I played games and sports against other groups of 3rd graders and ALTs! My team, the yellow team, played volleyball, cricket (holy cow, I had no understanding of the rules of cricket, and I'm still not quite sure I understand it...), and did tinikling (a traditional Philippine dance involving hand coordination, foot speed, and rhythm). The schedule was really complicated, but was so much fun!!! :) One of my favorite times was having lunch with our group of kids. Something about the togetherness feeling of eating lunch beside one another is really comforting. The group I was with was pretty cool and there were some girls that really liked talking to me!!

Here's a video of the UCSD KP organization (kinda like a Philippino Club!) doing tinikling. It was actually choreographed by my friend, Jerel! :]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vs_zLKLSk

Moving on, my next experience with JHS was at the Nanshin Regional Block Meeting. This meeting was mainly to figure out who was going home for good at the end of this year and who was re-contracting. The group that I had carpooled with arrived super early. Because of this, before the meeting started, we got to drop in and participate in one of the ALT's classes! All the students were super excited to see us, which was a HUGE shock to me.

My HS students are usually aloof and most ignore me, with the exception of a few boys and girls. These students were...HAPPY (?!?!) to see me??? Where am I, what am I supposed to do, and how am I supposed to react to this?!?!?

Although I was out of my element at first, the awkwardness soon disappeared. It was actually really fun just going around and talking with the students. Some other JHS ALTs were calmly going around talking with the kids, but this was a whole new experience for me. Smiles all around!!! ^_^

Anyways, the class ended (much to my chagrin), and then the next official class before the meeting started! The class consisted of a simple bingo activity where students had to align yes/no answers by asking us ALTs some "Have you ever..." questions. It was a lot of fun!! After that, the students were paired up with one or more ALTs, and there was an individual interview activity.

I got paired up with the shyest student in the class.

...

Challenge accepted, fellow ALT-in-charge, challenge accepted.

She was tiny and incredibly adorable. While she couldn't carry on a conversation with me in English to save her life, I just tried to make it comfortable enough to be around me. The JTE and ALT came over just to make sure we were doing ok (because, apparently, they were worried that the activity wouldn't progress well with this student...), but we were doing just fine, even if I had to do a lot of scaffolding in Japanese for the activity (I figured, with this student, speaking any English at all was going to be good progress for her). At first, it was a bit quiet and there was a lot of nervous laughing on both sides, she really seemed to warm up to me! The activity ended and all the students had to go to their next class, but she waved goodbye enthusiastically to me on the way out, smiling at me the entire way.

I hope I made English class a bit more fun for her, even if only for that day. Even if it might just be my imagination, it really made me feel like I had some sort of an impact on her, which made me feel awesome :]

After remembering all these things and then finally signing the paperwork, I came up with these conclusions:

I'm looking forward to:
1) living with Pumpkin, of course!
2) school lunch (yay for no more lonely lunches by myself in the English Teacher's Room!!!)
3) slightly smaller class sizes
4) slightly genkier students (I know this all depends on the class atmosphere, the students themselves, and the JTE, but, from what I've experienced so far, the students are a lot more willing to talk to and work with me in JHS, even if they speak mostly in Japanese)

I'm hesitant about:
1) my Japanese level (but this can be [and is being] improved upon)

2) the snow (nothing I can do about this...)
3) city buses (so complicated!!)

I'm not sure if I have too high of expectations for next year, but what I am sure of is that things will change for the better. And, in my current situation, that is all I could have ever asked for and more. I can't wait for next year!!!! :]

Winter Vacation Part 3

The last stop of my winter vacation destinations was Aomori! We got off the ferry and took a taxi back to Ryan's apartment because it was late and all the city buses had stopped running.

After a night's rest, I had just about a full day to spend in Aomori before I had to head back to Nagano for work. We had to make this last day awesome!!!

We sure started off the day right by going to easily one of my top 3 favorite places in Aomori, the Gyosai Center, where you can get a bowl of various kinds of fresh seafood over rice bowl (called nokedon). The freshly caught fish comes from local fishermen. They offer salmon, scallops, sea urchin, shrimp, octopus, yellowtail, fish eggs, and lots of other names of seafood that I can't remember! Ryan has even seen shark and whale there...I hope I can encounter those one day! They also offer a cooked egg dish (the yellow triangle in the picture below)...but really, who would choose the mediocre egg dish over the plethora of melt-in-your-mouth offered??

Nokedon!!!

Nokedon is the best seafood I have had and will ever have in my life...

After that, we took the rental car to Hakkoda, a mountain/city in Aomori. It was pretty terrifying for Ryan, who had 1) never driven on the left side of the road before, and 2) never driven in snow before. He seemed to be adjusting quite well after a bit, and even decided to try his hand at drifting, to which all of us passengers immediately showed our discontent with hahaha

To be fair, he was drifting quite well :P None of us wanted to chance it on the snowy roads. Even though there were crazy high snow walls on each side of the road and not many cars out on the road, it was still pretty scary!

The view from the passenger seat on the drive to Hakkoda

We eventually got to Hakkoda, where we rented some equipment and hit the slopes! We didn't stay out there too long because we got a 10 times use only lift ticket and shared between the 3 of us! I thought I would have forgotten how to snowboard, since it was only my 4th time, but I only managed to fall twice (first one was a tumble into a really awesome penguin dive and the second time was because someone stopped right in front of me lol). Anyways, for the short time we were out there, I had lots of fun! Pumpkin had a bit tougher of a time on the skis (I don't think they were quite the right size), but I'll be sure to teach him the joys of snowboarding next time ;]  任せ Kristin (Leave it up to me!)!

Side note, I'm pretty sure that I have the exact opposite effect that Ryan has on Japanese people. People tend to not speak Japanese to me...even though I try to speak Japanese back to them. It's not uncommon for Japanese people to just reply to me "OK, OK." or "Ah, ah, thank you!" This happened at the ski rental place when I was returning all of my stuff. After I gave back the stuff, I had to return because I forgot something...and the store clerk ended up answering "OK OK" to me asking "Have you seen my lost object?" in Japanese. =__= I managed to find it on my own after that...

While blending in has its disadvantages, not blending in also has its disadvantages...and for me, it's a lack of people wanting to speak to me in Japanese. I should be ecstatic that they're attempting English since I'm an English teacher, but if they're half-assing their English (like a majority of people do to me), I'd almost rather them speak Japanese to me. That way I could at least try to get some exposure to Japanese and have a chance at getting better...

Anyways, after our final run, we let Raina hit the slope one more time to finish the 10 times pass while we waited in the warm lodge. Our next destination was Sukayu Onsen, one of the very few mixed bathing baths in Japan!

Now, mixed bathing would scare off many people (it definitely scared off Ryan's mom and Raina, who were even skeptical of the previous gender-separated onsen), but it was actually a lot more gender-separated than I would've thought. There were different changing rooms (thank goodness) and men and women had to sit on different sides of the pools!

I did not take this picture (lol), but this is what the inside of the onsen looked like. The pools are divided in two for each of the genders.

The pools were very sulfuric. I learned this the hard way after trying to wash my hair. Let's just say that opening your eyes while they're still damp from contact with sulfuric water is NOT a pleasant experience. I also had a bunch of trouble trying to keep my hair out of the water, but, nonetheless, it was an amazing experience to be able to warm up in an onsen with Pumpkin! :)

After warming up, the snowy wonderland outside wasn't that bad anymore! I think the best part of the onsen is warming up, getting into your clothes, and then going out into the cold. It's quite a refreshing feeling! To further complement that refreshing feeling, we went back to Aomori to have 味噌カレー牛乳ラーメン, Miso Curry Milk Butter Ramen from a restaurant called Sapporo no Aji (Taste of Sapporo).

Upon sitting down to order the regular, Pumpkin noticed that they also had Natto Ramen! For those who don't know what natto is...this is what it looks like.

It is quite possibly one of the most disgusting-looking foods you will ever set your sights on.

That's some sticky stuff! It's also an acquired taste... I absolutely hated the stuff when I first tried it in Japan in 2007. I decided to try it more recently, and now I LOVE it! I often have it for breakfast or lunch! Anyways, this stuff is in the Natto Ramen. We decided to order that and the regular Miso Curry Milk Butter Ramen. The Natto Ramen actually tasted really good! We were wondering where the natto was, but it was all at the bottom of the bowl...and they used a lot of natto! Maybe like 2 packs...at least... What a delicious last meal in Aomori!

I had to pack my bags immediately after, said my goodbyes to Ryan's mom and Raina, walked to the bus stop with Pumpkin, and began my journey back to Nagano.

Goodbyes are never easy...even though this isn't the first time I've parted from him, it's still really difficult. I was reminded how hard it is for everyone else too, when the girl who sat next to me on the bus from Aomori to Ueno started crying when waving goodbye to her boyfriend. Part of me was a bit surprised (lots of Japanese people don't do outward displays of anger/sadness in front of other people), and the other part of me wanted to talk to her and comfort her, but she started sleeping really soon after we left. :/ Oh well. I know that I'll get to see Pumpkin again soon...and that's what keeps me going~! :)

Dentist Appointment

Before I do the last part of my winter vacation blogging, I'm gonna talk about my recent trip to the dentist!

I've known for a long time that my wisdom teeth were eventually going to have to come out. I've know this since I was pretty little, but I never found the time to actually go and get them removed. One could blame this on soccer, but...in retrospect, I think that I should've prioritized my health over my hobby so that I could've easily avoid pain in the future.

Recently, my wisdom teeth have started to hurt a little bit...it comes and goes, but more often, it's not there. This dull ache made me realize that these darn teeth needed to go before they mess up the alignment of all my other teeth. So, I gathered all of my courage and called the dentist to make an appointment to check out my teeth. While I was super happy that I was able to make the appointment over the phone entirely in Japanese, I was terrified for what was later to come...

The day finally came. I hopped out of work super early and raced to the supermarket to buy a ton of slushy/mushy food ingredients just in case they were gonna pull my teeth that day. I really had no idea what they were going to do...

I arrived at the dentist's office super early, just in case they needed me to fill out any paperwork. After giving them my National Health Insurance card, I was told to wait until they called my name. It was probably one of the longer waits of my life...I was so nervous....

They called my name and I was whisked away to a chair, where a nurse came with a form in hand. She was about to give it to me to fill out, then decided to ask me the questions, figuring that I probably couldn't read the kanji on it anyways. So much faith...(but probably warranted). I was able to answer all the questions in Japanese (or through universal miming signs lol), but I thought I was going to give her a headache, since she looked really worried every time I asked her for clarification. ^^; Anyways, the check-up went well, and they then took an x-ray of my mouth for the doctor to inspect. They even let me keep a copy of it! Here's what my wisdom teeth (and skull/eye sockets) look like!

Say "cheese"!

I finally met the doctor after they took the x-ray. To my surprise, he was able to speak some English! He said that I had to have all 4 pulled out, but that, in Japan, they don't pull out all 4 at once, for some reason. I tried asking him nicely if they'd make an exception, but he strongly advised against having all of them taken out. Sigh...here's to many trips to the doctor in the near future...

The next thing he said was fairly surprising..."We can take one out today, if you want."

Huh? Come again?

Back in California, I had a dentist appointment in April. In that appointment, my dentist said that she was going to try to get an appointment for me to see the oral surgeon to take out my wisdom teeth. She told me that she'd email me back with a list of days that the oral surgeon was available.

I got an email on October 5th saying that an appointment with the oral surgeon had opened up for mid-October. Annnnd I was already in Japan. Great. Just great.

But yes, this process of waiting for the oral surgeon appointment took 6 months. And these guys in Japan were willing to do it they day of my first appointment ever with them? Sweet! ...I think...

I wanted to get one over with, so I let them pull one. They started with the easiest one, my upper left wisdom tooth (which is the upper right one in the picture). They numbed the area and it took all of two minutes for them to pull it out. It wasn't really painful at all, but the force of the pulling that they used to get my tooth out was super 気持ち悪かった (kimochi warui, which is basically "super unpleasant" or "bad feeling").

I'm glad it was over fast, but there seemed to be many complications afterwards. I guess I was so nervous that I felt really sick when I first got up. They made me lay back down for a bit. After that, my appointment was over, so I walked over to where the dentist was sitting so we could talk about the future teeth removals, but I felt super light-headed while talking with him. He made me lay back down with an oxygen mask on and told me that my face looked really pale. =[

After recovering, the doctor gave me a prescription for medicine and I was off on my way.

Well, I'm not looking forward to the upcoming dentist appointments (especially for the bottom wisdom teeth, which they have to first cut [along the red lines in the picture above], then remove the tooth), but at least this dental office seems trustworthy and all of the staff is super nice! :) I'm really glad I was able to take the initiative and do this by myself. It feels so good to become more independent in this country where I have trouble speaking the language...this independence may be a sign that I'm slowly improving (or at least gaining confidence, which I definitely need)!

クリスティン、ファイト！Over and out!

Next, the final part of my winter vacation travels!