Finally, an update!
H'okay. Welps, I'm obviously faaaar behind on updating this thing, and I feel kinda of e-guilty about that (but really...it's just a blog), but I'm so brain-blisteringly bored at work today that I figure I might as well do something productive.
I started a post about my trip to Kobe and Kyoto months ago, but got interrupted and then totally forgot to continue it. Here is that little blurb I wrote way when in, I think, June:
I had a business meeting (a conference for re-contracting JETs) in Kobe back at the end of May, but it was lined up from Monday-Wednesday. With the weekend before then free, I decided to go up a little early and do some sight-seeing. Originally I was hoping to find someone to go with, but since most of my friends have already been to that area I ended up going solo. Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto are all really close to each other, and since I hadn't yet to been Kyoto I wanted to see this cultural capital the most. It worked out pretty nicely, since I found a great little hostel that offered very cheap board, and my school was already paying for the bulk of the transport to get me to Kobe. So putting down just a bit of my own cash, I got to stay in Kyoto for a couple of days!
My chosen method of transport was the shinkansen (bullet train), and though it was longer than a plane ride, I didn't have to deal with the airport! So I glided across the country in quite pleasant fashion, and got to Kyoto quite easily. My hostel was close to Kyoto station as well, and it was definetly the nicest hostel I've been stayed in - clean, with a great staff and a comfy bunk-bed.
I took so many pictures while I was in Kyoto that I made a bubbleshare album for them, so go HERE to check them all out!
If the above link isn't working, please comment and lemme know.
~~
H'okay, so that was Kyoto and Kobe.
Since then I've been back to Toronto for my three week trip, and had such a great time that my first week back here I was miserable for about a week straight. That wore off though, thankfully, and here I am with September in full swing and feeling good! Part of my happy state comes from the fact that my boyfriend Alex FINALLY got his placement with the English-teaching company NOVA, and next week he'll be heading over here to share my apartment!! Never before have I appreciated having such a big place to live, despite the noisy neighbours, as I do now. Dunno what we would've done if I was given the conventional two-roomer that teachers are usually assigned out here.
I've started at a new school to accompany my previous post at Sasebo Nishi, and things are going better than I'd expected. Nagasaki prefecture is one of the poorest in Japan, and lately the Board of Education has been cutting ALTs to try and bolster their budget. Not unexpected but unfortunate, as they are making those cuts in some pretty undeserving places. Sasebo Chuo high school, for example, is a small school that is attended by a rather 'unconventional' kind of teenager. These are kids who often come from broken and/or very low-income homes, and a handful of them have social disorders. As most can't afford them, nobody wears uniforms, the news of which makes the eyes of my teachers here at Nishi go (O.O). <---that's a little face, by the way.
With no uniforms, these kids are able to express their own style, and this is something that I really love about the school. Not only does it make it easier to remember them ("Okay, so too-much-make-up girl is Ayumi and girly earrings boy is Yuta"), but it shows off their personality. The downside to the school is the more lax discipline, but for the most part the kids are all good young people, and as long as you offer them the respect they're asking for (without going crazy but you know what I mean), they throw you a bone. It takes more effort to get and keep their interest, but the classes are half the size that they are at Nishi so it's muuuuch easier to address each student (about 20 kids to Nishi's 40).
I work twice as hard at/for the new school, but it's very nice having a purpose there, and it makes me really grateful to have this opportunity to work with them. That school really needs a full-time ALT, but since they are small the Nagasaki BOE cut it, and instead told them they'd get a part-timer twice a week. Since that part-timer is me, I get to swoop in there and do as much as I can on Mondays and Thursdays, with maybe a little after-school planning thrown in on Tuesdays. I'm definetly busier, but I really value the chance to get this experience. Chuo is much more like a Canadian style school then Nishi, so obviously that will just help me out in the long run.
I wish I had pictures of the school for ya, but my camera is le broken. I'm going to spend a chunk of a paycheque on a new one, hopefully next month, so I'll try and get this blog more image-heavy again.
In other news, as you guys might remember I bought myself a yukata and took lessons on how to wear it and tie an obi for a while. Well I finally had a culmination of those efforts when I took it out and wore it to a summer festival!! Festivals (or 'matsuri') are really popular in the late summer here, and there are always a few you can choose from to attend. It's common for girls to wear yukata when they go, as they are cute and cool during the hot nights' events.
A small group of us poured into Megan and Gill's little car and we made our way to Emukae, a little town about 45 minutes away that is famous for their summer festival. It was a hot night and the yukata I was wearing proved to be preeeetty freakin' hot, so I ended up sweating like a crazy person pretty much the entire night. Still, it was a lot of fun, full of on-stage karaoke (embaressing yet thrilling!), a goldfish game where I won two little fishies (since named 'Dill' and 'Pickles', 'cause I'm clever like that), taiko and fireworks.
Since my camera was busted, I've ganked a few pics from Meg's collection and thrown them into a hasty album. I have more at home so I'll try and pull those later, but for now, here ya go, some shots from the Emukae matsuri!
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog
More to come, and thanks for visiting! \(^.^)/
I started a post about my trip to Kobe and Kyoto months ago, but got interrupted and then totally forgot to continue it. Here is that little blurb I wrote way when in, I think, June:
I had a business meeting (a conference for re-contracting JETs) in Kobe back at the end of May, but it was lined up from Monday-Wednesday. With the weekend before then free, I decided to go up a little early and do some sight-seeing. Originally I was hoping to find someone to go with, but since most of my friends have already been to that area I ended up going solo. Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto are all really close to each other, and since I hadn't yet to been Kyoto I wanted to see this cultural capital the most. It worked out pretty nicely, since I found a great little hostel that offered very cheap board, and my school was already paying for the bulk of the transport to get me to Kobe. So putting down just a bit of my own cash, I got to stay in Kyoto for a couple of days!
My chosen method of transport was the shinkansen (bullet train), and though it was longer than a plane ride, I didn't have to deal with the airport! So I glided across the country in quite pleasant fashion, and got to Kyoto quite easily. My hostel was close to Kyoto station as well, and it was definetly the nicest hostel I've been stayed in - clean, with a great staff and a comfy bunk-bed.
I took so many pictures while I was in Kyoto that I made a bubbleshare album for them, so go HERE to check them all out!
If the above link isn't working, please comment and lemme know.
~~
H'okay, so that was Kyoto and Kobe.
Since then I've been back to Toronto for my three week trip, and had such a great time that my first week back here I was miserable for about a week straight. That wore off though, thankfully, and here I am with September in full swing and feeling good! Part of my happy state comes from the fact that my boyfriend Alex FINALLY got his placement with the English-teaching company NOVA, and next week he'll be heading over here to share my apartment!! Never before have I appreciated having such a big place to live, despite the noisy neighbours, as I do now. Dunno what we would've done if I was given the conventional two-roomer that teachers are usually assigned out here.
I've started at a new school to accompany my previous post at Sasebo Nishi, and things are going better than I'd expected. Nagasaki prefecture is one of the poorest in Japan, and lately the Board of Education has been cutting ALTs to try and bolster their budget. Not unexpected but unfortunate, as they are making those cuts in some pretty undeserving places. Sasebo Chuo high school, for example, is a small school that is attended by a rather 'unconventional' kind of teenager. These are kids who often come from broken and/or very low-income homes, and a handful of them have social disorders. As most can't afford them, nobody wears uniforms, the news of which makes the eyes of my teachers here at Nishi go (O.O). <---that's a little face, by the way.
With no uniforms, these kids are able to express their own style, and this is something that I really love about the school. Not only does it make it easier to remember them ("Okay, so too-much-make-up girl is Ayumi and girly earrings boy is Yuta"), but it shows off their personality. The downside to the school is the more lax discipline, but for the most part the kids are all good young people, and as long as you offer them the respect they're asking for (without going crazy but you know what I mean), they throw you a bone. It takes more effort to get and keep their interest, but the classes are half the size that they are at Nishi so it's muuuuch easier to address each student (about 20 kids to Nishi's 40).
I work twice as hard at/for the new school, but it's very nice having a purpose there, and it makes me really grateful to have this opportunity to work with them. That school really needs a full-time ALT, but since they are small the Nagasaki BOE cut it, and instead told them they'd get a part-timer twice a week. Since that part-timer is me, I get to swoop in there and do as much as I can on Mondays and Thursdays, with maybe a little after-school planning thrown in on Tuesdays. I'm definetly busier, but I really value the chance to get this experience. Chuo is much more like a Canadian style school then Nishi, so obviously that will just help me out in the long run.
I wish I had pictures of the school for ya, but my camera is le broken. I'm going to spend a chunk of a paycheque on a new one, hopefully next month, so I'll try and get this blog more image-heavy again.
In other news, as you guys might remember I bought myself a yukata and took lessons on how to wear it and tie an obi for a while. Well I finally had a culmination of those efforts when I took it out and wore it to a summer festival!! Festivals (or 'matsuri') are really popular in the late summer here, and there are always a few you can choose from to attend. It's common for girls to wear yukata when they go, as they are cute and cool during the hot nights' events.
A small group of us poured into Megan and Gill's little car and we made our way to Emukae, a little town about 45 minutes away that is famous for their summer festival. It was a hot night and the yukata I was wearing proved to be preeeetty freakin' hot, so I ended up sweating like a crazy person pretty much the entire night. Still, it was a lot of fun, full of on-stage karaoke (embaressing yet thrilling!), a goldfish game where I won two little fishies (since named 'Dill' and 'Pickles', 'cause I'm clever like that), taiko and fireworks.
Since my camera was busted, I've ganked a few pics from Meg's collection and thrown them into a hasty album. I have more at home so I'll try and pull those later, but for now, here ya go, some shots from the Emukae matsuri!
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog
More to come, and thanks for visiting! \(^.^)/
posted by Kate @ 9:11 p.m.
1 Comments:
At 11:02 a.m.,
Anonymous said…
Heh, I thought you'd given up on this page...
Sounds like you're still having a great time, though it's unfortunate about your camera...Those festivals sound amazing, though I'd probably be sweating more than you!
The new school sounds interesting, and unfortunately, the BOE sounds fairly typical in their budget-cuts.
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