so last weekend i met an 105 year old woman who lives in Ogimi. She was beautiful. I swear i understood half of what she said but not in words, per se. She is incredible and it was a very cool experience; a student of mine and her mother took photos of us together.
So in honor of people in the "silver club" of life, here's a bit of trivia from my brand new Simpson desk calendar:
In "The Old Man and the Key" (DABF09), Lisa says statistics show that old people drive at least as well as who?
a. Young winos
b. Teens in heat
c. Sleep-deprived apes
d. Everyone in France, except the elderly, who are worse
the answer will appear in the next post.
i've rearranged my photo album, so if you need any of the passwords, e-mail me.
cheers
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
who's Yoshimi
am listening to Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots . It's a good song, but i have no idea what it's refering to, if anything, so if anyone out there does, i'd be glad for the info.
this might be a bit of a random blog.
feeling a bit random at the moment. Tired as well. Haven't been sleeping too well, but perhaps that's only because i haven't been giving myself the proper amount of sleep on a regular basis and instead catching naps here and there.
The weather keeps changing as well. I won't whine too much. It's still nowhere near milwaukee weather right now, but it's a bit cold.
although there was a bit of a warm spell the last couple of weeks, warm enough for the cherry blossoms to explode two weeks earlier than anticipated. I was told that cherry blossoms usually come in in early February; Okinawa is the first place in a new year that cherry blossoms can be seen in Japan. They then "creep" up through the rest of Japan's islands, finishing their trek in Hokkaido in May.
On mainland, the Japanese will eat and drink with their families under the beautiful cherry blossoms. This doesn't happen on Okinawa, people just come out to look at them, take lots of pictures, to walk around, and to eat festival food.
Last weekend, a few of us went to Mountain Yaedake in Motobu. It is claimed that cherry blossoms appear here first in Okinawa. Not sure about that, because by the time we were driving on our way to the famed mountain on the rainy Saturday afternoon, blossomin cherry trees were lining the roads.
check out the pics here . What we participated in is called Hanami and the Japanese name for cherry blossoms is sakura.
And for those of you who might not be making it out to the land of the red sun anytime soon, and you live in the States, check out the Cherry Blossom Festival that is held annually in Washington DC in celebration of a gift of several hundred cherry trees given to the US by a Japanese emperor in the 1920`s.
oh..and because this is a completely random post, you won't mind if i throw in a bit about one of my favorite things to drink in Okinawa--acerola juice. It's tart and sweet and really good for you. I was looking for info about cherry blossom fests and found this bit of info. I really really like Wikipedia . Here's what it had to say about acerola .
every once in a while something happens on the island to remind me that i am indeed in a foreign country with unrecognizable cultural attributes and unknown traditions.
yesterday i went to a funeral.
Hisako-san's father passed away unexpectidly Monday. I didn't know. I was only told on Tuesday morning. The funeral was being held at 1pm on Tuesday. I didn't have any classes in the afternoon, so asked if it would be ok for me to go to the funeral. I didn't know what to expect and couldn't find my handy JET book that explained ways to behave at specific events. I was given an envelope, specific to funerals, and told to put a 1000 yen in it.
Gabrielle was able to leave her elementary classes for an hour as well, we went home, changed into fully black clothes and drove to the tombs closest to our house. After we parked, we followed the crowd up a slightly steep hill, into the forrest, and came upon a church like structure, previously unseen by us. People were lined up in three rows inside the temple/shrine/mortuary. After we gave our envelopes to the women seated at the entrance, whose job it was to receive the envelopes and to write down who they were given by, we joined one of the lines. From my place in the line, i could see the shrine at the front of the building, a photo of the deceased and a priest sitting cross-legged in front of it.
To the sides of the shrine the family members were seated, women and men separated.
I was nervous and saddened by my friend's grief. Her youngest child is one of my first grade students and i could see him sitting next to his older brother, opposite their mother and grandmother.
The priest chanted and a man at the microphone said some lines. Family members came up to the front, took bows to the shrine and to the sides, and threw something into smile pyres burning inside rectangular, stone containers situated on a table in front of the shrine.
After the family was done, the table was moved back and towards the lined up people who have come to pay respects. One by one, the three lines moved up. I watched carefully what the people were doing at the table, but finally decided not to follow their movements--it is not my religion, it has no significance to me and would be meaningless as a gesture. I decided only to bow to both sides of the family and to the front and follow through the exit. Upon leaving the building, I was given a token gift and a packet of white powder that we were told to sprinkle on oursevles when we came home. I saw people sprinkle it on themselves before they got into the car. I am still not sure what it signifies, but perhaps it has a purifying significance, something to ward off the darker spirits of death.
Don't know.
I came home and washed my hands, because where i come from that's what i've always been told to do when i got home from a graveyard.
Everything about the ceremony was familiar and yet it was very different from the funerals i have been to. Yet grief is universal and funeral's intention seems to always be about respecting the deceased and to come together to show support to the family who has lossed a loved one. A way for a community to gather during the time of darkness. A common sadness that reinforcess communal and familial bonds. Whatever the ceremonial aspects, the goal is the same, to create a moment when the person is remembered and his physical self is let go.
i told you. a random post.
last night, after karate practice, Ben and i found a new, tiny, cute izakaya for dinner. i hope i find it again. it was cheap and the food was good. my favorite thing to order now at restaurants is a sashimi salad. I love a country where i can get a mixed green salad with different kinds of sashimi on it for an equivalent of 6 US dollars.
Karate was great. It's getting much better and i can now follow through two katas. Kata is a form and i like them because they are like well rehearsed dance routines. Of the two katas, i really like the one called "godan" or fifth form...the gestures are akin to someone showing off their sword handling skills. It's very regal and proud.
at some point i am going to shoot video of the two kids with black belts at our dojou. They are incredible. When they move through their katas, it is as if they move air. It's really powerful.
ok. enough for today.
cheers
this might be a bit of a random blog.
feeling a bit random at the moment. Tired as well. Haven't been sleeping too well, but perhaps that's only because i haven't been giving myself the proper amount of sleep on a regular basis and instead catching naps here and there.
The weather keeps changing as well. I won't whine too much. It's still nowhere near milwaukee weather right now, but it's a bit cold.
although there was a bit of a warm spell the last couple of weeks, warm enough for the cherry blossoms to explode two weeks earlier than anticipated. I was told that cherry blossoms usually come in in early February; Okinawa is the first place in a new year that cherry blossoms can be seen in Japan. They then "creep" up through the rest of Japan's islands, finishing their trek in Hokkaido in May.
On mainland, the Japanese will eat and drink with their families under the beautiful cherry blossoms. This doesn't happen on Okinawa, people just come out to look at them, take lots of pictures, to walk around, and to eat festival food.
Last weekend, a few of us went to Mountain Yaedake in Motobu. It is claimed that cherry blossoms appear here first in Okinawa. Not sure about that, because by the time we were driving on our way to the famed mountain on the rainy Saturday afternoon, blossomin cherry trees were lining the roads.
check out the pics here . What we participated in is called Hanami and the Japanese name for cherry blossoms is sakura.
And for those of you who might not be making it out to the land of the red sun anytime soon, and you live in the States, check out the Cherry Blossom Festival that is held annually in Washington DC in celebration of a gift of several hundred cherry trees given to the US by a Japanese emperor in the 1920`s.
oh..and because this is a completely random post, you won't mind if i throw in a bit about one of my favorite things to drink in Okinawa--acerola juice. It's tart and sweet and really good for you. I was looking for info about cherry blossom fests and found this bit of info. I really really like Wikipedia . Here's what it had to say about acerola .
every once in a while something happens on the island to remind me that i am indeed in a foreign country with unrecognizable cultural attributes and unknown traditions.
yesterday i went to a funeral.
Hisako-san's father passed away unexpectidly Monday. I didn't know. I was only told on Tuesday morning. The funeral was being held at 1pm on Tuesday. I didn't have any classes in the afternoon, so asked if it would be ok for me to go to the funeral. I didn't know what to expect and couldn't find my handy JET book that explained ways to behave at specific events. I was given an envelope, specific to funerals, and told to put a 1000 yen in it.
Gabrielle was able to leave her elementary classes for an hour as well, we went home, changed into fully black clothes and drove to the tombs closest to our house. After we parked, we followed the crowd up a slightly steep hill, into the forrest, and came upon a church like structure, previously unseen by us. People were lined up in three rows inside the temple/shrine/mortuary. After we gave our envelopes to the women seated at the entrance, whose job it was to receive the envelopes and to write down who they were given by, we joined one of the lines. From my place in the line, i could see the shrine at the front of the building, a photo of the deceased and a priest sitting cross-legged in front of it.
To the sides of the shrine the family members were seated, women and men separated.
I was nervous and saddened by my friend's grief. Her youngest child is one of my first grade students and i could see him sitting next to his older brother, opposite their mother and grandmother.
The priest chanted and a man at the microphone said some lines. Family members came up to the front, took bows to the shrine and to the sides, and threw something into smile pyres burning inside rectangular, stone containers situated on a table in front of the shrine.
After the family was done, the table was moved back and towards the lined up people who have come to pay respects. One by one, the three lines moved up. I watched carefully what the people were doing at the table, but finally decided not to follow their movements--it is not my religion, it has no significance to me and would be meaningless as a gesture. I decided only to bow to both sides of the family and to the front and follow through the exit. Upon leaving the building, I was given a token gift and a packet of white powder that we were told to sprinkle on oursevles when we came home. I saw people sprinkle it on themselves before they got into the car. I am still not sure what it signifies, but perhaps it has a purifying significance, something to ward off the darker spirits of death.
Don't know.
I came home and washed my hands, because where i come from that's what i've always been told to do when i got home from a graveyard.
Everything about the ceremony was familiar and yet it was very different from the funerals i have been to. Yet grief is universal and funeral's intention seems to always be about respecting the deceased and to come together to show support to the family who has lossed a loved one. A way for a community to gather during the time of darkness. A common sadness that reinforcess communal and familial bonds. Whatever the ceremonial aspects, the goal is the same, to create a moment when the person is remembered and his physical self is let go.
i told you. a random post.
last night, after karate practice, Ben and i found a new, tiny, cute izakaya for dinner. i hope i find it again. it was cheap and the food was good. my favorite thing to order now at restaurants is a sashimi salad. I love a country where i can get a mixed green salad with different kinds of sashimi on it for an equivalent of 6 US dollars.
Karate was great. It's getting much better and i can now follow through two katas. Kata is a form and i like them because they are like well rehearsed dance routines. Of the two katas, i really like the one called "godan" or fifth form...the gestures are akin to someone showing off their sword handling skills. It's very regal and proud.
at some point i am going to shoot video of the two kids with black belts at our dojou. They are incredible. When they move through their katas, it is as if they move air. It's really powerful.
ok. enough for today.
cheers
Sunday, January 22, 2006
and lastly..to the writers
tomorrow, i promise i will fill you in on my life back in okinawa and how wonderful the cherry blossoms are..and they really are..the japanese are absolutely right about this one.
here are two things have been written about our trip; one about our experience in Panskura and the other started out as a toast to John Taj but ended up being a toast to the entire crew.
enjoy
"Twelve Days in Panskura Town" written and performed on January 30th, 2005 by Becky, Reyhan, and Froilan
The first day of Christmas( or the Camp)in Panskura town
We ate rice and boiled vegs.
The second day in Panskura Town
We got banana plates.
The third day in Panskura Town
We taught some children
The fourth day in Panskura Town
We wrapped some gifts
The fifth day in Panskura Town
Five eggplants
The sixth day in Panskura Town
We gave out the presents.
The seventh day in Panskura Town
Bloody Diarrhea
The eight day in Panskura Town
We dropped down like flies
The ninth day in Panskura Town
We watched girls dancing
The tenth day in Panskura Town
We travelled to the boat.
The eleventh day in Panskura Town
We had a boat ride
The twelfth day in Panskura Town
We saw NO Tigers.
The Toast to India written by Chris, Kelly and Ben C. and performed by Chris on January 5, 2006.
Here’s to the glasses and the gasses
and the smiling orphan faces
to muddy river boat rides
and Mexican family ties.
To talk of Maria and talk of Maria
and talk of Maria and talk of Maria
to copious amounts of medicine pills
the dire smells and squat toilet spills.
To monkeys, camels, and bears oh my!
but no hash this time to make us high
to banana leaves and cross legged pain
to dahl and veggies oh god, not again.
To rickshaw rides that near claimed our lives
to the men who offered their daughters and wives
not one nor three not five but seven
days of diarrhea; that was John’s heaven.
To the beggars we saw from rickshaw’s too small
our favorite the man with one giant ball
to the orphans we gave Christmas cheer
but lost our money on Bunti’s beer.
To dirty shoes and omiyage
the India blues and new words, aye?
to thai pants and smog, and the panskura mob
to the friends we made with no parents at all.
To the mainland JETs unknown at the start
who became by our trials Okinawan in part
we came to India for a selfless cause
yet gained friendship that touched us all.
But where would we be without a dedication of sorts
to our mates, tomodachi, our beloved cohorts
to Elvira and Cory and Lauren and John
whose planning and strength we came to lean on.
To Alie and Blair, Thulani and Fro
Okinawa bound, I hope time will show
to Alicia and Marshall the south’ners from ‘ginia
who gave the orphans soapstone and San’na.
To Sachiko, Caleb, and Dan who we saw
only in Panskura, for a time too small
to Reyhan and Linda and Becky who came
as guests to our group, but part just the same.
To Kelly and Craig and Yasemin Çakmak
and Elina who taught us how to “beat off”
to Andy and Ben (both the small and the tall)
the former of who had a massage of their balls.
Myself I would simply just like to say
what an honor it’s been each step of the way
so i raise this glass without fear of boast
to the best group of people I may ever toast.
-cheers
here are two things have been written about our trip; one about our experience in Panskura and the other started out as a toast to John Taj but ended up being a toast to the entire crew.
enjoy
"Twelve Days in Panskura Town" written and performed on January 30th, 2005 by Becky, Reyhan, and Froilan
The first day of Christmas( or the Camp)in Panskura town
We ate rice and boiled vegs.
The second day in Panskura Town
We got banana plates.
The third day in Panskura Town
We taught some children
The fourth day in Panskura Town
We wrapped some gifts
The fifth day in Panskura Town
Five eggplants
The sixth day in Panskura Town
We gave out the presents.
The seventh day in Panskura Town
Bloody Diarrhea
The eight day in Panskura Town
We dropped down like flies
The ninth day in Panskura Town
We watched girls dancing
The tenth day in Panskura Town
We travelled to the boat.
The eleventh day in Panskura Town
We had a boat ride
The twelfth day in Panskura Town
We saw NO Tigers.
The Toast to India written by Chris, Kelly and Ben C. and performed by Chris on January 5, 2006.
Here’s to the glasses and the gasses
and the smiling orphan faces
to muddy river boat rides
and Mexican family ties.
To talk of Maria and talk of Maria
and talk of Maria and talk of Maria
to copious amounts of medicine pills
the dire smells and squat toilet spills.
To monkeys, camels, and bears oh my!
but no hash this time to make us high
to banana leaves and cross legged pain
to dahl and veggies oh god, not again.
To rickshaw rides that near claimed our lives
to the men who offered their daughters and wives
not one nor three not five but seven
days of diarrhea; that was John’s heaven.
To the beggars we saw from rickshaw’s too small
our favorite the man with one giant ball
to the orphans we gave Christmas cheer
but lost our money on Bunti’s beer.
To dirty shoes and omiyage
the India blues and new words, aye?
to thai pants and smog, and the panskura mob
to the friends we made with no parents at all.
To the mainland JETs unknown at the start
who became by our trials Okinawan in part
we came to India for a selfless cause
yet gained friendship that touched us all.
But where would we be without a dedication of sorts
to our mates, tomodachi, our beloved cohorts
to Elvira and Cory and Lauren and John
whose planning and strength we came to lean on.
To Alie and Blair, Thulani and Fro
Okinawa bound, I hope time will show
to Alicia and Marshall the south’ners from ‘ginia
who gave the orphans soapstone and San’na.
To Sachiko, Caleb, and Dan who we saw
only in Panskura, for a time too small
to Reyhan and Linda and Becky who came
as guests to our group, but part just the same.
To Kelly and Craig and Yasemin Çakmak
and Elina who taught us how to “beat off”
to Andy and Ben (both the small and the tall)
the former of who had a massage of their balls.
Myself I would simply just like to say
what an honor it’s been each step of the way
so i raise this glass without fear of boast
to the best group of people I may ever toast.
-cheers
Monday, January 16, 2006
back to India
i think the toughest thing to describe in words for me is my experience at Panskura. Panskura is a small, rural town in West Bengal. We came there to participate in an English camp. I don't think any of us knew exactly what that meant and i venture to guess, that even after we left, we were not quite sure what it was we accomplished.
I came in with a group that was two days late for the openning ceremony and the initial orientation. The day we came in, the classes were already done and i played outside with children and the other JETs. The most common sight throughout our days at the school were circles of children and villagers around one or several JETs. Whenever i saw a gathering, i was sure to find a foreigner in the middle of it, leading a game, signing authographs, taking photos and showing them off, or just chatting.
Second day was the 24th. Kelly and i taught three classes that day. We did them on the fly. We had flashcards and ideas, but we had no idea who we would be teaching. Kelly had taught a group of 11-13 year old girls inside the school building on the previous day and suggested we go to them again. We walked into a cement room with drab walls and a portable chalkboard leaning against a lonely chair. The girls were standing on mats that looked like potato sacks, perhaps they were. Eager and anticipating they were waiting for our instructions.
"Miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss...." we heard that word so many times, it was like a non-stop ringing in our ears. We tried to teach them emotions by mimicking them. We tried to teach them to read the words by having them find the emotions. The girls were competitive and eager to please. They would tell on their peer if the girl cheated. They would scream for attention to make sure we saw the one giving the right answer.
It was exhausting and yet pleasant to have such a ready audience. I think we did all right that day--we certainly felt that our lessons went well, even though i felt that was i losing my voice and sanity towards the end.
During lunch, the group discussed how the morning went. What classrooms could be switched up..who was doing what where.
We were served our usual boiled veg on plates sown from banana leaves (that was the last day of those plates...after that we got paper plates once and banana leaves the rest of the time).
The ladies who would serve us in the basement room came around with laddles and buckets. Every time they scooped up something on the plate, we said "thank you."
One of the ladies got so used to it, that during the rest of the time, she would come up to one of us with a laddle and say "thank you?" as she got ready to pour out the veggies, rice, dahl, or noodles, whatever was served that day.
The food never bothered me too much. It wasn't the most extravagant and certainly didn't strike me as particularly tasty, but it was filling and there was usually plenty of it.
One day we got fried eggplant for dinner. I have never seen a group of people get so excited over one piece of friend eggplant. It was as if we had received a gift we had most desired and the high anticipation for a second helping was hillarious, but i felt it as much as anyone.
The night of the 24th people gathered in the girls dorm room at the guest house to wrap presents. Each orphan received three presents and we had also wrapped a bunch of smaller presents of pencils, pens, and erasers to give out to the school children that would gather in the afternoon of the 25th.
Here's an entry from my journal on the 25th:
Every minute is precious here. Every moment wants to be special and remembered. In the morning we watched the school children race in a sports event. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese "undokai." .... Panskura is rural and without industry [as far as i could tell]. They are farmers and merchants who are scraping by for a living. Yet they are people of such spirit and joy towards others. Their eyes show such depth and beauty.....The joy we've brought to these people by paying attention to their children is apparent without words.
Standing in a small school room on the third floor. Looking out through a window at a field filled with trash with JETs behind me decorating it for Christmas events.
[after the Christmas day events] It seemed that things were chaotic and unorganized but the children loved every moment. It was a bit strange singing songs with everyone and yet i felt joy and love. So much love is radiating in this place. It's no surprise people are drawn here for spiritual guidance and awakening. It's not fully for me but i appreciate it and cherish the moments that are given me.
The girl grabbing my hand and wanting my attention. All they want is attention: a smile, a hug, a lift, a shake, and acknowledgment that we, strange foreigners, see them and like them.
We decorated the tree [ouside] and kids kept running back to me for ribbons so that they could be lifted up by one of the guys to hang them on the tree. When the lights came up, we had gone through five or six renditions of "Jingle Bells" and once through several other songs and carols. It's bonding and necessary for everyone to feel at home in a forign land. At x-mas most kids [JETs] here are homesick for families and warmth and by coming together for this holiday in a very giving cause, they are filtering through the love they feel for their families.
Every day i learned something. I learned things about myself, how i am probably meant to be a teacher, but i also like to be a part of organizing the chaos.
Malati taught us about the projects she is involved in, and the slideshow she showed us was very intense. Some photos she showed us were no different from the things we've already seen at the school, but she told us some stories, especially the ones about the repression of women that were hard to believe. It's difficult to fathom how women live in India--the stories of bride burning are incomprehensible to me.
I was sick for a couple of days. Had to miss school one morning, but really needed the rest.
Felt bad for missing opportunities to teach but at the same time, needed to get away from the intensity of the chaos that reigned at the school the entire time.
There was one room in the school that members of the group retired to for a bit of shut eye and chat. Didi's room had in it two beds with about a meter of space between them. Sometimes 6 to 8 people would gather in it to step out of the constant attention spotlight that followed us everywhere we went.
I don't know if i'll be able to sit down to write more about the trip.
I have put up all of my pictures, even the ones that i thought were lost to the system were recovered, thanx to John.
More pics from others in the group are being put up daily and hopefully once all of them are up on-line and accessible, i'll be able to give you a password to see them.
Chris and John are working on DVDs with the digital movies and photos that were shot by all 23 of us. It's a huge undertaking and they're wonderful for doing it.
There are moments from the trip that float up into my mind's eye throughout the day. Images of the pond in front of the school with people in front of it. The image of Dan and i on the stage giving an impromptu speech to the Panskura community.
Orphan girls posing in their dance costumes to my camera. Walking through a quiet village with Kelly and three lovely guides we met there.
On the bus, on the way to the hotel in Kolkata at 1am. Watching Yasemine make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as the bus stands in the middle of a dark, unknown road and the bus driver is out looking for someone to give him directions.
New Years at the rooftop restaurant in Kolkata. Holding hands and mouthing "Auld Lang Syne."
Chatting with Ben in darkness of the night on a boat in the middle of Ganges. Teaching a few more friends how to play, "beat off" on the floor of the Delhi airport, waiting for our flight home.
Standing on the steps of our guesthouse in Panskura, with rose petals in my hair, surrounded by the best group of people i could have ever hoped for to share this trip with, singing, "I like the flowers, i like the daffodils; I like the mountains, I like the rolling hills..."
I barely wrote in my journal during the three days back in Delhi, mostly because they were a much quiet time--we stayed in a more quiet part of town and did a bit of sightseeing, ate some western food, and went to markets.
I did enjoy this trip..i loved a lot of it and it was difficult to get through some moments. I would like to go back to India with more time and a bigger say in the planning of the trip. But with the same group of people....anyone keen? :)
cheers
Friday, January 13, 2006
Nihongo de?
there are some japanese words that are simply indespencible to me now. i learned some of them during the first week while Gabrielle showed me around the island.
"genki," "daijobu," "sugoi," "arigato," "junken," "kanpai," "izakaya," "onegaishimasu," "kudasai," "hai, dozo."
sometimes we joke here that we don't know how we'll live without those words back home. we'll have to teach "genki" to everyone we know in order for them to understand us...same goes for "daijobu," and "sugoi."
so it was funny to see how this theory played out when 20 some foreigners came to India to volunteer and the one thing they all had in common was that they were all working in one capacity or another (mostly as JETs) in Japan.
coming from one foreign country and having leaned some of its social manners and expectations, it was strange being in another foreign country where none of the same rules applied.
We kept saying "onegaishimasu" whenever we meant to say "please" in shops and restaurants. we asked people "genki?" when we meant to say "how are you?"
there are several kids in a small village in India who know the word "genki" to mean "lively, excited, full of energy" and can play "junken," the japanese version of rock, paper, scissors (a way better version).
we learned how to greet the indian way, by saying "namaste" or "namaska", putting hands together as if to pray and bringing the fingers up first to the forehead and then to the nose as the words left the lips.
i bowed every time i said it!
i bowed when saying "hello" and "thank you" and "goodbye"
Malati, the volunteer coordinator, joked that we all bowed so much during the coarse of the week we were all there, that she started bowing back.
whenever something is given or received in the japanese society, be it papers, presents, bills, money at a bank, it is given and received with both hands. I kept extending both my hands in india to receive anything.
the nice thing about having a language in common that is not english (as english is well spoken and understood in india) is that gives a "secret code" advantage.
of course, most of us are no where near fluency in japanese, but we do know numbers and how to say simple things, so we would confirm with each other about market prices, tip decisions, and rickshaw price amounts, in Japanese.
it was cute. and it gave us a bit of practice in japanese, since only a few determined souls in the group actually cracked open the study books while in india.
so here's an article that made me think of all this linguistic nonsence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4594782.stm
cheers
"genki," "daijobu," "sugoi," "arigato," "junken," "kanpai," "izakaya," "onegaishimasu," "kudasai," "hai, dozo."
sometimes we joke here that we don't know how we'll live without those words back home. we'll have to teach "genki" to everyone we know in order for them to understand us...same goes for "daijobu," and "sugoi."
so it was funny to see how this theory played out when 20 some foreigners came to India to volunteer and the one thing they all had in common was that they were all working in one capacity or another (mostly as JETs) in Japan.
coming from one foreign country and having leaned some of its social manners and expectations, it was strange being in another foreign country where none of the same rules applied.
We kept saying "onegaishimasu" whenever we meant to say "please" in shops and restaurants. we asked people "genki?" when we meant to say "how are you?"
there are several kids in a small village in India who know the word "genki" to mean "lively, excited, full of energy" and can play "junken," the japanese version of rock, paper, scissors (a way better version).
we learned how to greet the indian way, by saying "namaste" or "namaska", putting hands together as if to pray and bringing the fingers up first to the forehead and then to the nose as the words left the lips.
i bowed every time i said it!
i bowed when saying "hello" and "thank you" and "goodbye"
Malati, the volunteer coordinator, joked that we all bowed so much during the coarse of the week we were all there, that she started bowing back.
whenever something is given or received in the japanese society, be it papers, presents, bills, money at a bank, it is given and received with both hands. I kept extending both my hands in india to receive anything.
the nice thing about having a language in common that is not english (as english is well spoken and understood in india) is that gives a "secret code" advantage.
of course, most of us are no where near fluency in japanese, but we do know numbers and how to say simple things, so we would confirm with each other about market prices, tip decisions, and rickshaw price amounts, in Japanese.
it was cute. and it gave us a bit of practice in japanese, since only a few determined souls in the group actually cracked open the study books while in india.
so here's an article that made me think of all this linguistic nonsence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4594782.stm
cheers
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
about india
i think all of us that went on the trip would agree that it is extremely difficult to describe it; we had a hard time discussing our reactions amongst ourselves and we were all there to experience it.
things that are important to note before i venture to explore my own thoughts and tell you about a few things that had happened:
--india is a land of extremes and unlike Japan it is not very subtle about it.
--we were there as volunteers for an English camp at an ashram/school/orphanage--that fact alone colored my experience greatly...i feel fortunate to have experienced some of india not as a tourist but as someone who has come to share a part of my knowledge, energy, and love with a few of its people.
--i was fortunate to travel and work with a group of extremely dedicated, wonderful, stoic, fantastic individuals who have shared with me their wisdom, their humor, their spirits. Thank you, all!
Upon arrival in Delhi we were greeted by dirt--dirt that was ancient and new....it was inescapable, persistent, and i have used more sanitizer in those two weeks in india than i ever thought was possible. Perhaps i was overly precautious, but i didn't want to take any chances..i wanted to be well for the entirety of the short trip.
We spent our first night in India in Delhi's Paharganj disctrict. Late at night it seemed calm enough--in the morning, i stepped into a street filled with people selling things, cows just meddling about, kids stretching out their hands towards every passing foreigner, and inexplicable smells coming out of every shop and restaurant. That day we had to leave Delhi for Kolkata and then Panskura, all by train. Our train tickets were taken by mistake by the group that had arrived earlier and were already in Panskura when we arrived in Delhi. So with the help of one of our fearless leaders and organizers, Elvira, and our then slightly sick friend, Chris we went to the New Delhi trainstation to get our tickets reprinted in time for the 5 o'clock train.
I don't think i could describe the train station to you, filled to the brim with people it is scary and exciting at the same time. I was eager to get on the train, i fondly remembered the days of taking long train rides as a kid through Soviet Union, and wondered what it would be like in India.
Get to the right platform with 20 minutes to spare, even have time to bargain for a chain and lock from a vendor.
Walk along it to get into a good spot to board. Turns out we were wrong and have to walk a long ways back once the train actually arrives. Chris and Elvira are in a separate car and we watch them board as we search for our car. The ticket says A-5, we board and find the seats indicated. There's 5 of us: myself, Ben, Reyhan, Andy, and Ben's sister who joined us in Delhi, Becky. There are obviously only 4 spots, the 5th is occupied by a nice couple. I know what this type of car is called in russian, "platzkart" but have no idea what that's in English. Imagine the train from Harry Potter...take away the sliding doors..actually take away all doors from the entire car except the ones between cars..then add two beds above the two below and then add two more beds in the corridor perpindicular to the four you've already imagined. Give about 30 centimeters corridor space between them and you'll have a picture of what we were in.
We decide to forget about the fifth spot, there are four beds, we can make it work. We have at least two bags per person (Reyhan has four filled with things for the orphans), we pile those on the top beds and try to sit down. Then a man with a family comes up and says that the seats we're in are his. I show him our ticket, he says that "WL" in front of the seats means that we are waitlisted for those seats and don't actually have them. It's 4:50pm. He tells us to check the passenger list posted on the outside of the car. I run out, look through and sure enough, our names aren't on it. I start a small panic.
I run back into the car, Ben is already trying to get our bags off the beds and into the corridor. We say we need to get off this car, we don't have seats..While my companions are unloading onto the platform, i run around trying to find someone who can explain to us where we're supposed to be. I find an official looking guy, he tells me to check the list, i tell him i already did, he glares right past me and walks away. A nice random stranger looks at the ticket i am squeezing in now sweating hand and tells me that the thing written on it in pen does not say A5-5..but actually AS-5. Yes!! We saw a car named AS-5. It is at least 6 cars back..we run!
I see that Becky and Andy, and maybe Ben have already jumped on, i start piling my handbag and the train starts moving. There's a girl behind me, pushing past me to get on with her bags. I am frantically trying to shove my big bag into the openning jammed by other baggage. I scream for the bags to be moved out of the way. The train is moving! It's moving and i'm at a slight run trying to hang onto my bag and climb on. I feel a bag fly over my head, i am on board, the girl climbs up behind me and i realize i don't know where Reyhan is. The train is now moving at a comfortable speed past the platform and i scream out her name... a woman on the platform indicates that she has got on in a car behind me. i thank her and move inside.
Whew! Heart pounding, i regard my companions with frightened eyes. Everyone on board? Do we have our seats? Yes.
The rest of the train journey we spend getting to know our 6th neighbor, Phil, a 19 year old university student from Delhi who is going home to Kolkata. We are in a 2nd class car now, so that in the space for four, there are now 6 people and a nice couple sits across the corridor from us. He is a business man, she is his mother and we learn a bit about them throughout our journey.
We prove to be a loud bunch but have a really good time. We teach Phil and Becky how to "junken" and say "genki" and he tells us to give him a call once we're in Kolkata for New Years.
Here's a bit i wrote down in my yellow field book that night on the train, i wrote some of it in russian, though, so i'll be translating here...i apologize if it sounds awkward:
Dirty and horrible, but it doesn't touch me. Difficult to understand how people live like this, but at the same time don't feel pity. Why is it that i can feel pity towards movies. Perhaps in reality, i can't allow myself to feel the amount of anguish i otherwise would. Our survival depends on us keeping level headed in this whirlwind of a country. I am not focusing on any one thing in particular right now. Just trying to take in the whole thing.
We arrived at the Howrah trainstation in Kolkata and were met by the volunteer coordinator for the camp, Malati. A wonderful British woman who has lived and worked in India for the last fifteen years. She bought us tickets for the next leg of the journey, an hour and a half train ride to Panskura. This train is just open air cars with metal seats and dirty floors. People pile in and out for an hour and a half and we are stared at the entire way. Vendors come through shouting for their goods: packets of nuts, some sort of mixed spices, bags, packets of shampoo and lotion, an endless stream of screams and ignoring them becomes easier with each passing minute. We get out at the train station and push our way to the entrance. Looking out at Panskura for the first time we try to take it all in, but it's too hectic and we are too tired. We find the guesthouse, dump our bags and attempt to relax when a Didi (sister) comes from the school to tell us that we're being expected for lunch and everyone is waiting for us.
Here's a bit from my journal on that day, December 23rd:
the place we're staying at seems nice. clean and yellow walls. the dormrooms are big but Reyhan and i are sharing a double.
first impressions are difficult. There's a lot of color in this country. And poverty and dirt. I thought I could take it but it's too difficult. There were several moments today when i honestly would have hopped the next plane to Okinawa/home.
the kids seem great...in small numbers. There are too many of them and it's chaotic. i was tired after the flight and the overnight in Delhi and then the adventure on the train. The small, hot train to Panskura was almost too scary. People stare here but not like they stare at home [Okinawa]. There's hunger and desparity in their eyes. A huge part of me wants to help; is sorry for their condition but at the same time annoyed by it. And that sounds awful but the system here is obviously not working. There are too many people and the infrustructure is beyond being incapable of dealing with them.
Over the next two weeks i've tried to take in and observe as much as possible. It made my head hurt and my heart ache. It was overwhelming and stressful and i am so glad, once again for the company i was in. We would discuss how to solve the problems we saw, knowing full well that our discussions would lead nowhere. without reading more about the country and it's current political situation, i cannot possibly tell you anything of consequence about the reality of these people's lives. I can only tell you what i saw, and those observations are ignorant of 99% of how india lives, but they're all i've got. :)
perhaps this is only part 1.
i will attempt to write more later. i'll try include more humorous things, like the various teams we placed ourselves in, as a hint they were called, "team solid" "team porridge" and "team liquid." and some of the funnest moments for me on the trip were when i taught the majority of the group how to play a russian card game, durak , which means "fool" in english but within the group also has a new title of "beat off."
give me any feedback. should i be more concise. do you not care to read more? let me know. i am at your command as to how to proceed with the next one or two blogs.
after that it will be back to okinawa life.
P.S. I have uploaded over 80% of my photos to the fotki site. They do not all have titles and descriptions at the moment, but that will change within the next 24/48 hours. I also seem to have lost the other 20% of photos to the whims of my new SD card and my old digital camera. I am very saddened by this fact.
more photos will be uploaded by other members of the trip to their blogs and websites. Check out Chris's, Kelly's and Craig's blog. I know for a fact Kelly has some pics up already. Perhaps at a later date Andy will also have some pics up, but he is on a small island with a slow connection so it might a while.
miss ya all
cheers
things that are important to note before i venture to explore my own thoughts and tell you about a few things that had happened:
--india is a land of extremes and unlike Japan it is not very subtle about it.
--we were there as volunteers for an English camp at an ashram/school/orphanage--that fact alone colored my experience greatly...i feel fortunate to have experienced some of india not as a tourist but as someone who has come to share a part of my knowledge, energy, and love with a few of its people.
--i was fortunate to travel and work with a group of extremely dedicated, wonderful, stoic, fantastic individuals who have shared with me their wisdom, their humor, their spirits. Thank you, all!
Upon arrival in Delhi we were greeted by dirt--dirt that was ancient and new....it was inescapable, persistent, and i have used more sanitizer in those two weeks in india than i ever thought was possible. Perhaps i was overly precautious, but i didn't want to take any chances..i wanted to be well for the entirety of the short trip.
We spent our first night in India in Delhi's Paharganj disctrict. Late at night it seemed calm enough--in the morning, i stepped into a street filled with people selling things, cows just meddling about, kids stretching out their hands towards every passing foreigner, and inexplicable smells coming out of every shop and restaurant. That day we had to leave Delhi for Kolkata and then Panskura, all by train. Our train tickets were taken by mistake by the group that had arrived earlier and were already in Panskura when we arrived in Delhi. So with the help of one of our fearless leaders and organizers, Elvira, and our then slightly sick friend, Chris we went to the New Delhi trainstation to get our tickets reprinted in time for the 5 o'clock train.
I don't think i could describe the train station to you, filled to the brim with people it is scary and exciting at the same time. I was eager to get on the train, i fondly remembered the days of taking long train rides as a kid through Soviet Union, and wondered what it would be like in India.
Get to the right platform with 20 minutes to spare, even have time to bargain for a chain and lock from a vendor.
Walk along it to get into a good spot to board. Turns out we were wrong and have to walk a long ways back once the train actually arrives. Chris and Elvira are in a separate car and we watch them board as we search for our car. The ticket says A-5, we board and find the seats indicated. There's 5 of us: myself, Ben, Reyhan, Andy, and Ben's sister who joined us in Delhi, Becky. There are obviously only 4 spots, the 5th is occupied by a nice couple. I know what this type of car is called in russian, "platzkart" but have no idea what that's in English. Imagine the train from Harry Potter...take away the sliding doors..actually take away all doors from the entire car except the ones between cars..then add two beds above the two below and then add two more beds in the corridor perpindicular to the four you've already imagined. Give about 30 centimeters corridor space between them and you'll have a picture of what we were in.
We decide to forget about the fifth spot, there are four beds, we can make it work. We have at least two bags per person (Reyhan has four filled with things for the orphans), we pile those on the top beds and try to sit down. Then a man with a family comes up and says that the seats we're in are his. I show him our ticket, he says that "WL" in front of the seats means that we are waitlisted for those seats and don't actually have them. It's 4:50pm. He tells us to check the passenger list posted on the outside of the car. I run out, look through and sure enough, our names aren't on it. I start a small panic.
I run back into the car, Ben is already trying to get our bags off the beds and into the corridor. We say we need to get off this car, we don't have seats..While my companions are unloading onto the platform, i run around trying to find someone who can explain to us where we're supposed to be. I find an official looking guy, he tells me to check the list, i tell him i already did, he glares right past me and walks away. A nice random stranger looks at the ticket i am squeezing in now sweating hand and tells me that the thing written on it in pen does not say A5-5..but actually AS-5. Yes!! We saw a car named AS-5. It is at least 6 cars back..we run!
I see that Becky and Andy, and maybe Ben have already jumped on, i start piling my handbag and the train starts moving. There's a girl behind me, pushing past me to get on with her bags. I am frantically trying to shove my big bag into the openning jammed by other baggage. I scream for the bags to be moved out of the way. The train is moving! It's moving and i'm at a slight run trying to hang onto my bag and climb on. I feel a bag fly over my head, i am on board, the girl climbs up behind me and i realize i don't know where Reyhan is. The train is now moving at a comfortable speed past the platform and i scream out her name... a woman on the platform indicates that she has got on in a car behind me. i thank her and move inside.
Whew! Heart pounding, i regard my companions with frightened eyes. Everyone on board? Do we have our seats? Yes.
The rest of the train journey we spend getting to know our 6th neighbor, Phil, a 19 year old university student from Delhi who is going home to Kolkata. We are in a 2nd class car now, so that in the space for four, there are now 6 people and a nice couple sits across the corridor from us. He is a business man, she is his mother and we learn a bit about them throughout our journey.
We prove to be a loud bunch but have a really good time. We teach Phil and Becky how to "junken" and say "genki" and he tells us to give him a call once we're in Kolkata for New Years.
Here's a bit i wrote down in my yellow field book that night on the train, i wrote some of it in russian, though, so i'll be translating here...i apologize if it sounds awkward:
Dirty and horrible, but it doesn't touch me. Difficult to understand how people live like this, but at the same time don't feel pity. Why is it that i can feel pity towards movies. Perhaps in reality, i can't allow myself to feel the amount of anguish i otherwise would. Our survival depends on us keeping level headed in this whirlwind of a country. I am not focusing on any one thing in particular right now. Just trying to take in the whole thing.
We arrived at the Howrah trainstation in Kolkata and were met by the volunteer coordinator for the camp, Malati. A wonderful British woman who has lived and worked in India for the last fifteen years. She bought us tickets for the next leg of the journey, an hour and a half train ride to Panskura. This train is just open air cars with metal seats and dirty floors. People pile in and out for an hour and a half and we are stared at the entire way. Vendors come through shouting for their goods: packets of nuts, some sort of mixed spices, bags, packets of shampoo and lotion, an endless stream of screams and ignoring them becomes easier with each passing minute. We get out at the train station and push our way to the entrance. Looking out at Panskura for the first time we try to take it all in, but it's too hectic and we are too tired. We find the guesthouse, dump our bags and attempt to relax when a Didi (sister) comes from the school to tell us that we're being expected for lunch and everyone is waiting for us.
Here's a bit from my journal on that day, December 23rd:
the place we're staying at seems nice. clean and yellow walls. the dormrooms are big but Reyhan and i are sharing a double.
first impressions are difficult. There's a lot of color in this country. And poverty and dirt. I thought I could take it but it's too difficult. There were several moments today when i honestly would have hopped the next plane to Okinawa/home.
the kids seem great...in small numbers. There are too many of them and it's chaotic. i was tired after the flight and the overnight in Delhi and then the adventure on the train. The small, hot train to Panskura was almost too scary. People stare here but not like they stare at home [Okinawa]. There's hunger and desparity in their eyes. A huge part of me wants to help; is sorry for their condition but at the same time annoyed by it. And that sounds awful but the system here is obviously not working. There are too many people and the infrustructure is beyond being incapable of dealing with them.
Over the next two weeks i've tried to take in and observe as much as possible. It made my head hurt and my heart ache. It was overwhelming and stressful and i am so glad, once again for the company i was in. We would discuss how to solve the problems we saw, knowing full well that our discussions would lead nowhere. without reading more about the country and it's current political situation, i cannot possibly tell you anything of consequence about the reality of these people's lives. I can only tell you what i saw, and those observations are ignorant of 99% of how india lives, but they're all i've got. :)
perhaps this is only part 1.
i will attempt to write more later. i'll try include more humorous things, like the various teams we placed ourselves in, as a hint they were called, "team solid" "team porridge" and "team liquid." and some of the funnest moments for me on the trip were when i taught the majority of the group how to play a russian card game, durak , which means "fool" in english but within the group also has a new title of "beat off."
give me any feedback. should i be more concise. do you not care to read more? let me know. i am at your command as to how to proceed with the next one or two blogs.
after that it will be back to okinawa life.
P.S. I have uploaded over 80% of my photos to the fotki site. They do not all have titles and descriptions at the moment, but that will change within the next 24/48 hours. I also seem to have lost the other 20% of photos to the whims of my new SD card and my old digital camera. I am very saddened by this fact.
more photos will be uploaded by other members of the trip to their blogs and websites. Check out Chris's, Kelly's and Craig's blog. I know for a fact Kelly has some pics up already. Perhaps at a later date Andy will also have some pics up, but he is on a small island with a slow connection so it might a while.
miss ya all
cheers
Sunday, January 01, 2006
S Novim Godom!!
hi from Dehli..
again
back in the crazy city and staying put...
so many things to say and show..but it will have to wait until i get back to Okinawa and let my mind sort them out in the quiet of the island life.
all i want to do right now is call my family.. and wish them a happy new year...
that's not happenning right now..
so if i don't call ..just know that i tried
i'm tired
i'm still slightly giddy..but that's mostly 'cause my brain is in overload from all the sensory input that has been going on around me..
three more days in India..
i don't even know how i feel about that anymore..
we spent new years in Kolkata and flew to Dehli at 5:45am...
so guess who didn't sleep tonight?
cheers
again
back in the crazy city and staying put...
so many things to say and show..but it will have to wait until i get back to Okinawa and let my mind sort them out in the quiet of the island life.
all i want to do right now is call my family.. and wish them a happy new year...
that's not happenning right now..
so if i don't call ..just know that i tried
i'm tired
i'm still slightly giddy..but that's mostly 'cause my brain is in overload from all the sensory input that has been going on around me..
three more days in India..
i don't even know how i feel about that anymore..
we spent new years in Kolkata and flew to Dehli at 5:45am...
so guess who didn't sleep tonight?
cheers
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
the many faces of india
there's a small picture of a deity on top of the harddrive. it's gilded and has many hands and many faces...it's sitting on top of a dove...i've just been told that she's Gaity and is a goddess of the Brahmin.
do the untouchbles have a goddess? i don't know yet.
we're in Panskura right now. a small town near Kolkata. it's a rural looking place. the streets are not paved, every place one looks, there is trash...
but the people are beautiful. fantastic. kind. and their spirits override the way we might perceive their lives as westerners.
it's hard being here. it's overwhelming.
one day Ben and i took a walk. a man came up to us. he told us to follow him through the fields. we did. we were hesitant. we didn't want to end up in his house and have to refuse his hospitality/food..which we would have to so that we wouldn't get sick.. but the man took us to another large field where men and young guys were playing criquet. once the match was done, a man came up to us and told us that we would be given wreaths of marygolds and they would represent respect and honor given to us as guests of these people. Marygolds were draped over our heads and i held back tears.
these people who have nothing....have so much. so much more than i've ever had.
a week to go. i won't ever be able to tell you all about it in words.
but i'll try.
cheers
do the untouchbles have a goddess? i don't know yet.
we're in Panskura right now. a small town near Kolkata. it's a rural looking place. the streets are not paved, every place one looks, there is trash...
but the people are beautiful. fantastic. kind. and their spirits override the way we might perceive their lives as westerners.
it's hard being here. it's overwhelming.
one day Ben and i took a walk. a man came up to us. he told us to follow him through the fields. we did. we were hesitant. we didn't want to end up in his house and have to refuse his hospitality/food..which we would have to so that we wouldn't get sick.. but the man took us to another large field where men and young guys were playing criquet. once the match was done, a man came up to us and told us that we would be given wreaths of marygolds and they would represent respect and honor given to us as guests of these people. Marygolds were draped over our heads and i held back tears.
these people who have nothing....have so much. so much more than i've ever had.
a week to go. i won't ever be able to tell you all about it in words.
but i'll try.
cheers
Thursday, December 22, 2005
dehli air
the night of the 21st
i have a t-shirt that shelley gave to me
it says, "Wisconsin: Smell the dairy air"
ha ha
funny, right?
in Dehli..
well..can't smell too much right now 'cause am a bit sick
but also 'cause it's very smoggy
as we landed, the captain said that there are clear skies over Dehli, but that we won't see them because of the heavy smog.
Chinese Airlines are awesome. Highly recommend them for international flights. Great food and service.
Staying one night in Dehli, then off to West Bengal on a 16 hour train ride.
Will walk around tomorrow and try and see a few things before we leave at 3pm.
As we were driving, the taxi driver put in a tape. Before the music was playing, the whole thing seemed like a crazy movie set i had just wondered on....but with the music and the smog and the traffic horns and the lack of road demarcation and the cow in front of the hotel...well...it hit me
..
i'm in India
mid-day on the 22nd
ate on the roof of the hotel last night. good food. so far..no problems.
met a couple of women from Uzbekistan..the owner goes there on business..the owner offered us the whiskey from his table.
this morning walked around for a bit.
if it wasn't for the white haze of the smog, i'm sure we'd see the sun.
words fail for description.
lots of people...and energy...so much energy...
i like it.
a lot
cheers
i have a t-shirt that shelley gave to me
it says, "Wisconsin: Smell the dairy air"
ha ha
funny, right?
in Dehli..
well..can't smell too much right now 'cause am a bit sick
but also 'cause it's very smoggy
as we landed, the captain said that there are clear skies over Dehli, but that we won't see them because of the heavy smog.
Chinese Airlines are awesome. Highly recommend them for international flights. Great food and service.
Staying one night in Dehli, then off to West Bengal on a 16 hour train ride.
Will walk around tomorrow and try and see a few things before we leave at 3pm.
As we were driving, the taxi driver put in a tape. Before the music was playing, the whole thing seemed like a crazy movie set i had just wondered on....but with the music and the smog and the traffic horns and the lack of road demarcation and the cow in front of the hotel...well...it hit me
..
i'm in India
mid-day on the 22nd
ate on the roof of the hotel last night. good food. so far..no problems.
met a couple of women from Uzbekistan..the owner goes there on business..the owner offered us the whiskey from his table.
this morning walked around for a bit.
if it wasn't for the white haze of the smog, i'm sure we'd see the sun.
words fail for description.
lots of people...and energy...so much energy...
i like it.
a lot
cheers
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
S Nastupaushim Novim Godom!
greetings, cheers, and salutations.
The line above is one of my favorite phrases in the russian language. Not because it is particularly deep or unique. The literal translation is a bit difficult, "Happy Upcoming New Years!" is what it means.
However, it carries with it feelings and thoughts of a winter season filled with anticipation for a cheerful holiday, full of fun, laughter, presents, and most importantly time with family and friends. I love New Years. The last couple of years i spent it with my sisters and Shelley...dancing. I will miss that this year, along with many other things.
I will try and find a place to dance at this New Years Eve in Kolkata, if that's where we end up on the 31st. Hopefully, my new friends and I will spend it together, and it somewhat doesn't matter where (well.. almost doesn't... :) )
I leave tomorrow. My friends already there have e-mailed updates and some are already sick and all are bewildered by the experience. So i can't wait to see what they've been seeing...although hopefully i'll skip out on the getting sick part of it.
We fly from Naha to Taipei and then to New Dehli. The next day we take an overnight train to Kolkata. That part i'm really looking forward to... Love trains!! or at least, i loved them when i was kid and we took days long journeys from Kazakhstan to Russia and Ukraine..
please hold me to this. When my JET experience is over, i will take a trip on the Tran-Siberian..from Beijing to Moscow...really looking forward to that..
but that's for another day...
tomorrow... it's the land of the Ganges and Gandhi...
cheers
The line above is one of my favorite phrases in the russian language. Not because it is particularly deep or unique. The literal translation is a bit difficult, "Happy Upcoming New Years!" is what it means.
However, it carries with it feelings and thoughts of a winter season filled with anticipation for a cheerful holiday, full of fun, laughter, presents, and most importantly time with family and friends. I love New Years. The last couple of years i spent it with my sisters and Shelley...dancing. I will miss that this year, along with many other things.
I will try and find a place to dance at this New Years Eve in Kolkata, if that's where we end up on the 31st. Hopefully, my new friends and I will spend it together, and it somewhat doesn't matter where (well.. almost doesn't... :) )
I leave tomorrow. My friends already there have e-mailed updates and some are already sick and all are bewildered by the experience. So i can't wait to see what they've been seeing...although hopefully i'll skip out on the getting sick part of it.
We fly from Naha to Taipei and then to New Dehli. The next day we take an overnight train to Kolkata. That part i'm really looking forward to... Love trains!! or at least, i loved them when i was kid and we took days long journeys from Kazakhstan to Russia and Ukraine..
please hold me to this. When my JET experience is over, i will take a trip on the Tran-Siberian..from Beijing to Moscow...really looking forward to that..
but that's for another day...
tomorrow... it's the land of the Ganges and Gandhi...
cheers
Thursday, December 15, 2005
with a tootsie pop
after lunch
students are "cleaning"
i think they are...most of the time all i hear are screaming girls running through the halls and see boys clustered in packs outside.
so yeah. cleaning
i like tootsie pops.
i'm glad i can buy american candy sometimes.
it's bad mostly 'cause i eat it, but i got the pops to offer to anyone who donates to my "India Box" of school supplies.
i am going to India on the 21st of December. the trip was organized by the awesome Lauren, Cory (mainland JETs) and our very own Elvira. It is set up through G.O.M.A.D. (Go out and make a difference) NGO...and is Lauren's baby, as far as i understand it.
The idea caught the attention of several first year JETs, so there are 9 Okinawan JETs going as well a friend of Yasemine's, Reyhan, who is a teacher at a base elementary school.
The bulk of the group will be going to Dehli on the 16th and we will all meet up at the orphanage in West Bengal. The plan is to volunteer our natural ability to speak English and teach it. The orphanage organized a week-long language camp for their kids and for kids from the community. There are 20 volunteers in total (mainlanders as well as Okinawans) and possibly over 200 kids of elementary school age.
After the camp we are on our own until we fly back all together this time to Oki-land on the 4th of January, getting into Naha on the 5th.
I plan on spending the time after the camp exploring West Bengal. I will probably stay in Kolkatta (formerly Calcutta) for a couple of nights.
wow...
i am going to India
trippy
in honor of our trip, a really nice friend of JETs on Okinawa, Shore, organized a dinner party at his parents' house last night.
Shore's parents are originally from Bombay but have been living on Okinawan for over 30 years.
His mother cooked traditional food and made us wonderful coconut dessert. It was great. The dinner guests were very diverse: JETs, military, Okinawans. It truly felt like i was a part of an "internationalization" effort. Although that's what I'm supposed to be providing to the students, I am in fact being internationalized myself more frequently.
here's a pic from a little while ago.
it's a funny one
i thought i'd share it..
kelly got a kid's meal one night at a restaurant..and to play along, Chris suggested that i pretend to feed her.
the pic cracks me up every time.
cheers
students are "cleaning"
i think they are...most of the time all i hear are screaming girls running through the halls and see boys clustered in packs outside.
so yeah. cleaning
i like tootsie pops.
i'm glad i can buy american candy sometimes.
it's bad mostly 'cause i eat it, but i got the pops to offer to anyone who donates to my "India Box" of school supplies.
i am going to India on the 21st of December. the trip was organized by the awesome Lauren, Cory (mainland JETs) and our very own Elvira. It is set up through G.O.M.A.D. (Go out and make a difference) NGO...and is Lauren's baby, as far as i understand it.
The idea caught the attention of several first year JETs, so there are 9 Okinawan JETs going as well a friend of Yasemine's, Reyhan, who is a teacher at a base elementary school.
The bulk of the group will be going to Dehli on the 16th and we will all meet up at the orphanage in West Bengal. The plan is to volunteer our natural ability to speak English and teach it. The orphanage organized a week-long language camp for their kids and for kids from the community. There are 20 volunteers in total (mainlanders as well as Okinawans) and possibly over 200 kids of elementary school age.
After the camp we are on our own until we fly back all together this time to Oki-land on the 4th of January, getting into Naha on the 5th.
I plan on spending the time after the camp exploring West Bengal. I will probably stay in Kolkatta (formerly Calcutta) for a couple of nights.
wow...
i am going to India
trippy
in honor of our trip, a really nice friend of JETs on Okinawa, Shore, organized a dinner party at his parents' house last night.
Shore's parents are originally from Bombay but have been living on Okinawan for over 30 years.
His mother cooked traditional food and made us wonderful coconut dessert. It was great. The dinner guests were very diverse: JETs, military, Okinawans. It truly felt like i was a part of an "internationalization" effort. Although that's what I'm supposed to be providing to the students, I am in fact being internationalized myself more frequently.
here's a pic from a little while ago.
it's a funny one
i thought i'd share it..
kelly got a kid's meal one night at a restaurant..and to play along, Chris suggested that i pretend to feed her.
the pic cracks me up every time.
cheers
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
check this out
Update: Block one is awesome! and i'm not just saying that 'cause it's my Block. We kicked a** in the third round of the Block Games, 3000 points ahead of the next team.
End of Update
so you're probably wondering what it is that JETs do during their hardworking days on the island? Yes, we party seemingly all the time on the weekends, but what about those week days when we are working hard at school and come home exhausted and ready to pass out? How do we keep ourselves entertained and retain our sanity in the sea of never ending confusion created by living here?
Seriously, though. There's a new Okinawa JET game in town and you, as an outside observer, can actually step inside our life on Okinawa and feel like you're a part of the adventure. Or just look at some silly pictures.
The Keitai Photo Blitz ( keitai means cell phone) started on Monday December 5th. All rules are explained on the page and pics are posted daily for the entrees. I've taken a couple already and you'll see my name hopefully a few times as Block 1 will cruise to be the winner of this challenge as well. (we came in second in the 1st event of the Block Games and easily won the second one). So deffinately check out all the Block 1 pics, and perhaps other blocks' pics might be worth a peek at. Phil's toilet dress would have been hillarious had his keitai taken a bigger pic of it, but it's still pretty good.
new photos are up on the fotki page with full explanations.
And now counting 16 days to India.
cheers
End of Update
so you're probably wondering what it is that JETs do during their hardworking days on the island? Yes, we party seemingly all the time on the weekends, but what about those week days when we are working hard at school and come home exhausted and ready to pass out? How do we keep ourselves entertained and retain our sanity in the sea of never ending confusion created by living here?
Seriously, though. There's a new Okinawa JET game in town and you, as an outside observer, can actually step inside our life on Okinawa and feel like you're a part of the adventure. Or just look at some silly pictures.
The Keitai Photo Blitz (
new photos are up on the fotki page with full explanations.
And now counting 16 days to India.
cheers
Friday, December 02, 2005
getting stood up
last night i got stood up on a date. i went to bed in tears, my tortured being completely crushed and not wanting to see the next sunrise. oh the misery!
so how about a weekly recap? i think it's about time i do it.. and it's almost not a coincidence that today is friday and i'm done teaching for the week.
Monday--find out that my JTE's wife gave birth to a baby girl, Riko. Everything went fine, this happened Sunday, and she's in the hospital with the baby. I team-teach one class, the other one is 2nd graders and they're getting ready for a prefectural test on Thursday, so it's just review of grammar and taking tests from last year all week for them and i'm not needed.
Tuesday--on my own! JTE had to go and hang out with his toddler because he was driving his wife nuts in the hospital. I have three classes scheduled, two of them are 2nd graders, so no real hassle, i just give them pre-tests and they quietly work on them the whole class period. Oh yeah! That's right! quietly! the 3rd class is first grade class and they're my favorite. I love their energy and pure enthusiasm. Ok, so not all of them are angels who want nothing more than to know English better today than yesterday, but most of them are, so that's enough for a really good class. I planned out a lesson for new grammar and it went reasonably well. Surprizingly enough I actually have enough Japanese now that i can eliminate most confusion when it comes to directions. Gestures, broken Japanese, and help from the advanced students and we had a good time.
Tuesday night Ben, David and I go for our first karate lesson in Nago. The sensei is great. Most students are kids ranging in age from 4 to 15 and there are three to four moms. I love it! I am in so much pain!
Wednesday--JTE is back. Classes go well. In the evening i go to the hospital to visit JTE's wife. That's right, she's still in the hospital. She's actually not due to check out until Friday and that's quite normal--she is in perfect health. The hospital is small, must be specifically for new moms. It looks like a hotel, feels nice and warm, the rooms have tatami flooring and there are Christmas decorations everywhere! The baby is tiny and adorable.
Thursday--more classes, more karate. i can barely walk, and one of the ladies at the dojo told us that she's been coming for 4 months and for the first three, her legs were in pain. Great! the only state that is good for me is the one of rest. Getting up, sitting down, standing, moving.. it all hurts. Raising arms hurts as well, but not as much.
oh, yeah. and i got stood up! I went home straight from karate (well.. excepting a stop at MaxValue for some boxed sashimi and squid salad) to meet Kelly on Skype for our well planned date. It was so well planned, in fact, that we had a pre-meeting meeting two days prior. Does she show? no! she doesn't! she breaks my heart instead.
and comes up with some lame excuse about falling asleep for 5 hours. Whatever!
Kelly and I need to start planning our lessons for India--we'll be team teaching.
Friday--on my own!! Two classes. Both classes i planned on my own. One was 2nd graders and they had just taken their tests, so games was the name of the game. First i gave back their prefectural test and they got to check it against the master sheet. They do this on their own; sometimes it's nice how completely institutionalized these kids are. Then we play a game. It's based on "hot potato"..Two objects, one is for question, the other is for answer. While the music is playing the objects are passed around, when the music stops, the kid with the "question" item gets to reach into a little bag of questions i prepared. He asks, she answers, music starts again. Worked like a charm! Of course there was cheating, and item tossing/throwing and a few kids had to be basically told what to say, but they liked it and it got them to speak ENglish at the same time.
The next period are 3rd graders. I came up with an activity for a grammar point. There are 6 cards around the room with clues written on them. Cards are big, colorful with lots of clipart. The clues are written using the grammar point, "that" pronoun. Kids team up in max groups of 3 and walk around from card to card, writing down their guesses on sheets of paper made for that purpose. Most kids were involved in it, some boys were letting their friends do most of the work, but no real problems (there never are). The game goes swimmingly, kids learn a few new things: Russia is the largest country in the world, Elina is from Russia, tiger is the biggest cat, soccer requires 11 players per team, etc. With 10 minutes left of the class, we play "hot potato" and it goes well once again. It goes so well in fact, that the very last question picked and asked is "when are you going to Kyushu?" and as the bell sounds, the student answers, "Tomorrow!"
Yeah. I know. I want to go too.
Instead I'm going to Itoman...i guess that'll do.
cheers
so how about a weekly recap? i think it's about time i do it.. and it's almost not a coincidence that today is friday and i'm done teaching for the week.
Monday--find out that my JTE's wife gave birth to a baby girl, Riko. Everything went fine, this happened Sunday, and she's in the hospital with the baby. I team-teach one class, the other one is 2nd graders and they're getting ready for a prefectural test on Thursday, so it's just review of grammar and taking tests from last year all week for them and i'm not needed.
Tuesday--on my own! JTE had to go and hang out with his toddler because he was driving his wife nuts in the hospital. I have three classes scheduled, two of them are 2nd graders, so no real hassle, i just give them pre-tests and they quietly work on them the whole class period. Oh yeah! That's right! quietly! the 3rd class is first grade class and they're my favorite. I love their energy and pure enthusiasm. Ok, so not all of them are angels who want nothing more than to know English better today than yesterday, but most of them are, so that's enough for a really good class. I planned out a lesson for new grammar and it went reasonably well. Surprizingly enough I actually have enough Japanese now that i can eliminate most confusion when it comes to directions. Gestures, broken Japanese, and help from the advanced students and we had a good time.
Tuesday night Ben, David and I go for our first karate lesson in Nago. The sensei is great. Most students are kids ranging in age from 4 to 15 and there are three to four moms. I love it! I am in so much pain!
Wednesday--JTE is back. Classes go well. In the evening i go to the hospital to visit JTE's wife. That's right, she's still in the hospital. She's actually not due to check out until Friday and that's quite normal--she is in perfect health. The hospital is small, must be specifically for new moms. It looks like a hotel, feels nice and warm, the rooms have tatami flooring and there are Christmas decorations everywhere! The baby is tiny and adorable.
Thursday--more classes, more karate. i can barely walk, and one of the ladies at the dojo told us that she's been coming for 4 months and for the first three, her legs were in pain. Great! the only state that is good for me is the one of rest. Getting up, sitting down, standing, moving.. it all hurts. Raising arms hurts as well, but not as much.
oh, yeah. and i got stood up! I went home straight from karate (well.. excepting a stop at MaxValue for some boxed sashimi and squid salad) to meet Kelly on Skype for our well planned date. It was so well planned, in fact, that we had a pre-meeting meeting two days prior. Does she show? no! she doesn't! she breaks my heart instead.
and comes up with some lame excuse about falling asleep for 5 hours. Whatever!
Kelly and I need to start planning our lessons for India--we'll be team teaching.
Friday--on my own!! Two classes. Both classes i planned on my own. One was 2nd graders and they had just taken their tests, so games was the name of the game. First i gave back their prefectural test and they got to check it against the master sheet. They do this on their own; sometimes it's nice how completely institutionalized these kids are. Then we play a game. It's based on "hot potato"..Two objects, one is for question, the other is for answer. While the music is playing the objects are passed around, when the music stops, the kid with the "question" item gets to reach into a little bag of questions i prepared. He asks, she answers, music starts again. Worked like a charm! Of course there was cheating, and item tossing/throwing and a few kids had to be basically told what to say, but they liked it and it got them to speak ENglish at the same time.
The next period are 3rd graders. I came up with an activity for a grammar point. There are 6 cards around the room with clues written on them. Cards are big, colorful with lots of clipart. The clues are written using the grammar point, "that" pronoun. Kids team up in max groups of 3 and walk around from card to card, writing down their guesses on sheets of paper made for that purpose. Most kids were involved in it, some boys were letting their friends do most of the work, but no real problems (there never are). The game goes swimmingly, kids learn a few new things: Russia is the largest country in the world, Elina is from Russia, tiger is the biggest cat, soccer requires 11 players per team, etc. With 10 minutes left of the class, we play "hot potato" and it goes well once again. It goes so well in fact, that the very last question picked and asked is "when are you going to Kyushu?" and as the bell sounds, the student answers, "Tomorrow!"
Yeah. I know. I want to go too.
Instead I'm going to Itoman...i guess that'll do.
cheers
Monday, November 28, 2005
a sashimi emergency
every weekend is different and unique in its own right.
even a weekend during which i decide to do absolutely nothing and stay up north and nurse my cold turns into a weekend worth sharing.
saturday i got up late and cleaned the house. Kelly called with an invite to join the crew for some exploring because the weather has given us a gift of sunshine. I declined, citing my cold and the fact that i hadn't been in my apartment for two weekends in a row and it really needed to get cleaned up.
I took a walk in Kijoka in the afternoon and expected to drive to Okuma for dinner and watch a movie on my laptop at night.
Nope. That didn't happen.
I got a call from Ben, who is my northern neighbor and lives on the other side of the island in a slightly more remote village than mine called Higashi-son.
He called to tell me that he had a sashimi emergency (and trust me, this sounds ten times better when said with a british accent such as Ben's).
Apparently, Ben had also taken a run/walk through his village in the afternoon and happened upon a woman who works at his Board of Education. She happened to be spending her afternoon cutting up small fish that her husband had caught earlier in the day. Ben joined in the sashimi cutting fun and spent a half hour learning how to properly clear the fish meat of bones and fins. The nice woman gave Ben a bag filled with the fish. And Ben now had a "sashimi emergency!" on his hands.
--btw, If you don't know or are not certain about the definition for sashimi, check out this wonderful site for answers.
Ben had also called David out of his Motobu hideaway, and the three of us cut up some tiny fish for sashimi and had a nice dinner with veggies, accompanied by Tom Waits, and complimented by Kirin and Orion beers and awamori later on. We watched two movies that evening: Dude Where Is My Car? and He Died with a Falafel in his Hand. The later one is an australian film that i would highly recommend. The first movie wasn't as bad as i thought it would be but not better than the second movie by the same director, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle .
I drove home that evening in order to get up early and call my sisters, which i did and it very nice to hear about what's been going on in their lives.
Sunday afternoon I decided to drive south to Chatan to perhaps catch the new Harry Potter movie, but on the way decided better of it and turned again towards Higashi-son.
I spent a wonderful couple of hours journaling and reading at Hiro's Coffee Farm.
A wonderful aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans fills the air around this house/farm/coffee shop and it was very relaxing sitting on a small veranda in the sunshine.
When i was leaving Hiro's, I gave Ben a call and found out that David and him were not too far away at an herb garden place.
I found them chilling in the living room/sales area of Meadow Greens , sipping iced green tea and chatting.
I joined them after taking a stroll through the fields and green house of this newly discovered business. David bought a rosemary plant and i got a few things for New Year's presents.
We then decided to look for a coffee shop that i heard about, north of Hiro's farm and deep in the jungle of Higashi-son.
We turned off the main road and followed the signs down a windy road that kept getting narrower and finally turned into an unpaved track wide enough for one car. At then end of it stood a house, surrounded by a green, lush jungle and a coffee shop was on the first floor of it. One of Ben's elementary students lives there but he hid from Ben the whole time, probably intimidated by the two other gaijin Ben brought with him.
The place was by far the best place I have been to in Okinawa so far. And that's saying a lot. It's a perfect getaway, chilling spot, and made all three of us wish that we could own a piece of jungle in the north of Okinawa so that we could open up one of these ourselves.
This is Ben checking out a somewhat pricey menu.
This is David and I enjoying our time.
And i wanted a picture of myself with a jungle backdrop.
More caffeine intake and we were once again on our way. This time south to Nago to join Ben C. and Aine for a dinner at an "all you can grill/eat for 90 minutes" place.
Aine is suspiciously eyeing Ben's serving of ice cream.
Ben is saddened by the prospects of the last piece of chicken on the grill.
At the end of Sunday I was fully loaded on caffeine, protein, and sugar. The drive home was a riot.
And tomorrow i am by myself in the classroom for the first time.
cheers
even a weekend during which i decide to do absolutely nothing and stay up north and nurse my cold turns into a weekend worth sharing.
saturday i got up late and cleaned the house. Kelly called with an invite to join the crew for some exploring because the weather has given us a gift of sunshine. I declined, citing my cold and the fact that i hadn't been in my apartment for two weekends in a row and it really needed to get cleaned up.
I took a walk in Kijoka in the afternoon and expected to drive to Okuma for dinner and watch a movie on my laptop at night.
Nope. That didn't happen.
I got a call from Ben, who is my northern neighbor and lives on the other side of the island in a slightly more remote village than mine called Higashi-son.
He called to tell me that he had a sashimi emergency (and trust me, this sounds ten times better when said with a british accent such as Ben's).
Apparently, Ben had also taken a run/walk through his village in the afternoon and happened upon a woman who works at his Board of Education. She happened to be spending her afternoon cutting up small fish that her husband had caught earlier in the day. Ben joined in the sashimi cutting fun and spent a half hour learning how to properly clear the fish meat of bones and fins. The nice woman gave Ben a bag filled with the fish. And Ben now had a "sashimi emergency!" on his hands.
--btw, If you don't know or are not certain about the definition for sashimi, check out this wonderful site for answers.
Ben had also called David out of his Motobu hideaway, and the three of us cut up some tiny fish for sashimi and had a nice dinner with veggies, accompanied by Tom Waits, and complimented by Kirin and Orion beers and awamori later on. We watched two movies that evening: Dude Where Is My Car? and He Died with a Falafel in his Hand. The later one is an australian film that i would highly recommend. The first movie wasn't as bad as i thought it would be but not better than the second movie by the same director, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle .
I drove home that evening in order to get up early and call my sisters, which i did and it very nice to hear about what's been going on in their lives.
Sunday afternoon I decided to drive south to Chatan to perhaps catch the new Harry Potter movie, but on the way decided better of it and turned again towards Higashi-son.
I spent a wonderful couple of hours journaling and reading at Hiro's Coffee Farm.
A wonderful aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans fills the air around this house/farm/coffee shop and it was very relaxing sitting on a small veranda in the sunshine.
When i was leaving Hiro's, I gave Ben a call and found out that David and him were not too far away at an herb garden place.
I found them chilling in the living room/sales area of Meadow Greens , sipping iced green tea and chatting.
I joined them after taking a stroll through the fields and green house of this newly discovered business. David bought a rosemary plant and i got a few things for New Year's presents.
We then decided to look for a coffee shop that i heard about, north of Hiro's farm and deep in the jungle of Higashi-son.
We turned off the main road and followed the signs down a windy road that kept getting narrower and finally turned into an unpaved track wide enough for one car. At then end of it stood a house, surrounded by a green, lush jungle and a coffee shop was on the first floor of it. One of Ben's elementary students lives there but he hid from Ben the whole time, probably intimidated by the two other gaijin Ben brought with him.
The place was by far the best place I have been to in Okinawa so far. And that's saying a lot. It's a perfect getaway, chilling spot, and made all three of us wish that we could own a piece of jungle in the north of Okinawa so that we could open up one of these ourselves.
This is Ben checking out a somewhat pricey menu.
This is David and I enjoying our time.
And i wanted a picture of myself with a jungle backdrop.
More caffeine intake and we were once again on our way. This time south to Nago to join Ben C. and Aine for a dinner at an "all you can grill/eat for 90 minutes" place.
Aine is suspiciously eyeing Ben's serving of ice cream.
Ben is saddened by the prospects of the last piece of chicken on the grill.
At the end of Sunday I was fully loaded on caffeine, protein, and sugar. The drive home was a riot.
And tomorrow i am by myself in the classroom for the first time.
cheers
Friday, November 25, 2005
back to teaching
it's a great feeling i get when i walk out of a successful lesson.
and today i had two.
finally! i was back in the classroom after over a week long absense. Last week i was gone for the MYC and this week i wasn't needed on tues. and thur. and wednesday was a holiday. oh, and monday we had off because we "worked" on Sunday (we watched junior high school kids from the north perform).
wow. i just sneezed really loudly
and no one said "bless you" or "gesundheit". and that's still really weird to me.
not because they don't use English..i mean duh! but because nothing is said at all when someone sneezes. I come from two cultures that take that very seriously. My grandfather used to have a joke that whenever he sneezed and no one said anything, he would say, "Bud zdorov, Aron Isaikovich." Translated, "Be healthy, Aron Isaikovich"....Aaron was his name...so get it? he used the saying himself to shame whoever was nearby, his granddaughters, to remember what they're supposed to say.
"bud' zdorov" is the russian equavalent to "gesundheit" a saying i use most often, partially due to the fact that i've lived in Milwaukee for so long.
ok.. off track
today, in the classroom i actually used something that they taught me in all those long and boring education classes at the university. I used multiple disciplines in the classroom. That is to say, creating as many connections to the material for kids as possible, so as to get everyone involved on one level or another.
my plan wasn't so intricate, but it never has to be. Sometimes all it takes is bringing in a map of a place you're reading abuot in a goofy story, or like what i did today, bringing paintings and photos to give examples of what is discussed.
Today, the 3rd graders were reviewing the pronoun, "that" and the construction, "This is a painting thatMonet painted."
To tell you the truth, it's a bit strained...i would personally forgoe the "that" in regular conversation, but nevemind that.
So i told them about Van Gogh's ear, and how to pronounce Monet, and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and its prominance in movies, and i even brought in a new concept car from Nissan.
Multidisciplining.
Turns out Elina is not just a talking English robot. Turns out, she actually knows other things. wow!
Anyways. It's quite a high coming out of a successful lesson.
and today i had two.
finally! i was back in the classroom after over a week long absense. Last week i was gone for the MYC and this week i wasn't needed on tues. and thur. and wednesday was a holiday. oh, and monday we had off because we "worked" on Sunday (we watched junior high school kids from the north perform).
wow. i just sneezed really loudly
and no one said "bless you" or "gesundheit". and that's still really weird to me.
not because they don't use English..i mean duh! but because nothing is said at all when someone sneezes. I come from two cultures that take that very seriously. My grandfather used to have a joke that whenever he sneezed and no one said anything, he would say, "Bud zdorov, Aron Isaikovich." Translated, "Be healthy, Aron Isaikovich"....Aaron was his name...so get it? he used the saying himself to shame whoever was nearby, his granddaughters, to remember what they're supposed to say.
"bud' zdorov" is the russian equavalent to "gesundheit" a saying i use most often, partially due to the fact that i've lived in Milwaukee for so long.
ok.. off track
today, in the classroom i actually used something that they taught me in all those long and boring education classes at the university. I used multiple disciplines in the classroom. That is to say, creating as many connections to the material for kids as possible, so as to get everyone involved on one level or another.
my plan wasn't so intricate, but it never has to be. Sometimes all it takes is bringing in a map of a place you're reading abuot in a goofy story, or like what i did today, bringing paintings and photos to give examples of what is discussed.
Today, the 3rd graders were reviewing the pronoun, "that" and the construction, "This is a painting thatMonet painted."
To tell you the truth, it's a bit strained...i would personally forgoe the "that" in regular conversation, but nevemind that.
So i told them about Van Gogh's ear, and how to pronounce Monet, and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and its prominance in movies, and i even brought in a new concept car from Nissan.
Multidisciplining.
Turns out Elina is not just a talking English robot. Turns out, she actually knows other things. wow!
Anyways. It's quite a high coming out of a successful lesson.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
sensei to the rescue
kyou wa kayoubi desu.
today's tuesday.
and today i complited my first test for the CLAIR Japanese correspondance course. I cheated once when i changed one of the counting suffix answers. I didn't bother learning all of them, but the one i knew "-hon"--counter for long, thin things--i changed, 'cause i didn't notice that there was a number associated with the blank to be filled in.
So because it was 8 pencils.. the suffix change from -hon to -pon..
ok.. so this probably made sense to three people...but oh well..
i feel like i've accomplished something by taking the test, 'cause even though i am not yet speaking, i at least know things already and can start forming sentences in my head, and that's gotta count as a start.
another accomlishment of the day and the reason for today's title
-today we had a short day; after lunch and cleaning time the entire school went outside to pick the remaining shikwasas and to rake around the trees. At the beginning of the day i was feeling a bit useless. I have been gone exactly a week, and today i find out that two of my classes were cut because of the shikwasa picking activity and i don't have to attend the third class of the day, 'cause they'll just be getting the mid-term back and i am not needed.
a bit of a downer to tell you the truth.
but the redemption came when i went outside to help 3rd graders with the picking. As any teenagers will and these are no different from 13-4 year olds around the world, the kids kept getting off track; this mostly involved throwing the tiny, green fruit around in attempts to catch each other off guard.
I laugh it off and go on picking the bitter, lemon-like fruit. Half-hour into the picking process, a shriek explodes through the staunted, bush-like trees. I run to the source, a 3rd grade girl whose loud screams are attracting attention from her girlfriends and laughs from her male peers. She runs over towards me.. "sensei! sensei!!" and points toward the tree from under which she just ran off. I expect to see a teenage boy with a sheepish look on his face.
I put on my, "i'm a teacher, i'm concerned..what's wrong?" look and go towards the source of the problem.
The girl, however, did not encounter a thrown shikwasa but a spider, or it fell on her while she was rummaging through the prickly branches of the tree. The spider was now on the ground, large, yellowish and obviously disturbed by the prospect of having to climb back up to his web. I look around, see 3rd graders nodding to affirm that this 2 inch monster is indeed the source of the problem. I grab a leaf, allow the spider to climb aboard and take him towards the track field. After the problem has been rediposited, i check back on Aya, who is now talking frantically to one of her friends, indicating that she is back to normal and probably doing well. I ask if she's allright...if she needs water...she says she's "arigato!" and i move on to more shikwasa picking.
i am a hero! yeah!
i was indeed somewhat useful today.
also, at the moment, while everyone else is still picking shikwasa (alternate spelling, shiquasa) i am in the teachers' office because Noriko-san, our demure accountant, grabbed me on the way to the bathroom and asked if it would be allright for me to stay in the office, because she has to run off and everyone else is outside.
i am fulfilling an important role. i matter!
and tonight is the teachers' party in Nago and tomorrow being a national holiday it should be a good evening.
so i didn't mention how the Mid-year conference went. and it really would take almost too long to go into details.
To put it shortly, we had three days of workshops and speeches, which were decent and fun. We had four nights to carouse around Naha with lots of JETs. As i thought, most JETs stuck to the people they knew, so it was mostly the 1st years that hung out together, but there was some JET intermixing for ultimate frisbee on friday..talent show on wednesday..and of course, an evening at Paul & Mike's on friday....a visit to Naha without a stopover at that establishment is inconceivable to me right now.
interestingly enough, i met a german physicist who is visiting Okinawa for a few days and he read about Paul & Mike's in the Lonely Planet guide for Japan. cool, eh?
the other cool thing about him was that he is from Baden-Wuerttemburg and grew up near Stuttgart and went to school in Tuebingen. I thought it was neat that i met him because i spent 2 months in Baden-Wuerttemberg, lived near Stuttgart (and he actually heard of Mengen) and visited and loved Tuebingen. So we chatted about the famous, crazed poet from there.
the other coincidence of the night was finding out that a 2nd year JET who is originally from Hawaii attended Beloit college (in WI) and took a required writing course taught, at the time, by a first year Beloit professor who is also a very dear friend of mine.
the world is small
and today i am a hero in it
Beastie boys asking me "whatcha want?" in my ear...and at the moment...there's nothing i want.. i could say that i'm quite happy right now.
cheers
today's tuesday.
and today i complited my first test for the CLAIR Japanese correspondance course. I cheated once when i changed one of the counting suffix answers. I didn't bother learning all of them, but the one i knew "-hon"--counter for long, thin things--i changed, 'cause i didn't notice that there was a number associated with the blank to be filled in.
So because it was 8 pencils.. the suffix change from -hon to -pon..
ok.. so this probably made sense to three people...but oh well..
i feel like i've accomplished something by taking the test, 'cause even though i am not yet speaking, i at least know things already and can start forming sentences in my head, and that's gotta count as a start.
another accomlishment of the day and the reason for today's title
-today we had a short day; after lunch and cleaning time the entire school went outside to pick the remaining shikwasas and to rake around the trees. At the beginning of the day i was feeling a bit useless. I have been gone exactly a week, and today i find out that two of my classes were cut because of the shikwasa picking activity and i don't have to attend the third class of the day, 'cause they'll just be getting the mid-term back and i am not needed.
a bit of a downer to tell you the truth.
but the redemption came when i went outside to help 3rd graders with the picking. As any teenagers will and these are no different from 13-4 year olds around the world, the kids kept getting off track; this mostly involved throwing the tiny, green fruit around in attempts to catch each other off guard.
I laugh it off and go on picking the bitter, lemon-like fruit. Half-hour into the picking process, a shriek explodes through the staunted, bush-like trees. I run to the source, a 3rd grade girl whose loud screams are attracting attention from her girlfriends and laughs from her male peers. She runs over towards me.. "sensei! sensei!!" and points toward the tree from under which she just ran off. I expect to see a teenage boy with a sheepish look on his face.
I put on my, "i'm a teacher, i'm concerned..what's wrong?" look and go towards the source of the problem.
The girl, however, did not encounter a thrown shikwasa but a spider, or it fell on her while she was rummaging through the prickly branches of the tree. The spider was now on the ground, large, yellowish and obviously disturbed by the prospect of having to climb back up to his web. I look around, see 3rd graders nodding to affirm that this 2 inch monster is indeed the source of the problem. I grab a leaf, allow the spider to climb aboard and take him towards the track field. After the problem has been rediposited, i check back on Aya, who is now talking frantically to one of her friends, indicating that she is back to normal and probably doing well. I ask if she's allright...if she needs water...she says she's "arigato!" and i move on to more shikwasa picking.
i am a hero! yeah!
i was indeed somewhat useful today.
also, at the moment, while everyone else is still picking shikwasa (alternate spelling, shiquasa) i am in the teachers' office because Noriko-san, our demure accountant, grabbed me on the way to the bathroom and asked if it would be allright for me to stay in the office, because she has to run off and everyone else is outside.
i am fulfilling an important role. i matter!
and tonight is the teachers' party in Nago and tomorrow being a national holiday it should be a good evening.
so i didn't mention how the Mid-year conference went. and it really would take almost too long to go into details.
To put it shortly, we had three days of workshops and speeches, which were decent and fun. We had four nights to carouse around Naha with lots of JETs. As i thought, most JETs stuck to the people they knew, so it was mostly the 1st years that hung out together, but there was some JET intermixing for ultimate frisbee on friday..talent show on wednesday..and of course, an evening at Paul & Mike's on friday....a visit to Naha without a stopover at that establishment is inconceivable to me right now.
interestingly enough, i met a german physicist who is visiting Okinawa for a few days and he read about Paul & Mike's in the Lonely Planet guide for Japan. cool, eh?
the other cool thing about him was that he is from Baden-Wuerttemburg and grew up near Stuttgart and went to school in Tuebingen. I thought it was neat that i met him because i spent 2 months in Baden-Wuerttemberg, lived near Stuttgart (and he actually heard of Mengen) and visited and loved Tuebingen. So we chatted about the famous, crazed poet from there.
the other coincidence of the night was finding out that a 2nd year JET who is originally from Hawaii attended Beloit college (in WI) and took a required writing course taught, at the time, by a first year Beloit professor who is also a very dear friend of mine.
the world is small
and today i am a hero in it
Beastie boys asking me "whatcha want?" in my ear...and at the moment...there's nothing i want.. i could say that i'm quite happy right now.
cheers
Sunday, November 20, 2005
a short one
yes...i'm around.
yes...i promise to write a longer post soon
tired now..and feeling a bit of a cold, so going to crash for a long night of sleep.
wanted to share a funny photo from this week.
On tuesday, i drove south to Naha to get a vaccination for Japanese encephalites (i have no idea how to spell that and do not feel like looking it up). The vaccine is a preventative measure for my December trip to India. More about that in a future post.
At the clinic an information screen was set up to show all sorts of interesting and uhmm....informative facts about possible threats lurking out there in Southeast Asia...one of them, as you might know, is malaria..
So here is a bit of Engrish fun we noticed on that screen.....hope you catch it as well...
and to all of my friends in Israel who are reading this thanks to my mom who is also there at the moment: Ogromnii Privet!! Skuchau!!
cheers
yes...i promise to write a longer post soon
tired now..and feeling a bit of a cold, so going to crash for a long night of sleep.
wanted to share a funny photo from this week.
On tuesday, i drove south to Naha to get a vaccination for Japanese encephalites (i have no idea how to spell that and do not feel like looking it up). The vaccine is a preventative measure for my December trip to India. More about that in a future post.
At the clinic an information screen was set up to show all sorts of interesting and uhmm....informative facts about possible threats lurking out there in Southeast Asia...one of them, as you might know, is malaria..
So here is a bit of Engrish fun we noticed on that screen.....hope you catch it as well...
and to all of my friends in Israel who are reading this thanks to my mom who is also there at the moment: Ogromnii Privet!! Skuchau!!
cheers
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
like irony, only not
1st graders (7th graders) and i are on the same level in acquaring our perspective languages. Last week i learned how to ask and tell time. The next day, I was helping my 1st graders do the same thing and I could understand what they were saying in Japanese. I'd ask them to first say the answer in Japanese, and if it was correct, to translate it step by step into English. This week I'm tackling personal pronouns of all shapes and forms and we'll be on the same level at the end of the week.
The school is empty right now. Students are gone. 2nd graders went to their respective "on the job" internships. They're gone all week. 1st graders are gone today and tomorrow picking shikwasas and going to the factory where they're processesed. At least i think that's what they're doing. 3rd graders are at a home for the handicapped/old aged volunteering their time. A few weeks back they went to Naha for a day seminar on how to help the handicapped. On the computer next to me, a screensaver slideshow is actually showing the pictures of them from that day. They had to cover their eyes, hang things off of their limbs, walk with a cane (ala Harrison Bergeron) and help their friends who were put in wheelchairs or blindfolded.
Btw..if you haven't read that short story by Vonnegut, you really should.
I'm getting really good at putting together listening tests for students. Next week I won't be here during the day they will be taking their mid-terms, so I'll have to record the listening portion. I've just finished 1st and 2nd graders' tests...and I'm really good! wow.. he he
Listening to russian rock on my mp3 player. It's weird being in school with almost all teachers gone and no students. Empty halls, cloudy sky, sleepy art teacher, bored Elina....just not a good combination of elements.
Oh...the vice principal just dozzed off in his reclining computer chair.
He looks like a bear who's gone off into hibernation...in a lime green shirt.
The office lady and accountant just walked off together. Smiling. At the vice principal.
On Monday, when i was in Nago for a day to run some errands, I decided to look for a park our fearless blockhead, Ben, took us to in September for our first block game/initiation. He gave me directions and I only got lost once! It's a great park that's built around the site of the Nago castle ruins. The castle hasn't been functional since the 1700's; it's been only used as a prayer site. The park is in a mountain side with winding roads leading to different spots with benches; awesome kids' play areas; a huge soccer field; wonderful, secluded spots for reading; shrines hidden away in the shadows of trees; a bridge that leads from one section of the park to the other over a chasm filled with treetops.. and really nice views of Nago. I'll put up the few pics i took soon.
I drove around, checking out all the places, studied for a while at a table near the kids' playground, and then found the huge soccer field. Old men were playing "put put" (ok.. it looks like croquet..but is not) and then some kindergarteners showed up.....I was reading and all of a sudden two little boys came up to me and said in English "hello!" Then, one of them pointed to the other and said, "My name is Seito." and to himself, "My name is Daisaku" I was shocked!
So i asked how old they were... They understood the question but couldn't reply in English, so they did in Japanese, "rokku-sai"...good think i just learned that the suffix for counting ages is "sai".. :) so they were 6. A girl came up and also introduced herself. They giggled around me for a while and then went off to do their own thing on the jungle jims...
i love the coincidences...
cheers
The school is empty right now. Students are gone. 2nd graders went to their respective "on the job" internships. They're gone all week. 1st graders are gone today and tomorrow picking shikwasas and going to the factory where they're processesed. At least i think that's what they're doing. 3rd graders are at a home for the handicapped/old aged volunteering their time. A few weeks back they went to Naha for a day seminar on how to help the handicapped. On the computer next to me, a screensaver slideshow is actually showing the pictures of them from that day. They had to cover their eyes, hang things off of their limbs, walk with a cane (ala Harrison Bergeron) and help their friends who were put in wheelchairs or blindfolded.
Btw..if you haven't read that short story by Vonnegut, you really should.
I'm getting really good at putting together listening tests for students. Next week I won't be here during the day they will be taking their mid-terms, so I'll have to record the listening portion. I've just finished 1st and 2nd graders' tests...and I'm really good! wow.. he he
Listening to russian rock on my mp3 player. It's weird being in school with almost all teachers gone and no students. Empty halls, cloudy sky, sleepy art teacher, bored Elina....just not a good combination of elements.
Oh...the vice principal just dozzed off in his reclining computer chair.
He looks like a bear who's gone off into hibernation...in a lime green shirt.
The office lady and accountant just walked off together. Smiling. At the vice principal.
On Monday, when i was in Nago for a day to run some errands, I decided to look for a park our fearless blockhead, Ben, took us to in September for our first block game/initiation. He gave me directions and I only got lost once! It's a great park that's built around the site of the Nago castle ruins. The castle hasn't been functional since the 1700's; it's been only used as a prayer site. The park is in a mountain side with winding roads leading to different spots with benches; awesome kids' play areas; a huge soccer field; wonderful, secluded spots for reading; shrines hidden away in the shadows of trees; a bridge that leads from one section of the park to the other over a chasm filled with treetops.. and really nice views of Nago. I'll put up the few pics i took soon.
I drove around, checking out all the places, studied for a while at a table near the kids' playground, and then found the huge soccer field. Old men were playing "put put" (ok.. it looks like croquet..but is not) and then some kindergarteners showed up.....I was reading and all of a sudden two little boys came up to me and said in English "hello!" Then, one of them pointed to the other and said, "My name is Seito." and to himself, "My name is Daisaku" I was shocked!
So i asked how old they were... They understood the question but couldn't reply in English, so they did in Japanese, "rokku-sai"...good think i just learned that the suffix for counting ages is "sai".. :) so they were 6. A girl came up and also introduced herself. They giggled around me for a while and then went off to do their own thing on the jungle jims...
i love the coincidences...
cheers
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Nichi-youbi
so happy Sunday to me
i'm at school right now, 'cause we have school today...'cause that's a normal thing to happen in a Japanese education system. There's some sort of a get together with parents at an elementary school and junior high school teachers will join the discussion in the afternoon, so we have a regularly scheduled day with morning classes cut slightly shorter to fit in an early lunch. We get Monday off, for being here today.
So my week has been like this:
Monday--taught two classes--Halloween--started writing "the novel" at a Kijoka cafe
Tuesday--taught three classes--one Halloween, two regular--drove to Nago to have dinner with Tracy and Jason at kaiten sushi (rotating sushi) restaurant; Ben and Ben joined us.
Wednesday--taught three classes--two Halloween, one regular--drove to Nago, met for dinner with Mike, Ben, Aine, Josh, Charlotte, and Mike's friend Hideko (who is hoping to go to UW Madison for MA in TESOL); drove to Kin to drop off a book for Tracy, drove to Kitanakagusuku to spend the night at Kelly's.
Thursday--Culture Day (holiday). Kelly and i got up around 11am, made it to Shuri castle area by 1pm, walked around for a good 4 hours; drove to Nishihara Jusco to meet for dinner with Julie, Chris, and Yasemin; drove Kelly home and drove home myself.
Friday--taught three classes--drove to Nago to meet up for a drive down in Gina's car to Chatan for the book club meeting. Got home around 11pm, watched "West Wing"
Saturday--got up at noon, cleaned, laundered, went to Okuma resort to swim and read on the beach; drove to Nago to drop off DVDs and met for dinner with Aine, Mike, Ben, Theresa and gf, Anna. Went to Sababa bar for a half hour; got home aruond 11:30
Sunday--at school, no classes to teach, working on putting together a poster about Milwaukee, wasting time by writing this blog and taking a new test for Kelly's entertainment.
cheers
i'm at school right now, 'cause we have school today...'cause that's a normal thing to happen in a Japanese education system. There's some sort of a get together with parents at an elementary school and junior high school teachers will join the discussion in the afternoon, so we have a regularly scheduled day with morning classes cut slightly shorter to fit in an early lunch. We get Monday off, for being here today.
So my week has been like this:
Monday--taught two classes--Halloween--started writing "the novel" at a Kijoka cafe
Tuesday--taught three classes--one Halloween, two regular--drove to Nago to have dinner with Tracy and Jason at kaiten sushi (rotating sushi) restaurant; Ben and Ben joined us.
Wednesday--taught three classes--two Halloween, one regular--drove to Nago, met for dinner with Mike, Ben, Aine, Josh, Charlotte, and Mike's friend Hideko (who is hoping to go to UW Madison for MA in TESOL); drove to Kin to drop off a book for Tracy, drove to Kitanakagusuku to spend the night at Kelly's.
Thursday--Culture Day (holiday). Kelly and i got up around 11am, made it to Shuri castle area by 1pm, walked around for a good 4 hours; drove to Nishihara Jusco to meet for dinner with Julie, Chris, and Yasemin; drove Kelly home and drove home myself.
Friday--taught three classes--drove to Nago to meet up for a drive down in Gina's car to Chatan for the book club meeting. Got home around 11pm, watched "West Wing"
Saturday--got up at noon, cleaned, laundered, went to Okuma resort to swim and read on the beach; drove to Nago to drop off DVDs and met for dinner with Aine, Mike, Ben, Theresa and gf, Anna. Went to Sababa bar for a half hour; got home aruond 11:30
Sunday--at school, no classes to teach, working on putting together a poster about Milwaukee, wasting time by writing this blog and taking a new test for Kelly's entertainment.
cheers
| Your Hat Personality Is A |
 |
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
my fire drill is better than your fire drill
monday i was a pirate and a fairly convincing one at that. with hand made sword, hat, and patch, a white shirt with rufles sticking out from under the sleeves of a black jacket, black pants, tall white thin socks, platform black loafers, and even a neckerchief to seal the deal. The kids ate it up. It was a lot of fun. I played Halloween games with two classes and it was the first time i gave out candy as prizes. Tuesday and Wednesday i played the same games with the three other classes along with regularly scheduled programming for the other ones. Things went really well. Tomorrow is a national holiday, yeah! for Japan and its random mid-week holidays. This one is called Culture Day, so presumingly i will be doing something to expand my cultural knowledge of Okinawa.
so about the fire drill.
Monday morning, after the meeting, my JTE comes up to me and says that we will have "starto fire," and i somehow deduce correctly that we will have a drill. He says that it will be at 2:45pm and the science teacher will "starto fire"....i say, "wha?!" that's right folks, at 2:47pm i heared the science teacher yelling something at the entrance on the first floor, everyone was where they were supposed to be, 5 teachers with their homeroom classes and everyone else variously occupied throughout the school. I wasn't given an escape plan (who cares about the ALT, right?) so i followed the accountant lady, Noriko-san, out of the teachers' office. I walked into smoke! Real smoke and then i understood what they meant by "starto fire." Noriko-san and i walked out onto the athletic field where i expected to see all the students gathered. It took students another 2-3 minutes to come out of the "burning" building, led by their teachers. They lined up in rows as usual and three people proceeded to tell them things. One of them is the village fire marshall who came along with an assistant in a small fire pick-up truck. He spoke as a man knowing that he has a captive audience in teenagers...and they were bored out of their minds...and they could understand the man! imagine me..standing there in my pirate outfit, drawing skull and bones on the field with my loafers. he he
So in order to spice things up, the assistant brought out a metal pan and 4 big spray canisters. Several kids practiced spraying water into the pan from a 5 m distance. Then he brought out lighter fluid, dumped some in the pan and lit it!
See that happenning in an MPS school anytime soon?!
The science teacher put it out with a fire extinguisher and it was lit again for a 3rd grade girl to put out. (don't forget that 3rd grade J.H.S. is equivalent to 9th grade)....so not a tiny kid, but still..quite impressive.
The kids were talked at a bit more, I found out that this is done once a year, and we all piled back into the building. On the way in, my JTE confessed that he and two other taechers made a mistake taking kids out of the building. They walked their classes right into the corridor where the wind was blowing smoke in their direction, so the kids would have burned or died of smoke inhalation. But that was the route indicated on the plan and they just didn't think about another option that would have led the kids outside via another way.
When that was over, i only had 30 more minutes of my day, so if i remember correctly, i spent them on the net. :)
cheers
-e
so about the fire drill.
Monday morning, after the meeting, my JTE comes up to me and says that we will have "starto fire," and i somehow deduce correctly that we will have a drill. He says that it will be at 2:45pm and the science teacher will "starto fire"....i say, "wha?!" that's right folks, at 2:47pm i heared the science teacher yelling something at the entrance on the first floor, everyone was where they were supposed to be, 5 teachers with their homeroom classes and everyone else variously occupied throughout the school. I wasn't given an escape plan (who cares about the ALT, right?) so i followed the accountant lady, Noriko-san, out of the teachers' office. I walked into smoke! Real smoke and then i understood what they meant by "starto fire." Noriko-san and i walked out onto the athletic field where i expected to see all the students gathered. It took students another 2-3 minutes to come out of the "burning" building, led by their teachers. They lined up in rows as usual and three people proceeded to tell them things. One of them is the village fire marshall who came along with an assistant in a small fire pick-up truck. He spoke as a man knowing that he has a captive audience in teenagers...and they were bored out of their minds...and they could understand the man! imagine me..standing there in my pirate outfit, drawing skull and bones on the field with my loafers. he he
So in order to spice things up, the assistant brought out a metal pan and 4 big spray canisters. Several kids practiced spraying water into the pan from a 5 m distance. Then he brought out lighter fluid, dumped some in the pan and lit it!
See that happenning in an MPS school anytime soon?!
The science teacher put it out with a fire extinguisher and it was lit again for a 3rd grade girl to put out. (don't forget that 3rd grade J.H.S. is equivalent to 9th grade)....so not a tiny kid, but still..quite impressive.
The kids were talked at a bit more, I found out that this is done once a year, and we all piled back into the building. On the way in, my JTE confessed that he and two other taechers made a mistake taking kids out of the building. They walked their classes right into the corridor where the wind was blowing smoke in their direction, so the kids would have burned or died of smoke inhalation. But that was the route indicated on the plan and they just didn't think about another option that would have led the kids outside via another way.
When that was over, i only had 30 more minutes of my day, so if i remember correctly, i spent them on the net. :)
cheers
-e
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
