Korea Day 1

Woke up super early to catch the flight >.<
Arrived in Seoul @ 12pm
Korea was cold!!!!! -10C. Wasn't really expecting that.
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We got a flight & hotel package, so there was a tour guide who took us to our hotel on a bus ride.
On bus, she just kept on talking about Korean BBQ, and B.B. Cream.
Everyone on the bus seems to be very interested in those 2 topics.
We laughed at "B.B. cream", whenever the tour guide mentioned about it. We had no idea what it was, but the name was funny.
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First meal in Korea: Myeongdong Gyoza recommanded by Alex

Our meal came with kimchi.
I have never ever had kimchi before because I am bad with spicy food.
But since I was in Korea, I decided to give it a try.
God... it was SOOOO spicy! It had a very strong flavor to it too.
Afterwords, my breath smells of kimchi.
I brushed my teeth and chew gums, but nothing takes away that smell!
My kimchi breath continued to last till the next afternoon.
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Later, we went to see NANTA performance.
The artist try to make music out of random objects such as pots, knifes, kitchen utensils.
The performance was also very funny too, I had a good laugh.

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After the performance, we just walked around the Myeongdong area.
There were tons of cosmetic stores and designer shops.
There were 2-3 same shops with the same block too. And cosmetic shops called "Skin Food" and "The Face Shop".
I found the area very similar to Taipei. Especially with the night market and the food stands along the street.

12/25

Went to Niigata city to get my Japanese driver's license this morning.
Had to wake up super early >.<
It costed about 5000yen to get my Jap driver's license. Which is pretty lucky because I just have to show them couple documents and an eye test in order to get my license.
But for some other countries, ex: USA citizens, they will have to take a complete road test in order to get their license. People usually fail on their road tests.
And here is my new license!
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And more snow :]

12/23

Received another email from Sota yesterday.
Always happy to receive his email.
He writes the best emails, I think.
His emails are always funny.
I must say he's the coolest Japanese guy ever.
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Recently, I have been thinking about what I should do after JET.
I will stay for another year in Japan for sure. But time goes fast.

Here's the option that I came up for myself:
1. Go back to school and get a teacher's license.
2. Go back to school and study interior design.
3. Go back to school and study restaurant management (want to run a sweet shop/ tea house/cafe).

And my analysis:
1. Probably the safest option. But don't know if I want to teach for all my life. Besides different countries probably have different requirements. If I want to travel, I could probably teach at an international school.
I even thought about teaching Chinese. My Chinese level is probably not up there... but teaching foreign people Chinese might be really fun!

2. Still fascinated by the interior design. This will be a huge investment of my time and money, since I probably need to stay in school for couple years. I am awared that appreciating something is not the same as creating something. It could also be a stressful job. But then again, if I don't try I wouldn't know.

3. Probably not a possible option at this time. Maybe later on in my life...if the world doesn't end in 2012...

12/21

Office day today. Since I had a lot to work on today, time passed pretty fast.
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During lunch, I had lunch together with Chris, Mark, Jei, and Jordan. In order to get to the ramen shop, we all hiked through the heavy snow. ALl of us wore rain boots, except Mark. Felt like a gaijin parade.

Was a bit disappointed at the ramen shop. They didn't have miso flavor.
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Went to Ishizaka Elementary for a seminar in the afternoon.
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Around 5:30pm, I met up with Daisuke to help him with his graduation film project.

I met him at the film club. He asked me to be in his movie project.
I told him, if it's within my ability, I could help.
He gave me a very minor role--- deliver something to the main character.
I thought I just have to hand the actor something and then leave, so I agreed to help him.

So we met up, his team brought all the devices.
I felt I wore the wrong outfit. I should wear something that is more cool because I am supposed to be the boss lady of the main actor.
Regardless, we went ahead with the filming process.

I had 5 lines to say.
Somehow I just couldn't get the 1st line right. Although my Japanese was correct, somehow the feeling just didn't seem right to me.

Anyway, at the end, I felt so sorry for him to have picked me to be part of it. I probably should have asked him for more detail before I agreed to help me >.<

I hope his project till turn out well.
If my part is still in his film, maybe I will update you guys later.

LookBook

Snow

Snow in Nagaoka!
I left my car in the parking lot for 2 days, and it almost got burried by the snow.

Flowers from Soph

12/17

My MSN is not working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#@*%&#%!&*^%$@#%!!!!!
I don't know what to do about it................................................
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Snowed pretty hard today.
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Mary went back to America today.
And Sophie is going back to England tomorrow.
Other ALTs are also going home soon >.<
iina~
Eventhough I will be going to Korea soon, it will still be nice if I could go home, just because everyone's going home at this time.
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Natasha asked me to take care of her fish and plants while she's back in South Africa.
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Don't feel like doing much today...as usual...

12/16

Today Kamiya-sensei was absent, so I had to teach at Higoshi elementary by myself.
The lessons went really well.

Then I had lunch with one of my 1st grade classes.
I was being treated as a super start in that class! I was surrounded by the kids and they just kept on firing questions at me. They even lined up to ask for my autograph. One of the girls even drew me a picture. And the teacher just kept on taking pictures of me and the kids.

This little boy who was sitting with a different group came to me while we were eating lunch,

Boy: What is your favorite color?
Sabrina: Purple!
Boy: (went back to his own seat & came back to me after a minute or two) So... what's your #2 color?
Sabrina: Black!
Boy: (went back to his own seat for the 2nd time & came back to me after a minute or two)So... what's your #3 color?
Sabrina: mmmmm...I don't have a number 3 color...I like purple and black.
Boy: eeee!..... (then went back to his seat for the 3rd time & came to me again after a minute or two) So... you like dark colors...
Sabrina: yes I do.
Boy: So... you are like a boy, you like dirty colors.
Sabrina: DIRTY colors!!!!!???? ..................

I guess the boy really wanted to hear me say red/ blue/ pink/ orange/yellow, something bright.

X'MAS Party at Mark's

Mark held a small X'mas party at his.
Me, Sophie and Chris were invited.
We arrived at Mark's around 1pm.
Since the meal was not ready yet, we decided to open presents first.
It was great fun opening the presents :D


After exchanging presents, we started to prepare for food.
Here's our X'mas Menu:
- Baked chicken (substitute for turkey)
- Roast potato
- Yorkshire pudding (something British)
- Cabbage and carrots
- Minced pie
- Apple pie
- Strawberry tart
- X'mas cake (made by Mark)




After the big meal, we watched X'mas movies and played games till night.

Sabrina's Ikebana of the Day

Here is the purple glass I made from last time.
The white rose is really cool.
It's supposed to be blue when the room temperature is cold.

Hundred Sacks of Rice

Here is an embarrassing story.

At night, both me and Chris wanted to go and watch Sophie's play at the Lyric Hall.
We drove to a concert hall near our office.
The car park was full, and there were so many old people! We thought they must be those children's grandparents coming to see there play.

We walked into the concert hall building and tried to enter. The staff stopped us from entering and was trying to collect our ticket.
But Yoshikawa-sensei told us that the admission was free!
Me: We are from the Board of Education.
Staff: Doesn't matter who you are, you need a ticket.
Me: But Yoshikawa-sensei told me that we don't need tickets.
Staff: I don't know Yoshikawa-sensei, and I don't care... you need a ticket!

Then, me and Chris thought it was really odd. But we walked to the ticket booth and asked for the tickets.
Me: How much is the ticket?
Staff: 4000 yen please.
Me & Chris: *wait a minute...don't think we want to spend 4000 yen on a children's play*

THEN!!!!! I saw some posters far far way! It was posters of this Japanese Enka singer.

We finally realized that we are in the wrong place >.<
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Sophie's school was having a play called " Hundred Sacks of Rice"
It was a big thing for the school every year.
The school (Sakanoue)was built 140 years ago because of the hundred sacks of rice.
As far as the story goes, after the war, people in Nagaoka were starving. They didn't have enough rice to share among everyone.
One day their neighbour supported them with 100 sacks of rices.
People were happy about receiving the rice, but this person suggested that they instead of eating the rice, they should sell it for money and use the money to build a school for education.
However, after seeing the play, I still believe that they should just have eat the rice.

12/9

Had my X'mas lesson at Higoshi Elementary today.
I gave the grade 2 students a X'mas quiz in the beginning of the class.

Sabrina: "Quiz #1: When Santa comes, where does he put the presents?
A- On the table
B- On the bed
C- Under the X'mas tree"

I told the students that the answer is C- Under the X'mas tree
But most of the students voted B- On the bed
Then the students got really really upset.

Students: No way!!! You are wrong!!! Santa puts the presents on/near our bed!
Sabrina: ............
Homeroom teacher: ......*panic*......eee...In Japan Santa puts the presents near the bed, but in Canada Santa puts the presents under the tree.

Those kids really believe in the existence of Santa, so we tried not to ruin it...
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Sabrina: "Quiz #2: What do we leave for Santa when he comes?"
A- Milk and cookies
B- Miso Soup and Onigiri (Rice ball)
C- Cake and tea"

Student 1: It must be cake and tea
Student 2: No!!! Santa will like miso soup and onigiri since he's in Japan!

Special Needs Students

Had a special needs class today in highschool.
They weren't my first special needs class.
A month ago, I had even been to a special needs school where all the kids that I teach were both physically and mentally handicapped. Many drool and couldn't look up or speak properly. Some even needs plastic tubes or be tied on their wheel-chair. Each one of them needs a personal assistant.
Imagine walking into a class with 15 of them, I almosted cried...
I wasn't teaching, I was there to make them happy so they could enjoy their life more (I thought...)

Today at my usual junior high, 2 of the girls with better conditional came up to me after class and asked me to play with them during lunch time. I didn't think I could handle, so I said I will be busy during lunch time.

Just thinking that I don't think I am the kind of person who can deal with special needs kids.
I have no patience and I just can't smile all the time when I teach them.
Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite. It's like I have to pretend like I care and keep on saying "good! very good!"

Sometimes when I look at them, I feel sorry for them and for their parents.
Maybe I am not supposed to. Maybe they didn't feel sorry for themselves.
But what IF it happens to me..... think I will kill the baby and then kill myself.
It's a terrible thought

Cleaning day in office

Stuart was sick. He didn't come to the office today.
I had micro-teaching presentation on my own.
But it wasn't as bad as I expected.
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More meeting in the afternoon, and then cleaning the office.
Everyone was responsible for a section in the office to clean.

I hate cleaning >.<
Hate dust, the smell of detergent, touching the wet rag, and everything about it.
We even had to wipe each picture cards.
But it needs to be done...I guess...

The JLPT

Today, at last, was the day of my JLPT 2 exam. After months of reviewing (or more accuratly thinking about reviewing >.<) I was looking forward to getting it over and done with.

Woke up early, Chris gave me a ride to the test centre. Thought it would take us 2 hours to get there, but it only took 1 hour.
After we arrived, we weren't allowed to park in the university eventhough there were a lot of parking space. I thought it was stupid that we weren't allowed to use the parking lot.

Think I bombed my reading test... Didn't have enough time >.<
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After the exam we went X-mas shopping,
Got both Sophie and Mark a present and managed to spend enough money in the department store that we got 6 parking vouchers.

12/2

I had a good day today at Higoshi Elementary.
We had a couple X'mas lessons where I had to wear Santa outfit, sing songs and make crafts with the kids.
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We also had 2 lessons on traveling to countries with the 6 graders.
Thinking that would be my favorit lesson to teach.
I got to hear about which countries the students want to travel to and the reason why.

Lots of the boys said:

"I want to go to America
I want to play baseball
I want to see XXXXXX (the name of the baseball player which I could't remember)"

Both the student and the teacher would then ask me "do you know XXXXX?"
Gragghhh, I don't know and I don't care. I HATE baseball because everyone likes it.
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One of the boys said:

" I want to go to Egypt. I want to 砂をとってくれかえる."
I found this one really funny. He wants to go to Egypt because he wants to take some sand back home.
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And many students would say the following:

"I want to go to Italy. I want to eat pizza"
"I want to go to France. I want to eat bread"
"I want to go to Korea. I want to eat kimchi"
"I want to go to India. I want to eat curry"
"I want to go to America. I want to eat hot dog"

Seriously... all they can think of is eat.
I must say it's a Japanese thing. Whenever you talk about something, they will think of food. On TV too, so many programs related to eating food...

11/29

I have been feeling lazy recently again.
Left my laundry in the laundry machine for 2 days... it started to smell bad, so I had to redo them >.<
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Sophie fed me 2 days in a row.
She made spaghetti for me and Mark and Chris last night.
Today she went to this Jap lady's place for cooking. I was supposed to go, but I didn't because I wasn't feeling the mood.
So tonight Sophie brought back a bento for me from the lady's place and we had it together.
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JLPT exam next Sunday. Hope I will pass.

Long weekend day 3

Last day of our trip, we dropped by a glass workshop on our way back.
I made a purple glass vase :]

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We also visited the sea side.
On the way to the fish market, there was this view that looked just like the scenery in Ponyo.
Driving along the coast; the houses on the heel; blue sky and clouds.

Uncle loves crabs. We sampled crabs and bought 3 crabs. The old lady gave us a scissor to cut open the crabs. And we finished it on the spot.

Long weekend day 2

Woke up early the next day again and headed south of the prefecture.
Our first stop was a park where you could experience the making of traditional crafts.
My aunt and I decided to make soba noodles.





Although there were many different kinds of studios in the park, most of them were just trying to sell you souvenirs.
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Next stop was a temple which I have forgotten its name.
The temple was rather impressive. Since its Autumn, the scenery of orange/red leaves was very pretty.



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On our way to the onsen hotel, we dropped by a shop that sells hand-made china.
Uncle end up buying 4 tea cups that costed him 30000yen.
He said Tony and Tina will each get a cup and use it for the rest of their life and past it down to their children when they get married.

Long weekend day 1

Uncle, aunt, and I went on a trip over the long weekend.
We decided to visit Ishikawa prefecture.
We woke up really early in the morning.
It took us 3 hours to drove from my place to our destination -- Kanazawa.

On the road... I drove up to 130km on the highway. My aunt pretty much slept all the way in the car. But my uncle on the other hand was very nervous... he kept on looking out for me. He wanted to drive, but I didn't let him because he has no insurance.
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We arrived in Kanazawa just around lunch time.
We had a quick lunch first, then, we visited one of the top 3 Japanese garden in Kanazawa.
The garden was named Kenroku-en.
The garden was really big, it has serveral building inside.
We went into 2 of the tea houses inside the garden and had tea and sweets there.


There is also a castle right across the garden, which we didn't visit.

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After the garden, we went to visit a street that is famous for its tea houses.

We continued to drink more tea and eat more sweets >.<
This was our 3rd set of tea and sweet of the day.
In this tea house, it has a modern atmosphere while keeping the traditional aspect of it.
They use different combinations of hand-made hardware to serve the tea and the sweet. So eventhough we all ordered the same thing, each set was presented differently.



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Kanazawa has a nickname called "small Kyoto". And the Ishikawa prefecture is known for its traditional crafts, including hand-painted kimono 友禪, making of gold leaves 金箔, hand-made lacquer ware 輪島漆器and porcelain 九谷燒.
We found many shops that sells goods decorated by gold leaves: gold leaf chopsticks, gold leaf soap, gold leaf ice cream and cake, gold leaf tea, gold leaf hardware, etc.
Here is a picture of a room decorated with gold leaf.

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Since Sophie, Mark, and Chris also visited Kanazawa, I met up with them after I had my dinner with uncle and aunt.

My Ah Goo and Ah Kym is here~

My uncle and my aunt came to visit me for a week.
I was really excited.
They brought me sesame tangyuan.
Went to pick them up at the station after work the first day and took them to dinner.
My uncle seems to like the super-market here, so we visit the super market every night.

So here is the massive update :]

Making dumplings

I felt like having dumplings.
So I went and got some ingrediants for making dumplings.
After I came home, I checked the instruction online, and found out I needed more spice. But I went ahead anyway and started to make it out of my intuition.
(should have checked the recipe before I go shopping >.<)
Later I found out that I added to much meat and soy sauce, so the dumpling itself is a bit too salty.
But here is the picture of the dumplings I made :D

Sabrina's Ikebana of the Day

11/1

It rained heavily today.
Cleaned my apartment... only partially...
I should really finish my laundry and study for a bit...But I am in the lazy mood again.

Halloween Party~

Fukaishi-sensei invited me over to her place for a Halloween Party.
She is probably the youngest teacher in my junior highschool.
She teaches English with me, so she is the one that I always go to when I need help.

We first went shopping for groceries together with other 2 teachers.
The other 2 teachers were responsible for cooking ingredients.
So Fukaishi-sensei and I were responsible for the snacks and drinks.
We were like little children. There were so many selections for snacks, we just stood there and being indecisive about which snacks to get.
At the end, we got more snacks than we could finish.

After shopping, we went to her place to prepare for the food before other teachers showed up.
We made our own TAKOYAKI and NABE~~~~~~
They are both my favorite >.<

Live Music

Went to a live music event on Sunday.
It was at a bar in a basement.
The bar was small, but packed with lots people.
Serveral band was there to play.
I would say most of them play rock music involving shouting and screaming.
It was great fun, but after I left the bar, I my ears went deaf.
I felt as if something's blocking my left ear for two days...

Sweet Making Class

Junior High School Singing Competition

Every class in the school had to sing a song and compete against other classes in the same grade.
Music teachers from other highschools would be the judges to judge which classes are the best singers.
It seemed to be a very serious event.

Sabrina's Ikebana of the Day