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

The most overwhelming day so far on my JET career

Today is a bit too overwhelming for me...

The day started off with me almost late for my elementary school because my alarm clock didn't go off.
Got up around 7:45am... only 15 mins for me to get ready for school.
As a result, I had my breakfast in my car.

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During lunch break, the kids wanted to play with me.
They took me to the gym.
I didn't really want to go, I was too full to move around. But I had to go with them...
When we got to the gym, I suggested that we play "monkey in the middle" so I can just throw a ball around and avoid running. But they told me that they are not allowed to get any balls.
They wanted to play tag. TAG is the last thing that I want to play!!!! grahhh....but I had to....

And here comes the funny part---> I hit my nose on a metal monkey bar while I was chasing the kids...(it's too complicated to explain how I end up injuring my nose)
#$%&@*%& I HATE TAG!!!!!!!
For awhile I had a bump on my nose and I thought that my nose had grew taller.

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After lunch, we had a halloween lesson with the special need kids.
I dressed up in a Godzilla costume.
Some kids on the hall way saw me while I was walking to my class, and they just shouted "monster! monster!"
A kid even grabbed my Godzilla tail.
Then one of the teachers said to me "Godzilla suits you~"
That comment really made me paused for a second.
Am I supposed to take it as a compliment or are you saying that my personality or my appearance is like a monster?

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And here comes the most shocking part of my day at work.
During the special needs' Halloween lesson, a boy took off his pants and underwear all of a sudden.
I saw his private part.
I think I kindda screamed..."ah!"

10/21

I was welcomed by the kids at Higoshi Elementary today.
Instead of calling me Sabulina-sensei, the kids started to call me Sabu-chan without my permission...
There was also this boy who likes to shake my hand whenever he sees me.

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I want to have a date in Vence, south of France.
Wear a chic dress and have coffee outside the patio of a cafe.
Observing French people walking pass by and listen to the street artist playing violin.
C'est très romantique~

Bonjour France! My next potential destination after Japan >.<

10/19

After work today, I went to help at the film club.
Sekiya-san brought us yaki-imo (baked sweet potato).
Apparently, Sekiya-san runs a yaki-imo booth up in the mountain during autumn season.
He gave me 3 yaki-imo wrapped in newspaper for me to bring home.
I was super excited to see yaki-imo wrapped with newspaper. I felt extremely touched by it. Seeing food wrapped in newspaper somehow made me feel so warm.

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After the volunteer, I didn't go home.
I went to Sophie's for a French movie-- "Amelie"
It's my 2nd time seeing that movie. It's definitely on the top of my "favorite movie list"



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While watching the movie we had ice cream that Chris bought & yaki-imo.
Chris was really thoughtful, he got each of us our favorite flavor :P
Sophie-- chocolate ice cream
Chris-- vanilla ice cream
Me-- green tea ice cream

We had some yaki-imo too.
1st yaki-imo was yallow inside, just like any sweet potatoes. It was very tasty.
Then,I broke the 2nd yaki-imo in half and found that inside was all dark PURPLE!!! I felt like I won a lottery at that moment.
That PURPLE yaki-imo was definitely the high-light of my day :D

嫌われ松子の一生 (Memories of Matsuko)

I like this movie very much.
I watched it again over the weekend for the 3rd time.
This movie was made 2-3 years ago.
Warning: one of the saddist films ever. Might leave you depressed all day after you watch it.

10/13

Recently I became so lazy that I gave up on dressing up (not that I dress up fashionably) --> but as in: I would just wear glasses to work; wear my hoody on the street; wear the same outfit almost everyday.
I don't like the fact that I can't wear my usual outfit to work.

AND!!!because of that... I have no motivation to go shopping for new clothing.
Things I like probably wouldn't be appropriate for work.
I wish the office would just give me uniforms to wear...
mendoukusaina...

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Speaking of shopping, I don't think I enjoy doing it in Japan.
Clothing here doesn't have the cut I wanted, and usually only comes in one size most of the time.
Too flowery; too lacy; too shiny; too fury; too many ribbons; and over all too girly.
When you walk into a store, they will always say "irrashaimasei~" in a super nasal manner that I just couldn't stand.

I am only complaining because I couldn't find my favorit stores here in the country side :(

10/12

My cold has gotten worse this morning.
Sore throat + running nose.
Despite my ill state, I found myself in the study mood today.
So I studied Japanese alone for the first time since I got to Japan.

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Although they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in England and Japan.
Sophie and Chris invited me over for an English style Canadian Thanksgiving dinner in Japan tonight.

Thanksgiving dinner menu of 2009:

Sesame salad
&
Beef stew
&
Black tea flavored cake

Little Dragon - Place to Belong

A lovely Swedish band.

10/9

Drill seminar this morning.
Each of the ALT is responsible for one topic and present a drill that is designed for elementary kids.
Drill should be fun, so that the kids would repeat after you without you telling them to.
I was in charge of #1-20.
Ahh... it was so embarrassing presenting it in front of everyone...video taped too...
I arranged the number cards strategically and added gestures and adjusted my volume as I went through all the numbers.

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Another seminar in the afternoon.
Me and Kamiya-sensei were invited to Higoshi elementary to help out a teacher's seminar.
The purpose of the seminar is to get the elementary teachers to feel more comfortable about using simple English in their English lessons.
The core activity of this particular seminar is to divide the teachers into 4 groups. Each group will think about how to present Nagaoka to me in English.
The teachers were encouraged to use gestures and drawing for their presentation.
Here are some of the artistic pieces that the teachers came up with.

1. A park with beautiful flowers and water fountain. They recommanded me to visit the park sometimes.
2. Nagaoka is well known for its delicious rice, and products made with rice: sake, rice cracker, etc.
3. Nagaoka snow alot. People enjoy skiing in the winter.

Everyone enjoyed the seminar. We had lots fun~

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At night Mark invited us over for an English dinner.
Menu: Salad, Shephard's pie, scone and tea.

Sophie made the shephard's pie and Mark was in charge of the scone.
It was awesome~



Mark's instruction of having proper English scone:
1. cut the scone in half
2. add some jam on top
3. then add some cream
4. can't have scone without English tea!

yummy :p

10/8

I was actually excited about the typhoon that was coming...
But I was disappointed.
There weren't any strong wind or heavy rain.

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The kids where practicing for their music concert today at Suyoshi.
All of them gathered in the gym and practiced singing.
I was actually very touched by their performance.
Their voice is so pure and innocent >.<

Teradomori Beach

Went to the beach on Sunday.
It was like a road trip.
I drove, Sophie and Chris took turns navigate..

The weather was nice. There were boat race along the coast.
There were also fish markets along the beach.
Very nice afternoon.

Aisa Film Festival

Volunteered at a movie club.
We just had our big event a week ago. It was a Asian film festival featuring movies from different Asian countries.
People in this club are all super nice~

Do you have....?

Today we played "Do you have..." games with the 4th grade students in Suyoshi elementary.
Each person has a deck of animal picture cards. The students colored it in before hand. And we play rock paper scissors.
The winners get to ask "Do you have (whichever animal they like to collect)?" And the winner will get to keep the cards.

Each kid was so serious in collecting their picture cards. And I became serious too... I was determined to take all the cat cards from them. Well... the main reason was because I found their colored pictures so cute.
It's surprising how creative they are.
There are pink kangaroo, pink panda, etc. One of the kid got rainbow fox!!!! I really wanted that one, but I think he would cry if I take it away from him.

And here is my collection of cats~
My favorit one is the half black half white cat.


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At lunch time, we had cheese bread. While I was eating, a kid came to me and gave me a piece of his bread filled with strawberry jam. And then couple minutes later, another kid came to me and gave me a piece of read bean paste bread. I was going to ask him "how come you have anpan?" But he quickly ran away.
Later I found out that while most kids got cheese bread, kids who have allergies got different kinds of bread.
Those kids are just so sweet~~~ They wanted me to try different kids of bread!