Jeanneabeck’s Weblog

Walking back from lunch between the buildings, I suddenly realize that it’s snowing.  There’s no such thing as a snow day in Japan, so the snow doesn’t hold the same type of anxious hope as it does for American students.  Perhaps it’s just one more obstacle to overcome when trying to get to school on time.  Anyway, the kerosene heater in our room is going at full blast, despite being told to cut back on electricity useage (can’t leave the coffee pot on), I guess they budgeted enough for the heaters.  It’s really difficult walking out in the hallways though.  Although it’s a bit warmer than being outside, especially because there’s no wind factor, it’s still bitter cold.

Today is November 11th, 2008, and in just 40 days or less I will be home.  With a bunch of dates fast approaching, my mom’s been asking me for lists of people to invite to my relatively small wedding party, what to do about a dress, what should people get us, etc.  While I can say that I just found a pair of pearl earrings to match the necklace I bought that should look good with whatever I wear to the courthouse and wedding party, that’s about as far as I gotten. 

As far as gifts go, I feel like creating a “Ryan college fund” would be the most helpful because that’ll make both of our futures brighter as well as give him something to do in Japan.  I have no doubt we can find him some tutoring jobs, but just like I am going to earn my masters degree in two years while working in Japan, I think Ryan could do the same – at least for his associate’s degree.  Other than that, luggage for Ryan would be beneficial, as well as anything to keep us warm during the bitter potentially heater-less winters.  (US teachers would strike under the normal conditions of Japanese schools during the winter.  It’s a whole different world over here.)

I’m also focusing on buying Christmas gifts and souvineers for friends and family.  After mailing off a couple packages to cousins and Ryan’s family it feels good to work on filling my suitcase.  I especially want to buy something Japanese for the cousins on my mom’s side since that’s part of their heritage, but haven’t made much progress. Ah, the holidays.

This is the second year class from the International Studies program, whom I have several classes with.  They really gave this contest their all and ended up winning the contest.  During their encore, some of them were crying.  If you look carefully, the guy in the middle row, second from the left is the international student from Italy who posted this video online.  I’m pretty sure his host family video taped this.  This song is called “Tegami” or “Letter.”  Also, I’m not sure what the conductor is doing during the beginning.

Also, here’s the orignal song, by Angela Aki.  I had no idea it was one of her songs. She’s a great pianist and singer and very popular here.  Her father is Japanese and mother is Italian-American, giving her her unique look and style. (not to mention her bilingual abilities)

The weekend before my host family and their parents hosted two American teachers for the weekend.  These teachers were part of a group of 16 teachers who came to Iida for a week to learn about Japanese education.  What I didn’t know at first was that they’d spent the previous week in Tokyo getting a crash course in Japanese education.  The lady my host family had was a principal of African American descent from a Nashville, Tennessee elementary school, and the teacher their parents got was an agriculture teacher from middle-of-nowhere Nebraska who was just as amazed as I was that she was accepted to visit Japan.  These two were nice but didn’t know any Japanese.  While my Japanese is admittingly horrible – I can hold a basic conversation if that – the teachers didn’t know any Japanese, and my host family didn’t know much English.  My host mom knows English words and can read well enough, but she just doesn’t know how to string a sentence together, which might be more frustrating than I realized.  Anyway, for one day I played interpreter, trying my best to help both groups out.  The whole family took all of us to the nearby Edo period town of Tsumago, where we ate lunch, wandered around the town, ate ice cream, etc.  My host family is so generous, not only did they buy us miniture handmade hats with our names on it, when we went to a well-known wooden crafts store, they bought each of us two pairs of chopsticks, one for us and one for our boyfriends.  After Tsumago, we went back to the grandparent’s house where we had yakiniku beef and vegetables grilled right on the table for us.  At the end I received more thank yous than needed and their Grandma didn’t let me leave without a bag of mandarin oranges.  It was a good but tiring day.

This week has been all about the upcoming debate contest, and this weekend we finally got it over with.  The event was held in Matsumoto and we left on Friday night and stayed until Sunday.  Luckily Monday was a national holiday, Culture Day, so we didn’t have school and had a chance to recoop.  Being a first year ALT and having no understanding of how Japanese English debate contests run and receiving no help from the teacher who was suppose to be in charge of the English club, our kids didn’t do well at all, which is sad considering that they wanted to do well, were willing to spend the time needed, and have scored very high in the past.  I feel as though I learned a lot though and know how to better help the kids prepare for next year.  Even so,  I’ve been very disappointed at the one teacher’s lack of commitment and care concering our students, which has left me feeling down and out.  Though I express my concerns more vocally than any Japanese would, I’m not sure if anything will be done.  At the same time, I’ve seen other teachers, even some who aren’t part of the English club at all, really step up and help the students prepare during this past week.  They said they care about the students and want me around next year too.  :)