So Very Hisashi...

In the past couple of weeks, I have been going out and about to a variety of schools, forgetting names, working too hard trying to make some decent supplies, playing volleyball, forgetting to study, making nice with the neighbour's kids, chasing random bugs and frogs out of my house, and not getting enough sleep.

So far, the schools are good -- I have enjoyed meeting the students and the staff for the most part. Although, yesterday, I almost got the feeling that one of the teachers at a very small school I visit (11 kids, 2 teachers) was angry at me because Niimi has decided to implement an English programme in all their schools either next year or the year after. She seemed to be complaining without complaining about how busy the teachers all are, and how the curriculum is no longer being followed in a lot of places, and how the curriculum they have is the one that was set out by the Ministry of Education (I would just like to point out that the curriculum is a suggestion, not required). All this in response to my asking what sentence we should use with vehicles for the 5th and 6th grade class. I thought that, "I'm going by --." would be good, provided it were logically following a class where the students covered something like, "I'm going to --." and suggested that perhaps the order could be adjusted a little, especially since the students will be studying directions in November...

This was taken as if I had intended it as a personal front, as well as being accompanied by her own belief that perhaps English, or things about English were too hard for kids. And her own daughter grew to hate English, as the teacher in her daughter's school went too fast through things without checking to see that the kids understood, nor did she translate anything into Japanese. Foolishly, I replied and said, "Well, I am a different person, and I do try and check every once in a while that the kids understand what it is I am going on about. But I also think that if you translate everything into Japanese, the kids will merely wait for that, rather than relying on their own abilities, and it is not necessarily a bad thing to use English in English class so that the kids can get used to it."

After my foolhardy response, she continued on about the fixation Niimi has with offering English in the schools, how there are only classes every 2 weeks at her school, and other things that I faded out on (I really do appreciate how I can just fade out og the J-go sometimes, although it isn't always by choice). I may have agreed to something inadvertently, but I don't know what it is...

Volleyball has been fun. I have only been twice so far, last week Friday being the first, and people seem pretty friendly, but they aren't nearly as easygoing and relaxed about it as was suggested to me originally. They were almost scary, which made me very very glad I had not agreed to join the serious team. Last night was slightly less scary, although I did make a block on a spike that felt like it could almost have broken my hand. It is however leading to a softball game Thursday night, provided it doesn't rain, and an enkai next Saturday with a bunch of other "circles." Looking forward to it...

Cooking Craziness

Friday night, after a brief stop Manabi Niimi to make use of free computers and internet, I went grocery shopping. At the first grocery store, I bought some veggies and meat, but what with the prices being too high on various items, I stopped at one a little closer to home to pick up my missing supplies. And during the jaunt about the second, I saw other things the first didn't have, or that were cheaper than the first, and again stocked up. Which led to me having too many groceries -- it really is true; you shouldn't go grocery shopping when you are hungry (by the by, I think I ended up having leftovers for dinner on Friday night). Which led to me having a very small fridge stuffed to the brim with all kinds of fresh groceries which I realized as I unpacked them that I would never be able to eat all of before they went off. Which led to last nights frenzy of fantastic foods.

No, I didn't eat them all, but I did cook them all in a 3 hour culinary coup. I was very impressed to discover that I do in fact have enough pots, and merely confirmed my awareness that I don't have enough counter space. After poring through both my English and Japanese cookbooks (I do love my English cookbooks, but sometimes the ingredients are impossible or prohibitively expensive to buy, which leads to my salivary glands being taunted, and thus I went out and purchased 4 or 5 J-go cookbooks, and spent an afternoon going through kanji and words I didn't already know), I settled on my menu. I ended up with 2 kinds of curry, ratatouille, my very own Chinese stir-fry, and the insides for some fajitas. Spread out over my counter in a variety of pots, bowls and fry-pans, I then proceeded to bag or package it all up to shove in the freezer for consumption at a later date. At least 19 meals... And it leaves me with a couple of meals to be consumed in the fridge, as well as a bunch of displaced chocolate -- ah, poor chocolate.

Feeling very satisfied with myself, and a little curried as every time my hands come near my nose, I catch whiffs of curries and garlic and other delicious ingredients.

Yum. Damn, I am pretty good at this whole cooking thing sometimes...

Computers Anyone?

I wasn't planning on being here today, yet I am. In a fit of frustration I have realized that I need a computer if only to be able to do my job. 7 schools and 42 classes and all kinds of different curriculums are a little difficult to keep track of with only scraps and bits of papers floating around. Anyways, I ended up in the computer hiroba tonight as I needed to send some inquiries about supplies to the company and feel guilty doing it from the school, especially since I will only be there maybe 4 times a month. I don't want it to look like I am glued to the computer all the time...