ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

In Homestay Club at Ota we made paper mache Halloween decorations. Here we have a green zombie and orange pumpkin. We also carved pumpkins to make jack-o-lanters. We enjoyed making chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. The kids really liked those. Mmmmm. I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas with them!!  

I recently went to see my first Sumo tournament. It was an all day affair with friends. Sumo is unlike any sport I have ever seen. I think it is cool that they don't need the best name brand clothes and gear for this sport. The game is based on pure skill. Very cool.   

On Tuesday we had the GEM Thanksgiving party. I made a pumpkin apple salad and Stephanie made pineapple fluff.





Pumpkin Apple Salad
-pumpkin
-apple
-pear
-onion
-potato
-sweet potato
-carrot
-pineapple
-mayonnaise
-salt
-pepper
-nutmeg (or cloves)
-cinnamon

Cut all vegetables into chunks and cook until tender. Let cool and toss with mayo and seasonings to taste.

Pineapple Fluff
-pineapple
-whipping cream
-gelatin
-sugar
-vanilla

Beat all ingredients together until cream becomes fluffy.  

Today is Thanksgiving and I really miss my mom's Thanksgiving dinner. She usually cooks turkey, ham, and roast beef, as well as mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, candied yams, and pasta. She also bakes pumpkin pie and cakes. It's so much food! I cooked similar food here but it's not the same as my mom's food. Plus, my family's not here to celebrate with me. I told my mom when I come home to visit in March, I want her to cook me a full Thanksgiving meal!  

I w

ent canyoning in Iwahara with a friend. The outdoors were so beautiful. I love the outdoors. The trees were so green. I loved being around the rushing river sounds. It reminded me of growing up in Washington State in America. We wore two wet suits to keep warm and our guides helped us rappel down boulders waterfalls. It was a lot of fun. I hope to do it more in the future....maybe a little more extreme next time though.  

Pumpkins aren't just for Halloween! In America we use pumpkins for decoration and for meals! You can use pumpkins for all sorts of food. My favorite is pumpkin pie but you can also make cakes, cookies, soups and many other things. My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal however is the turkey! My dad is in charge of cooking the turkey every year for my family. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for sure!   

Over the past few months, I've had a lot of questions about crime and safety, both by people worried about being victims of crime when they go to visit America, and people worried about crimes committed by Americans in Japan.



It is true that America has a much higher violent crime rate than Japan. I don't know why that is. It's also true that American life is not nearly as dangerous as most Japanese people seem to believe. It's like earthquakes in Japan. Americans think that Japanese earthquakes are almost constant, and always disastrous, when, in reality, they're not that common, usually not a big deal, and it's just something most people have learned to live with without noticing it very much.

I was a security guard for a few years. I liked my job and took it seriously, and I took a lot of classes with the local police, and I've learned a few things about personal safety. Here are a few key points:

When we teach about fire safety, we often show a chart of the fire triangle. A fire needs three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat. If you don't have all three of those things, a fire can't start. Similarly, there is a crime triangle. A criminal needs three things: ability, motive, and opportunity. If they don't have those three things, they can't commit a crime. You can't do much to control someone's ability to do crime, but you can do things to reduce their motivation and opportunity.

Just like everyone else, criminals are driven by incentive. If something has low risk and high reward, lots of people will want to take that action. If something looks like it has high risk or low reward, people will avoid doing it.

Criminals are typically opportunistic predators. They want to hit an easy target and get away as quickly as possible. If you appear to be distracted or lost, you're an easy target. If you're alone when it's dark, you're an easy target. If you have an expensive watch or a nice new cell phone or other signs that you have money or valuables, you're an easy, delicious target.

Be alert to your environment. Get off your cell phone and your PSP and look around you. You'll see problems coming and be able to avoid them. Moreover, you'll appear alert, making you a much harder target, and just from that your problems will usually avoid you.  

I went to Imabari in Ehime with some friends to do some sightseeing. We decided to see the beautiful castle there. When we got there, the sun was shining. We climbed to the top of the castle, where we could see the whole city. Then, we drove to the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge and it started to rain! Luckily, we had all brought umbrellas!
We climbed up to the view point anyway, determined to see the bridge. It was so foggy, you could hardly see it, but it looked really cool. There was a boat sailing toward us, which made the whole view look like a scene out of Pirates of the Caribbean!
  

Since Emma's been born, I've been reading a lot of new children's books. These are two of my favorites.





I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean is about a giant squid and has a surprise ending. There are a lot of comparison sentences as you travel with the squid to find out what he's bigger then. Sometimes I like to Curl up in a Ball follows a wombat as he goes through his favorite things to do. The illustrations are bright and full of detail.

Children will enjoy doing the same activities as the animals in Sometimes I like to Curl up in a Ball and seeing what they're bigger than like squid in I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean .

  

I went to Kobe. I took the shin-kansen there but on the way home I took the Jumbo Ferry. I thing the ferry is the best way to travel Japan. I takes longer but it is very cheap and super comfortable. They even have rooms for sleeping. The only problem I have with the ferry in the times are very inconvinent. I waould really like to see them add a better time table for passengers.  

Yesterday we went to a restaurant. We have wanted to go to this restaurant for a long time because the food looks really good.

It was kind of small, and the whole dining area was full of smoke from just two customers. We immediately turned around and walked out.

The restaurant owners probably thing we were just a couple of crazy Americans, lost and confused. They probably didn't think of us a potential customers, and they probably don't know why they are losing our business.

I only speak a little Japanese. I can order at a restaurant, but I can't tell a restaurant owner that I won't eat here because the whole environment is unhealthy because of a few customers. And even if I weren't worried about my health, or my baby's health, I still wouldn't eat there because everything would taste like an ashtray. I wish I could send that message.



  

Here I am at an all-you-can-eat resturaunt. I have finished my meal and now made a dessert of cake and ice cream. These are 2 sweets that I really enjoy. I like to make all my own desserts because I can eat more than most people. The only problem with this day is I did eat too much and I didn't feel good for a few hours. I think this was my last All-you-can-eat in Japan though. I look fereward to seeing you in class soon.  

A friend and myself went white water rafting on the Yoshino River. It was a lot of fun. We had a really fun guide. We jumped off a huge boulder (rock) into the water (about 15 meters above the water). We played trust games at the deep parts of the water and ended up falling in. The best part was when the guide had us all sit at one end of the raft and pulled a rope attached to the other end until the bow was straight up in the air. It turned over and we all fell into the water under the boat. Weeeee!!!!

  

I was driving home from surfing in Tokushima and I noticed some small rocky islands out at sea. I told my friend that it would be cool to explore them. So we decided to go to the nearby town and talk to some fishermen. One older fisherman offered to take us out to see the islands on his boat. He gave us a tour of the islands and he taught us about fish harvesting. We visited some fish harvesting spots where they happened to be feeding the fish at the time. It was very interesting and random! Japanese people are so friendly. I love being in Japan! :)  

In Korea, November 11 is Pepero Day. Pepero is the same as Pocky in Japan. People give boxes of Pepero to friends, similar to Valentine's chocolates.  

These are two of my new students, June and Alistair, in their Halloween costumes. June is Indiana Jones and Alistair is the superhero. Their English is improving very quickly because they pay attention in class and their mother helps them with their homework. We have so much fun in class. I look forward to their class every week.  

Hello,
I know everyone is very proud of the shinkansen here and you should be. It is a little expensive but a very effective ground transportation. I feel very lucky when I get to ride it. I only hope one day we can have this luxury in America. I think it would really boost America's productivity. Planes are on such bad schedules and you have to be there so early for the flight which makes the trip even longer. Although there is so much we can learn from Japan, there are things we can learn from each other as well.  

The GEM School Halloween Party was held on October 29th at Mannou Park. It was a lot of fun! I had fun seeing all the students and their parents. The costumes were cute and fun also. I was sad that only a few of my students were able to come due to a parent teacher conference. We had a haunted house, maze, face painting, quiz show, and a lot more. I was Super Gaga (a superhero form of Lady Gaga). I hope everyone had a lot of fun!!

  

I visited Niihama for the Matsuri Festival. It was interesting to see all the neighborhood men carrying the heavy structures that they decorated. It seemed like a competition between the neighborhoods. It is very dangerous! A 20 year old man lost a couple of fingers because two of the structures crashed into each other.   

Originally in the USA and then throughout the world, November is National Novel-Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. People try to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I've wanted to write a novel ever since I was young, but I've never really tried before. I'm going to do my best, and even if I don't finish in a month, or it isn't very good, it will still be a powerful experience.



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