ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

It was my birthday on Tuesday! I was the only one who really knew it, but it was fun to tell my classes all day too. We played a game with the board and eraser that spelled "Happy Birthday Katie!" I drew myself as the erasable kid, and the girls in my class didn't want to erase me!




My mother sent me a very big package full of lots of useful or fun things. Happily, it arrived on the exact day of my birthday! Perfect timing! I will show you all some of the fun things in my next blog entry!

  

MY SKIRT GOT CAUGHT IN THE WHEELS OF MY BICYCLE! It was horrible. There I was on the side of the road with my beautiful skirt caught in my tire. I could not move forward and I could not move backwards. I quickly called my friend Fran who was leaving the school right as I was. “Fran” I cried into the phone, “HELP ME!!!”. I don’t live far from the Niihama Gem school so Fran was able to come quickly to my aid. She parked her on the side of the street and, because I could not get out of my skirt, she helped me move my bike to the side of the road as well. Between intermittent grunts and giggles Fran pulled and pulled at my skirt but it barely moved. “Deborah…” she said, “can you try...taking off your skirt?” TO BE CONTINUEEEEED!  

There is a trinity of kids that I used to teach in my HC in my first year in Gem. Two of them are pictured above from my first year. The third member of the trinity is not pictured because she joined the HC a bit later. The trinity is still together as friends and classmates in the same class. I will have the pleasure of returning to Kokubunji on the day they attend class so that I can reunite with them. They form a legendary group in my imagination, and I hope that they continue moving up the ranks together and remain good friends for their entire lives. The three are pretty different from one another. The one on the left is so kind and strong, actively acting as an older sister to her younger brother, and she has a good throwing arm. The middle one pictured above is a natural and practices ballet and piano. She is classically trained, but oh so quirky and funny. She has the most fun in class. The girl on the right pictured above is also one of my dear ones. I haven’t taught her in two years, but she was always a light in my eyes. She was so confident and clearly the class leader, causing mischief and playing pranks. She was so much fun, and I hope that I get to teach her again soon!   

Salutations readers! Since way back, my favorite breakfast food has been pancakes. I love the combination of fluffy thin cakes, butter, and maple syrup in the morning. I remember being a young boy waking up and smelling pancakes on the griddle. Even without confirmation, I would get excited at the thought of my Mother cooking pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes were usually a treat growing up as my Mother didn't make them often, only on the weekends for special occasions or when she was not too exhausted from the weeks work. I knew whenever pancakes were being made, it was going to be a good day! Now that I'm older, pancakes no longer holds the same mystique for me. I still love them and they're still my preferred breakfast of choice. Now I usually buy them in packs at local convenient stores. I have to say, I've been to many different places in the world and have had many different versions of pancakes but of all those places Japan gets it, Japan gets me! *laughs* I appreciate I place that appreciates PANCAKES!  

Why is the corn wrapped in plastic?

This was the question I asked myself at the store the other day. My next question naturally was: Does this exist in America? Doubtful. Last question: Why does it exist when there is fresh corn in the next aisle. With so many mysteries to unlock, I did the logical thing and bought a package. Once home, I sliced through the plastic with my scissors and sawed off some kernels with my knife. Then, I took the last step to solving the mystery of the plastic-covered corn. I ate some. Apparently, it’s essentially canned. But in plastic. And still on the cob. My conclusion: a strange but highly effective “canning” method. No cutting kernels off the cob, no bulky aluminum to transport, and a visually-appealing final product. Someone worked hard to come up with this cost-saving measure. Or they were just super lazy.  

New teachers come and new friends come with them.






Everyone has a different perspective on things. A lot of new teachers have the same problems but being a kid in a new place can be interesting in a whole lot of different ways. Our newest friend with Gem has an amazing attitude. I think she's having fun so far.

We went to the Zoo the other day. Another teacher and his friends helped set it up. I think the turtles were my favorite.


  

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of East Asian literature (journey to the west, the analects, tsuretsuregusa, etc) so I have actually put out the time for me to conquer this beast of a novel!

The translation I got was done in the mid 20th century by a well respected translator and japan studies expert!

I hope I finish it!


  

I did it! After lots of anxiety and time, I got my driver's license. Having to do everything in Matsuyama was really troublesome.

Going into the test I was very worried. When I drive I have a lot of stress, so I was concerned it would show during the test. Luckily everything went smoothly. It was a very long and draining day.  

So recently I tried nato for the first time! It was just the nato and a raw egg. My mother would question me when I first moved to Japan about eating raw egg, but recently it has become one of my favorite foods with rice. Nato was tasty and had an interesting texture and after taste, I'm looking forward to trying more foods that are here in Japan but not found often in the United States!  

I have a really wonderful student who often brings me food. I love receiving presents and when a student tells me they are traveling or traveled, I like to jokingly ask where the omiyage is. But these are even better than omiyage, my student brings me fresh and different kinds of food.

She's given me vegetables from her garden that I've never heard of before and recently, a citrus called a konatsu (seen in the photo). Konatsu means "little summer" in Japanese.

She instructed me to slice it open diagonally, which I never would have thought to do! You cut it that way so you can eat the inner peel, which is nearly as delicious as the fruit.

I am stuck with boring food quite often because of where I live and my reluctance to cook new things, so I greatly appreciate this kind of present.   

Hello all! Ever since I was a young boy, whenever I had a lot on my mind and couldn't get out of my head I would decide to walk it off. Growing up in Queens New York was both a rewarding and stressful experience. I remember days when I was sitting at home with important decisions to make. I would often go out and walk for hours around my neighborhood. I would visit no friends, listen to any music, or go anywhere specific. I would just walk around and mull over my thoughts at the time. I found myself in that exact situation this past sunday. I am grateful my journey abroad has lead me to Kanonji. As I've posted before, Kanonji is a beautiful town with a lot of places to get lost in your thoughts.
  

For those of you that truly know me know that I love five things: people, soup, well seasoned karage, dresses and skirts. I love wearing dresses and skirts but it is difficult for me to wear them in japan because I ride my bicycle everywhere. I don’t want my skirt or dress to get caught in the wheel! Well, one beautiful sunny day I decided to be brave and wear my skirt anyways. I wore tights underneath the skirt and when I rode my bike that day, I made sure to keep the skirt up. All day long I rode my bike, handling errands and riding around the city. I even went to lunch with a friend before going to work. After work; however, the unthinkable happened! To be continued…
  

It’s hard to make out, but there is a small dragon figurine in the foreground. It’s at the bottom left of the picture. My friends say it is a figurine of a monster from the hit video game Monster Hunter. There are like 10 iterations of that series, so I don’t know from which this dragon figurine is from. What I do know is that it held a rather admirable pose. Thusly, I took it upon myself to attempt an impersonation of it. My friends and I thought it good enough to take a photo of it. That photo is what you see right now before you on the screen. My friends joined in the fray and we had a dragon-impersonation party at my friend’s house. I have to say that I did the best, wouldn’t you agree? It comes in handy to be able to impersonate certain things, especially fictitious monsters and other apex predators like dragons. It really helps you better express your soul.  

Growing up, I didn’t play a lot of sports but what I did do was horseback riding. I think many people are nervous around horses and I understand that. They are big, strong, and can be unpredictable sometimes. Fortunately, my mom made sure I knew how to respect them and how to make them respect me. Oh, and she taught me how to stay on their backs even when they did something unexpected. How did she do that? She put the horse on a really long leash and didn’t let me control it at all for months! Many people might think that would be be boring but personally, I preferred it to being dumped on a horse’s back and turned loose. Since beginning to ride at the age of 4, I can count on one hand the number of times I have fallen off, which I credit to my mom’s excellent training! Either that, or I’m just a wimp that never tries anything new. Hmm… Who knows!  

Typically love the miso style, but this shop has shown me the way. Sudachi and plum was really great.

The weather's changing and I'm starting to sweat figuratively and literally. Humidity is still a foreign idea to me. Owning umbrellas is also weird, and I keep losing mine (I'm pretty forgetful, which my co-workers will confirm for you).

"What's the first thing you noticed when you came here?" I think it was the weather the most.



Till next time.



  

I might have done a post about this not so long ago but if I have it’s good to repeat.

The weather has gotten nice and warm, which I don’t actually mind the heat but what I do mind is the humidity that comes with that just makes me so hot!

How do you beat the heat?


  

There is a symbiotic relationship between the teachers and the office staff we work with. That is the best way to describe it, but it makes it feel emotionless and sterile. Like something easily quantified and qualified through scientific research. It isn't.

I was lucky enough to work alongside someone who was able to handle my strangeness and keep everyday running smoothly. My partner quit yesterday. It was very emotional.

So I decided to take this time for one last goodbye, and to give my new partner a warning... I might be weirder than you have been led to believe.

Bon voyage, mon amie! Until we meet again!  

Last weekend I went for a hike near my house in Utazu. It was very hard to even find the trail so I had to climb up rocks and over fallen trees and things like that. In the end I could not find the summit of the mountain near my house (not sure of the name?) but it was still rewarding because of the exercise I got. I hope to find more accessible trails and paths to hike mountains in the near future, as my experience in Japan so far has been that finding navigable trails is a bit more difficult than in the US when it comes to hiking.