So I sorta dropped the ball on this blog. Oops. Well I was thinking of writing some stuff about applying for JET, common issues in Japan, the JET thing vs the private ALT thing. And I thought it might be a decent idea to put it in a public place, just in case anyone can benefit from it.
I'll also perhaps post links to some of my vlogs I made here. Just to have it all in one place.
Any thoughts from the net?
Give me a shout at KHorselvr@aol.com
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Sunday, November 18, 2012
so the first graders don't even know their own entertainers and sports players. What kind of middle schoolers are you? You should at least know some of them. And the weird part is they do. They are like, selectively blind to their own popular culture.
One of the third year girls was petting my sweater in class today. I agree, it's very soft and nice.
The knob to change the air settings in my car is still broke. As a result I can't get it on defrost. This is bad as winter is coming. I'll have to take it back in. Which is annoying as I have to drive an hour to do so. But it can't be till next week as I'm going out of town.
I'm reading some books I haven't read in a long while. It's fun. Some of the only books I've ever really liked written in the first person.
And now the sky is getting really dark. Cloudy-mess I hope, it's much too early to be getting this dark.
- KT ケイティ
One of the third year girls was petting my sweater in class today. I agree, it's very soft and nice.
The knob to change the air settings in my car is still broke. As a result I can't get it on defrost. This is bad as winter is coming. I'll have to take it back in. Which is annoying as I have to drive an hour to do so. But it can't be till next week as I'm going out of town.
I'm reading some books I haven't read in a long while. It's fun. Some of the only books I've ever really liked written in the first person.
And now the sky is getting really dark. Cloudy-mess I hope, it's much too early to be getting this dark.
- KT ケイティ
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
So I'm not good at keeping resolutions right from the get go. But here is me trying.
Today although I've had too classes I've mostlyt been studying (ie giving myself a headache with giant blocks of text) and doing a little writing. No I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. Good for all the people who are, but it's really not my thing. For me I need motivation but not pressure to meet a deadline to write. I need to feel free to have it come in spurts and sputters. Which it does. Frequently. And then I'll have a day where I wrote a couple pages in an hour.
Anyway best for me to keep to my own schedule when writing. Besides what I'm writing now isn't novel material, just fun!
The JLPT is coming if they ever send me my test ID. So I'm studying, it's showing a few promising results but I'm still struggling with the first section where we have to use the right kanji or reading, or pick a synonym. Reading is actually much improved I think. I did 19 out of 21 in the sample questions in my booklet this morning. And I'm not really worried about listening.
It's snowing outside on and off. It's the first snow of the season. I guess I'm in a good mood. Or rather I'm rather, neutral today. It's not so much as I'm in a good mood or a bad one. Today I'm just, living. Which is nice in its own way.
Tonight is nabe and kotatsu time, which will almost certainly make me happy. And I get to sleep in a little tomorrow, which will also make me happy.
I wonder how my former students are doing, and if any of them will apply for the AJET scholarship. I think one girl here definitely will.
- KT ケイティ
Today although I've had too classes I've mostlyt been studying (ie giving myself a headache with giant blocks of text) and doing a little writing. No I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. Good for all the people who are, but it's really not my thing. For me I need motivation but not pressure to meet a deadline to write. I need to feel free to have it come in spurts and sputters. Which it does. Frequently. And then I'll have a day where I wrote a couple pages in an hour.
Anyway best for me to keep to my own schedule when writing. Besides what I'm writing now isn't novel material, just fun!
The JLPT is coming if they ever send me my test ID. So I'm studying, it's showing a few promising results but I'm still struggling with the first section where we have to use the right kanji or reading, or pick a synonym. Reading is actually much improved I think. I did 19 out of 21 in the sample questions in my booklet this morning. And I'm not really worried about listening.
It's snowing outside on and off. It's the first snow of the season. I guess I'm in a good mood. Or rather I'm rather, neutral today. It's not so much as I'm in a good mood or a bad one. Today I'm just, living. Which is nice in its own way.
Tonight is nabe and kotatsu time, which will almost certainly make me happy. And I get to sleep in a little tomorrow, which will also make me happy.
I wonder how my former students are doing, and if any of them will apply for the AJET scholarship. I think one girl here definitely will.
- KT ケイティ
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Video blogs hooray!
And
There are more of these to come, I shot a partial vlog while on the way to Hiroshima (creatively propping up the camera while driving). I did some fandom writing this week to go on the other journal, and now I'm thinking I'll do something writing here, before more fandom writing. Doing my best to try this Daily Truth thing, I imagine there will be some fits and starts at the beginning as I adjust to doing it though.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Two Weeks of Crazy Part 1
So I missed a week in there. But I think you'll excuse me when you read about what I've been doing for the past two weeks.
Ok so I wrote the last blog before lots of things happened. The week following that blog was pretty normal, except for our Thursday holiday. Even after all this time, the fact that Japan has several National Holidays that fall all by themselves in the middle of the week is still just a little weird to me.
But that's Japan, at any time I'm only about 80% certain whats going on.
But after that, things proceeded as usual on Friday. But Saturday was a working day for me, as it was OMGHuge中's Culture Day. So instead of sleeping in I woke up at the usual time and went into work. So for those of you who don't know, Culture Festivals in Junior High School revolve primary around the singing competition between the classes. And because this school is SO big (15 homerooms total), this goes on for a REALLY long time. Each homeroom sings two songs, a required song for their grade and a free song. So that's 30 songs total at this school, and a lot of them are repeats. Its kinda boring, not gonna lie. But 3-4 really cutely dedicated their performance to their homeroom teacher who is about to be 60 and retire next year, and they ended up winning the day. In the afternoon they do things like club demonstrations and showing off projects they have been doing. And during that part my four girls who have been practicing for the speech contest had a dry run of their speeches. So I was pretty involved in that. Also the Rhythmic Gymnastics club presentation is always really good.
And straight after the Culture Day I went home and hopped in my car, and drove down to Masuda. That's all the way on the other end of Shimane, and Shimane is Looooong. It's about a 3 hour drive, if you are me and you speed a lot. I was going down their because my friend Jessica and I were going to drive to Hiroshima the next day for a Tackey & Tsubasa concert (yey!). But now that I think about it, I'm not really sure why I drove instead of taking the train.
But I made it there, and we had a good evening in Masuda, having yummy dinner and watching tv/DVDs. And the drive to Hiroshima was uneventful until we got to Hiroshima and kept missing our turns. But eventually after much adjusting the GPS on my phone and turning around we did make it. And had a lovely day shopping and poking around Hiroshima before the concert. And the concert was pretty awesome too. But I already wrote about that elsewhere, needless to say I made Jessica a fan too! The next day we spent looking and looking for mexican food but couldn't find it! OR couldn't find one that was open for lunch. But we did end up finding this cute little cafe where they served yummy sandwiches, pizzas, and burgers. And had cute English speaking waiters. I will have to go back there someday!
After we went home and I turned around and drove BACK to my place is where my weeks of crazy really began (really why did I not take the train?). See I'd taken that Monday off cause of the Culture Festival, and I just decided to go ahead and use my compensatory leave. And Tuesday was Rowdy中's Culture Festival (which was honestly quite vanilla this year). And then on Wednesday I went with Oshare先生 to a speech contest in another city to cheer on my girl. That actually was a lot more trouble than it should've been for me to go, and reaffirmed that my motto in Japan should be 'Just do it, and then if you have to apologize for it later'. Because getting permission can be a PAIN in this country.
My girl couldn't win, it was really too bad. But she worked really hard and I thought she did a really good job. And I had a really fun ride down to the contest with my teacher. It was interesting to get to talk to him like that outside the confines of the office. I think I learned a lot of things about him.
And then Thursday and Friday was the Mid-Year Conference for ALTs in Shimane. Which Oshare先生 also attended. That's always a fun event because all of the JET ALTs get together, and its fun to see everyone, and I feel like that conference is probably the most useful event of the year as far as work is concerned. After that Jessica stayed the weekend with me, in addition to a bunch of us having yummy dinner on Thursday night.
That Saturday was ALSO a working day for me, because it was the second speech contest. This one was in town, and I had three girls participating. It was a big contest, and went on all afternoon. Only one of my girls won a prize, but I was so proud of all of them. They really went for it! Jessica came with to that, and then together with Heather we all had dinner and saw a movie at Youme Town. We saw the Three Musketeers. It was fun, but I had to suspend my disbelief HARD the whole movie. And on Sunday we just relaxed until she could get the train home.
It was a busy week, but the BIG event at my school was still to come...
Ok so I wrote the last blog before lots of things happened. The week following that blog was pretty normal, except for our Thursday holiday. Even after all this time, the fact that Japan has several National Holidays that fall all by themselves in the middle of the week is still just a little weird to me.
But that's Japan, at any time I'm only about 80% certain whats going on.
But after that, things proceeded as usual on Friday. But Saturday was a working day for me, as it was OMGHuge中's Culture Day. So instead of sleeping in I woke up at the usual time and went into work. So for those of you who don't know, Culture Festivals in Junior High School revolve primary around the singing competition between the classes. And because this school is SO big (15 homerooms total), this goes on for a REALLY long time. Each homeroom sings two songs, a required song for their grade and a free song. So that's 30 songs total at this school, and a lot of them are repeats. Its kinda boring, not gonna lie. But 3-4 really cutely dedicated their performance to their homeroom teacher who is about to be 60 and retire next year, and they ended up winning the day. In the afternoon they do things like club demonstrations and showing off projects they have been doing. And during that part my four girls who have been practicing for the speech contest had a dry run of their speeches. So I was pretty involved in that. Also the Rhythmic Gymnastics club presentation is always really good.
And straight after the Culture Day I went home and hopped in my car, and drove down to Masuda. That's all the way on the other end of Shimane, and Shimane is Looooong. It's about a 3 hour drive, if you are me and you speed a lot. I was going down their because my friend Jessica and I were going to drive to Hiroshima the next day for a Tackey & Tsubasa concert (yey!). But now that I think about it, I'm not really sure why I drove instead of taking the train.
But I made it there, and we had a good evening in Masuda, having yummy dinner and watching tv/DVDs. And the drive to Hiroshima was uneventful until we got to Hiroshima and kept missing our turns. But eventually after much adjusting the GPS on my phone and turning around we did make it. And had a lovely day shopping and poking around Hiroshima before the concert. And the concert was pretty awesome too. But I already wrote about that elsewhere, needless to say I made Jessica a fan too! The next day we spent looking and looking for mexican food but couldn't find it! OR couldn't find one that was open for lunch. But we did end up finding this cute little cafe where they served yummy sandwiches, pizzas, and burgers. And had cute English speaking waiters. I will have to go back there someday!
After we went home and I turned around and drove BACK to my place is where my weeks of crazy really began (really why did I not take the train?). See I'd taken that Monday off cause of the Culture Festival, and I just decided to go ahead and use my compensatory leave. And Tuesday was Rowdy中's Culture Festival (which was honestly quite vanilla this year). And then on Wednesday I went with Oshare先生 to a speech contest in another city to cheer on my girl. That actually was a lot more trouble than it should've been for me to go, and reaffirmed that my motto in Japan should be 'Just do it, and then if you have to apologize for it later'. Because getting permission can be a PAIN in this country.
My girl couldn't win, it was really too bad. But she worked really hard and I thought she did a really good job. And I had a really fun ride down to the contest with my teacher. It was interesting to get to talk to him like that outside the confines of the office. I think I learned a lot of things about him.
And then Thursday and Friday was the Mid-Year Conference for ALTs in Shimane. Which Oshare先生 also attended. That's always a fun event because all of the JET ALTs get together, and its fun to see everyone, and I feel like that conference is probably the most useful event of the year as far as work is concerned. After that Jessica stayed the weekend with me, in addition to a bunch of us having yummy dinner on Thursday night.
That Saturday was ALSO a working day for me, because it was the second speech contest. This one was in town, and I had three girls participating. It was a big contest, and went on all afternoon. Only one of my girls won a prize, but I was so proud of all of them. They really went for it! Jessica came with to that, and then together with Heather we all had dinner and saw a movie at Youme Town. We saw the Three Musketeers. It was fun, but I had to suspend my disbelief HARD the whole movie. And on Sunday we just relaxed until she could get the train home.
It was a busy week, but the BIG event at my school was still to come...
Sunday, October 30, 2011
A (Tentative) Resolution (Even though its not New Years)
Ok, so I'm not good at this blogging or vlogging stuff. And I really don't know why. I LIKE to write. The vlogging may be because, well frequently I am lacking interesting things that I CAN film and safely post publicly. Also because I'm weighing the idea of a new camera, which I'd like to use for that purpose so I can stop carrying so many electronics around. Its probably just laziness, as is my problem in all things. BUT in an attempt to remedy that (I'm never gonna get ahead in life unless I can learn to turn it off more reliably) I'm going to make a resolution now. But its kinda tentative, so if I don't keep it don't be too surprised. I tend to have a lot of free time on weekends, so its going to be my goal to type a blog entry once a week. Sometimes it may also be video entries. I don't know who is listening out there, truth be told, but here goes.
Ok. So. This week in Japan.
In all honesty, this was a fairly standard week for me. Coming off from last weekend, where I went to the onsen and then dinner with some friends from Unnan, it was the pretty standard get up and go to work routine. Its been kinda grey on and off lately, but the weather has cooled down a lot. Fall is here, thank god. I'm a big fan of this weather, for the sort time we will have it. When its not gray and rainy, the sky is a lovely blue and everything else is still green. The air is delightfully cool and crisp. Someday soon the leaves may start changing colors. While on general purposes I really hate San-in weather, when its nice it is REALLY nice. For instance on Thursday it was one of those rare days where it was clear enough to see all the way to Mt. Daisen from Rowdy中. Amazing.
I took a sick day for my horrific cramps, thank you body, on Wednesday but I was back at full strength on Thursday. And on Friday I had elementary school visits. And they were to schools the feed one of my junior highs which is a VERY rare thing. Even more rare, one of the other ALTs joined me at these schools. All in all that was a successful day teaching. But I was SUPER amazing that morning and forgot I was doing that instead of going to TeenyTiny中 like I usually do, and got up and hurried my butt there. I didn't remember I wasn't supposed to be there until I pulled up and saw the bus that was taking my 1st years on their field trip. Ugh. At that point I just did a u-turn and went back home. Elementary school visits typically don't start till later, and I had just missed my opportunity to sleep in. Damn.
Did I mention the kids were going on a field trip to the local nuclear power plant? It sounded all sorts of interesting and I really wish I could have gone.
I am now considering buying a new heater for the winter, and I think I have picked one from amazon japan. Free shipping yey. Oh, and a rug, cause while nice the wood floor is FREEZING in winter.
Have a mentioned that I broke down and bought a LCD TV here? I got a pretty good deal on it, and in the end I'm really happy with it.
For future reference, I think I have finally stabilized all my code names for school related things in my head. So here is the run-down:
✧I work at three JHSs (Junior High School)right? They are, in order from largest to smallest - OMGHuge中, Rowdy中, and TeenyTiny中.
✧At OMGHuge中 I work with four (and one extra at the moment) JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English), this has changed since last year and is well...kinda in flux. But they are OMUTea先生(woman), OF先生(man), Oshare先生(man), PYT先生(woman), and Y²先生(woman).
✧At Rowdy中 I work with only one JTE and that is Giggles先生
✧And TeenyTiny中 I also work with only one JTE and that is SmileyK先生, and that has changed since last year when it was Majime先生.
✧And my supervisor is the ever wonderful K-san.
I suppose if you actually know me and these people, you'd probably be able to guess who is who but I think this preserves some level on anonymity and doesn't just...use their initials or something. They are for the most part nicknames based on various aspects of their personality or my experiences with them.
Ok. So. This week in Japan.
In all honesty, this was a fairly standard week for me. Coming off from last weekend, where I went to the onsen and then dinner with some friends from Unnan, it was the pretty standard get up and go to work routine. Its been kinda grey on and off lately, but the weather has cooled down a lot. Fall is here, thank god. I'm a big fan of this weather, for the sort time we will have it. When its not gray and rainy, the sky is a lovely blue and everything else is still green. The air is delightfully cool and crisp. Someday soon the leaves may start changing colors. While on general purposes I really hate San-in weather, when its nice it is REALLY nice. For instance on Thursday it was one of those rare days where it was clear enough to see all the way to Mt. Daisen from Rowdy中. Amazing.
I took a sick day for my horrific cramps, thank you body, on Wednesday but I was back at full strength on Thursday. And on Friday I had elementary school visits. And they were to schools the feed one of my junior highs which is a VERY rare thing. Even more rare, one of the other ALTs joined me at these schools. All in all that was a successful day teaching. But I was SUPER amazing that morning and forgot I was doing that instead of going to TeenyTiny中 like I usually do, and got up and hurried my butt there. I didn't remember I wasn't supposed to be there until I pulled up and saw the bus that was taking my 1st years on their field trip. Ugh. At that point I just did a u-turn and went back home. Elementary school visits typically don't start till later, and I had just missed my opportunity to sleep in. Damn.
Did I mention the kids were going on a field trip to the local nuclear power plant? It sounded all sorts of interesting and I really wish I could have gone.
I am now considering buying a new heater for the winter, and I think I have picked one from amazon japan. Free shipping yey. Oh, and a rug, cause while nice the wood floor is FREEZING in winter.
Have a mentioned that I broke down and bought a LCD TV here? I got a pretty good deal on it, and in the end I'm really happy with it.
For future reference, I think I have finally stabilized all my code names for school related things in my head. So here is the run-down:
✧I work at three JHSs (Junior High School)right? They are, in order from largest to smallest - OMGHuge中, Rowdy中, and TeenyTiny中.
✧At OMGHuge中 I work with four (and one extra at the moment) JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English), this has changed since last year and is well...kinda in flux. But they are OMUTea先生(woman), OF先生(man), Oshare先生(man), PYT先生(woman), and Y²先生(woman).
✧At Rowdy中 I work with only one JTE and that is Giggles先生
✧And TeenyTiny中 I also work with only one JTE and that is SmileyK先生, and that has changed since last year when it was Majime先生.
✧And my supervisor is the ever wonderful K-san.
I suppose if you actually know me and these people, you'd probably be able to guess who is who but I think this preserves some level on anonymity and doesn't just...use their initials or something. They are for the most part nicknames based on various aspects of their personality or my experiences with them.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
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