My first weekend back to school

Last Saturday, our school had a camp from a place called Kesanuma (I know I spelled it wrong). Its about an hour drive away from where we live in Sendai. The students from this place were not as fortunate as our school was during the earthquake and the tsunami that shocked the world. As they were leaving school, many got to a bridge when the tsunami warning went off. They all were rushed back to the school and went to the 3rd floor. From there, they saw first two floors fill up with waters and teachers cars floating away like driftwood. They had no food or anyway to get food to them until water started to recede. Parents had no way to get to their kids either. Our school has wanted to do something to help this kids who all lost a lot in the tsunami so a camp has been in the works for awhile.

Saturday afternoon, about 60 kids came by bus to MeySen to join our 4th grade students to sleep here and play games with the kids. It was amazing how quickly they all assimilated. In no time, it seemed like our students and those kids had been friends for years. Everyone just seemed so genuinely excited to be there.

I was able to help after our usually Saturday work meetings. By the time I got there, we were setting up for water play. This was basically one big crazy water fight with about 80 kids and 20 adults. I was whining about it being cold before getting there but it was a blast. All the kids seemed to love to chase me and the other teachers down to get them as soaked as possible. The crazy thing was that most of the kids spoke very little to no English and none of that was even close to a barrier. The smiles and laughter became the universal language for the time.

Buy me some Ramen and Cracker Jacks

After waterplay, we went to our professional baseball team Rakutan Eagles game. This was my first experience with baseball. It felt pretty normal except for the fact that it was in Japan. Normally, you're looking for peanuts and cracker jacks. However, as soon as we get to the gate, we are given a bag of ramen noodles.  They seem to love to perpetuate stereotypes here haha.

 One of our students, talks me into sitting with him and becomes my personal translator for the game. He lets me know everything thats going on. At one point, a waitress comes with CocaCola flair and a bunch of dark colored liquids one would assume is cola. However, I ask for coke and she starts talking to me in Japanese I can't understand. He interprets and lets me know is Oolong tea. Talk about a save.

The game was pretty great. People love to cheer the entire game in the outfield. A few things were a little odd though. Before the game, an eagle was let go fly to the infield, and a player was given several different stuffed animals as some sort of reward. At the end of the 5th inning, I decide to go to the bathroom and they start shooting off a bunch of fireworks. During the 7th, both team's fans shoot off balloons before they go on offense. Our pitcher was awesome. He struck out 18 on the way to a 5-0 victory. Apparently, there was a scout from the Yankees checking him out.

After the game, we all went back to the school for some rice balls (its become my go-to snack) and they head to bed. The next day they all head to the other campus for tons of activities and some gifts from the school.

I finished my good ole American style weekend with a cook out of sorts. A few of us decided to grill steaks at a friends apartment. If you know me at all, you know I love steak. Of course we had to look pretty ridiculous cooking on this little Japanese grill on the second floor of an apartment complex...especially when we tried to start the fire with some kerosene and melted the screen with the flame. All in all, a great weekend back to work.


Random side note: I took it upon myself to create a fantasy league for the teachers here. Its been all the rage and only a handful actually even care at all about football but its a nice way to still feel a part of everything in the states...even if we dont have TVs and all the games would play really early in the morning anyway.

In the spirit of next weekends football games I would like to say from the other side of  the world: GO BLUE! and of course FIRE UP CHIPS!

Summer Vacation Part 2: Philippines

We arrived in Manila at 9PM and got a great taxi driver to get us out of that airport. The first thing you notice about the Philippines is how much poverty is there. I'm sure there are many places that have it worse but it the worst poverty I have ever seen. Our hotel was in a pretty sketchy area that we learned more about the next morning.

 As we tried to head to the Mall of Asia the next day, we were swarmed by kids about 12 years old constantly bugging us to get in this or that taxi. We jumped in a random one and probably had one of the scarier experiences of the trip. There was a guy reaching in my window trying to get some money from me for allowing to get in the cab. I had no clue what to do so I started rolling the window up and we took off. As soon as we got to the corner, there was a traffic officer that forced our cab to stop and the guy started yelling at our cab driver. We thought it was best to jump out at that moment dodge traffic and try another mode of transportation. I had heard Manila was a shady place but that pretty scary. Luckily, we were leaving that day.

Driving to the airport, we went through all of the slums of Manila. The most interesting thing of it all was that there were kids and people outside everywhere and they all looked so happy. Just about everyone I saw was either laughing or smiling. I had heard this before from a friend whose been to poorer areas. From an outsider it just looks so horrible and sad. To the people there its just normal life. When you grow up with nothing, you are used to nothing and make do with anything you have. There's no need to be down about it because its all you ever know. Its basically happiness on its purest level experienced in one of the most desolate looking places.

We spent the rest of the week in Cebu. Luckily for us, one of my best friends growing up had family from Cebu that planned on taking care of us. They picked us up from the airport and took us anywhere we wanted to go. We ended up staying at a resort in the middle of nowhere and they found it for us. All of the Binagaton's were wonderful and treated us just like their family. Growing up I had always planned to go there with my friend when we were older and somehow I was there and he wasn't which was a little strange.

We made lots of plans to hang out with all of them but unfortunately, my trip went south from the resort. The next day I had food poisoning and ended up sick for the next two days. It got so bad that the hotel decided to take me to the doctor. It was definitely a part of the Philippines I didn't plan on seeing. However, compared to America, it was super cheap and actually really easy to see the doctor. She gave me some antibiotic and it seemed to help.

After ruining most of my time in Cebu, we went to Boljoon and decided to go hanggliding between mountains on the way. It was pretty crazy. Basically you're strapped in and get flung from one mountain to another. The scariest part is when you have nothing below you for a long ways. The next day we headed to Kawasan Falls and got to jump off a waterfall. It was a great end to my Cebu trip. I had a great time and am so thankful to all those people that took care of us while we were out.

We flew out to Manila the next day and stayed in a luxury hotel. It was connected to resort mall and casino. It was by far the most comfortable bed I slept on all trip. We headed out the next day hoping to be ready to head back to Japan. However, you all know my luck with flying to Japan.

We get there and they tell us the flight is cancelled and leaving at 3AM the next day. Of course, I'm not really shocked by this anymore. Luckily, they set us up with a hotel and meals. From the hotel, we find out its delayed again till 5:25. Finally, we get to the airport and board the plane only to find out half the peoples seats dont exist. Luckily, they find seats for us all while waiting on the airplane.

Highlights


Best Thing I ate: Pad Thai at the Krabi Resort. Thai food is amazing. The Pad Thai literally hits every single taste bud I have. If you love food, you gotta check it out.

Weirdest Thing I ate: A chicken foot at the hotel in the Philippines. Much to my surprise it didnt taste like chicken. It was actually pretty gross. Sadly, I never got the chance to eat insects in Thailand. I think I saw scorpions from a vendor once.

Coolest thing: The Zipline in Cebu and the Kayaking were both must do.

Scariest adventure: Riding any taxi in Thailand or any vehicle in Cebu. The driving in Cebu is like a stunt driving course. Both countries dont seem to have road rules. Basically, the biggest vehicle has the right of way on either side of the road. Honking is also a very important skill. Also in Thailand, be very carefully when crossing at a crosswalk they will not stop for you.

Thing that would most appall my mom: Thailand has got to be the capital of motorcycle driving. On top of that unsafe motorcycle driving. Almost no one seemed to wear a helmet. I saw mothers or fathers driving with infants and kids just hangin behind helmet-less.

Best Hostel:  Nappark Hostel in Thailand was great. The people were very friendly there, it was right in the middle of the fun places for travelers and they made great breakfast.

Best Hotel: The Marriot in Manila. We got a great deal and had a fitting end to all the different places we slept over 2 weeks.

Friendliest People: Philippino people were all extremely friendly even if some tried to take advantage of us.

Best Movie Theater: Bangkok, Thailand. We actually watched a movie in both countries. The theater in Thailand was super cheap but was very upscale looking. Word to the wise, before every movie you must stand up and pay homage to the King as they play video of him. We had no clue.

I'm sure I could keep ranking for a while. All in all it was a great two weeks and quite an adventure. However, after all the traveling it feels great to be back here and teaching my students tomorrow. 

How I spent my Summer Vacation Part 1

The nice thing about having a job in Japan is that when you go on vacation you're pretty close to a lot of interesting places. Two friends and I decided to head to Thailand and the Philippines for our two weeks off.  Over the past two weeks, I flew on 10 planes, landed in 5 different countries (including Japan), went through customs 6 different times in 3 countries, dealt with exchanging 4 different currencies, met people from Thailand, Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Scotland, England, Luxembourg, Philippines, China, and more. In doing so I realized the importance of my job. They all have a different native language but when talking among each other or talking to people from other countries English is the only way they can communicate. This really brought home the power of the English language. 

Now I did all kinds of crazy things and could probably give a day by day break down over the course of several posts buuut because I'm  really lazy and I'm sure that my mom and the four people that read this have better things to do (jk) so I'm just going to break it down as much as I can. 

Places I went: First we flew from Japan to Malaysia and then connected into Thailand. Malaysia looked pretty great and based on the flight attendants has very beautiful people. I would love to stay longer sometime. 

From Malaysia, we flew on to Thailand and stayed a night in Bankok. The first thing you notice in Thailand is that they have pictures of their king everywhere and the cab drivers belong in NASCAR. We didn't really do much the first day and headed out the next day to our "resort" in Krabi. 

Our resort in Krabi was more like someones big house in the middle of nowhere. However, the great thing about this is that I actually got to have my own room for a few days. I wasn't so lucky later in the trip. Though it wasn't quite what we expected I really grew to love that place. The owner was a German guy who was super friendly and made you feel right at home there. He also gave great tips on what to do.  The hotel was also right on the water and had a great view. Also, it probably had the best food of any place we went the entire trip. 

In Krabi, we spent most of our time around Ao Nang Beach where there were mostly tourists and crazy vendors trying to make deals with ya and about a million "tuck tuck" drivers (basically a covered motorcycle side car. **Tip if you're going to take a TukTuk negotiate a good price before you get in. The beach was just beautiful. 

What we did in Krabi:  Outside of going to the beach we also rode elephants through the forest and spent a day kayaking through the river and caves. The elephant riding was pretty great, it was something I felt I had to do in Thailand. Basically, the elephant was in control of what we did and when we did it. I also got to see some wild monkeys just hanging out in the forest. 

The kayaking just amazing especially as we went through caves. We were at places that you could only see by kayak. The cliffs and jungle were just beautiful.

The other cool thing we did in Krabi was take steal the show at a restaurant called "Crazy Gringos." Fitting the title, we basically turned a two person Thai band into our own karaoke performance. They let us play the drums and allowed me to ruin any song I wanted. You just had to be there to enjoy the ridiculousness of it all. 

After Krabi, we headed back to Bangkok. We spent a few days in Bankok visiting open air markets, the grand palace and a few temples. The palace just kind of takes your breathe away. Its just plain something you've gotta see.    

From here, we took the longest possible route we could to get to the Philippines because China Southern decided to change our flight. We had to leave at 5AM to go from Bangkok to Guangzhou, China to Xiamen  China to Manila and get there at 9PM. One piece of advice I have for you here is, if at all possible don't travel in China. When we got there, they were trying to figure out how to let us in the airport to transfer domestically to get to our international flight. Basically, we needed a visa to breathe Chinese air. After a big hassle, we got a free day pass that wouldn't let us leave the airports. We had two 3 hour layovers and of course there were no places to exchange money and wouldn't accept our Visa or MasterCard inside the airports and we didn't have any Yuan. Luckily, we found an ATM that would work. Leaving was also a hassle. At 6PM the customs only had 1 person working so it took forever to get through. 

Finally, we ended up in Manila...I'll spare ya and put it in another post. 

Summer School in Japan

Wednesday, we just wrapped up a week of summer school. No its not for those kids didn't pass their English exams and would rather cause trouble than actually do their work. At MeySen, summer school is all about giving the kids a fun English learning environment for the students  all and an exhausting jam packed yet rewarding experience for the teachers.

Unlike our normal days of teaching from 4:20-6:45 (yes thats right for those of you that don't follow my blogs.) We teach from 9-4:30 for a week. Its like a normal teaching day for most people in my profession, if normal days were basically filled with movies, playtime, games, crafts etc. Also, all the grades went to Takamori (the other campus). This meant I had to pack everything I was going to teach with and move it to a new classroom. Because the regular course has tons of camps, all of our classes can be in one building.

Heres a break down of summer school:

Friday, we spent the day at Michinoku Park. It was probably one of the most uncomfortably hot sweaty days I've had in Japan. Kids started playing on the bouncing donut and complained that their feet were on fire. I kept thinking the Philippines in a few weeks is going to feel much hotter.

Saturday, we had a normal day. We read a book, do normal curriculum we do everyday and then go to my grade level partners classroom for a craft. My class's theme for summer is Native America. Random interesting fact: Japanese people call Native Americans Indians but India Indians are Indojin...so smart. For crafts, we made masks, canoes, totem poles,  and dream catchers (requires patience). The kids are probably twice as good as I ever would be at any of those crafts. They can literally make a whole city of Origami with running water in about the time it takes me to type this.

After crafts, we have some class time that I can teach them all kinds of things I dont have time to teach during our shortened days. That was the fun part. My biggest goal was to get the kids to use bigger words when talking. They generally understand everything I say but generalize things like using "good job" for everything fun, exciting, funny, etc. From my class time we go to lunch and watch a movie in English. After that we have water play time for an hour and then write in Journals.

Id say the days are about 60% play and 40% curriculum. However, the play and everything is a great way to utilize the English skills they've learned. Essentially everything we do with the kids is teaching them more English in a real world context. Though it sounds like I'm trying to justify playing all day (which I am), it really is a great way for them to practice and get better.

Sunday was my first day off since coming back from US. It felt great to just do nothing for a change. Sunday night, I got the chance to go to my first professional soccer game. I actually wrote a blog post all about it but blogspot decided to make it disappear so I never wrote it again. To sum it up, the game ended 0-0 and the fans and chants were awesome.

Monday through Wednesday was much like Saturday. They days were exhausting but flew by. We played tons of random games from capture the flag to dodgeball in which the teachers got to play the students. The kids loved it. It was basically 100 kids verus about 10 teachers. We also had our powwow (played Native American games), watched "KungFu Panda"  and wrote in a journal everyday.

The kids writing is definitely where I notice the deficiencies in their language understanding. For example, one kid wrote about how he liked one of the games for our PowWow and said " I am really very much attracted to Mohawk Wrestling." Another girl, wrote "we all painted our 'feces'" during the PowWow.

On  Wednesday, I also was able to get my class to Rick Roll my grade level partner during lunch. My kids had been practicing a verse of the song for about a minute a day all week and were really pumped about it.
Lauren had no idea what was about to hit her when 30 kids popped up following her around and busted into Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you up." I have a video of it that I unfortunately can't post because of our policy.

All in all it was a very fun yet exhausting week. I'm definitely glad to finally be on vacation. I can't wait to head to Thailand and the Philippines in a few days.

My First Soccer Game