So it's cold these days, -18 today with the wind chill

These pictures are from the weekend, when it wasn't quite as cold.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been busy.

I really like my job these days, and now I only have a week left! Isn't that always how it works? Just when you become comfortable with things, they change. Oh well, there are lots of jobs out there. I was offered another job at the same school but I turned it down because I didn't feel confident about teaching the grades and subjects. I am all set up to go on the substitute teaching list. So I will try that for a while.

A few weeks ago I threw a baby shower for my sister. Then last weekend my little roommate Cameron turned 2. He had a pirate themed birthday brunch.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Nearly finished week 4

Random Observations Lately:

• Life is much better when you are not getting sick everyday.
• Teaching is actually a pretty great job (when #1 is happening).
• Holy taxes Batman! I got paid today, or should I say, I was damn near raped by the Alberta government.
• Paying into 2 seperate pension plans, and knowing that you won't see any of that money for like 50 billion years REALLY sucks.
• Cell phones in Canada suck asssssssss.
• My car rocks, but is very dirty, and it's pointless to wash it.
• My next door neighbour happens to work at my school. He told me about the short cut to school. Now I don't have to drive the Deerfoot Death Trail during morning rush hour traffic.
• My sister is due in a month!!!
• My roommates have just purchased two Welsh terriers, they are Copper and Duster. I will post a picture soon.
• I am all caught up on my marking! It only took 3 weeks!
• I saw the movie "Invincible" on the weekend. I guess it would have been really inspiring if I actually liked football, but Mark Whalberg was nice to look at.
• Gas is super cheap here, like 82 cents a liter. It was $1.20 in Powell River in Aug.
• If I hear Fergie's "London" one more time, I swear I'm going to go insane.
• The woman who teaches next to me was sick yesterday. A substitute teacher could not be found!! There are supposed to be a few hundred subs on the list but there are so many jobs that the Calgary board of ed. can't hire enough subs. It's only Sept. (teachers hardly miss days in Sept.) and already it's a problem.
• I had a student tell me she is really going to miss me when I leave. I got a little misty eyed.

The Joy of Being 2 1/2

I finally left the city!

I got to see nature!! And real animals, that were not in cages at the pet store! An old Danbee friend, Holli, took me to Elbow River falls. It was chilly, but (as everyone keeps telling me) not nearly as cold as it's going to be!

Check it out

Help support some friends of mine. Check out CF Sucks. To anyone who has ever planned a wedding: you may enjoy the entry from September 10th.

Join me in welcoming...

...Katy to the blogging world! Check out Kickin' Tofu in Kawamoto.

Update

An analogy:

I've been thrown in the deep end without a lifejacket, and I don't know how to swim.

I used to know how to swim, but have spent the last three years floating in a very plush yacht.

Swimming was not necessary.

So now I'm re-learning how to swim.

The last week and a half have been stressful. It's not even the teaching math and science that's stressing me out. It's all the other things that go along with having your own homeroom, not knowing all the rules and procedures, and being new to the city.

But it's getting better.

A few completely random observations:

• I hate getting up so dam early, it makes me sick (literally).
• I hate morning traffic and the daily accidents I see on the highway.
• My hands are dirty all day, despite washing them several times.
• My students make me smile, except the ones being little fuckheads.
• Teachers don't get paid enough.
• I have no idea how much I'm getting paid, but I know it's not enough.
• I'm still waiting for my contract to arrive, because of this I most likely won't get paid when everyone else does.
• Thank god for Tim Horton's.
• I have the ghetto classroom with the massive hole in the ceiling. It rained today. So we used 3 buckets to collect the leaks.
• I love my car. Have yet to take a picture of it...too busy.
• Autumn is here, and it might snow on Friday.
• Perogies are delicious.

Puts a smile on my stressed out face...

Lost

Help!! School starts tomorrow and I have never felt so unprepared for anything in my life! My first time seeing the classroom was on Friday. The school is going through some major changes at the moment, and the entire admin. is new, not to mention 10 new teachers. I still don't have the basic procedures down. There is no "new teacher info" packet or anything like that. Everyone is crazy busy and has no time to answer my millions of questions. My schedule changed three times on Friday. For a while I was teaching Math, Science, and PE (what I was hired to teach). Then that changed and I was also teaching French. Then it changed again and now I am teaching more Science and no PE or French.

The classroom is a mess. The students don't bring their own supplies to school, we give them everything they need. BUT all the supplies aren't in yet!! I'm hoping to steal some pencils from other teachers for the first day. Some classrooms don't even have enough desks for all the students!

There are 6 periods a day. I teach math in 2 periods and science in 3 periods, with one period to prepare. Then there is also homeroom time in the morning, at nutrition break (recess is a thing of the past), and after lunch. I have 26 students in my homeroom.

I just wish I had one full day to get in the classroom and organize stuff. But it's a long weekend here and the school is locked.

I've worked myself into quite a state. I can't sleep, I'm having nightmares, and my stomach is in knots. I can't even get in there early tomorrow because I don't have a car yet and have to bum a ride from a friend. I did buy a car, but I can't get it until Weds. or Thurs. I'll put up a pic this weekend. I'm not even excited about it. The nervousness about school is overshadowing everything.

I just need to chill out and not take things so seriously. It's only a temporary contract, I'm finished on Nov. 6. I guess I just don't want the kids to know how unprepared I am. I don't want them to think they can walk all over me. I've been told that with these kids I have to be very strict right from day 1.

Maybe I shouldn't have accepted a full time job right away. I should be happy I'm not a TOC (substitute teacher).

Wish me luck for tomorrow!! It's only a half day, can't be too bad...RIGHT?

Things move fast in Calgary...

Holy crap! I am shitting myself right now!

I arrived in Calgary last Tues. night. Phoned the Calgary Board of Education on Thurs. Had a screening interview on Fri. Passed the interview. Got a phone call from a school principal on Tues. morning. Had an interview with her 4 hours later. Then today, about 20 mins ago I got a call offering me a temporary full time position!!

I start tomorrow!

The kids start on Tues.

Holy shit

Guess what I'm teaching???

MATH, SCIENCE AND PE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit

Good news is it's grade 6!!

I will update more when I have time. Excuse me now while I try to re-learn grade 6 math!!

Sidetracked...

I just have to mention that I'm still completely and totally obsessed with Big Brother 7 UK! It's not the same without Nathan and Rebecca to share it with, but I still love it! There are only about 3 or 4 days left, and it's realllllly good these days! PETE TO WIN!! Here are the original houseguests:


This is Pete. I love him and would have his babies anyday.

My Last Day at Seiwa

My last visit to Seiwa Special Needs School was really heart-warming. I was spoiled with handmade gifts and all the students and teachers had a special assembly for me. The student council president made a speech in English that he had been practicing for weeks! He's an amazing little boy who is hooked up to a ventilator. He can only say a few words before he needs to stop and allow the machine to breath for him. So for him to give such a long speech, in a foreign language, was absolutely amazing. The students at this school inspired me in ways that no other students will ever be able to emulate.

My gifts.

The student council members.


The leader of my fan club. Take a look at the medalian around her neck...she made that herself!


The speech.

Greatest kids in the world

Here are a few pictures from the sayonara party my ESS club gave for me. I miss these students sooooo much! They made me an amazing scrapbook (pictures to come), and each made a short speech. A few of them even came to my apartment to help me with cleaning! My own personal slaves!

Introducing Miss. Izumi Takezaki

Before I left Shimane I had the pleasure of meeting the newest addition to the Takezaki family, Izumi-chan. Her mother, Akemi, was my supervisor (twice) while I was at Gotsu High School. She was/is a great friend so I made her beautiful baby girl a blanket and a matching stuffed amigurumi mouse.

Housekeeping

So I have finally gotten off my ass and transferred some photos from my computer to my Mom's computer (the one that has internet access). Soooooo this means I can finally post the pictures I was too busy to post when I was in Japan. I have pictures from numerous goodbye parties, dinners, lunches, ect. There are also a few videos that MUST be preserved online for all to see. I also need to update about what I have been doing here. Last week I took a quick trip to Victoria and this week I have been ankle deep in The Adventures of Dogsitting. So stay tuned...

But first, here are a few pictures from the Iwami Area goodbye party organized by the lovely and talented Rebecca. To see all the photos please go here.

So what's it like to be 28, unemployed, and living with your mother?

Today's TO DO List:

try to get up before noon
feed the cat

Arrived home safely

So I've been home for a few days now. I must admit, it has been hard. What an emotional rollercoaster! The nasty jet lag hasn't helped much either. But today I went out with some friends and it really helped me to feel normal again.

I stayed in Japan too long. No longer do I think "it's so much better in Canada..." If I'd left after my first year I'm sure I would be so happy right now, eating all those foods I missed, shopping, enjoying western stuff. But all I can think about it is how strange it is to abandon your life, unwillingly. I really need to stop thinking about Japan so much, "it's doin' me fookin' head in" (BB7 Lea reference).

It was MUCH easier to come to Japan than it is to leave.

But I guess this is all part of reverse culture shock ne?

To everyone back in Shimane: I love you guys!

Last day of school

We finally had our closing ceremony today, after postponing it due to the heavy rains and all the havoc they caused. The principal made a speech and my student, You, also made a speech on behalf of the students. Then I busted out my Japanese speech.

Oh wait...

That's right! My Japanese sucks sweaty goat balls!

So I made a speech in very easy English. Afterwards, students and teachers told me they understood everything. So I don't feel too bad about the lack of Japanese.

I've been overwhelmed with gifts. My money envelopes now total 6 and the day isn't over yet. I'm soooo tempted to rip them open to see how much is inside!! But it's the actual things and letters I have received that mean the most to me. I think I could fill one suitcase with all the stuff I have received. I'm even getting gifts from people I hardly know! It's pretty embarassing thanking someone for a gift when you don't even remember their name!

My goodbye enkai was on Tuesday, thankfully before the rains became really bad. It was a great party, but I was seated at the table with the principal and the vice principal...strange conversations from those two!

Then on Weds. my cooking class had a goodbye party for me at a local sushi restaurant. Why is it that I discover a kick-ass sushi place, minutes from my apartment, NOW? The food was amazing!! I didn't know sushi could taste like that, and I love sushi! My cooking class is full of great people, we always have so much fun. One man asked me if there was any Japanese food I hadn't tried yet. I wasn't sure, but I said that I hadn't tried horse yet. So naturally, being at a sushi restaurant, he ran downstairs and ordered up a bunch of horse! As I took my first bite everyone started making horse sounds!! A horse sound in Japanese is not the same as a horse sound in English, so it wasn't so bad! Horse is delicious!!! Bring on the horse! I'll have another order of horse please! Neeeeeeeeeaaaa

My cooking class teacher, Takahashi-san, gave me the most beautiful jewelry box I have ever seen!! I would love to know where everyone is buying these amazing gifts! I have struggled for three years to find nice gifts around here.

We were eating rice with this nasty sticky slimy sauce on top (can't remember the name, you know the slimy potato they have here, it was made with that) and my teacher started talking about her childhood. The slimy sauce made her think of her life during the war, because the slimy potato was a part of their everyday diet then. It turns out she is a survivor of the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima!! I have known a survivor for the past three years and I didn't even know it! She was 5 years old at the time. She wasn't hurt but her older brother died and was buried in some rubble. She was the one who found his body. Can you imagine? She said she was very happy to find his body so that the family could have his bones (ashes?). What a fascinating woman!

Then last night I visited my homestay family, the Takahashi's. Their two oldest children, Masamoto and Norie, are home from their international high school in Shizuoka. It was great to see the whole family together again. I took Norie and the youngest son, Teramoto, to Green Mall to hang out and do puricula. Apparently, Norie has been obesessed with doing puricula with me. It was fun to hang out with them and explore the game center. Dinner was delicious and entertaining! With three boys in one small house I don't know how Matsuko, their mother, keeps sane! They are constantly beating, chasing, and yelling at each other, even at the dinner table. But it's all out of love, you can tell. I will miss this family, I've enjoyed seeing the children grow and mature over the last three years. I have a feeling this won't be the last time I see Norie.

Now I'm just waiting. There are two classes today, to make up for the two classes we missed on Weds. Then my ESS club are having a goodbye party for me. My desk is clean, my lessons are somewhat organized, and (I hope) all the paperwork is finished.

I'll add photos to this post when I get home tonight.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

All the pictures can be found here.

Rain, rain go away...

Ishikawa orders 10,000 evacuated due to heavy rain

Heavy rain drenched wide areas of Japan on Monday, with downpours causing a mudslide and a train derailment in Shimane Prefecture and prompting Ishikawa Prefecture to order more than 10,000 people in Kaga to evacuate.

In Unnan, Shimane Prefecture, heavy rain triggered a mudslide that crushed a home, burying two people. They were rescued but one of them, a 38-year-old woman, remains unconscious, while her 77-year-old father sustained slight leg injuries, Shimane Prefectural Police said.

In Matsue, also in Shimane, a mudslide near Nagae Station on the Kita-Matsue Line caused a two-car train to derail after it ran into mud on the tracks at around 10 a.m., according to Ichibata Electric Railway Co.

The mud caused the first car of the train carrying some 30 passengers to tilt 45 degrees. But there were no injuries, the railway said.

In Kaga, the front dumped 200 mm of rain from 6 a.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday, threatening to cause the city's rivers to flood the surrounding areas.

The Ishikawa Prefectural Government Monday morning ordered 10,100 people at 4,200 households to evacuate the areas close to these rivers.

The Meteorological Agency said the seasonal rain front is engulfing large areas of the country, stretching from the eastern area surrounding Tokyo to the Hokuriku region to the Sanin coast in western Japan facing the Sea of Japan.

The agency said the front is expected to bring heavy rain to a wide area from Monday to Tuesday.

Story from the Japan Times.

Only 10 days left!!!

A few random videos

A typical day at ESS club

Lena's Vagina Monologue

Maya and Chris

Okayama Naked Man festival

Lick, Drink, Lime

Lena's birthday song

A trip to Aquas

We're STARS!!

If I were to steal a baby (I wouldn't actually steal your baby Chris) this would be the one.