Yay, weekend!

Well, I tried to make cookies with my new toaster oven (with convection ability, which means a fan to blow the air around, ooooh) today with mixed results. I can turn out either slightly burned or totally white cookies. I think I almost had it perfect once but I let them got for two minutes under a higher setting to brown more and the edges burned. *le sigh* I will get the hang of this though! Next project will be scones. Unsurprisingly the challenge was finding the ingredients to bake with. I took a picture. Thank goodness I can read hiragana and katakana! Brown sugar and raisins in particular were difficult. Luckily the import store had the big bag of raisins and I was able to find (the sugar section in general and differentiate it from the salt section) brown sugar near the white sugar.

This week went okay as far as classes go. I'm back on the ball with planning activities ahead of time. I did my first special (as in kids with special learning needs, so positive context) class and it went well, too. I love them, actually, they're really sweet kids. And most of them are really smart and like English class.

I visited with Yumiko last night and afterwards we went to her house and I talked with Keith,too. He gave me some awesome recommendations for an electronic dictionary to buy since my DS version can only go so far. He's also lent me some textbooks since he's already passed his JLPT (Japanese Language Profeciency test) level one, which means he's fluent enough to work for a Japanese company.

Oh, also, with my Amazon.jp order this week I finally got the right version of the translation and notes guide to go with my Japanese textbook. The first one I bought had all the Japanese words written in the English alphabet. I think it's better to be able to recognize them when written in normal Japanese letters, too, so I had to get this new one. (I also now have all of the 'Catwings' books by Ursula K. Le Guin which makes me really happy, too.)

My brain has finally let out enough useless info that I can read again. I've gotten through five books since arriving. This is a record for the past few years. It's so nice to not worry about stuffing my brain for exams anymore!

Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting or something else to relax!

What's been up with me recently:

Firstly: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

I hope you had an awesome day!

Hm, well, where to start. Once again it's been a huge amount of time since I've updated properly (btw, I did upload all of my entries written before I got my internet, I just dated them properly. They start at 'Tokyo') or uploaded pictures. No pictures yet but I will update.

Well, the best news I have is that my bike came home this week! Some of my kids found it at the shopping centre downtown and phoned the school on Tuesday. The best part is that they're some of my little brats in class. I'm so proud of them! It's still up in the air as the whether they, other kids, or graduated students took it. I actually am more and more suspecting the graduated students since they came by and buzzed the school on loud scooters the next afternoon. They're bored and not going to high school so... But, honestly, I don't really care and since everything is fixed everything is forgiven.

Um, so L has come and gone this past week and I'm really enjoying both the ability to sleep in and my me space. Not that I mind having company, it's just my house is 1-person sized. And I'm tired from all the sports festival prep for the last few weeks and the final culmination that occurred Saturday.

Teaching is really fun so far because I'm actually allowed to either a) lead most of the class on my own with support from my JLT, or b) wander around and talk with the kids in the back or who are misbehaving when I'm not needed immediately by my JLT. My English Passport scheme to bribe my children into wanting to at least participate in my classes seems to be working for the most part as well. I know intrinsic (internal) motivation is better than extrinsic (external) but when they're being forced to learn a language in high school the intrinsic won't be there most of the time anyway. Actually, I'm finding I love the little wanna-be gangsters the best in class because they keep things fun. I'm also discovering that I have a terrific internal goofball that comes out in class so I can play well off of my students no matter what they're doing.

My squishies (elementary students) are also absolutely amazing and I love them to pieces. Those days are going to be the most tiring but the most fun, I think. Most of them are still totally into playing games and lunch break is friggin' awesome. But I have to find more durable clothing and not wear my nice shirts. The kids are going to trash my clothing. I need to look into getting guys shirts.

Hm, well this post was actually interrupted by about six hours. I went to Gifu with a friend and when I hit up Uniqlo I discovered that they have clothes that fit me! T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, and polo shirts! Admittedly in the largest men's size they carry but I'm still ecstatic. I didn't think it would be so easy to find elementary-appropriate clothing! And the best part is that guys clothing here comes in girl's colors, too. Pink, purple, light blue, you name a color and you can find it in the clothing section somewhere. Sadly the shirt that said, "Eat more turkey, be perky!" with the picture of the chef carving up the turkey wasn't there in my size. Uniqlo is cheap, too, most of my shirts were around 1000 yen (~$10). (Thank you Tanya, you were right, that store is amazing).

Anyways, I should be working on what I'm going to do in class tomorrow so I'm going to sign off now.