head in the clouds

geez...has my mind been distracted lately?
papua new guinea is of course the number one culptrit. in less than 24 hours i'll be on a bus on my way to narita..........!
and of course there's other reasons i've been in the clouds....;)
however, i slepped in this morning (woke up to my alarm and turned it off), thankfully being woken finally by a c-mail from lindsay at precicely 8:22am (i have to be at work at 9, it's a 15 min drive). her c-mail simply screamed Malaria! reminding me to take my first dose of the pills with breakie.
racing to school in the rain, i obviously wasn't paying as much attention to the road as i should have done. a van in front of me made a sudden stop and i slammed on my breaks to avoid hitting him. in the process, my wheels skidded out of control from the slippery rain-soaked road and i spun around and ended up facing backwards in the opposite lane. thank goodness it was a red light ahead and that there was no oncoming traffic. the adreneline pumping through my body made my hands shake for the next hour.
hopefully i regain my sense of sanity by noon tomorrow!

have u guys ever noticed...

...that under the Marim brand of coffee whitener, the english translation is "creaming powder"?
and i thought that the 'Creap' brand of whitener was funny.

PNG BABY!

ok so as i was msning emma today we were talking about being stressed about forgetting things to take to papua new guinea so i'm going to add a small list here then you guys comment and add things that i may have forgotten or that you think would be useful:
clothes of course etc
toiletries
film
work gloves
ear plugs * for snorers...he he (did you guys get that email???)
tools (i have to bring Tsquares and paintbrushes)
sunscreen
bug spray
malaria/typhoid meds
cameras and batteries and chargers
pajamas
towel
bathing suit
flip flops/hiking shoes
organize activity to teach children (emma and lindsay and debs - you're on my team, right?)
instant coffee (THIS is going in my 'necessary bag' troy mentioned)
garbage bags (to waterproof), ziplock bags
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKS!

deb's pic of emma, me, debs 

sweet milk

it's 1pm. it's cleaning time and i'm pretending to look busy as the students empty shredded paper into clear plastic bags, drag a broom around, and move dust from one side of the room to the other. i'm drinking my milk from lunch since i feel jilted today given the menu (nattou again). the milk here tastes as though it's been sweetened by honey.
my friend from hull, quebec Jean Rene is a photography (slash, works for CBC) and filmmaker in and around ottawa. he's a wonderful person and has been a great friend to me (always encouraging my own photography and helping me set up photo shows at the university and fringe festival etc). i've participated in several photography projects with him, beginning in 2002 with one he was doing called entre les branches (between the branches). jean's theme tends to be semi-nude slash artsy poses, digitally altered in some way - which he turns into something concrete such as an address book (entres les branches) or the latest one i was involved in (Mozaik H2O). http://www.artmozaik.com/Mozaik-H20.html his most recent theme involves dozens of pictures which he then turns into one giant photo by digitally putting them all together, which he then prints a giant mural and has it on display somewhere in downtown ottawa. his newest project is Energie Tribale (Mozaik UV) where he paints his models in uv-reflecting paint then photographs them. blurb: "Les participants seront peinturés par notre dynamique équipe d'artistes locaux en arts visuels. Les modèles seront photographiés individuellement en style libre et semi-nu (calçon noir obligatoire). Afin de produire des images électrisantes, nous utiliserons de la peinture fluorescente qui réagira sous l'effet de la lumière ultra-violette (lumière UV-Black Light). Les modèles deviendront alors un pixel pour créer la palette des couleurs de la grande murale: MOZAÏK UV - Énergie tribale"

it started out as a bad day

i had a really hard time getting out of bed this morning...i've been so tired lately. i even got to sleep in an extra hour (start later at primary school) and i was in bed by 11 last night. i grumbled through the morning, getting my things ready, thinking about the day that lay ahead. usually at primary school i don't necessarily expect a lesson plan though i do expect a schedule which shows me which classes (what grade) i'm teaching and at what time so i can properly prepare. yesterday i'd faxed tennou PS and requested this but was told i'd get it this morning. perfect. there is a certain someone who works here who fumie and i refer to as "you know who", who is the most unorganized and scatterbrained person i have ever met. imagine. and he's a primary school teacher (he's also about 100 years old). it is the most annoying thing to know that you can show up at a school in the morning (one which you have to be very 'genki' in order to handle all these 5-10 year olds), arrive at your desk with out even so much time as a coffee, and within five minutes be led off to a class to teach which you have no idea the level or subject of which you are about to teach. i've learned to always have several ressources and back-up game plans in my head for such occasions.
i left later than i should have and grumbled while i was stuck behind dump truck after dump truck, and the 14 construction sites which held me up on the drive. i'd forgotten to eat breakfast, didn't feel my coffee kicking in, and was just not looking forward to the day ahead of me.
when i pulled up into the parking lot and stepped out of my car at 8:55am, my mood changed. tennou primary school is a 15 minute drive out through the rice fields, at the base of the mountains. even for the time the weather was warm, and i could hear birds singing and smell the smell of spring. after such a long winter it's the best smell/sound in the whole world. i walked into the teacher's room to very pleasant chimes of "ohayo gozaimasu" 's, and had a nice jinglish chat with the kyoto sensei. i then saw on my desk a copy of not only today's schedule (i'm not teaching until 3rd period) but also an actual lesson plan which means i don't have to stress out about last-minute plans.
AND i have internet at my desk today which usually doesn't happen at primary school. she's going to get through, folks...

EIKAIWA POST

hi guys,
i have to start my second semester of eikaiwa class coming up in may. this time i've been asked to pre-plan an outline of the topics/themes i'll be doing beforehand (which was i think one of the reasons i found it so frustrating and disorganized last time - not having a guideline). those of you who teach eikaiwa (and even those who don't), would you mind giving some of your glorious insight into:
- themes i could teach (ie - INTRODUCTIONS/ON THE PHONE etc)
- games/activities for reinforcing these themes
- anything else that would be of help.
sometimes i feel so uncreative when it comes to this kind of thing. i really thought i'd enjoy it more than i do.
cheers.

grad ceremony, toyoura JHS 

lost children & peter, "da bomb cake" 

wendy, yuki & yukie, peter and 3 tribe 

whew! 45 comments, time for a new entry!

so thanks for all the comments. i love the way the topics spiralled from trips to world wars to kimonos to grandfathers to graduation ceremonies to women in japan... it's almost like our weekly girls' night but written down.
my grad ceremony in the end was fine. the only slightly painful part (not including the cold and the speeches i didn't understand) was the incessant bowing - today i feel as though my neck got quite the workout yesterday. the highlight was the $8000.00 bonzai tree they had on display. yes. that was 8000 DOLLARS (800 000 YEN).
in an act of spontaneous craziness, i booked a ticket to malaysia today for 10 days in april/may. i'm going to meet tasza on the island of kuala besut (?) for another dose of white sand and sun. sugoi!
i've started a written correspondance with one of my ni-nensei students here at saruhashi. today she came into the teacher's room with a little present for me (scented candles and holder) and a letter, including an amazing manga drawing of me. her english teacher says that she's not a good student in class (never pays attention) so i figure that our letter-writing back and forth will do her wonders.
... :) ... smiley today... :) ...

black suits and utsukushii kimonos

graduation ceremony at school today for 3-nensei's...
the women teachers are dressed up in beautiful kimonos and i feel out of place in my black suit. one woman in particular is wearing a gorgeous pink and violet kimono with green and yellow flowers, and a shimmering golden obi.
i made sure to wear tights under my pants, and undershirt and long sleeved-shirt under my sweater. no freezing in the unheated gym all day for me!
this weekend we had our second-last Peter ja Pan musical performance in niigata city. it was a good show - everyone was very nervous because many people we knew would be coming (teachers, other ALTs) but that made us very hyped-up before the show, singing 'billy joel' and 'don mclean' in the changerooms beforehand.
i have once again changed my plans for the golden-week holiday in may. first it was holland then kyushu and now that's been changed as well. the friend i was supposed to visit in kyushu now has to meet her sister in malaysia. BUT, if i can find a reasonably-priced flight, then i may well join them for another dose of island paradise. so far it's looking good...
don't pinch me...don't let me wake up...

karaoke fun 

can i pretend...

...that the absence of my voice today is due to a cold and not to the fact that my mates and i screamed our heart out to bon jovi, elton john, billy joel and aerosmith last night at karaoke?
it started out as a tame girls' night (i swear) - but then somehow we went from a nice dinner at spicy market to some roudy conversation at robin's irish pub to whaling our hearts out at the nearest karaoke palace. but good times were had by all.
today on the drive to school i had a hard time believing it's march. it's snowing heavily again, and after only an hour of being parked in the parking lot i'm sure my car has now several inches of fresh powder on top of it. it would be great for skiing but tonight at our language class it's our monthly dinner - (pizza this time) - which i'm not willing to miss!
this morning i had a dream about going to papua new guinea. it was not a very nice dream and i woke up with a bad feeling about it. i don't remember much - with dreams i tend to hang onto the feeling it gives me more than the actual details themselves. it did however, involve some kind of a wet, cold, concrete building and some very strange men. my alarm was what pulled me out of it finally and i find that when that happens whatever feeling i had during the dream lingers for most of the day.
i have a feeling that today and tomorrow will drag by...

rice field and peach sky 

grrr.

i'm freezing. why is it that at all of my schools i'm closest to the door?
ga-ruzu naito made machikirenai. mexico, here we come!