pictures from the last few months (whoops)

i know, i know... my pics are waaaaay overdue, but alas, here they are!

the past few months have included quite a few outdoor adventures. here's one of them. this is the view from the top of Mt. Joyama -- by far, my favorite mountaintop. it's got a great view over the rias and all the small islands in Mitsushima.

me at the top of Joyama

this is the top of Mt. Shiratake, by far the most difficult climb so far (for me at least). it's known for being a fertility mountain. there's a saying that whoever goes to the top will have a male child within a year. *looking around*. here's hoping that's false. also, the reason why it's a fertility mountain is because, well, look closely.... this view is the "female" part...

...and this is aaron on top of the "male" part. can you see it? =P

the view from the top is nothing but rolling hills in every direction... sooo cool.

at the top of shiratake

the waterfall at the base of shiratake. nice, eh?

so in attempt to keep ourselves unbored, rob and i got a 1000 piece puzzle back in october that we worked on verrry slowly at his place. basically, each time i went up north (which wasn't often), i'd stay the night and we'd work on it all weekend. finally, after about 6 months of turtle-pace assemblage and seemingly 500 pieces of cloudless sky, our masterpiece is finally complete. i can also honestly say that every Tsushima ALT contributed it to it too. thank you everyone!

after being fed up with replacing tortillas with naan bread, aaron and i finally decided to make flour tortillas. the last time we made them, we fed glorious mexican food to a party of 7. needless to say, it was amazing, as mexican food always is (especially when it's homemade ;D). check out the recipes here.

at the end of may, i went to kobe for the recontracting conference. but beforehand, i was sure to visit my host family in kyoto. first stop: the hospital to visit my host sister (sayoko) and her newborn baby. in this picture: me, Ayasa (in the red... Sayoko's oldest child. she was born while i lived with my host family), Yasuyo (married to my host parent's son), Hiroto? (Yasuyo's baby boy, kid #2), Sayoko, Tatsuki (Sayoko's baby boy, kid #2), and Atsushi (Sayoko's husband).

baby boy cousins: Hiroto (i think...) and Tatsuki. in this picture, they're 2 days and 3 days old, respectively.

proud mothers and their baby boys

me and ayasa... how she's grown since being a newborn baby... haha

the hospital visit was followed up by going back to the home i know so well. here: my host mom, their current student (Emily), and her brother (John, who happened to be in town the same day as me). needless to say, there was a big, delicious feast.

me, my host dad, my host parents' son (Junpei), and Haruto (Junpei and Yasuyo's oldest son). This was my first time meeting Haruto, as i only knew him as the baby that Yasuyo was pregnant with during my stay as a student.

the following day was none other than.... a Hanshin Tigers game!!! here's my main man, Akahoshi, in an action pose! this is by far, the closest i've ever been to him...

...although regrettably, my seat was much closer to Hiyama. they lost horribly, but it was nice to see a home game after following them so many nights senior year.... 4am trudging through a bio pset, and refreshing the website every 2 minutes to see how the live game was going.... never again.

akahoshi up at bat!!!!

after months of waiting, i FINALLY got to wear my Akahoshi jersey! and of course, aaron sported his Hanshin colors with a Kanemoto jersey.

during my last night in kobe, i got in contact with 2 of my favorite former SJECers. together with rob, we chatted and drank the night away. here: mutsumi, me, and miki (aka mikiti). both are SJEC alumni from my junior year.

and last but not least, my nephew, Alexander!!! granted, i have yet to meet him, but isn't he darling??

those are all the pictures i've got for you guys for now... *phew*. i feel tons better now =)

my apartment!

at long last.... pics of my new apartment! (please dont scream...) =P

first, just to demonstrate how much unbelievable cleaning i did when i first moved in, and particularly how much grease was layering over everything, please see Exhibit A:

Exhibit A: the before picture

Exhibit B: the after picture. That was about 30 minutes later of scrubbing.

The building. I'm on the 2nd floor, the one closest in this picture.

Can you tell how painful this hill is to walk up everyday? Needless to say, it's unpleasant.

The view from the stairs. Mine's the closest door.

The view from my balcony (eastward)

The view from my balcony (westward). That building you see is where i theoretically play badminton every week.

My showeroom before its much needed paint job. This is what i call "prison style."

Another wall of the showeroom before painting

During painting...

Only the ceiling left to go...

My now beautiful (and bright) showeroom!

What's this? you say. So Toyota-san, a godsend, was helping me the first 3 days i moved in to massively clean the place. in the process, though, she knocked off this clip that held up my drying rack. being the master ghetto-rigger i am, i taped 3 pairs of disposable chopsticks together then taped them to the wall. my shelf has been sturdy and happy ever since =)

the view from my front door

my kitchen

more kitchen

oh how glorious it is to have more than 2 shelves for all my dishes and cups!

kitchen \ bedroom

my cozy bedroom...

surprisingly, i still have roughly the same about of storage space as at my old place

the bedroom view from the kitchen

i dont know whether to shoot or hug the architect sometimes. i would definitely hug him for this: that white wall houses my dishes and cups on the kitchen side, and on the lower portion, is a shoe closet accessible from the front door side. brilliant, no?!

my freshly repainted showeroom =)

my bathtub and the annoyingly complicated highly explosive propane-powered shower. i literally laughed in the face of the guy who showed me how to use it. you would not believe how much effort it takes to get hot water.

my ghetto toilet... notice anything missing? and yes, it came like that.

this is why i would shoot the architect: notice the door jamb that runs along the leftside of the picture. that door is between the showeroom (duh) and the kitchen. then, point your attention to the direction the toiletroom door slides. yup. that's right. i have to enter my wet showeroom in order to access the toilet. it's not as annoying anymore, but definitely took some getting used to.

as you can probably tell, this place isn't very big, but i have to admit, i like it a lot better than my old place. first of all, i can just roll and reach just about everything in my apartment. i have a ton of shelves to put dishes, which is excellent, and this place is just big enough to fit everything i have. there have been less bugs than my old places (although the mosquitoes still magically get inside, and the geckos run larger here). but at least i dont have to climb up and down stairs to pee or run upstairs to answer the phone. also, i can cook and watch tv at the same time, and even use the computer while still keeping an eye on the stove. and did i mention i went from having the most expensive rent of all us ALTs to having one of the cheapest? hell YAY-AH! =D

in other news, it's official: the new ALTs have been decided, and they'll be coming at the end of July/beginning of August. and guess what: i'm going to be the only girl next year! what a loss for this island. tsushima has apparently suffered some bad experiences with past females. they're under the impression that us females can't handle the extreme ruralness (which is crap), so they decided, let's go for guys. *shaking head*. i really hope everything turns out okay. luckily, i still have Sujin, the Korean CIR, who is living next door to me. at least i have one person i can girl talk with *phew*

i have more pics to upload, but i think i'm going to save that for tomorrow. hope you all got a good laugh out of my apartment pics! =)

my first eikaiwa

So Tuesday night, i had my first english conversation class (from here on out, i’m just gonna call it eikaiwa 英会話). There’s 15 people enrolled in the free course offered through the local community center, but only 13 showed up to the first class. I actually managed to plan just enough stuff to do that we finished just on time.

Despite being on an island where Korean seems to be the foreign language of choice, the people who signed up for my class have a shockingly high level of ability. Considering the only two types of people i hear english from are either elementary/junior high school kids, or my english teachers, it’s amazing to hear other people out in the community actually string together a coherent, grammatically accurate sentence @,@ i was highly, highly impressed.

For the last week, i’ve been dreading going to eikaiwa, mainly because of my inherent fear of people realizing that my english has major gaps. Stuff like nursery rhymes, idioms, vocab, expressions... i still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to english, and yet i’m supposed to be able to teach a motley crue of people with drastically different levels of ability.

All day yesterday, i was just nervous. Even after getting into the classroom and seeing that they weren’t scary looking, i was still uber nervous the entire lesson. And when i get nervous, i start to talk fast, which is obviously bad if there’re people who can’t listen very well.

Even though i’ve technically been teaching English since September, my eikaiwa class was the first time i’ve actually felt like a teacher. And dude, is it scary. I mean, you’re RESPONSIBLE for EVERYTHING... usually, my school classes aren’t that daunting because there’s always the homeroom teacher or the english teacher there. But this time, i have to plan everything, make copies.... and all eyes are on me.... =(

My lesson actually worked out pretty well (i think at least), and afterwards, i was chatting with aaron. I told him about the whole feeling like a teacher for the first time thing, and he said, “i understand what you mean, and it’s because with the elementary school and junior high students, everything you say is at least a little bit helpful, so their expectations are very low. But when it comes to the adults, since everyone’s level is all over the place, their expectations are just unreasonable.”

At first i just laughed, but after some thought, i realized that he’s right. In future lessons, i’m sure i’m going to have lessons at just the right level for someone, but it’ll be too easy or too hard for someone else. Literally, i think it’s impossible to please everyone. But for now, i’m just going to revel in a successful first lesson.

As i’m sure everyone could use a good laugh, i’m going to end with a few quotes from the surveys my students filled out at the end of the lesson. Enjoy!

How long have you studied English?
I don’t have time.

How long have you studied English?
I’ve studied for tree years.

What are your hobbies?
Growing flowers, making pottery, baking cakes, playing bound tennis

The most puzzling one:

How long have you studied English?
Tweyear – Sometime!

And last, but not least, my favorite:

What are your hobbies?
Chat (finger lanquage)

i'm an aunt!

as of last saturday, i officially became an aunt! my sister gave birth to a baby boy, and as far as i know, everyone is in good health. my new nephew's name is Alexander Olson.

being on gchat lately, i've noticed that everyone's away messages have been things like "last final" or "finals" or "studying"... and it's hard to believe, but nevertheless, it's been a year since i've graduated from university. isn:t that crazy? i:ve been out in the "real" world for a year now -- bubble-free if you may. man how time flies.

in the same regard, i can:t believe how long i:ve actually gone without seeing my family. it:s going to be nearly a year by the time i go home this july (yes! i:m coming home at the end of july!!). both of my siblings and i went abroad at one point for either school or work (or both), but the longest they were away was something like 3 months for my sister, and maybe 4 months-ish for my brother. i was in kyoto and tokyo for 5 months, and being on the JET Program is going to bring me to about 11 months without seeing my family. the strange thing is, i feel like between the 3 of us, i:m the one who needs to see family the most. that is, i feel like my siblings are independent enough that they can go long periods without needing to see my parents. and yet strangely enough, i:ve found myself repeatedly in japan....

so, if you:ve ever seen pictures of my extended family and i, you:ll noticed that i:m a giant. i:m a beast compared to how small my cousins and sister are. which is why it:s always been a kind of dream for me to see her pregnant. and yet, i managed to not only miss the birth of the first person in the next generation of my family, but i:ve also managed to miss her ENTIRE pregnancy. talk about disappointment.

for the longest time, i kinda felt like my family never changes. they:re a source i can count on being constant. even if i go away from home, when i return, everything will be the same, and it:ll be like i never left. right? wrong. once i hit university, everything started to change... my dad retired, my parents kept fixing up this and that around the house, getting new furniture, etc. and ever since graduation, not just my family, but a lot of my friends from home have been changing. i can:t even name all the people i heard about who got engaged during winter vacation. RIDICULOUS.

i guess what i:m trying to say is that whether or not i like it, the world goes on changing. and whether or not i:d like to admit it, i:m getting older; i:m no longer a kid. i:m becoming (if not already) *gulp* an adult, and with it come responsibilities. i:m soooo dreading going back to the states and actually having to decide what i want to do with the rest of my life, but nevertheless, the time will eventually come.

anyway, i gotta run to class now (i think i have 5 today at 2 elementary schools, as well as my first english conversation class for adults tonight... yikes). i hope you:re all doing well, and let:s meet up in july!

--ev

old people

i'm strangely fascinated by this article i stumbled upon in wikipedia:

Read this!

can you imagine living until you're 122? how bizarre is that? just reaching your 100th birthday seems to be an impossibility.... if i were to live to 122, i'd still have 100 years to go.... isn't that nuts??

sorry, i'm in a weird mood...

back from kobe

despite being a very expensive trip, my trip to kansai was a success! as planned, i departed last last friday for osaka with rob, aaron, and master lees. saturday morning i set out for kyoto, and visited my host family the whole day.

so get this. when i first went abroad, i lived with my host parents, host sister, and dog. however, my host sister was pregnant at the time, and was doing this tradition called satogaeri where a girl goes home to live with her parents just before her baby is born, and stays with them for about a month afterwards. so, about a month into my stay in kyoto, my host sister gave birth to a baby girl, which they named Ayasa.

to make things more interesting, my host sister wasn't the only one pregnant. my host parent's son's wife was also pregnant. so when i first got to kyoto, both my host sister (Sayoko) and the sister-in-law were pregnant. while Ayasa was born in May, her cousin, a boy, was born in August.

back in april, when i found out the dates for the Kobe Conference, i called my host mom and told her i'd be visiting, at which time she told me that Sayoko was once again pregnant AS WELL AS the sister-in-law. and even weirder - THEY HAVE THE SAME DUE DATE. *shaking head* strange, strange, strange.

so saturday morning, the day i was supposed to head up to kyoto to visit them, i get a call from my host mom (which woke me up), at 7:30am, telling me that Sayoko had her baby. AS WELL AS the sister-in-law. Sayoko had her baby on wednesday, and on Thursday, the sister-in=law had hers. both are baby boys, and both gave birth at the same hospital, and were also still in that hospital (the same one i visited Sayoko at after giving birth to Ayasa). so, my host mom told me that she'd drive us to visit both ladies and newborn babies at the hospital.

my afternoon was all about visiting them, while my evening was all about meeting my host family's current student and her brother who was visiting from out of town. so before the student got home, i was helping my host mom out with dinner preparations when she told me that the student (Emily) was happy i was coming over, because then i could help translate for her. upon meeting her, she struck me as the quiet type. it's not so much that she can't speak japanese so much as she doesn't speak much in English unless necessary (which of course has its pros and cons).

however, as the night went on, being as it was the only evening the brother was going to meet the host family, i felt like it wouldn't be right for me translate. it was her chance to prove herself to her brother.... show him that she's made progress during her stay, that she's happy and having a good time, and that she could get by. i dont know if it's messed up that i left her hanging when i could have translated for her.... but i just think back to when my brother visited me in tokyo, and how happy i was when i could take him to a restaurant and order for him, or translate between him and our family friend... i really didn't want to deprive her of that chance.

all in all, i had a good time seeing my host family, and i feel like they felt happy knowing they haven't been forgotten by students they've welcomed into their home.

sunday i met back up the guys and headed to none other than a HANSHIN TIGERS game. it's the middle of interleague play at the moment, and they were up against the Chiba Lotte Marines. i'd rather not relive how horrible that game went, but i was closer to Akahoshi than i've ever been (even though i was pretty close to Hiyama the whole time). at one point, Akahoshi ran towards rightfield, at which i got the best live glimpse of him i've ever had. *sigh* other highlights: i finally got to wear my Akahoshi jersey! it was a birthday present from Aaron, and since then has been hanging in my bedroom as decoration. i also finally got a pair of skinny bats for noisemaking and cheering throughout the game. those will definitely go back home with me.

monday though wednesday was the actual conference, which actually wasn't so bad. it was actually semi-helpful, which is a welcome change from the absolute crap that was Nagasaki Mid-Year Conference (which is essentially a b*tchfest).

highlight of this conference: spending a lot of time with rob and oliver, the other 2 recontracting-for-a-second-year alts in tsushima. on monday night, rob and i were wandering around kobe when we stumbled upon an arcade. i wanted to find those bubble machines where you stick in 200yen or so, and you turn a knob and out pops something in a bubble (i like those machines because you always win (^ ^)v ). however, while we were looking for those bubble machines, we saw this UFO catcher game with the CUTEST Jack doll EVER (jack from the nightmare before christmas). now, if it's one thing about our students here, it's that allll of our students love Jack and Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. i can see how Jack is cool, but i think Stitch is straight up ugly.

anyway, the instant we saw this Jack doll, both rob and i agreed that it was the cutest jack doll either of us had ever seen. normally, i shy away from UFO catchers because i suck at them, and i know they just suck money out of you. but we both wanted it so bad.... that we ended up getting sucked in and finally, finalllllly, won it =) we jumped up and down and screamed and were soooo excited. we had at one point flagged down one of the workers and asked for tips, to which he responded that the machine we were at was the most difficult in the whole arcade. yay us!!

tuesday night rob and i headed to osaka to see two students that were on SJEC 2 years ago. speficially, we met up with mutsumi and miki. miki actually stayed in my room, which mutsumi was at one point staying next door in the quad. it was hilarious. i never spent time with only the two of them, but after that evening, i realized how opposite they are. mutsumi is really feminine and girly girl, while miki is a big tomboy. both of them cracked me up sooo much though. it felt good to talk to young people for once (as they're hard to find in tsushima).

again, i had a very good trip, and saw all the people i really wanted to see: host family, Akahoshi, and the SJEC girls. mission accomplished, indeed =)

that's all for now. and to top things off, i'm at my favorite junior high this week. yay!