Last welcome surprise!

So upon arriving to Japan my sister has had all sorts of surprises. The first night I'm home my roomate cooked me dinner and had surprise guests. The following week we went out to dinner at a Shbu Shabu restaurant which is special to Japan. Then Saturday she surprised me with a massage. This past weekend (Friday) my sister surprised me once again with tickets to the musical Dreamgirls. It was the traveling group from New York. So it was in ENGLISH and it was SOO Amazing! I have officially decided I have the best sister in the world.

I surprisingly think I can get used to living in a city and having SO many great things to go and see all the time. The only problem is eventually my funds would run out.

Mommy WOW, I'm a big kid now!

So after this past week at school it has finally began to sink in, that I am fully employed and have big kid responsibilities.

I am actually a teacher. I have about 300 students in 17 classes, and 5 different grades that I see once a week for 50 minutes. Girls come to me during lunch and after school to ask me questions. I also have teacher meetings, and after school club activities that I help with.

I've now had two different teachers that translate for my 7th graders ask questions that flattered me. One asked me, "Have you had teacher training? Because you seem so confident, and speak loud and clearly." I would hope I was speaking clearly when I only say 3 words a minute. Okay so maybe I don't talk that slowly, but it feels like I do. The other teacher asked me, "Do you enjoy teaching? Because it looks like you are really having fun with the girls." My response, Yes I love teaching. (Why would I have spent 5 years of school trying to get a teaching degree if I didn't.)

I really am enjoying my life here thus far. I'm still adjusting, and my body is still trying to get used to the stressful, busy country of Japan. It's also great to be here with my sister, my best friend for almost my entire life. There were a few times I would have disowned her, but for the most part, we've been best friends.

One week down

So it is hard to believe it has been a whole week since I arrived in Japan. I am starting to get really frustrated at how distant I feel from the people I love. My laptop can't connect to the wireless for some reason, and the desktop computer doesn't have a microphone or speaker to call. SOOO I apologize for not being able to communicate with anyone.

Things are going well. I had a fantastic welcome dinner Friday night. My sister got a nice group together and we went to eat shabu shabu. THEN I went to Karaoke. It was SOOO much fun.

I am really enjoying being so close to my sister, because Saturday she surprised me with a massage and a fun day of sopping. Then I came back and rested before my roommate had a friend over dinner.

Today, Sunday, I slept in till 8. After I got up I took a shower, made breakfast, and took my time getting ready for church. After church I went to my sisters apartment and hung out until I decided it was time for me to head back home for the evening.

Now I'm back, and getting ready to head to bead. Someday when I get Internet on my computer I will try to make this a little more entertaining.

That's all for now. God bless till next time.

Hi my name is...

So the past few days I have been introducing myself ALOT! I have 16 classes a week, ranging in grades 7-11. I am the only teacher that has at least 2 classes of each grade. In grades 8-11 they have had to ask me questions.

Here are the top 10 questions I have been getting ....

10. How tall are you? - 183 cm (they don't do ft / inches)
9. What is your blood type?
8. What is your favorite Japanese food?
7. What is your favorite Japanese artist? Do you really expect me to have a favorite or even know any after being in Japan 5 days.
6. What is your favorite season?
5. What is a difference between America, and Japan?
4. Do you like Japan?
3. Where do you shop?
2. Do you like your sister?

And for the hands down favorite, and top question ...
1. Do you have a boyfriend? Really??? Do they expect me to 1, have already gotten a boyfriend after 5 days of being in Japan, or 2. Leave a boyfriend in the US for 2 years.

Some things just don't seem to change.

I absolutely love my students, and I am looking forward to teaching next week by myself. I just hope I can remember where all the classes are. :-)

Funny Story of the day- Compliments to my sister....

So i am on my way home and am waiting for the signal to change so i can cross the street (this road is too busy to jaywalk in my opinion) but of course that doesn't stop the superior nihonjin! this one business man decides to sprint across the road in front of this car. As he begins running he trips over his own feet and face plants and then rolls on the road! thankfully the car is going slow and stops! the man TRIES to play it off (impossible hundreds saw) and attempts to get up fast and finish running across. As he begins to run he picks up his bag and spills it! the bag wasnt zipped! it was so ridiculous! he ruined his suit and maybe some papers and definitely took a MAJOR EGO BLOW and as you probably guessed the signal turned green as he was gathering his things! CRAZY! also he was running away from the station not to it!?

Day 2: Getting situated

1:00 am- wake up to use the bathroom
4:43 am- wake up to use the bathroom, and feeling reaady to start the day, until I check my itouch to realize what time it was. So inspite the fact that the sun was up, and I felt rested I attemped to fall back to sleep.

8:30am- wake up for real, change out of my p.j.'s and head downstairs to make breakfast which consisted of banannas, peanut butter, and COFFEE.

9-12- Checked e-mails, facebooked and chatted until my desktop computer froze up.
12-2:30pm- Cleaned, unpacked, and organized my room.

2:30pm finally got hungry, made a grilled cheese sandwich and ate leftover baked beans for lunch. Checked e-mails again to see if my sister had replyed to my previous e-mails with questions. She had so then I started laundry. and worked in my room some more.
4:30pm went for a little walk and then came back and wrote blogs until now.
6:10p.m. getting hungry, and expecing my roomate home. So...

Good bye until tomorrow!

Day 1: Welcome to Japan!

My arrival to Japan was delayed a day due to a wonderful stomach bug. Actually it was anything but wonderful (vomiting, diahea, fever etc). So I left Saturday morning at 4:00 am to make it for my 6:30 flight. Thankfully everything went smoothly and I arrived in Japan at 2:00pm on Sunday.

My sister, and Ida sensai, one of my principal's met me at the airport, and then my sister and I wnet by bus to Yokohama station. At Yokohama station one of our friends met us inher car to take my sister and I to my house.

Once I got to my house I had more people here to welocome me. My roomate Bridgette cooked an AMAZING feast of food for my first night here. She was worried I wouldn't be able to eat because I had ben sick, but this was the first meal that actually tasted good. Alright ready for the menu? We had jerk grilled chicken, grilled corn on the cob, grilled pineapple, mac and cheese, green beans, baked beans, garlic bread, and cream cheese fruit dip, with apples, mangos, and strawberries. It was delectable.

After dinner we cleaned up, my sister helped me unpack a little, and then we visited until I started falling asleep. Then they kindly let me go take a shower and crawl into bed.