Quick bla
Ok, this is a brief entry as I wait for Melissa to return from our houses with belongings. Tonight Lori went to hospital with illness and me and Melissa spent 2 hours with her waiting for her to get iv fluids. We are staying at hers tonight because she is scared of hospitals (it was slightly eerie...I have photos) and I still have school tomorrow but how I will stay awake I dont know. Melissa has been gone a while.....I hope she comes back.....
Anyway, it's been so busy I haven't updated in ages but soon I will put a proper thing up about my exciting weekend with photos, plus about sports day. Things are good here though....still happy.
Right...Melissa has returned so going to bed. Night!
Beneath Heaven lies Hell. Beneath Hell lies THE CAVE!
This weekend I headed to Fukue to spend the weekend with Alistair. All I expected was a relaxing weekend of drinking, but how wrong I was! This evening after dinner with the other westerners on the Island, Mike, an South African english teacher, suggested caving! It sounded fun, I thought it would be some nice little safe caves that were easily accessible. So, nine of us headed to the other side of the island to check it out, equipped with motorcycle helmets and torches. As we walked down the steps into the cave we clambered over two giant signs saying (in Japanese) DANGER, DO NOT ENTER. I began to feel quite nervous at this point, and felt very foolish only wearing flip flops and summer clothes, plus a motorcycle helmet. So we all trundled in and I think it's not so bad, just like a big tunnel with a small walkway, nothing to worry about. Then 5 minutes later we get to the real cave entrance.....with a super giant sign that was roughly translated as DANGER, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, DO NOT PASS, DEATH LIKELY. At this point I start to feel a bit edgy, and wonder why I'm doing this, yet like a lemming, I continue. Once inside the cave most of the floor is coated in clay, meaning it was extremely slippery, plus there was lots of rocks. Some areas had massive boulders to clamber over from rock slides, which was the biggest danger for us! It was a slight nightmare keeping upright, climbing rocks and avoiding the many bats inhabiting the cave. Pippa (one of the ALTs) got pretty scared and zoomed ahead in a bid not to be crushed by giant rocks. I didn't have that luxury as ever time I tried to move faster than a pace a minute I nearly fell on my bum. It was amazing though, and the bats were really cute. There were also snakes and giant centipedes in there, Kowai (scary). Anyway, I made it to the end, feeling quite proud that I didn't die or fall over. When we arrive though Pippa (who literally did run ahead, informs us that the exit is too overgrown to get out. For a moment we nearly had to go all the way back....I nearly cried! Thankfully Mike knew the way through the thicket and I was quite glad to get in the open air! We were all covered in clay and it was nearly midnight, but I was glad we had done it, more exciting than the pub! Anyway, I'm having a great time here, with scooter action tomorrow the fun never ends! The people on Fukue ae really cool and it's a pretty island.
School girl errorThis week I have made quite a number of school girl errors. It begins with wearing a white top with a black bra underneath to school. I was late getting up and in my rush just didn't really think about what I was doing. That was ok though, not a major mess up really. However as the week progressed I also had my bank card eaten, woke up late and was 15 minutes late for work, and embarrassed this poor poor child at one of my schools. I am only thankful that the rest of the week has been very very good.
I started a eikawa (adult conversation class) run by Sierra. Me and Melissa went along and it was really good fun. The students bring loads of food for you and they are all lovely. I'm holding my first dinner party for three of the teachers at my base school in two weeks, thought I should show I appreciate their kindness.
Anyway, here are some random photos from Alistair, they are the ones he took in Fukuoka.
I wouldn't ask!
This me and Alistair on the night when we stayed out when everyone had gone to bed. It started to rain so we took shelter in a random car park.
Alistair eating a sandwich at 3am in the car park.
Canal City water display, Fukuoka
Will, me and Jen collapse on the streets of Nagasaki after a heavy night drinking.
Anyway, enough of the random photos
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZANNE, I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you had a great day, and thanks cristin for the comments, good to read the Japanese. Would love to have you out here as a fellow JET. Will call soon and I'm sure you're having a great time.
Comings and Goings
While I'm in work searching for popular Japanese sports men/women or famous movie stars to quiz my kids with, I thought I should make the effort to make an entry. As you can probably guess it's been crazy, hence the lack of posting, so here goes with the catch up.
Typhoon
Although it was very very windy, with pretty heavy rain, the typhoon wasn't so bad. Our houses are pretty sheltered so there was nothing really to worry about. I just sat around eating pringles and chocolate and chatting with Melissa! Anyway, the next day I was really sick, probably all the pringles, well actually I don't know but I had to call in sick. I was pretty gutted seen as I would be missing an elementary school day which are always great! Anyway, I couldn't go in, puking on the kids would not have gone down well.
School!
Thankfully my supervisor understood about my illness, and Melissa came round in the evening and made me chicken soup, bless. Anyway, my elementary school day had been shifted to Thursday, yey! It was such good fun, the kids are so cute and fun. I mean I was shattered by the end with all the singing and dancing and general acting like a complete idiot, but it was so much fun! I wish I had elementary twice a week! JHS has gone pretty well too, just it'S less about fun and more about grammer, reminded me about why I was useless at French! The kids are still great though!
General Island Bla
So I had an enkai that was really cool, the staff were really nice,and three did a funny dance for me, which everyone then had to do and I was pretty useless at. It'S nearly as amusing as the ridiculous welsh dance I have to do, in which I skip back and forth and in a circle. I'm such an awful representative of Wales! Anyway, went to a really nice snack bar afterwards, and one of the girls that workied there kept on making me sing english songs she liked.....this included Avril Latrine or whatever her name is, I sucked! Anyway, Carrie picked me up at the end and took me to Ippei's place where I found a very drunk Alistair and a slightly over excitable guy named Jonathan who was staying with Lori. It was quite entertaining to see Jonathan teaching the Japanese people rude american words and gestures......good to know an ALT can teach in any setting! Any way, we went home at 1am, and I made Alistair toast and put him to bed....none of which he can remember but I'm not suprised really.
The next day many people came to the island to party. It rained cats and dogs all day, like worse than the typhoon! There was about 14 people crammed into my house which was cool, but it got full of water. The night went really well, lots of food and drink, and George only let us pay for the pizzas! Most of us moved on to Karaoke where some comedy photos were taken with the use of the many props!
Anyway, I don't have time to write more, going out for dinner with Lori. Will write soon though, started Tai chi on Monday nights, it's really really good.
Typhoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
School has been cancelled tomorrow because the super typhoon Nabi is headed our way. We've been warned to stay indoors and tape up windows, at the moment its blowing a gale and pretty heavy rain, but just like a wet day in Wales really. The typhoon is due to hit tomorrow at three, and I've heard loads of mixed things. Some people say we're in the red zone, others say it won't effect us at all, but whatever it shouldn't effect me too much, just means a day off school! Me, Melissa and Carrie went to the supermarket earlier to buy up food and water and nothing was there. All the bread and milk had been sold out, and the noodle cups! I stocked up on shocho and pringles so I'll be fine.
I had my first teaching day at school today, and it went really well! I had three classes and I basically did the same self intro for all three. The kids were really really genki and worked really well. They were so sweet it was brilliant.
Anyway, going to continue preparing for typhoon and will give a proper update soon. Just thought I'd let you know a typhoon will be here soon!!!!
Why do we all hate spiders?
JUST REMINDING EVERYONE THAT NEW PHOTOS BEGIN AT THE TOKYO BLOG ENTRY, BACK IN JULY. ANYONE LOOKING FOR THESE PHOTOS PLEASE START THERE. THANKS.
I have become quite calm about bugs now that I'm in Japan. A spider landed on my foot the other night and I didn't freak out, it was only a jumping one, but normally I may have screamed. I actually let them live in the house if their not in my way. Anyway, I started thinking about why everyone hates spiders, I mean, they can't hurt you (the ones in Britain and this island anyway) and they eat other destructive bugs like ants and mosquitoes. Spiders are pretty good really, and I feel bad that they have such a bad reputation. So, why is it that we fear them so much, I mean more so than ants, ladybirds, catapillars etc. Some bugs have a justified fear factor, like the evil centipede that can poison you, or cockroaches, that can make you ill. Spiders however are your friends! We should embrace them.
On the line of bugs, I met my first centipede on Tuesday. After going to the gym with Carrie, Melissa and Catherine, we went to the locker room. Melissa and Carrie went to the showers and me and catherine were just sat playing with our phones. Anyway, they go to get out the shower when Melissa screams. Catherine jumps on the chair/sofa thingy wailing like nobodys business and saying 'it can kill you'. What she means is kill a baby, but obviously the situation felt quite life threatening to her. She told me to run out and get someone (they give off a disgusting odour when they die to attract other bugs) so I calmly exit the changing room and ask for help. The bug was killed, by a shoe, and no one died. It was huge though, yuk!!
Had an enkai last night with my base school, it was good fun but finished early because of work today. The food was amazing though, I had this delicious egg rice thing, I could eat it every day, yum. Most of the teachers left after the meal, but I went to karaoke with 6 of the male staff, and sung my heart out again. No love proposals thankfully, well one guy did say he looked forward to 'doing' me the next year but think (hope) his english was just a bit poor. My JTE made a really funny speech (they all had to introduce themselves), he stood up and said "today I'm wearing red lacy knickers, they are very sexy. Maybe I will present them to you sometime. They are very smelly!" Was pretty darn funny.
No hangover this morning, yey, and can't wait for the weekend. Think I have an enkai tonight but I'm not sure. I'm going to have the longest lie in in the world tomorrow and clean and relax. Right, thats it for now, will try and put the rest of my photos up soon once I get a chance.
