Piggin` Out
Sunday night, I went with some friends to an all you can eat bbq meat place. WOW! It was about ￥1400 (with soft drinks). I ate a lot of meat. As a side note, it seemed like a huge fire hazard with all of the fire, flames, and burning meat. We had our little gas grill on the bar and a lot of meat was on fire. Smokin`!!!
Oh and that`s right--I finally discovered an all you can eat kaitenzushi place--where the sushi goes round and round on the conveyer belt. It`s about ￥1300 for women--amazingly cheap. I had 24 plates when all was said and done. Admittedly, this included my pudding, yogert, puff pastery filled with ice cream, and my azuki desserts, but what the hell. I ate a lot. I think the coffee afterwards almost tipped the scales.
Two days in a row of buffets can be a lil scary. Oh well, I`m not fat (yet), so maybe I can burn it off. I did play tennis yesterday for about 2 hours or so. Damn those kids are energetic.
The Sound of Light
I am sitting in the school office all alone. All I can hear is the sound of the lights buzzing and me typing away. It`s pretty damn lonely in here. Sure, I could take a nap, I could attempt to study even more, but I`m completely unmotivated. It`s been really rainy lately and it`s certainly not helping me become enthusiastic about doing anything. So, I`m going to munch on the choco-java beans, contemplate life, and get on my soap box rather than be productive and take out the garbage. (We are the janitors here. How self-sufficient. No wonder why it looks like a tsunami ripped through the office--nobody wants to clean.)
The good news: because I think I`m supposed to come to work everyday even if there isn`t class, I`ve been seeing my Japanese skills slowly improve. I guess you know that your skills aren`t too terrible when you can talk to somebody in almost entirely in Japanese for a couple of hours. Mostly w/o "my best friend" the electronic dictionary even.
The bad news: spending ￥500 a day on bus fare. I`ve ridden my bike to school 2 times now, but certainly not in the rain. (Hey, back off bike nazi`s!!!) It takes about 45 minutes, which isn`t terrible, but will be hell in the summer. So, the bus continues to be my friend.
The deal: I`m sitting here alone because all of the other teachers are grading the entrance exams that the junior high students took to get into my high school. Here`s how it works: you decide which high school you might want to go to (usually a couple) and take a test for EACH high school. So, it`s kind of like applying to college in the U.S. with the exception that you take a test for each school and not a standardized test. Each high school has students that are roughly the same intelligence. My school is considered to be an upper school kind of in the mid range. (In other words, pretty smart but not crazy genuises either.)
I am super lucky `cause my students are really nice, smart, and friendly. They`re a bunch of kids from the burbs that come mostly from upper-middle class families. The other high schools that I know of around here are pretty good too, so I think that maybe geography is intertwined with socio-economics just like the U.S. It`s just harder to see here in Japan.
So, maybe I should consider what the hell I`m gonna do for the weekend. Just really want to pass out in front of a heater. Maybe I should`ve brought a video/dvd to watch on the big screen tv. Oops. Guess I`ll find something else to kill the time.
Japanese Proficiency Test
Okay, there were some questions about the test. I'll answer them in case you give a crap.
4-kyuu is the lowest of the tests. You need to know about 100 kanji and about 800 words. Supposed to be super easy. I don't really know though.
3-kyuu is the next highest test. You need to know about 300 kanji and about 1500 words. I'm currently studying all of this grammar because I don't have it mastered yet. I can easily do the kanji that they test on, but that only helps somewhat.
2-kyuu second hightest level. You need to know 1000 kanji (notice the huge jump from 3-kyuu) and 6000 words. I'm hoping to take this test this year.
1-kyuu is the highest level. You need to know all of the "basic" kanji which is about 2000 (that's how many you need to know to be able to read the newspaper) and 10,000 words. I've heard some native speakers have trouble with this test, but that could just be a rumor.
The test is only given once a year in December. So, I'm trying really hard to be able to easily do 2-kyuu. If not, I'll definately do 3-kyuu. Also, of course there are time limits, so it can be pretty difficult. There are 3 parts: kanji, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension/grammar. My weakness is the grammar. It used to listening comprehension. So, the good news is that listening and understanding what the hell people are saying to me is getting much easier.
Haha Not Dead Yet
Okay, so it's been a few days on me posting. I'm not dead yet. I just having been doing much of anything. I did go to work today for about 4 1/2 hours. I mostly just watched Superbowl XL. Hehe. Nothing like watching the game on the 55 inch screen tv that's in the English room. It was pretty cool. And you know I never liked football....which means that it would've been great live on that tv.
Yesterday, I think I left at 1:30. I don't remember...it's all blurring together. Me sitting around at school just feels so natural. It's crazy. Mentally, I'm thinking of lessons for the newbies, just haven't put anything down on paper yet. No big deal.
I'm blanking out right now even. I don't know if there so much Japanese crowding out the English or if I've got nothing. NOTHING.
Good news is that I've had a few more dreams entirely in Japanese lately. That's a good sign. All these damn people were asking me questions in Japanese and I had to explain everything back to them in Japanese. Shit, it didn't even seem like I slept that night. It was just like being awake and being interrogated by nosy Japanese people. And usually, they're not that nosy...except the kids. They ask some pretty personal questions sometimes. But, I just say it's a secret if I don't want to answer. They understand that word in English....
Maybe I am dead. Brain dead. Fuck. It almost hurts to think in English.
Cross Eyed
Well, make that 560 tests that I helped correct. 70+ projects. Wow. Yeah, I'm feeling a little cross-eyed. That's okay. It's Wednesday and pretty much done with school crap. Now, I just need to show up to work. Physical presence only. Mentally, it doesn't matter. That's a nice thought.
Rainy season. Yeah, it's been a bit depressing off and on lately. I've been drinking a fuck load of coffee to perk up. Not that it matters now if I pass out at my desk. Apparently, I can just take a nap in the tatami room. I was told so by another teacher. I just thought people passed out in the pleather chairs...now, I know the secret. I'm probably not gonna accomplish much this month! Hahaha. Oh well.
I'm behind in my Japanese JET books. I signed up for their free correspondence class (intermediate level), it lasts 6 months. One book per month. I was on book 3 when I got book 4 and then book 5....SHIT!!! So, I need to kick it up a level on that end. It's mostly review, but some of it is the grammar that I struggled with in the past. It's necessary to study such stuff. What I hated about my college text and now this text, is that it has a random conversation with random vocabulary. My other book has vocabulary lists that make sense. Not just words from the conversation. For example, the better book will have a list of food words, activity words, things in a department store. The other books would have things like "reality agency" and "answer," great. Thanks. I really need to know reality agency before I know what the fuck I'm eating. Weird. And super annoying.
Well, about time for another cup of sunshine!!! Just can't get enough. Yummy! And then Japanese class.
