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Vacation~

// June 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

Another week of a vacation starts on Sunday! Well, I guess it really starts on Tuesday, because I always have Sunday and Monday off.

Anyways, as much as I love school and teaching, it’ll be nice to have a week off. Especially because braintwin is coming, and we can evolve into the highly anticipated Adriko. Ah yes, we will take the cities by storm. They will not know what hit them.

So what are our plans? Well, for starters three of my adult students offered to take us to Ise. So we’ll be going there. They’re so sweet, and a lot of fun so I’m looking forward to that. We’ll also be heading off to Kyoto with Eri and her sister. Then, it’s on to Tokyo where we’ll be hanging out with Mr. Kim himself and hitting up a few lives. I should also add that Kim is amazing and I owe him one. Big time.  Then back home for the final day and a half for some shopping and probably some much needed relaxation.

I want to buy socks.

And since I’m veering off course, here some random thoughts and things from the past week.
1. Seeing the ‘too drunk to fuck’ t-shirt or tights never fails to amuse me.
2. Three of my students are apparently Kamen Riders and would prefer to be called by their Kamen Rider names.
3. You can use white board markers on top of white nail polish. It will rub off. However, excessive colouring on the nail will make the marker stick forcing you to strip, and repaint.
4. A crisis may occur when you colour the moon in sky blue.
5. Sending mail in Japan can turn out to be quite the procedure. Especially for a small card, with a small thing inside of it.
6. Udon is good. Even cold.
7. I get songs stuck in my head really easily. I didn’t realize how easy until this week. I can’t decide whether I find this enjoyable or irritating.
8. Fruit flies must all die.
9. The fact that I change the colour of my nail polish every week does not go unnoticed by my students. They are now giving me suggestions on what to do next.

Birthday ☆

// June 16th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

So, my birthday was on Saturday.

I turned twenty-four. It’s kind of fun, because in the younger classes we do ‘how old are you’, and I always start. So, when I said twenty-four, they were surprised. Also, one of my students has the same birthday as me. She turned three.

After work we all went to the Hard Rock Cafe.

Long story short, I had to wear a cake hat, go up on stage, and dance to the YMCA along with other people who were also celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. I think there is a photo of me in the cake hat somewhere.

But, I also got a nice big brownie sundae.

Everyone signed a card for me that Eri made, that was ridiculously cute. I’ll have to take a photo of it. Hanna made me a gift too; a box decorated with my name and stars, plus a Rabbid (from Rayman’s Raving Rabbids) inside. This makes no sense to most people. Mary got me some cute little cookies – three different types that taste really good, especially with some tea.

Aside from that, my family and a lot of my friends sent me birthday wishes via e-mail or snail mail, which was awesome! So thank you to everyone who did. The Jstone crew (including Yogi) sent some amazing photos. I’m so glad we have more ‘Native American’ themed merchandise.

Because it sells like hotcakes (read: we’ve sold three Indian statues in three years).

So yes. That was my birthday.

Hideko comes on Sunday, so I’m really excittttted. We have a busy week planned, but I think we’ll have a lot of fun. I’m also looking foward to hanging out with Kimkim a bit as well. And eating some gyouza.

And. AND. After much trial and many tribulations, I finally have the internet. That’s right. I am internet equipped. It feels weird being able to access it at all times now, so I’m working on getting back into my routine. Yes. I have an internet routine.

ハロー

// June 5th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Blog

So, again it’s been a while since I posted anything here. Although, lack of Internet can be blamed for that.

I’m really glad to finally have a phone, and the more I use it, the more I think that it was a good choice to go with be iPhone. All o need now is to get a pink cover for it. They didn’t have any pink in stock when I bought it, so I got blue. It’s a nice colour, but it’s not pink.

A week tomorrow is my birthday.
It’s kind of strange. Sometimes I feel like, wow, I’m almost 24 and I’ve accomplished virtually nothing. Other times I feel like I’m doing okay. Admittedly, I always thought my life would be a bit different than it is when I reached around this age. I’m not saying I’m. Of happy, I just thought things would be different.

Every time I go to the convenience store near work, if I check out with this one girl she always talks to me. She’s really nice, and even if it’s nothing huge, it’s nice when someone makes an extra effort like that.

On my birthday, after work, we’re all going to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I think it’s nice that the school does that for everyone’s birthday, and since I really like everyone I work with, I’m excited.

My parents sent me a birthday present which came already. Two news shirts and some chocolate, along with a keychain and photos of Watson, my grandparents, my cousin and her new baby Zion, and the house. Especially the garden. My mum wrote comments on the back of them all, some of which were hilarious.

Yes… So none of this is terribly exciting. Looking forward to the June vacation because my wonderful brain twin is coming to visit.

I’ll have Internet again in just over a week so I’ll be able go update more and get back into the swing of S-T and such.

On a closing note, this took far too long to type out because I suck at typing on my phone.

Thank god for auto-correct.

So it’s been a while

// May 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

… since I updated this blog.

Oddly enough, not that much is new. I’m moved into my new place, and my new job is going pretty well. I’m really enjoying it, and I really like the family that I work for, so it’s pretty hard to complain.

The kids are adorable.

No internet at my place yet, so it’s just a waiting game until I can get it. I don’t mind that much, because I can come into the school on my days off to use the internet, which is a great help.

Other than that, things are well.

Protected: Last day

// April 3rd, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

Srsly.

// March 13th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog

I just sliced (and seriously, sliced) my finger trying to open a plastic bottle of apple juice.

It stings.

But I guess, at least, the apple juice tastes good.

*sigh*

// February 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

Today was long. Not long bad, just long.

I got Jim and Bev to sign my passport thing, so I can get it renewed and because I’m doing the ‘simplified’ renewal, I don’t have to get everything notarized (yay). Although, if I had to I think Jim could do it.

It was funny, because Bev was filling it out and was like, how long have I known you for? ANd I was like, I don’t know… so she said, well, when did you start lessons? (She’s my piano teacher, btw) I knew I started when I was around seven or eight, but I can’t remember exactly when.

We eventually worked out that it was sixteen years. That. Is a long time. That’s more than half my life, haha.

Anyways, got some interesting customers at the campground today.

First, I checked the e-mail to find something like this:

Please send a brochure. Thank you.

……. that was everything. No address. Just… that sentence. I’m good, but I’m not that good.

Then I was talking to this lady on the phone, and she was super nice. The reservation was easy, and she was one of those customers that you don’t mind talking to. So she was asking me about crossing the border, and if there was anything she should know.

I naturally told her that passports are mandatory starting June 1st. Then I said she can’t bring beef, citrus product or wood across.

She was really confused about the beef. She asked if she could bring frozen meat, then she was asking about different cuts… then she said, what do you mean by beef? I didn’t really know what to say, so I just said, “Cow?”. The conversation lead to me having to say, “You can buy beef in Canada…”.  Then she was confused about ‘citrus product’. So we had to go over that, and she concluded her son would be disappointed because he loves orange juice… but then all was solved when she realized she could buy it here.

She was so nice though. We get a lot of people who call and get angry at what they can’t bring over… because you know, it’s all a conspiracy that the campground staff have been planning and naturally we have total control over it.

All my children showed tonight. And apparently my brother and sister pair are instead of doing 30 minute lessons, will do 15 each.

I’m not wild about that, but what can I say. :/

:(

// February 11th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

One of the diamonds fell out of my ring a few days ago, and it’s bugging the crap out of me.

If I look at it, I see this hole… and I just want to fill it with something. Paper. Ice. Anything.

My dad said I can easily get it replaced, which is good… but it means I won’t be able to wear my ring for about a week, which will be weird, because I wear it all the time. It’s not like a huge deal, but it bothers me… you know?

I’m also at that point where I’m past tired. You know, when it kind of feels like you’re drunk, but you’re not. Because you haven’t had anything to drink… you’re just lacking sleep. I like it, because TV shows are extra funny.

EXAMS

// January 28th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

are on Thursday.

That’s all. I have no more insight to offer on this. They’ll all be fine, and do wonderfully.

But my god it makes me nervous. I’m not even taking them, and they make me nervous. I want them to do well, and I know how they all play, and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t… but sometimes you just have one of those days.

I guess I’m partially nervous because it’s obviously a reflection on me and how I’ve taught them, but I know my students, and I know that (most) of them like coming to lessons and they enjoy playing (read that carefully: enjoy playing and enjoy practicing are completely different). But I just want them to go smoothly. Sophia is nervous because this is her first exam, and although I know she has absolutely nothing to worry about, it is nerve wracking.

On top of that, one of the students I used to have, Stephanya, is coming back tomorrow! She’s been off for a few months because the lesson time didn’t work well for her parents, so it was hard to get her there (she’s six). She’s one of the cutest kids ever.

She’s the one who I had this conversation with:

Me: Okay! So let’s just do this one more time, and then we have to go.
Her: Can’t we do one more?
Me: Well your lesson is almost over!
Her: Oh, it’s okay. I don’t have any plans.

Haha. Kids do say some of the best things.

I like all my students. They’re great and I’m going to miss them more than you can imagine. The ones from Japanese class too. Even though I’ve only known them for a short time, I’ll miss them too.

I get far too attached far too quickly.

It’s strange, because I’m ridiculously shy. Like, painfully. I mean, as in, I don’t particularly like going into stores (although this is pretty okay now), I don’t like calling people (answering is fine, but I don’t like calling) and I always feel like I make such an awkward impression. But with kids, I’m fine. I feel anxious with people my age and older (and a few years younger), but not with kids.

Maybe I’m overly immature, so I feel more on their level? Hahaha.

… I severely hope that’s not it.

And there it goes.

// January 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

So the weekend is over, again. I feel like every week, I look forward to the weekend, and then it comes and goes so quickly, like it was never there to begin with.

Having class on Saturday mornings is nice though; I’m almost always home just after noon and I have the rest of the day. This past Saturday, six students came. Thankfully. It was bitterly cold, so I thought that there wouldn’t be such a turn out, but there was.

Granted, it was two groups of three travel-wise.
But it was nice. We started to learn colours.

It’s really annoying how the spell check on this computer (it’s like the automatic kind that underlines the words in red if you misspell them as you type) keeps telling me that ‘colours’ and so forth is wrong.

Oh but that reminds me, I did learn something interesting the other day. That ‘deke’ is a Canadian English word. It underlines that too.
I was actually reading a list of all these words that were used in Canadian English, because I think it’s fascinating. I mean, I think the differences between all the variations of English in general is fascinating.

Sunday, Kat and I hung out. We watched the new episode of Kyle XY (SO GOOD. And this week’s looks awesome and awkward). We also rented two movies. The Duchess and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Both were good, but obviously VERY different, haha. The Duchess left you feeling kind of depressed, well, it left me feeling kind of depressed because I always want to see those wonderful fairy tale endings that aren’t generally present in reality.

I feel like when I started writing this I had a point. Unfortunately, that’s been lost.