Extra lessons

I always find it to be a real cultural lesson to be working at this high school. It is a high academic high school and the teachers are run ragged trying to fit in extra lessons, extra help, extra practice, extra tutoring... and their normal workload as well. My favorite 'Lost in Translation' JTE came into the staff room with a sheepish look on his face yesterday. He explained that he has to calculate how many hours the students in his homeroom class had studied the night before and report it to a higher person (not sure who) so they can make sure all of the students are studying enough. Well, his class's hours were rather low so he fudged another hour on to each student's studying time. And that put this homeroom class in first place! So then the next day he had to fudge down 15 minutes per student so that their average would be lower. How ridiculous is it that the teachers are lying to prevent their kids from being the runts of the school? And what prevents the students from just saying "Oh yeah, I studied for 4 hours last night" when they only studied for 2 hours? If they have not studied enough, their homeroom teacher is supposed to yell at them so, really, what is the incentive for being honest?

A lot of the teachers had to go to a big meeting this afternoon. Apparently the test scores for this high school are falling. They already have three periods of extra lessons on Saturdays and the principal of the school has decided to add another period of extra lessons on Saturday. Wow!

I was talking to one of my young JTEs today (he is only 24!) and he said that he was really looking forward to the weekend because he was going to take a day off. He is going to take a weekend day off! How ridiculous is that? He should have every weekend day off! That is why there is a weekend!

Lost in Translation, again and again

My favorite overworked JTE:

"I have to keep my upper lip tight." = Keep your chin up OR Stiffen up your upper lip.

I love English expressions!

Ikebana

A few ikebana photos from the last couple of weeks.

School Disco

Many JETs
Jon and Alex at okonomiyaki
Jess, Fiona, Alex, Phill and me
Tanya, Phill, Jess and me
Alex and me at okonomiyaki

Alex and Jon came down this weekend for the big party "Jetacular" which was a School Disco theme. Everyone had some great costumes! We went to okonomiyaki first and then headed over the Apre for the party.

Reasons I study Japanese....

There is this meat that I once bought in the grocery store. It was delicious- tender with no fat- and I could not figure out why it was so cheap when all of the other meat was so expensive. I bought it once but never again. It kind of freaked me out that it was so cheap but I couldn't read the kanji that specified what type of meat it was.

Well, I just went to the grocery store and walked by that meat. And there it was, a recognization kanji on the package, and it said HORSE! Ahhhh!!! I learned horse in Japanese class this week and that meat was definitely horse! So I ate horse!

(And now is the time when Juliet says "But Alexis, we learned horse in high school. You should have known." Well, Juliet, you are right and I have dearly paid for my bad memory.)

I got into LAW SCHOOL!

I just checked my junk email and there is was "Catholic University Admissions Decision" (well done, junk mail filter). And I have been ACCEPTED!!!! I literally screamed out loud in the staffroom. If my supervisor didn't realize it before, she knows now- I am not going to be in Japan next year.

Catholic isn't my first choice but they have a great professor who specializes in higher education law so I think it would be a fantastic place to go for that. We shall see how the other decisions shape up. I must say, it is really nice to have your first decision be an acceptance.

I am busting in school today BUSTING!

Potatoes

People talk about the Japanese reliance on rice but I think we are all overlooking their reliance on potatoes. They show up everywhere you would not expect a potato to be. Yesterday I bit into what I thought was a tuna salad sandwich. Turns out it was a potato salad sandwich. Today, at lunch I got a spring roll at the grocery store. I expected it to be filled with normal spring roll middle stuff (pork, shrimp, veggies, etc) but no! There was mashed potato inside!

Lost in Translation, again

Another installment of strange English expressions from my favorite JTE:

"I'm not going or coming." = I don't know whether I am coming or going.

"I am totally snowed under at this job. I am a snow man!"

Lost in Translation

"I'm chewing more than I bite."
"This school is killing me. I am running the rat race."

One of my JTEs loves English expressions. And he is so funny when he uses them. Haha!

Ikebana

This week's ikebana

First Weekend back in KZ

Phil,Heather, Jess and Me
Jane, Jess, Heather, Me
Me, Jane, Bartender
The poor bartenders
Zach and Jane

This was my first weekend back in Kanazawa after the New Year and everyone in Kanazawa seemed to be out and about seeing old friends and telling about their adventures at home. I saw a ton of people and it was lots of fun. I had a delicious yakisoba dinner with Zach, Jane, Heather, Blair and Chris and then we all ended up at this very small bar in KZ. The poor bartenders were surrounded by foreigners!! It was great to see everyone!

I love Japan

You know how when you were in high school and you were thinking about doing a bad thing but always decided "Well hey, they cannot give us ALL detention!". [This did not happen to me, for the record. I was a good kid.] Well, apparently this statement does not ring true in Japan. All of the first year students at Nisui were supposed to hand in all of their Winter vacation homework at the beginning of this week and apparently if they failed to do so, they are given detention. The teacher who sits across from me was exasperated this afternoon as having to babysit the students in detention. And the kicker is that there are 90 students in detention this afternoon! Out of a class of 360, 25% of them are in detention. Yesterday, he said, over 200 students were in detention! It hardly seems like a reprimand if more than half of your class is in detention with you. That is not a punishment; that is a party.

It seems to me that either the school has unrealistic expectations of their students or the students are lazy. Either way, it hardly seems effective to throw them all a party for not doing what they were supposed to!

Home for the Holidays!

Matt and Me in front of a Christmas tree at Faneuil Hall in Boston

Dad and Me at Christmas
New Year's Eve with the girls. Thank you to Katie for ruining an otherwise lovely photo with an inappropriate t-shirt (it was her Secret Snowman gift).

I have had a great two weeks at home in Connecticut and Boston. It has been busy but a lot of fun. I return to Japan tomorrow but I just thought I would post a few photos before I leave.