Hello. It has been a month my lovely GEBs (Grace's Ever-Loving Besties). I hope you have not missed me too much. I have not written recently because my month has been relatively chill, but I will share with you the fun things and the boring things that have happened over the past month.
On Monday, September 24th, I went to work. The end.
That weekend, on the 28th, I went to one of the elementary schools I teach at Undoukai, Sport's Day. It was much fun cheering on the students and the highlight was the parent-child race. The parents cheated by holding back their children or not letting them run without but it was very amusing. The parents wore funny costumes like a school uniform and their kid's backpack, character costumes, and the best one being a No Face costume. It is a character from a Ghibli movie and it looked hilarious as No Face chased this child 😂
That night I made some Korean tteokbokki, rice cakes. They turned out pretty well but still not as good I as I wanted them to be 😢
On Sunday the 29th, I had an event with the "Lion's Club." I hadn't heard of the Lion's Club before then but turns out it is an international organization that is made up of well-off men who do things for service. So, the ALTs participated in their beach clean-up event. It was nice to go to the beach on a not-too-hot, cloudy day and peacefully pick up trash. After an hour of cleaning, we headed off to the barbeque (I think they secretly just participated in the cleanup for the barbeque). The barbecue was super yummy and I was able to eat my fill. I chatted with the people there and had a nice afternoon. On our way back home, the ALTs stopped at this super long slide which was super fun to go down. We then played at the surrounding playground like we were children but we had a great time. 😜
I spent the next week peacefully starting my first week working at the schools I would be working at for the rest of the year. Everyone is very welcoming and I am grateful to be settling into a groove/pattern.
The weekend of October 5th I went camping with all of the other ALTs. It was a great time bonding and getting to know the other ALTs better. We are a fun group from varying places with varying personalities but it seems to work well together. We arrived at the campsite and then it took about an hour to find where to check in 😂 I was putting my Japanese skills to the test by talking to the campsite person in Japanese and then realized that she speaks English. But, despite communicating in both Japanese and English, since I didn't know the area, I did not understand the directions and misunderstood the location to be a different one in the opposite direction. Nonetheless, we eventually found it 😆
We set up our tents and things and headed to the beach for a swim. It was a lovely day, not too hot, not too sunny but the waves were a bit tall so I was a little scared to go too deep, so I just splashed around up to my waist (still fun).
After swimming, it got dark and it was time for dinner. Side note: As an Alaskan, I did not realize that every time I go camping it is in the summer and therefore doesn't really get that dark at night so you can still exist and do things in the evenings. But, here it got dark dark at dinner time and we had to set up lights to see and prepare our hotdogs which was challenging. It was a very interesting struggle to discover. 🤔
So, dinner was, of course, hotdogs so we made some sticks and got to roasting. A lovely hotdog and ship dinner was had. And then for dessert, we had SMMOORREESSS. There were no Graham crackers to be found in Shimanto City so we subbed them for another sweet biscuit. It worked well enough, the only con was that it had a slight coconut flavor. I had a few smores and taught some people proper stick etiquette (burn off the marshmallow after you're done) and then it was time for bed. I snuggled into a one-person tent with another person so it was quite snug and quite hot but I eventually fell asleep.
The next morning, my tent mate and I woke up bright and early to the crisp morning air and took a stroll on the beach. We found two of our compodrates sleeping on the beach as there was not enough tent space for everyone 😂 We all whipped up lovely breakfast burritos and coffee and had a nice morning (I say whipped but it actually took a couple hours lol). I then returned home and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
I discovered that October here is like the Alaskan summer so I was greatly enjoying the weather every morning and every day. I spent the next week after work reading on my patio. It was truly blissful 😊
I spent the next weekend doing absolutely nothing. I played some games, watched TV, became a potato, the works. One of the video games I played was with my family. My dad, brothers, cousins, and I all got together to fight this big boss in the game Valheim. I am thankful I have a way to stay in touch and hang out with my family, even all the way across the world. It is fun to hop in now and then and play a little but since I was particularly planless, fighting this big boss I knew would be fun. Turns out, it took FOREVER to beat this boss. We were fighting this boss for 2 hours or so! I died too many times to count. But, our teamwork really started working well about halfway through the boss's health and we were able to fell the "Queen" at last.
On October 18th, during the second half of my work day, I was able to go to the "Cultural Festival" of the middle school I teach at. Turns out, it was more of a choir concert. Each year and class sang a song and then the band played a couple of pieces. It was great to see the students perform and have fun. It was also nice that some were excited to see me. I haven't worked there very much since I work there on Mondays and there is frequently a holiday on Mondays but they were still happy to see me 😁
On the 19th, I went to breakfast bright and early at a nice cafe with my coworker friend and the other new ALT and had a good time.
I then went surfing in the afternoon with ALTs from around Kochi prefecture. This was my first time surfing and I was very nervous. I was worried about wiping out hard, or drowning, or sharks, but luckily none of that happened. The instructors were good at teaching and helpful throughout the lesson. We first went out (we could always stand in the water) just to ride some waves on our bellies to feel what it feels to "catch a wave". The teacher would line you up, pick a wave, and then release you to catch the wave, all we had to worry about was getting on the board and balancing (which was still hard lol). Then, we came back to the beach to learn standing-up techniques. I knew my lack of upper body strength would be my weakness but I was still willing to give it my all. We go back out to the water, flapping and pushing against the waves as we walk out. I then proceeded to wipe out, flop like a fish, roll around like a washing machine, etc. for the next 30 min but I was determined not to give up. I decided to try just pushing myself onto my knees and then surfing from there and found more success. It still took many many tries, but I was able to knee surf! By the end of the lesson, I had mastered knee-surfing 👑 I was suuuper tired by the end of the lesson because I was determined to try as many times as I could. It was nice bonding with the other Kochi ALTs as we flopped around like fish and cheered each other on as we surfed.
In the evening (Yes, it was a very busy day), I had a dinner with one of my coworkers who is like the English-speaking-ALT-supporting grandmother. She retired from teaching and being a principal in May and since then works part-time helping us. She is super sweet and she invited me, the other new ALT, and one of my coworkers from one of the schools I work at to a dinner at her house. She prepared a lovely spread of dishes: bread, cheese and meat, stew, salads, etc. I was very grateful for the good deal after my long day. I was very exhausted by the time I had arrived at her house and discovered my arms had been rendered useless by the surfing 😂 She asked me to bring stew bowls to the table and realized I could not and had to recruit the help of my friend haha. We spent a great evening chatting and eating and then I went home to bed.
The next day I just rested in bed. All. Day. 😴 Luckily I didn't have to cook because my friend from South Africa made too much food and gave some to me 👼
This week was relatively busier than most. I have made cookies, attempted to go swimming but it was closed then attempted to go to a Chinese restaurant that was closed then attempted to go to a different Chinese restaurant that was closed then finally went to a ramen shop and had spicy ramen, and I had a workout class.
On Friday, I had dinner with strangers the other new ALT met at karaoke one night. After the fireworks festival a month ago, the ALTs went to karaoke and there were some other Japanese people there, as there often is. Throughout the night the other ALT started talking to some of them and exchanged Line (a messaging platform used in Japan). Her new friends invited her to dinner and asked her to bring a plus one and she brought me. We were a great team with her friendliness and extroverted-ness and my Japanese language ability we had a great dinner. They were very happy to interact with foreigners as it doesn't happen very often and one of the ladies gave our Lines to her niece who is studying English in college. The restaurant was a "fry" restaurant and they just keep bringing out fried things on sticks until you're full, it's great 😀After dinner, we spontaneously went to karaoke and finished up the night there.
On Saturday the 26th, I had another dinner and karaoke night planned. My friend from South Africa's partner was in Japan so all the ALTs had a dinner to meet them. The dinner was at a small but nice Izakaya and we had a good spread (I didn't get pictures of it all). We then moved to karaoke and sang the night away 🎤
The end of October and November is filled with fun planned so stay tuned my GEBs 👋
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