the end.: November 2006 Archives

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November 30, 2006

skits take 3

so of all the skits i've seen i think this one has to take the cake.

how does jeff's hair stand up?

the answer: i do yoga with my neighbor totoro. at first, only the plants start to stand, and then, my hair starts to stand up.

what it means... i have no idea. if my neighbor is totoro though, he sure does smoke a lot of cigarettes :P.

Posted by Jeff at 03:27 PM | Comments (1)

November 29, 2006

skits... again!

i'll have to hand it to them. my kids this year did a lot better in their presentations than last year.

they're actually trying!!!

SHOKKU!!!

this year they seemed to have pulled out all the stops. keep in mind the only requirement is that it's in english, so they can pretty much do whatever they want. so far i've seen:

1. ultraman
2. foul mouthed poker players (i let them say 'shit' in the skit :D)
3. a bank robbery... gone wrong
4. they made a cardboard cutout for me to stick my face in. except they made the body about half the size of my head. OH, and i had a mustache!
5. they demonstrated me teaching
6. food... this one was good cause the last line of their skit was 'now i want something made of beef!' i asked them to slide the word 'american' into there ^^b.

anyways, there were heaps other good ones, but i thinkt he highlight had to have come from one of my 14 home room students (haruka) when she walked into class today:

haruka: hello!
h: my name is...
h: なんだけ。。。。。。
h: haruka!!

<3 my kids!

Posted by Jeff at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2006

once again

as every year, i ask that anyone who has ever wanted to be part of a really good cause, to click here:

Child's Play.

for those of you who are not familiar with it, it is run by the creator's of penny arcade as a response to certain critics who felt that gamers don't care. this is the fourth year they have been holding this charity and they have raised nearly 2 million dollars in donations. i have also donated each of those four years. i hope you guys can find it in your hearts to participate this year.

happy holidays from japan.

Posted by Jeff at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2006

really really tired

as of late i've been rather busy. with a full work week last week, preparations for the final class project (a skit like last year) the junior high open house (work on a saturday), and a detour to visit jon in hamamatsu as well as two days in kakegawa for the mid year seminar, and finally writing of the final exam for my kids... needless to say, i'm pretty drained.

however i've found a strange tranquility amongst it all that, i must say, is rather welcomed at this moment in my life. so first and foremost, to whoever is wondering: i will not be recontracting as an ALT with the JET program this year. my reasoning is that i don't believe that the amount of experiences and knowledge that i can gain from another year at the same post will warrant another year of my life. i truly have enjoyed my time here and have met some amazing people in the process. i took and will continue to take the JET program for the two years that i have allotted to it and believe it is time to make the next transition in my life.

and what might that be?

incquiring minds want to know!

me included.

i am going to come home first. i need to and want to touch base with many people back home and rack my brains for a bit. but i don't think i'll be in the US or at home by the end of the year. i'm incredibly tempted to work for another aspect of the JET program that is not as an english teacher or even find a job that would allow me to travel between asia and america freely / quite often. i don't think i'm ready to settle down and the fear of coming home right now is that i won't want to leave. it's not that i don't want to be home, but i just don't want to be tied down to a career just yet. not yet. i feel like there's still to much of the world i want to see, so many things i want to experience, and so much food i want to eat.

seriously eh?

perhaps come home and work for a year or two and then set off abroad again as well. maybe europe, south america, or africa... but i will definitely come home for after my contract expires this august. not entirely sure where the world will lead me, but for the moment it has not failed me in my ever going trek down this journey we like to call life.

and looking back, this is probably one of the first real entries i've had since sometime earlier this year...

Posted by Jeff at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2006

don't cha just hate it when

you go to dictionary.com looking for the correct spelling of a word.

you enter the word to the best of your knowledge.

it says 'did you mean [another word]'

and when you click it, it actually wasn't a real word to begin with...?

you mother fuckers.

Posted by Jeff at 10:31 PM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2006

36 + a few hours later

so friday night the yamadas, or as i like to refer to them: the nicest people on earth, invited the local alts to a friendly round a bowling (might i add mr. seebruck was kicking ass). anyways, the reason i was up for a day and a half was because the ingenius (stupid) plan by me, was to go check out the tsukiji fish market (which you guys should know i attempted to do a few months ago, but failed) or as tammy would say:

tammy: hey which side is it on?
me: it's on the 3rd platform... you know, this is YOUR station... you'd think of all the stations, it'd be this one you knew well...
t: well i do remember... i just forget a lot.

exactly.

anyways so we loitered around the station for 2 hrs till the train came and finally got to tokyo around 4:30ish in the morning. upon arriving at tsukiji at 5:21 am sharp. which leads me to the other question.

WHY are the japanese trains actually busy at this hour??!!!

oh, and tammy got away with getting to tokyo for about a dollar fitty (180 yen).

anyways, we were on a mission: to watch the world's tuna market, and to find the famous sushi restaurant 'daiwa' or as others like to put it, the best sushi of your life. the market was pretty neat in the sense that it was organized chaos. at any given time there were these modified fork lift thingys that turned on a dime and people packing fish to be shipped all over the world. at one point tammy and i saw this guy with this huge knife slitting the throat (if they have throats) of a live fish...

still waiting for angela to help with the photo posting :o

anyways we find daiwa in this dingy corner near the entrance to the market, waited an hour and a half from 6:30 am to eat there just to see if it warranted the hype.

and i can safelty say, it did.

Posted by Jeff at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2006

what's new indeed

so i've been thinking lately that i've been neglecting this ole blog o mine, possibly because i've settled into a bit of a routine... again.

so what's new you might ask?

or not...

i just finished reading 'the kite runner' and i must say, highly recommended. next on the agenda, one of my birthday presents; 'way of the peaceful warrior.' i've been feeling like an uplifting book. this sunday is once again my school's brassband concert, and new this year, they asked me to record something on tape.

my line is: i want to hear u2. naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (no exaggeration, they wanted me to hold it that long. and tilt my head.)

should be fun times. work related, my kids are beginning their in-class tests, which, once again is a skit in groups of 2 to 3. more importantly it means i'm free of lesson planning and teaching till next january ; ) unfortunately i have to make the practice final and the actual final as well. /sigh. oh, and of course grade each exam and grade their final projects as well. inbetween then and now, i'll have gone to the annual mid year seminar (i get to present a q&a session), and my school's brass band concert.

and on the side, yoshinoya began surving american beef for the first time since the ban lifted last decemember, and again last july (don't ask, i'm not sure how that happened either). needless to say, i still can't taste the difference.

and maybe it's just me, but i think the powers that be have been trying to hint something at me; when ryan and i were in seoul, we found an outback steakhouse at every bend. it is... my... des..ti...n...y?

and i think i can officially debunk the myth that koreans are hotter than most asians. seriously. they're just as ugly as the rest of us. :3

oh and i'll be going to a u2 concert and 2-3 thanksgiving dinners heh.

if only ovens existed in japan. turkeys too.

Posted by Jeff at 08:36 PM | Comments (2)

November 07, 2006

revelation and a promise... all in one!

you know... i think the only html i know is how to link things :o...

anyways, back from seoul and i have to say that it was amazing... and all the kimchi you can eat! when angela figures out how i can post pictures on this thing, i will... i swear... just like i've been promising to post for the lat 15 months...

the end.