Valentines day

So valentines day is interesting here.... On Feb. 14th only the girls give to boys. And what they give aren't little paper valentines, they give various types of chocolate, cakes, cookies, etc. Most of the students at my junior high gave little baggies with cookies or chocolate in them to boys, but not only to boys, they give to other girls too!! I was lucky enough to have a package delivered to me from my wonderful friend Yuri, in Tokyo, with these really cute, and really good, chocolate mini-cakes!!! I was soooooo surprised, and really happy too. I of course didn't send anything to her.... Now that I realize valentines day isn't just for happy couples here, I will make more of an effort to do something next year!! Even a few of my students gave me something, even though I think that a lot of it was pity based... That's ok, I still got chocolate out of it! But apparently I have to give back to them on White day. Which is Mar. 14th. This is when all of the boys give back to the girls who gave to them... And apparently the teachers give back to the students... I still don't understand most of the holidays here, but I'm trying!

Do you know what this is?

I was teaching a grade 9 class the grammar point "Do you know what this is?" I had made a handout with a bunch of Canadian type things on it, and they were supposed to go around and ask their friends if they knew what the pictures represented. One of the, how should I put this, "less motivated" students started walking toward me. I had a feeling he was going to do something sketchy, because he had the typical smirk on his face like he had thought of something super clever and could barely keep it inside himself. So to my surprise, he started asking the correct question, but the sheet was rolled up in his hands. I told him to use the sheet, but he ignored me of course, and then said "Do you know what THIS is?" As he said "this" he pointed, of course, to his crotch. To be honest, I was actually kind of impressed, because he used the grammar I was teaching in a way that made sense and it showed that he really understood what it meant. Nice.

It's spring?

Apparently it's supposed to be the begining of Spring already, and doesn't really seem like it at all. Mainly because of the giant piles of snow and cold temperatures of Nayoro. But the "coming of spring" came with some pretty weird traditions.

The first I experienced at one of my elementary schools. They tried to explain it to me in the morning when I got there, but that was a little difficult to do. The first word translated was "setsubun" which translates as "the day before the beginning of spring." Then the word "devil" came up, followed by "peanuts." I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. What involves the coming of spring, the devil, and peanuts??? Well, apparently you throw peanuts at the devil to chase him away, and then you will have good luck all year. Or at least that is what I got out if it. It turned out to be really fun, a couple teachers dressed up as devils, and then all of the students ran after them and threw handfulls of peanuts at them. It was a chaotic mess of flying peanuts and devils running around chasing screaming kids.

Another tradition I experienced which was a little more low key was at my friend Airi's house. She made a giant rolled sushi for me, her, and her boyfriend, and we had to eat them facing south. You were also not allowed to talk until you were finished eating. The sushi was delicious, I love sushi! Even when I have to eat in in silence facing south.

Oh my god.

I hope that no one is expecting a super exciting blog because of the title I chose.

My junior high students occasionally use the phrase "oh my god" which is sometimes weird to hear, but I much prefer it to the random swear words they like to use.

However, now my elementary students have started throwing it around. In particular, I was teaching a class, and then all of a sudden a tiny grade 1 student exclaims "oh my god!" This kid can't even understand English conversation, and she uses the phrase "oh my god" perfectly. It's weird to see...

Welcome to Japan.

My return to Japan wasn't as smooth as I would have hoped. Customs was fine, but I kept filling in the wrong forms, which didn't impress the customs guy. I also barely made my connecting flight in Tokyo, because I had to change airports, and got to my gate as they were doing final boarding. I finally got to Sapporo at 10pm, and then had to drag my 2, 50 pound suitcases, to my hotel in Chitose. The next morning, I went and checked out at decided that even though it was only 3 blocks to the station, I didn't want to drag my bags there, so I asked for a cab. The hotel clerk helped me out to the cab, and the the cab driver asked where I was going. I said the station. Which obviously didn't make the cab driver very happy, I guess they assumed I should just drag my two giant suitcases through snow and uneven ground by myself. Then hotel clerk apologized to the cab driver profusely, on my behalf, reminding me of how over apologetic they are in Japan, and that I was most definately not in Canada anymore. It's funny, Canadians are known for being overly polite and apologetic, but it is nothing compared to Japan. I get out of the cab at the station, apologize a few times, and then all of a sudden, a clerk from the hotel, out of breath, runs up to me holding a key. He thought it was mine, and ran the three blocks to the station. Can you believe that? I don't think that would happen back home. Unfortunately for him, it was not mine, and you could just see his face fall when I told him. Poor guy...

I was riding the train back to Nayoro, and my supervisor told me that her and two men from my office were going to pick me up from the station and take me to my house to check my water. When it comes to things like this, I really don't have a choice. So they took me to my house, where I found out that one of the guys from my office had shoveled all of the snow from in front of my house, and off my car. Which was a LOT.

My house was below zero inside. My plant died completely, and my brita filter, which I had left water in, was frozen solid. I found this out when I wanted a glass of water, and pulled this out of my fridge.

Isn't my poor plant the saddest thing you have ever seen? I obviously should have given it to a friend... Ooops...

Well, the fun didn't stop there. My pipes had frozen, a couple of them burst, and sprayed water all over my house. My BOE had to call in some guys to help me out. At the moment I am without warm water, and I only have running water in my toilet. Hopefully it will all be fixed today, but you never know.

As annoying and difficult as this all was, it would have been 10 times as difficult and annoying without my BOE. I honestly can't express how lucky I am to have the BOE that I have. They are the kindest, most helpful people, and I am grateful to be working with them.

YVR

Well, I am heading back to Japan after a 1o day visit to Canada. I am sitting in Vancouver airport at the moment, not looking forward to my 9 hour flight to Tokyo. Unfortunately, Air Canada would not let me check in to this flight in Calgary, and I had to wait until I got to Vancouver to get my boarding pass. This resulted in no more window or aisle seats left on the plane, and therefore I am bracing for a cramped and uncomfortable flight. yay.

Being back home was wonderful, and seeing my family and friends again is something I definately needed. It was great being able to understand everything and be in a comfortable environment. I take for granted so many great things about my country, things which may seem really trivial to others, but I really miss. Things such as being able to walk and eat/drink at the same time. Or being able to read labels on products. Or completely understand what store clerks are saying to me. *sigh. I love Canada.

Switching back to driving on the right side of the road was a bit weird, and resulted in me occaisonally driving on the wrong side of the road, just ask my sister. Probably scared the crap out of her a few times... Lucky for me this only happened when there were no other cars around. Now I have to go and switch back again once I get to Japan. Hopefully that goes well...