as predicted, i haven't had any success trying to drag my teachers out at 5pm! two of them really had me in stitches as they talked about ways of sneaking out... they both put their hats on and hid behind their coats while creeping out quietly! i said to one of my JTEs that she should wait until i'm just walking out of the teachers room and then say 'heidi sensei - i need to ask you a question about tomorrow's class' and then follow me out... she was like 'what - holding my coat and bag?!' ... maybe it's worth [View Full Entry]

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I had the funniest class this morning where I had to talk to the students about the differences between accents, when using English. My JTE made me say 'Hi! How are you?! I'm going to go shopping today' in an English, American and Australian accent... the English one was obviously fine, the American one was ok but the Australian one was shocking! And the way they just took it so seriously and didn't realise how ridiculous I sounded just made me start laughing! And once I started, I couldn't stop... they thought it was funny 'cause they didn't know why there [View Full Entry]

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Our training meeting in Fukuoka was quite a waste of time, as predicted, but at least I got to chat to a few more people who are based in Kyushu... although there were some MEGA geeks there! i met up with Marjyse who really helped me out during my first week in japan and encouraged me to battle with the company in order to get moved to a different location. she said that the guy who took over that placement absolutely loves it! apparently he's a bit of a kooky musical type, so I guess he's quite happy to sit by [View Full Entry]

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I’ve had a fun week at School… I played a few games with the third grade classes, which went down really well… I laughed at one of the second grade classes when I said ‘How are you today?’ and EVERYONE answered with ‘It’s sunny!’… and we had 10 members from the board of education in to watch a few classes. They only come twice a year and I suppose they’re equivalent to our Ofsted inspections, though without the stress and panic that we put ourselves through! I don’t even think they give any feedback - they only watch a cl [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday, Laura and I ventured out to Tosu to do a bit of shopping. We spent about 2 hours chilling in Starbucks and, as we were sat by the window, had a lot of stares from people walking by who were surprised to see 2 foreigners sitting there - we felt like animals in a zoo! Some people waved at us, some just went ‘woah!’ and others pretended that they weren’t looking, as they didn’t want to be rude and stare! In the evening, Laura sent me a message saying that she would come round and we could just chill [View Full Entry]

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so it was sketching day at school today... all the students had to draw just one picture - yes, one picture over 6 long hours! the third grade students had to stay at school and draw something around the school building (how boring!), the second grade students went to a shrine (wasn't fussed about that as i've seen a million already!) but the first grade kids were going to yoshinogari park (the site full of old japanese houses, which i've been longing to see for weeks!) so i jumped in a car full of first grade teachers and set off for [View Full Entry]

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Dan joined Laura and I for our hip hop class last night and I don’t know how we managed to stop ourselves from crying with laughter! He was absolutely HILARIOUS! He had 2 left feet, which we expected, but I don’t think HE realised quite how shocking he looked as he was putting his heart and soul into it and was trying so hard to look cool! At the end of the lesson, there were a few people watching us and waiting for their class to start… but nobody laughed at him or made fun of him - they were just [View Full Entry]

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mindy came to visit laura and I in saga this weekend and we had a really fun time showing her around! she was working till quite late on friday so decided to head down on saturday morning. so i had a chilled evening on friday, enjoying the contents of the food package that matt had sent out to me! such a shame that my favourite walkers sensations crisps had burst open though! on saturday, we cycled to kono koen park... dan had assured us that it was only a 10/15 minute cycle from the station but it was an absolutely boiling [View Full Entry]

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What a busy week! So my hip hop class was FAB! Laura and I were the only 2 there, so the teacher tried to speak in as much English as she could! Daniel came to watch us during the last few minutes and thought it looked like so much fun, he wants to join too! Laura’s pleased about this, as she thinks he’ll make her look quite good in comparison! I’ve been getting into School every day before 8am and staying until 6pm, as I’ve been helping a couple of students to prepare their speeches for a national speech contest! It’s [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, I took the train to Karatsu with Dan and Laura… we walked to Karatsu castle and had a look around, but it wasn’t overly impressive. All the castles here are beautiful to look at but the original castles were either burnt down or destroyed at some point so they rebuilt most of them only 40 or 50 years ago! They don’t quite compare to the history and grandeur of Warwick Castle! We then wandered through the ‘rainbow of pine trees’ which was lovely, but Laura and I kept getting freaked out whenever we saw massive spiders dangling down from the [View Full Entry]

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