Today was the first day that I really felt like I was having fun at school. I had the first years today and I re-vamped my self introduction so it went a lot better than the first one I did. For the second years, I thought there would be a projector so I brought my lap top and I was going to show them pictures on it. Well once we got to class it turns out that there is no projector and I was going to have to show them my photos on the actual computer. It was just not [View Full Entry]

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Wake up between 5-6am, shower, make breakfast (this can vary, if I sleep in a little I just have toast, if not, I have toast and eggs or leftovers or miso and rice). I take the 7:20am bus to Yoshioka where Konan chugakko (JHS) is. The ride takes about 25-30 minutes and I almost always nod off in the morning and in the afternoon when I'm riding the bus. It passes by Koyama pond, which is supposedly the largest pond in Japan, but I think they are fooling themselves by calling it a pond because seriously...it's a lake. I've seen enough [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday I got bit by mosquitoes....a lot. I have two huge bites on one leg and I have no idea how they bit me! I was wearing pants all day yesterday. I think they got me here at school under my desk. Mosquitoes here are different too, they are bigger I think and look more deadly. I'm trying really hard not to scratch, but it's hard! It is also possible that there is a mosquito in my apartment because I think I got a new bite this morning! I got a bike over the weekend for only ￥3000 plus I paid [View Full Entry]

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Getting off the plane in Tottori was like being thrown into a sauna...my goodness it was so hot! My Japanese Teachers of English (hereafter referred to as JTEs) picked me up at the airport because my supervisor at the Tottori-shi (shi=city) Board of Education (BOE), Takahashi-sensei, was supposedly out of town. My JTEs are really nice. One of them, Inoue-sensei, couldn't stay because she had a meeting. The other one, Mari Ishimoto, was the one who drove me around for the rest of the day. After leaving the airport, she showed me how to get to Koto Chugakko (jr. high school, [View Full Entry]

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The road to Japan started in Chicago of all places. That's where we had our pre-departure orientation for the JET Programme. The orientation itself was a whirlwind and I was sad to leave my parents, but I was also really excited to finally be on my way to Japan. Of all places, my flight from Chicago stopped over in Minneapolis/St. Paul Int'l airport because that's where a lot of us would be getting on our flight to Tokyo. The actual flight wasn't too bad. I watched episodes of My Name is Kim Sam-Soon and Autumn in My Heart as well as [View Full Entry]

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