Hey! Just thought I'd point out that I added a little box to the side of my blog: over here ->
I'll be posting links to the blogs that my KCP friends are keeping - since I show up in a lot of their stories, you can read about our crazy adventures. And give them hits so that they feel important.
But mostly read about me - that's why you're here, right?
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EDIT: Seems the official KCP blog mentioned me - here's a link to their post about me. I have to say I got a few laughs...
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Curry Class!
Hey everyone,
I think it's pretty obvious by this point that I'm not very good at this blogging thing. I hope you'll forgive my serious lack of updates... I'm going to try something new: writing. I don't really like it, mainly because I can't convince myself that people might actually want to read what I have to say, but I haven't taken any interesting pictures in a long time, so this will have to do.
I woke up this morning to the sound of anime music, as is my custom of late. My current alarm clock - an app on my phone - requires me to solve some basic arithmetic before I can hit the snooze button. While this worked very well at first, I have developed a surprising ability for solving 69 + 52 = ? through the haze of my half-awakedness. I fear that the only solution to waking up on time now may be to go to bed early, and we all know how impossible that is.
When I finally did wake up, an hour or so after I intended, I quickly turned on the hockey game. Since the host family was out, I had my computer follow me throughout the morning so I could keep watching - yes, I'm that Canadian. Eating breakfast, doing laundry, showe... I mean, there's no way I'd bring my laptop into the shower, right? Right. Unfortunately I had to catch a walk/bus/train to get to school for noon, so I didn't get to watch the end of the Habs/Bruins game. Just as well, since Les Glorieux lost 1-0...
Class today was entertaining as usual. I don't feel like I've really expressed how amusing class is - one day I will take notes about the funny stuff and post it here. It really is fantastic. We ended today's class with a composition (作文、さくぶん). This particular composition will be used as the basis for a speech we will present to the class as our final oral examination.
Aside: every time I say/write/think "oral examination", I feel as though I'm referring to dentistry. But that's neither here nor there.
There was no assigned topic, so I decided I should inform my class about what Canada is like. After a long-winded introduction - as is my custom - I proceeded to explain that Canada is a very large country, so people have different customs depending on where they live. For example, all the people in the west of Canada are cowboys, and all those in the east are fishermen. Canada is a very cold country, so everyone lives in houses made of ice, called "igloos". Furthermore, in the winter, all the roads ice over, and people skate to and from work. Sometimes, though, the sun shines very strongly, melting the ice, which makes skating difficult. In that situation, people use dogsleds.
I kid you not, I wrote this. Curious to see what my teachers think about it.
After class, we had a cooking class! It was really great: a bunch of students from 法政大学 (Hosei University), some whom I had met before, joined us to cook curry! I had never cooked Japanese curry before, but I had a good idea of how it should be done... And of course, the Japanese students that we were paired with proceeded to do approximately the opposite of what I expected.
Despite my worries, we were able to make a fairly serviceable curry - it wasn't nearly as spicy as I might have liked, but it wasn't soupy like some of the other groups'... I considered it a success.
We talked with the various Japanese students at our table about everything from portion sizes at McDonalds in Japan vs. USA/Canada, how one says "I'm full" and whether or not it is appropriate to call one's self a "baby" when referring to spicy-tolerance levels. All in all, a really great day.
After a fantastic meal - of which we all ate too much - I accompanied a few friends of mine back to the dorm, and then made my way back to the host family. Now, I'm completely exhausted and wanting sleep, so I think I'll go do that.
Hope anyone reading this enjoyed it!
I think it's pretty obvious by this point that I'm not very good at this blogging thing. I hope you'll forgive my serious lack of updates... I'm going to try something new: writing. I don't really like it, mainly because I can't convince myself that people might actually want to read what I have to say, but I haven't taken any interesting pictures in a long time, so this will have to do.
I woke up this morning to the sound of anime music, as is my custom of late. My current alarm clock - an app on my phone - requires me to solve some basic arithmetic before I can hit the snooze button. While this worked very well at first, I have developed a surprising ability for solving 69 + 52 = ? through the haze of my half-awakedness. I fear that the only solution to waking up on time now may be to go to bed early, and we all know how impossible that is.
When I finally did wake up, an hour or so after I intended, I quickly turned on the hockey game. Since the host family was out, I had my computer follow me throughout the morning so I could keep watching - yes, I'm that Canadian. Eating breakfast, doing laundry, showe... I mean, there's no way I'd bring my laptop into the shower, right? Right. Unfortunately I had to catch a walk/bus/train to get to school for noon, so I didn't get to watch the end of the Habs/Bruins game. Just as well, since Les Glorieux lost 1-0...
Class today was entertaining as usual. I don't feel like I've really expressed how amusing class is - one day I will take notes about the funny stuff and post it here. It really is fantastic. We ended today's class with a composition (作文、さくぶん). This particular composition will be used as the basis for a speech we will present to the class as our final oral examination.
Aside: every time I say/write/think "oral examination", I feel as though I'm referring to dentistry. But that's neither here nor there.
There was no assigned topic, so I decided I should inform my class about what Canada is like. After a long-winded introduction - as is my custom - I proceeded to explain that Canada is a very large country, so people have different customs depending on where they live. For example, all the people in the west of Canada are cowboys, and all those in the east are fishermen. Canada is a very cold country, so everyone lives in houses made of ice, called "igloos". Furthermore, in the winter, all the roads ice over, and people skate to and from work. Sometimes, though, the sun shines very strongly, melting the ice, which makes skating difficult. In that situation, people use dogsleds.
I kid you not, I wrote this. Curious to see what my teachers think about it.
After class, we had a cooking class! It was really great: a bunch of students from 法政大学 (Hosei University), some whom I had met before, joined us to cook curry! I had never cooked Japanese curry before, but I had a good idea of how it should be done... And of course, the Japanese students that we were paired with proceeded to do approximately the opposite of what I expected.
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| Clockwise from top: Yuto-san, myself, Abigail and Jil |
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| Somehow, I got roped into doing all the cooking... |
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| Cooking - and eating - is fun! |
Hope anyone reading this enjoyed it!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
My Class!
Hey everyone! My friend Zach took this great picture of our class, and he's letting me share it! Here is my class, A31!
Friday, October 21, 2011
First Two Weeks of Level 3
Hey everyone,
I'm really bad at this blogging thing, what with all these irregular posts. I should probably schedul... nah - too much work. Here are some pictures of my life over the past few weeks!
First, here are some pictures from last weekend, when Chiyo dragged me to the park with her and Host-Mom:
On Thursday night, a friend of mine and I went to do some shopping for Halloween costumes. Here are some pictures of the MEN'S CLOTHING AISLES. ALL THESE CLOTHES ARE FOR MEN.
Now, one day last week, as I was walking home, I stopped in a convenience store to get some ice cream. Here's what I found:
Yes, an ICE BURGER. Here it is in its unwrapped form:
The bread was real bread. The patty was coffee flavoured ice cream, and the "toppings" were vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Unfortunately the bread tasted really strange and the coffee patty's flavour was largely overpowering, so I can't say I really enjoyed this a whole lot...
Tonight, Host-Mom brought me to see what I thought was going to be a Japanese play. Serves me right for not asking more questions and/or researching the kanji, because it turned out to be a stand-up comedy night. I wasn't really allowed to take pictures, so...
Well, I obviously took one anyway. As you can tell (hopefully - picture quality is terrible), there is very little standing taking place on the part of the comedian. In fact, they all knelt down on a small cushion to do their comedy. Furthermore, most of their comedy seemed to be about telling stories. I say "seemed to be" because I cannot truthfully say that I understood much, if any at all, of what was being said.
There were a few stretches where one comedian was talking about the pains of getting older, being placed on a diet, having to eat vegetables, etc., that I understood, but that was pretty much it. There was only very little laughing from the crowd - I wonder if that's how all Japanese comedy is. Still, what laughing there was sounded very genuine, and there were a few cackles that seemed to elicit some pain from the one woman behind me.
It was really strange to me because the comedians seemed to be playing two or three different roles at the same time, and I was only able to mildly differentiate one voice from another. I suspect this has more to do with me not being able to understand the stories being told... In any case, I should like to experience this once again, if I ever become good enough at this Japanese thing.
Finally, here are some pictures of various meals that I have had the immense pleasure to take part in during my stay with my host family.
While my family back home was feasting on Thanksgiving turkey, I got to eat this:
Here are a few more meals, just to whet your appetite more:
Sorry for having made you all so hungry...
Oh, one last thing. I have to admit that I was feeling pretty sad on Wednesday - I think it was my first time celebrating my birthday away from my family. As I left the school, this is what the sky looked like:
Unfortunately the picture doesn't really do it justice. But it was beautiful enough to put a smile on my face.
I'm really bad at this blogging thing, what with all these irregular posts. I should probably schedul... nah - too much work. Here are some pictures of my life over the past few weeks!
First, here are some pictures from last weekend, when Chiyo dragged me to the park with her and Host-Mom:
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| Some kid had brought an airsoft gun to the park Chiyo, though not shown here, was VERY intrigued |
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| Really strange colours, but okay, if you're going for that style |
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| SO MUCH PLAID |
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| Wait, what? This is for men? |
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| I feel like I've seen female relatives of mine wear those sweaters... Weird. |
Yes, an ICE BURGER. Here it is in its unwrapped form:
The bread was real bread. The patty was coffee flavoured ice cream, and the "toppings" were vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Unfortunately the bread tasted really strange and the coffee patty's flavour was largely overpowering, so I can't say I really enjoyed this a whole lot...
Tonight, Host-Mom brought me to see what I thought was going to be a Japanese play. Serves me right for not asking more questions and/or researching the kanji, because it turned out to be a stand-up comedy night. I wasn't really allowed to take pictures, so...
Well, I obviously took one anyway. As you can tell (hopefully - picture quality is terrible), there is very little standing taking place on the part of the comedian. In fact, they all knelt down on a small cushion to do their comedy. Furthermore, most of their comedy seemed to be about telling stories. I say "seemed to be" because I cannot truthfully say that I understood much, if any at all, of what was being said.
There were a few stretches where one comedian was talking about the pains of getting older, being placed on a diet, having to eat vegetables, etc., that I understood, but that was pretty much it. There was only very little laughing from the crowd - I wonder if that's how all Japanese comedy is. Still, what laughing there was sounded very genuine, and there were a few cackles that seemed to elicit some pain from the one woman behind me.
It was really strange to me because the comedians seemed to be playing two or three different roles at the same time, and I was only able to mildly differentiate one voice from another. I suspect this has more to do with me not being able to understand the stories being told... In any case, I should like to experience this once again, if I ever become good enough at this Japanese thing.
Finally, here are some pictures of various meals that I have had the immense pleasure to take part in during my stay with my host family.
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| Yes, this is how the Japanese serve burgers: gravy and no buns Also those fries were AMAZING |
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| This is Chiyo attempting to make takoyaki, a popular Japanese dish which consists of fried octopus in a ball of batter - more information here |
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| DELICIOUS TAKOYAKI!! |
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| The botom plate was my own - noodles and chicken if I remember correctly The top plate was amazingly flavoured fried chicken with equally amazingly flavoured veggies... |
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| Japanese bacon, carrots and other assorted vegetables whose name I do not know |
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| カツ丼 (かつどん、katsudon) on the left, fish on the right, soup above AMAZING meal |
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| This is what I had tonight - udon with shrimp tempura... |
Oh, one last thing. I have to admit that I was feeling pretty sad on Wednesday - I think it was my first time celebrating my birthday away from my family. As I left the school, this is what the sky looked like:
Unfortunately the picture doesn't really do it justice. But it was beautiful enough to put a smile on my face.
Monday, October 10, 2011
千代奈の体育祭 - Chiyo's Athletic Festival
So on my second day with the host family, Chiyo had her athletic festival at school. I suspect that most of my readers - if there are any of you - are like I was, namely having no clue what an "athletic festival" would involve. Well, if you like, read on and find out!
First, here are some pictures of Chiyo's school - I never thought that anime-like schools existed in real life, but they do:
Of course, it goes without saying that almost every Japanese parent there brought their own video camera.
Then, the festival started:
Then there were a series of different acts put on by the different school levels. Chiyo's grade competed in a series of relay-races, but I was on video-taping duty, so I couldn't snap very many pictures... Anyway, here are some pictures of the various acts that took place:
When lunch break rolled around, Ikuyo (my host mom) and her two friends brought out all the obento (Japanese word for boxed lunch) they'd prepared. I was shocked:
After lunch, the show resumed - here are some more highlights:
We left before the end of the show, because Chiyo was getting restless. I asked her if she was 疲れた (つかれた, tsukareta), which pretty much means tired, but not sleepy. She responded: "Yes, I'm tired - I want to play."
I think that's when you know it's time to go.
On the way out, we stopped at an ice cream stand and I bought Chiyo a small container of cookies-and-cream. Here's the aftermath:
Hope you enjoyed this!
First, here are some pictures of Chiyo's school - I never thought that anime-like schools existed in real life, but they do:
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| This is one of the classroom buildings |
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| And this is their cafeteria |
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| This is the green that they had the athletic festival on I'm not sure what that big building is, though... |
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| Some professional video-capture equipment was setup to film the festival proceedings |
Then, the festival started:
Then there were a series of different acts put on by the different school levels. Chiyo's grade competed in a series of relay-races, but I was on video-taping duty, so I couldn't snap very many pictures... Anyway, here are some pictures of the various acts that took place:
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| Youngest kids performing |
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| A class of boys doing handstands - not sure why they're required to be shirtless... |
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| Part of the relay that Chiyo participated in - her team won! |
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| Not sure what this is called, but it's gorgeous |
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| And there were five of them |
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| Here are a group of teachers (I think?) being lead in Tai-Chi (I think?) by a 70-something year-old (in the suit) |
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| And then the whole crowd joined in the Tai-Chi during the lunch break |
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| This isn't even all of it |
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| And there were only 6 of us to eat ALL OF IT - two of which were six year-old girls |
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| Japan and their absurdly cute food |
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| And here is Chiyo, posing for me in proper Japanese style |
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| Gymnastics |
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| More gymnastics |
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| More shirtless boys, this time making a human pyramid |
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| Ball-dancing |
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| I thought it'd be amazing if they did this at night with glow-in-the-dark and/or LED-light balls instead |
I think that's when you know it's time to go.
On the way out, we stopped at an ice cream stand and I bought Chiyo a small container of cookies-and-cream. Here's the aftermath:
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| Someone really enjoyed her ice cream |
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