Kinki Block Orientation

Today was the CIR orientation for the Kinki Block (which is made up of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, Shiga, etc. Prefectures).

Since it was held in Kyoto, the Kyoto CIRs were in charge of keeping the orientation running smoothly. This was a bit nervewracking at first because we thought we had to run the discussions and give speeches about them, but we were really grateful to find out that we were the discussion leaders which meant that we could make other people give the speeches.

Unfortunately it was fairly useless and was a bit of a waste of time. No one really wanted to be there and the discussions were assigned. We had assigned groups and assigned topics which meant that we ended up talking about different work projects that some people knew nothing about. One of my topics was "school visits" but half of my group never went on school visits....

The only part about this orientation that was useful to me was the fact that my supervisor, Koshio, was there too, along with all the other supervisors. We all got to discuss any problems we were having. I was not in the same group with my supervisor, but she got to hear other CIRs which I think was still useful.

Speech at Tsutsujigaoka Elementary

Today I got to go to Tsutsujigaoka Elementary to give them a speech about American student life and Valentine's Day.

It was a huge change since the first time I gave this speech about a year ago. I felt a lot more comfortable, and on top of that, I had the courage to ask for someone to look over my speech and fix any grammatical errors before hand so I knew it was a better presentation. My presentation skills have also improved. I have figured out how to get the kids involved and moving during speeches. I organized my speeches so they have True False quizzes, which are really popular with kids here, scattered throughout them. I have them stand up when they think it is true. And I try to ask questions that will surprise them. I ask them things like "summer vacation in America is 3 months long, true or false?" or "students at most American junior high schools travel between classrooms throughout the day rather than staying in one classroom, true or false?"

Some people argue that it is better to focus on cultural similarities rather than cultural differences, but I think that if you can catch their attention with the cultural differences they'll notice the similarities too.

The speech went really well. The students had studied specific aspects of American culture and presented their findings to me. Then I gave my presentation and answered their questions.

I think the funniest question was "What is your favorite type of hamburger?"
A lot of the kids actually seem to think that all Americans eat are hamburgers.... :(

Though I did learn that there are some things about Japanese culture that the kids don't know about. I asked them a true false question about Valentines Day, asking whether or not we have giri choco in America. Giri choco is chocolate that women give to their male co-workers on Valentine's Day. But the kids didn't know what I was talking about. Thankfully Kojima-san was there to help me explain :)

I really like getting to know the kids, and getting my face out in the community means that I might get more gigs as a presenter and get my butt out of the office.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Today a huge group of us went into Kyoto to have dinner with Dave and Paul, the two ALTs from South Africa who live in Liz's old apartment. They were celebrating their birthdays as well as their anniversary.



We don't actually get together very often, so it was great to get a chance to see them. We all met up at a rather small but really nice cafe restaurant near Sanjo Keihan station. I had grabbed a cup of coffee there about a year ago and really liked it, but had never gone back.

This time we had a full dinner there. I am not sure if it was cultural or not, but Paul and Dave started the evening with a really sweet welcome speech. It was almost like it was a real adult dinner party.




The restaurant was pretty small and we all had to separate into a couple of tables.




The boys even left little packages of chocolate at each seating place.




We started off with a buffet of vegetables, salads, etc.



Then we chose between two different pasta dishes, one with a tomato sauce and one with a cream sauce. I went with the cream sauce.



We also had a choice between pork and chicken. I got the chicken and Atsushi got the pork, but both were really good.



Afterward, a large group went to club World, but Atsushi and I didn't feel like going. I'm not a huge club fan, though I went a lot during college. Maybe I'm getting old...