Stuff that’s been going on

Hey hey~

Ok, so yea, I suck at keeping this updated. >.<;

So I’m gonna separate this into “Past Craziness” and “Current Shenanigans.”

Past Craziness:

Surprises Galore!
It all started with Julie and I wanting to throw Lupita a surprise birthday party. It then rolled over to “Let’s surprise Julie too!” which then ended up being 2 surprises for her (because our gift to her was a getaway trip to an onsen but we wanted to go when it was still cold and therefore was a really really early birthday present. And then we still threw her a surprise dinner party. Ha-cha!). Then it just became a crazy “Let’s surprise her too” tunnel and so Erika had her little surprise dinner, Mayu had a surprise dinner outing and home dinner party and we even threw a little surprise farewell dinner for Julie. And now I’d like to take a small break from surprises (it gets a little hard to remember who knows what and what’s a secret from who sometimes…well this last time it was because there were 3 surprises and I was starting to forget who knew what!! Ah…)

筑紫祭
So at my school’s Cultural Festival, I did my usual judging of the speech contest. Which also means helping the students prep for it. But this year, I also got to work with my ESS kids and their English play. In ways, I was their scriptwriter, director and understudy. Hahaha. But it really seemed like we were just goofing off and having fun. :D
And then, the Home Ec teacher asked if I’d be interested in baking with the Home Ec club. They usually bake tons of cookies, put them into cute little bags and sell them during 筑紫祭. She knows I love to bake so of course I decided to help! So all of these things, being done around the same time meant that I needed a double, or an assistant. Being that I have neither, I was staying at work really late. I mean, it was dark out when I’d leave. And sometimes the last group of teachers would be walking about the school to lock it up. This was the second time I’ve seen my school in the dark. But this time I had my camera so I took some night shots. Sadly, it doesn’t do much justice. It had just a little bit of creepiness to it. But maybe it’s just because I’m a horror fan and it looked like a setting for a horror film. :P


Current Shenanigans:
I had a college buddy come visit me for a week! She was actually in Japan for 2 weeks but she was visiting another college buddy up in Hiroshima first.
It was an awesome time with her. It was to catch up and to show her about my city. And we got to go shopping! (It’s been a while…) Then together we went to visit another college buddy further south of me. That made it even more fun. But, the typhoon was not so much fun. Luckily it didn’t hit my area but we did get a lot of rain and strong winds (which together means you’ll get wet. With or without an umbrella. Yea!… -_-“). But because we stayed indoors, it rather felt like a vacation and it was nice to A: catch up on sleep and B: just chill.

Then right after this was the uber crazy Soumen Dinner Party/Mayu’s Surprise Birthday Party/Julie’s Surprise Farewell Party. And since I had spent the previous days away from home, I was up early that Saturday morning to clean, straighten out my place, run errands, finish the surprises (cake and photo albums) and generally getting ready. Despite waking up early, we party hard-y-ed till almost dawn. We could have kept going but half of the members were getting really tired. (boo~)

About one week later, it was Julie’s last night and her cousin decided to throw her a farewell BBQ (mmm. Yummy meat). And we all decided to wear yukatas just because. Hehe.

Sadly though, I was unable to spend the night or see her off at the airport because I had made plans to take a day tour with my office ladies like 2 months in advance. But the day trip was fun!! Hot, but fun. We went about Kumamoto and picked our own melons, got grapes and watermelon, went to a winery, saw a historic place, went to a famous river (which was really cool. Like cold cool). And had yummy food.

The next day, I went to a teacher’s house to have dinner. Her husband is also a teacher but at a different school but his ALT lives at my jutaku so we went together. Unfortunately, the moment we decided to head over to their place, it was pouring rain! (Evil rain! I know you’re out to get me!) Luckily though, there was a taxi outside so I snatched it before it left. Mahaha!
We had tacos for dinner (which were quite yummy. I want more~) and did some nice chatting. Got a little lost on the way back (it’s crazy how much the streets change in the dark…) but we got back alright (and there was no rain! Haha!).

Oh, the only other update would be that I fear my tendonitis if coming back. Noooooooooooooooooo.

I think I have only 1 more chance for this super-strong shot and after that…if my tendonitis comes back…I’ll have to get surgery… o_O;;

久留米花火大会２０１０

So last night was the 久留米花火大会 (Kurume Fireworks Festival). And being the biggest fireworks festival in Fukuoka, many many MANY people go watch. So, most of us ALTs make plans with our blocks to go and watch it together (also since the ALTs that just arrived wouldn’t have known about it or wouldn’t have known how to get there…unless they knew Japanese and then I they’d be ok.)

But yes, speaking of new ALTs, I met just about all the new ALTs in my area. This year, some high schools went back to JET (so they decided to not continue with the private companies) and so these ALTs have no predecessors. So I imagine they have many questions. But sadly, maybe not the kind I can answer (every school is different which makes every situation different…the best help here would be from a predecessor…*le sigh…).

Anyhoo, back to the main event. The festival!!!
So, yesterday, I kinda raced back home to take a quick cold shower and change into my yukata (summer kimono). I decided to wear the one my host mom bought me 3 years ago (yes, I have 2) and then decided to go for a challenge and do the obi myself. The obi that came with this yukata is pre-set so that I don’t have to worry about making the bow. But, I wanted to try a new obi I had bought maybe a year ago. So, standing in front of the mirror for maybe 13 minutes trying to figure it out do I notice I did the same mistake I did the year before: I folded the sides of the yukata “left over right” instead of “right over left.” Left over right is intended for deceased people…so I was something of a zombie last year… -_-“ But I noticed this time! But sadly it also meant I had to un-do it all and start over. Ugh. But I managed to finish in time to then help my friend dress into her yukata. And she had the pre-set obi so hers was easier to put on.

Then after some waiting for the rest of the block members to gather, we ventured off to the train station where we squished ourselves into an already packed train to get to Kurume. Personally, I think last year was more crowded… hmm…

*Fast Forward*
So we get to the tarps that our friends who live near Kurume set out and sat down. After a little while, the festival began. In Japan, the fireworks run for more than 15 minutes.
They run for an hour.
No really. The festival began at 7:40pm and ran until 9:10pm. So I got to play around with the settings of my camera and managed to get some good ones (woot~).

But of course, since it’s one of the biggest festivals, going back means lots and lots of traffic…both in terms of cars and people. Some of my buddies decided to head back before the festival ended to try to beat the crowd. But some of us lingered to the very end. So we took our time getting up, throwing away our trash, folding the tarps and taking pictures. (And there was even an announcement that because the station was heavily crowded, everyone should take their time walking back to the station. hehe).
So we did. We even stopped by the little stands in the shrine area to check out the kids trying to scoop up goldfish with a paper paddle. But still, we had to wait in a really long time for…maybe half an hour? (possibly more) And then we got squished into a train (not that squished but yes, quite crowded) and returned home.

And now some pictures for you!