Adventures in Japan
Friday I found out that I will be teaching at Funehiki Junior High School (Funechu), which means that I will not be teaching at an elementary school. There are 4 ladies teaching at Wakakusa English school. They also teach at elementary schools. The rest of us are Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs). We teach at 3 schools in Funehiki (Funechu, Utsushi, and Funehiki Minami) and 4 schools elsewhere (Tokiwa, Miyakoji, Takine, and Ogoe). Basically, Funehiki used to be its own town. It got together with all of these other towns to be become the city of Tamura. The reason I won't be teaching at an elementary school is that Funechu is so big. It had 499 students last year! I'll also have a couple of other ALTs rotating in every week to help.
On Saurday, some of us went into Koriyama. It's about half an hour away by train. We did some shopping, went to an udon shop, etc. (BTW, there are, to the best of my knowledge, 3 types of noodle here: udon, soba, and ramen. Udon are creamy and thick. Ramen look like what we have in the US, but I haven't tasted them yet. Soba are thin and greyish. They also have regular spaghetti noodles at the grocery store.)
Last night I took a walk in the rain and I made it all the way to Funehiki park and back by myself. It was raining and, by the time I got back, dark, but I made it. Now I know how to get to the grocery and pharmacy at one end of town and the shopping mall, bank, and library at another. Now I just need to locate the post office.
I'm sure that this is all relatively boring, but when you literally have to start over with your entire life, and in a language you can barely speak, everything is momentuous.
On Saurday, some of us went into Koriyama. It's about half an hour away by train. We did some shopping, went to an udon shop, etc. (BTW, there are, to the best of my knowledge, 3 types of noodle here: udon, soba, and ramen. Udon are creamy and thick. Ramen look like what we have in the US, but I haven't tasted them yet. Soba are thin and greyish. They also have regular spaghetti noodles at the grocery store.)
Last night I took a walk in the rain and I made it all the way to Funehiki park and back by myself. It was raining and, by the time I got back, dark, but I made it. Now I know how to get to the grocery and pharmacy at one end of town and the shopping mall, bank, and library at another. Now I just need to locate the post office.
I'm sure that this is all relatively boring, but when you literally have to start over with your entire life, and in a language you can barely speak, everything is momentuous.
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