August 19, 2005 – Friday
Today was my first day at Yokosuka Middle School. After nine years of pretty much the same stuff, it was very strange to be at a different school and not knowing what to expect. The meeting started at 07:30. They had tables set up in the library with several books (about middle school) and another welcome basket. I was excited to get a YMS shirt and a school calendar, as well as some other little supplies to get started with in our classrooms. The meeting started with introductions of the mentoring team and the principals. It seemed strange that the principal wasn’t the one leading the new staff orientation, and even stranger that she and the AP left after chatting a little about themselves, their families, and how they got their new assignments. Then the mentor team split us into three groups and took us on a tour of the school. We’d seen most of the important places before, but they took us into the Home Economics room which has six mini kitchens and to the many different computer labs. We also saw the cafeteria and learned that we don’t have any lunch duty!
After the tour, the information specialist (aka librarian) taught us about some of the acronyms we would come across in the school and showed us some of the important parts of the school website. When she was finished, we all piled in the van and headed over to lunch. When we returned, the mentor team told us about our formal evaluations and the importance of making sure we were meeting the standards. Several times during the day, they also encouraged us to join the union…I guess that is big here. At about 13:30, Mary came back over to answer questions. When we ran out of questions, she asked that each of us drop in and chat with her and Willette so they could get to know us. I thought that was really nice. When they were finished, we were allowed to go work in our rooms.
My new room is really nice. Since it is not a Science room, it has carpeting. It also has tables, but I think I am going to trade those in for desks. I don’t want to start off with tables, and I figure that if I want tables later I can always just push the desks together. I found the textbooks and I am really excited! I will be teaching World Geography. Basically we study each continent, the landforms, locations, etc. I was not happy to see that someone before me ripped out pages from different book of the resource materials and just made a pile. UGH! I’m going to need binders. J LOL!
At 15:00 I left to meet Josh back in the room, but decided to see if he was in the Library. He was at the computers, as I figured, e-mailing his friends. When I asked, he said that he hadn’t caught up on the work from yesterday and hadn’t started anything for today. I told him to go back to the lodge and get started. I went to the Fleet Gym to look at sneakers (mine split on the bottom and are hurting my feet) and see if I could find out about Cable TV. No luck with the TV info and after looking at shoes briefly I decided to wait to try them on when I got shoes for Josh. When I left, I stopped in at the travel office and asked about how much it would cost to go to another country. She couldn’t give me any prices for October, so I guess I’ll have to wait on that.
When I got back to the room, Josh was not working. I told him to get started and he pulled out the Civics. I decided to call around and ask about cars. Someone told me that a girl name Naomi has a lot that we could visit. I called her and she has no cars available…what kind of car lot is that?!?!?!?! This is getting really aggravating! She did offer to come over and show me some cars on the internet. They are all going to be auctioned tomorrow morning and she could bid for me. I don’t like that idea because you have to take what she buys (you tell her which ones to bid on and how high to bid) and trust that she makes a good decision. We looked at several kinds and found a Miata that was fifteen years old. She wouldn’t get that one because it might have problems. I figured it would be cheap…she refused. I did like one of the Toyota RAV4’s, so she was planning to bid for me but didn’t hold out much hope because my high price was too low. Oh well…I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should rent a car and go visit other lots away from the base. The most frustrating thing about the car search is that even when I find one, it will take at least a week to be able to get it because there are so many different places to register it.
When Naomi left, Josh and I went back to the room. Josh asked me what he would get if he did his schoolwork. He didn’t seem to like my answer…“an education!” He thought I would say that if he finished I would buy him shoes. Hmm…yeah, that’s a precedence I want to set! When I said no, he stopped working and went to sleep. I thought about smothering him with a pillow, but managed to hold myself back. I finished my book and went to bed.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
This morning we had our big field trip to Yokohama. We met at the Wendy’s at 08:30. I would have like to have slept in a while longer, but somehow the people here seem to be dead-set against that. We then took a maze of trains to get to Yokohama. Mike was trying to teach us how it all worked and what to do, but I found myself just following the crowd. I’m sure that my first train trip alone will be interesting because the train system is not easy.
We got off the train and visited Chinatown. Why? I’m not sure. It was pretty much like Chinatown in New York and San Francisco. We saw a temple there that was interesting, had some ice cream, and then we walked back to get on the train to go to Yokohama. Basically we went through the Japanese town as a bunch of Americans with our digital cameras snapping pictures…how’s that for irony??? Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan. It was very pretty. There was a huge Ferris wheel – and I do mean huge! Mike took us over to the mall and we ate lunch at Garlic Jo’s. They had garlic pizza that was very, very good. After we ate, some people decided to stay at the mall and go shopping. Not having any desire to do that, I came back with the other group. The trip back was much shorter.
When we got back to base, the Kitty Hawk was just arriving. There were people on the side waiting while the ship pulled into the port. All of the sailors were lined up on the top deck. I watched that for about 15 minutes before realizing that the boat was moving at a snail’s pace and it may take years for it to finish. I walked the rest of the way back to the Lodge to see if Josh was there working diligently on his work. C’mon, a girl can dream! He wasn’t there, but arrived a little while later. He worked on his Civics until he couldn’t stand the music coming through the wall, and he asked if we could go to my classroom to work. That seemed like a great idea to me because he kept telling me he was reading while he was lying on his bed under the covers. We worked there for a while and then came back to go to bed.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
This morning was our big trip to the 100 yen store. I got up and made Josh wake up so that he could finish his work today and get caught up. We walked over and had breakfast at the Seaside. I then left to meet Evelyn and Debra so we could wait for Caroline to pick us up. We made great time getting to the store and chatted for a while waiting for it to open. There are five floors full of stuff that costs 100 yen (about $1). It was amazing! I spent about $70 and got all sorts of good junk. It is such a strange experience to walk into a store and not be able to read what each thing is. It drove me crazy not having any idea what most of the things were. I could figure out quite a few things, but the rest of them baffled me. The worst part is that I have no way of figuring out what they are. At home, when I was confused about something I could ask people or look it up on the internet. Here I am simply out of luck since I can’t even read what they call these things. I’ve also found that translating things online is nearly impossible because the characters are different. I guess I just need to make friends with some Japanese people who will take me shopping.
After five floors and two trips back to the car to unload stuff, we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. It was really good, and just like home. The best part was when the waitresses sang Hoppy Boiday to a girl at the next table. After lunch, it took us about an hour and a half to get back to base because the traffic was so bad. The company was good, so it didn’t matter.
When I got back, Josh had started some of the work but was nowhere near finished. He can totally do the lots of the work on his own but likes to have company while he works. Whatever…as long as he finished, I’m happy. He was invited to a Quinceniera (fifteenth birthday party) for a girl here on base. He has to rent a tux and take waltzing lessons. I had to call and talk to the mother to say it was okay for him to take part. That should be interesting. He has exactly 20 days to earn the money for the tux and I told him I would give him $4 a day towards the total. I explained the plan to the mother and told her that it was okay with me if he went, but that he was going to have to earn the money by doing his schoolwork. She thought that was great, so it looks like he is going to go. I am going to have to go watch him waltz…that’s gonna be interesting! He kept working on the schoolwork and seems to be intent on getting caught up tonight. We shall see!
Today was my first day at Yokosuka Middle School. After nine years of pretty much the same stuff, it was very strange to be at a different school and not knowing what to expect. The meeting started at 07:30. They had tables set up in the library with several books (about middle school) and another welcome basket. I was excited to get a YMS shirt and a school calendar, as well as some other little supplies to get started with in our classrooms. The meeting started with introductions of the mentoring team and the principals. It seemed strange that the principal wasn’t the one leading the new staff orientation, and even stranger that she and the AP left after chatting a little about themselves, their families, and how they got their new assignments. Then the mentor team split us into three groups and took us on a tour of the school. We’d seen most of the important places before, but they took us into the Home Economics room which has six mini kitchens and to the many different computer labs. We also saw the cafeteria and learned that we don’t have any lunch duty!
After the tour, the information specialist (aka librarian) taught us about some of the acronyms we would come across in the school and showed us some of the important parts of the school website. When she was finished, we all piled in the van and headed over to lunch. When we returned, the mentor team told us about our formal evaluations and the importance of making sure we were meeting the standards. Several times during the day, they also encouraged us to join the union…I guess that is big here. At about 13:30, Mary came back over to answer questions. When we ran out of questions, she asked that each of us drop in and chat with her and Willette so they could get to know us. I thought that was really nice. When they were finished, we were allowed to go work in our rooms.
My new room is really nice. Since it is not a Science room, it has carpeting. It also has tables, but I think I am going to trade those in for desks. I don’t want to start off with tables, and I figure that if I want tables later I can always just push the desks together. I found the textbooks and I am really excited! I will be teaching World Geography. Basically we study each continent, the landforms, locations, etc. I was not happy to see that someone before me ripped out pages from different book of the resource materials and just made a pile. UGH! I’m going to need binders. J LOL!
At 15:00 I left to meet Josh back in the room, but decided to see if he was in the Library. He was at the computers, as I figured, e-mailing his friends. When I asked, he said that he hadn’t caught up on the work from yesterday and hadn’t started anything for today. I told him to go back to the lodge and get started. I went to the Fleet Gym to look at sneakers (mine split on the bottom and are hurting my feet) and see if I could find out about Cable TV. No luck with the TV info and after looking at shoes briefly I decided to wait to try them on when I got shoes for Josh. When I left, I stopped in at the travel office and asked about how much it would cost to go to another country. She couldn’t give me any prices for October, so I guess I’ll have to wait on that.
When I got back to the room, Josh was not working. I told him to get started and he pulled out the Civics. I decided to call around and ask about cars. Someone told me that a girl name Naomi has a lot that we could visit. I called her and she has no cars available…what kind of car lot is that?!?!?!?! This is getting really aggravating! She did offer to come over and show me some cars on the internet. They are all going to be auctioned tomorrow morning and she could bid for me. I don’t like that idea because you have to take what she buys (you tell her which ones to bid on and how high to bid) and trust that she makes a good decision. We looked at several kinds and found a Miata that was fifteen years old. She wouldn’t get that one because it might have problems. I figured it would be cheap…she refused. I did like one of the Toyota RAV4’s, so she was planning to bid for me but didn’t hold out much hope because my high price was too low. Oh well…I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should rent a car and go visit other lots away from the base. The most frustrating thing about the car search is that even when I find one, it will take at least a week to be able to get it because there are so many different places to register it.
When Naomi left, Josh and I went back to the room. Josh asked me what he would get if he did his schoolwork. He didn’t seem to like my answer…“an education!” He thought I would say that if he finished I would buy him shoes. Hmm…yeah, that’s a precedence I want to set! When I said no, he stopped working and went to sleep. I thought about smothering him with a pillow, but managed to hold myself back. I finished my book and went to bed.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
This morning we had our big field trip to Yokohama. We met at the Wendy’s at 08:30. I would have like to have slept in a while longer, but somehow the people here seem to be dead-set against that. We then took a maze of trains to get to Yokohama. Mike was trying to teach us how it all worked and what to do, but I found myself just following the crowd. I’m sure that my first train trip alone will be interesting because the train system is not easy.
We got off the train and visited Chinatown. Why? I’m not sure. It was pretty much like Chinatown in New York and San Francisco. We saw a temple there that was interesting, had some ice cream, and then we walked back to get on the train to go to Yokohama. Basically we went through the Japanese town as a bunch of Americans with our digital cameras snapping pictures…how’s that for irony??? Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan. It was very pretty. There was a huge Ferris wheel – and I do mean huge! Mike took us over to the mall and we ate lunch at Garlic Jo’s. They had garlic pizza that was very, very good. After we ate, some people decided to stay at the mall and go shopping. Not having any desire to do that, I came back with the other group. The trip back was much shorter.
When we got back to base, the Kitty Hawk was just arriving. There were people on the side waiting while the ship pulled into the port. All of the sailors were lined up on the top deck. I watched that for about 15 minutes before realizing that the boat was moving at a snail’s pace and it may take years for it to finish. I walked the rest of the way back to the Lodge to see if Josh was there working diligently on his work. C’mon, a girl can dream! He wasn’t there, but arrived a little while later. He worked on his Civics until he couldn’t stand the music coming through the wall, and he asked if we could go to my classroom to work. That seemed like a great idea to me because he kept telling me he was reading while he was lying on his bed under the covers. We worked there for a while and then came back to go to bed.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
This morning was our big trip to the 100 yen store. I got up and made Josh wake up so that he could finish his work today and get caught up. We walked over and had breakfast at the Seaside. I then left to meet Evelyn and Debra so we could wait for Caroline to pick us up. We made great time getting to the store and chatted for a while waiting for it to open. There are five floors full of stuff that costs 100 yen (about $1). It was amazing! I spent about $70 and got all sorts of good junk. It is such a strange experience to walk into a store and not be able to read what each thing is. It drove me crazy not having any idea what most of the things were. I could figure out quite a few things, but the rest of them baffled me. The worst part is that I have no way of figuring out what they are. At home, when I was confused about something I could ask people or look it up on the internet. Here I am simply out of luck since I can’t even read what they call these things. I’ve also found that translating things online is nearly impossible because the characters are different. I guess I just need to make friends with some Japanese people who will take me shopping.
After five floors and two trips back to the car to unload stuff, we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. It was really good, and just like home. The best part was when the waitresses sang Hoppy Boiday to a girl at the next table. After lunch, it took us about an hour and a half to get back to base because the traffic was so bad. The company was good, so it didn’t matter.
When I got back, Josh had started some of the work but was nowhere near finished. He can totally do the lots of the work on his own but likes to have company while he works. Whatever…as long as he finished, I’m happy. He was invited to a Quinceniera (fifteenth birthday party) for a girl here on base. He has to rent a tux and take waltzing lessons. I had to call and talk to the mother to say it was okay for him to take part. That should be interesting. He has exactly 20 days to earn the money for the tux and I told him I would give him $4 a day towards the total. I explained the plan to the mother and told her that it was okay with me if he went, but that he was going to have to earn the money by doing his schoolwork. She thought that was great, so it looks like he is going to go. I am going to have to go watch him waltz…that’s gonna be interesting! He kept working on the schoolwork and seems to be intent on getting caught up tonight. We shall see!
1 Comments:
Great fun reading your postings! Sounds like there is much to be interested in and learn, including parenting! lol Hope you can keep some of this up once you start to get into the swing of school. Your writing is pleasant to read. It is Sunday here and Jeremy's 1st Birthday. Going to help Manda after church to host about 70 people for an outside party! Long, enjoyable day! Keep upi the blogging and good work w/ Joshi/Yoshi as Bill is now reffering to him! lol V
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