The tragic misadventures of an American English teacher in England
So I was shopping in OCAT yesterday and I heard these strains of some random song. I don’t know what the song was, but the chords brought Olivia Newton John Wayne Newton’s “Paradise” to my mind’s ear. Thus, resulting in me putting the CD into the player and wishing they had put more songs on the demo. Definitely dig that band.
And all this talk of Kyoto has made me wish I brough Rurouni Kenshin with me.
Quacky thoughts from this one, desu ne?
I went upstairs to Barbara’s apato for lunch today. I bought her a bottle of Italian Chianti last night as an appreciative gesture.
I admit that I was a bit nervous sitting with her in the common room. You lot know me pretty well, depending on the situation, I can either be crazy outgoing or painfully shy - “I’ve always been SHY…I confess that I’m SHY…” Apparently, my introverted personality decided to play the dominant character.
Barbara is delightful, though. We talked a bit artificially, as people are prone to do when first getting to know others. Everything with her is “very beautiful”, as she was wont to say this afternoon. She is eager to make lots of different friends and obviously has quite the outgoing personality. After all, she did invite me, a person she only just met, to have lunch with her.
Around 1:00, she and I went down to the subway to meet two of her other friends coming from Kita-Tatsumi. I was surprised to see one of the girls from Dunk last night! Formal introductions were conducted and I officially met two more Nova teachers. Heather, the one from Dunk, is from Calgary and Natasha is from Australia.
Barbara made us spaghetti with a tomato sauce “typical of Florence”. It was absolutely wonderful.
We spent the afternoon getting to know one another and talking about a lot of different things, from books, to languages, to American politics. They even invited me to come with them to Nara and see the cherry blossoms.
On Wednesday, I’m supposed to meet them off the elevators before my 6:40 shift and we’re supposed to go out for coffee. They also said they would introduce me to their friend Laura, one of the French teachers, who might be willing to tutor me in French.
I’m really hoping that this all works out. I think it would be cool to have international friends.
I had my first taste of social fun yesterday.
I got off work at 3:00, but I had told Helen I would meet her after her shift at 5:20. We had made plans to get something to eat and then watch Serenity. On our way out, we ran into Evelina, and together the three of us ate at Golden Dragon.
I called Tiara once we got back to Imazato and she and Braden came to join us. They brought with them tasty beverages and Braden made up a drinking game for the movie. “All right, every time Jessi quotes the movie before or while the line is happening, take a drink.” The game didn’t last long if anything because Tiara protested the rate at which she was consuming her orange juice and vodka (I think it’s called a Screwdriver).
We sat and caroused (well, they did, I just drank orange juice) together for quite a bit of the evening. As the hour approached 11:00, it was decided that we should all go out to Dunk, the local karaoke bar in Kita-Tatsumi, which is where Braden and T live.
As you can imagine, I was quite reluctant to go. But Helen was going, and I knew she doesn’t drink a lot, and so I thought I should really make the effort to be social in a different capacity than I am used to.
Thus, I gathered what little courage I had, and joined my friends at Dunk.
It was actually pretty fun. Braden bought me a Sprite after I politely declined the beer and I sat back with my friends, enjoying the laughter and joining in on the singing (not like with the mic, as in with everyone else in the chorus and such). I was content to just sit and watch everyone more. Braden attempted to sing a few rap songs. There’s nothing more amusing than an auburn haired white boy from Texas attempting to be ghetto.
There was this one girl who must have studied voice because she was unbelievably amazing. At first, I just thought she was pretty good, but then she started singing the harmony and I knew she had to have had some kind of music training. Admittedly, there are just some people who are just naturally good, but the way she sang…it screamed vocalist.
I had expected to only stay an hour; I wanted to make sure I could catch the last train back to Imazato. I ended up losing track of time and I didn’t end up leaving until 2:30AM or so. My means of transportation back to my apato probably wasn’t the wisest way, but I made it back safe enough and really, it wasn’t that bad of a walk. Quite a refreshing jaunt really. Tiara had invited me to stay over, but I had my heart set on sleeping in my own futon.
Dunk isn’t the biggest place in the world, it’s maybe the size of my common room, but it was cozy and not too loud or crowded. For you Bloomington-Normal folk, it was a little smaller than Rosie’s.
Strangely enough, I wouldn’t mind going back; which coming from me, is the closest thing to saying I want to go out drinking.
This is probably the funniest Nova teaching story I’ve heard so far…
Tiara’s Italian roommate Valeria was teaching a lesson on I’m not sure what, but the situation was this. Valeria told her student, “Imagine Keiko stole your favorite sweater. What would you say to her?”
Apparently, the student said, “Keiko, fungu.”
Luckily, Keiko had no idea what that meant. Valeria did very well at not laughing out right, but she said it was a bit of a struggle to contain her amusement.
I thought the story was hilarious.
Ender’s Shadow (Shadow Saga) by Orson Scott Card
Could Do Better!: Help Your Kid Shine at School by Phil Beadle
Frankenstein (Barnes by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley