We have a pool!

Well, the first week of work is finished! And although my kids don’t start until this coming week, it was a busy one. My biggest task of the week was setting up my classroom. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, walking into a fairly bare classroom and trying to figure out how I was going to make it presentable by the end of the week. But thankfully, with the help of my classroom assistant (and a lot of creative thought), we managed to get all the necessary bits up and even make things look half-decent in the process.

The other part of my week was doing cover work for a Year 1 class. This being my first experience with Kuwaiti kids, I had a few observations. First, some of these kids are super-cute and obviously get away with absolutely everything at home. That ended pretty quick, with the help of the broken-record approach. Also, kids here seem to have a much smaller personal bubble than back home and in England. On several occasions I noticed a child playing with another child’s hair, or at one point patting another child’s face. In each case, the child being touched was usually sitting nicely and paying perfect attention to the lesson. I can’t help but recall numerous occasions where I’ve had students screaming bloody murder because someone simply sat too close to them. Despite the fact that I obviously won’t be hearing those same cries from children here, I still put a stop to the distractions.

And now I’m anxiously/excitedly awaiting the arrival of my own classes next week!

Now to the pool business… there is indeed a pool in my building! One of my roommates took me on a quick tour of our building to see the outdoor patio/pool area the other day. During the afternoon on the weekends it’s usually filled with screaming and splashing children. But I managed to have a relaxing swim the other night, once the temperature had dipped below 40C. I have a feeling I will be making good use of the pool in this hot weather!

Before my swim, I went on a rather adventurous walk to find the seaside. Those of you who know me well will know of my love for oceans, lakes and all things water. A visit to the water was inevitable. However, the area around the water is fairly built up with hotels and such, so I took a little detour down a side road and between some buildings (probably not where I was supposed to be…) and finally found a little slice of beach. I snapped a few photos, and here they are. More to come next weekend! Enjoy!

The outside of The Springs (my apartment building)

Building on my walk to work

The walk back home

Interesting building along the water

A little slice of beach!

Welcome to Kuwait!

From one foreign locale to another, I’ve moved from Japan and on to Kuwait.

Leaving Japan was a bittersweet time, as I’d made so many friends there, but I was happy to be coming back to Canada for the summer. After a whirlwind summer, including Maid of Honour duties at my friend’s wedding, I’ve packed up once again and taken myself half way across the globe to teach in Salwa, Kuwait.

On arrival at the Kuwait airport, I realized that families treat airport pick-ups as a formal affair, complete with explosive confetti contraptions, fancy dresses on all the little girls, and a variety of musical instruments in tow! I must say, this was a bit on the sensory-overload side of things after spending the previous 24 hours in relatively quiet airports and airplanes. But it definitely put a smile on my face to see families so enthusiastically welcoming home loved-ones.

Since arriving late Tuesday night, I’ve had two short days of work meetings, and many hours of much needed sleep. And in my short time here so far, I have determined two things: the outdoor temperatures here give a whole new meaning to the phrase “It’s so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk” (if only they had sidewalks here); and, there is nothing worse on your first morning in a new place than meeting your freaky-fast housemates, aka the cockroaches!

Besides these amusing side-effects of living in the desert, I’m settling into my new home and will be settling into my Kindergarten teaching position through the coming weeks.

I’ll leave you with a few photos of my apartment and nearby shopping centre. Enjoy!

My room

Kitchen

Living room

View from living room window

The local Starbucks

Mosque across from Starbucks

Sumo Adventure

It’s March, and in Japan that means it time for Sumo. This weekend I went to Osaka for a day of Sumo fun! I went with one of my students, her husband and sister to the tournament. The excitement was evident before we even entered the stadium, as people lined up on the sidewalks awaiting the high level sumo wrestlers on their arrival.

When we got inside, I realized that a box seat (which is where we were seated) has a very different meaning in Japan. The four of us cozied ourselves into a 4’x4’ square of space, separated from other such squares by low metal bars, and sat on small cushions on the floor. There were some areas of regular stadium seating further back, around the outer walls, but apparently the box seats are the place to be for sumo. I definitely enjoyed the experience, except when my legs were falling asleep!

I learned many a thing about the matches themselves from my student and her husband, who are avid followers of the sumo scene. And of course, I took an abundance of pictures as well. I learned that there are surprisingly few sumo wrestlers from Japan nowadays, that most of the high level wrestlers are from Mongolia and several others are from European countries. I also learned that wrestlers are fined 10,000 yen for making a false start in a match. And finally, that there is quite an upset when the Grand Champion is beaten in the final match of the day, especially by a wrestler without an official ranking.

Well, as promised, here is the abundance of photos. Enjoy!

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Fish for your dinner…

Recently I went to what was quite possibly the most amusing restaurant I have encountered in Japan. Simply put, it had a “fishing” theme. While in Canada, this may mean some fishing trophies on the wall and an outdoors themed decor; here it meant actually fishing for your dinner inside the restaurant. I had a hard time imagining the logistics of it until I was sitting inside a wooden-fishing-boat-shaped seating area surrounded by tanks of fairly lethargic, over-fed fish. When we arrived, we were handed simple fishing rods and some little krill-type bait to get started.

It didn’t take long to see that the fish weren’t interested in the krill, so normal fishing tactics wouldn’t work. The best chance was to snag one with the hook alone. Although I didn’t end up getting anything myself, in our group we managed a couple fish and a couple lobster-looking creatures. The prize for catching something? A discount on the regular price of the fish and your choice of preparation.

One of the more interesting choices was lobster sashimi. The meat was laid out on the tail and the head was set on the serving plate as a garnish. Slightly disturbing was the fact that the eyes and legs were still twitching for a good 2 or 3 minutes after it arrived at the table. We decided to wait for the twitching to subside before eating it, as the idea of eating him while he was watching was a bit morbid! I must say, though, to its credit, it was delicious!

Altogether, dinner was a unique and entertaining encounter. Can’t wait for the next Japanese culinary adventure!

Merry Christmas!!

‘Tis a chilly Christmas in Akashi, and my little heater is working overtime to keep me warm. I realized as the weather started to change, that Japanese apartments don’t have much in the way of insulation compared with back home in Canada. I heard reports of snow in the general region of Japan I live in, but so far Akashi hasn’t received any.

For the first time in several years now I’m staying put for Christmas. Despite being far from the land of Christmas dinner, I had a great turkey dinner at a friend’s place (complete with stuffing and the works!) and dressed up as a plastic-bag-Christmas-tree for the kids at work to decorate at our holiday party.

I also recently went to visit one of my friends/co-workers in Kyoto and had a great tour and some delicious food!

And to quote my favourite Christmas poem: “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Ultimate adventure!!

So, anyone who knows me even a little likely knows that I love, love, love monkeys! And today’s ultimate adventure was a trip to Arashiyama, near Kyoto, to an awesome monkey park. I have heard many a scary monkey tale since living in Japan, but none of these warnings could keep me away. However, there are a number of rules regarding monkey viewing that I found interesting. One that I found particularly curious is that you can’t make eye contact with the monkeys or they will feel like you are threatening them and will attack you. This I found to be true when I was trying to get a picture near a baby monkey and someone I assumed to be his mother became rather aggressive. I promise, I was trying not to make eye contact but she was staring at me. Next thing I knew she was growling and bearing her teeth, and quickly I was using my friend as a human shield against a possible attack. Other than this little incident, I had an absolute ball wandering around monkey park!

Another intriguing location we visited was a bamboo forest, which I have to admit I find strangely creepy for some reason. And we also checked out a very well manicured Japanese garden where we enjoyed a traditional tea service.

And finally, I had a delicious meal of local cuisine in the evening. Kyoto is know for its tofu, and in particular yuba, which I enjoyed at a stylish little restaurant in Arashiyama.

And of course I took plenty of pictures! Enjoy!

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Seoul Adventure

It’s official. After six months in Japan I have finally taken my first international vacation since moving here. My friend/co-worker and I jetted off to Seoul, South Korea on a Saturday morning and arrived to a beautiful, but somewhat smoggy vista. Besides eating lots and lots of delicious Korea food during our weekend away, we also did some hard-core shopping in Myeong-dong and had a great, relaxing massage. I only have a few pictures to show, which will follow…

But first, last weekend one of my students and her husband generously gave me a tour around Kyoto to see many of the temples and the beginning of the changing leaves. Here are some pictures of Seoul and bunch more of Kyoto. Enjoy!

 

Seoul and Kyoto VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL