From March 19-April 10, 2011 there will be a special exhibit of works by Canadian (Quebec) and Japanese artists on the theme of l'intimidation /いじめ (ijime; bullying) on at the Towada Art Center.
As a teacher (I haven't seen a lot of bullying in the classrooms I've visited, but then again I'm not in them full time) and as a Canadian this is definitely a must-see for me!
I've also been told that the artists and curator will be present for the vernissage (preview) on March 19.
For more info on the exhibit, see the website: ijime.ca (in French and Japanese).
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Fun teaching moments
After class one day, a third grade junior high student came up to me and asked: "What does 'some of the beach' mean?" (Then added, "I heard it in Bio Hazard.") At first I was totally stumped. I asked the student to repeat the phrase.
This time I heard 'sun of the beach.' I was still confused. Why would there be a reference to beaches in Bio Hazard?!
After getting the student to repeat the phrase and saying it to myself a couple of times, the light dawned. It wasn't "sun of the beach", but "son of a 'beach'!"
So I explained that 'beach' is what you call a female dog and how it's not a nice thing to say to a person. Of course I also cautioned that it's not something that should be said in school. I'm proud to say that--keeping with my goal of using less Japanese at school--I managed to do pretty much the entire explanation in English! And I'm even more proud of my student for getting what I was saying!
Another recent fun teaching moment was playing the Broken Telephone-Pictionary game (rules explained in this previous post) with the same third grade students during my jishu gakushu class. (An extra English class I teach pretty much on my own for 30min for the first and second grade students, and for 50min for the third.)
The one that had us all practically in tears laughing at the end of class started off innocently enough with the phrase "cutting cake". The phrase remained mostly unchanged for the first two people (1 drawing, 1 sentence) but then the third student misread "cut" as "cat" and.... Well, you can see the results for yourself!
Check out some other gems from that activity here.
I really love this particular class and will be sad (but also proud and happy) when they graduate next month. Ah, the bittersweet joys of teaching...
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Towada February Events
第21回とわだ雪見ラリー Towada Yukimi (Snow Viewing) Rally
Date: Wed. 2 Feb. 2011
Time: Sign-in: 17:00~; Start: 18:00; Finish (for Prize Draw): 20:00
Location: (受付・抽選会場)十和田商工会館
(Reception/Prize Draw) Towada Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Fee: 2500 yen (in advance); 3000yen (day of)
Description: Your fee gets you one drink (of your choice) at each of five specified bars. Get a stamp for each finished drink and bring the completed stamp card back to the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (by 20:00) to be entered into the prize draw.
十和田湖冬物語Snow & Light Fantavista Towadako Fuyu Monogatari (Lake Towada Winter Story)
Date: Fri. 4 Feb.-Sun. 27 Feb. 2011
Time: 学びの旅と十和田湖食彩ドームActivities & Food: Weekdays 15:00-21:00; Weekends 11:00-21:00
ステージStage: Daily 19:00~
花火Fireworks: Daily at 20:00
乙女の像ライトアップ Maidens Statue Illuminated Daily 17:00-21:00
Location: 十和田湖畔休屋特設イベント会場 Lake Towada Yasumiya Special Event Venue
Admission: Free (fees may be required for specific activities but performances are free)
Description: Enjoy activities in the snow, live performances, fireworks and more! Get all-you-can drink mulled wine and keep the glass as a souvenir for 500yen! Sip cocktails and sake inside kamakura (kind of like igloos) bars. (View photos from the 2010 Towadako Fuyu Monogatari here. Read the 2010 blog post here.)
Date: Wed. 2 Feb. 2011
Time: Sign-in: 17:00~; Start: 18:00; Finish (for Prize Draw): 20:00
Location: (受付・抽選会場)十和田商工会館
(Reception/Prize Draw) Towada Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Fee: 2500 yen (in advance); 3000yen (day of)
Description: Your fee gets you one drink (of your choice) at each of five specified bars. Get a stamp for each finished drink and bring the completed stamp card back to the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (by 20:00) to be entered into the prize draw.
十和田湖冬物語Snow & Light Fantavista Towadako Fuyu Monogatari (Lake Towada Winter Story)
Date: Fri. 4 Feb.-Sun. 27 Feb. 2011
Time: 学びの旅と十和田湖食彩ドームActivities & Food: Weekdays 15:00-21:00; Weekends 11:00-21:00
ステージStage: Daily 19:00~
花火Fireworks: Daily at 20:00
乙女の像ライトアップ Maidens Statue Illuminated Daily 17:00-21:00
Location: 十和田湖畔休屋特設イベント会場 Lake Towada Yasumiya Special Event Venue
Admission: Free (fees may be required for specific activities but performances are free)
Description: Enjoy activities in the snow, live performances, fireworks and more! Get all-you-can drink mulled wine and keep the glass as a souvenir for 500yen! Sip cocktails and sake inside kamakura (kind of like igloos) bars. (View photos from the 2010 Towadako Fuyu Monogatari here. Read the 2010 blog post here.)
第21回十和田市伝統芸能まつり Towada Dentou Geinou Matsuri
Date: Sun. 20 Feb. 2011
Time: 13:00~
Location: 十和田市民文化センター・大ホール Bunka Centre Grand Hall
Admission: Free
Description: Watch traditional (performance) art performances from various areas of Towada, e.g. Horanai, Ofudo, etc. (See pictures from 2010 below.)
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
年末年始 End of 2010, Beginning of 2011
The end of 2010 was super busy for me (hence the lack of updates here). I spent most of my free time in December making/wrapping Christmas treats.
I went a little crazy this year and ordered four 1.5kg bags of Holiday M&Ms off of eBay. Somehow I didn't realize exactly how much 1.5kg actually amounted to--see, last year I used 2-3 bags of M&Ms for Christmas cookies, but after I saw the 1.5kg bags, I realized that I had probably used 750g bags before!! So yeah, 6kg of Christmas M&Ms was about four times as much as I actually needed!
So this year, on top of giving cookies to the Board of Education and students and teachers at the small schools (schools/classes with less than 30 students) I visit regularly, I also ended up giving Christmas presents to the entire sixth grade at the only large elementary school I've visited regularly this year (~120 students in total). I put some Holiday M&Ms in a small bag with some Japanese cookies/candies to make it fill up nicely.
The second last week of school (Dec. 11-17) in particular was crazy. I spent practically the entire weekend baking cookies, and then all of my spare time after work, dance practice and taiko wrapping everything! But even though it made me insanely busy/tired, it was totally worth it!
Money spent on Christmas cookies/treats: ~$200
Time spent baking/wrapping: ~20hr
Spreading Christmas cheer: PRICELESS
(Ok, cheesy, I know, but so true! I really look forward to making Christmas cookies every year!)
Then we had our office trip to Hakodate. It was my third time there so the sightseeing wasn't so important to me as the food!! I had いくら・ほたて・とろサーモン丼 (salmon roe, scallop and toro salmon rice), いかすみソフト (squid ink soft serve ice cream) and かにまん (crab meat steamed bun) all within the first 2-3 hours upon arrival!
A co-worker also had the Lucky Pierrot (a local Hakodate burger chain) 函館山バーガーHakodate Yama Burger. It's a massive burger roughly three and a half to four times the size of a regular burger and costs 1100yen. There are only 20 burgers available per day at each shop. My co-worker happened to get the very last one of the day at the shop near the station! (Apparently someone tried to order one after we ordered and was told that they were sold out.)
Other than eating, we did actually manage to see some Hakodate sights: the night view from Mt. Hakodate, the (daily) lighting ceremony for the giant Christmas tree (from Halifax!) at the Bay Area, and Goryoukaku.
December 23rd I flew back to Canada. That night we (my parents and I) had dinner at Canyon Creek (steak!) and then hit up the Chapters to get my Christmas present: a Kobo eReader!!
Christmas Eve was the church's English service. A bunch of us hung out at Ollie & Cheese's place afterward. The next morning (Christmas day) my parents and I had to be out of the house by 4:30am to catch our flight to San Francisco. My brother joined us there the next day (Boxing Day).
Some highlights from the trip:
On our last night we were also able to meet up with my aunt, uncle, cousin and her family for dinner at Park Chow. It was my first time meeting my cousin's husband and daughters since I was in Japan when they came to Toronto for a visit. Another cousin who is studying in a nearby university also dropped by our hotel room later that evening for a visit. It really was a family trip in more than one sense of the word! ^_^
We got back to Canada on the night of the 29th. The 30th I met up with Steph and Lisa and we went to Hubert and Angela's for dinner (Ceci was there too, of course)! It was my first time at their new place and meeting Caleb--such a cutie! And I was surprised at how social/talkative he is! Steph and Lisa taught us a fun game--a cross of pictionary and broken telephone--and we nearly died laughing over some of the results...
Basically every starts off with a piece of paper and writes a sentence or phrase (movie title, song lyrics, etc. are fine). Then everyone passes the paper to the next person who draws a picture of the sentence/phrase and folds the paper down so the text isn't visible to the next person. The next person looks at the picture and writes a sentence/phrase based on the picture and folds the paper down so the picture isn't visible to the next person. And so it continues until you get the sentence you originally wrote back.
(The above are from our very first round, I believe.)
The 31st was brunch at Cora's with Steph and Lisa.
Then I headed downtown to hang out with Liz and Clara until Alan came home and Huston, Ivy and Elizabeth came over and we all had dinner together.
After that I headed to Syv and Justin's for the countdown. Jen and I slept over and Syv made us pancakes and eggs (and smoked salmon!) for breakfast New Year's morning.
My parents picked me up and I spent the rest of New Year's Day reading and sleeping. The second was breakfast with the girls at Cora's (again!) before service. After church I headed downtown to have lunch (steak crepe--yum!) and hang out with Carly.
The third was the BSGE hot pot!! We actually did a good job with buying the food this time and didn't have too much leftover. We also played the pictionary-telephone game--again, with hilarious results.
My final day of vacation (Jan.4) was another do-nothing-day at home, but in the evening we had a family dinner (i.e. Nate came to Mississauga) at Pho, of all places. (Mostly because I had overeaten throughout the holidays and really wasn't up for a big meal.)
All in all I had a pretty good end of 2010 and start of 2011.
^_^
I went a little crazy this year and ordered four 1.5kg bags of Holiday M&Ms off of eBay. Somehow I didn't realize exactly how much 1.5kg actually amounted to--see, last year I used 2-3 bags of M&Ms for Christmas cookies, but after I saw the 1.5kg bags, I realized that I had probably used 750g bags before!! So yeah, 6kg of Christmas M&Ms was about four times as much as I actually needed!So this year, on top of giving cookies to the Board of Education and students and teachers at the small schools (schools/classes with less than 30 students) I visit regularly, I also ended up giving Christmas presents to the entire sixth grade at the only large elementary school I've visited regularly this year (~120 students in total). I put some Holiday M&Ms in a small bag with some Japanese cookies/candies to make it fill up nicely.
The second last week of school (Dec. 11-17) in particular was crazy. I spent practically the entire weekend baking cookies, and then all of my spare time after work, dance practice and taiko wrapping everything! But even though it made me insanely busy/tired, it was totally worth it!
Time spent baking/wrapping: ~20hr
Spreading Christmas cheer: PRICELESS
(Ok, cheesy, I know, but so true! I really look forward to making Christmas cookies every year!)
Then we had our office trip to Hakodate. It was my third time there so the sightseeing wasn't so important to me as the food!! I had いくら・ほたて・とろサーモン丼 (salmon roe, scallop and toro salmon rice), いかすみソフト (squid ink soft serve ice cream) and かにまん (crab meat steamed bun) all within the first 2-3 hours upon arrival!
A co-worker also had the Lucky Pierrot (a local Hakodate burger chain) 函館山バーガーHakodate Yama Burger. It's a massive burger roughly three and a half to four times the size of a regular burger and costs 1100yen. There are only 20 burgers available per day at each shop. My co-worker happened to get the very last one of the day at the shop near the station! (Apparently someone tried to order one after we ordered and was told that they were sold out.)
Other than eating, we did actually manage to see some Hakodate sights: the night view from Mt. Hakodate, the (daily) lighting ceremony for the giant Christmas tree (from Halifax!) at the Bay Area, and Goryoukaku.
December 23rd I flew back to Canada. That night we (my parents and I) had dinner at Canyon Creek (steak!) and then hit up the Chapters to get my Christmas present: a Kobo eReader!!
Christmas Eve was the church's English service. A bunch of us hung out at Ollie & Cheese's place afterward. The next morning (Christmas day) my parents and I had to be out of the house by 4:30am to catch our flight to San Francisco. My brother joined us there the next day (Boxing Day).
Some highlights from the trip:
 |
| Sea lions at Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf) |
 |
| Mint Bliss sundae @ Ghirardelli Square |
 |
| Lombard Street, "The World's Crookedest" |
 |
| Golden Gate Bridge |
 |
| Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Park |
 |
| Boudin Bakery's turtle-shaped sourdough |
We got back to Canada on the night of the 29th. The 30th I met up with Steph and Lisa and we went to Hubert and Angela's for dinner (Ceci was there too, of course)! It was my first time at their new place and meeting Caleb--such a cutie! And I was surprised at how social/talkative he is! Steph and Lisa taught us a fun game--a cross of pictionary and broken telephone--and we nearly died laughing over some of the results...
Basically every starts off with a piece of paper and writes a sentence or phrase (movie title, song lyrics, etc. are fine). Then everyone passes the paper to the next person who draws a picture of the sentence/phrase and folds the paper down so the text isn't visible to the next person. The next person looks at the picture and writes a sentence/phrase based on the picture and folds the paper down so the picture isn't visible to the next person. And so it continues until you get the sentence you originally wrote back.
(The above are from our very first round, I believe.)
The 31st was brunch at Cora's with Steph and Lisa.
Then I headed downtown to hang out with Liz and Clara until Alan came home and Huston, Ivy and Elizabeth came over and we all had dinner together.
After that I headed to Syv and Justin's for the countdown. Jen and I slept over and Syv made us pancakes and eggs (and smoked salmon!) for breakfast New Year's morning.
My parents picked me up and I spent the rest of New Year's Day reading and sleeping. The second was breakfast with the girls at Cora's (again!) before service. After church I headed downtown to have lunch (steak crepe--yum!) and hang out with Carly.
The third was the BSGE hot pot!! We actually did a good job with buying the food this time and didn't have too much leftover. We also played the pictionary-telephone game--again, with hilarious results.
My final day of vacation (Jan.4) was another do-nothing-day at home, but in the evening we had a family dinner (i.e. Nate came to Mississauga) at Pho, of all places. (Mostly because I had overeaten throughout the holidays and really wasn't up for a big meal.)
All in all I had a pretty good end of 2010 and start of 2011.
^_^
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