Five month blog

Following the fact that I actually managed to write an entry and put it online yesterday I will try to do it again today!

Yesterday I talked about what the year ahead hol

ds and what I want to achieve, but now I will give a brief outline of what I have been up to since August... I can't do justice to five months of being out here but I will try to round it up as best as possible.

So, after the not-so-brilliant home stay, speech contest

s came about. The kids I taught didn't do particularly well (I think it was rigged) but Natsu, a third year girl who I spent a lot of time with, actually did really well and would have gone through to the next round had it not been for the horrible foreigner on the panel of judges who gave her a low score. I think he didn't like the fact she had an English twang to her voice... what a racist!

When it hit September school started and I did all my intro lessons which took a couple of weeks, then started to do normal lessons and helped out the Japanese English Teachers. I found lessons to be particularly fun at my rural(er) school as the kids are really great. They are so friendly and really get into any English games so it is always a pleasure to teach them.

However, I swiftly found out that being an ALT really doesn't require a great deal of work- at the smaller rural school I have only been doing about 7 hours of actual lessons a

week which gives me a good three days to fill up. I found this extra time quite hard to adjust to. I'm not the kind of person that likes a lot of spare time; I find that I am less productive and just plain bored if I don't have anything I have to do compared to when I am busy which makes me plan time well and get everything done.

With so much time on my hands it really is bad of me to not have blogged even once!.

I do try to be a bit productive at work by studying Japanese, reading and making English boards. These have random facts about England and lots of pictures on them- I made the most awesome Christmas one, will try and get a photo of it.

At the end of September Chris came out to Japan with a working holiday visa. He has been staying with me since then along with a brief stint in Tokyo. He has been looking for jobs but it isn't easy in a recession, especially if you don't want to teach English (a wise move if my job is anything to go by!). I don't mind since it means he gets to stay with me longer and not move down to Tokyo.

I can't remember what I got up to throughout October and November. I think there were lots of parties and I was just generally settling in to life in Fukushima. The Autumn weather was really nice so I took advantage of it by hiking my local mountain and going for nice walks in the prefecture.

Which brings me to December. I did some awesome Christmas lessons for the kids at my schools and was also really excited about going home to surprise everyone. Going back to England was really great, the surprise was a super success (see the pic!) and it was even a white Christmas. It was also the first Christmas where I had seen all my family for a few years so even better.

Exciting white Christmas at home!

I came back to Japan just before New Year and ended up sleeping through the New Year because I was so jet lagged. Chris and I had a nice New Year's Day arou

nd Tokyo though and headed back up to Fukushima where it was freezing.

This month I have been catching up with everyone since the winter holidays- almost everyone went home or away for about three weeks- and have, of course, been teaching. I have also started snowboarding this month- only been two times but it is mega fun. Again, I will save that for a proper post when I have pictures to put up too.

It has already been six months and it has flown by. It hasn't all been brilliant but it has been mostly good with some excellent bits thrown in.