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28 March revivalOne and a half years after returning from Japan and my adventures there, I've had the urge to tap at the keys again and record what's happening in my life.
With boyfriend firmly attached, I moved to Logrono in La Rioja, Spain last October in search of relaxed living, plenty of good coffee, wine and food and of course sunshine, which had failed to put in much of an appearance throughout my year back in England. Things seemed to be going well from the start when Rob met a girl on the bus to the airport who told him that she was from Logrono and had just been living in our home town of Norwich for 9 months. I'm not sure who was more pleased about this meeting, but it took a crazier turn when he introduced her to me, and I realised that I had in fact taught her in Norwich a few times. From then, we were "kissed by the gods", managing to score a brilliant flat (thanks to our bus pal) with a great landlady who spoke English, and all our new fellow teachers at our school seemed normal and even, positively good company.
Things took a dark turn for a few months though, when we actually started teaching and found 25 hours a week, initally without any textbooks or resources, turned into 11 hour days, tears and tantrums, not quite what we came to Spain for. Finally, now, we feel like we've got a grip on the situation We've established understanding or at least an uneasy truce with our classes and our working time outside of teaching has thankfully reduced hugely. More time to study Spanish, frequent cafes and generally enjoy the sunshine that has been making a reappearance recently. Today, it's raining which is probably a punishment for my shopping spree last weekend when I only allowed myself to buy clothes suitable for temperatures upwards of 25 degrees. Back to the jumpers and the coat. Humph. We might make a stew though which is a silver lining.
In general, Spain has treated us very well. Highlights have been:
looking out over a valley of vineyards turning various shades of red and yellow,
driving around little villages in the depths of winter and watching an old farmer lead his horse through town to have a little drink at the fountain,
eating pinchos on an extremely regular basis and developing techniques for eating button mushrooms on a stick loaded with garlic oil without spilling any and pouring it all over me or my eating companions.
cheap, good wine
dressing up as zombies for Carnaval and attacking a SWAT team in the main square
watching old ladies walking along arm in arm chattering away like schoolgirls
sitting on our balcony in the sunshine, any time
eating sandwiches on the side of a mountain in the sunshine in the middle of a day's snowboarding
managing a stilted conversation in Spanish with an understanding friend
02 September Major Asia so farI've been travelling for one month and one day today. It's the longest that I've been away from Japan in 2 years. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I started in Bangkok, then moved to Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and now I'm back in Singapore, due to fly to thailand again this afternoon.
Here's a little summary of my adventures so far. Bangkok was hot, busy, smelly, crazy. I stayed with Pamela and she had already been prowling the city for a few days so she could give some structure and sense of direction to the whole thing. We travelling up the river, saw the Palace, hit Koh San Road and I did an awful lot of sleeping to recover from my hectic last few weeks in Japan.
Laos was wonderful. The capital, Vientiane, was like a small town. I arrived to see the most spectacular sunset which really set the mood for the rest of my time in the country. I went kayaking, saw beautiful temples, a million orange robed monks or novices, drank wine sitting on bean bags, trekked through the mountains and rice fields and met so many people. It was interesting to see how the buddhist flower offering changed from flower necklaces to cones made of leaves with flowers sprouting out of the top. I love seeing all the differences and similarities in the culture and life of each country as I pass through.
It was good to go back to Vietnam. I went to the north this time, when last time I was in the south. there was definitely a different feel to the place. Hanoi was crazy busy. I was driven slightly mental by the constant cries from the moto (scooter) drivers and cyclo (tricycle with a seat in front) drivers who would not take no for an answer and would swerve across a busy street to a chorus of angry horns to try and get me to take a ride with them. Grrrrr. Peace was found in Sapa (sort of). Hills of steep rice fields, soaring up from pale blue rivers. People from minority tribes working the land as they had done for generations, wearing their traditional costumes, leading their water buffalo around and carrying baskets of indigo plant to dye their clothes woven from hemp. then, I moved to Halong Bay for a "deluxe tour". It was a bit of an extravagance but goodness me, it was worth it!! We stayed one night on a wooden junk boat, and one night on a island, floated around looking at all the beautiful rocks rising out of the sea, as far as the eye can see, and wafted around, following our guide.
Then, off to Singapore to meet Angela!! miraculously, she found me just as I walked out of Arrivals despite her having flown in from Oz into a different terminal. Clean, western-ish, trustworthy Singapore. time to come up for air for a moment before diving back into south east Asia. We set off for Malaysia the next day and by 4pm, found ourselves on a tiny island called Tioman, with only one path for a road and a strip of sandy beach that would suit us very well. We went snorkelling and saw the most amazing fish and coral. I even saw a turtle! We managed a touch of class when we booked ourselves in for pedicures at the posh resort down the beach. Angela charmed the women by speaking Indonesian with them (they were indonesian) so they let us chill by the jacuzzi and really looked after us.
Back to Singapore and a visit to Top Shop, not so ridiculous considering I haven't set foot inside too many English shops for 2 years. Sushi for lunch, and then Raffles for our Singapore Slings which were wonderfully fruity and delicious! we ate peanuts there and threw the shells on the floor as is the tradition since it's the only place in the rather strictly controlled country that you can litter! A wonderful meal later and we're up to date. This morning, we're going to the Botanical Gardens and then I'm flying up to Krabi. Hopefully, I can get myself onto a diving course to refresh the memory after the 8 years that have passed since I got my Open Water diving licence. Hmm.
09 July the beginning of the endToday, I had to say goodbye to one of my regular schools. I visit a different school every day of the week to allow me to visit all 5 of the Junior High Schools in Kamo and I can't believe that with three weeks to go, I've had to say goodbye to one today, and another one on Wednesday. I stumbled through my rubbish japanese speech and focussed on the kids who looked like they'd rather be anywhere but listening to me to stop me from crying. Such treasures!
There's been hugging. It's most perculiar, having not entered a non-ALT's personal space for two years, there's hugging. I say, more hugging is good, so long as I know it's coming and how long it's going to last, it's not as simple as western hugging, apparently. But it's good. Ooh, and one of my teachers told me that she'd keep some of my worksheets that I decorated with cartoons, and that they were her treasure! What a compliment!
I reckon that I've seen about 1,500 kids in my two years here, going to all 5 JHSs and all 7 elementary schools. In theory, I've had every kid between 6-16 in Kamo pass through my classes, wow!
Lots of fun has been had recently, what with canyoning which involved jumping off and sliding down waterfalls, Southern cooking thanks to our very own Texas Rose, Johanna, and of course, two days of the happiest place on earth, Siobhan and I did Disney!
Now, all thoughts turn to the last three weekends, and the Major Asia trip to follow. It's all taking shape but I need to write some serious lists and get some surfing of the internet done.
Tomorrow, I get to go to the dentist so that they can figure out how much money they need to give me to get my poor teeth properly fixed after my car accident way back when in 2005. Hopefully, pots of money will be coming my way, fingers crossed that Japanese treatments cost the same or more than UK ones do!
11 June What will I talk about today?I:ve recently returned to the way of the blog. I was temporarily swept up in the Facebook wave and sadly neglected said blog. I would open my e-mails and find 20 e-mails saying so and so has written on your wall (this is Facebook speak, if you don:t understand it, you:re clearly not with the cool kids) and I would get a little jolt of excitement and head straight off to see what gem of humour one of my fine friends had left on my "wall". I still have a great love for Facebook, but as with any relationship, the first fastburning passion has abated to leave a steady attachment and this how it now is. I have to admit to being hugely alarmed to find people on there that I thought were out of my life forever, some good, some bad, apparently everyone in England is now a member.
Anyway, this weekend, I went off to the Shirone Giant Kite Festival. Phil very kindly organised for a group of us to join up with a Japanese team, and then get sozzled with them afterwards, and who am I to turn down such an invitation? Johanna and I were happily exchanging e-mails about how great the weather was after the past few days of torrential rain and terrific storms, but as the time to meet approached, the sky got blacker,. Of course, the heavens opened just as I was to set off. Humph. Nevertheless, we continued with our plan, got taken to our host:s house and dressed in happis. A happi is a short cotton jacket that:s worn open and looks very cool, in my opinion. This was my first opportunity to wear one and already I felt that it was worth coming! We had the obligatory photocall with 17,000 cameras and then headed off to the festival itself. The rain had mercifully stopped but unfortunately, the wind was also nonexistant. This meant that our giant kite which was the size of 24 tatami mats (quite large...) wouldn:t be getting off the ground any time soon. We amused ourselves with checking out the smaller kites and admiring their impressive snarling-faced designs which were destined to fly briefly and then fall into the river, which completely destroyed the paper and left only the bamboo frame and some straggly streamers. The idea was then to get all of the people who were pulling the kite - about 20 for the smaller ones, I think - to have a tug of war with another kite that would be tangled in with theirs from the other side of the river. The winner is the one who snaps the rope (I think,the details are a little vague). It was all terribly exciting, there were lots of men with towels on their heads and a great number of orange lionhaired youngsters trying to look as cool and intimidating as possible. It was excellent entertainment.
Eventually the wind picked up and a few of the giant kites were flown. It:s a great sight to see 40 odd people charging down the river path with a huge kite looming up behind them. For an added fun factor, it paid to watch as spectators got taken out by the wayward rope as the kite deviated from its course. My favourite moment was when a man leapt headfirst over the barrier at the side of the path onto what was undoubtedly a very steep grassy slope, never to be seen (by me) again. Hilarious!! (Is that callous?)
We later feasted on sausages and pickled cucumbers in a fine homemade spread at our host:s house. It was exactly what I want to be doing in the run-up to "The End". We even made umeboshi onigiri (sticky rice triangles filled with sour plums). Perfect!
I managed to speak lots of Japanese that day and the next, so now feel thoroughly virtuous, and thankful that I have forgiving friends when it comes to my butchering of their language...
07 June Footie adventuresThis weekend, a great group of ALTs headed on down to Nagano, the next prefecture over for a football tournament for ALTS in the East of Japan. We were full of optimism and joie de vive, the sun was shining and we were feeling good. After about 5 minutes of playing our first game, we rethought this and reclassified ourselves as feeling knackered and rather rubbish with the ball! I will define that, those of us (not me) who had actually ever played a football game before in their lives were really great, but there was a distinct lack of knowledge of the rules and tactics amongst the team - or at least with me! It was incredible how tiring it was just running around the mini field allotted to the girls. Natasha suggested that the air might be thinner up there because we were way up in the mountains, around the area of the Winter Olympics. I pooh poohed the idea but when I got home, I found that some bottles that I had closed up there, were now sucked in like they are after a plane ride. Brilliant!! I can blame my lack of puff on something other than my lack of fitness (after all this gym work, I was a little bit confused, I must say)!!
Any how, we ended up having a great time, I learnt about the offside rule, and handball, don:t stick your hand out, it:s not a good idea! We all got shouted at for pushing, holding onto people and all sorts of naughty things, so I think we did pretty well!! Unfortunately, not one goal was scored by us, although we managed to draw one game nil nil, yesss!! We all learnt to hate the Saitama girls and their stupid red ribbons and had a great time supporting every team that played against them.
We came into our own in the evening, however. Donning our party frocks (I was persuaded into one after Kristen told me that i couldn:t be in any of her photos if I looked "scruffy" in jeans!), we sauntered into the party and managed to gain rather a lot of attention throughout the night. It was a very odd thing to be at a party with lots of English speaking people who are actually interested in meeting eachother. It was almost as if we had got out of our Japanese bubble for the night.
Since then, the feelings of leaving have been pretty hard to deal with, but the sun is shining and the temperature is rising so it:s difficult to stay in a funk and I*m feeling good today. Last night, we had the mother of all thunderstorms which was so exciting. I watched it from the shelter of my balcony until the wind changed and I thought better of it. The lightening lit up the entire sky with eery pinkish white light and the thunder made the whole aparto shake. I love thunderstorms!!
Can:t wait for the weekend! I:m gonna be flying giant kites - and trying to avoid serious injury when they come crashing down in the kite battles of Shirone.
Gonna/have put up some photos of the sunset over Mount Yahiko. These rice fields are my favourite place to walk.
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