石峯

So last week was my first week at Ishimine, my new base school. As some of you may remember, I was pretty unhappy when I was told I wouldn't be changing from Futajima, especially since Ishimine is just as far away. However, in my first week I've been assured that although I will never forget my amazing experience at Futajima I will love my time at Ishimine just as much. Even now it's almost five o'clock, almost an hour past my end tome, and I'm writing this entry from the chorus room because I'm having so much fun here. Both the students and teachers have been so amazing.

The teacher at Ishimine have been incredibly welcoming to me. I've always been lucky enough to get awesome JTEs, but often times non-English teachers refrain from talking to the ALT. I've found that this avoidance is usually because other teacher assume the ALT speaks no Japanese and are embarrassed to try and speak English. I also joined a school half way through the academic year last time and am now starting a new school at the start of the school year, which probably helps. At my other schools I eventually branched out to speak to other teachers, but in Ishimine it happened almost immediately. The atmosphere is so welcoming! In just my first week I've meet so many new teachers and they're all so nice! Many teachers, even the ones who know no English, have come up to me and welcomed me to the school and I've already made a few new friends!

I also love the students here! It really helps that it's a small school (only about 210 students instead of close to 500) and I'm already gaining a good reputation. I've been to a few after school clubs including basketball, volleyball, baseball, and choir. All the other students are trying to convince me to come to their clubs, too. I'm sticking with chorus, though, I'm having a lot of fun with them and helping them with pronunciation. They're singing Hallelujah as well as a song from Sister Act and it's nice to be able to help them with their pronunciation.

I also have something here in Ishimine that I haven't had before, an English board. In the hallway there are three big bulletin boards and I'm allowed to put anything on them I want as long as it helps teach English. I have been working on them in between classes and even sometimes after school. I've only finished one board so far, the one the teachers wanted me to designate as a "Where I'm From" board. I made a map of the U.S. and gave information about different cities. I plan to make the empty board next to it a seasonal board for holidays. I have everything printed, laminated, and cut out, so I will put everything out tomorrow morning. The last board I'm not sure what to do with, but I think I might make it a "Whose that Pokemon?" board. I know that sounds a little silly, but I think it might be the only one the students actually take interest in. I'm going to put up pictures of Pokemon and under a flap hide the English names and the origins. Most Pokemon names are a play on words, so I can explain those in pictures as well as relate them to the Japanese. For example, there is a Pokemon named Pumpkaboo, which is exactly what it sounds like, a ghost pumpkin-looking thing. In Japanese the name is バケッチャ (bakeccha), which is a play on the words 化物 (bakemono, ghost/monster) and カボチャ (kabocha, pumpkin). So really the names mean the same thing in both languages, ghost pumpkin. Having a guessing game and Pokemon will hopefully get the students interested and both the silliness of it similarity to the Japanese will help them remember new words. I'm pretty excited about it.

So that's been my first week here in Ishimine. I have to leave tomorrow and go to Shinozaki on Wednesday. I won't be back in Ishimine until June, but after summer vacation I will be here two weeks of every month and I couldn't be happier!

As for upcoming plans, I have Golden Week coming up at the end of the month. Golden week is week when everyone in Japan is off from school. I don't have any set plans, but I might hop on the shinkansen and ride down to Kumamoto or Kagoshima and spend a night or two at the hot springs. As for Summer I will probably be coming back to New York for a week in July (not booked yet, so who knows), but I have plane tickets for August to head over to Thailand! I will be spending a week in Phuket hanging out with tigers and elephants and snorkeling int he Phi Phi islands. My friend Leah may be going with me (she bailed on picking up her plane ticket the day we were supposed to go, so it's unclear), but either way I'm going and I couldn't be more excited!