no sarcasm: literal, specific instructions only.

Sometimes it is easy to forget how literal kids are. They don't get the sarcasm and don't understand why you are laughing at something that they do. One of my kindergarten students today was really misbehaving during music class... climbing on the tables, talking, not paying attention, and jumping all around his desk. Finally, after asking him several times to sit down nicely (even when I'm only helping in the Kindergarten class, I have to get on this specific kid), while we were practicing Away in a Manger, I went over to his desk, grabbed his hand and made him come stand right next to me up front. We were doing hand motions so all the other kids were looking at me to show them the hand motions... therefore, all eyes were on him too. He hid behind me and suddenly got really quiet. I didn't mean to embarrass him, but at that point I didn't know what to do, he already had three or four check marks by his name on the board (after 2 check marks a note goes home to the parents). So after the song, I knelt down and told him that if he could sit quietly, he could go back to his seat. He took the "sit quietly" option and went back to his seat (with a very cute pouty look I might add... its hard to be hard on these kids, they're too darn cute). He sat very quietly for about two minutes... then was back to laying on the table, talking, etc. I went back over to him to grab his hand again and he turned away from me like, "I'm not going back up there with you!" So I let him sit there but kept a constant eye on him. After class I got down on his level and talked to him, I told him that I know that he is a very nice boy because sometimes he behaves very well in class, but today was not a good day. I told him that he needed to sit quietly and nicely when the teacher was talking. He avoided eye contact but squirmed so I knew I got the point across. Two minutes later he was being loud and crazy while they were getting their stuff together to go home... I said, "Kouga, that is now how we behave in class!" He looked at me, realized his mistake, and squatted where he was... thinking that I wanted him to sit down. I literally laughed out loud. Apparently we had covered the, "this is how we act when we're sitting" behavior... but standing was another issue all together. I told him that he didn't have to sit but that he did need to quietly go get his bag and stand nicely in line. Then I left the room so I could laugh without confusing any of them... oh Kindergarten, I am growing to love all their cute craziness!

september is over already?!?!

I must say, I have fallen into a nice little routine here and it is starting to feel more like home every day. On the weekdays, Kristen and I get up, go to school, get home around 4, sit around, go to bed, get up, and do it all over again. Each evening is a little different because it usually consists of video chatting with different people or catching up on facebook and blogs (well... sorta). We want to start doing more during the week, but we are so tired when we get home from school that its hard... but we're attempting to do stuff at least a few times a week because we don't want the year to go by just to realize that we didn't really see what was right around us. We have gone to the beach a few times, to watch the sunset or hang out for a while before heading home... its nice to be able to just stop by the beach on the way home. The ocean is always on the way to wherever we are going... you can't get away from it. It makes for some beautiful scenery as we drive different places and is definitely something I will miss when I leave.

beautiful sunset that we enjoyed at Sunset Beach near our apartment

I have found a church (Koza Baptist) that feels like home and I am already involved. I joined the choir and am meeting a ton of people, mostly military families. I wasn't sure that I wanted to get involved in a church that was mostly military, because I'm here to experience the Japanese culture... but it is nice to have something familiar a few times a week and I really feel like this is where God wants me for the year. They asked me to oversee the high school worship band, so I started doing that last week. On Wednesday nights I get to church around 5 and don't leave till 8:30 or 9. I help the HS worship band, go to the evening service/bible study, and then go to choir practice. It makes for a long day but I am enjoying it all, especially choir... I miss singing a lot. On Sundays I usually go to the end of the first service to sing the choir song, then Sunday School, and then the second service... I think this church is going to be something else I will dearly miss when I leave. I am quickly growing very attached to the wonderful people I’m meeting at Koza.

I think I'm getting the hang of this whole teaching thing. As I get used to the routine of things, I enjoy it more and more. There are still things I'm not sure about, but I love the music stuff I'm doing and really enjoy the Jr high and High school Journalism class I'm teaching... I think someday if I combine the subject I love with the age group that I like, I'll enjoy teaching even more. My plans will probably keep changing over the next 10 months, but I think I'll be working on getting my teaching credential next year and then try to get a job teaching high school choir... where I’ll do it is the biggest question at this point.

I was supposed to teach Computers, but the Kindergarten class is very large and we don't have computers for me to teach on right now. They are in the process of getting new computers and in the mean time I am helping in the Kindergarten class when I don't have other classes. It is kind of ironic seeing as one of the first things I said when I got here was the fact that I didn't like the Kindergarten class... All I can really do is laugh about it. I'm actually enjoying helping out... I think having to teach the computer classes would be an extra stress on top of the other things I'm still trying to adjust to. So for now I'm teaching music to preschool through 6th grade, Jr and Sr High Journalism class, and helping out in Kindergarten.

While I enjoy teaching the older kids more, I enjoy being around the younger kids... they are so cute and say the funniest things. Its funny to observe the Kindergarteners at their prayer request time... one of them says that they want a pony or a baby sister and all of a sudden all of the kids want one too. I remember wanting a sister SO BAD at that age... I got Justin instead. ;) Eventually, I got Janelle (I couldn't be happier with Justin and Jared, just for the record).

A few weeks ago, the Guppy (our car) broke down on the way to school. We kinda knew it was going to, but when it did, it was quite the adventure. It is amazing what you realize you take for granted in the US when all of a sudden you don't have it anymore. We pulled over into a parking lot and Kristen had to walk (heaven forbid, like the old days) to the closest Family Mart to call the school while I waited with the car (the windows wouldn’t roll up because the battery died and my computer and guitar were in the car… so one of us had to stay)... then we waited until Chicaco came and picked us up. They fixed the Guppy and it runs much better now.

The Guppy parked outside a shop... waiting for a tow.

Kristen and I with our vending machine coffee and juice waiting to be picked up

waiting with my coffee in a can

Last weekend Rocky took Kristen and I to a Jazz show on Friday night... it was SO fun to be around live music again and it was fun just to enjoy a Friday night out on the town. After the jazz show we went to a restaurant to get some food, and there was a dog just walking around in the restaurant. At first I didn't think anything of it, because the restaurant was located in the middle of a bunch of houses, so it felt like we were just eating at someone's house, but when I thought about it... I couldn't believe it. The dog just sat under the table and waited for some food to fall on the floor. It was very odd, yet not really that surprising.

the band

kristen and I at the Jazz club

This past week went really fast... actually, September has flown by as a whole, and I know that the rest of the year will too. This past weekend I bought a Ukulele (I've been wanting one for a while so I finally bought one), went to a free Salsa lesson on base, hiked to the Taa Taki waterfall, went bowling, went to church, and spend Sunday afternoon hanging out at the music pastor's house with their family. It was a wonderful weekend...

my new ukulele!

hiking in to the falls

beautiful scenery

the waterfall

me under the waterfall, its kind of a bad picture but you get the idea... it was amazing!

Kristen and I under the waterfall

Michael, Sarah, Kristen and I hanging out under the waterfall

these butterflies were all over the place

swinging on the swing set with the kids before bowling

dancing with Izzy at the bowling alley...

It seems like every day we see something new on the exact same route to school. One of the interesting things about living here is the vending machines that are all over the place. They only have the beverage ones (at least I've never seen a food one) which usually have a few Pop choices, water, and Coffee drinks. The "coffee in a can" is an popular drink here... its pretty good too. When our car broke down, there was a vending machine right there... so we enjoyed some morning coffee, right from the convenient vending machine. Some of the vending machines are also used for other things... like cigarettes or alcohol. Apparently you have to put your ID card in to show that you're of legal age before it will let you buy anything, but I wouldn't know because I haven't tried to buy from either machine.

the cigarette vending machine

Kristen and I decided that we are going to Tokyo over the Thanksgiving weekend. We visited a travel agency near us to get quotes and are going to get the tickets and reservations once we get paid next week. I'm SO excited! I will also be going to Hong Kong and China with the Juniors and Seniors over Christmas break. Every two years the Jrs and Srs take a big trip... and this is a trip year. They wanted me to come and I wanted to travel over the break... so I'm going with them. I'm VERY excited to go to another country, and am grateful for the opportunity to go with them, because I didn't want to do any major traveling by myself and my roommate is going home for Christmas break.

I got my alien registration card yesterday, so now I am officially a legal alien. Weird. The weather is still humid but it is cooling down a bit... and the humidity goes in and out as it rains. It is the beginning of the rainy season so it has been raining a bit more in the last week. It will be interesting to see how the weather changes over the next few months. Right now we're still using our air conditioners and de-humidifiers every night... its just too humid not to.

my Japanese Alien Registration card

One of the families from the school (the Gardners) are a wonderful family and they were kind enough to let me come to their house tonight and do some laundry. They have American appliances so I also baked some banana bread while I was waiting for the laundry... I enjoyed being around her Autumn decorations and the yummy smells of an oven. I miss having access to a dryer more than I thought I would. Well, I knew it would be difficult, but I'm already over the whole hang-drying thing. I can smell the fabric softener and freshly dried clothes smell on my PJs right now and it is so wonderful. I got very spoiled tonight... and I loved it.

I think I’ve talked about every major thing that has happened so now you’re all updated. I still really haven’t gotten the hang of this whole blog thing… I enjoy writing about my activities, but I don’t want to sit and write every night… because then I won’t be doing the stuff that I’ll want to write about. But I’m trying… and hopefully I’ll get better about posting a few little posts a week instead of 1 long one every few weeks. If you got through this whole post, congrats… here’s a treat as your reward:

They're adorable aren't they? Yep. I agree.

For Aunt Sharon (and any other Starbucks lovers)

My aunt Sharon asked me on the phone a while ago if I had been to the Starbucks near my apartment yet. I hadn't but told her I'd give a report as soon as I went. I have to say that it is almost exactly the same... which is kinda freaky on one hand, and kind of nice on the other. It is definitely something familiar, the Starbucks smell, my drink of choice (white mocha), even the comfy chairs and artwork on the walls... the only real difference is that the menu is in Japanese and the workers greet you in Japanese (they also speak English though, so I can order without the language barrier). I had 20 extra minutes before church on Sunday, so I went and took some pictures... here they are:

6000 miles away, but connected through a cup of coffee... odd, but kind of cool.

Okinawa World

A week and a half ago, Kristen, Sarah, Michael, Rocky, and I went to Okinawa World near Naha. Okinawa World is a popular tourist spot that has caves, glass blowing, a brewery, snakes, traditional Eisa drumming, and more. It was a fun day and I learned a lot about Okinawan culture... especially their Habu Sake, which is Okinawa's specialty beer that has a Habu snake at the bottom (dead of course). I got to do my own glass blowing which was so much fun... and made a great Okinawa souvenir. I made a video of everything we saw that day, except for the Eisa drumming because we weren't supposed to video that. Enjoy

First 2 Weeks of School

The first two weeks of school flew by... I can't believe the third week is already well underway. After a long week of setting up and getting ready, the first day of school finally came. We got a lot done the week before school started getting everything ready, but I think we all felt like we could have used at least another week to unpack, organize, plan, and get situated.

Kristen and I on the first day of school

My classroom had to be added onto the 3rd floor and was not finished by the first day of school so we held off on having any specialty classes the first day. They finished my classroom late Monday, so we were able to move our stuff in on Tuesday. Then we decided to start the music, art, and PE classes on Thursday to give us a few extra days to move into our room, unpack, and get organized. I had been set up in the library the week before school started, getting as organized as possible which definitely made moving my stuff in easier... but it still took a while to move the large, heavy furniture up to the third floor of the building... especially when most of the people that could help were teaching. Tuesday ended up being move-in day for us and Wednesday was organize-and-rush-to-get-ready day. It was pretty chaotic and there are still a few things to finish in the room, but we transformed it and its actually a pretty great little room for the music and art classes.

this is my room before we put anything in it... the left corner you see is where my desk is now.

in my classroom... you can't see much but this is the only picture I have so far... I'll take more when we get the bulletin boards and blinds up.

The fact that I was only teaching a few days the first week was a relief since I felt so frazzled with the lack of a classroom and organization. I teach music to preschool through 6th grade as well as the High School Computer Applications class (Journalism and Yearbook basically). I am supposed to teach computers to the elementary grades as well but we're waiting a few weeks to start that. I also lead the music worship for the different chapels on Wednesdays... It sounds like a lot, but its not that bad.

my schedule right now... the "c" blocks are periods I have open to teach computer later. Right now they are just extra planning periods which has been very nice.

I have heard that the learning curve for first year teachers is very fast... and its so true. I have learned so much in these past few weeks. While I still feel like I'm just barely starting to scratch the tip of the iceberg of teacher knowledge and wisdom, the kids are learning and having fun, which tells me I'm doing something right.

I have to say that I think there should be a special place in Heaven for Kindergarten teachers... and I will not be privy to that place because... well... to be blunt... they totally freak me out. Right now, the younger grades are combined, Pre-k with Kindergarten, and 1st with 2nd. It makes for large class sizes and at that age, with each extra kid it gets exponentially crazier and harder to manage. I'm getting the hang of it, but the first day I taught the Pre-K and Kindergarten class I wanted to curl up into a ball in the corner and cry. I've had to pull out all the songs I have stored in the back of my brain from Sunday School, Awana, camps, and Faith Bible. It has confirmed what I had suspected but didn't know for sure... that if I decide to keep with this whole teacher profession, I really would rather do Jr. High and High school age... the little kids are fun and very cute but... yea, its just not was I was made to do.

Teaching here has also already been full of unknown cultural differences to discover every day... for example:

I am trying to start the students on solfège (a technique to teach music sight reading... it uses syllables and hand signs, which gets the whole body involved. It is basically music relativism because it teaches intervals, so once you learn the intervals between notes you are able to read music based on how each note relates to the next one. That is the very very very very shortened explanation of solfege, click on the link before this really long parenthesis if you want to read more about it) as early as possible because most of the kids here haven't had it and its a great way to teach sight reading skills... I was teaching them the hand signs and was wondering why every class giggled when I did "Fa." Finally, I asked the 5th and 6th graders about it because they laughed pretty hard. Apparently, the hand sign for "Fa" means "Go to hell" here. Oh the joys of teaching internationally.

I set up a magnetic staff with magnetic notes so they could also start doing compositions early on (in a fun, no-pressure way) and I told them that if they showed good class behavior we could have "test the teacher" at the end of each class. I let them move the notes around

and then I do the solfege. They love it and its a good exercise for me to keep my sight reading skills up... and they don't even realize they're also learning in the process. :) Of course the 5th and 6th graders liked putting many of the notes on "Fa."

I sternly told the class that they are only allowed to use the hand sign in class and when we are doing solfege... but I wouldn't be surprised if I get a few phone calls from concerned parents after hearing, "guess what the music teacher taught us today." Later that day, because I was concerned about this whole "Fa" thing, I asked a few of the Japanese staff members and they said that its just something the younger kids do... not something that is culturally well-known. I was relieved to hear that... Oh dear! Still, all I can do is laugh.

I ordered the Christmas Program music the week before school started and it came on Monday which was very exciting. It is going to be a cute, fun program... I just hope all the kids get involved and enjoy it. I remember a little too well my 5th/6th grade years, none of the boys (and some of the girls) wanted to do anything in the music classes... and I already see that trend. I'm hoping that something I do will get through to them and make it fun, but I know that the age makes it difficult. At least the Christmas program gives us something to work towards now, I'm excited to plan the program... I'm not so excited about the learning and demonstrating the choreography though... its hard to learn it through the written directions. I may end up making up some of my own thats a little simpler. We'll see...

Well, that basically sums up my first two weeks of school. I am enjoying teaching... even though it has been a little bit of an interesting start, it has been a wonderful experience already.

I know I said this post would be up (along with other ones) this past weekend... but... better late than never I guess. The other posts are coming soon!

Blog updates coming this weekend!

Wow... I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd updated my blog... and the last one was just a video. It has been quite a whirlwind the last few weeks and I've been collecting pictures, videos, and experiences to share with you, but I haven't actually put anything up in a while.

I had a blog-altering realization tonight... blogging is like shaving, if you do it often, it's not so bad... but if you wait until you notice that you need to, it takes FOREVER! :) Don't ask me why these stupid/quirky metaphors form in my mind (I blame my dad and the crazy genes he passed on to me) but they do, and I thought I'd share that one.

So... I'm going to post 4 new blogs this weekend:

1. The First 2 Weeks of School
2. Last Weekend - Okinawa World (caves, glass blowing, snakes, and more), church, etc.
3. Living in Okinawa - a video of random videos and pictures I've collected so far while I've been here.
4. This Weekend - whatever we do this weekend (this one may be up early next week)

I know this is ambitious of me, but I'm PUBLICLY stating these goals so that I actually do them. I love blogging and sharing my stories with you all, it has just been a crazy few weeks with school starting and adjusting to a routine here. Once I "shave" my latest adventures onto this blog, I'll try to update little posts a few times a week so that this doesn't happen again.

Oh. If you want a sneak peek at the Okinawa World post, you can look at the pictures I posted from that day, the link is under "More Pictures" right ----------> over there (on the right sidebar).

Hope you are all doing well, I am loving it here! While I'm finding out all the things that I miss about the USA and that I took for granted before, I love being here and am very happy with where I am and what I'm doing right now.

PS - Congratulations to my cousin Melissa and her new husband Grant, I'm very sad that I wasn't able to be at your wedding. You both looked wonderful and I'm very happy for you.

Also, Congratulations to my cousin Cadie and her husband Paul for the birth of their new baby Ian who was born the other day. I can't wait to see pictures (hint hint!)

PSS - Don't forget that even when I'm not updating the blog, I update Twitter several times a day. You can see my "tweets" at twitter.com/jessicaolesen or you can view the last 20 tweets on my blog (they are on the right sidebar, below the links and map). I usually update it with what I'm doing, random thoughts, or how my day was... so if you happen to be thinking about me and want to know what I'm up to but haven't seen any new blog posts, check twitter.

My Japanese Apartment Video

Here's the video I've been promising of my apartment in Japan. Hope you enjoy!