So just to post an update

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would just do an update.

Driving: So far I have done one driving lesson. It's not that hard. I guess i was expecting a lot worse from the way my dad described it. Mostly you just have to think about where the turn signals are and make sure you turn in to the left lane. so left is right, but otherwise it's just the same.

The biggest difference for me personally is just hope the cars are. Compared to my little convertibles. Which I hope your enjoying Z.

Work: Work has been going good. I've been doing a lot of observing and doing a little teaching. I've done the stations, and taught curriculum a few times. I also taught phonics which would be their spelling words.
The hardest part for me  is my singing not because I'm embarrassed at my bad singing but because the students don't pay much attention when I sing so they have to do all the singing and I just stay quiet so they will work and not just laugh. I'm working on memorizing two more levels right now. one of the levels has 3 stories and 4 songs/poems/chants. The other level has 3 stories and 16 songs/poems/chants. The one with more is actually much easier to learn

Apartment: My apartment is doing good. It's not that bad a bit messy but I  changed everything around so now the tv blocks my balcony but is the main focus of the room. It's starting to feel like home. I've been told a few times that I need to get a picture of my building up, and I will soon. For now though it is a 2 story building I'm on the first floor right in the middle of the row.

Calling home: I've been doing that a good amount just talking to everyone. It's really nice that it is free. I'm sure my parents appreciate not getting a collect call from Japan lol. Hopefully google voice keeps their free calling in the states up for another year.

Kids: The students here are  all really getting to know me now so it makes it a lot nicer to come in and them all say hello Mr. Kaz. Of course I don't know their names but hey you have to start some where.

Food: I have been eating a  lot of hamburgers at my apartment since I got here. it seems a lot of the teachers do that but I've also been trying other places. I ate at an Irish pub, and that was different. Then I also went to a sushi go round, where the sushi goes around the tables on a little conveyer belt. I have requested some food from home like Wing sauce, barbecue sauce and hamburger seasoning. Though I wouldn't mind some cake mix and frosting if their is room in the box. The one thing I really miss besides Zack's cooking and trust me I do miss that, is Pizza.

Guys meeting: Next week we will be having a guys meetings which is unofficially required but not officially required it's just frowned upon if you don't go to them. Apparently it  is a kind of bible group where it is all just guys were we are supposed to be able to talk about issues. Not really a whole cheerful experience but I'm going cause well I kind of have to plus I'll try out what the Japensse call pizza.

Church: So this school is a very christian environment. Before class starts all the teachers play music in their classrooms all of which is christian. So I've been using the songs my mom bought off iTunes to get my self a christian play list for when i have my own class in April.

Teaching next year: So the teachers all kind of know officially and unofficially who is staying. From my discussion with one of the teachers yesterday his best estimation is I will be teaching second grade at the other campus. That is mostly based on who is staying and who is moving to another grade. To bad though I would of liked the fourth grade position that they have opening up but the teachers who have been here longer had dibs on that.

Overall things are going good here. Well it's almost 12:30 so I'm going to hop over to work early today. I have a little spaghetti left that I made the other day and want to be able to sit and enjoy my meal.

Earthquake

Well yesterday i experienced my first earthquake. A 5.2 the bed started shaking, for about 15 seconds. But not bad.


Over all things have not been going bad for me here. I got my self a tv. A nice 32 inch tv.  I have my xbox and laptop connected to it. So it's pretty nice, and relaxing. I'm teaching phonics on Thursday.

I am having a lot of fun, I went out Saturday night all by myself. I met a lot of nice people and had fun. I think I made the right decision.

Work

So far work has been going good. The hardest part is memorizing all the songs, poems, and books.

Yesterday we carved pumpkins, and the kids were pulling out the seeds.

The kids are all great and really well behaved. A lot of teachers have told me after teaching the students here, they would never go back to the states lol.

It's funny but the lesson plans are the same style that I did in high school. Well so far at least the work doesn't seem to hard.

News from the US

So Tuesday my brother received a phone call. (He took over my phone number so I will not have to change all my apps when I get back to the US) They asked for Mr. Pumphrey, after years of seeing my dad at work and other places I must say I have actually been called Mr. Pumphrey more times than him. So when they  asked for Mr. Pumphrey, my brother of course said this is him. "We were going over your resume and you seem to be perfect for our position, would you be available to fly out on Monday," My brother said yes before asking what position. It was for a 4th grade teaching position, that was when he finally realized that they were not calling for him.


Any bets on how many more phone calls he gets on my behalf lol. I told him to just tell them that I am currently teaching in Japan and will be back in the states for the Fall 2013 school year. I am aviable to speak with someone either by email or by phone if they will provide a number, and a good time to call for any future employment possibilities.

In case anyone is unsure Zack is 17 and yes he did respond he was available to go to Connecticut on Monday. Sigh I hope he was polite.

Downtown Sendai

I spent Tuesday morning going to downtown Sendai in Japan. I saw a bunch of different stores. i took a few short videos and pictures. It was my first time on the subway.

Trolley which can take you all over Sendai

 Sendai Station for bus, subway and train.

Temple inside of the mall, look what shows up in the end.

KFC in japan lol, who says it is so different from the US

Some Books at the book store manga's for Z

Fish market

Here is a collection of videos from the fish market. You can check out the pictures on face book or use this link. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253621644683703.65456.100001076086272&l=f2a312fb19&type=1. I tried a lot of different raw food and bought whale and crab. The crab since I don't have crackers to bust it open will go in to a stew and the whale I will pan fry up.

This is my apartment

Here is a small video I shot of my apartment. It has the kitchen right when you walk in and the  bathroom on the right then my bedroom/living room straight ahead

Cabin Trip

 This is the videos from the retreat this past weekend. Most of these are from the shrine or the woods surrounding the Cabin. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet most of the teachers and spend time with all of them. Here is a link to the photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.253621644683703.65456.100001076086272&l=f2a312fb19&type=1

On Monday we also stopped at a mall. Turns out during the visit their was an earthquake which shook up the stuff on the second floor. Lucky for me I guess cause none of us guys even noticed but we were all on the first floor. The announcement about it which mind you I could not understand said everything was fine and people could then return to their shopping.

It was a good weekend. I spent Saturday till Monday here. It was fun, and I ended up getting a cold, probably from all the raw food I ate including Wale meat :).

First day in Japan

So yesterday was my first day in Japan. I spent my day getting all of my paperwork finished, going around to open my bank account and such.

I picked up my bike, and then road over to the grocery store which was very interesting. I ended up getting hamburgers, french fries and wings lol. So different from the US, uh well no I guess not.

I went to the cafeteria and had dinner where I met the other teachers. After I went with them to go play volleyball which was a lot of fun. They do it normally twice a week. I also ended up meeting with my neighbor.

Today is my first day of work. I start observing the classes and getting to meet the kids today.

So far though it's been fun and I'm happy with my choice to come. The people are nice and the area I'm in is so much better than what I did last year.

In Japan

Well I arrived last night to my apartment about 10 pm. So far I unpacked some of my clothes explored my apartment.

I have a hallway which includes the kitchen then my bedroom, and a back deck however I have not yet got a chance to go check it out as I made sure to go to bed at a decent time.

I've starting using hotspot shield so my computer thinks it's still in America which actually is really good. I got a chance to call home last night free of charge :)


They gave me some basic food for my fridge so I have a little something to eat and I plan to take some video's of the place and post them up.

Osu game from Satuday

Me and my dad went, here is a couple videos I shot. just watch

Countdown

Less than a week till I leave, we are counting down the days. My last Thursday in the states is over. I spent the day getting my hair cut short and then finding tickets for the buckeye game this Saturday. My dad was looking at 150 a piece I got 2 seats 5th row from the field for 125 a piece, on the 44 yard line. some of the best seats in the house.

We weighed out all my stuff adding up to about 107lbs but with two suit cases at 50lbs a peice and a carry on bag I will be ok.


My flight leaves Tuesday morning at 9:40 am from Detroit to Chicago a two hour layover then from Chicago to Tokyo. Where i will arrive at 3:30 pm Wednesday afternoon.

Leave Date

Just to update I got my leave time. October 4th, 2011 at 9:40 am and will arrive in Tokyo at 3:30 pm on October 5th, 3:30 pm Tokyo time, 2:30 am eastern Standard time.

I will be leaving from Detroit, with a hour flight to Chicago, then 2 hour and 25 minute delay before I leave for Tokyo. Once I have more details I'll post.

Oh Saturday I'm going to See OSU beat MSU. Go Buckeyes :D

Goodbye party

Good Luck Kaz

So yesterday I had my going away party which was really nice. We ended up having wings that my mom made and  a lot of different type of food. There was a big sign saying Good Luck Kaz in Japanese.

My official leave date is October 4th. So in a little over a week I will be leaving. I ended up with a lot of nice cards from yesterday, and I wanted to say thank you to everyone who came, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers to all those who were unable to make it last night.

Right now I have my clothes and other items piling up to leave. This week I'll be doing with my moms help a test run at packing to get an idea where I am weight wise with everything. It's very strange to say the least.


As my mom said "It feels real now"

This is my supply so far :)

Getting ready to go

Well it's about a quarter to 2 here in the states. I'm doing my best to stay awake to help get me adjusted to the time change. Big news is my going away party this coming Saturday. My original leave date was the 1st of October but who knows with all the paperwork stuff sigh... Ah well I'll shall keep updating. It is kind of hard to stay awake surprising. Oh and Today Tuesday 9/20/2011 I'm going to end of year softball party. Probably the last one the team will have.

Yesterday I spent time going over my brothers stuff. If a student has an IEP, it is the teachers responsibility to know what is required of them. It doesn't matter if you have 1 student or 45 it is still your legal responsibility. At least I will not have to deal with that type of thing in my classroom in Japan.


http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157670920988272

Goodbye from the kids

So yesterday I got some nice goodbye messages from Summer, Anthony, Brandon, and Bradley. We spent the evening going out to old country Buffet, and then played some games at the mall, and saw The Smurfs. We had a lot of fun, and I will miss them. That being my last trip to Ohio, before I leave. 13 days till I leave :D.