Resolutions

The hardest thing is to stick with a resolution. It lasts for a few weeks or months but eventually my interest and discipline fade... this might be the same this year. I attempted to make easier resolutions but we shall see.

One of my resolutions is to finish a craft or food experiment a week. The kicker is, I have to blog about it by the end of the week. That'll be tough since some weeks I'm really vamped on cooking or crafting and some weeks, I go to the store and buy enough yogurt and spaghetti to keep me satiated while I marathon through Dr. Who. Thankfully, this blog wont be specifically a tutorial, just a little bragging space on the internet. I used to do the same on facebook but since I decided that I needed to go on a fb hiatus and focus less on the lives of friends half a world away and more on my own, this blogging will be my bragging sanctuary. 

So here are my two finished projects for the week:

Contact paper decal for my mac.

My mom gave me the link to the tutorial and I got on it right away! Nice, huh?

 Here's the link I followed if you are interested in doing this yourself.
http://www.fineandfeathered.com/blog/2012/08/woodgrain-laptop-skin-revisit.html

The next project was to make homemade falafel.

I really miss falafel and hummus. Middle eastern food is just not very popular in Japan. So, I went on a mini hunt for dried garbanzo beans and then researched how to make this little fried bean patty. Since my sister is allergic to gluten, I decided to substitute wheat with mochiko or rice flour. It makes for a slightly different texture. It's much less crumbly and more like a pancake in some ways... It needs a bit of tweaking, so I'm not ready to publish a recipe yet, but Ill work on it and get back to you.

Well, that's it! 

Hope you all had a good week!

Happy New Years

Happy new year everybody! Hope yours was good!

Here in Japan, the holidays take a bit of backwards take from those of us in the west. Christmas is known as the nationwide "date night" where couples go out for a fancy night on the town and New Years is a holiday meant to be spent with family and loved ones, visiting the temple or shrine, eating a family dinner and playing games.

Steaming the rice

I spent Christmas with some friends and spent New Years with my Japanese family. We had a mochizuki (pounded steamed rice till its a lovely sticky dough). I pounded and I made mochi. For some reason, even though I tell them that we have mochizuki in my hometown in the States, they are always impressed on my mochi making skillz. We continued the New Years celebration with a large meal that included sushi, sweetened black beans, crab, shrimp, my favorite veggies; renkon (lotous root), gobo (burdock root), carrots and fresh shitake mushrooms. We followed dinner under the kotatsu (heated table) watching a marathon of Johnnie's boys performances (think of Dick Clark's, its pretty similar) as we counted down to midnight. I took a brief nap before midnight though because at midnight we have to eat soba (the noodles are super long to symbolize having a long life) and then walk to the family temple/graveyard to ring a huge bell for the New Year (everyone does it, so theres a lot of ringing going on) then we went to another larger temple to pray for good luck this year.

Pounding the rice!

rolling an (sweet bean paste)

YUMMMmm! Fresh mochi!

The next morning we eat a special breakfast, osechi. using the fresh mochi from the day before like a dumpling, it is placed in  clear broth with some veggies and a little fish. It's very tasty. I ate it before the thought of taking a picture came to mind. Lunch/dinner is another array of sushi and seafoods like the night before and by the end of the day, you feel you've eaten so much you have to be rolled out the door!

The Emperor, he wears no clothes!

So, I teach. I teach English to high school students in a small city in Japan. Some people would call me a teacher, those in my profession working for the Board of Education, we call ourselves ALTs. Assistant Language Teacher. It means that we are not allowed to teach a classroom by ourselves. In some cases, we aren't allowed to participate in the lesson planning process, we are only allowed to be a record player of "natural English."  I am one of the lucky ones who has the liberty of designing the class lesson either with my coworkers or by myself. But, therein lies the problem. 

Designing a class lesson. 

In a world where labels are used to identify many aspects of who you are and where you belong. I feel a bit odd wearing the one labeled, TEACHER. There is nothing on my CV or Resume that would certify me under that title. In fact, I think that archaeological technician, accounting assistant, and department salesperson are no where near what certifies me as someone fit to be at the head of a foreign language class. Yet, here I am. Worrying myself into a frenzy. Spending hours reading and researching ideas for lessons. I make worksheets and review workbooks to try to find the right materials to bring to class. I live with the daily discomfort that the people I work along side actually have the correct education and experience to be leading the classroom. So, why put me in charge? 

It seems to me, that I complain (mostly to myself, occasionally jokingly with my coworkers)  about the textbook. As a native speaker of English I find the conversations unrealistic, lacking true focus and using unnatural dialogs. My first year of teaching, I threw down the textbook and designed my own lessons. I did things the way I wanted a language class to be; karaoke, movies, history and games. It worked for me but did it work for the students? I am not sure, no teacher gives feedback, no data was charted, I left feeling that my classes were a complete joke.  

So this year, I put aside my prejudices and focused on the textbook. For most of the year, I just followed the book to the letter, occasionally bringing in games. Then I tried making my own worksheets using the information from the book but altering to reflect a more realistic touch. At one point, one of my coworkers stepped in to help me design a more participatory class lesson. (This one seemed to work the best!) But for all this work, I still feel like I am wearing the wrong label. Among my fellow ALTs, I am fine but to everyone else, I am "sensei" and I can't get over the feeling that without an official document verifying it. I am merely a vessel of false advertising. 

First Post!

Ok. So, not really sure what I am going to write about, yet. Just a place to rest my thoughts, share things that are happening and blabber! Let's see where this takes us...