1.5 Months into the Experience!

I wrote the first blog a week after arriving in Japan but did not post it until now. Since I have not written a post for over a month, I will give a summary of my last month's experiences!

Sentence of the day: Watashi wa Ariel Gallegos desu.
Meaning: I am Ariel Gallegos. * Remember this, funny story to follow*

Sapporo the City:
When I first arrived in Sapporo, I was a little overwhelmed with how big it was. I had never lived in a city of two million before, it is massive compared to Oakland. Since I have the worst sense of direction, I automatically became stressed. A month and a half later, I still have the worst sense of direction but I am enjoying the adventure. Sapporo literally has everything you could want: indoor malls, a Ferris wheel, bars, restaurants, beer gardens, an amazing subway line and a whole lot more. I am grateful everyday I wake up to have been placed here. Other JETs have been located in little towns where no one but themselves can speak English. I applaud those people but I know I could not handle that kind of lifestyle for a year.

Higashi- Sapporo aka The Gash! 

Not the best picture but it gives you an idea of my view.

I live in an area called Higashi-Sapporo (also known as The Gash among JETs), it's around 4 subway stops away from downtown. The day we arrived in Sapporo only three JETs, including myself, were allowed to move into their apartments. The whole ride there I was a nervous wreck, questions raced through my brain. As we drove up to a massive complex of apartments I prayed that this would not be where I was living. It was. A fellow JET's exact words were "this is like Marxism housing." I am not going to lie, tears built up in my eyes but I did not cry. I went from living in this amazingly cute apartment in Oakland with my awesome roommate McKimmie to living in an eleven story apartment building by myself. Luckily, I had been given a brand new apartment which was located on the tenth floor. My view is to die for, it overlooks the TV Tower, the Ferris wheel and the mountains of Hokkaido! Since my apartment was new it didn't have much in it, including no lights.  On the bright side though some JETs had junk in their apt. from over ten years ago. So again, I am grateful for what I was given and I now call that little Marxist Apartment complex my home and I love it!

With a Little Help from my Friends!

The best part of being a Sapporo JET is the amazing friends I have made, no joke. I am so happy to have been placed with some of the most amazing characters I have EVER met. The coolest thing about my group is that we are from all over the world: Singapore, Ireland, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S.

Since most of my friends love to be busy it keeps me active and entertained. Once a week I host a dinner party at my apartment. I miss cooking so this gives me an excuse to cook for people, which is one of the reasons I earned the nickname 'Mama Ariel.' My other nicknames in the group are 'Tequila Queen' and 'Angel Gabrielle.' See dad not much has changed from living in California, I am still known for my tequila drinking skills ;)

While adapting to living in a foreign country has been hard, these amazing people have supported me the whole time. Thanks you cool cats! Plus, now I have people to stay with when I want to travel in the future!

Wakan Nai- I Don't Understand!

While I don't have a picture of how stumped I look during Japanese
class I do have a picture of me drinking with Sagara Sensei! Only in Japan!

If you know me, you probably know that my language skills are pretty much horrible. While I have lived all over the word, the language(s) I speak consist of English and a little bit of Spanish. Well, here you go kids, I am learning Japanese!

Let me tell you the story of what led up to this big decision of learning Japanese. On your first day of school in Japan you have to do two self introductions. The first in front of the entire school in English and the other has to be done in front of all the teachers in Japanese. After having at least ten different people give me outlines of what to say in Japanese I was a little fed up and a whole lot of confused. The night before my first day of school I had the brilliant idea that I would take a little bit of everyones and put it all together. BAD IDEA! So there I am in front of all the Japanese teachers, they are all standing up bowing to me waiting for me to give my speech. I am nervous, sweating but at the same time pretty confident since I had been practicing. I look at the teachers and proceed to say ' Sagara Ariel Gallegos desu' and continue on with my speech. Some teachers giggle and I automatically think they just think I am funny. WRONG! Two days later I am hanging out with my friends and they beg me to do my speech because they know how horrible I am at Japanese. I say every Japanese word as if it's Spanish. I tell my friends that I totally rocked it and I recite what I said to the teachers. Literally five seconds into my intro my friends burst out laughing. Sagara is not I AM, which I thought it was, Sagara is the name of my Japanese teacher!!! I introduced myself as someone else. Talk about butchering the Japanese language in a matter of seconds...what can I say, that's what I do.

Five Japanese language classes later, I know watashi wa is I AM.  I have a pretty good grasp of Katakana and Hiragana and am now addicted to reading signs. Also, I am able to understand some of teachers instructions, which is pretty awesome.  All together, I hate to say it but my Japanese will probably be better than my Spanish by the time I get home. My goal is to be able to go back to California and know conversational Japanese, let's see how that works out :)


What I am Teaching 8th Grade Again????

While my students can't write a sentence in English they are
always my biggest fans!

Over the next year I am teaching at twelve different schools, a mixture of elementary and middle schools. During the months of August and September I have been teaching at Motomachi Junior High School. Which means one thing, I once again have to teach 8th grade (3rd year in Japan), the true bane of my existence.

Teaching in the United States is totally different from teaching in Japan. While I thought the students here in Japan would be better behaved, they really aren't. This just proves the point- kids will be kids. In the U.S the teachers are more strict, which I actually really miss. I have students that literally just sleep through class and the teachers don't say anything. Luckily for them, I am not that kind of teacher. It seems that some of the teaches I work with are actually intimidated by their students, they would prefer to ignore the situation than have to handle it. Teaching in North Carolina really prepped me for handling students with attitude and laziness. My students know not to mess with me because they are scared to death I will call on them and they will actually have to speak English. Oh the power of fear.. it works in every country!

While I may complain about the students sometimes there are so many aspects of why I love teaching in Japanese schools. Here are some reasons:
- All the teachers sit in one room where we all have our desks. The kocho-sensei and the kyoto-sensei (principal and vice-principal) are there as well.  It really makes teachers bond and makes us have a sense of community.
- The kocho-sensei personally greets almost every student when the students walk into school.
-  Students stay until 7:00 P.M  or later doing after school activities, they are totally committed to their clubs.
-When class starts one student conducts the class to straighten up and then they all bow and say good day to the teacher.
-Japan is all about respect and in school it's no different. Students might be bored but they still honor their teacher as an elder.

One of my students serving all of the other kids
 broth for their soba.

-Students eat lunch in their homeroom with their homeroom teacher. A group of students serve the rest of the students lunch. Lunch is not allowed to be eaten until every student is served and the menu has been read.
-At the end of the day there is a set time dedicated for students to clean the school. They clean the bathrooms, classrooms, hallway etc. Love it!
- My students are my biggest fans. They believe that I look like Angelina Jolie, that I dated DiCaprio and that I am friends with Obama.  I have a pretty awesome life in their heads!
-When I leave school the students poke their heads out of the windows and yell goodbye or kawaii (cute) to me. I am constantly on parade at school!





There are a lot more stories I would like to include but it's time for bed. I will continue them in my next blog post. Oyasumi nasai (good night)!

The Journey Begins!

Word/ Phrase of the Day:

Ohayo gozaimasu- Good morning! 

Today I left the comfort of my amazing apartment in Oakland and made my way to SFO where I would board an airplane to Tokyo, Japan. Adan, Laura, Adam and my father stayed with me as I waited for my noon flight. As I walked through the security gates it hit me that I was not only leaving the comfort of my home but leaving those who mattered the most to me for an entire year. All of a sudden sh*t got real! 

As I was walking through first class the Japanese customs became apparent right away. It triggered all these memories I had from when I lived in Japan as a child, ages: 0-5. Everyone started taking off their shoes, putting them in bags and putting on their slippers. When we finally took off I was handed a warm wet cloth in order to wash my hands and face. As a child, that was one of my favorite traditions but I had simply forgotten it since living in Europe and the U.S. The flight lasted only 9.5 hours, which seemed to go by really quickly since I have flown across the United States and it has sometimes taken longer. 

Finally, we arrived in Narita Tokyo Airport at 2:30 P.M. on Sunday! There is a 16 hour time difference from California, which meant, I had flown into the future!!! The moment I stepped off the plane it hit me hard- that humid 90 degree weather that actually takes your breath away. All the SF Jets then put on our super cool JET stickers and made our way through customs. Since it was around a 2 hour wait we all started discussing where we all got placed and what our expectations were of this year. I am not going to lie, I was a bit on the quiet side since I was still pretty upset that I had left Adam and my family. There we were in line, the Americans were jumping with enthusiasm and all these other beautiful cultures  were watching us with curious eyes. I honestly was more intrigued with hearing the other languages like Russian, Ukranian, Japanese, Chinese and more than anything else. This reminded me of why I loved to travel!

From there we went to our hotel in Tokyo where we would had orientation for the next three days. The bus ride was somewhat longer than I had expected but the amazing thing was I sat next to this girl, Kate Bohan, who was from the Bay Area. Kate's best friend happened to be a girl, Jenny, that I know and worked with at Chez Panisse. This brought me some comfort and reminded me that no matter where I was in the world I am never that far from home.

Over the next three days we basically stayed in the hotel which meant we were surrounded by other JETs. It didn't feel like we were in Tokyo because everyone we talked to spoke English. On the last day, instead of going to orientation classes, which we were told were pointless, I went with my two amazing roommates to the Harajuku District. We didn't see many Harajuku girls but the ones we did see made quite the statement. It was amazing how thorough they were in their outfits and creativity.

I was really happy that we flew into Tokyo first thing when we arrived in Japan. It gave me a taste of the city and left me feeling grateful to have not been placed there. It was way too busy for my taste. On August the 3rd, we said goodbye to the hotel and made our way to the airport where we boarded the plane which would take us to our new home, Sapporo.