oops

so after cleaning and preparing for my mom toget here tonight, i called her wed night only to find out shes not coming till friday night my time. so it didnt help that the ride, and my time off was all today (thursday). thankfully now its all under control and ill be picking her up at the airport friday night.

today was our last day of halloween parties. it was a lot of fun. lots of work, but a nice change for all of us. im actually really tired now. i think i may be fighting germs. no idea.

its time.....for a blog!

ok so lots has happened in the past days since i last updated. lets see.... last friday we started halloween parties at my school. this means we decorated the school. all the kids come in. we go over halloween vocab, make a bat costume (think black paper wings an mask and a giant black trashbag) then we make a monster hand with jelly beans and popcorn in a plastic glove. then we bob for apples. we do this a coupke times a day. fun fun fun. in the older student classes, we do the touchy feeely game. the one where you have grapes as eyes, spaghetti as hair, and misc stuff like that. we turn off the light, and tell a story and they touch the "body parts" its funny. its amazing how cute all the little kiddies look in their costumes. my costume is a cat. i have ears, a tail (which is fun for the kids to pull on!) and a cat nose with whiskers.

saturday i went to someplace in japan with valerie, my pastor and his wife. it was an art exhibit thing and really neat. there were these big pink and yellow tube like things people were carrying around eating. it looked like cotton candy to me. so we asked someone where they were and the lady took us to the stand and we got free samples and stuff. my best taste description is frosted miniwheats. they are good when they have the frosting. but taste like nothing on the inside. same with the pink foamy thing. it was sugary on the outside and foamy on the inside. i still ate it all. then sat night i came back and went out with some good old OU folk to celebrate the one and only kayla sullivans birthday. nothing like the all you can eat and drink atthe marriott. then i spent the night at valeries.

sunday we got up and went to church. after church i came back and kayla came over. we went to the kasugai festival who hoo! and then i had to work a halloween party. after the party, kayla and i went out for some fried things on sticks at motogen, however, we had to settle for fried things not on sticks at the izakaya across the street. then we went and had ouf feet exfoliated by little fish! then we got some puricura (little pictures) then we came back, drank a glass of wine, watched ace ventura pet detective and went to bed. fun times in kasugai.

then monday and today were just work and halloween parties. 2 more days of parties. myy mom comes this thursday. yeah for getting off work 2 hours early to go pick her up!


ive been speaking a lot of japanese at the gym. ive been running a lot. ive been biking a lot. ive been eating a lot too.

im addicted to a new show. grays anatomy. im almost finished with season 1. i think tv is almost like a comfort to me here. i watch a show a day. sometimes more. oh well. such is liife. i do however wish that i had a doctor who looked like dr mcdreamy.

i know i need to update

i know i know.. but i will sometime soon, i promise. but after making 50000000000 bat costumes at work and throwing a few halloween parties a day, i come home and dont want to blog. but i will soon. maybe even today after i go to th gym. be patient.

how to learn japanese....according to jen

here are some tips on how to learn japanese. they are working for me, but maybe they wont work for you. but anyways, here they are.


go to karaoke. (and sing japanese songs)

join a gym (or club or something that you have to do a few times a week) and talk to people. retired people are good to be around. they like to talk

ask people directions or questions, evn if you already know the answer

teach english and listen to what your students say in response to things. i think ive learned more japanese from my students then the english they learned from me.

dont think, just ask a question or attempt to say something before thinking it over.. it may come out funny-- but at least it comes out


ok off to work. its friday! whooohooo

past tense of the verb "to be"

today i had my students make sentences using the verb "to be" in present tense the sentences were as follows

i am a boy
i am a good student
naoya is a bad student
yuichiro is a nice boy
ken is a star
kohei is crazy


now on to past tense.

i was a baby
i was a good student
i was studying
i was speaking english

and now for the kicker...the sentence that made me pause and laugh (as well as all the other students laugh)

i was in my mothers stomach.


good old yuichiro. way to make me smile.


i also wish i could have taken a picture of 4 year old daichi as he decided to wear sunglasses in class. what a little stud. no sense in having him take them off, we took an imaginary trip to the zoo on the school bus!


other noteworthy events.

*pilates is hard

*the wather is good now

*i have responded to 70 emails, that i put off responding to, in the past 2 days

*i watched the movies taxi, bloodsport, and bill and teds excellent adventure.

* i think jimmy fallon is halarious

*it was valeries birthday monday

*i can consume a lot of candy. i tried to stop today, but i got some andy as a gift from the adult students...it would be rude of me to refuse.



ok thats all for now. i need to go to bed!

new friends

i made some new friends. well new grandparents at least.. this nice old couple at the gym invited me to their house today. i went and had a great time. we had beef stroganoff and vegetables. very good. we talked a lot and they pretty much want me to come over like every weekend! hha. they are so nice and i learned a lot of japanese. we spoke half english half japanese. so much fun.

well im off to town for the weekend. ill hang out with kayla, valerie, go running, go to church, watch movies and then ill still have monday off! yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

thats all for now

hard work

teaching is hard. teaching at a private school is hard. at least kids at public schools cant quit. i cant help but feel responsible when kids quit. i mean i try really hard. i try to be fun and likeable and a good teacher, but i guess i cant win them all. id say 70 percent of my classes are good. i am learning a lot and getting more experience everyday, but i still think i have a lot of room for improvement.

today, my first 3 classes were excellent. no problems. fun learning times. the classes flew by and my students and i were all surprised when the class was over. however, the last 2 classes dragged on. then after work, my boss told me that one of the studnts (a differnt day) was complaining to his mom about how the class was boring and didnt think the new teacher was fun.

in his defense, ok i sometimes the class is boring
in my defense, i think he has come 1 time while i was teaching.

what i think- he just doesnt like english and this gives him a good excuse to get his mom to let him quit.

but i cant help but take it personally. i want to be a good teacher, but its hard. i get worn out. the bad attitudes of some of the students make it difficult to make the class fun. i have a lot to learn....

thankfully my boss is really hlpful and encouraging. she helps me if i ever need it. but still i cant help but worry...november is the time when the parents come to see the classes... the other teacher has already been here several years... they dont want to see her classes... they are going to want to see the new teacher's class...

i miss teaching in france where my students liked me and were excited to come to class. they tried hard and they were good.


sorry to vent.. i like my job.. its just difficult. my boss says it takes 3 months to connect with the students. i have been teaching alone for a little over 2 months.. hopefully these next 3 weeks make a difference. it really makes me not want to have children. i know parenting has to be harder than teaching and i give credit to all those parents who may read my blog.




on a happier note, ive promised some people tha i would put pictures up. while i forget the order, here are some explaiations. the ones on the street are of me wlking home from the station.
the one of the women on the building is a russian hostess club on my road.

the candy and junk food are of random things valerie and i bought at the convinence store.

some of the crazy ones are of me and my roommate

the 2 last ones are so you dont forget what i look like.

enjoy!!!!!!!!!


























my good roommate from sophomore year spring quarter, mika-my first japanese roommate- came to visit me yesterday and today. we had fun catching up! i love that girl!!! this weekend is a 3 day wekend! yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ive gotten hooked on a few tv shows thanks to itunes. i watch Eureka! three moons over (i forget), and random other shows that itunes gives randomly free downloads


ok off to bed.

cell phone decals...

my hot pink cell is even more awesome now thanks to the goldfish decals i got today.

this weekend i biked 26 miles

i ate dinner with my friend

i saw an OU friend who is working in japan who came to nagoya to visit.

i went to church

i ate purple soup in a bread bowl at my favorite restaurant. (i guess its an okinawan purple potato or something. i dont know.) my conversation with the waiter went as follows:

me-remember this is all in broken japanese- whats the soup today?

waiter- bla bla bla (i didnt understand)

me- is it delicious?

waiter- yes

me- ok, is it in a bread bowl (i made a bowl shape with my hands and said the word for bread)

waiter-yes

me- ok, ill take that please




i went and saw the lake house movie. cute but i dont remember keanu reeves being such a bad actor. haha. oh well, any love story with a happy ending is ok with me.

its rainy

i decided to run a half marathon in november

i tried to buy a bathing suit but stopped after being too large to fit in an XL.

i got a halloween costume- ill be a cat.... i know its kinda lame lol but functional-minus the fact the all the little kiddies will pull my tail.



i guess thats my past few days in a nutshell. fun times fun times.