LOTS OF EXCITEMENT

Well it's been a while since I've posted and a lot of interesting stuff has happened since then! Lets see...

Christmas was interesting. I worked. That was about it. Some of the parents gave me little gifts of candy, which was nice. I got paid on Christmas which was wonderful!! The best part was skyping with my family. I was able to be part of the yearly tradition of holding down Two Turtle Doves during the 12 days of christmas song and was with them during their morning when they opened their presents.. I also made myself Christmas dinner...the best I could come up with to an Italian Christmas dinner with pasta and 7 fish was spaghetti with vodka sauce (found the sauce in a foreign store) and an assortment of sushi haha

My Christmas dinner

I got some wonderful presents from family and friends and am told there are more to come!! Thank you so much everyone who sent me things :) It made me feel less lonely this holiday. Which this holiday was pretty lonely. But that'll just make next years holiday that much better :)

Also, check out this gift from my manager:

A huge tub of ice cream. SCORE!!!

So last week , probably the few days before Christmas I got pretty sick. For two nights I had a fever pushing 102 degrees and my throat really hurt when i swallowed and felt like it was swollen. Thankfully I only had to work one day while I was sick. I was sick Sunday-Wednesday I guess. Wednesday I had off for the Emperors birthday so that was great. So I only worked Tuesday (I have off Sunday and Monday regularly.) Tuesday night after work my manager took me to the emergency room, which was down the street from my apartment. It was pretty nice. They really hook you up there with medications. I couldnt tell you what I took but I do know that one was for my fevers and headaches, one was for my throat and one was an antibiotic (i think) haha. They also checked to see if I had the flu (reg. and h1n1). They did this by giving me a nose culture. They stuck a skinny little swab all the way up my nose past my eyes!! It hurt a little bit. But I like that better then getting a throat culture: those make me want to vomit. Anyways I felt great after two days of being on the medicine. It was sweet. And I still feel great. So I'm happy. We sat there and waited an hour before we were seen which isnt bad at all. 3 nurses helped me while my manager translated for us. They were so nice and trying to crack jokes with me. And the entire trip only cost me 30 bucks, including all that medication. So, not bad. I'm pretty sure what I had was strep throat. But they didn't know how to tell me that in a way I'd understand.

One of the medicine packets I received at the hospital. This one was for medicated candy looking suckers for my throat. My manager wrote down directions on each one so I didnt get them confused haha.

Cell Phone - I finally got a cell phone! Its a pretty cool Japanese cell phone through Softbank (similar to ATT, Verizon, etc) The keys light up all crazy with different colors when you do certain things. A japanese lady yells somethign at me when I get a call or text message. Their text messages are actually done through email on the phone. So you have to set up an email address and get other peoples emails if you want to text them. So.. people in the states!! You can text me!!! Just text this address: jessicamc@softbank.ne.jp
This also works if you want to email me while I'm on the go, or if I am not at my computer and you need to reach me.
I am on the search for a cool phone charm to hang from my cell phone. I am going to make this a legitimate Japanese cell phone hahaha.

My Cell phone! The lights are just so much fun haha. They are always changing.

So tomorrow is going to be exciting. I get to go to Shizuoka City to meet up with Travis and Brittani, stay at Travis's and then the three of us are going to Tokyo the next day for a few days! So I won't be at a computer. So this is when you reach me at my phone email address listed above! Because I'll get that immediately, whereas I won't be checking my gmail very often. When I come back I'll hopefully have lots of fun Tokyo stories for you.

Some random pictures:

Some random poster of a guy selling alcohol but I have no idea what it is.

Lee reminded me of Abby and her mom. Hi Abby! This LEE thing was in my grocery store, its curry that you heat up at home (curry is really popular here, but its sweet. Not spicy like Indian food curry..so I actually enjoy it)

I FOUND FRANZ BOXED WINE!! The college girl in me got excited.

This picture was taken for my Drexel girls. HI!!

My japanese is getting better. Today I was able to chat with a girl at a clothing store about clothes and New Years Eve plans. It was pretty cool.
This week I plan on saying Asobo!(Lets party!) A lot.
Also.. gekido(rage). Tokyo here I come.

So anyways. Life.

some small things

Hi. So a few things.

The 711's here are amazing. They aren't your regular run of the mill United States 711s. No. These ones have such amazing food in them. Different salads and pastas and chicken and sushi and desserts and omg its so wonderful. You can buy alcohol in these 711s. (Which I dont know if you can do in other states at home but in NJ you can't.) YOU PAY YOUR BILLS AT 711!! You take your electric bill and your gas bill and your cell phone bill and you bring it to the counter and they tell you how much you owe and you give them the money and thats it , you're done. SO EASY!!!!!! Add that to this list of what the states needs to have!!

Also, I recently had a conversation with Tomo about sprinkles that you put on ice cream. I told her that they are called sprinkles... but some people also call them jimmies in different parts of the United States. She thought that was hilarious. Then the next day she came into work and said she went out and got James. I was confused. "James? Who is James?" and then I realized she meant jimmies hahahahahhaha
I need to start a section of my blog all about Tomo and how funny she is.

This week has been holiday lessons so we've been teaching the kids about christmas stuff. They know that Christmas is when Santa comes and brings them presents but thats about it. So when I try to explain to them what a Stocking is, they keep calling it socks and don't really care much about it.

A parent of one of my students invited me to a Christmas party their family is having. She said that her friends will be there who just recently spent 3 years in New York and got back in Aug so she'd love for me to come and chat with them. That should be interesting! Ill get to see what people eat at parties and get-togethers and where they are held and things like that. Make some friends. whatevs

Not having a dishwasher in my apartment is the worst. Dishes have been piling up! Whoops. I need to work on that. In two weeks I venture to Tokyo for 5 days! Exciting!!

relax bear jessica sensei

Well I survived my first week as a SENSEI on my own. It went very well. I feel like I've already been doing this for a while and its only been like 2 weeks. I guess thats a good thing? I've found that I get along best with the 7 year olds. They were trying so hard to get me to laugh, and I guess I was trying the same with them. Making funny faces to describe an emotion we were learning and they would crack up. SO CUTE. I've noticed that there are some kids and some babies that remind me of people in my life back home. SO WEIRD. Like there is this one really nerdy Japanese boy that always does ninja moves whenever he wins at a game or gets something right. He looks so much like my friend Chandler. And there is this one baby that is only 1 year old who reminds me of a boy Nick I met in Jamaica last March. hahahahah Its so strange. Theres a girl that looks like the japanese version of my cousin Brandy. I think of her everytime I teach this girl lol.  Anyways. I am already getting to know my students which is great. And I think they are realizing that I have a silly sense of humor to me. We stamp their work and give them stickers so today I bought a stamp with Pikachu on it that says Good job! and I brought stickers from home and they've been loving those. SO FAR SO GOOD.

Yesterday, Tomo and her new husband offered to take me and Alex to a Holiday light thingy. It was so pretty! It was in Gotumba, which is right on the base of Mt. Fuji. So it was pretty cold at night.



Tomo is one of my coworkers at Amity. She is so funny. She loves hearing about shortened words like.. Be right back is BRB and Oh my god is OMG ... So she is always saying OMG! And she has a really hard time saying my last name. There are two things she said she cant say... Parallel and Avril Lavigne. The first time we met she told me that my name was harder to pronounce then Avril Lavignes name! And i had no idea what she was talking about haha but now I know. Its hard for Japanese people to say words with a lot of V's L's and R's in it. So Ciarelli is a little difficult for her haha.
So it was really nice of her to take us out...We all went to dinner and karaoke afterwards and had a great time. We had hamburg, which I took a picture of. Its not hamburger. I had a student last week who kept telling me she wanted hamburg and i was like hamburger? and she was like no hamburg. and looked at me like i was an idiot. Now I know. lol. Hamburg tastes really similar to meatloaf and you can get it a few different ways like with cheese or sauce or veggies or whatever. I had a sauce on mine that tasted just like a stew type sauce. Very yummy.
I finally did laundry and I was really sad to not have a drier. It was a lot more work having to hang everything up outside on the balcony, but not that big of a deal.
There is this bear here called Rilakkuma that is everywhere and I think its sooo cute:

AWWW

Rilakkuma means Relax Bear.

Anyways. Enjoy my pictures in the slideshow or at THIS LINK.

OH also.. here is a list of things I already miss from the states:

• Hersheys chocolate
• Reese's peanut butter cups
• CHOCOLATE MILK. they dont have it here and its depressing.
• A bed thats not on the floor
• Pizza that doesnt have mayo on it. (seriously they put mayo on everything over here)
• Tomato sauce that doesn't taste like spaghettios sauce.
• Being able to throw my trash into a garbage without separating it (the garbage here is so detailed. in my kitchen i have a garbage for burnables, one for plastics, and another for bottles. and i have to seperate every little thing GAH)
• QUIZNOS SUBS !!! AND JERSEY MIKES SUBS!!
• The latest music & movies
• Family and Friends and Weez- OBVIOUS

Things im loving Japan for having that America needs to have:

• Karaoke places (legit ones with a room to yourself)
• heated toilet seats!!!!! 
• SAKE (well, they need to have it everywhere.. esp. WARM)
• Ramen
• Bike riding everywhere possible without being called a nerd
• amazing 100 yen stores (aka dollar stores)
• rice cookers in your kitchen

anyways. im sure that list will grow. finding new things everydayyy. everyday is an adventure.

Apt, Seeing Mt. Fuji at the Beach

Hi! This has been a great weekend so far. I finished the week off pretty well. I will miss Anthea, she helped me out a lot this week. We had a nice going away Anthea / Welcome Jessica dinner after work on sat night. They got us sushi and weird fried stuff. It was really nice. Then Alex and I went out on the town in Numazu. I met some other "foreigners" that Alex had become friends with and we went to this small little bar that had 2000 yen all you can drink. So we hit that up. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. Most of them were with the JET program. (Similar teaching English program like mine, but to a much larger class). One girl had been here for 4 years now. I couldn't imagine being away for that long!

Me and Alex

The Numazu "foreigners". Kampai!

So that was a good night. Drank a lot of hot sake. Yummmmm

Today Alex and I rode our bikes around town. We decided to go to the beach and see Mt. Fuji because it was so clear out.

Mt. Fuji from my apt door! (Theres a mountain in front of it kind of covering all but the top)

So the rest of my pictures Im going to put on flickr. I loved being able to see Mt. Fuji and the snow on top while ago seeing the waves and sand. So pretty. It was interesting seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time from the other side. I also got to go shopping and look at all the stores and clothes. Its so interesting what people wear here and I am having a hard time figuring out what I can pull off. I noticed a weird issue here is that showing your shoulders or upper part of your body is really offensive, but the shorts are SO SHORT and it doesn't even matter. It's very strange. 

My head is bigger then Mt. Fuji

Tomorrow I'll be doing more traveling. I'm so happy to have this downtime from work but unfortunately its just a weekend and I'll be back to running around at work on Tuesday. I have something fun to look forward to... TOKYO FOR NEW YEARS! The kids from training and I booked rooms today so that'll be a great time. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE PICTURES

Numazu & Teaching

Well it has been three days of teaching. Im exhausted! But each day is better and better. My first day of teaching I just observed. I was able to meet a lot of parents and kids. Its hard making conversation when there's such a language barrier.
I actually tried out a little experiment. The first time a parent asked me where I was from I told them New Jersey. All I got was a blank stare.... so the next parent I told New York.. OHHH NEW YORK!!! SEX AND THE CITY!!!! YOU ARE CHARLOTTE I AM SAMANTHA!!! hahahahh it was hilarious. So from now on I say I'm from NY or close to NY. Easier then having to explain NJ.
I also had some interesting students.. one boy liked me so much he pulled his pants down in front of me. that was awkward! At one point during the day there were 5 girls around the ages of 3-6 sitting in the lobby trading stickers to put in their sticker books (so cute) and i sat next to them and tried to talk to them a bit and they all started giving me their stickers so put on my name tag and then they all started putting them all over my face and my arms. I was covered by the time they left lol. It was really cute. So I made some friends. I bet they'll love me when I bring in the stickers I brought from home.
Oh! Also, some parents watched my class this morning and decided to sign their baby up for classes so my manager was very impressed haha. That was pretty cool.
Still have to wear the masks when walking around town and i take my temperature every day and gargle and hand sanitizer and all that stuff to protect against the flu. Its so crazy but kids have been spreading it fast.

I've been really tired after coming home from work at around 8:30 so I havent had much time to do stuff around town. This weekend I plan on going to the beach and checking out the fish market going on in the streets. Should be interesting.
Some places I've eaten on my lunch break have been KFC (right across the street from work and it was raining.. don't judge me!) Moss Burger(burger joint) and Hotto Motto (bento). For dinner I've been cooking in my apartment... which hasnt been very exciting because I only have one burner. I've made pasta with alfredo sauce pineapples and ham(yum) Pb&j on rolls, and Yakisoba from the grocery store.

Hm what else. I teach 3 classes tomorrow. Every day I add an extra class. I actually really enjoy the adult classes more then the baby classes because you dont have to worry about classroom control. They won't run out of the room like a little 3 year old did to me this morning haha.

I find that I am already missing subs/hoagies. Like from subway or quiznos or jersey mikes!!! So good. haha. I heard there is a Subway in Tokyo so i'll have to grab that for lunch while im there :)

Oh! So the plan for New Years is definitely Tokyo. I'll probably spend 4-5 days there on my break with my friends from training week. We are trying to have it planned by Sunday. So we'll see how that works out.
My neighbor/co-worker Alex made friends with other foreigners (which is what I am! weird!) and there are around 35 of them in this town that like to get together. So next weekend they are having a big Christmas party and rented out a room in a bar so she is going to take me to that so I can start making some friends around here. That will be fun!

Ok the next post will definitely have pictures of my apartment/mt fuji if the weather is nice/me on my bike. Stay tuned!