Japanese sick masks !!

There is an outbreak of Influenza in the district... I think that the word Influenza might be the word I hear the most these days:

‘Ahh Natsumi has Influenza’ or
‘This class is half-empty because of Influenza’ or
‘Influenza is really bad this year’ or
‘You wanna go see that new Sylvester Influenza movie: Texas Influenza massacre? I hear it’s pretty influenza’ or also
‘Would you like some Natto with your Influenza?’

Anyways, I have to give classes to half-empty rooms, the ones that are still there either look like zombies or look like they are immune to every disease on the face of the Earth. I could throw a bucket of malaria mixed with a little yellow fever (and a side of SARS) to that little girl; she’ll still show up at 6 am to come play tennis 2 hours before class! But one thing unites them all. Everyone is wearing a mask.

I feel like I’m teaching to a bunch of Asian Darth Vaders. They all have masks!! So as if I wasn’t flashing enough, I’m one of the 5 people in school that isn’t wearing a mask. I was told that they wear masks to protect themselves and to protect others. It’s just a bunch of crap if you ask me... As soon as they come to talk to me, they take off the mask and come inches away from my face. I had a snotty coughing girl sitting a meter from me for 50 minutes yesterday and I was like ‘Oh Oh, I’m in trouble’ but I woke up fine... Maybe it’s my beer a day (or 7), that is (are) keeping the doctor away?

I think the masks are great, but I was told that they think it’s weird when gaijins (foreigners) wear them. But I’m so tempted. They have Hello Kitty masks, Reebok masks, plaid masks, houndstooth masks, argyle masks, Louis Vuitton masks, Lilo and Stitch masks. It’s a fashion statement, as well as protection. I also think it has to do with the fact that deep down, these people are all ninjas (It’s a secret, don’t tell them I told you). But man, I’d be so cool if I had a Burberry mask, or even better, a Montreal Canadiens mask!

Mr. Clean

Cleaning time fascinates me...

It’s a 25 minute period in the afternoon where the kids move the desks around and clean the floors, windows and blackboards. Sure, some of them are lazy and all, looking like a bunch of Montreal City employees, leaning on their brooms and mops. But just the fact that you can trust these kids with bottles of Windex, canisters of kerosene and enough dangerous products to blow up the whole neighbourhood, is amazing. If this was North America, you’d find 5 guys in a bathroom, mixing up stuff to create a new drug. Hell, maybe I would have been one of those! lol. You’d also find a bunch of dummies smoking next to the kerosene.

Sure, the school is nowhere near as clean as my high school back home, the bathrooms stink and there is rust here and there. But that’s not the point. To me, it just shows how much respect they have for their school, teachers and, to a larger extent, country. Would the kids do that nowadays in Canada? Pff, puh-lease, asking the question is giving the answer.

Also, it makes for good pictures:

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Pendant l’après-midi, les étudiants de toutes mes écoles doivent nettoyer leur école. Comme une armée de concierges, ils se promènent avec le Windex, les balais et les squeegees afin d’éliminer toute trace de malpropreté. Certains d’entre eux ont l’air d’une bande de cols-bleus en train de remplir un nid-de-poule (lire: foutent pas grand-chose) mais la plupart font un minimum d’effort, ce qui fait une différence considérable. Si c’était le quartier Centre-Sud, il y en aurait 5 dans les toilettes en train d’inventer une nouvelle drogue de synthèse avec les produits chimiques fournis par l’école.

C’est assez fascinant de les voir aller. Je devrais rester assis à mon bureau et relaxer mais je préfère les regarder faire. L’école est relativement sale, les toilettes sentent mauvais, mais c’est pas ça le principe… Je trouve que ça démontre un immense respect pour leur école, leurs professeurs et (toute proportion gardée) leur pays.

En plus ça fait des photos le fun :

Old school

NOTE: I was asked to post more often... I will try and satisfy my fellowship (BTW, got the numbers from blogger.com, I have had 7500 hits in 3 months, Dayum!) And now, because all these people are reading me, I will try and quench your thirst! Now only if you guys left some comments sometimes. Shout out to the ones who do!

I just finished a 4 week sting at the ‘Beach school’. The beach school (Yuriage JHS) was fun, but it was the smallest school in town, only using half of its classes. And in half the classes I gave, half the classrooms were empty, you diggg? (Come on, get your calculators out...) It was a little depressing to tell you the truth. I felt like I was a teacher in one of those villages really far from Montreal, filled with old people and the random teenager (like my mom’s village). It baffles me because it is in the nicest part of town... View on the ocean and the mountains, it’s just a little far from the center of the city, which might explain the exodus (like in my mom’s village). I was seating across from Kita sensei, who is the most beautiful music teacher of all time, if all my music teachers in high school looked like that, I would probably have 10 Grammys today.

I had a great time, the staff and the kids we’re amazing. I must admit that the level of English was VERY low (starting to sound a lot like my mom’s village). Not a single soul in an entire class could answer the question: ‘When is your birthday’! I was pointing at me, saying: ‘My birthday is January 20th’. Then, I pointed to the calendar and named all the months.... And then I was pretty aggravated so I went back to the usual suspects: ‘What’s this?’ ‘Do you like Ponyo?’ ‘What’s your favourite color?’. So if in 6 years, you meet a Japanese kid somewhere and all he can say is: ‘I like Ponyo, this is chalk and I like purple’ Well you know who to blame!! The teacher, he was feeling bad, then again, he looks like he had 7 Valiums during the break. Lucky though, my other teacher was the bomb! His name is Fujimura, he’s like 7 feet tall, he shaves his head and he wants to go snowboarding with me and his wife... Bring it Dogg!
The vice-p
rincipal invited me to the best gyutan (Cow Tongue, a Sendai specialty and a very delicious one too) restaurant in Sendai on my last day, along with his wife and teenage daughters. I was impressed, because in this country, it’s not something very common to invite a simple teacher like me, when you are the big Man... He picked the best of the best, made me drink the best sake, in a special local way! He paid the 13 000 yens bill too, which made me feel pretty shitty, but hey, what would Jesus do?

In 3 days, we’re talking about my new school, aka the school they based the movie Dangerous minds on...

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Note : 7500 clicks sur mon blog en 3 mois. Vous pourriez laisser des commentaires bande d’ingrats!! Moi qui croyais que je me parlais tt seul… Anyway, je vais essayer d’écrire plus souvent. De toute façon, il commence à faire froid, je crois que je vais devenir de plus en plus frénétique… so watch out!!!

Je viens de terminer mes 4 semaines dans l’école à la plage… Yuriage JHS, c’est la plus petite de mes écoles. 200 élèves, dans une école qui pourrait en contenir 600. Les classes à moitié vides. C’était un peu déprimant des fois. C’est dans un coin de la ville reconnu pour son port, donc ils veulent tous devenir pêcheurs, donc ils n’en ont rien à foutre de l’anglais (comme à Causapscal). C’est dans le plus beau coin de Natori mais c’est loin de tout, ça me prenait 25-35 minutes de vélo pour m’y rendre, à un tempo incroyable et sans arrêter aux lumières. De mon bureau, je voyais la plage et les montagnes. En prime, j’étais assis en face de Kita sensei, pis Kita sensei, c’est aussi beau que plusieurs plages pis plusieurs montagnes. Si mon prof de musique au secondaire avait ressemblé à cette femme au lieu de ressembler à un bonhomme Michelin homosexuel (désolé Monsieur Simard) je serais peut-être en train de me servir d’un de mes Grammy pour boire du Saké! Anyway… le niveau d’anglais était assez bas, voire même pitoyable par moment (comme à Causapscal). J’avais un professeur qui sortait probablement de plusieurs dépressions en ligne et un qui est un surfer-snowboarder de 35 ans, 7 pieds le crâne rasé! Trop cool, j’attends juste de me joindre à lui sur les pentes!

Mon principal-adjoint m’a emmené manger du gyutan avec sa femme et ses 2 filles à ma dernière soirée. Du gyutan, c’est de la langue de bœuf, et c’est une spécialité locale… C’est vraiment très bon! Il a payé la facture, une chance parce que ça monte vite une facture dans ce pays… La prochaine fois que j’enseigne à cette école, c’est en février. J’espère bien que la température va remonter, parce qu’en ce moment, fait pas chaud!

Dans 3 jours, on parle de ma nouvelle école… celle qui me fait penser à une version japonaise de Calixa Lavallée!