Graduation Ceremony

Japanese school year starts on April 1st every year, so graduation ceremony is in February. High school is 3 years here, so my 3rd graders graduated last Friday. 1st and 2nd grade student are going to come to school for one or two more weeks to do end term tests.

Although high schools make their students wear school uniforms (the famous sailor uniform for girls) my school is not very strict about it, so students often wear casual clothes to school. However, they are asked to wear their uniform for school events, including graduation. Most students decided to wear hakama (it's a traditional Japanese wear), which they usually rent, and it costs quite a lot of money. The school asked them not to, because not all the students can afford it...but they didn't listen, nor did their parents it seems. I found that a bit strange. It's quite unusual here for a high school student to wear hakama for graduation, because schools have a stricter uniform policy. It's a more usual wear for university graduation.  I was surprised too, to see my students all dressed up like that, but I have to admit they did look gorgeous.

Beautiful girls in beautiful hakama.

Men's hakama and women's hakama

All dressed up for ceremony. I wonder how long it took to do their hair..

Sorry for blurring the face of each student, just for privacy reasons.

A movie to remember.

I went to Cambodia in 2005. That time I didn't know anything about Cambodia's history. I just couldn't wait to see Angkor Wat. I read about it in books, saw it in travel agent's catalogs. I knew I had to see it. It was amazing. The whole country was. Although, it took some time for me to learn that when buying something I have to start bidding for a lower price, and it was really difficult seeing beggars on the street; young children and mutilated adults. I remember I saw a men...I couldn't even tell his age, probably between 30 to 50 years old. His arm was missing and half of his face was distorted. My travel companion told me it was probably a landmine accident. I had to look away, I was horrified, I just wasn't ready. Back home in Europe, you just don't see things like this.

I started reading our guide book (Lonely Planet of course) which had a history section. That was the first time I've learned about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. My Dad likes war movies, so I've heard the expression "the Khmer rouge" before. I figured it had to do something with communism since rouge=red in French. But I've never bothered to look it up. I wish I had.

A few days later we went to Phnom Penh and later we visited the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and  the Killing Fields. The museum is a former elementary school. The building looks a bit similar to Japanese schools. They tried to preserve it as it was when the genocide ended. There were pictures of everyone killed there. These guys were obsessed with killing and they kept a picture of everyone they tortured to death. Young boys and girls too. There were oil paintings and some very old photographs about the tortures; how they ripped people's fingernails off, hang them by their feet from the ceiling while they were drowning as their head was in a big pot of water below. I remember I got sick. I got away from my group a bit, and found a bench outside I could sit on. I remember I'd shed a few tears silently before I went back to my all-males group. I didn't have much appetite for days. Not only the museum was overwhelming, but we went to see the killing fields right after. I remember we took a tuk-tuk and rode quite a while. This sanctuary raised with huge piles of skulls of the dead who were killed there and buried in mass graves by the regime was just unbelievable. I learned about the Holocaust and Hitler before, but never been to Auschwitz or any other such place to actually see where it had happened. I did go twice to the House of Terror in Budapest, which is to remember the victims of the Arrow Cross regime of Szálasi. Both times I got depressed for days. This wasn't different either. I couldn't help but wonder how people can do such things to each other...I will never be able to understand.

Why I remember all this today?

I saw a movie: "The Killing Fields". The movie was made in 1984 and won numerous awards. When we stayed in a guest house in Phnom Penh, I saw a few scenes of the movie in the lounge. Later, I bought the DVD as a present for my Dad. He watched it...I didn't. Honestly, I didn't have the guts to watch it. Today, it was broadcast on Japanese cable TV. I just couldn't change the channel...why now, I wonder. 

Sometimes I do wish I had the guts to leave my well-paying job here and go back to Cambodia to teach there. It would be so much more rewarding. I met some groups of school kids there and they were amazing. Not like these Japanese spoiled little brats. Their ignorance just pisses me off every single day. I'm just so tired of being surrounded by people like them, and scared to think about what kind of adults will they become. Most of the teachers are just as ignorant too. They wouldn't bother to wake up kids sleeping in the classrooms...sometimes 5-6 of them in one class. Nor scold them when they just ignore the teachers walking past, not saying good morning or anything.

Kids in poor countries want to study. They show respect toward adults, and they are not nintendo freaks. I just want to do a job that benefits other people, but here, no one cares much about what I do. The BOE sends NETs to schools with the best intentions, but at the schools we meet with ignorance, lack of respect, and a lot of  horrible students. I have to admit there are a few exceptions, but still, in total it is quite disheartening and demotivating.

I hope someday I can go back to South East Asia, especially Cambodia.

I recommend "The Killing Fields" (Gyilkos Mezők in Hungarian) to everyone. It is certainly not easy to watch, but we have to know, and we have to remember.

Valentine's Day!!!! Yaaaay!

Hello Dear Readers!!!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Finally, I could make time for this post. I wanted to do it last weekend, but a friend called out of the blue, saying she's coming to Osaka at the weekend (from Hiroshima), we haven't met for 5 long years!!! so I really wanted to meet her. 

Anyway, let's explain the Japanese Valentine's Day! It's quite different from western countries, what a surprise, huh?  So, February 14th is Valentine's day, when girls, or women give chocolate to the guy they have a crush on, or to their boyfriends or husbands. March 14th is called White Day...wonder why "white"...when guys give something in return, if they are interested in the lady they got the chocolate from.  So, to put it straight, if you give chocolates to your crush on Valentine's and you ain't get shit on White day, you're screwed. 

There are 3 types of chocolates on Valentine's Day. There is the "honmei" chocolate, which  goes to the boyfriend(-to-be) or husband. "Honmei" literally means "certain" or "favourite". Then there is tomo-choco. Tomo comes from the Japanese word "tomodachi" meaning "friend". Obviously, this type of chocolate goes to your friends. Today, at my school, many high school girls gave away chocolates, handmade cookies etc. to their friends. On this day, handmade sweets are very popular, it is a good chance to show off your cooking skills to your Mr. BIG ;). 

The chocolate moulds I used. diamond, ball, heart, sqare, dome and heart shaped.

After 2 coating, waiting for the Malibu (coconut rum) cream filling.

The finished product :) Not bad for a first try I'd say.

The third type is called "giri-choco". "Giri"stands for "duty" or "obligation". This is a kind of chocolate you give to your co-workers, mainly to the guys, but often to fellow lady co-workers too. This kind of chocolate should not be taken seriously, it's just for politeness. They have a pretty strict protocol, such as all chcolates should be the same, otherwise the receiving party might misunderstand. 

It's a bit far-fetched to me, but I love making sweets, so I always bake or make something for my boyfriend. I usually make more than needed and give some to my friends, but only the ones who are really close. 

One thing I love about Valentine's Day here, is the enermous variety of bon-bons, and home made sweets kits that are on sale from the second week of January! It's amazing! You can find many popular character shaped chocolates, really cute ones, all different kind of liquor chocolates, the finest Belgian stuff, and all kinds of ingredients for cooking that are not available everywhere throughout the year! This year only, I spent more than 25 000 yen on buying chocolates and mainly cooking ingredients!! Wow...

Everything you need from almod and strawberry powder to ONE PIECE shaped handmad choco kit.

These are my absolute favourites from day one! Japanese traditional themed artisan chocolates by Aya Kato.

For animal lovers...

...for Teddy bear and dessert addicts...

...for flower lovers...

The funny section: tits chocolate, money chocolate, sexy female body chocolate, and poo chocolate to bring you luck...I guess.

I hope you gave and got some chocolates today too. This is what I get from my friend, the librarian of the school: (the rose and teddy bear chocolate moulds I lent her). She did a really good job with them. The most delicious however, were the truffles...also home made. Yummieeee.

I also got some Belgian chocolates (not home made of course), they were really nice...must have been expensive!  

Hope you enjoyed today's post! But if I may advise, don't show love and respect only on Valentine's day. It's a nice gesture to give a small gift, but love and respect should be present in a relationship 24/7, 365 days a week, no matter whether it's friendship, family, or a love relationship.  

Damn...now that this nice topic, that I looked forward so much to share with you, is over, I gotta find some new topic to write about, hopefully by this weekend...hmmm....

PLEASE WRITE IN THE COMMENT SECTION WHICH CHOCOLATE IS YOUR FAVOURITE FROM THE ONES IN THE PICTURES! I really want to know what my Readers think! You can comment anonymously.  THANKS! (^^) /"

Valentine related post postponed...MALÉV Hungarian Airlines is over.

I've just talked to my parents and heard the news...

After 66 years of service, MALÉV, everybody's beloved Hungarian Airlines that we were so proud of went bankrupt. I'm shocked...devastated...and yes, I did cry. I'm a very sentimental person and had quite a lot of fond memories with Malév. Their BGM has been my ring tone ever since I had my first cell-phone.

The first flight ever in my life was with Malév. And if you don't live abroad, you don't know how it feels after a tiring 10 hours flight, and an hour waiting for transfer, to finally see it: the Malév colours on the tail of the plain with the colours of Hungary's flag. The flight attendants would say "Üdvözöljük a fedélzeten" instead of "Welcome aboard", they would serve cheese or ham sandwich to you accompanied by a bar of Balaton wafer. It tastes like home, it feels like home, and so, the last two hours of your trip feels much better.

As far as I know it's because of the EU. Our Prime Minister stood up against the EU because he didn't agree with things they were doing, and the result is that many countries are attacking us, saying we have no democracy anymore, blah, blah, blah. To make it worst, suddenly everybody wants their money back, even though they know we are struggling, thus pushing Hungary closer and closer to bankruptcy. I'm so pissed, and worried!!

You may ask, what do I care, living abroad, having a well paying job. The truth is, I've never planned to stay here forever. I don't want to. Japan is a convenient place to live, but mentally, it is so stressful, it's suffocating. I want to save money and get outta here. I want to go back to Hungary and live close to my family. In fact, I can't wait to go back...but with these circumstances, planning a family in the future, who in their right mind would go back there? They are ruining my homeland, and it's really devastating to see it. 

I would like to say THANK YOU to Everyone at MALÉV! Köszönet a Malév összes dolgozójának. Sajnálom hogy igy alakult. 

Isn't it beautiful?

Open Lesson and how a work relationship can go bad...

Okay, so, almost everyone who comes to Japan and teaches in public school will have this experience. It's called an open lesson, which means you are doing a team teaching lesson with the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), and some teachers from your school  and other schools, as well as a few people from the Board of Education (BOE) would come and watch your lesson. After the lesson, there would be  a meeting where they would praise the good things in the lesson and rant about the bad stuff.

This is what we had last week. Unfortunately, the JTE wanted to include the T-NET (part time Native English Teacher) as well as me, the NET (Native English Teacher). I thought it was a bad idea from the beginning, since the Aussie T-NET doesn't have much when it comes to teaching skills...but the school desperately wanted to show off that they have two foreigner teachers. Also the JTE and the T-NET are both same age, same sex, same interest old guys, so they are on good terms. Whatever, I thought, after all I had no problems with any of them. However, I prepared myself for the worst, because the T-NET screwed up a lesson a few days before the open lesson.

This was a regular lesson we taught together for 3rd graders, and it was their last lesson before graduation. I proposed the topic of "What will you be doing in 10 years?" Me and the T-NET would each give a short 1 or 2 minutes speech, not more that 10 simple sentences to the students, then ask them to write about how they imagine their own future. As usual, the T-NET prepared a hundred slides and a full 5 minutes speech with lots of difficult words and useless information (way too many details). After the students wrote their short compositions and read them out, we had a Q&A session, when the kids would ask us questions they prepared. Did they have a lot of questions! Again, the Aussie guy would keep answering the questions in so much detail that he robbed the students of their time to ask more questions. It was not only rude, but unprofessional. That's when I got pissed the first time. How much does he like to listen to his own voice? When is he going to notice that the lesson is about the students and not about him?  I discussed it with the female JTE we taught the lesson together with, and she agreed with me.

See, that's the problem with people who, just like him, come here on a holiday working visa for a year, to play around, they are not professionals (yes, I have a teaching licence), they just came here to relax and see the world, and they tend to think they are more important than they actually are...so they screw up your lessons, if you are assigned to teach a lesson together. Usually you are not asked to, because most schools have only one foreigner, but God knows why, here they always want to push us to teach lessons together, because the students get more excited.  Whatever...

Anyway, after this incident, I got alert about the open lesson. We had a practice lesson the day before the real thing. That's when this Aussie bastard started acting like a jerk. We totally had no trouble up until then. So after this trial lesson, I went to the JTE because I noticed a pretty bad mistake on the handout. I told him what I think would be a better phrase to replace it. We were right in the middle of the conversation, when the old Aussi guy (59 this year btw) came between us, turning his back on me as if I weren't there, and told the JTE how to rephrase the mistaken sentence. As if it was his idea?! He was standing close enough to hear what we were talking about, then he just walks up, pretends I'm not even there, pushes me out of the conversation and presents the whole thing as if it was his idea. I was pretty shocked to be honest...but oh, well. He is probably obsessed with proving people that he is a competent teacher...or maybe he is just being snobbish about being a "real" native English speaker, because I'm from a not English speaking country. Who knows? 

It was just so rude and kind of childish. So I decided to ignore him afterwards. 

Next day, we had the open lesson. It went pretty well. Only one teacher from a different school came, a few of my school and two BOE guys. They had a few comments on the lesson, both good and bad. The meeting was held in Englsih coz the Aussie can't speak Japanese. I still ignored him, and quite enjoyed his speech, how great HIS lessons are, how creative HE is when he makes a lesson plan blah, blah, blah. He totally talked as if it was his school and if he would be the only NET here. I don't really like talking at these meetings anyway, so I quietly enjoyed the show....LOL He tried to seem so busy and important. It was rather ridiculous.  I don't know why he started behaving like this, but thank God, he will be gone next Friday. Part-time NETs contracts end in early February. 

My contract ends March 31st, but I'll probably come back to this school next year too. I hope the next T-NET will be someone with actual teaching experience in Japan, who is hopefully young. The generation gap is way too big between the students and him. When they ask him about movies or music, he would start talking about some 50 or 40 years old black and white movie, or some long forgotten band, that the kids are not familiar with at all. Then, the conversation just fades out, and the kids look really confused. I wonder if he ever actually noticed that. Next year, someone young and possibly female please!! Excuse my typing mistakes please...it's been a long week, and I have part-time language school teaching to do tomorrow all day... (T_T)

So, that's the story behind the scenes. 

Stay tuned, 'coz I'll be back this weekend with a Valentine's Day special post! 
( ＾＾ )ノ" Bye-bye!