Training Days 1 & 2

Breakfast here is pretty nice.  It's actually my favorite meal of the day.  The hotel has a really nifty continental breakfast of Japanese food (like onigiri and potato salad and miso soup) and western food (sausages, scrambled eggs, orange juice).  We just mingle together (there's 300+ of us, in case I didn't mention).  It's fun to sit next to someone new each time and just chat - find out where everyone's from, what branch they're with (I'm Hamamatsu branch) and what grade levels they're teaching.


On the subject of grade levels, I kinda bummed that I'm not teaching elementary school like I was told when I was placed.  They said I'd be doing both elementary school and junior high, but apparently, it's just junior high. :<  It helps to know that, though, because for some of the training, we're split up my grade level.  Some people actually ARE teaching multiple levels, and they have a hard time figuring out which to go to.


Training is split into multiple sections through the day with several little breaks (so you can potty, stretch your legs, get a drink) and longer breaks for lunch.  For lunch, we have bento (from 7-11 for the people with the standard meal plan and somewhere else for the veggies like me).  So far, I've found the bento... not awesome.  <_<  The first day (for lunch), it was stir-fried veggies over a bit of lettuce over rice.  Today it was sliced (boiled?) veggies (over rice, of course) with a green tea salt powder you sprinkled over it.  It was weird, but not bad.  Last night's dinner, I wasn't a big fan of, but it's okay because I wasn't all that hungry.  For some reason, they seem to feel the need to mix red beans in with the rice for the vegetarians... and there were some weird veggies (I already forget).  Tonight it was a better assortment of the veggies, including a neat little bundle of veggies in a 'bag' made of fried tofu.  ...did I mention these are usually cold by the time we get them?  Yeah...  So the non-veggies are eating cold friend chicken and stuff like that.  XD


Last night after dinner, Nicola (roomie) and I went to the Mini Mart for some dinner supplements, but I just ended up with a chocolate bar because I didn't want to spend too much.  It's not a bad walk unless you're in high heels.  And in the dark.  <_<   I learned that from experience.


My real downfall are the beverage vending machines!!  I SWEARRRR I'll limit myself to one per day, but I LOVE BOSS coffee.  LOVE IT.  And of course, since this is Japan, it comes out of the vending machine and the can is hot!  Fantastic~~ <3  I've been getting one during the first morning break.  I think that's a good time for it.


Training, like I said before, is a contractually obligated secret.  Well, a lot of the techniques and stuff (they say) are unique to Interac.  Since I already signed my contract, I can't talk too much about training. But I'll say a bit about the people and general ideas.


One of the trainers - Cedric - is a real tough cookie.  His motto seems to be 'tough love.'  He's extremely strict, but makes good points.  He doesn't have many fans, I think.  I generally like him, and I'm sure he's a  great teacher, but I haven't been on the receiving end of his corrections yet, so we'll see.  >.<  HE WORE THE MOST AWESOME SHIRT yesterday, btw.  It was a purple wide pinstripe on white but the collar was white at the edge, purple at the top, and a black strip about 1/2" wide between them.  The cuffs matched.  *A*  I wanted to see how it was done, but I didn't want to ask.  >.<  It was totally awesome and I sketched it down.  Today he wasn't nearly as snappy - just a brown and white pinstripe with complementary brown pinstripe pants.  :<


I'm having trouble with some things in training - confidence, remembering what I'm talking about, posture, praising enough, using filler words, etc.  Other things I'm doing well with - positive attitude, smile... that might be it.  >.<  I did well on my first graded presentation, but rather bombed the second one.  Alas.  I WILL STRIVE TO IMPROVE!  (I knew I did poorly on the second one before I saw the results).  


Training yesterday ran from 8:25am to 7:00pm, then dinner, then supplementary lessons.  Today it ran from 9:00 (optional lesson at 8:25) to only 6:00pm, but I attended supplemental lessons until 8:00, and then there was another hour where they didn't really pertain to me, so I came back here for this.


I got Nicola to watch part of Sengoku BASARA ep. 1.  She didn't like it, I'm sorry to report.  :<  Well, the first episode is a bit boring.  IDK.  Maybe the whole thing is boring and I just fell in love with the characters.  


My jackalope plush is VERY popular!!  People have been asking me what it is, and I get to explain.  I've had a ton of Brits and some other people convinced it was real, which is excellent because that means it should be easy to convince my students that it's real.  XD


The beds in the room here are HARD and the pillows... are weird. They're like a normal western pillow on top, but a Japanese barley pillow on the bottom.  Unfortunately, once you put your head imprint in them for the night, it kinda stays there.  >.<  I haven't been sleeping well, but I'm not sure if that's me worrying that Cedrice is going to call on me and rip my first lesson to shreds, or if it's the bed.  Speaking of first lesson, I made my flash cards incorrectly.  They should be one large picture which takes up the whole page.  I'm by far not the only person who got this wrong.  At least I had the size of the paper correct, so I can use some of them.


We're leaving for our branches for further training on Saturday.  The Hamamatsu branch chartered a bus, so we'll be taking a leisurely (5-6 hour) trip, but it should be fun.  Three days of training in Hamamatsu follow that, then we're sent off to our locations.  According to my contract, I'll start in the classroom on the 9th of April, so I'll have plenty of time to settle in to my apartment and practice, practice, practice!  I need to practive my presentation, posture, etc.  I need to re-learn how to write a certain way so I don't confuse the kids when I'm writing on the chalkboard!  So much to work on!


Uhh That's all I can think of off the top of my head, so I'm going to sleep!  I woke up at 5 this morning because I just couldn't sleep.  >.<


There are still two more days of training.