Put the kettle on...

A bit of a sentimental one for you tonight, guys. A week ago a parcel appeared on my desk at work. It was a package my mum had sent me from England with various bits and pieces including Maryland cookies, salt and vinegar flavoured crisps, sachets of instant porridge, and a box of tea bags.

I tidied my desk, emptied the parcel out, admired my spoils, then put everything but the tea bags back in the box. My lesson plans had already been done for the day anyway so all I was doing was going over my Japanese study notes. I could concede myself a tea break. With more care than is normally paid to tea packaging, I opened the box and made a cup of tea, sitting back to breathe in the smell of it and think of home.

Now, I’m not the kind of girl that cries normally. It takes a lot to make me blub, and when I do it is normally the result of huge stress such as money worries or dissertation stress. But I was struggling a little as I stared into my cup of tea. I didn’t have a breakdown at work, I’m pleased to say, but I had to force myself to hold back a couple of tears as a wave of homesickness engulfed me. Sometimes smells trigger memories for me, which seems perfectly normal to me but I don’t know if it’s true for anyone else. Certain spices, for example, remind me of when my cousins and I used to play hide and seek at my grandparents’ house, and I always made a beeline for the pantry. The smell of freshly baked pastry puts me back in the café of the university campus in France where I used to buy my breakfast on cold days.

The smell of tea unlocks more memories for me, and not necessarily distant ones. It makes me think of funny cups of tea with an amazing friend of mine in my final year at university. It makes me think of those post-essay class gatherings I used to have from time to time in my student flat with other Frenchies. It reminds me of second year when another close friend would often come in for a cup of tea and a chat on the way home from lectures. More poignantly it conjures up cups of tea on lazy mornings, on the sofa and watching bad TV with someone. As strange as it is (and stereotypical this might be, as an English person), I can probably name a moment spent with everybody important to me where tea was present, despite some of my best friends not being tea-drinkers themselves. That morning then, when I finally had my first cup of tea after almost a month away from home, I suddenly felt very far away from everyone.

So I’m not quite sure what JET has done to me exactly, or why I’m feeling this sentimental. Small things are triggering homesickness at unexpected moments and in unexpected places. But I’m pushing through, helped largely by the fact that since my internet was installed I am only ever a skype call away from seeing or talking to most people. Just so you all know, if I have ever had a cup of tea with you… I miss you.

Cakes, celebrities and question time

It’s been a random week or so with not a great deal of news or discoveries. I’m settling into something that resembles a routine now, waking up at 6am, going to work, churning out lesson plans and photocopying handouts, spending the weekends at Nishinomiya Gardens pigging out on doughnuts.. You get the idea.

This weekend I took a trip to Kobe to meet up with another JET for shopping and cake. Sounds like a good plan, right? Fortunately this happens quite often. There are various things about Japan which I dislike (or, it’s fair to say, about being a million miles away from home that I dislike), but there is a very long list of stuff which makes up for it all. One of these is the fact that the Japanese seriously know how to do desserts. I’d even go so far as to say that they beat the French hands down. Sorry to any Frenchies reading this but you have to trust me on this one - head to Japan and try desserts, cakes, pastries… Kobe sweets in general are just divine. I will start taking pictures of the desserts that I eat out and about. Part of the reason I haven’t so far is that I feel a bit rude taking pictures in cafes and stuff. The other (bigger) part of the reason is that I would feel like a fat pig if I started to amass photos of every treat devoured. One week’s worth alone would probably take over this blog.

The trip in question developed into a long shopping trek, pit stop for coffee and cake (ok, one of these days we’ll talk about the coffee - or lack thereof), more shopping, and meeting up with another JET for dinner in a restaurant where the entire menu was in kanji and the food a little overpriced. Still, good times, good company, and beer. Weekends are getting better all the time!

At work the dynamics are changing quite rapidly. Yesterday was the day of the opening ceremony, in which I had to give a speech to 1200 students. I guess it goes without saying that in the two days leading up to this event I slept very little and studied a huge amount. Fortunately I had to give a speech to the teaching staff in the teachers’ room first, which I did solely in Japanese, thereby boosting my confidence a little. Most of them have never heard me speak Japanese before but all of them knew that I couldn’t speak a word when I arrived a month ago. For that reason perhaps they were all incredibly friendly to me after I had spoken - I have been quietly studying by myself for the past month, determined to break down the language barrier. Now they can see how much effort I have been putting in, even the teachers who can’t speak English have been coming over to say hello.

It’s not just the teachers either. Students at my base school and my visit school have been filtering through the teachers’ room over the past week or so, eager to speak to the new ALT, the one from England with the ‘small face’ (ah, Japanese compliments - I think). My new found celebrity is somewhat overwhelming - it’s certainly small scale, but it’s still unnerving to know that you’re being watched all the time. It turns out nothing is sacred in a country where bowel movements and menstrual pain are freely discussed between colleagues.

A student approached me in the teachers’ room today and told me he wanted to talk to me, but that he had class. We arranged for him to come back at lunchtime, at which point he took me up to his classroom where all of his classmates were eating their packed lunches. I won’t deny feeling awkward. There’s something very bizarre about sitting in a classroom surrounded by teenagers, knowing that you’re now a teacher and thus on the other side of the glass. Anyway it was a very pleasant half hour. The student spoke very good English and I enjoyed speaking to him. Some of his classmates interrupted from time to time, asking personal questions and trying to get reactions from me. At all of our orientations we had been warned about this but it still came as a bit of a surprise - though I don’t know what I was expecting from a group of teenage boys who actually weren’t all that much younger than myself! One lad in particular, goaded on by a friend, asked me my name and then if I had a boyfriend. Smiling sweetly, I replied ‘yes, I do, he’s English’ [snorts of laughter from friend, followed by what was probably a crude comment, judging by the response it got], then I added ‘do you have a girlfriend?’
The laughter died down a little as the student who invited me into the classroom pointed at a girl at the back of the room. ‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he has a serious crush on her.’ Red faces ensued. The nosey boy’s friend thought this even more hilarious than the question itself, but I got no more personal questions (to my great relief) as the boys realised I was going to probe them as much as they probed me. Situation saved. I really wasn’t ready for the ‘experience’ questions.

My first lesson is actually tomorrow. I am absolutely scared out of my wits. 27 students all looking at me and wondering how far they can push me. Fingers crossed they’ll be kind and participate!