Entries this day: Kimika Lesson Nanotechnology Work hsjj sachiko_party

Kimika

8:39am JST Friday 26 March 2004

Runes suggested that I don't buy a journal for Kimika.

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Ayana suggested that we meet at 10am today instead of 9:30.

Lesson

1:06pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

Lesson was pretty good. When I arrived, I saw Jimmy (da magnet) having a coffee so I sat down with him for a bit. He said he was interested in taking Japanese class, and was impressed with the price, so he may hook it up with Ayana.

I hadn't studied hard core, but some stuff that I studied over the week remained in my brain: おととい、昨日、えらぶ

I was also able to read some kanji and figure out/remember the meaning of 魚.

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After lesson, Ayana went to a book store and I tagged along because she said it was pretty big and would have some English / hiragana maps. I bought a southeast Asia map in English and a Tokyo map in Japanese.

I hadn't previously planned to otherwise visit a bookstore, so I flipped a coin to see about buying a diary for Kimika. It said no.

My first lesson at work is at 3:15.

Nanotechnology

1:26pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

Some cat named Chris Phoenix wrote a thing on nanotechnology in Future Brief, and argues that we should be preparing for big changes.

Work

2:42pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

I've gotten two 5-5 lessons. Yay! My first lesson today is a [student's] First Lesson. This will by my first First Lesson.

4:56pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

First lesson's First Lesson went well. Got through the material, but found some grammar problems that are assumed not to be problems by this book.

Just taught Kimika. Told her that I had considered getting her a diary. Before lesson, one of the other teachers was chatting it up with her. During lesson, she gave me an idividually wrapped chocolate after I thanked her for giving me chocolate in a quick role play. She ate one and then gave me the rest of the pack. (I don't know a word that means a "stick" of individually wrapped chocolates like starburst is wrapped.) I gave her one more chocolate from the pack after I assumed that her piece, like mine, had dissolved to nothingness. After lesson, another teacher was chatting it up with her. I'm jealous, but I'm more sitting within the emotion than acting on it. More fish in the sea is going through my brain.

She has perfect teeth and great smile and cute little voice and soft-looking hair. But she didn't always understand my questions today. I don't know how much it was because my brain was thinking of ways to exchange emails, and how much it was because she didn't have the language yet.

Release.

8:42pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

I taught Mariko, and it was great fun. She had questions about how to direct people to various places around her work, and I asked her to draw a map, but the terrain included hills, so we ended up making a 3D model out of paper. A crap model, but it worked to get the terrain into my brain so I could write the verbage for her. It was a double lesson and we barely had time to get it all done. I'm really glad to be that flexible and able to help.

hsjj

7:41pm JST Friday 26 March 2004

Just played 15 minutes of Hackey Sack Jack with Jesse, making it HSJJ. Money.

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We had been study/chatting in the teachers room, when, for no apparent reason, I pulled my hackey sack out of my pocket and tossed it to my other hand.

[blink] goes Jesse. "You play hackey sack?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah (!) Let's go."

Jesse grabbed *his* hackey sack, which is a really quality footbag. Leather, with dense small pellets, and excellent for stalls. "Damn! This bag can't help but stall."

We played out kinda behind the building in a roped off area that we decided was just for our entertainment. "There's no room, otherwise." True enough to be true.

Jesse was able to do a tie stall three times. His hackey sackey style is mostly using feet; he can do inside kicks well, and his outside kicks got better through the 20 minutes that we played. (He hadn't played in a year before this.)

My style is mostly using my knees. I kept getting flubbed up when the sack would hit my lump of gloves in the front pocket of my hoodie, but I did generally well; I was glad and we both had way fun.

sachiko party

2:33am JST Saturday 27 March 2004

After work Sachiko met me at Jiyugaoka station - came in the blistering cold with her friend かちん to walk me back to some izakiah where she was having a gathering of her peeps. Satoko, Tomomi, Shou, Tsukan, Chikako

oops I'm falling asleep.

Chikako seemed to be the least drunk and I didn't notice her smoking while I was there. Her English is really good; we'll hang out again.

Work starts in as few as 7.5 hours.