Starting to teach and some real surf

Teaching Part 1: Elementary School Question Time

I mostly work at a junior high school but I also spend about 12 hours a week at elementary schools. Monday, I had 8 back to back morning classes. Granted they were only twenty minutes but still. The first 10 minutes I’d give a spiel about myself that went something like this, (except in slow, strong pronunciation teacher speak)…
"Good morning everyone. My name is Evan-Sensei. I’m twenty two years old. How old are you? (confused silence). My favorite Japanese food is katsu curry (show printed picture of katsu curry). Favorite sports and hobbies… then on to the maps…"

The next ten minutes were question time, which reminded me of Bill Cosby’s Kids Say the Darnedest Things. The kids were soo excited and their questions were either really interesting or funny.

Is that your natural hair color? What color hair do people have in America?
Pretty much everyone in Japan is from the same genetic stock and they all have black hair. I don’t think they like it too much as there’s a huge hair dying trend here.

Short, fat kid: How did you get so tall? From drinking lots of milk? “My dad’s really tall”. Sorry bud, hate to break the fact of genetic fate to you.

One 1st grade class: Are there fossils in America? Are there snakes in America? Are there cobras in America? Are there anacondas in America?

A couple tough questions
What do you think of our class?
Whose cooler, you or the homeroom teacher?
Do you like the Japanese teacher (the one I work with)?
also
Do you have a lover? I think 6 of the 8 classes asked this.
Are you married? “People get married later in America than Japan.”
One boy asked all 3…
When was your first kiss? then later
When was your first love? then later
When was your last girlfriend?

What really wowed them
My dog weighs 50 kg (125 lbs)
I’m 185 cm, even though they can see how tall I am, the number just really did it.
My younger brother and dad are even taller than I am.
Anything about animals or dinosaurs
I live in their town
Have you seen a gun store? I have AND I have friends that hunt animals


Surfing Part III: Tropical Swells

The typhoon was heading our way and there were a few days last week I’d have surfed but it was a little too big, imperfect, and scary to surf alone. Where were the other surfers? It was frustrating. Some people don’t go in the ocean after Obon, (think Japanese Dia de los Muertos), because it’s then that the souls of the dead try to lure you underwater to drown. Although I doubt this is the case with surfers, it is quite common with the regular beach-goers. Also summer surf season is officially over and the water temperature actually did drop considerably.

The morning after the typhoon passed, the surf was already less than head high and a little weak; disappointment. On Sunday, I almost brought my longboard; what a mistake that’d of been. It was a sunny, cloudless day, with perfect offshore winds and 7-10 foot lines freight-training from outside of the jetty. However, the current was strong, there was a bit of a crowd, and it was just tough to surf. Experienced more frustration due to watching so many overhead rights peel for 10-15 seconds but not getting them.

The next afternoon was the same but empty and dark and drizzly out. I jumped in the riptide and made the loooong paddle out by myself. It took a bit of time for me to psych myself up to sit right in the take off zone, as it always seemed there was a big clean-up set looming on the horizon. After a long surf, my neighbor Mike came down with his camera, so although I was exhausted I went back out for a few more. Here’s a sequence. actually im just gonna include a link to the album on facebook which also has Mt Fuji pictures too

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051906&l=b07f8&id=13302886

and if you dont have facebook and want to see more pictures
Older Japan 2 album
http://claremont.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049354&l=a1cde&id=13302886

Older Japan 1 album
http://claremont.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048282&l=dab8f&id=13302886








I also have plenty of surf shots on my cell phone I'll post at some point