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GEOS training, Day 3 and 4
Let's see what I can remember. It's probably not much and it's not like I can talk about it all anyway :)
Wednesday, we spent another day of training info stuff in the morning and teaching in the afternoon. I don't really remember offhand what stuff we went over on Wednesday, it's all sort of a big blur at this point, BUT I do remember we had to learn how to give "renewal" conferences, and practiced talking through those. I think we talked some about culture shock and coping mechanisms, too.
We were in session until 1:30 and then took another "long lunch break"; we went for pizza and then I walked uptown with C&J and we stopped in a coffee shop near the GEOS school to review our lesson plans for the afternoon.
Yet again, C & D & I went first, and this time J had two students instead of W in the second session. My lesson -- despite that I hadn't prepared nearly as many props as I had for the other one -- actually went pretty well, I thought. My student was a Japanese girl, probably in her early 20's, sort of shy but pretty friendly anyway. My first question was to ask her what level she was, so from what she said it sounded like my lesson was actually the level above hers, but she did REALLY well! It was funny, I had been worried about having to fake enthusiasm for students who might not be as good at speaking English, but I didn't have to fake it at all when saying things like "Wow, great sentence! Your pronunciation is good! You're doing really well with these, I'm so impressed!" -- I actually WAS impressed with her. I'm hoping that's how things will go in general, because I hate being fake.
Feedback afterwards said that I did a good job of smiling and of doing the lesson, and my speech speed was even good -- I just had to work on keeping tone high and not trailing off at the end of sentences.
So after Wednesday's session, I found a place to fax T-Mobile my "I'm moving away" info, and then came back to Metrotown. I did some shopping again but still didn't really find much; tried on a pair of jeans I sort of liked but didn't think I could justify getting them. Eventually Matt picked me up and I spent the evening goofing off with the kittens; Matt and I watched some of the Mariners game, and Laura and I tried to take in the waist on my black business skirt since it's big and doesn't stay up, but we mostly only succeeded in angering her sewing machine.
Okay, so Thursday there were no lessons, so only minimal homework. We spent the morning covering paperwork, mostly, which was kind of boring, and I was even nodding off. We went over children's lessons, saw the textbooks, and then I went off and got a cup of mocha caffe latte or whatever it was called, and HOLY SHIT that stuff was strong and awesome, I went from dead to bouncing off the walls...
...just in time for Tomoko's children's lessons. She taught us a kids' lesson but in Japanese essentially, to show how to model games and how to act and how to encourage kids. We were the kids. Which meant we ended up singing songs and running relay races and all of this other stuff. I think the guys were too embarrassed to do a lot of it, but I was all wired AND feeling silly, so I was really getting into it, talking with puppets, etc. It was pretty funny. To me, anyway. I just kept waving my hands around like "Yaaaaaaay!" in a high-pitched voice.
Only problem with drinking a big coffee was that by the end of the lesson, MY GOD DID I HAVE TO PEE. OH MY GOD. It was a lesson in not drinking stuff before I have an hour of not being able to go to the bathroom.
I changed clothes into my jeans and t-shirt after that, and actually came back to the GEOS room to return the bathroom key, and by then all of the other trainees had left, so I chatted with Tomoko and Michel for a bit about stuff (they both wanted to talk about Ichiro, oddly enough, after I told them I was going to the baseball game later), and I promised to let them know how stuff goes, and said goodbye.
I ran into C&J by the Japanese consulate; they were on their way out from getting their visas, and I was on my way in. Getting the visa was easy, there was no line, I just went up and picked it up. After that I decided to go get some money changed since we were told not to take time to do that at the airport; I stopped by a Tim Horton's on the way for lunch, realizing it was almost 4pm and I HADN'T EATEN ALL DAY. Coffee does weird things to me. Changing money was also easy -- and the lady was like "Oh, we have had a bunch of guys come in who were also going to Japan tomorrow to teach English!" Heh.
Then I took the Skytrain out to the stop near where Matt and Laura work, and ended up sitting at a Starbucks until 5:30. They picked me up and we followed a friend of theirs to Nat Bailey stadium, where the Vancouver Canadians were playing the Everett Aquasox! Yay minor league baseball!
So yeah, I got to watch an Aquasox game after all, just up in Canada. And the Aquasox won. I had told everyone beforehand that the only players I was really familiar with were Greg Halman and Manelik Pimentel, and both of them did really well (but the really big deal was a home run hit by Craig Hurba, over that huge CF wall!). I almost got Juan Ramirez to throw me a baseball before the game -- he was joking around with another player, they were like, hackeysacking the baseball, and I was wearing a Mariners shirt and I smiled at them and held up my hand like "Hey, can I have a ball?" but they just looked at me, grinned, shook their heads, and went further away. I took some pictures but it was all with my bad camera, so...
It got pretty cold, and there was some crazy stuff going on -- namely one at-bat that took like 20 minutes, after a pitching change, a double steal, a pickoff with a hard tag and a shove and stuff, and... yeah. It was all on an Aquasox player named Benitez, too. Pretty funny.
We went home and I intended to pack pack pack, but ended up falling asleep around 2am instead. Got up at 7 by habit, and Laura drove me to the airport, and... and now I am here. I AM FLYING TO JAPAN. IS THAT INSANE OR WHAT?
Okay, bye :)
Wednesday, we spent another day of training info stuff in the morning and teaching in the afternoon. I don't really remember offhand what stuff we went over on Wednesday, it's all sort of a big blur at this point, BUT I do remember we had to learn how to give "renewal" conferences, and practiced talking through those. I think we talked some about culture shock and coping mechanisms, too.
We were in session until 1:30 and then took another "long lunch break"; we went for pizza and then I walked uptown with C&J and we stopped in a coffee shop near the GEOS school to review our lesson plans for the afternoon.
Yet again, C & D & I went first, and this time J had two students instead of W in the second session. My lesson -- despite that I hadn't prepared nearly as many props as I had for the other one -- actually went pretty well, I thought. My student was a Japanese girl, probably in her early 20's, sort of shy but pretty friendly anyway. My first question was to ask her what level she was, so from what she said it sounded like my lesson was actually the level above hers, but she did REALLY well! It was funny, I had been worried about having to fake enthusiasm for students who might not be as good at speaking English, but I didn't have to fake it at all when saying things like "Wow, great sentence! Your pronunciation is good! You're doing really well with these, I'm so impressed!" -- I actually WAS impressed with her. I'm hoping that's how things will go in general, because I hate being fake.
Feedback afterwards said that I did a good job of smiling and of doing the lesson, and my speech speed was even good -- I just had to work on keeping tone high and not trailing off at the end of sentences.
So after Wednesday's session, I found a place to fax T-Mobile my "I'm moving away" info, and then came back to Metrotown. I did some shopping again but still didn't really find much; tried on a pair of jeans I sort of liked but didn't think I could justify getting them. Eventually Matt picked me up and I spent the evening goofing off with the kittens; Matt and I watched some of the Mariners game, and Laura and I tried to take in the waist on my black business skirt since it's big and doesn't stay up, but we mostly only succeeded in angering her sewing machine.
Okay, so Thursday there were no lessons, so only minimal homework. We spent the morning covering paperwork, mostly, which was kind of boring, and I was even nodding off. We went over children's lessons, saw the textbooks, and then I went off and got a cup of mocha caffe latte or whatever it was called, and HOLY SHIT that stuff was strong and awesome, I went from dead to bouncing off the walls...
...just in time for Tomoko's children's lessons. She taught us a kids' lesson but in Japanese essentially, to show how to model games and how to act and how to encourage kids. We were the kids. Which meant we ended up singing songs and running relay races and all of this other stuff. I think the guys were too embarrassed to do a lot of it, but I was all wired AND feeling silly, so I was really getting into it, talking with puppets, etc. It was pretty funny. To me, anyway. I just kept waving my hands around like "Yaaaaaaay!" in a high-pitched voice.
Only problem with drinking a big coffee was that by the end of the lesson, MY GOD DID I HAVE TO PEE. OH MY GOD. It was a lesson in not drinking stuff before I have an hour of not being able to go to the bathroom.
I changed clothes into my jeans and t-shirt after that, and actually came back to the GEOS room to return the bathroom key, and by then all of the other trainees had left, so I chatted with Tomoko and Michel for a bit about stuff (they both wanted to talk about Ichiro, oddly enough, after I told them I was going to the baseball game later), and I promised to let them know how stuff goes, and said goodbye.
I ran into C&J by the Japanese consulate; they were on their way out from getting their visas, and I was on my way in. Getting the visa was easy, there was no line, I just went up and picked it up. After that I decided to go get some money changed since we were told not to take time to do that at the airport; I stopped by a Tim Horton's on the way for lunch, realizing it was almost 4pm and I HADN'T EATEN ALL DAY. Coffee does weird things to me. Changing money was also easy -- and the lady was like "Oh, we have had a bunch of guys come in who were also going to Japan tomorrow to teach English!" Heh.
Then I took the Skytrain out to the stop near where Matt and Laura work, and ended up sitting at a Starbucks until 5:30. They picked me up and we followed a friend of theirs to Nat Bailey stadium, where the Vancouver Canadians were playing the Everett Aquasox! Yay minor league baseball!
So yeah, I got to watch an Aquasox game after all, just up in Canada. And the Aquasox won. I had told everyone beforehand that the only players I was really familiar with were Greg Halman and Manelik Pimentel, and both of them did really well (but the really big deal was a home run hit by Craig Hurba, over that huge CF wall!). I almost got Juan Ramirez to throw me a baseball before the game -- he was joking around with another player, they were like, hackeysacking the baseball, and I was wearing a Mariners shirt and I smiled at them and held up my hand like "Hey, can I have a ball?" but they just looked at me, grinned, shook their heads, and went further away. I took some pictures but it was all with my bad camera, so...
It got pretty cold, and there was some crazy stuff going on -- namely one at-bat that took like 20 minutes, after a pitching change, a double steal, a pickoff with a hard tag and a shove and stuff, and... yeah. It was all on an Aquasox player named Benitez, too. Pretty funny.
We went home and I intended to pack pack pack, but ended up falling asleep around 2am instead. Got up at 7 by habit, and Laura drove me to the airport, and... and now I am here. I AM FLYING TO JAPAN. IS THAT INSANE OR WHAT?
Okay, bye :)