Happy Campers

I just got back from 3 of the most fun and enlightening days I've experienced in Japan. I went to an English camp on Oshima (really pretty island off Yanai's coast.) There ended up being 11 ALTs and about 30 students! I was a bit apprehensive at first, anticipating the usual amount of blank faces and strain in teaching English to sullen teenagers but...shock horror, most of the students were total keenies and not the geeky types either. There were some great characters-the chubby cute androgynous one everyone loves, the serious ambitious girl, the super cute giggly girl, the emotional sweetheart...we got to know them really well and they were obviously well chuffed to be around so many foriegners!
The Japanese teachers were ace as well and the ALTs worked bloody hard creating a great atmosphere...if only it was always like this! A kind of English Teaching Utopia...They really wanted to learn. I can only imagine the shock the newbies will have when they teach their first class with normal half-arsed students and see the contrast! Highlights included watermelon smashing on the beach, a big bbq, extremely weird (but funny)dance routines choreographed by the two quietest boys and Carl breakdancing on a 16 foot high narrow pier. All great stuff!
As the whole newbie thing goes I have come to realize that the weirdness is something to do with adjustment. Although everyone here has an adventurous outgoing personality to move to a foreign country in the first place, we do create a comfort zone to combat homesickness, culture shock etc. I think it's taken me all year to get completely comfortable and content here. So the onslaught of new faces sort of pulls the rug from under your feet. However, I had a wicked time with the other ALTs, all of whom at one point or another really impressed me both with their interaction with the students and on the social side of things too...I'm lucky here, the south side of the guch has a fab mix of people! I got to know Crystal, Matt,(taking over Jamies place) Mark, (new Paul) Megan, (new Tense) and Carl (new Angela) a lot better and they're all mint. It was also the first time I've witnessed other ALTs at work and it was an inspiration-this is what we should do instead of sit sweating our arses off at Kencho listening to lectures!!
Now I'm off to Osaka for what I'm sure will be a frenzied time at Summer Sonic. (Japan's Glastenbury. Kind of.) I'm frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog at the amount of live music on offer after this year of semi-cold turkey! One annoying thing is that the best bands seem to be on at the same time! However I will endeavor to be stealth and whiley to sneak my way through crowds to witness Kasabian and Asian Kung Foo, Ian Brown and Duran Duran ect. After that I'm straight off to Fukuoka for two weeks of hardcore Japanese study. I'm gonna be pera-pera (fluent) when I get out! (or improved anyway-I better bloody had better be considering how much its costing!!) I will revise and practice and not just go out every night to all the fab clubs and mess around with Sarah, brownies honor! (hmmm....Who believes that?!)