Training in Hiroshima went well, boring parts and other parts too. Met some cool people, inluding, of course, a bunch of Australians. I think I've been hanging out with Australians so much lately that my accent might be begining to change. Although, I hear that people develop what's known as the NOVA accent; sort of a combination of all of the English speaking countries, plus a slow rate of speach and precise diction from speaking with Japanese people.
While in Hiroshima I went to the Peace Park and adjoining museum. Very well done, very beautiful, very depressing. One of the fellows I was traveling with, Daniel, took some pcitures, which I will post as soon as I recieve them. There were lots of people there, many school groups and many foriegners.
But soon! I shall be posting my own pictures as I got my keitai (w/ camera) and a digital camera. I'm quite impressed by my phone, but I shan't go rambling off all the features here, suffice to say, if the one were available in the states, it could easily cost three to four times as much as the roughly ¥5500 I paid for it. But to start with, I suppose I'll post a picture of my room here:And there we are. First of many I suppose. But, I digress. The requisite steps to get the phone were certainly interesting, if not simultaneously boring. First was getting there certificate that says that I'm registered to get an alien registration card; while sitting in the poorly ventilated city office waiting for some of the paperwork to go through, an elderly man with a limp and one foot wrapped in a plastic bag came up to me and said some unintelligible things, then wandered over and sat down next to my roomate and spoke at him for a while. After he left, I asked what was up and my roomate told me that apparently he had fought the Americans in the Philipines in World War II. It's amazing to think of meeting war vetrans in another country that fought against our parents generation. The rest of the story is the boring part. I waited in the bank for forty five minutes for my account to be processed. Although the clerk did point to the appropriate prhases in his phrase book, so that I would know what he was talking about.
That was yesterday. Today was my first day of work. It went by a lot faster than I thought it would. Four lessons and three lesson preiods in the voice room. The voice room is where the students, for cheaper than a lesson, can come in and sepdn as much time as they want, chatting in English with an instructor moderating or directing the conversation. The most interesting part of the day happened in the voice room, during my last forty minute period. A fellow from my previous lesson came in and sat down. It turned out he was a cardiologist from the local hospital and was going to Dallas in a week and a half to present a paper on the difference in the angles LV torsion in the endo and epi something, and he wanted me to listen to hm read his presentation and help with his pronunciation, diction and cadence. I thought it was a real treat, to which the other instructors said that there were glad that I got to field that one. Well, second day of work tomorrow at 11:40, so I'd better hit the hay.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
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