The Weekend Review - A whole lotta Kobe

This has officially been "the week that wouldn't end." Certainly a loooong one...

The conference in itself was one story (both during the workshops and during the evenings... I have yet to post details, but you'll have to email me for a full report - not for the blog). Thursday and Friday were normal days at work. Thursday is one of my busiest days, so I really had to snap back into gear and get focused on lessons and the kids. I had a few new lessons plans, including one where I tried to incorporate logic games. I thought it would be cool for the kids to see that they can use English to do things others than dialogues and language games. It went alright, but the games are probably more interesting for the purposes of class... I'll leave the math problems to the math teachers (for now!). I also went to a more serious reading class which I have started participating in this year. The teacher told me it is the first time in 18 years she has invited the ALT to work with her in this type of class. She teaches me about teaching and we have a lot of fun together - it's a flattering comment, and I like the change. It's also good to see more of the second-years during class. I feel more connected to them because we "started" at the same time and I don't see many of them very often!
Friday
On Friday, Kelly and I rushed home from school to change and catch a train to Sannomiya (central Kobe) for our friend's Pern's birthday dinner. We texted to say we were almost there, when Pern writes back telling us the party is on Saturday! I am not always that much of a space case, but sometimes Kel and I can be such a Tweetle Dee & Tweetle Dum pair, getting ourselves into the most absurd, random situations. It makes for some good stories, but can be annoying at times (like Friday when we were both ready to fall over anyways).
From Hub (--> Karaoke) --> Club
Since we were already in Sanno, Kelly and I decided to do something instead of heading home. We went to the Hub (British pub - popular expat spot) for Happy Hour and ran into the usual HH gang from Kobe. Pern was out with his teachers (first of 3 parties this weekend, lucky guy) and I talked to this Israeli guy I met in Osaka for a while ago and made plans for our groups to maybe meet up later. After a bit, Kel and I headed to karaoke. Ok, I am not going to lie, I normally suck at karaoke (no matter how much I like it), but I sounded especially bad on Friday. We decided to throw in the towel after an hour (2 is the standard - it's a good time for only about $5/hr) and stop into a small club before going home. Ironically, the Israeli friend was there (hadn't even called yet), so we chilled with him and his Japanese friend before heading home.
Saturday
I slept late and spent the afternoon running errands on Saturday before Pern's (actual) birthday party. We went to an izikaya in Sannomiya (Japanese pub where we had our own room) for dinner and then Lock Up for fun drinks afterwards. I've written about Lock Up before, the prison/cave-themed restaraunt, but this was my first time at the Kobe location. It was bigger than Kyoto, with two levels, and while we were there, they turned all the lights off, the black lights on, and people dressed in monster masks ran around, trying to scare us. I think Freddy kissed Kelly at one point, and the Scream character gave Pern a birthday cake. Our drinks were served in huge syringes, beakers & test tubes as well, which was pretty cool... but raaaaaandom! We considered going out clubbing afterwards (Lock Up is next to a hip-hop place called Beber), but decided to go our separate ways at the station and take last train home. It was fun to see some people at the party I haven't seen in a while. There's going to be a big beach party that most of them are going to in a few weeks, but I am going to Toyko to meet Jess and it's crazy how fast the summer weekends are filling up - already! - so I my chances to hang out with them are running low.
Lazy Sunday
Today (Sunday) has been slow & lazy. I was on the phone with America after I got home last night, so slept in a bit later. I had big plans for being outside today, but made the mistake of watching my first episode of Arrested Development with breakfast. I had never seen the show before, but laughed my way through several episodes before realizing I had spent the best afternoon hours watching TV. I guess you need to laugh sometimes (now that I've exhausted Curb...), but I felt lazy... I went for a long run along the water in the evening and then to karaoke again with Tam and her friend (visiting from the US) for a few hours.
"Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty..." ....and...yeah...
I am not sure this upcoming week is going to be much less busy, but getting some girl time in was a good end to the week. The big Cultural Festival at school (each class gives a performance - usually a cheographed dance) is two weeks away, so my English club has a lot of prep work to do this week:-P More on that soon... off to bed now. Hope your weekends went well:)


One for Engrish.com?
I saw this place in Kobe on Saturday.
The sign says they serve
"Wine and Something Else"
and it's called Chin Chilla....

Uh, huh....

I can't read the kanji, but I *really*
hope that doesn't mean what I
think it might!!