Winter Break 2016 Day 1? Final Fantasy is coming to town!!

I can't recall how I count the days of Winter Break in previous years, but let's say today is Day 1.

Woke up a bit later than I expected, but early enough to ready myself to purchase tickets for Distant World: Final Fantasy. Ever since the Zelda concert in... 2011 or 2012, I've been hoping that Final Fantasy will one day come to Calgary.

Lo and behold, my wishes came true! When I found out that they were coming to Calgary, I literally jumped for joy, which is something that I rarely do. To this day, it is still my favorite when it comes to game music, Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu (and whoever makes music for FF) are musical geniuses in my opinion. Now, just to count down to May 21st 2017!!

Other than that, I started Final Fantasy XV today. Square Enix sure spent a long time with the game, but I'm very pleased with the result.

Besides relaxation, my dad and I changed the oil in my car and my mom's car. Took a bloody long time, due to certain factors, but at least it's done!

Now I just have to find time to do marking this break... and some lesson planning... Work has been extremely draining this year as to date... which is one reason why I've been blogging a lot less.

But less excuses and off to enjoy Winter Break 2016!

Longest Hiatus Yet

I believe it's been over a month since I last blogged! Life has been quite hectic; whether it's marking, report cards, working out -- it just has been really busy.

I finally found some time to blog!

This week has been somewhat grueling, due to report cards. I got off work at around 5:30 and headed off to Chinook Centre to purchase chocolate for my mom's birthday. She favors Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut.

As I went up the escalator, I went to the nearest directory. I have long since forgotten how to head to the small shop, due to my horrible sense of direction. After some time, I realized... that Chinook no longer had that particular chocolate shop! I frantically looked for another one, since according to Google, most Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut stores closed at 6, I found one at Southcentre Mall.

After an uneventful journey to the said mall, I parked in the parking lot and headed towards the main entrance. The night air was brisk, but it brought a sense of joy for me. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but this time of the year is one of my favorites. The festive season is still young, but I felt it in the dark as I headed towards the somewhat dim lighted glass entrance. (Which reminds me... I need to pull out my camera again! And finish editing those fall pictures...)

I quickly found the shop, made a purchase (and got two free samples!) and headed home to complete more report card comments...

And now I'm done my rough draft for my comments! Just editing tomorrow before I submit them.

Who knows when I'll blog again...

5 years

It's been five years and a day since I first started this blog! A lot has happened throughout the five years: graduating from the faculty of education, starting my career, travelling to Japan, making a big ticket purchase, meeting new people, etc.

Half a decade has passed, and I'm finally on track on being healthy once again! =)

But I admit, I've been lazy in terms of blogging. Despite all the new things that have happened over the past five years, it didn't seem significant enough for me to blog about.

Either way, onto another five years hopefully! Thank goodness it's the long weekend... it'll give me time to mark music theory.

All in the Mind

It's been a while! Nothing too dramatic in life, and I was feeling quite lazy the past couple of weeks.

I haven't had a leg weekend since two weeks back due to various events last week. I was dreading squats today, so I took pre-workout... which I normally never do. Also, and I know you're not supposed to when you take pre-workout, I chugged it all down instead of sipping on it (which is the part you shouldn't do) throughout my workout.

With a clear mind, I began to squat: 45 lbs, 95 lbs, 135 lbs, 155 lbs, 185 lbs, 205 lbs and 225 lbs before going on to my working set of 245 lbs. However, I was unable to do my 5 x 2 sets. I kept leaning forward, being unable to keep my core tight. After getting advice from a friend, I went back down to 225 and rep out 5.

My workout buddies for the day believed that I could do more than 5, in which I personally never done before (doing five today was also a first). After a quick discussion, one had set a goal of 8 reps!

I never done 8 reps of 2 plates before (225 lbs), and thus I was feeling quite anxious. Doing five felt like a grind for me. I gritted my teeth and tried a set. I wasn't able to do 8, but I did put in seven.

After about 5 minutes, I went back to attempt again. At around 4 reps in, I lost count and felt like I was going to black out. After completing what I thought was 7 reps, I was informed that I managed to put in 8! With that boost in confidence, I was able to count 8 reps for my next set, and without feeling like I would black out!

After 5 sets of 8 reps, I went back up to 245 lbs. It felt a lot easier to rep out sets of 2. I even managed a single 255 lbs set, which was also quite a confidence boost for me.

So all in all, I never realized how important mental strength is when it comes to lifting. You have to believe in yourself, that you're able to lift the weight (with proper form)! Or have it come crashing down onto you...

And that's that! It's hard to believe today is the first day of October! Or second day technically.

2016 went by pretty quickly!!

Witty Responses

Last week was a short week due to Labour Day Monday; shorter due to two teaching days and two testing days.

However, it just seemed extremely busy... probably because of things starting to pick up since we're in week two of the school year.

In terms of the blog title today: Thursday and Friday consisted of reading test. Essentially, every year, we test our homeroom student's reading levels. The reason why we need two days is because it takes around 30 minutes per student. There's one particular reading about natural disasters that asks a question about how you would personally feel if you were a survivor of a natural disaster. 

Most students that read this passage would say that they would be scared, and try and look for family members. However, I had one student comment that she most likely would die and therefore had no feelings. That comment surprised me, and I wasn't sure how to react to it.

But I had to admit, that it was a clever answer. 

Besides the reading test, in karate today, we were going over personal introductions. It's something I use to refresh my memory of my students, because I would forget how old they are, or even like today... forget some of their names... Besides their name and school grade, I asked each of them to state something they did over the summer. (I think I used favorite ice cream flavor last year).

Anyways, one student stated that he went to the hospital over the summer. I automatically responded by asking why he went to the hospital. 

He pauses to think, and the scrunches up his face into a slight scowl and said "It's none of your business!" I actually laughed mentally, because he was definitely right. 

Sometimes I wish I was that witty when I was their age! =P

New Personal Best and Failing Gracefully

For the past couple of weeks, I've been doing squats on Saturday and deadlifts on Sunday. I find squats to be more draining, especially with a greater fear of failing and injuring myself (from my injury in February) compared to deadlifts. If you can't deadlift, you just drop the bar.

As for this weekend, I switched up the two: deadlifted yesterday and squatted today. I was nervous since I wasn't feeling in top form from deadlifting. Therefore, instead of doing 5 x 3 sets, it was more for PR (personal records) and hypertrophy training.

Since I've been doing two plates for the past month or so, I was able to achieve a PR of 265 lbs. I tried doing 275 lbs twice, but I needed assistance halfway through both times. Nevertheless, I've never touched this amount of weight before, so I was pleased with my progress. Hopefully in six weeks time I'll be able to achieve 275!

After reaching PRs, I worked my way down to a single plate, in which I started hypertrophy training: repping as much as I can without resting. Even though it was only one plate (135 lbs), it felt extremely grueling. On my second set, when I tried to go past ten reps, I failed.

I dropped the bar on the safety rack as I failed and rolled onto my back. Compared to the last time I failed, it was much more graceful. Last time, I refused to drop the bar, which made it difficult for my spotter... and of course caused a bit of a commotion, with others coming to my rescue. I think I almost injured somebody as well with the bar... =/

At least lesson learned! I must say that my failure today was one fluid motion. =P

I was actually touched today that I almost had tears in my eyes!

First week with the students! It has been extremely busy due to getting back to the swing of things. This is my first year teaching four science 8 classes, making it more difficult than I thought it would be with scheduling. I see some of my classes for the double, which means that some of my classes are slightly ahead of the others. Small thing that I'll just have to get adjusted to.

Other than that, my new homeroom has been pretty awesome! My previous three homerooms have been really good, but this is the first year where all my students got a lock for their locker. And this was accomplished by the third day of school!

I was really impressed.

But what impressed me more was that majority of my students brought a book cover for their textbook, when in previous years, less than half of my class would bring one in the first week of classes.

And with that, I was touched. I didn't have to remind/haggle my students.

Seemingly small, but it meant a lot to me today.

Hopefully it means that this year will be a good year! =D

First Day Back to Work 2016

It was difficult waking up at 5:30 AM this morning. I went to bed pretty much after completing day 1 of the "22 push ups for 22 day" challenge to bring awareness to our armed forces, veterans and first responders that suffer from PTSD. I fell asleep, just after 12 because I recall checking my phone.

Anyways, I got to work early and began to get ready for the school year. For the good part of the day, I engaged in small talk with colleagues near my classroom, since we haven't seen each other for the past couple of months. After dividing class supplies with my grade team, I went to complete some other tasks. All in all, a pretty productive day in my books.

My schedule for the following school year turned out to be alright: four grade 8 science classes (with a bunch of them being a double period on a single day) and music 7 and 8. Science 8 I'm not worried about since I taught it multiple times before, but music will be a challenge. Besides teaching music theory back in the day, I never taught a music class (playing various of instruments that are not piano based, learning about certain types of music history, learning to play the recorder... though how hard can that be). It'll be an interesting experience to say the least!

After work, I made the rare Tuesday trip to the gym. I normally don't exercise on Tuesdays, since I leave that to get work done at school. However, since school didn't officially start, I made my way down. 

Back Day 2... and boy is my back sore...

Late Post for 3rd Year Experience as a Junior High Teacher

Late post, though in all honesty I didn't mean to make it this late. Summer 2016 went by quite quickly, and it started off with a somewhat unexpected event that affected me more than I thought it would. That's for another blog post though!

So third year as a junior high teacher... which turned out to be easier than my first two years. I taught just one core class: 3 Grade 8 science classes. I took what I learned, and made improvements for that year.

Like my second year, the third year went extremely quickly. Things started off really well, and I started to lose some steam near the beginning of the year. Fortunately, fatigue didn't really hit me till the last couple of weeks!

Here's what I learned over the years

1) It's important to set the tone on day 1 and to continue with that tone for as long as you can: Like my second year, I made sure to lay down all my expectations. My homeroom didn't give me any issue like my previous homeroom, so I didn't have to give them DT on the first day of school! =P Unfortunately, I started to be a little bit too laid back, which was quite evident as the year progressed.

2) Be vigilante! Students can be quite tricky. I know for a fact that students cheat on exams. Sometimes I catch them, sometimes I don't. From what I noticed throughout my three years, they tend to cheat more on quizzes for some reason than unit tests or the final exam. Unfortunately this year, I caught a couple cheaters on the Science final... It got quite out of hand, which I then had to refer to administration to deal with. Normally, I would give zeros and a stern lecture/DT, but this was a case I couldn't deal with...

3) Tell stories, and lots of them. During the grade 9 graduation this year, a couple of my students from my homeroom last year gave a speech as class historians. Previous class historians would go through memories they shared within their grade 9 years, which normally include comical events. They would also take the time to compliment, or take slight jabs at their grade 9 teachers. Like I stated in a previous blog post, I was pleasantly surprised when the mentioned my name (since I don't teach a grade 9 core class), and how they remembered me for "story time" and for how I'm able to keep a stoic face when I'm angry. =P

Like I mentioned before, my last mentor teacher told me that the most important thing about teaching is building the rapport, and telling personal stories is one way of doing it.

And it's true. I would tell them all sorts of stories: my personal accomplishments, and more importantly my failures, past events, and lessons that I learned. At times, if the situation comes to it, I would mention things that my friends experienced; and don't fret... I don't use names at all =P. I realized, no matter which student it is, they open up to stories even if some of them get tired of hearing me say "Okay class, it's story time".

4) Unfortunately, you may begin to forget names of previous students. Each year, I probably go through 130 different names. It's quite a task to remember 130 names, but fortunately my memory is, pardon my arrogance, slightly better than normal. However, as time goes on, I do admit that I forget some of my former students names, especially if they didn't stick out in my mind.

That reminds me of a time, when I went to go vote and I saw one of my high school teachers at the... voting location. He recognized my face and said hello, but it was obvious he forgotten my name. I was hurt, but reminded myself that it had been 6 years since I graduated from high school.

Just last winter... or was it two winters ago?, I met one of my former students at Starbucks. She came up to me and said "Hi Mr. Maruyama!", but in all honesty I forgotten her name. All I recalled was her face, and that she went to a school where I was a student teacher. Ever since then, I realized that it's normal to forget.

5) At times, you may question yourself, whether you're chose the right path, but I think it's worth it in the end.

I was questioning whether I should post my last point or not, since some readers may find it controversial.

When I was an education student, I recall one of my professors saying how many new teachers leave the field within five years for a multitude of reasons: amount of hours to prep/mark/extra curricular, work/life balance, and yearly salary.

It's true.

I know of many people who criticize teachers of having it easy since we get essentially three months off a year (almost 2 months for summer, 2 weeks for winter, 1 week for spring and your other holidays), and that we just babysit children all day. Going off a slight tangent, I'm sure many of you have heard the saying "If you can't do anything, teach".

I can't say how difficult an occupation outside of education is, since majority of jobs/positions I had before involved the field of education, but I'm quite sure that teaching is no walk in the park. It's true that I don't have to hold a patient's life in my hands, nor ensure that a million/billion dollar deal goes awry, nor making sure that a structure meets engineering requirements. That, I'm glad, is something that I don't have to deal with on a day to day basis.

I deal with continuous lesson planning, ensuring that I meet the curriculum requirements and make adjustments to help bring interest to even my hardest-to-reach students. During the school year, there's rarely any time in which I don't think about school.

I deal with student drama, and the occasional parent drama. Teachers don't just teach, we interact with students on a day to day basis. We look out for signs of student behaviours that are different to what they normally display. Each year, we notice students going through challenges, like depression, anxiety and all sorts of other issues that may seem trivial to us, but mean a lot to them. Parents for the most part are very supportive at my school, but sometimes we have to deal with difficult parents who believe that we're totally in the wrong, when we're doing our professional AND personal best to help their children in the best way possible.

I deal with marking. Lots of it. I have taken lots of short cuts this year in marking (scantrons, having students mark small quizzes, getting friends to help mark, etc), but it still eats up quite a bit of time. All the extra time outside of our work day is done on our time. This makes our work/life balance quite tedious to balance. I learned my lesson from my first year, and didn't dedicate as much time as I did to work, so that I could keep myself physically and mentally healthy.

Now, after the long spiel, it's back to my main point. There were times that I got discouraged about my profession and whether I made the right choice or not. There are factors beyond my control as a teacher that made me wonder why I need to put up with it. Of course, I admit, sometimes I wish I had a higher salary. Personally, I think teachers are paid well, but everyone wants to make more money (and was it after $100,000 a year where happiness doesn't increase anymore?)

And yes, that made me wonder if I was meant for teaching. I haven't really tried any other field, since I started tutoring before I was even a teenager. At times, I wondered how it would be like to leave teaching and try another field.

But in the end, what keeps me grounded are my students. I teach for them, and not for anybody else (which reminds me of a story... but that's for another time). To see students succeed, and for them to say that I played a part in the life is rewarding enough. To see students fail, and perhaps give them a helping hand, or to see them rise back up again on their own, is even more rewarding.

And for that, it makes me want to teach my students the meaning of success. To some of my students, it may mean making the big dough, driving nice cars, buying luxury brands and houses. To others, it may mean starting their own family. Each one of them has their own stories, and no matter how confident they may be, I want them to all know that they can find some level of success.

It is one of my desires, to have a student come back, 10 years, 20 years, how many years down the road and tell me that they're happy.

That is why, I choose and remain to teach.

Grueling oil change...

It was pretty much an ordinary Saturday. I started it by heading to the gym to squat. I was worried I wouldn't be able to squat properly, since it's been a couple weeks since my last session, but I was able to complete 5 sets of 3 reps of 225 lbs without much difficulty. Afterwards, I went to a friend's house to learn how to make egg tarts. Mixing the ingredients was pretty straight forward, though baking them was a different story. The first batch puffed up quite a bit when under high heat, and collapsed once it was cool, leading to a rough texture and bubbles within the custard. 

My friend experimented with the temperature (lowering it to ensure it didn't puff dramatically) and the next batch turned out to be pretty decent. All in all, I learned quite a bit within the afternoon spent there.

Upon coming home, I rested a bit before changing the oil on my car. I have a bit of experience changing the oil before, but it was quite a bit different on my current car. It took my dad and I nearly four hours to change... reasons being removing a plastic cover, covering the oil filter and trying to remove the crush washer on the back of the oil plug. Also, it took over an hour for the car to drain! My guess is the oil was too cool, since I waited too long to change? But that plastic cover... 11 fasteners to unfasten... I'm not sure why they had to make it that difficult to remove (around 15 minutes to remove). Also, I personally think it would be easier if they build some kind of door and latch that exposed the oil filter, so you don't have to remove the entire bottom. 

Either way, I hope it takes less time for the next time! Quite the day for my last weekend before school starts.

I'll finish the blog post on my third year sometime tomorrow... or Monday...

If wishes could be fulfilled, then I wouldn't wish for anything

Just finished re-watching both seasons of Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru/My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Situation Normal, All F**Ked Up). After reading analysis of certain episodes in the dramatic, but incredibly awesome second season, I realized how many deep quotes this anime series has. My favorite has to be the following...

"If wishes could be fulfilled, then I wouldn't wish for anything. The things you're handed on a silver platter are never genuine or everlasting. And that is why I will always keep searching." - Hikigaya Hachiman -- as translated in episode 8 of the second season

From my own interpretation, most meaningful experiences in life tend to be the one where you put in effort. Whether it's a person's relationships or achieving goals, I think this quote can apply to either. Thinking about my own experiences, I find it to be quite true. Relationships that goes through natural up and downs and last tend to be the most meaningful. Achieving goals through mostly your own means seem to have the most impact and to be genuine. Things that come easy to, never seem to last as long. Relationships that always have rose-coloured glasses never feel as deep or meaningful.

Perhaps a quote to use for the next school year.

Which reminds me that I should write up my experiences as a third year teacher soon. Only two weeks of break left... where has the time gone? It's also hard to believe that I'll be starting my fourth year as a teacher...

Oh my knees...

It has been a while. The past couple of weeks have been a blur after a somewhat eventful beginning to July. Speaking of that, it is hard for me to believe that we are near the end of the month...

As for today, a group of friends and myself decided to scale Mount Lady MacDonald. I am not a complete stranger when it comes to hiking, for I have done it a couple times when I was younger (including Mount Fuji). With that in mind, I probably didn't prepare for the hike as much as I should have, simply believing that I knew what I was doing. I ended up bringing my backpack that I use to travel (good ol' trust orange MEC bag), hiking poles, a couple disposable bottles of water, shorts and extra socks (I normally hike in long sleeves and sweat pants). Material wise, I might have been prepared adequately, but in terms of my own body and mind... it was almost a repeat of Mount Fuji climb #2.

Hike started well, with a small amount of breaks. I was out of breath for a great deal on the steep inclines (perhaps more intensive cardio is required in my workout routine),  but my heart rate wasn't too intense. Legs were feeling good till we reach the small, if I recall the name correctly, gazebo that overlooked the Bow Valley region (or was it the helicopter pad?). At this point, hikers have two choices: climb back down or scramble up the summit.

Mount Fuji has some minor scrambling, or what I perceive to be scrambling. There were some pathways up the holy mountain in which you had to literally get on all fours to climb. It wasn't as "slideful" in terms of loose gravel, but it can be quite grueling at times.

Mount Lady MacDonald's path to the summit... was pretty intense. It may have only been 50  minutes of scrambling for me, but it was an intense 50 minutes, I would climb two feet and slide down a feet for the entire time, despite trying to look for a stable path to the top. At the top of the false jackknife summit, we were greeted to a awe-inspiring view of Canmore and the Bow Valley region. I kept my eyes forward the entire time, since my back was exposed to a sheer drop... The true summit is accessible via a extremely narrow ridge (one side being the sheer drop while the other side has what I believe to be at least a 60 degree incline), but being tired from the scramble and not wanting to risk my neck, we decided that we were quite pleased with reaching the false summit. I doubt the view would be dramatically different from where we were, since, estimating, a 10 m higher peak wouldn't give that much more.

The descend was quite painful on my knees, despite have walking sticks, which I should note saved me many times from slipping or falling backwards. Anyways, I don't recall descending a mountain being so straining, especially on my knees. I'm quite sure that I'll recover in a couple days, but... ouch!

Don't mind my friend's head in the picture. I thought I excluded it when I was taking the panorama shot.

Grinding

Quite the grind today! I finally, successfully, went back to deadlifting three plates for a 5x3 session. Doing deadlifts properly really helped (without relying on the back as much).

Afterwards, it was off to play MH Generations. It's a little bit different than MH4U, but not terribly so. I spent around 4 hours playing with a couple of friends, which made hunting much more enjoyable. Fighting monsters with stock gear and nearly stock weapons made it feel like I was playing G-Rank, instead of low rank.

And that's it for today!

A story of three lives.

A long time ago, I heard a story/fable/tale/etc about reincarnation. As of recent, I searched around the web to find such a story, but to no avail. Either the story teller made up the story, or it's a vague reminiscence of a different story. Either way, this is how the story/fable/tale/etc goes:

Our spirits are granted three human lives: one life full of happiness, one life full of sadness, and one life where it's up to you to decide your own life.

As simple as it sounds, it formed a large role in my belief of reincarnation. True, the scientist in me have difficulties believing in a topic that seemingly has no solid evidence (that I'm aware of), but it does give comfort in knowing that you have "stored lives" in stock after a person dies. However not knowing which life you're in, because in all honesty how do you objectively define happiness or hardship, makes this story hard to believe. Not having an order, especially with the third described life, doesn't reinforce the story as well.

Once again, it does give solace to a heavy topic such as death. When I heard the story, the storyteller was comforting a sad soul.

And for today, it gave me some peace as well.

Till we meet again.

Day 3-6

On Saturday, besides my normal work out, I got the chance to catch up with a couple of old friends through lunch and Finding Dory (a good watch). Sunday started off quietly, but ended up quite eventful. I don't believe it's time to delve too deeply into it online, but it made me question some of my viewpoints. Yesterday, was essentially a typical day, but I was busy looking up and researching for today!

I really need to get a head start on what I want to accomplish during my break instead of sitting in front of my computer the entire time.

Day 1 and Day 2: Leg Day and Shopping Spree

Yesterday marked my first day of Summer 2016. I woke up close to my normal waking time, but ended up drifting back to sleep for a while. After waking up, I had time for a leisure breakfast before going to the gym to dead lift.

After the gym, I headed to Sunridge to purchase tea since my mom had a gift card to David's Tea. It was also Free Tea day, in which I tried their Grape Freeze (I believe that's what it's called) drink. It was alright, though I'm not a huge fan of fusion teas.

In the evening, I went to work out again, which is a first for me. I never had two session in a day before! The evening was dedicated to leg accessories... which is no fun at all. I think I rather squat than to do what we were doing yesterday.

After the workout, we went for some bubble tea before cruising around for a while. It's really fun to drive at night, especially when there's not a lot of cars around. =)

As for today... woke up later than I wanted to since I got home late this morning, but got in a quick workout. For the next 4-5 hours, I spent it detailing a car, before going out for the evening.

As for the title... I've been shopping the past couple days... well online shopping to be exact.

Sigh... if money figuratively grew on trees... or if car parts were cheaper. =/

Oh, and Happy Canada Day 2016! Almost the big 150!

Student(s) crying on the last day of school 2016

This year went by awfully fast. Like I mentioned many times before, it's hard to believe that today is the last day with students.

Unlike previous years, I kept my students inside for the most part (my Science classes mostly) and had them watch The Martian. My rationale was due to utter chaos that typically takes place on the last day since most students think that since exams are over, they have free reign to do whatever they want. (Reminds me of one of my students shoving himself into a locker to go on his iPod. Good thing he was found quickly...). During lunch time, I versed a student in both the card game Speed and Chess. Apparently, I blew their minds in terms of my crappy shuffling skills and slow speed, but I guess their still young, being that they're just in grade 8. As for chess, it was a close game, but I managed to squeak out a checkmate after I successfully managed to trap my student.

As of course, a lot of students had mutinous looks on their faces as I told them we weren't going outside, or that they had to stay in my room to watch a film. I guess it was a sigh of relief for them, because yesterday we were watching Planet Earth documentaries. Also, fortunately, The Martian had enough humour to keep them entertained for an hour and 28 minutes (for I had my science classes for the double today).

Throughout the day, I had students, both present and past, come say their farewells for the summer. What struck me the most were two of my previous students, in my homeroom, that came to see me after the last bell rang for the 2015-2016 year.

These two students of mine were relatively good students. They weren't the strongest academically, but marks don't equate to intelligence. I taught them both grade 8 math, and they improved a fair bit as the year went by. After speaking for a bit, and wishing them well in the future, one of them started to break down into tears, with the other one about to follow suit. They left at that point, which had me feeling proud for both them and myself.

Not to brag or anything (okay, maybe I am), but I believe I had a fair amount of students come up to me and tell me that they're glad that I was their teacher, or that I'm the best teacher they ever had. Most of the time, I'm wary of what they have to say, for I'm certain that some are sucking up for marks. But for these two students, I have a hunch that they were genuine in their feelings. If I'm able to make a difference in a student's life, I feel like I'm doing my job. =)

But to get off my high horse, I have much to improve on. In the next couple of days, I'll write my experiences as a third year teacher.

So much bragging in one post!

Gifts I got today! 

The Power of Grease

Friday night = burger night. I normally try not to eat fast food burgers often due to the high caloric count, but it has been a while since I last went. I splurged and got myself an extremely calorie dense meal. A bacon cheeseburger and large fries add up to around 2200 calories if I remember correctly, and this was just one meal.

It seemed like all that grease was useful for squatting on Saturday. I managed to do two plate squat without too much difficulty. (The last time I did two plate squats was early February before I injured myself). Not my smartest workout, but I nearly had a 90 minute squat session that day since it was relatively quiet.

As for today... last day of karate. Went by like a normal last day: marching for the white and green belts. For next year though, I think we're going to eliminate it since most students don't find it interesting.

But alas, back to dieting I go starting tomorrow. It's been a pleasant couple of months to eat whatever I want. Fortunately, I haven't pack on too much weight (from what my scale tells me). I don't think I'll need to starve myself like how I did last year, though I really should look up programs...

One hour and six minutes ~Father's Day 2016~

That's the amount of time it took for me to wash my car today. Actually washing the car took the least amount of time, while drying took a lot longer.

I used to never dry my car, but I just started to since I was tired of seeing water spots. Drying took about 30 minutes, while the other 30 minutes was dedicated to applying wax detailer. I dried my car at the car wash lot, but went home to detail since the sky was looking ominous. I didn't want my hard work to be wasted away by rain!

What led to today's car wash was the final exam I was writing over the past two days. It took less time than the alternative final exam I written a couple weeks back, yet it was still tedious. Writing the exam though prevented me from taking a long nap... so I guess that's a plus!

My apologies for the weird chronological order, but this morning marked the last karate exam for the year. Typical results, with very few skips this time around if I'm not mistaken.

And now, onto the last full week of school! I think I can survive...

I think...

Oh Father's Day... I normally purchase sushi for my dad, which happened again this year. I was too lazy to pick it up, so I had it delivered via skipthedish.

And that's it for today!

I failed...

For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking naps during Sunday afternoon lulls. They normally commence from around 2:30 to 4:30. Today, I made a mental pledge to stay awake so I can continue being productive.

I was doing really well today by keeping myself busy making quizzes for my students. Four o'clock came around and I decided to take a break. It was a bad choice to lay down on my bed, for I soon fell asleep...

Besides that, my week went by amazingly fast. Once again, it reminds me of what needs to be done before the school year ends... I should get started on those student portfolios.

Yesterday, I installed some minor light modification to my car and added window visors. The rear fog light didn't take as long as I thought it would, but it was a pain in the butt to install at times. Also, I was looking off a guide on YouTube through my cellular data, which in retrospect, wasn't the brighest idea on my part. Each time my phone turned off, it had to reload/buffer the video. All in all, I went over my 2 GB limit by burning through 750 mb in 30 minutes!

Lesson learned I hope.

Onto the last couple weeks of school!

Awe, I was mentioned in the Historian's speech during Grad tonight! =)

Perhaps my longest title for a blog post, but a key point for today's blog post!

I actually managed to get up early today, making it a pleasant experience to work out at the Genesis Centre. I was in the cage for nearly 90 minutes squatting, and nobody came up to ask how many sets I had left! (Well there was this one guy who just took the cage when I was standing off to the side. After making himself comfortable, I went up to him and told him I was still using it. He left soon after. =P)

After my workout, I went to get my car cleaned with a friend. It's a bit different now, since I started (as of today) to dry my car after washing it. It nearly took 30 minutes, and it didn't help that the brake dust sticks to my wheels like gum on pants...

Once my car was clean and dry, it was off to a quick bowl of pho before going home to get ready for the grade 9 grad at a hotel/inn near my house.

Unlike last year, there were a lot more students (or seemed to be a lot more students) at graduation this year. This marked the second batch of students that I have personally taught, which brought a slight tear to my eye. I've seen them grow since grade 7 (during my first year at my current school), and it's nice to see how some of them matured over the past two years! The valedictorian was well chosen, and had a nice speech. The Historians (two of them) presented next, marking memories throughout the year. Like last year, they would mark significant events and mention their memories with their grade 9 teachers.

Despite not teaching a grade 9 core class, they mentioned their memories with me in the previous year of how I would tell them stories and my "stoic" expressions when I got angry. They didn't know whether or not I was actually mad (I never knew that I was good at masking my face) and inquired about my love life. I actually chuckled out loud, since it was touching. It also probably helped that the two Historians were students from my homeroom last year! Nevertheless, it wasn't something that I was expecting, but I'm grateful for learning the "human side" of teaching from my last practicum teacher. She was absolutely 100% correct in teaching me that it's important to build a rapport with students by sharing my own personal experiences.

I didn't stay too long for graduation because I unfortunately have to prepare a final exam for my students. 100 questions, with only 20 questions written so far... and two versions to write since some students have to write a deferred exam. Oh well, it should help for next year!

And that's it for today! Just three weeks and three days to go!

Two events down with one more to go

Last month of school! This week, so far, has been full of events. Monday was the Athletic Banquet. It was a pleasant event with a nice inspirational video of a runner in the States with multiple sclerosis.

Today was Awards Night. Unlike the last two years, today went by very quickly. We managed to get through all the awards in a little over an hour!

Just one more to go now: Grade 9 Grad on Saturday. It'll be my second batch of students to graduate this Saturday.

Time moves by quickly, though sometimes too quickly. It's hard to believe that school year is almost over.

And time to catch up on rest! I'm pretty exhausted from all this week's festivities.

Last Weekend of May

Once again, it's hard to believe how fast time flies. After next month, half the year is already gone!

As for my weekend, I spent a good portion yesterday marking. Just one more batch of unit tests and random assignments to mark. Fortunately we started our movie section in karate, which gives me some time to mark while students watch Ip Man.

As for today, karate went by pretty smoothly. They had the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon today, which meant that some sections of downtown were closed. No biggie since parking was very easy to find (thank goodness James Short is nearby Dragon City Mall).

After karate, I worked on some notes. After grinding through a set of notes, I decided to take a nap, which is something I've been doing a lot recently on the weekends... ever since February? (I guess that's not really recent). I had my timer set up for 30 minutes.

I woke up in 30 minutes feeling refreshed, but I decided to close my eyes for a couple more minutes.

Those couple of minutes turned out to be an addition 90 minutes...

Other than that, I got through another batch of notes!

Just one more month of school essentially!

Calaway Park 2016

It's been 4 years since I been to Calaway Park. Four years ago, I attended Calaway as a student teacher.

This time, I was the teacher in charge. It's not my first field trip, but like any other field trip, it takes time to ensure that things can go smoothly on "Field Trip Day".

The morning went by pretty smoothly. Students got their booklets and majority of the students showed up to school on time. One bus came late, but we still had some time left before the park open.

Inside the park, things once again went pretty smoothly. I had enough volunteers this time (around 16 volunteers), which allowed me to wander around without having to supervise a group. It was nice to have some "freedom", though I did eventually join a group. In terms of rides, I went on three.

Old age is getting to me, making it difficult for me to go on spin-rides, or whatever its called. I start to get motion sickness when I go on those rides now. =(

Near the end, it started to rain heavily. Unfortunately, one of the bus drivers was late, making it quite unnerving for all of us standing in the rain. (Doesn't make it better when it stopped raining after we arrived back at school).

Nevertheless, I believe it went by pretty smoothly! Like every other field trip, I'm pretty much exhausted after its over. I had to go home and nap before hitting the gym this evening!

And onto sleep now, since I'm feeling pretty exhausted.

May Long Weekend

This weekend has been chilly, which is quite the contrast from the warm weather we've been having here in Calgary. It's nice to see a change of scenery, despite the cold!

Friday was ordinary. It was somewhat nerve wracking driving manual in the rain... I wonder how it'll be like once snow hits! Saturday was pretty ordinary, with a work out and chores completed. Yesterday was quiet, but productive enough in that I finished completing my unit test for Wednesday.

As for today, I woke up at a relatively late time, but got in a workout and marking.

And that is my short, but relatively laid back weekend.

Onto the last couple weeks of school!

Dark Skies T_T

I've been going to work early the past couple of weeks to get work done... and it's been helping so far! It also helps that I don't feel as rushed in the morning, since I have time to ensure that I have everything ready for the day.

Waking up at 5:30 though has been taking a slight toll on me, but I guess it'll just take a bit more time to get used to my new start time.

After school ended, I stayed till around 6ish to get more work done. After, what must be a month now, I finally finished marking a hefty booklet... Never again will I use that booklet. It's not that difficult to mark, just long for each student (about 5 minutes per booklet for some odd reason...)

To help destress and to celebrate (in a sense), I went out for a drive after leaving the school. I ventured off down Deerfoot Trail and into the NW area. It allowed me to practice hill driving, which is something I'm not too familiar with in a manual car. What better than the hills of NW Calgary? After driving for about an hour, it was time to head home. The dark skies didn't help either. I didn't check the forecast today, so I thought that it might hail.

Fortunately it didn't and I arrived home in one piece!

And it was off to more work for tomorrow....

Just 6 more weeks to go before summer break!

Mother's Day 2016

I totally forgot that today was Mother's Day. I only found out after checking Facebook this morning.

Therefore, after karate, my brother and I walked to the nearest Benard Callebaut chocolate shop to get our mother some chocolates. I'm not sure if it's just me, but they sure seem a lot pricier than what I remembered them to be last year.

Anyways, Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there! I normally would play my mom Fantasie Impromptu (Chopin's), but I haven't practiced it in a long time...

Besides that, I didn't end up doing much work besides modifying my notes (which reminded me to upload them to my website). I also went out for a quick drive to quickly wash my car after napping for a while. My running nose is still persisting, but it seems like I'm developing a cough as well. I can only pray that it doesn't turn out to be another bout of bronchitis.

Off to sleep and another work week! I'm slowly catching up with my marking...

Oh, and hot ginger honey lemon water is amazing! =)

Bleh

Such a beautiful day today, but just my luck to be sick.

It started Wednesday night with a bit of a tickle in my throat. I was hoping it'll be a minor thing, and it was pretty minor on Thursday and Friday. After going out to a driving range, I started feeling more ill, thus a quick trip back home.

There was when my nose started to run...

And run it did all day today.

And all I wanted to do was start detailing my car... Never mind the fact that it was horrendous trying to mark assignments when your nose runs every minute...

Oh well... it's been a pretty healthy year so far. Hard to believe a third of the year is over!

Hopefully I can recover somewhat by Monday. I cannot afford to take time off work...

Extremely Hot Day

Apparently it was 28 degrees centigrade today in Calgary. According to one of my thermometers, it got up to 30 degrees!

My classroom was boiling hot today. Times like this, I wish I had A/C...

Other than that, I managed to practice the piano and get some lesson planning done today. It has been a while since I had time to practice the piano. I managed to stumble my way through Chopin's Ballade to the second last page!

That's it for today... tired from waking up early over the past two days. I've been arriving to work earlier, which is nice since I can prepare for my day before it starts.

Stay Humble

What I realize is that when I stay up late on Saturdays, karate tend to "drag" on longer than normal. On the other hand, when I sleep early, karate seems to whiz by.

As for today, I did end up sleeping at around 1:30 AM, but karate went by relatively quickly! After training, I went home to do some work for school. 

And then I had the opportunity to practice stick again! I drove to work, since the route I normally take in the morning gives me a variety of roads, while not being overtly difficult. Personally, I thought the drive went pretty smoothly: no stalls, and smaller shudders than normal. There were even opportunities for me to try rev matching, though I think I only succeeded once out of the four or five times that I tried. 

I practiced parking in the parking lot at work (without any cars) and reversed parking. Feeling quite confident, I went home down Deerfoot, which allowed me to accelerate quickly (not speeding of course!) It was a thrilling ride overall. I was at the point where I thought I didn't have to think much about driving stick, especially clutch control.

Unfortunately, that was where I stalled... down on 36th St and 26th Ave. After restarting, I almost stalled again! (Never had that happened to me before). I guess I panicked, which led to the almost double stall... 

That made me realize that I still have a lot to learn/practice with manual, and that I should remind myself to remain humble as I learn. (Though the acceleration is unmatched in comparison to an automatic).

***

While I came home to reflect on my driving today, I just suddenly felt a lot older. Something about learning stick shift as being a significant change to my current lifestyle... It's like I'm finally grown up. (I admit, sometimes I feel like a kid despite being 27 years old...) 

Change is inevitable. Despite not liking change much, I have to remind myself that its always nice every now and then. 

Saturday April 23rd 2016

My title... as original and unoriginal as titles can get in my opinion.

Typical Saturday: woke up and went to work out. I haven't squatted since my birthday... thus making plate + 25 hellish. I'm still paranoid about my recent injury making it difficult for me to go back up. =(    (Or I'm just full of excuses =P)

After my workout, I had a chance to practice driving stick again! It was the first time I drove stick on my own. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy during a Saturday evening, thus I didn't feel as nervous as I did when I first started driving stick. I only stalled twice on the roads too! (With only one honk for my second stall!)

I'm still getting used to driving stick, but it's getting easier each time I practice. The jerking moments are the hardest parts at the moment (stop to first). Just practice practice practice!

"We All Need Someone to Kiss Us Goodbye" - Marcie

It's been a while since I last posted... once again. What else is new?

The last couple weeks have been extremely busy with badminton season in full swing. I'm falling more and more behind. Fortunately though, I think I'll be able to catch up in a couple of days once badminton season is over.

As for today's title: I'm almost done watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. To be honest, it's not as touching as the first run through, but I'm able to pick up on the subtleties that I missed. One thing that I noticed this time around, were a number of quotes that the main heroine, Miyazono Kaori used throughout the series. After some research, many of them came from Charles Schulz's  Peanut comic.
This quote stood out more than any other quote for me in this series. Without spoiling the series, it really hits home by stating the importance of company as significant events come to an end. I believe that we're all social creatures (no matter how introverted a person can be), that need company in tough times.

But that's it for today! Sleep and onto the weekend!

27th Birthday - Birthday Squats

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by so quickly. The older I get, the faster time seems to flow.

I was surprised this morning, during announcements that they mentioned that it was my birthday today. As a result, I had many students and colleagues wishing me happy birthday (with my three grade 8 science classes singing happy birthday.. and competing to see who did it better...) throughout the day. It was a really nice gesture!

I was pleasantly surprised that one of my classes gifted me chocolate bars, a Hunger Games cup and hand made cards! My homeroom this year, did not prepare anything for me. =(

Ironically, but pleasantly surprising, my former homeroom brought me cake during lunch break today! I was touched by the gesture, seeing that I rarely speak to my students from my homeroom from last year. 

Throughout the day, I had friends wishing me well on various social media sites. Thank you very much for those! It certainly brightened my day as well! (And not to mention that the weather was absolutely stunning today. I think it's been the warmest birthday since I was a teenager...)

After work, I went to exercise (I have no life... I know...). During my brother's birthday last year, he went and did "birthday squats", which was pretty much a number of squats equivalent to your age. He managed to do his 24 reps of two plates.

For me on the other hand, two plates is my current maximum (at most, I can probably do 5 sets of 2 reps). I decided to go for 50% of my max, so I lifted 27 reps of 135 pounds (1 plate). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it turned out that I should have lifted more in order to feel the effects of these birthday squats. However, I did feel light headed after the ordeal, which made the rest of my squat sessions... interesting... I guess there's always next year for more birthday squats!

But other than that, I got my workout in, came home and watched anime to celebrate my birthday. And not to mention... more cake. 

When my students ask me tomorrow what I did for my birthday, I can lamely say that I worked out and came home to watch anime... (Some suggested that I should "party hard" after work today... which is surprisingly alarming in my books... but I guess the current generation matured a lot faster than I did when I was their age).

***

To recap my 26th year... it has been a pretty good year. I had an amazing summer, great start to my third year as a teacher, got to meet new people, mature (or I think I matured) as an individual and started to play the piano again. I hope that my 27th year will go as well, or even better than my 26th! And to help me remember my 27th year... I decided to pursue the 365 day challenge in which I take a picture everyday. I highly doubt I'll post them on my blog, because I do not blog daily... but they'll be on my Instagram!

As selfish as it sounds... to my good health this year! And to yours too I guess! (The way I phrased it makes me sound like a jerk! =P) 

April Fools 2016

It's that time of the year again! Unlike last year, all of the pranks came after 12:00 PM for me...

They were pretty tame compared to last year -- mostly attached stuff to my desk via tape. Once again, the younger kids seem to have the more creative ideas!

Other than that, it was mostly an ordinary day. It's hard to believe that a quarter of the year has passed by already. It has been an interesting three months to say the least. =P

First Day with Students

First day with students today! They were supposed to come back with their projects ready to present (gave them spring break homework, in which they had to make a movie).

First class was awesome. Many of them had very interesting ideas.

Second class, which turned out to be my homeroom, was horrendous... There were only two projects finished for that particular class...

That really soured the mood for my day. Fortunately, my third science class did do their work.

After that, it was off to badminton tryouts. I dislike cutting students, so to make it easier for myself this year, I had them play against each other in half court- king's court style. I also played with each student to get a general idea of what their skill level was at.

It was very difficult cutting students, but I did manage to end up with about 10 boys and 10 girls for the grade 6&7 team.

And then it was off to my now weekly badminton sessions. Tiring as always, but a good stress relief.

And now sleep!

M/C, Visa and AMEX

First day back after Spring Break! It started off with PD at the elementary campus -- a session on the importance of early literacy.

In reminded me that I need to start reading books again. It's been a while since I last read a book.

After PD, we went back to our campus for OD. I managed to get up my word wall, get approval for a field trip and permission for a scavenger hunt. I also had the opportunity to reorganize the students' name for tryouts.

After work, it was off to shop for work. I needed supplies for the Canteen (mini school cafeteria), restock on candy, stapler (missing mine since Winter Break) and other smaller supplies.

Somehow, I ended up using my master cards, visa and AMEX for my purchases today. I admit, that I prefer to use multiple credit cards instead of one credit card. My rationale is that I can spread my spending onto many cards, and keep the % spent low on each one. Also, each card has its own special perks (ie: one for restaurants, one for gas, one for general purposes, etc).

But that's it for today! Off to sleep I go for the first day back with students tomorrow!

Day 10 - Last day of spring break 2016

Woke up, worked out, came home, played SC2, went for my massage, came home.

And here I am now.

A nice way to end break.

Day 9: Quiet, but short Sunday

Not sure where the day went, but it felt like it went by pretty quickly.

I had plans to exercise, but I got lazy in the end. I ended up working on a scavenger hunt for my science class before going out.

Got home, continued with the scavenger hunt... and now it's 11! I got in some piano as well... but I seriously do not know where the time has gone by today!

One more day of break!

Day 7 and 8 - Sore demo jinsei wa subarashi

Meant to post for yesterday, but I was too lazy to write. Essentially, I was out and about doing stuff!

As for today, I woke up, got my workout in (6 days in a row... not sure how people can do it) and went home to finish Bara no nai Hanaya. I'm quite sure I never wrote a full review for this drama series... the last one being Real Clothes if I'm not mistaken.

It'll be coming up in a couple week's time hopefully... I need to finish editing the short story I wrote and publish that first...

Post 777 - Day 6: A different perspective

777 posts! It's hard to believe that I kept blogging ever since I started my education degree. True, I haven't blogged as much as I used to, and I'm not sure how much my writing has improved... but it does give me something to look back on as the years go by.

As for today, I woke up a lot later than I usual would, but I did squeeze in a deadlift session at the gym. They were installing... electric outlets at the gym due to the fact that it's a lot emptier in the morning than in the evening.

After working out, I gained all my calories (and more) back by going to Five Guys. I tried the Cajun Fries today, but they weren't as spicy as the cashier made it out to be. =P

Afterwards, I came home and started re-watching Bara no nai hanaya (The Flowershop without Roses). The first time I watched it was when I was 18-19ish years old (when it first came out in 2008... and that is if I remember correctly). It's a lot different now re-watching the series -- I can't really explain it, but the chemistry between the two leads is more heartwarming than what I remembered.

Once again, a recommended watch! Despite the simple story line (and some large plot holes), it's quite a pleasant watch... even through my third run through the series.

I think I'm starting to be a sucker for romance dramas again! (As long as there's no love triangles...)

Day 5 - The Flower shop with a rose

Woke up, worked out, played FF, and badminton.

Halfway through the week...

In terms of the title, I was just re-watching parts of a drama I saw about 8 years back. If only I didn't lose my copy of the drama series... It's one of the few series that I watched twice in my life (alongside 1 Litre of Tears).

Great watch for those of you interested in a romantic drama. It's still my all time favorite romance drama.

And to advertise the opening again:

Day 4 - Tuesday already?!

Despite still being early in the week, it's hard to believe Tuesday is almost over!

Woke up, went to work out, came home and continued with Final Fantasy. I also got in some work, so a job well done today!

Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened... nothing yet at least. =P

Day 3 - Welcome back FF XIII-3

Woke up at my usual time, but I ended up drifting back to sleep till around 8ish.

Got up, went to work out, did some errands, came back and did more errands.

After that was all said and done, I finally got a chance to go back to FF XIII-3! I started two years ago (during Spring Break too if I'm not mistaken). I completed Day 8 in the game, with about 6 more days to go... (assuming I get the final bonus day).

I should be able to beat it this break!!

Day 2 - Spring Banquet

Typical Sunday morning in that it started off with karate. The morning class seemed quieter than usual (including the class I teach), but that's probably due to Spring Break. We had a black belt ceremony, followed by our annual spring banquet.

It was nice to see all sorts of people that I haven't seen in a while. After catching up, it was time to clean up and head home.

I realized that my cell plan hasn't changed from the call I made yesterday, so I contacted my cellular company again. After a couple minutes, they did manage to change it to what I was supposed to get yesterday. I was notified by a text stating my two years of Spotify and Daily Vice for free.

And there went my afternoon... I spent a lot of time on Spotify: finding songs, syncing songs from my computer, learning about offline features, etc. Amazing app, though I'm not sure if I want to fork over $10 a month in the future once my two year trial is over...

But that's it for today!

Day 1 of Spring Break 2016

Yay for spring break! I got in a decent deadlift work out, finished my taxes and switched my cell plan! More productive on a Saturday than the past couple of months! I also managed to get back to the Ballade, after what seems like a month!

For the past couple of hours, I was working on writing my short story. Not writing for a long time has made it much more difficult than it used to be. It'll will take some time as I edit and rewrite certain sections to fit my wants for a precusor to my longer story for the future!

And off to bed I go! To hopefully a more relaxing Spring Break than my Winter Break... No gundams to build!

Squat Day

Forgot it was St. Patrick's Day until a student told me this morning. I didn't end up wearing any green at all today.

Work was typical, though I didn't get as much work done as I would have liked. It's tough knowing that Spring Break is only a day away!

Work out went well! I managed to squat about my own weight (185 lbs total) for about 6 x 3. Front squat 135 was brutal, but manageable at around 10 x 5. My legs are tired (and probably from badminton last night), but feel great. My previous injury didn't hamper me at all today! =)

And onto the last day before break starts! Well some sort of break... it'll be time to catch up on work and plan for the last couple of months.

First day of tryouts!

Laziness will be the last of me... I have no excuses for not blogging over the past couple of weeks.

Today marks the first day of tryouts for badminton. Unlike last year, there was a ton of students trying out for the grade 7 (and essentially 6) team. Unlike last year as well, I had another teacher help coach. It definitely makes coaching a lot easier!

Lots of drills today, with little racket work. Most of them were actually able to keep up with the conditioning today.

I wonder how the 8s will fare tomorrow...

Welcome back deadlifts

My last session at the gym was on Friday, thus meaning I had a longer break than usual with today being the first time back to the gym for me. 

I haven't deadlifted since injuring myself on Feb 12. I managed to do about 8-10 sets of 2 plates and about 3 sets of eccentric plate+10. My injury started to flare up, but it's definitely not as bad as before. And for the first day back... I have to say that I felt I did a decent job!

Parent Teacher Interviews tomorrow...

Leap Year 2016

Life just continues to go on.

I've been busy the past couple of weeks, but also lazy to update my blog at the same time. The same old grind, day after day... but hopefully it'll change very soon!

Weekend was nice and warm; went and learned how to drive stick on Saturday. People are extremely aggressive if you have a student driver sign on top of your car... I never knew going speed limit was a bad thing. It is true that I was accelerating a lot slower than I would normally do so in an automatic, but I don't think blasting your horn behind me will make me move any faster.

Today was chilly, and there was some snow on the ground. There was a traffic jam in front of my school this morning, but it did not take too long to enter the premises of the school.

After school was PD: part 2 of a webinar series. Mostly review from what I learned from university, but it's a nice refreshed.

Onto Tuesday! The beginning of March! This year is whizzing by ever so quickly! Definitely feels faster than last year I have to say.

Baby Blue

Not quite a normal day, but not far from it. It turned out I was busier today than I expected, but things got done!

Just have to wait for Spring now!

And I'm currently working on my short story piece at the moment. It should hopefully be done by next weekend. 

Family Day 2016

Family Day 2016!

Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. Woke up --> went to work out --> went for lunch --> hung out for a while --> came home to enter marks and make notes for tomorrow.

Teacher's Convention was alright this year, but I have to say the amount of free stuff has decreased quite drastically. =(

I swear I also went to sessions as well! There were some interesting key note speeches: discussion on poverty and the use of technology in our ever changing world.

Somehow, it inspires me to finally restart creative writing. Hopefully it'll be a monthly thing that will eventually progress into something biweekly or weekly even.

Teachers Convention Coming Up!

It's been a while, once again. 

Behind in terms of marking, but the next couple of days should give me some time to recuperate. 

Besides work, we had our annual staff appreciation dinner. 

And now off to sleep. -_-

T.>

The last couple of weeks have been rough. So much work, yet I feel so behind! Good thing Teacher's Convention is coming up.

Which reminds me... I registered for a bunch of sessions, but I don't recall what I'm going to...

Better find out soon!

I apologize for the lame posts. There's nothing really going on right now, besides work. I've been at work till around 7 for the last three days (6:30ish today). I don't know how people can work 10-12 hour days in one location...

Skiing Trip Over

The last two days had students from my school learning how to ski/snowboard at COP. Unfortunately, due to chilblains, I was unable to snowboard this year. Last year it was bronchitis, this year chilblains... there's always next time.

After getting things done after work today (though it was quite difficult to do so... I never thought I would be tired sitting inside the lodge for the entire day), it was off to my workout. 5 sets of 2 decline bench turned out to be better than I expected. 205 lbs was actually somewhat doable!

Back to learning Hiragana as well. My goal is to be able to speak conversational Japanese for the next time I go to Japan... which will be this summer... ;)

Sigh... if only travelling wasn't that expensive... I would go back yearly!

The seven Gundams I built since August 2015. Took me to January 2016 to build 1 SD, 4 RGs, 1 MG and 1 PG. 

Typical Monday.

Nothing out of the ordinary today. Work --> work out --> back at home.

The lull is never bad though... the next couple of days will be busy. =/

But besides that, the weather seems to be cooperating again. It was a lot warmer today than it was last week. The days also seem to be longer.

Spring is coming!

And maybe... just maybe... a new project for the summer.

David's Tips for Travelling to Japan

Suppose to be released last year, but I was too lazy to write it up. This post is a general guide/tips on what I recommend you should do if you're travelling to Japan! I'm no travel guru, so some of these tips are common sense while the rest are things I wish I knew about before travelling to Japan.

This guide is targeted towards individuals that have never traveled to Japan before.

DISCLAIMER: The sites I list in this blog post are solely from my own personal experience. I'm not endorsed by any company.

Before Travelling

1) Plan your itinerary

Robot Restaurant - Never went inside myself, but I was told that it hosts very interesting events.

Japan has MANY interesting places that suit the palette of all types of people. There are historical places like shrines, temples and castles. On the other end, there are highly modernized buildings scattered throughout the major cities. There are beautiful scenic gardens, mountains and valleys as well. Love anime or electronics? There are many places that cater to those people as well! 

Do your research and plan! I recommend using the following sites 

Japan Guide - http://www.japan-guide.com/

Wiki Travel - http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan

Lonely Planet - http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/kansai/kyoto

Japan Info - http://jpninfo.com/

I used mostly Japan Guide to plan out my trip this year (and last year). It's very easy to navigate and it does an excellent job of recommending places to visit that other tourists found interesting. Wiki Travel is an excellent source as well, albeit less pictures to look at for those that prefer a more visual interface. A strength of Wiki Travel is that it recommends restaurants and things to do in locations as well.  I haven't used Lonely Planet before, but I was told by others that there are useful tips on the site. Finally, Japan Info is a site I recently discovered. It not only has locations, but certain events/things you should do as well. 

EDIT: Here's another site: https://www.jnto.go.jp/

I would also recommend watching YouTube channels like Japanology or from people living in Japan.

2. Book Hotels/ Airbnb early.

I believe this was Comfort Inn -- one of the bigger beds on the trip. 

We wanted to try Airbnb this year, but unfortunately we weren't able to do so due to our circumstances. Either way, book your accommodations early! 

My brother was in charge of booking hotels. He liked using Booking.com (http://www.booking.com/)

For the most part, we had rooms that had one twin bed. Neither my brother nor I are small, thus making it slightly difficult to sleep on a twin bed. (We're accustomed to having a queen sized mattress on our own at home). Nevertheless, if you get the chance, book a room with separate beds. They seemed hard to find, but if you don't mind sharing a bed with someone, it's not too bad.

Keep in mind that hotel rooms in Japan are quite small. The picture of the bed there took up literally 60%-70% of the room. For us, we didn't really mind since we were only in our rooms during the night before bed. 

As for room prices, I think we averaged about $50 per person? Places in the city, like Tokyo, tend to be more expensive and smaller... but it's understandable thinking about the location of said place. With the price I mentioned, this just includes room fees. It does not include meal options, if the hotel offers a meal option. We were lucky in that Comfort Inn in Himeji offered a continental breakfast with the price of our room. 

I'm sure you can find larger rooms, but be prepared to pay extra. Also, if you get the chance, I would recommend booking a Japanese-style room, in which they have tatami mats (the bamboo floors). They tend to lay out futons, which means you have more real estate during the day. 

We weren't able to do it this time, but I recommend that you try the different types of accommodations that Japan has to offer. Besides the western style rooms that the picture above show, and the Japanese-style room shown below

  ... there are two other types that I can think of at the top of my head.

Ryokan --> Japanese style inn that offers travelers a taste of Japan. From my understanding, they offer a lot more room, the option of having set meals 

credits: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Tamatsukuri_onsen_yado02s3648.jpg

Capsule Hotel --> Small, cylindrical rooms that contain a bed and a few other amenities (radio, alarm, TV I believe?) for a relatively cheap price.

 creidts: http://cdn.tokyotimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/capsule-hotel-3.jpg

I'm quite sure that modern day capsule hotels are more modern than the picture I displayed. I believe some places (if not all) have lockers for you to store your large luggage while you can place any personal belongings on you as you sleep within your cell/room. Great for backpack travelers!

There are probably more types of accommodations that I haven't discussed. Be sure to research into them if none of these suit your taste!

3) Invest in a JR Pass

JR Marine Liner - From Shikoku Island to Honshu Island (main Island)

If you're planning on hitting many places in Japan, then I highly recommend you invest in a JR Pass. Most individuals should qualify for a JR Rail Pass. It's essentially an "unlimited" ride ticket for foreign tourists (not for work visas) or for "Japanese nationals living outside of Japan" (under certain conditions). For more info, click on the following link: http://www.japanrailpass.net/en/about_jrp.html

There are essentially two types of JR National passes. Ordinary and Green car. The ordinary pass allows you to reserve normal seats on trains (like the bullet train aka shinkansen) while the green car pass allows you to book higher class seats. 

credits: https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8604/16709529772_62a91a2812_z.jpg

We got a month worth of JR National Ordinary passes this time around (3 weeks + 1 week) and it was well worth the price. We spent about $880 CAD on these passes for about (based on my calculations after recording all the JR trains we took) $1700 worth of rides. Not only that, we can easily take JR trains without worrying about missing a train. If we missed our bullet train, we just have to wait for the next one. There's different types of JR passes. You can find more about the types of passes by scrolling down the JR Pass page till you see "Recommendations"

I personally recommend the JR National pass if you plan on travelling throughout Japan. For example, we went around Tokyo (Kanto region), Kyoto (Kansai region), Shikoku Island and Kanazawa (Hokuriku region). The JR National pass costs more than getting a region pass, but since we covered many regions in a relatively short amount of time... the national pass was the best for us. Keep in mind, that I didn't do much math in figuring out which pass was best, so if you want to, feel free to do so!

When you order the JR passes, you'll have to order them before you go to Japan. I believe it takes about a week or two for the JR Ticket Vouchers (I believe that's what its called). We ordered the JR National Passes from this site: https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/ . The site also tells you the prices of the regional JR passes.

I recommend that you order these vouchers about a month ahead of time. There's probably no need to book them too far in advance, because I believe they have a expiration date of three months from when you purchase the vouchers. When you buy the vouchers, you can redeem them whenever within its validation date.

If you're wondering about how the train station works, you'll need to scroll down to the 12th section.

Also, the JR pass works for the JR Miyajima Ferry, which allows you to travel to Miyajima. (The floating Torii gate)

4) Book a Wi-fi router

credits: http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/images/pocketwifi_main.png

There are many ways to communicate in Japan as a foreigner. You can buy a sim card in Japan and put it into your compatible phone. Another solution is to rent a cell phone in Japan.

Since we weren't planning on communicating with anyone via cell phone, we opted to rent a Wi-fi router instead. Essentially, you're plugged into Japan's cellular data towers to access the internet. The wi-fi routers we used are exactly like the picture above. It's about 70% the size of my iPhone 5s, making it very portable.

There are different types of Wi-fi routers that you can book. On the site we used, they range from 21 Mbps to 187.5 Mbps. We went with a standard Wi-Fi that ran at 75 Mbps. Since there were the four of us, we went with two routers. This turned out to be very useful since the routers we had this time around lasted for about 6-8 hours on a full charge. If I remember correctly, it worked out to be about $2.50 CAD a day for each person, making it a very economical way to access internet in Japan.

The site we used: http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/pocketwifi.html#plan

There are other sites to book wi-fi routers if you're able to find a cheaper deal elsewhere. We didn't spend much time researching, for all we did was to input "Wi-fi router rental Japan" into Google.

5) Exchanging for Japanese Currency and Credit Cards

credits: http://goinggaijin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/japanese-money.jpg

The Japanese use a currency known as the yen. As noted from the picture above, they use both coins and bills. The coins range from 1 yen (top left), 5 yen (top right), 10 yen (middle left), 50 yen (middle right), 100 yen (bottom left) and 500 yen (bottom right). The bills range from 1000 yen, 5000 yen and 10000 yen. It's not as common, but you can sometimes get 2000 yen. The Japanese do not use a decimal system like how we Canadians do with dollars and cents. Very roughly when we travelled back in the summer, it was about 94 yen to a dollar (as of January 4th 2015... and Google, it's now 86ish yen to a dollar). Therefore, we roughly rounded it to being 100 yen to a dollar, making it easy to convert yen to dollar for us. 

I purchased my currency from my bank. There are probably cheaper ways to get currency while at home, though I wasn't too picky in saving a couple of dollars. I picked what was the most convenient way for me to purchase yen. 

I HIGHLY recommend bringing a lot of yen with you because many restaurants and smaller shops in Japan do not accept credit card. I'm thinking it'll change as Tokyo is set to host the Olympic games in 2020, but we were hard press to find an atm machine at restaurants. As a side note, if you're low and cash and need to grab a bite, head to a convenience store since they all take credit cards! Or at least all the ones I went to accepted my credit card.

In terms of credit cards, I recommend getting one with no foreign exchange fee. All of my credit cards charge a 2.5% foreign exchange fee, so I applied for a Amazon Chase Visa.

credits: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k0RXMuNqL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

It's a cash rebate card at 1% of what you spent (if I read the conditions right), thus making it a decent card. Plus, there's no annual fee! 

Also as a note, I believe the consumption tax (like our GST) is currently 8% in Japan. AND if you ever need cash in Japan, you can use the ATM machines at post offices. For most people, 7-11 ATM machines work as well. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work for us for some odd reason. 

6) Pack for the weather

Unlike Canada where we literally have three seasons of snow and one mildly hot season, Japan has four unique seasons. Depending on when you go, you should really check the forecast for the region you're heading to. For us, we travelled in mid July to mid August, thus making it very hot and humid. (Sweated bullets just walking outside our a/c hotel). 

In terms of travel dates, I highly suggest Spring or Fall. Depending where you go, it can be quite cold and snowy in the Winter. Summer is dreadful too due to the high humidity. 

7) Electronics are at 100 V

Unlike in Canada or I believe North America for that matter... Japan's electronics run at 100 V (compared to our 120 V). In other words, you don't need a converter to charge your phone/tablet/computer/etc. Be wary of purchasing electronics there and bringing them back to Canada though. From the rudimentary research I did, it seems like most products are okay, though I would be too scared to risk spending money on a Japanese appliance and having it burn out in Canada. 

8) Worth bringing your DSLR?

This time, I brought my Canon EOS T3i camera and a Canon 24-105 mm L f/4 lens. My camera is quite compact and the lens is not that huge as well. However, it sometimes felt like a burden to carry around my camera. I believe it weighed a measly 1.2 kgs, yet it got quite burdensome at times. 

My iPhone 5s seemed to do a decent job in taking pictures, with my favorite picture being taken from said phone:

However, my dslr setup allowed me to be more creative with shots (ie: bokeh)... so it'll be up to you whether you want to lug your dslr around or not. Another option is to use a point&shoot or mirrorless dslr.

For my next adventure, I don't think I'll be bringing my camera... though I'm seemingly having more difficulties taking focused pictures with my phone at the moment...

And my final piece of advice... if you plan to take video and create a film from your travels, I suggest taking everything in one orientation. In other words, whether you take landscape (recommended in my books) or portrait. I foolishly took two types of orientations, making it difficult for me to create a film.

Travelling in Japan
9) When you arrive, head to the nearest convenience store.

I would say that there are three major convenience store chains in Japan

Seven Eleven

credits: http://120vuo3fyxfbeg4s21u0e5z1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/7-11.outside-433x323.jpg

Family Mart

credits: http://viet-travel.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/family-mart.jpg

Lawson

credits: http://usercontent2.hubimg.com/3155541.jpg

There are others like Mini-stop, Circle K Sunkus, and Daily Yamazaki. Either way, all of the convenience stores have amazing food selections for reasonable prices. My favorite being the rice ball or onigiri.

credits: http://www.tofugu.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/koichi-approved.jpg

Don't be afraid to try the numerous variety of drinks as well. There's all sorts of tea, milk tea, sodas, etc. In 2014, we used to purchase a 2 L bottle of water daily to keep ourselves hydrates (for about 100 yen). We didn't find it as necessary this time around, so we purchased smaller bottles of various drinks, like Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade), Calpis (yogurt flavoured drink), Aquaius (also like Gatorade) and Kirin Milk Tea. 

10) If you don't have a picky tongue, it's hard to go wrong at any Japanese restaurant

My dad told me to try and find the best restaurants in Japan. To do that, I just have to find a restaurant with the longest lines. Apparently, lines can take a couple hours to get in!

Not wanting to spend my limited time waiting to sample the supposedly finest tastes in Japan, we opted to find whatever restaurant we could find (especially for ramen). During the trip, we averaged two restaurants a day: 1 for lunch and 1 for dinner. We had some repeats, but we probably ended up eating at around 50 different restaurants throughout the trip. Most of the time, we were able to grab a table without waiting. I also believe that most restaurants we went to were part of a chain (ie: Yoshinoya, Pomme, Coco Curry House, and Muten Kura Sushi). Either way, I don't recall ever having a disappointing meal. My most "disappointing" meal would probably be the western-style restaurant near our hotel in Kyoto... but that's probably because I was disgusted by the cockroach that was nearby our table. (Food was decent though!) On the other hand, my favorite meals were the Kobe beef lunch we had and the fresh sushi at Tsukiji Market. Even then, we didn't have to line up to get in (though we had to wait half an hour or so for Kobe beef).

Now, that's coming from my unrefined tongue. When it comes to food, I don't really care about quality. In fact, I have troubles with distinguishing great tastes at time. As an example, my aunts took my brother an I to two famous restaurants. One was a tempura restaurant in Asakusa, while the other one was a unagi (eel) restaurant in Saitama. Don't get me wrong, they were fine meals, but nothing out of the extraordinary, in my opinion, for the price or wait. Now, for those with refined tongues, you may be able to pick out the nuance from the meals. If that's one main reason why you're travelling to Japan, then all means!

And I forgot about convenience store food. We often stopped here to stock up for breakfast. Compared to 2014, I got a lot more sandwiches than rice balls, though you can't really go wrong with any of the food at convenience stores. I also normally got a plain salad and the occasional corn dog. Perhaps I'm biased... but the corn dogs are amazing compared to the ones I would get in Calgary.

My only regret, in terms of food, was not trying out more baked goods or pastries. We stopped by a pastry shop in Kanazawa to pick up some mochi donuts. Just simply amazing.

Also, keep in mind to NOT tip after a meal. I believe the tip (if there's such a thing in their culture) is integrated into the price already.

  

11) Majority of the Japanese don't know much English, but they'll try their best to help you.
If you're ever lost, don't feel afraid to ask someone directions. For the most part, most civilians don't have a strong grasp of English, but they'll try their best to help you find what you're looking for. For example, in 2014, when we were looking for a particular snack in Sapporo, one of the sales clerk from one booth took us personally to the store selling the snack we were looking for.

It does help if you learn some simple Japanese, like saying "Excuse me" [sumimasen] and "Thank you" [Arigatou] . It doesn't hurt to learn how to say "Sorry"[gomenasai], "Hello" [konnichiwa]. 

12) Hyperdia is your best friend when it comes to navigating the complex transit system in Japan.

 credits: http://www.wa-pedia.com/images/content/TokyoSubwayMap.gif

There's no doubt that the transit system can be difficult at times. The best way to get through all the clutter is through the following website: http://www.hyperdia.com/en/

Hyperdia is a website created by Hitachi. It's simply amazing in terms of telling you how to get from one train station to another train station. It also gives you the times of each train, the option of seeing stations in between your stops (so you can anticipate when to get ready), the option of picking just JR trains (which is useful if you get the JR Pass). 

Just keep in mind that the JR pass is only for JR trains. If you choose to use the subway or private railways, you'll have to pay the appropriate fees. 

In terms of buses or walking to stations, I often used Google Maps to help me get around. 

13) Japan is a relatively safe place.

Even within Kabukicho, the red light district in Shinjuku, I felt relatively safe. You may be heckled by... scouts? (not sure what they're called), to visit their establishments but the trick is to keep on walking. I never had any worries as I walk through Japan -- day or night. Of course, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be on your guard, nor cause a ruckus. As long as you're responsible, follow what the majority of citizens are doing, then you should be totally fine.

14) Japanese Etiquette
In my opinion, the Japanese tend to be... don't know how to really explain it... very "proper" people in terms of their mannerism. Unlike other places I go to, or even in Calgary, the Japanese are uber polite. Many times, I had individuals let me go first on a conveyor belt, moved aside for me to pass through or go out of their way to greet me when I enter shops.

Some basic rules:

A) On conveyor belts, stick to the left side. The right side is used for passing. There are some exceptions... I think Osaka being one of them where you stand on the right and have the left side for passing. Either way, just follow the crowd.

B) Try not to converse on the train. Most people are sitting their quietly, either reading a book or on their phones quietly. Talking on your cell phone is a big no-no.

C) At a restaurant, try not to rub your disposable chopsticks together, nor stick it straight up in rice.

There's more that you can read here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e622.html

As always, you can search up YouTubers on Japanese Etiquette as well.

15) Climb Mount Fuji

If you do choose to climb Mount Fuji, make sure you get plenty of rest before doing so. It's not a hugely difficult climb (during our first attempt, I think we spent about 10-12 hours in total?).

There's something spiritual about the climb in my opinion. Also, most people would start the climb via the 5th station after taking a bus. There are four different paths: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6901.html

Both times, we started on the Fuji Subaru line. Even if you choose not to climb, at least take the bus to the 5th station.

16) Conclusion

That pretty much wraps up my post on travel to Japan. I believe I covered most of the general points on travelling to Japan. I really believe that Japan should be a place that you visit at least once in your life. Throughout the four times I've been to Japan (twice with my father and twice travelling with my brother and friends), I've had the pleasure to experience many different events. I've been in Japan during the Spring, Summer and Winter (just Fall left).

I'll definitely return back to Japan many times throughout my life. One thing on my bucket list will be to see the cherry blossoms in the spring.

Probably when I have a longer spring break, or when I retire. =)