Conference Conquered

I went to Kobe the 18-20 for the dreaded Mid-Year Conference. Nearly every ALT in Hyogo attended, and a load of JTEs. I was relieved to have one of my preferred JTEs instead of my lazy teacher. I had heard horrible stories about the extreme boredom this conference would consist of. And based on my Tokyo and Yashiro orientations, I figured it had to be dull. Well, it wasn't exactly thrilling, but it wasn't nearly as bad as anticipated. Apparently last year groups were required to get up on stage and do skits about cultural differences and the problems that ensue. Luckily, enough people complained that cultural differences had nothing to do with the intended purpose [better team-teaching], that nothing so blatanly pointless occurred this year. Instead we were put into small teams, given relatively pertinant topics [ex- Is it the JTE's or the ALT's role to discipline the students] to discuss. Outstanding members from each group went up on the dreaded stage to discuss more topics. Not terribly exciting, as evidenced by the mass amounts of sleeping Japanese teachers [the ability to fall sleep anywhere at anytime in a matter of seconds is by far the most impressive Japanese trait. Oh, and this is socially acceptable- apparently principals fall asleep at school meetings. <-- this anecdote was shared with me; I have not seen my principal fall asleep].

The best part of the conference would have been the hectic dash down to Chinatown for great Chinese food. Mmm, siu mai and humbows... Pictures above feature Alicia and Jasmin chillin' with some Tsingtao and Piotr chowin' down on a sausage on a bone [the bone acting as a skewer].