I love my job!

Last week my English teacher told the kids to write sentences using the grammar points they have learned over the last month. Today in class, they had to read them aloud to me. This was the class favourite by far.

“Yesterday Rebecca sensei came to my house. I showed her my body. She was very excited.”

Rikigo JHS = <3

Baby News

After all the stress, tears and drama of the last few months Ms Carrie called to let us know she was pregnant!! Wow. I am shocked but also very, very happy for her! She also told me she has decided to call her bump George. I really hope it’s a boy and then she can just keep that name.

Congratulations Carrie & David! See you in April baby George!

It's someone's birthday....

You stole my sweater.......but I'll forgive you!
Have a great day xxx

Grumpy Old.....

I must be getting old. I stayed at Dawn’s last night to escape the noise and revelry of the Horse Festival. It is fun but not for the 5th year in a row and not when it goes on for 12 hours right outside your door.

This grandma is off to bed……

ARGH!!

My brain is officially fried this week. I had another 7 hours of exam-check meetings this week and I am over it. I don’t understand why Japanese people can’t make decisions. Actually I think they can make decisions but they don’t like speaking out and so everything drags on. Luckily for them they wanted a foreigner to help and we do enjoy speaking out because we want to go home!!

I managed to sleep well last night which was good because today was the High School Speech Contest and I was asked to be a judge. I have to hand it to the kids; some of the speeches were amazing. One student wrote a very moving speech about a soldier in the war and right at the end disclosed that the soldier was her brother. Another student wrote about their battle with anorexia.

Unfortunately I don’t think the Japanese judges were looking for the same things and so I didn’t fully agree on the outcome. It was very frustrating to see kids who had really put their hearts into writing a truly moving story get beaten out by others who wrote about simple things such as pets or a school trip. I tried to argue the point that it was an essay contest but evidently pronouncing every letter correctly is more important than content.

Oh Japan, when will you learn?!?

Tatsuda ES

Another week, another new school and today I was at Tatsuda ES. The teachers are great but they seem super busy. The kids are crazy but in a great way. Even the little ones have no fear of foreigners and enjoy kidnapping me at lunch time to drag me around the school. The only problem is the 5th graders; maybe it’s a trend this year. I remember when the 6th graders used to be the terrors but that has definitely changed. Come on kids just sit down, be quiet and listen! PLEASE!

Relaxing?!?!? Day

Inviting Kevin over for the day seemed like a good idea yesterday morning but that was before:

* Going out for lunch and drinking wine
* Skyping with Cherese
* Playing card games until all hours
* Watching 3 movies; HP5, Matilda and a foreign movie.

Now I need another day to get over my “relaxing weekend.”

Nagamine ES

I have spent 3 days at Nagamine ES this week and I can see why Cherese insisted I take it. They are so nice. The teachers are wonderful and the kids are really sweet.

I am eating lunch with the teachers at this school and at first I thought it would be weird. I have always eaten with the students but it is actually a really nice break especially when you have really energetic kids all morning. The best part was when the science teacher ate too much and confessed that he was “stuffed.” Cherese taught him that expression and it is his favourite so he starts applying it to everything. “Today is stuffed” was his way of telling me he had a busy day!

I also have my own English room complete with a Smart Board. I am so excited – I have big plans to decorate the room and can’t wait to get started. I did get a little side-tracked today however when I noticed a poster showing how to do hiragana and katakana in sign language. I learned a little sign language when I was very young but never thought about learning any for Japanese. I was soon joined by a few kids and today we tried to spell out our names – fun times!

Ikenoue ES

One of my new elementary schools is Ikenoue and I have to admit it’s a sweet deal.

It’s on the other side of the hill from my house and the first bus that goes there is at 8:25am. (I think that makes up for my other two schools where I have to get the bus at 7:30am.)

Anyway the teachers are lovely and MOST of the kids are great. The little ones are adorable, 3rd and 4th grade love English and the 6th graders are shy but try hard. The only problem is the 5th grade; they are terrors!

My supervisor has the worst class in the entire school; they are like monkeys at the zoo. Not sure how I’ll get through a whole year without throwing one out of the window!

Do-Nothing Day

I am doing nothing today in order to recover from the craziness that was yesterday;

* First I volunteered to teach an English class at Open House.
* Then I had my Japanese class.
* (going from teaching English to studying Japanese made my head hurt)
* When I got home I ended up in an intense religious discussion with Noe.
* For dinner we went to mom & pop’s where we met a lovely Japanese lady who wanted to feel me up. She also insisted that I have to drink at her snack bar and help bring in more customers!

Nasty Nose Test

Grrrr. Some things about Japan are crazy. I had a fever yesterday and I know it is because I have been dehydrated. It is so hard to avoid here especially when you’ve been busy.

Anyway because of the flu panic I am not allowed to return to work until a doctor certifies that it’s not the flu. So, today I had to go to the hospital, wait 2 hours and pay 4000yen for a very unpleasant test that told me what I already know; I don’t have the flu!!

For those who are curious, part of the test involved the doctor shoving a small brush all the way up my nose to the back of my throat and taking samples. I actually felt worse after the test than I did before :(

ps that's not me in the picture!!! :)

A Great Day!

Today was my best ever first day at school. Rikigo JHS is so much fun!
Here are the highlights.

* Meeting Yoshinaga sensei again. He worked at Sanwa in my first year and was so nice to me. It feels like I’ve come full circle working with him in my first and last year.

* Giving my introduction speech via camera. The school wants to take every precaution against spreading the flu and so the students aren’t allowed to get together in big groups.

* A group of boys asked me my name and I told them to guess. As they were thinking one kept saying “Miss….Miss…Miss…” and another kid passing by finished his sentence for him; “Miss Universe.” My name is now Miss Universe!

* I mentioned in my speech that I like Harry Potter. A few boys from another class decided to show they like Harry Potter too by challenging me to a spell-off. Randomly yelling spells from HP makes cleaning time much more fun.

* Having an earthquake drill. All other drills for earthquakes mean getting under desks but I’m assuming we knew this one was coming as they told us all the run outside!!