hey all,
I'd like to start by saying thanks to everyone who's taken a second to remember me on or near my birthday. Especially here in my relatively anti-social guesthouse, it helps to know that people are thinking about you.
The week has been busy and eventful to say the least. On Monday my boss watched one of my classes and was quite upset because the students weren't reacting to class: they couldn't remember what we had been studying, they couldn't do memorization, couldn't fill in the blanks, etc. Only one student could do anything at all. She was angry at me at first, but after talking to the students' mothers she discovered that only that one student and another student who was absent were studying at home. After that she said it wasn't my fault and to continue as I was. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were more or less regular days, but I've been busy after work cutting my hair, doing laundry, cooking for dinner and lunch, looking for a new lunch box and finding some origami paper, in addition to trying to study Japanese and keep in touch with Michi.
I now have a bike which has been a great help in making all these errands possible. It is only a mama-chari (a mom's style bike) but it is better than walking for 30 minutes just for groceries, work, or to get to the station.
Today has been an especially busy day. We had a teacher's meeting at 8:15AM to discuss our teaching materials, during which we kept noticing that one of our teachers still hadn't shown up. He apparently had a really bad stomach ache, and wanted to take the day off. From what I've heard him talk about during down time at work, it wouldn't surprise me if he was just hung over from drinking too much. Needless to say, the boss and the other teachers were all put out. It didn't affect my morning too much, but I had to cover 3 of his baby lessons in the afternoon. That wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I have a very demanding and challenging 1.5 hour long class from 5PM to 6:30PM which I need to be energetic for. The students are all very good elementary school students who come in from Monday to Friday to improve their English. They've all had to go through more than 6 hours of Japanese public school before they even come to my class, and I need to get them interested and excited about English in order for the class to go smoothly.
The boss had received a few complaints about my class being too loud or having bad attitude, but when she observed the class today she thanked me many times for teaching such a good class: for making it fun for the students, for making it challenging for them, for getting them to speak in class, etc. It was actually a little embarrassing, but it made me feel really good because I've been trying all sorts of different teaching styles and methods, and for each class the students have to try hard and be prepared for it if they want to do well in it. So basically, I've been trying really hard and I've gotten not only a pat on the head, but maybe a nod of respect and appreciation.
The weekend looks to be as eventful. Tomorrow I make a new housing contract and finally get to see Michi and celebrate my birthday. I guess she's making me a cake and dinner. Then Sunday, we're heading to Kotakuji again. We haven't been there in almost a year, so it should be pretty interesting. Michi says she's buying a rope tomorrow, so I won't have to carry mine, which is always the biggest pain in the butt. It is the heaviest part of my gear, and we can't go climbing outdoors without it. And then if we plan on lead climbing indoors, but decide to only do top rope once we get to the gym, I'll have carried my heavy rope around for no reason.
Next weekend, it looks like we've got a climbing lesson on how to multi-pitch, so that will be a busy weekend as well.
In short, I'm really busy and pretty happy at the moment and I don't think I could ask for too much more out of my situation.
Cheers,
