That more of an update.

Thursday I was bad. Because when you bring your computer to work it's because you expect to work on it, right? Not just sit there for hours and read on it. And I did get a little bit of work done too, but I still don't like (know) what I'm gonna do with the 5th graders next week (Wed is my new class). It needs to be a good lesson because the last one wasn't so good.

So yeah. Thursday. On Friday I was at my smallest school, Miyahara. I get there and forget that I don't teach first period, so I get all ready to teach at 9, and they don't come until 10. Great. But in the mean-time, I did the first part of a three step process to make Curi a present.

Then I taught my kids. The 3 5th years, the 5 6th years, and the 5 3rd years. The only genki ones were the 3rd years. The first two classes, it was like pulling teach to get them to participate. Not so bad, but when your entire class is dead, it's really hard to keep the upbeat mood. But then we played go fish (with each class) which was easy with 4 people (the 5th years), but harder with 6th people (the other classes), and I only dealt out 3 cards in the beginning. But they had the practice with numbers and new grammar (Is it 3 o'clock? No.) It's hard to make the appropriate grammar into yes/no questions, but I think that's where my kids are, level wise. Sometimes they can do a fill in the blank, but that's harder. I do that with my kids I see more often. And my 1st and 2nd years, I'm just happy if they can smack the card of the word I'm saying.

Oh, did I mention that I didn't have the 5th years on Thursday? Because there was a speech contest that I didn't know about. They spoke about it around me, but not to me, so. But that's groovy too.

And, and wow, you can tell I only got 7 hours of sleep last night with how disjointed this entry is (not bad, 7 hours of good hard sleep, which is good), but here's a snapshot for you.

I'm sitting in my classroom on Friday. The kids come in, say hi, and start playing with my stuff, my big dice and my ball (I love my ball!) and they eventually break down to a monkey in the middle game. And at one point, it's a low ball on the rebound, and the guy in the middle dives down and catches the ball, and while he's laying there, the girl he stole the ball from pulls down his pants. And everyone is laughing, including the kid who just, hastily, yanked his pant back up. So I didn't say anything as they continued to play happily. Craziness.

But yeah. After class we had lunch, which was good, and they offered me some of the leftovers, but I forgot them (like a stupid head). Then I retreated back upstairs to finish Curi's present (you'll get it in the mail in a little bit), and read Nueromancer. Because when I started this morning (after 3 bloodly weeks of reading this one book!) I was still about not even a half of the way through. And now I'm comfortably 2/3rds. I will finish this book. I will!

Then I tried to find the temple that is supposedly right by the elementary school after work, and found cows instead. I gave up and drove back towards Hirara, but because I was on my bike, if I saw a pretty picture, I took it. In Hirara I stopped by the travel agent (who actually studied in England for a year and who's English isn't terrible, but you could tell she was much more comfortable in Japanese as she only switched when I didn't understand, which wasn't too often, yay knowing enough Japanese to get by!) and paid for my trip to Ishigaki. I'm gonna go back to her about the Midyear Conference Ticket too. She just was so nice and comfortable. And I've also decided that I'm GOING TO WAKAYAMA in January. I just need to talk to my supervisor about nenkyuu, then talk to my schools about nenkyuu, then get the ticket on November 1st when the January schedules come out. There is no direct flight from Osaka to Miyako. I could get there in one go, but to get back you have to stop by Ishigaki or Naha, which is crazy, so it'll be cheaper for me to go to see Marnie then. So I will. And personal alone time? Who needs that!?!? I just going to do Something about every single weekend between now and February. It'll be fun!

Afterwards I drove to the stationary store and (spent too much money on stationary, I was foolish, but it's just so cute!) bought a good black pen, because for some reason all of my pens are blue, and I needed a black one to finish that single line I forgot to do on Curi's present. (I borrowed a calligraphy pen to do it, and didn't want to go back downstairs and just borrow it for a second time for a second, oh, and it's really hard to use a calligraphy pen to do anything else but calligraphy, but I'm still pleased with the result).

When I finally got home I had enough time to sit down, upload my pictures, talk to Dad (all at the same time!) for about an hour before going out to the JTE/ALTs night out, where I met some really nice English Teachers, who I never interact with at Elementary school, but it was really nice to be able to talk in Japanese, and be able to switch back to English if I just didn't know how to stay something, and not just say it in a messed up way. (and when I mean messed up I mean: "this food tastes like home" = "when I eat this food, I think of my family because I used to eat food of a similar taste" I get my point across, but still)

And yeah, I was out until 3am? And I only slept 7 hours? Weird, but I'm not complaining. But now to shower and beach. I need to actually swim today. All that all you can eat and drink leads to the need for exercise. Yay!