Thailand . . . mmmm, wait, don:t I hate hot food?

Yesterday I left work a little early so that I could head over to the iinkai and talk to them about taking time off for when Leo comes, as well as for golden week. Because I:m going to Thailand. We:ve just reserved the tickets. I:ll be gone from April 23rd to May 3rd, which give me 3 days after Thailand to recover, possibly in Niigata with Curi, possibly at home, it all depends on how much flights cost.

Good thing too, because I spent most of the evening talking with Curi and Tiffany and getting our flights worked out as well as trying to figure out Where in Thailand we:re gonna go. So far we have Bankok and Ko Samui on our lists. If anyone has recomendations?

Also, today I did not get a pair of Japanese style angel dolls. Because the first grade teacher did not hand them to me and did not say that they had an overstock of them.

My ankle only hurts when I bend it. You know, like people normally do for walking? And when it:s just sitting there. When I prop it up it:s fine. Although I have to be careful and not put the weight on my heel, because that makes my ankle slide with the weight of my leg. My dad says this sounds like a much bigger injurey than he first thought and says that I should go to the doctor tomorrow. He mentioned ligaments and such. So I:ve decided to not sign up for the marathon at the end of the month (I:m upset) because I don:t know when I:ll be able to continue my training. And I don:t want to die the day of.

Gas and ankle

My gas was cut off last night. I have no idea why--Justin:s was out too. I called the gas company and after fumbling through the conversation we got someone out to turn it back on. After all of that pathetic Japanese, I didn:t feel like bothering with "so why was it off in the first place?" But yay fixing a problem. And thanks to Tiffany for telling me what to do.

Also, my ankle is still hurt. From my fall on Friday. I:m talking to my dad, but if it:s not done by Friday, I:m gonna spend the other half of my day going to the doctor. This week is one of my happy Friday weeks where I don:t have to work a full day for once.

Veronica came last weekend. That was fun. I:m running away to Ishigaki week after this one. Should also be fun. And yeah.

Hand written while listening to a guest speaker

So you know how I have my nice BIG new room at Heiichi? I walk up to school this morning and the (cute) 6th grade teacher snipes me. He asks if I don:t have anyone for first period.

I say I do, 4th grade.

And he says, after, you know how you have all of the 6th grade? 2nd period 6-1, 3rd 6-2, 4th 6-3? Well, a singer is coming to speak to the kids during 3rd and 4th period so can you teach all of the 6th graders during 2nd period in your nice BIG class room?

Then he sees the panic on my face as I run screaming through my head over the lesson I had planned and realize that there is no way in Hades that I can do the same activities with 87 students. But for no good reason (as I didn:t plan to play that game today) I stuck the 530 chips that I made over winter break in my bag. Usually the game is played by handing out 5 chips and then they say a conversation and Janken, winner gets a chip. I usually control the conversation (either by everyone saying one thing or passing out a card for them to say) but there were nearly 90 of them so each gopt 3 and could say whatever they wanted ("what do you like?" "I like school subject"). After which I had them line up and assembly line style drop off their chips (winner had 21) and pick up their writing practice, crossword, and word search. They wrote while they listened to music. And laughed at how silly Pain sounded, because they didn:t understand it.

***

Last night after my shower, I walked to Family Mart to pick up some milk to make my cream of mushroom soup. I saw some of my kids outside. One of the girls (3rd or 4th) ran up to me saying hi and told me with great assurence "You are different!" and I basically said "wtf? Who what where?" And she said, "from school to now, outside of school you look different." And I did a "thank you, I guess" and then they quizzed me on what I bought (milk and yogurt) and we parted ways. I think they would have been happier if I had bought beer.

***

I:ve finished the rest of the Uglies Trilogy, I:m not sure I want to read the 4th book, as it seems to concern completely different characters. I:ve also started Iron Kissed, because it JUST came in. Even though I oredered it on Jan 5th. i should have preordered it, but I didn:t. Now I know and when Superior Saturday comes out (april, I believe) I:ll preorder it. The Mercy Thompson series is pretty good, but the way. If you go for hot werewolves and magic and contemprary fantasy tied up around murder mystery. Which I do.

***

I:m still working my way through Salem:s Lot. I:m on Chapter 8 of 15. It:s creepy. And the actor is still laughable. Even so, I find myself reluctant to listen to it after dark. Good for walking in the day/twilight. But after dark . . .

***

Speaking of listening to music (or mp3 players) I finally figured out how to shuffle playlists. So I mixed up my school mix (still pathetically short, if anyone has music to contribute, let me know) and I think the kids have enjoyed it. I still don:t have any NEW music, but I guess that:s okay. It would be nice if I had some Avaril. Cuz they know her.

***

I:m writing this in a notebook while the music guy talks. He is Suehiro Naoki. He was born in Miyakojima and has like 6 cds out. He currently lives in Tokyo while he plays with Gulff. He apparently loved English class. He did the English speach contest while he went to Seijo Junior High (remind, I teach at Seijo Elm) and he practiced everyday while riding his bike.

As the talk goes on more and more teachers are sneaking in to listen. Himeno-sensei, Makiko-sensei (my english coordinator), that male teacher who I don:t remember. I think that this is a really cool idea. Have someone who was local and is now "famouse" talk to the kids. I stopped listening to him a while ago. Mostly because I don:t REALLY understand what he:s saying. I could try harder. He:s currently talking about his grandfather. But yeah. "Hey kids, just becaus you were born on an island doesn:t mean you HAVE to die on it."

The principal and vp sat down next to me at the back of the room, so I can:t draw XP But I guess it:s okay, I like writing.

***

I talked to Tiffany last night about Thailand and Leo this morning about him coming here. I:m suppose to call the discount travel agent tonight and price check leaving for thailand on saturday or monday, which would be cheaper. I also need to ask for nenkyuu. For both, when Leo:s here and going to Thailand. They:re both really early. But I:m of the opinion that if you:re gonna skip work, give the people that you:re putting upon the most amount of time to prepare for it.

In talking to Leo, he:s actually made it clear that he doesn:t care what we do, so long as we:re together. So what I:m planning is that he:ll get to narita, have an overnight in Tokyo, fly to okinawa then miyako the next day and I:d meet him here. I:m rather terrrified about him staying overnight in tokyo, I think I:ll talk to him about it. If He:s gonna avoid the 7am flight to miyako anyway, to catch the narita - okinawa flight that same day, and overnight in naha like mom and dad did. It:s so much more english friendly.

***

They finally got to the Q&A session.

***

Then we might just bum aorund miyako for the two weeks. Not go to Taipei, but if we do, I think we:ll just decide to do it while we:re here.

***

They:re fliming me right now. I think that they find it weird that a random white girl is here listening to the talk. I wonder if they were told that I:m the English teacher...

Chase asked "did you quit English after starting the band?"

"No, I:ve never stopped studying English."

So useful. I love that little half snot nosed brat. He:s the one who asked (when talking about how Japan gets such a long recess) "how long is summer break?" Because he knew. It:s good playing off something like that in class. Starts good discussions.

Hehe, all of my brats are the ones standing up to ask questions. You know the ones. The ones that give you the most greif and you can:t help but like.

"What:s the most precious thing to you?"

"Hm, the most precious thing is my family, my grandma and grandpa."

They:re fially going to let him sing. I was wondering when. They:ve had the guitar up there the whole time.

***

Did I mention that I:m living in the land of Stating the Obvious?

Yesterday I:m working on stuff and this 3rd year comes in and says something about returning this thing to my classroom and whatever and then he sees the broken clock on the shelf and yells "Oh! It:s a clock!" and then says bye and returns to his class.

***

So he sings this really nice song and writes the words on the board for the kids to sing along.

Then the kids all stand up and sing for him. It:s really nice.

End of notebook.

***

So he also ate with the kids, 6-1, and guess who I was scheduled to eat with today? 6-1. I could have introduced myself, but I was feeling shy, so I just ate with one of the other groups. And it was one of the best lunches I:ve ever had. The kids asked me questions, and when I said I didn:t understand that word, they actually said it in a different way until I understood! We had a really good conversation.

And then, as I was walking downstairs, I see the kids cleaning up, sweeping and whatnot, and they are playing around like 2nd or 3rd graders usually do and one of them declares "I:ve died!" and I start to mess around with them, asking him if he:s died and he falls down and I start to rush to him and say "hang on!" in Japanese, but I:ve forgotten it at that moment, and was about to stumble it out "tsukareshiro!" and I miss that there was in fact another step there and I fall. And I felt something crunch in my ankle. So now I:m set up in the computer room with an ice bag on my ankle, propped up on a chair. And it still hurts. And I first fell about 2 hours ago. And I don:t have my car here today, so I:ll have to walk home.

And Veronica:s coming today. Yay.

Mixed

Heath Ledger died. I'm not taking this very well. Mostly because I really liked him as an actor, and it doesn't feel real. Not that he was John Lennon or anything, just someone that I'd gotten used to occasionally coming out with a good movie. Because he was one of the not sellouts who chose rolls because he thought they were good. Unlike Nick Cage, who shoots everything he can touch. But I digress.

I heard about this the same day that I heard about Ben (because that was apparently his name). Last name omitted. Because that doesn't really matter. Not to me. He was a person that I didn't know. He's gone. I still don't know the details, but I'd like to remind people that this is a wake up call. Just another one of those moments that just because you feel safe somewhere, becareful. I don't know if this was a case of malisiousness or drunked stupidity. Either way, it's a wake up call.

On a much less sober subject, which I almost don't want to say, because I don't want to make light of death, but these are my thoughts, and if you know me at all, you know how they jump around normally, so, I didn't go walking yesterday. My hip is fine, finally, but my excursion on Monday left me with a huge blister on the ball of my right foot, and while it doesn't HURT, it still is making itself very well known to me by letting me know it exists regularly. And I decided not to push it and try to walk yesterday, so I just did leg excersises for about half an hour followed by vigorus stretching. And then I remembered that I won't be able to go for my walks this weekend because Veronica is coming. Happy for company, sad for my walking. I don't think she can keep up with the pace I set for me to actually get the workout. So I'll just have to continue the indoor excersises for the next few days. Today is upper body again.

And on a really light subject, this is a really funny review of James Patterson's You've been warned. Marnie had me reading it and laughing out loud. I want to put together a listing of some of my other books' last lines of the chapter and see if they're as funny.

So yeah, start with death and end with laughter. I think that's how I want my funeral to go, actually.

Bad news from Wakayama-ken

I know that I'm incredibly uninformed, but this is what I know. My friend in Wakayama-ken told me that one of the JETs there died over the weekend. The details as I know them: He was last seen alive at a party on Saturday, very drunk. When he didn't show up for their Mid Year Conference on Monday he was reported missing to the police. His body was found today at the bottom of a ravine. My friend believes that he was a first year JET, and knows he was from the UK. I don't know his name. I know he was in his early 20s.

Very sobering.

It hurts

Today's 10.1k was slow and painful. I did it in one hour 56 minutes. And I felt like I was walking into the wind the entire circle. I don't know if the reason my hip's been hurting me all day is because of something wrong with my shoe and my twisted hip or if it's cuz I pushed myself too hard on saturday and again today. I've been walking like an old lady since I got home. Now I just need to decide if the only way to overcome is to push myself harder, keep the same regimen or to take a break until I feel better. Take two days off from walking this week, or just walk 5k on wednesday. But I know I can do 5k. I know I can do it easily. I want to do 10k easily, and thought I did on saturday. *Sigh* I guess I'll just do my "weights" tomorrow and see how I feel on Wednesday . . .

And my typing sounds like the guy who reads Stephen King in my head. It's what I get for listening to him for two hours. And I'm just getting to the really creepy part of the book . . . I want to finish it already to say that I did and be done with it. But unlike with my books that I read, I can't make him read faster . . .

I totally scored.

So, you know how we moved into a new school at Heiichi? Well, this wonderful new school is beautiful, open, nice, hardwood, and not falling apart. Actually, it really reminds me of Higa-chuu, Curi's school. Very nice, very pretty.

Oh, yeah, about the open part. There's this beautiful hallway down the middle of the school and from the second floor you can look down on it. Very nice, right?

And the classrooms themselves surround this wide open courtyard (with nothing currently in it), kinda like Decatur High does. So that when the summer comes they can open their windows on in their classrooms, and also in the hallways across from their classrooms to get a nice breeze.

But how could they get such a breeze? You might ask. When things like a wall and a doorway separating the hallway from the classroom exists?

And normally you might be thinking logically, because normally you would think that in an elementary school such things as a separation of hallway and classroom would be a good thing.

But here in Miyakojima, no, no, such a separation is like a blockage in children's minds. Their minds need open space to shine and grow.

So there is no separation of hallway and classroom in this new building.

And I knew that it would spell doom for my classes. But as I had no proof, I waited. Until after my first day of teaching.

Which of course, by the end of the first class all of the near by teachers had learned to woe the coming of English class, and its fits of loud, screaming, GENKI kids it brought.

So when I went around and looked at all of the empty rooms, and in fact found two that seemed to not be used, after my classes were over, I spoke with the esteemed Vice Principal.

And I told him how noisy my classes were, and how much I didn't want to be a bother, and that there was a classroom with doors on it that no one seemed to be using.

And I had the support of the teachers (all of them, not just the ones whose class I'd been to that day, for all of them had heard my classes vigorousness.

So the Vice Principal hears me and understands, and offeres me the choice betweeb the BIG room that is next to the office, that is far away from everybody, and the empty classroom with walls and doors on the second floor between the 5-3 room and the 6-1 room. And I looked at both of them again and said that I would like the big room because it is far away from everybody and I wouldn't be a bother and could scream my little heart out. But when the summer heat comes, I would like the classroom on the second floor that has two wonderful walls full of windows and has fans, because the big room doesn:t have any fans.

And he said, but the big room has a/c, and I'd be welcome to use it.

And I nearly died of happiness. Right there in his office, in front of my English Coordinator (who I'm coming to realize doesn't speak the same Japanese that I speak, although I'm certain that we're both speaking Japanese that other people can understand).

So, today I had my first classes in a HUGE room, and I used the space and made them scream and run and run and run. And they seemed happy. And I was much in the rejoicing. Because now in 4 of my 5 schools there exists an English Classroom.

I wins.

お願い

Dood. It's a beautiful 72 Degrees this morning and I have to wake up and hear tales of "Winter Storm 08" back home. Might I get some pictures put up on something like flickr so that I can show my kids? Most of them have NEVER seen snow.

Also, I've actually made a "school mix" for my ipod so that I can play music while the kids work on writing practice and whatnot (I love hot potato), but I could use more of a variety of music. Some newer stuff, some older stuff. Yousendit.com is a great website for this. So is just email. And I need songs that are kid safe. I have no Elvis . . .

So it's so cold the last few days and nights that I go out an buy a new electric heater. And a hair dryer because I was worried and hated taking a shower several hours before bed and going to bed with wet hair. With no central heating and it being in the 50s.


And today was so nice that I could walk around in shorts comfortably and hang my futon out for some sun.

Walking

One hour, forty four minutes. 9.4 km. 5.8 mi. And I still feel good.

That and Stephen King's Salem's Lot is creepy. And read by someone who was obviously trying to make it more so, and failing in that over-dramatic type way. And he can't do females. But that's normal, isn't it?

[online book recording site] (again)

I have updated my books again, including appropriate (to me, at least) tags. I've been noting books as 2007 if I read them in 2007 after arriving in Japan, or 2008, both label with japan reading as well. I've also added a handful of pre-japan reading, mostly because I don't really remember what year I read them to begin with, with a few exceptions like Harry Potter 7, which I obviously read in 2007.

This is way too much fun, and easy. I really like that I can look at all of the vampire books I've read vs young adult vs fantasy. And I can look at all of one author. Neato.

Again, if you're on it, go to my shelf and clicky the requesty friendship. Makes with the fun. And the sharing. And the hey, is that a good book/author/series?

Making kids cry, half marathons, and diets

I made a kid cry today.

I don't feel bad about it at all.

Let me explain. I was teaching my small school, Miyahara today. I taught the 5th and 6th graders together for a wonderful experience of 8 kids in one class. It went really well. Then I taught the 3rd graders. We did Classroom supplies.

I started with pencil, because it's easily one of the most recognizable and used classroom supplies. One of the kid trying to be funny said pan-tsu instead. I can understand where he made the connection. Pen-sil, pan-tsu, but pantsu means underwear. I laughed with the rest of the kids the first time and corrected the class. Then when he kept saying it through the next 2 new words (I say the new word then go through the old ones as review as I walk to get the next flash card), I said, flat out, if you don't say it right we can't play the game. They corrected and everyone said it correctly throughout the rest of the vocab. Then I taught them What is it? (NO one remembered from last month what it meant. *sigh* I really want to see these kids more often) and I have a/an/nothing blank. (nothing goes in front of paper or scissors. plural) Then we played a game.

The game is a variant of the chip game and the janken game I've previously played. I give all of the kids 3 chips (with a normal sized class I give 5, there are only 5 3rd graders) and one vocabulary card. I made sure that they could each say their individual card correctly. Then they get up, run through the conversation twice, each person in a pair asking, then they janken (rock, paper, scissors, 1, 2, 3). The looser hands over a chip. When they run all out I make them come to me for a new one "one more, please" and do the conversation with me. Easy. My highest scorer has been 21 at the end of 10 minutes. Today's was 9.

The kid who was messing up the vocabulary originally, well, of course I gave him pencil. And he said it, but then wouldn't say the grammar. So I said, okay, do you want to play? and he said no. So I took his cards and chips and had everyone else start.

Yeah, tears pull at my heart strings. As hard as a fly can move the Great Wall of China. I wouldn't play his game, and he didn't get to play mine. Simple.

Halfway through the game I asked him again if he wanted to play and when he said it right I gave him his 3 chips and a card. It worked out well because I'd already moved around the class and corrected everyone else so they could help him when he didn't remember the grammar.

In other news. I've been taking long walks again now that it's not pouring (knock on wood). It's been drizzily the last few days, but the last 2 I've still gone out for an hour + walk each day. Yesterday was a full 1:20 and I got totally lost. Not really, I just didn't know where I was and only had a vague Idea of where I was going. I was worried the direction I thought was home wasn't because the roads might have curved, but I was good. And yes, I did have my cell and money on me in case I needed to call for help or catch a cab home. But really, it's only a 91 square mile island. Eventually I'd hit the ocean. Although that logic works so much better in a car.

I'm trying to get good enough to participate in a half marathon. I just have to walk 21km (or so) in 4 hours. If I can walk 5 in less than an hour it's just a matter of building up my endurance. This would be good for saying that I accomplished something, an achievable goal, and that I would have the endurance to out walk zombies. Just in case. Seeing how my knees are bad and I wouldn't be very good at out running them. Yeah, I've been keeping up with the post-apocalyptic workout (link not grandma safe). And no, it's not just about zombies, it's about any of the nightmare scenarios that hollywood has come up with. And in today's nuclear society, terror threat yellow, and working in public education, I thought it might be a good idea if I too was a little less slow and useless in such a scenario.

I've also started lifting weights. In the shower, where I'm not completely bored by it. My 25 fluid oz conditioner has been serving as a weight, but I think I'm gonna have to move it to my living room during tv, just because I've started doing core too, and that just doesn't fit in the shower.

And yeah, diet is going relatively well. I've lost about 2.5 kilo in about a week and a half. I've also noticed that if I just don't eat all of the rice and bread they give me, I'm USUALLY not still hungry after lunch, and it takes me until 5-6:30 to start to want dinner. Have a later night snack around 8 and I'm good to go. And keeping it all around 1200 cal (or at least, I think I am, still not sure what lunch is suppose to be, but I've been steadily loosing these past two school weeks, so no worries there). Unfortunately this does mean that yes, I am hungry right now, even though it's only 7:15 and normally people don't get to friday night pizza until after 8 or later, so yeah. If I get there too early, too bad. I'm hungry now. And people are crazy for wanting to eat after 10 anyway.

Things I've learned and things I've done

Today I learned that it's okay to make kids go outside during the threat of rain to run around in a relay because next week there's a track meet and in February there's an All Miyako track meet to prepare for. Even though the school uniform (which they HAVE to be in to race) is a tee shirt and really short shorts. I'd like to point out that it's warmed up conciberably since this morning to be a nice 20 degrees C. Mmmm, that's a nice 68F. Yeah, it's warmed up so much that I don't need my jacket inside anymore. If that tells you what it was before. Poor kids.

And now I have to get off because the 3rd graders are invading the computer lab. More later.

Oh, [online book recording site]

Dood, I discovered tags (silly me). I'm tagging all of the ones I'm reading in Japan as "japan reading," among other things. I've read 7 books this year. Not too shabby for it being the 17th.

And we go to bed.

Dood. That rocked.

The 5th years at Seijo were playing the sanshin with their teacher (the one I really like) and I stopped by for a bit to watch and they put one in my hands and within about 5 minutes I was able to play a complete song. Yay for having previous knowledge of a stringed intrument. The notes are very like a violin. I could even pick out mary had a little lamb and most of twinkle twinkle. The notes are completely different as 四 means the middle string, no fingers, while 上 and 中 are first and second finger, respectively. And you're only suppose to have one finger on at a time. But mostly it's remembering where to put your fingers and which means what. I didn't do it perfectly, but it was fun. She even asked my why I didn't join the group that practices at the iinkai. And I told her it's because sanshins are expensive. Although . . . it would get me out of the house . . .

Avoidence

I've been avoiding this, mostly because if I'm sitting on the computer then there are some other things that I should be doing, like planning lessons and whatnot. But I'm done with doing that this week, so here we are.

I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about some of the things that my mom asked me for her presentation. And we'll just have to see how many I get to.

"They're in school year-round, right?"

No, I'M in school year round, but they are not. Their school year starts in April and goes until I don't know when (it's one of those questions I've been meaning to ask) where they have at least a month off. I know that summer break is the longest of their breaks, but also that, because it's in the middle of the school year, they have a butt ton of homework to do, and they're accountable for it.

Fall semester runs September through December where they have about 3 weeks off. Then Spring semester runs from January until half way through March (this semester is much shorter than last semester. I wish someone had thought to tell me that, it would have helped with planning . . . ) where they have Spring Break, which is about 2 1/2 weeks.

"Please remind me about the daily schedule. You told me, but I forgot
some details."

I don't know when the kids HAVE to get here, but I think they have to get here at 8:15 just like the teachers. First period starts about 30 minutes later, but the exact times that the periods start and stop changes per school. Each period is 45 minutes long and in between is a 5-20 minute break in which the kids are self supervised and the teachers do whatever they need to do. Between 2nd and 3rd period there is a "tea time" where the teachers will meet in the tatami room and have tea (or more likely, coffee) with whatever snacks someone brought.

Lunch is after 4th period, it is served by the children and cleaned up by the children. Afterwards is "Cleaning time" where the teachers and staff clean the school. Then 5th and 6th period (if there is a 6th period, it seems to change depending on school and day of the week). So the kids go home (maybe) when school is done. Or they just hang around the school, finishing up projects, or just hanging out and using the gym or playing field, although these kids might be a part of a sports club or something, I usually don't see a supervisor.

"Please tell me again about lunch."

Look at a previous entry.

"And the students are responsible for a lot of the functioning of the
school, right? I remember you said they clean up after lunch. Do
they also clean the school in general? Bathrooms?"

Yes, there is no janitor. No landscaper. No cleanup crew. Kids clean all of it, sometimes with the supervision of the teachers. The administration are the people who keep the school working. Not heavy stuff like tech, mind. But it is the principal who mows the lawn and whatnot.

"How is p.e.? Does the whole school exercise together?"

Taiku is a class just like science or math that they go to. I don't usually get the opportunity to watch as most of the classes seem to be in when I have my classes, but seeing how I only get 2 class periods a day off, that's not very unusual.

"How many different languages do they learn in school?"

2. Japanese and English. Unless you count Japanese as 3 languages. Spoken Japanese, Composing Japanese, katakana and hiragana. Learning the Chinese parts of Japanese, kanji--in Japanese you only need about 3-5 thousand to be able to function proficiently in society. (See why I just gave up?)

"Are there any with learning or behavior problems? If so, do you know
if there are special classes for exceptional students? Or do they
just not attend school?"

No, I don't have an autistic first grader in my class without any back up but the homeroom teacher. And I don't have that girl in 5th grade who just "doesn't talk" (I've gotten no more explaination for this than that, she seems smart). Or the, I think she has auterburgers in 6th grade. Yeah, kids with learning disabilities are just pushed into the regular classrooms, expecially in the small schools where they don't have someone there to work in special ed. Maybe they have someone who comes and helps them. Just not during my classes. *sigh* At Heiichi (the largest school) there is actually a special ed teacher who takes kids out and has privet lessons. But that's only in Heiichi so far as I know. I'm not sure what happends in Junior High, but if there is a massive problem, they do have Special high schools.

"What are the class sizes? I know this varies because of some small
schools, but for average size schools, what would they be?"

My smallest class size is 3. In my smallest school the 5th and 6th graders are combined into one homeroom with one teacher, but when they come to see me I get them one grade at a time. Which I find rather silly because all it means is that I do the same lesson, twice, and I can't play some of the games because there aren't enough people to play them. I do the same lesson because I see them so infrequently that it's really not worth it for me to change it up. They don't remember what I taught last MONTH, so there is no building of new vocab on old, so there's really no point in varying when they don't remember the little stuff that they should remember from 3rd grade.

Oh, I lied. My smallest class is 0 because that school has no 4th graders.

My largest class is 39. 40 is the legal limit. And this isn't an issue of there has to be at least 15 kids to make a class. Most of my schools only have 1 class per grade. And if they get that ONE child too many, then they have to immediately break the class up and find a new teacher. Which means classes will just hover at 38-39 throughout the year and they just pray they don't get a transfer. But then, because I don't live in a big city, transfers don't happen that often. I got that one kid from Fukui-ken, and other than that I can count on one hand how many kids have just moved from one small town to another.

"Is religion taught in school?"

Perhaps if it's a private, religious school? There is no national religion in Japan, it's actually this really convoluted hash of Ancestor worship, Buddhism, Shintoist, and whatever else they see and like (for example, they ganked Christmas and Valentine's Day without qualm because it seems like fun. secular not included). So no, they don't really teach that kind of thing in school just because it's part of their world and traditions. At New Years you go to a Shrine. When someone dies you go to a Temple. During Obon your ancestors will come out of the ocean and visit you for 3 days so don't go swimming or they might drown you. Regular, everyday life.

And you teachers thought that moving at the end of the year was hard . . .

And you teachers thought that moving at the end of the year was hard, wait til you have to move in the middle.

I learned several things today. I learned that the kindergarten teacher who jokes around with me in English is a year younger than me and has 2 kids. I learned that one of the office ladies has a daughter with the same birth year and month as me. I learned that it's okay for a kid to wear swear words ALL OVER his shirt in a country where English is not the native language and where it refers to safe sex and AIDS prevention. I learned that if you give kids some responsibility and expect them to live up to a higher standard, then they'll do it. I learned that an entire school can be moved in about 2 1/2 hours without a moving company.

That's right. Today, after lunch, we moved Heiichi from the old Elementary school to the new one. We used child labor, we did not hold classes. We had everyone help and it was all accomplished very quickly with little problem. The 6th graders took charge and started taking things onto rolling carts as people walked them across the space between the schools. We had people directing, everyone helping, very little confusion. Whole drawers of what I'm assuming were Important Documents were handed to children and told where to take them--no suspicion, no worries. And the kids did it. Because it was expected of them.

I'm not saying that Japanese kids aren't kids, that they don't mess up now and then, but these kids are told what they need to do, and then they (for the most part) do it. Because it's expected that they will be able to.

Another example, right now in art they're working with wood. They paint a board blue, they draw a design with permanent marker, and then they use a tool to scrape away parts of the design. They use exacto knifes in the classroom, they keep them in their desks. Because it's expected that they be treated as tools and not weapons. And probably because if they mess up with it they'll be taken out back and beaten (not really, but I bet some form of smacking will occur). Yay for spankings. Because, when used infrequently and with just cause I honestly think that they are totally worth it.

I also think it's awesome that the school system saved money just by making the kids help with the moving and not hiring a moving company, and it was done with less hassle, less confusion, and quicker than a moving company could have done because there were about 700 workers. And they only missed one day of Cleaning time, Recess, and 1 class period (because this was on Friday, and Heiichi lets them out one class period early on Fridays, so there wasn't a second class after lunch today anyway). And it taught the kids responsibility and respect for the things they moved (This is my classroom and moving it is my responsibility, no one is going to do it for me.)

Although I will say this whole no outside shoes inside really was a pain in the keaster today. Because we had to wear shoes between the buildings, then take them off inside both. XP

So, while I should be cooking myself dinner, uploading pictures, doing laundry, or figuring out what the HECK I'm going to be teaching my classes TOMORROW, I am instead calmly selecting the next book to devour and drawing myself a bath while drinking a chu-hi (only 100 calories for the whole can).

I've started a diet again. Mostly because when I came here I was closer to 75kg and I'd gone up to 78, and at 2.2kg per lb, that just kinda hurts. So. I'm not doing jenny craig (can't here, for their food or for the food pyramid, there's just not the right foods available for the prices I am willing to pay), but I'm counting calories. I've lost 1.5kg in my first 2 days (that's 3.3 lb for you lazy people) and my goal is to loose 6kg total. I think that shouldn't be too bad.

So yeah, I've also been occupying my not-worrying-about-what-I'm-teaching-TOMORROW time with writing reviews of some of the books I've read over here on shelfari. fun times. I love expressing my opinions in a public forum. And I am a darn good procrastinator. I'm serious. There should be awards for my level of procrastination.

current mood: hmm, I *should* be panicking...

Back and things to note

Expect a more interesting/picture filled post about the last three weeks later. For now, things to note:

1) You need to renew your island card. I found this out while trying to bump my flight to an earlier time. New year = new car.

2) You can not, in fact, leave your car at the airport indefinitely. They stick an angry sticker on your window and I can only assume that if I'd been there longer they might have had my POS towed. Maybe I was just not parked in the right spot.

That's all for now. I'm gonna not focus on how much emptier my apartment seems. I need more clutter to fill the holes I think . . .