Like I said, Monday (April 3rd)
was a beautiful day so I was motivated to go for a run and clean up my
apartment after my comfort breakfast with Yuko after Mom and Dad left. It sure is a beautiful thing to have a clean
apartment. There is plenty of junk
hidden in the closets, but at least it’s contained. That’s my next project . . .Yuko picked me up in the afternoon
so we could go to karaoke. It’s still
not my favorite form of entertainment, but I managed to sing a few songs and
found a Japanese song that I like well enough to learn, which was the point of
the outing in the first place.
At home I prepared for leading
Bible study that night, which was very good for me. Even with Christian guests I find myself
slipping away from God. The study went
well, which is mostly because everyone always has such interesting things to
say.
Tuesday, April 4th was
my fist day back at work after fourteen days off for Mom and Dad’s visit. It felt like a homecoming. There were beautiful blossoming trees lining
my entry as well! It was good to be
back, but I still stress over unimportant things and take FOREVER to make
lesson plans. If I could just use a book
and stomp through it I’d have so much more time for important things, but
that’s and old rant by now.
I met many of the new teachers,
including Hirose sensei, with whom I will have ten classes plus ICC this
year. I remember how strange it was not
to be greeted by the non-English teachers when I came in so I made a point of
introducing myself to the new teachers in all departments. It also helps that my Japanese is a little
better, but most everyone I met has a fair amount of English! This could be a fun term. One new teacher used to give a geography
class in English, so I’m excited to work with him especially.
As a random aside, I’m not a big
fan of Mexican food, but after living without it for eight months I had to try
the Mexican salad from Wendy’s. Mmm,
chili never tasted so good!
In the evening I went for a run and
wrote the update on Mom and Dad’s visit.
Yep, that took the whole evening, but at least my apartment is still
clean!
Wednesday, April 5th I
got a little stressed at school trying to plan and get ready for the year. I don’t know why I stress so much over things
that don’t really matter. I just get
obsessed with the task at hand. I did
stop working on the first lesson and went over it with my JTE’s (which are only
Hirose sensei and Yuko for OC I this term).
That should go well enough, at least.
I suppose I could care less, but then I’d have to spend twelve hours a
week on a terrible lesson and I would go crazy for sure.
I came up with a crazy plan for the
third year communication class. Naito
sensei bought into it, but now I’m a little worried. I’m going to have the students think about
what they want from the class, set goals and make a plan to achieve those goals. The degree to which they achieve their goals
will be their exam grades. So, we’ll
have 19 students working on 19 different projects in self-directed way never
before asked of them. So much for making
an easy semester for myself!
My schedule this year is not as
nice as last year. I have two classes on
Monday through Wednesday, which is fine except that their afternoon classes and
I prefer to get them over with, but then I have four classes each on Thursday
and Friday. If it went four, four, two,
two, two, that would be much better, but that’s the way of it. They originally had me schedule for five
classes in a row on Friday, so I can’t complain.
Just in case you thought I was
finally shifting my mind to life after Japan I’m also starting an English
Free Zone (double reading intentional) that will have books to read and games
to play and Janet sensei to talk to.
We’ll see how it works out.
I ended up staying until 6pm trying
to work various things out. School
hasn’t started and I’m doing over time . . .
But the evening was productive
anyway because Miwako (friend from church) came over to give me a Japanese
lesson! It was great fun because she’s a
cool person and I get to fill in the holes in my Japanese. Miwako is studying to be a teacher of
Japanese as a foreign language and offered to practice on me. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse! I only wish we could meet more often! We did nearly the whole session in Japanese
and a few things clicked into place in my brain that had been waiting a long
while . . .
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