Work week three has come and gone and with it my memories of anything good that happened. Last week was rough. On Tuesday while I was eating lunch with one of the sixth grade classes, I was asking the students the questions that they've learned in their years of English study. How old are you? When's your birthday? What color do you like? etc. Apparently one of the girls had had enough of my questions because after a while she got up from her desk (There is no cafeteria in most Japanese schools. Students eat in their classrooms.) and said something to the teacher's assistant. He then said to me something along the lines of there not being enough time. So I told him that I'd eat fast. And I stopped talking. But later as I thought back on the lunch period that day, when she got up to ask him to tell me to stop talking, there were at least 25 minutes left of the lunch period. I guess she wanted to save her English for when it was required, which was to come during the next period.
On Wednesday, I went to my one-day-a-week kindergarten to teach. Since it was raining, I nixed the biking out of deference to the rain and bike's victory over me during my commute two weeks prior. While walking in front of the kindergarten, I noticed the playground had been turned into a parking lot; and when I tried to enter the front gate to the school grounds, I found it locked. Several buses were parked beside the kindergarten. But they appeared to be on the elementary school grounds, which is located next door. So I walked past them and through another closed but unlocked gate to the front door only to find a bicycle blocking the entrance. A teacher I didn't recognize got off the bus and started talking to me in Japanese. Following behind her were a teacher I did recognize and the principal. The principal told me that the school was headed to a nearby aquarium for a field trip. I told the principal that I would go back home; but she told me to get on the bus. So I loaded onto the bus and before I could even take off my jacket, we took off. I literally arrived to school moments before the buses departed. And upon getting off the bus at the aquarium, the other teachers were surprised to see me. Clearly they all forgot that it was my day to teach at their school. And I can't really blame them since I'd taught only once before at their school due to the Golden Week holiday. But apparently this happens with great regularity - schedule changes that aren't passed along to the AETs. And I so didn't enjoy myself at the aquarium, since I have a hard time seeing animals in captivity. Tomorrow I head back to the school. So let's hope that the third time is the charm for having a good experience there.
On Friday one of the fifth graders I was eating with told me that my hair looked like Michael Jackson's. (I think there was a curly lock that had fallen in front of my eyes.) When I asked her if she liked Michael Jackson, she hesitated and drew in breath through her teeth, which means no. So I'm not sure if she was telling me that she doesn't like me or just my hair. Then later that night while eating ramen with S.K., one of the AETs' contacts at the board of education office, I ate a piece of meat that I had thought was beef but quickly came to realize had to have been something else when it tasted the way a grossly unclean public bathroom smells. (That was my first and last time to eat liver.)
Thankfully the weekend ended up redeeming the work week, as I had a lot of fun at scooter safety school, shopping for furniture for my apartment, and spending time with other AETs.
Until next time...
2 comments:
Hmmm - sounds like kids all over the world are the same. . .no inhibitions about voicing their opinions. At least they didn't tell you to "shut up" like many of them over here would have done. And, maybe to them, all Americans look alike. :~) Hope Week 4 goes better. Remember your last few days at WHS? The students really did like you even tho they tried to play hardball with inattention and failure to do homework. You probably won't have to confiscate brass knucks from your current students!! Have you started rewarding them with stickers yet?
Oh, yes, Mom, they almost wet their pants with excitement when I talk about or surprise them with stickers as a prize. And kids are the same no matter what language they speak - there's a cheater in every group who will do anything to win the prize!
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