Deaf school days

Happy Birthday Jenelle!!! Hope it's amazing -- hear you're in the Bahamas... so ya... thanks for the invite! ;)

Oh man, today started out rather badly. Well, actually it started out great! I was able to sleep a little better. When I woke I told myself: trust your alarm clock. You'll wake up on time! (The source of my constant waking and the reason I've been up before my alarm everyday.) So today my alarm mostly woke me - I was in a twilight state. However, that is better than Mon-Thurs when I woke up 15-30 minutes before my alarm went off. So, I got up, got ready and I actually had 5 minutes extra time. It was nice and kind of strange. I haven't been rushing out of the door every morning like crazy, but I don't have time when I'm standing around with nothing to do. I had that this morning. It was a strange feeling. It was also an empowering feeling. "I won't be late or rushed today!" it said. Oh how the feelings lie. I walked to the bus station and waited for bus #4, as I had been instructed. As soon as it got there, I jumped on, ran my bus card through their machine and then went to the front to talk to the driver. (I'm a cautious person by nature). I asked him if I was on the bus that went near the Deaf school. He said no, *mini heart attack*, so I pulled out my bus schedule and showed it to him. He informed me that I was indeed on the wrong bus and that I needed to take the bus that had left 2 minutes earlier. I needed to be at the school by 8h20 and the next bus was at 8h15. *cue REAL heart attack* Oh man, it was awful. I wanted to cry. The office told us that we can get reimbursed for taxi rides but that we have to get them approved. So I called my branch manager and told him the bad news. At first he was like, "You missed your bus?" Then I said, "Well, yes but no. I got ON the bus I was told to take but the bus driver told me it's the wrong bus." He then asked to speak to someone at the bus station. Well, it was 7h25 and the station (the windows) wasn't open yet. So he asked me if I could find a taxi, I said yes as I was sure I could and headed to go across the street to the shopping center. Sure enough there was a giant line of taxis. When I got in I asked to be taken to the Choukaku Shien and the driver had NO idea where that was. Luckily Sato-san (the branch manager) was calling just then and I explained that the driver didn't know where to go and then handed my phone to the driver so that Sato-san could tell him where to go. The driver nodded and said, "Hai" a bunch and then gave me back my phone. Sato-san informed me he thought I would be on time but that he would call the school to let them know that I was on my way by taxi. -- That was really frustrating for me. And really when it comes down to it, if you're late it doesn't matter the reason. It's on you. The driver made me nervous that he wasn't going the right way, but eventually we got to the school and I paid for the ride ($40!). He gave me a receipt - I'm sure Sato-san told him to do so and thank goodness as it would be awful to have that rough a morning AND be out $40. In any case, I got to the school at 8h05 and all was well.

Well, when I got to the school they asked me what had happened, I explained and then they rushed me to a meeting that was already in progress. That was surprising to me as I had arrived on time but then the meeting had already started. *sigh* In any case, I gave a two-line introduction and watched the Japanese interpreter (as several of the instructors here are Deaf). After that I was taken back to my desk and sat through a HS teachers meeting. Then I gave out my omiyage to the HS teachers and made it down to the jhs teachers before I felt I should get back since I was teaching first period. I found out I have 4 students in each class. o.0 I wasn't expecting hundreds but for such a large facility it's very empty! I changed my introduction a little bit as I was told to speak slowly and loudly and clearly. I was also told that my first class was very low level. In any case, it was very different from Minami but I was pleased with the way things were going. I'm not sure the school's goals regarding English though so having them repeat after me and having them talk to one another made me wonder if I was helping them or not. Many Sim-Com'ed (signed while they spoke) so it makes me wonder if this is of any use to them at all. THEN, my worst moment this week. I made a student cry. It broke my heart into thousands of pieces. I wanted to cry with her. I asked for her question and she had not written one and the teacher told me afterwards, "It's ok. She hates English - she can't hear." AARGH! That is EXACTLY the reason I am against teaching Deaf children spoken language. Man if they want to learn written English and English grammar, teach it to them through their native language. These poor kids. They are being taught a foreign language while Deaf! I tried to be really positive and said, "Sorry, sorry. It's ok." And tried to smile reassuringly. As I said, I wanted to cry. I DID cry when the same thing happened in "Le pays des sourds." The little boy is Deaf and cannot say what the teacher wants him to say as he can't hear her. He starts to cry because he's so frustrated and miserable (at least that's what I assume he was feeling), and the teacher starts getting mad at him and calling him a baby. It hurt my heart so very much to see. Then here I am doing the same thing. :,c (Well I didn't ridicule or yell at her - I touched her hand and tried to be positive and reassuring. Thinking about it makes me want to cry. :c *sigh*) I'm not sure what to do change what I'm doing. That is, I don't care whether or not this girl loves or hates English. I DO care whether or not she feels successful. As I walked out of the classroom I was praying in my heart that she would give me a second chance and that the Lord would tell me how to teach these classes. Feel free to add your prayers to mine. I never want to make a student cry ever again.

During my prep time between periods (I taught first period and then I taught third and fourth period), I made a color crossword puzzle. I'm not sure if I will get to use it, but I'm glad I have it! It's awesome! I made in paint since I need that cord to connect to the net.. oh wait! No I don't. *facepalm* I can use my phone as wifi! The only danger is running the battery out. Doh. Well, I know what I will be doing for the rest of my prep time at the school. Doh, doh, doh!

During lunch, one of the teachers who sits near me talked to me. We conversed in our relatively small amount of English and small amount of Japanese. At first it was nerve wracking then I remembered that the last couple nights I've been praying for help learning Japanese. So I see her great interest in me and talking to me as one of mmm (my many miracles). I learned some new Japanese words and wrote them down. I also got to explain and pantomime what had happened to me that morning. Also at lunch, Funny Man found me. He told me that he had bought popcorn for me! So he took me to the junior high school teacher's lounge and gave me a bag of caramel corn. I shared with the other teachers in there, which made him exclaim in false indignation. I was then invited to sit down and brought tea (offered coffee which I refused). Funny Man (whose name I THINK is Nagano-sensei) sat down across from me and had another teacher come over who speaks English to do translation work. (The vice-principal told me that he'd been waiting for me to get there all day - he was so excited to give me the popcorn! Aww!) We had a short chat and then they had to go teach. While this was going on, junior high school students who had seen me through the window came into the teacher's room to meet me. Here I've been waiting all week for my students to come talk to me during lunch and these students I won't even meet until next week all came in to see me. It was so touching to me. :)  What can I say? (Other than: I love being loved!)

So after I finished teaching, I was working on prep and then the teacher sitting next to me engaged me in conversation again. Then another teacher joined in. They asked me about the bus home. I checked the schedule and saw that one was coming 20 minutes from then (at 14h47) and the next one after that was at 17h56. Oh man! Another teacher saw that and told me just to go home. I'm supposed to call and make sure so I called Interac and eventually connected with them and they said go ahead and go. YAY for an early out day on Friday! :D -- Typically I get home around 17h30 so to get home around 15h30 is crazy early! Unfortunately I got home to a GIANT spider-centipede. Bigger than the one I saw in Utah - about twice the size. I started crying and shaking and I tried to smash it with a box but then it crawled down my pillow into my sheets. I finally was able to chase it out of my bed and out the front door. But it's taken me almost 3 hours to stop shaking. :c I hope that I don't see any more insects. I don't know how it got in and I can't spend too much time thinking about it or I will FREAK again. Ick! Other than that I had a really good evening. I was in the midst of getting 2 new pictures of myself when I the movement of thousands of legs caught my attention. I still got the pictures though! A lot of icky things happened today but some really good things too. Today was a win! I had a wonderful day. :) Hello from Japan:

Happy face! Thank goodness it's Friday! :D

Oh I am so full of attitudes!

Now I'm freezing in my apartment. I was grateful for the cold thinking it kept the insects away. But if I'm getting cold AND insects!? .... that's not fair! Just sayin... Anyway, love to you all! And today makes 4 weeks I've been in Japan. I can't believe it! This week went very slowly but the 4 weeks were very fast! XOXO, A