My first class went very well. The kid who hates English refused to participate :/ but the other students played the games I had prepared and really seemed to enjoy themselves. :) The teacher said it was a very good game as well. (Whew! Now I know how she feels about my lesson!)
Then I had a break. When I had gotten to the school I asked Kawai-sensei for help. I had two pieces of mail. One was my "missed delivery" (for the package from my mom), and the other was some letter with my name on it. The latter was a free cancer screening invitation (thanks but no thanks. It even had cartoon pictures of breasts being squashed in a machine! So I can say I was sent dirty pictures in the mail, lol. And hello - way to advertise! Want to come be squished by us... for free!? Gee... I'm really busy. No way!). Then Kawai-sensei had shown me that I could call for redelivery. "Eigo de?" I asked (in English). "Aa..." Ya that's what I thought! Luckily you could do it online and she walked me through the entire process. I'm so grateful to here that she helped me! So my package should be delivered tonight from 17-19. Yeehaw! :D I didn't dare do 14-17 as I get off early Fridays but I'm home around 15h30 so I went with a block I knew I would be at my place the entire time. I'm so glad I was able to schedule it for day-of as well! What a huge blessing. I can't wait! My first package! :D
My second class we played the interrogatives game half the time and then the other half I taught causative verbs. That was ... I was very worried that it would not go over well. I scaffolded as much as I could and gave lots of examples and again Sugita-sensei said, "It was a good worksheet!" Oh yay! I also asked the students to write their own causative sentences with the 4 verbs we had discussed and one already gave me his paper. He did it perfectly! I hope that means he understood not just that he got the formula (as I spelled that out for them too - I like the mechanics of language).
My last class was with M for her birthday! It was SO much fun! I brought her a star sticker as a present and then I brought alfajores (that they called "pies" as I mentioned yesterday). She was SO happy and Kawai-sensei couldn't believe I had brought little gifts too. We made birthday hats (origami) on which I had written previously (the paper that is) "Happy Birthday M!" Then we played vocabulary review games and I gave her numbers puzzles that I made. We actually ran out of time on the puzzles. Oh! We sang Old McDonald as well! Our farm had a tiger. Every time I roared M burst out laughing. :D Oh man it was SO fun! Kawai-sensei took pictures of me and M singing our hearts out. I love my students but M has a special place in my heart. It's impossible to dislike her. She's so great!!
After class I went back to the teacher's room to eat lunch. As I had given Kawai-sensei a gift of a chocolate pie (alfajor), she gave me a crêpe creation from 7-11. It was layers of crêpes and cream. It was actually pretty good! At the very least it was nothing like the American abomination: crapes. *shudder* Oh! Also, on the way to class Sugita-sensei pointed out the window to these huge cherry (Acerola) trees they have here at the school. "Have as much as you want!" For those of you familiar with Acerola Cherries, they are WICKED expensive in the US. (If I remember correctly they have the highest vitamin C content of any fruit.) I had a handful with lunch - they were DELICIOUS! One of the teachers watched me eat my first one and then said something to me in Japanese. I had no idea what he said but I answered, "Oishii!" (Delicious) He was surprised so I'm assuming he probably said something like, "Tart, eh?" However what he doesn't realize is that I like tart things. The cherries also did not taste tart to me. Anyway...
After lunch the teachers (all but Sugita-sensei and myself) disappeared to a meeting. They had someone from the college come talk about something or other. Some sort of lecture. I would have attended but it ended after the time I needed to leave and didn't want to be rude. Also I wasn't sure if it would all be in Japanese and I would go crazy-bored out of my mind. I try to be vigilant and really watch and listen for words I know, but it's Friday and I know my brain is already half turned off. Oh ps! I got a picture of that freaky frog I drew. I explained to Kawai-sensei as best I could about the whole thing and we laughed and laughed at how freaky it looks. She then told me that drawing was my weak point. LOL Hopefully I can change that! I've always wanted to draw well and I used to sketch fairly often - I've lost the habit though and I left my sketchbook at home. (Not that I couldn't get one here... js)
--- (later)
In any case, the ride home on the bus was glorious because of the a/c! When I got home, I swept 3 giant ants out of my place. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement, for which I am very grateful. Then I sat down with some Japanese crackers and a book to wait for my package. At 1700 on the dot I started to get worried. When was it going to get here!? LOL However, around 1800-1815ish, my doorbell sounded. I practically fell over myself getting to the door and YATTA! My package arrived! My mom put in some fruit snacks, gum, sunflower seeds, corn nuts, shorts, an under shirt, my French verb book (YAY!), my kanji book (YAY again - but really yay for all of it!!), netting (which I put up rather promptly to also help keep the bugs out), a contact case, toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, and some vitamins. I just sat in my apartment basking in the love! Then I ate my corn nuts, limited myself to one pack of fruit snacks and a small handful of sunflower seeds (spicy!). I'm so happy! :D After I put the stuff away, I went back to reading and looked at some funny pictures online. I also listened to music and played my guitar. Hope you all had an equally amazing Friday! It's now raining so it's humid but I love the rain - I opened a window and am floating happily in the sound of rain. :D Love you all! XOXO, A
Some pictures from today:
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| The freaky frog - is that hair sprouting out its eyeballs!? Why yes, yes it is. |
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| Me and my package from home! |
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| When I first went to take this picture I put my chin ON the package... OW! |
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| The Chinicle is in its decline |
Your frog made me laugh out loud. Ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteYa Kawai-sensei and I were dying. It's so freaky looking!
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