Invasion of the giant bugs!

Insect count: 4 (GIANT ONES)

So, I get up this morning, get ready in good time, got out of the door earlier than usual (whew) and onto the bus. The bus was really hot at first then I thought, "I've handled this every other day, I can do this!" Then a little later either the bus driver turned on the a/c or I could suddenly feel it, but it was a great blessing. I got lost in Ann-land and almost missed my stop. Sheesh! Well, when I "came to" a guy was getting off the bus on the stop right before mine. o.0 I got off the bus, walked in the sunshine (ick) and made it to the school just fine. Well, my first "class" was a prep period. As I was sitting at my desk working I heard a sound that I KID YOU NOT was like a remote controlled helicopter. It was LOUD. I turned to Kawai-s and said, "What's that?" "Bug." Instant panic. Then I heard the sound again (and it was coming from behind me in the hall) and I ducked and started freaking out. She left the room and stood RIGHT outside the door which is some ... five feet from my desk. Ya, I was SO outta there. I left the office by the other door (the far side of the room), and ventured a few feet closer to her to see what she was insisting was harmless. It was a GIANT dragonfly. The body was 4.5-5" long. It was ENORMOUS. Then it flies into the teacher's room. One teacher caught it by the wings and was taking it around. (He's one of the guys that Kawai-s called "oyaji." He's a really funny guy and very nice but he worried me today.) Kawai-s told me it was safe to come back and so I returned to my desk not knowing the insect was still in the room. I saw it in his hands as he started to approach me to show me. I IMMEDIATELY was backpedaling in my chair, cringing away from him, saying, "No, no, no!" I almost cried. MMM, he's not one of those guys that thinks it's funny when you're terrified. He let it go outside. Sheesh just typing about it is freaking me out all over again. Bugs are so scary!

Also this morning: an earthquake. It was a 3. For me, no biggie. The teachers were FREAKING. OUT. They were worried about the students, and THAT had me worried. Kawai-s ran upstairs to check on M and I went with her - but M was in a different class. So ya. I told K-s about my experience with Kanamori-s with that other earthquake and she started talking about the big earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Suddenly it made sense to me. I think most of the Japanese have PTSD (and I don't blame them). For me, I haven't been in that situation and I was there when it all went down. So I have no bad memories associated with Jishins. It was very humbling to hear Kawai-s's experience.  ~ And something else I asked about: sunrise. I told Kawai-s how it wakes me up every morning and asked about winter. She said the sun gets up very late: around 6-7 am. LOL I told her about sunrise and sunset in Utah for summer and winter and she was pretty shocked. According to her it gets dark around 1600-1700 in the winter. AHAHAHA. Oh boy! No wonder the winter is freezing here! :) I look forward to it though.

My first class was the the junior high kids. As I was walking up the stairs to go to their classroom, there was a gigantic spider on the stairs. I happened to run into 2 other teachers on that same landing. As soon as I saw the spider I was trying to hide behind one of them and you should have seen his face. In my head, he was Yul from Cool Runnings. "Where she goin?" But I was FREAKING OUT. I eventually made it safe to the room. So, my junior high kids... I love those kids so much but they disappointed me today. My little boys kept flipping each other off. :/ It was really dismaying for me. I don't know why it's "cool" to them. The lesson was fun though. I did gestures and phrases. We didn't even get to the game though. Dang it!

My next class after that was with my elementary kids. (We had shortened classes today.) For some reason, there was a 20 minute break between second and third period. I just waited it out in their classroom. The class went really well and was really fun. I, for her "secret picture," drew a picture of me. :D It's so cute! I was really touched. The other two kids drew their main teacher. :) (Harada-s)

After that I had one more prep period (and I made some things for a game for 5th period) and then it was lunch time. Today I ate lunch with the junior high teachers. They told me last week that they had heard about my pirate wedding (I told Ito-sensei about it when I first started here) and wanted to see pictures. So I sat with Anpo-sensei and showed her all my pictures. She exclaimed over most of them. She especially loved the engagement pictures. She kept saying Jerod and I looked like movie stars. :) She then asked me if I liked a Japanese food (and I've already forgotten the name). I said I had never tried it. So she said she would bring some to me. How sweet is that!? It's so awesome how much they love me here! And I love them too! :D ~ I asked Kawai-s, since she was saying S (one of my students) said my Japanese was great/cool/good, if Phillip (my predecessor) spoke any Japanese. She said she didn't know because he was in the jhs teacher's room.

After lunch I taught a lesson on comparatives. I was blessed with an amazing idea mid-lesson! :) I had the students do a FIB exercise with the comparative only then there were 2 more spots for them to write their own sentences. I then had them take turns reading the first 5 sentences (it was right before this that my idea hit). PICTIONARY! I had already planned on playing it with them, but I thought, "Why not have them illustrate their original sentences?" The pictures they drew were fantastic. My students are the best!!! (Then we played baseball ... anyway... great day!)

When all my classes were finished, I didn't have any prep to do since I'm not working next week (unless I get called into the office) except for Thursday (training). So I wrote my post for yesterday while I waited to go to the Matsuri (festival). It was SO fun! After the opening ceremonies, some students played taiko (the same kind as me ~ that is, the same drum, not the same piece), and the rest of them danced. Sugita-s said, "Ann! Go dance!" Me: "Ok!" LOL I jumped in line with all the other students. I wonder what their parents thought. I looked around and I was the only teacher dancing. LOL It was really fun though. I didn't know the dance so I had to watch them and pick it up. (I hope I didn't offend any of the students!) Most of the girls were wearing beautiful kimonos. It was fantastic. :) After that they had food and games. I was hoping to win a couple fish but they only had toys. I bought some popcorn (you know me) and a chocolate banana. Oh, I also bought some onions from Mai. She has her own little garden here at the school and was selling onions for 50 en (essentially 50 cents). I thought it would be nice to support her and I like onions, so I bought some from her. I was expecting to get 1 big/medium sized onion. Oh no, she gave me a bag of 5-6 little and medium ones! Quite a bargain! I think I'll take some to church tomorrow as I don't believe I can finish them all before they start producing anti-nutrients and sprouting in my kitchen. Back to the matsuri - I sat in the dorm's cafeteria and Kawai-s or Sugita-s (now I can't remember which) encouraged 2 girls to come sit with me. So they did. But we didn't really talk, lol. I don't know enough JSL or Japanese to speak much to them. But I did my best and met a graduate from last year. :) I also talked to a bunch of the little Deaf kids. It's impossible not to love them all! :) At the end I got to hang out with Kawai-s and Kanako(Ito)-s. We had so much fun talking and laughing. :D I wanted to say goodbye to the VPs and the principal but they were nowhere to be found when it was time for me to go. In fact, I left JUST in time to catch my bus. My little elementary boy didn't want to let me leave! Harada-s finally signed for him to stop talking because I had to go. LOL Such a cute boy! He was showing me off to the other elementary kids. Today he found out I am from Utah and California. He was freaking out. "Eeeeh!? Sugoi!!!" Also one kid had something he was showing off that was causing the girls to shriek and the boys to be interested or edge away while still trying to look cool. I knew, I KNEW it was another bug. I got away from that crowd and tried not to look. I saw it anyway - I promise that I am not exaggerating when I say that this boy had a beetle (don't know what type and don't care) that was almost as big as the scarab beetles on The Mummy. The thing filled his hand. AHWLKFKDL! So awful!! Oh and the fourth bug I saw was an even BIGGER spider (than the one from which I was hiding) dead on the floor in the school. I was praying in my heart. I kept telling my Heavenly Father, "If it's gotta be the heat or the insects, please let it be the heat. I can deal with vomiting. I'd prefer not to deal with hysteria." I am going to miss my students like crazy over the break but I was counting my blessings that I will not be at that school for a while. And hopefully the summer will end quickly (or at least the bugs will die out quickly). Eep!

Something I forgot from yesterday: Oikawa-s informed me that I was right not to worry ahead of time. He informed me that after the term finals in September, I will be getting the second graders and the third graders will be dropped from my roster except for 3-7. I was pretty bummed about that. :/ I love my third graders! Well, I love my first graders too but I haven't been threatened with their loss. I said that to him and asked, "May I still visit?" "Yes, yes." Aww :/ ~ So as it turns out, I will have one less class to teach later on. (As there are 7 third grade classes and only 6 second grade classes ~ and I am already teaching one of them.) I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I think if the work load is ok, I'll ask to teach all the classes or have the third graders on a half and half rotation every other week. (That is, half one week, then the other half the next week.) I'm not angling for anything but seeing my students and helping them be successful. The best would be is if they would let me come in and play games with the students using the grammar principles they've learned. That would be really fun! :)

So, back to today. The bus ride was nice (a/c is so great!). When I got home, I ate some popcorn (since I had had some food at the festival) and msged my bff. Limor called but she had a dinner so she could only speak for 20-30 minutes. I will see her tomorrow for lunch. Tomorrow I am also going to a Yukatta party. Well, I am learning how to put on a Yukatta from Ann (my head teacher) and Lina (an English teacher who works outside of Interac). It's clear out in the middle of nowhere though during the hottest part of the day. So I am praying for at least clouds tomorrow so I won't get more heat exhaustion. Also I'm hoping for sleep. I have been yawning all day and I'm just beat! Have a great whenever! XOXO, A

(P.S. I have now been here for 120 days! In two days, that will be a third of my year! Crazy... seems both a long time ago and only yesterday that I made my quarter mark! Whoa...)

The picture I(initial in this case, lol) drew of me :)