(Funny moments included) Today was good. The more I teach with Hashimoto-先生, the more I appreciate his work ethic. He was the one who intimidated me at first. :) His students are very well-behaved and quiet and follow directions well. It's interesting to see what parts of a teacher's personality seep into their classes. :)
Today I taught numbers. For my warm-up I played the first couple lines of "One," by Three Dog Night. I think it was a great warm-up and the kids were able to guess what we were practicing today.
After that lesson I taught first graders who are a week behind and did the personal information lesson. It went very well! (I also collected papers from these classes and wrote on all of them.)
Then came my PE class. I scaffolded the crap outta that worksheet so they could be successful and it worked!! I had MUCH more participation today and students who had never done anything were involved today. It was am amazing feeling. Not everyone is on board yet, but many more are! Yes! We did a lesson on comparatives and superlatives. One student, during our baseballs game (first base was the root word, second base comparative, third base superlative, and to make a home run you needed to use one of those three words in a sentence.) chose a 2 point word. The 2 point words were all regular words but they were ones not found on the worksheet. Team 1 played it safe the first two rounds then during round 3 they picked a 2 pointer. Their sentence was "I am the deepest person in te world!" So great! Another student, while said this, "I am as crazy as my .. No, no number 3! I am as crazy as you!" *points directly at me. I laughed and enthusiastically said, "Same amount of crazy!? Great!!" For a kid who wouldn't participate at all the previous lessons... Please make fun of me! Speak to me in English! I love it! I bet he won't soon forget it either. :)
It was after the bell that I got these sentences so I wasn't able to gather that class's worksheets but I asked the JTE to do so and she's going to give them to me tomorrow. :) then untaught another numbers lesson and picked up more worksheets. I wrote on 120 papers today! I'm hoping the personal encouragement will help them feel successful and love English even more.
Oh man... So, I found out my class on Monday with Fujieda-先生 is cancelled because the BOE (Board of Education) is coming to observe her. I said ok and that was that. THEN Oikawa-先生comes by and says, I want you to teach the first half of the class and probably two men from the BOE will be there." Oh, ok.. No pressure. Lol I'm not too worried about it - but a little worry exists!
Today was super humid during the day - the evening is very nice (much cooler). I'm planning on helping with the Eikawa (English classes) at the church. Wish me luck - I had "magnet head" again today. When the exhaustion hit it almost knocked my head off my shoulders! I just felt like collapsing! Like one of those toys that you press the button and they fall into a small pile of body parts. That's what I felt like today!
I had one piece of caffeine gum leftover from my period so I grabbed that and worked on planning. I felt awake and alive for about an hour then magnet-headness came back. Awww :/ hopefully I can figure out whatever is causing this and make it stop! I slept better last night than I have recently - and even woke to my alarm rather than early... Hmm ... Anyway ... I'm on the bus now - I wanted to get a picture but there's another passenger :/ another time! So you can see a Japanese bus. I prefer to type my blog as it's much faster but I did this to give me extra motivation for that long bike ride to the church tonight. (I wish they could have the classes closer to me - I want to help, I'm just so tired and it's so dark and sketchy out and the church is so far from me - makes me nervous :/) in any case, love you all very much! XOXO, A
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Toki +1
I've made a comment about Tuesdays being Toki Tuesdays but today I had additional class so I guess that streak is broken.
First I have to go back to yesterday (and once again, funny moments included). Yesterday at one point while I was teaching a phone or some sort of device went off. There were wide eyes and gasps all around. The students get their phones taken away first thing everyday. Oh man... I just had to cringe as this girl gave up the device to the JTE. I had looked to see from where the noise was coming and then after that I had to look away. The dread in this girl's face... oh man. I then had to get the rest of the students back on track. I hope I helped take a little heat off her - as the consequence she will suffer later will likely be fairly harsh. It was both funny and horrifying. The students thought it was ME at first!! Come on! I (so far) know better than to bring my phone and even though I have it at school it is always on silent. I have used it a few times at work to look things up - like when I was making my Family crossword puzzle as I didn't know the kanji. I have tried to keep it in the middle of my desk and away from clutter so anyone who walks by can also see that I'm using it for work, not for fun. In any case...
Today was good. I felt better this morning than I did yesterday morning. I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off and I know I had some nightmare about missing my bus, or not waking up, or being late because I woke up terrified and couldn't go back to sleep. Yeesh. However, once I got up everything went fine.
Today when I got on the bus suddenly Bruce appeared! He usually takes a bus that leaves 5 minutes before mine and he was a little wide-eyed this morning. He sat down next to me and I greeted him. He then informed me that he had woken up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep for a few hours then finally fell asleep an hour before his alarm went off... then he slept through his alarm. *wince* Luckily my bus takes him to the same stop - just a little later. I informed him I also ran a little late this morning (fuzzy head) and then proceeded to pull my makeup out of my bag and put it on. :) (I cultivated the talent of putting makeup on on the bus back in the US. It allowed me to sleep for an extra 5 minutes. I have avoided it up until today and don't plan on making it a habit. 2 of my students - males - were sitting right behind us. I wonder what they thought! lol)
We chatted about whatever and I told him how he was lucky he knows Japanese and can just catch another bus. I told him I would be lost if I missed mine and would just wait for the next one of the same number. I told him about how yesterday I could have left early but the whole bus fiasco. He said, "Why didn't you just walk out to the 4? (one of the few streets named in Morioka and a main street) You could catch a different bus back." Oh reary? DOH! I felt like a ditz and filed that information for later and hoped I could use it.
So you know how I was approached to write new text for the second year (what they call) "PE class"? (My only current second grade class) Well I had time today and had been given copies of pages about sports from other textbooks. So I read through them and picked one that had enough information. I isolated the grammatical structures their text was trying to teach and summarized the information using those structures and as simple English as I could. Well, I knew being fast would bite me in the butt and it did. I couldn't sit on that paper (I didn't know how soon the teacher needed it) and probably I'm a show-off so I put it on her desk with a note making sure it was long enough and simple enough. She LOVED it. But then she gives it back to me for ME to type. At first I was flabbergasted! Then it occurred to me that I could probably type it much faster than her. It takes me FOREVER to type out Japanese on my phone even when I use the English keypad so ya I'll do it. It was just like, "Oh great! *hands it back* Type it up and have it to me by Monday!" *shakes head woefully* LOL It's fine, I was just surprised. I told her I would do it tomorrow or Thursday. I believe it will be Thursday as I am not planning on lugging my laptop to school tomorrow. (I always do on Thursdays because that is when I finally get my SLPs for Minami for the following week and can actually MAKE the worksheets they want. So bringing it earlier is just a heavy thing for me to carry.)
Another thing: luckily I decided to make my copies for tomorrow (I have thus far done them the day of). I found out that one of the worksheets I made would not copy correctly. So I used my phone today in the staff room in a bit of a panic to find an acceptable replacement. The pictures I found originally took a LONG time to find, but (mmm) the first thing I searched brought up a picture that appears to be perfect! I already printed out the replacement worksheet and hope that it will all turn out good tomorrow when I copy it. If not... I'm not sure what I will do! Punt somehow... (I have some ideas, no worries.)
So today I was informed that 6th period was cancelled - I was a little disappointed as I had planned a Mad Libs game for that class (they are in a completely different place in the textbook than everyone else because their teacher just changed their textbook a little bit back). It was cancelled because of a huge PTA meeting. Not only that, I was informed parents would be observing me. ALSO, we were on a different time schedule. Eep!
The first class I taught today was the same class I taught first yesterday. So they got me two mornings in a row! They were surprised to see me but we're trying to get them caught up as there were those 2 Monday holidays. In any case, they were a lot of fun today. :) Then I taught a class with Mr. Toki and demo-ed the latest new worksheet. He LOVED it. I hope the students liked it as well. They did really well. I have the smartest and best students! :D Then... the dreaded last class.
I look forward to this class every week. They are bright, and precocious. They challenge me and tease me and I love teaching them. They are just so FUN! Well, today we all got observed by some stone-faced parents. And I MEAN stone-faced. I smiled at them but none of them smiled back. Yeesh. I mostly ignored them and pretended they weren't there. I just taught my class the way I had planned. I hope that they weren't disappointed or upset or anything (seeing as they were stone-faced and then going to a meeting with the teachers and administration). Man I wasn't even worried about it until just now. *sigh* Well, I did my best! The lessons vary so much -- training this last Saturday taught me some things that I need to change and incorporate and since those worksheets were already okayed and printed last week I didn't touch them. -- I made sure to bow and thank the parents for coming. -- Anyway, sorry, as I started to say usually this class is precocious. Today they were practically militant! The parents really did a number on them. The students were on their bestest best behavior. It made me a little sad as they usually make my week and they weren't themselves. :/ Oh well, there's always next week! -- Oh and that reminds me. Apparently Monday-Wednesday of next week are going to be crazy with scheduling. We'll see how it all affects me when I get my SLP.
Instead of 6th period, the students had their club meeting except for a few that were showing the parents their talents. I'm so grateful (mmm) that one of the teachers informed me about it and told me I could leave after. I was so excited to see my students doing what they love! I got to hear my friends in the brass band play, then watched the basketball team show their stuff and 5 male gymnasts. WOW! The kids are SO, SO talented! It was really amazing to watch. Seeing those gymnasts also reaffirmed my want to be more flexible and strong. I had been planning on going to the gym today and that just helped me to decide that I was DEFINITELY going. So, after that meeting I called Interac to make sure I could leave early (the demo was done at 15h00 and the rest of school was meeting with the parents) and they said ok go ahead and take off! So I walked out to the 4 (yay! I got to use Bruce's suggestion right away) and caught a bus back. The walk took 30 minutes and it was HOT out so I could feel my resolve to go work out lessening. So the minute I got home, I changed and took off to the gym. I biked there - a 25 minute ride to a location with which I wasn't familiar ... and found out that I needed to have special gym shoes for the gym. DAH! Japan you defeat me again! *sigh* It may have been a blessing in disguise. It was incredibly stressful for me to venture out and down roads I have never been down. New places are hard for me - especially when I feel far from home. (Eventually the route will become familiar and a part of my surroundings as the route to church has become for me.) I DO wonder what they thought when I walked in at the gym though - pouring sweat, wanting to sweat some more, and then couldn't so I went off the ride back and sweat some more! So, I got in a workout... I just didn't get to lift weights. I told them I would be back on Thursday and took off.
I've planned to work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays since I told the elders I would help with their English classes Wednesday evenings - I still haven't made it down there... things keep coming up. I am, however, determined to make it down there tomorrow. I'm trying to get my act together this week. Service (at least every other week) with the elders doing the English classes, lifting weights twice a week, and practicing guitar. So far, so good! (Feeling the heat today has made me quite glad that the sun goes down so early here! Hopefully it will be going down as I get home so it will be cooler to bike to the gym and then be down by the time I'm riding home to cool me off. (I, obviously, got there earlier today as I got home from school early.)
When I got home I made some dinner (I had, unfortunately made soup a couple nights back and a hot dinner when I was pouring sweat just wasn't appealing) and sat down and ate. Well, I let the food cool to lukewarm and then ate it. LOL I drank the rest of my purple carrot juice (picture below) and read a short story by Stephen King. After that, I sat down to fix my worksheet (done) and print this. Hope you're all having a wonderful day/evening! XOXO, A
These are from last night: (May 13th)
These are from today: (right before I went to the gym)
First I have to go back to yesterday (and once again, funny moments included). Yesterday at one point while I was teaching a phone or some sort of device went off. There were wide eyes and gasps all around. The students get their phones taken away first thing everyday. Oh man... I just had to cringe as this girl gave up the device to the JTE. I had looked to see from where the noise was coming and then after that I had to look away. The dread in this girl's face... oh man. I then had to get the rest of the students back on track. I hope I helped take a little heat off her - as the consequence she will suffer later will likely be fairly harsh. It was both funny and horrifying. The students thought it was ME at first!! Come on! I (so far) know better than to bring my phone and even though I have it at school it is always on silent. I have used it a few times at work to look things up - like when I was making my Family crossword puzzle as I didn't know the kanji. I have tried to keep it in the middle of my desk and away from clutter so anyone who walks by can also see that I'm using it for work, not for fun. In any case...
Today was good. I felt better this morning than I did yesterday morning. I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off and I know I had some nightmare about missing my bus, or not waking up, or being late because I woke up terrified and couldn't go back to sleep. Yeesh. However, once I got up everything went fine.
Today when I got on the bus suddenly Bruce appeared! He usually takes a bus that leaves 5 minutes before mine and he was a little wide-eyed this morning. He sat down next to me and I greeted him. He then informed me that he had woken up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep for a few hours then finally fell asleep an hour before his alarm went off... then he slept through his alarm. *wince* Luckily my bus takes him to the same stop - just a little later. I informed him I also ran a little late this morning (fuzzy head) and then proceeded to pull my makeup out of my bag and put it on. :) (I cultivated the talent of putting makeup on on the bus back in the US. It allowed me to sleep for an extra 5 minutes. I have avoided it up until today and don't plan on making it a habit. 2 of my students - males - were sitting right behind us. I wonder what they thought! lol)
We chatted about whatever and I told him how he was lucky he knows Japanese and can just catch another bus. I told him I would be lost if I missed mine and would just wait for the next one of the same number. I told him about how yesterday I could have left early but the whole bus fiasco. He said, "Why didn't you just walk out to the 4? (one of the few streets named in Morioka and a main street) You could catch a different bus back." Oh reary? DOH! I felt like a ditz and filed that information for later and hoped I could use it.
So you know how I was approached to write new text for the second year (what they call) "PE class"? (My only current second grade class) Well I had time today and had been given copies of pages about sports from other textbooks. So I read through them and picked one that had enough information. I isolated the grammatical structures their text was trying to teach and summarized the information using those structures and as simple English as I could. Well, I knew being fast would bite me in the butt and it did. I couldn't sit on that paper (I didn't know how soon the teacher needed it) and probably I'm a show-off so I put it on her desk with a note making sure it was long enough and simple enough. She LOVED it. But then she gives it back to me for ME to type. At first I was flabbergasted! Then it occurred to me that I could probably type it much faster than her. It takes me FOREVER to type out Japanese on my phone even when I use the English keypad so ya I'll do it. It was just like, "Oh great! *hands it back* Type it up and have it to me by Monday!" *shakes head woefully* LOL It's fine, I was just surprised. I told her I would do it tomorrow or Thursday. I believe it will be Thursday as I am not planning on lugging my laptop to school tomorrow. (I always do on Thursdays because that is when I finally get my SLPs for Minami for the following week and can actually MAKE the worksheets they want. So bringing it earlier is just a heavy thing for me to carry.)
Another thing: luckily I decided to make my copies for tomorrow (I have thus far done them the day of). I found out that one of the worksheets I made would not copy correctly. So I used my phone today in the staff room in a bit of a panic to find an acceptable replacement. The pictures I found originally took a LONG time to find, but (mmm) the first thing I searched brought up a picture that appears to be perfect! I already printed out the replacement worksheet and hope that it will all turn out good tomorrow when I copy it. If not... I'm not sure what I will do! Punt somehow... (I have some ideas, no worries.)
So today I was informed that 6th period was cancelled - I was a little disappointed as I had planned a Mad Libs game for that class (they are in a completely different place in the textbook than everyone else because their teacher just changed their textbook a little bit back). It was cancelled because of a huge PTA meeting. Not only that, I was informed parents would be observing me. ALSO, we were on a different time schedule. Eep!
The first class I taught today was the same class I taught first yesterday. So they got me two mornings in a row! They were surprised to see me but we're trying to get them caught up as there were those 2 Monday holidays. In any case, they were a lot of fun today. :) Then I taught a class with Mr. Toki and demo-ed the latest new worksheet. He LOVED it. I hope the students liked it as well. They did really well. I have the smartest and best students! :D Then... the dreaded last class.
I look forward to this class every week. They are bright, and precocious. They challenge me and tease me and I love teaching them. They are just so FUN! Well, today we all got observed by some stone-faced parents. And I MEAN stone-faced. I smiled at them but none of them smiled back. Yeesh. I mostly ignored them and pretended they weren't there. I just taught my class the way I had planned. I hope that they weren't disappointed or upset or anything (seeing as they were stone-faced and then going to a meeting with the teachers and administration). Man I wasn't even worried about it until just now. *sigh* Well, I did my best! The lessons vary so much -- training this last Saturday taught me some things that I need to change and incorporate and since those worksheets were already okayed and printed last week I didn't touch them. -- I made sure to bow and thank the parents for coming. -- Anyway, sorry, as I started to say usually this class is precocious. Today they were practically militant! The parents really did a number on them. The students were on their bestest best behavior. It made me a little sad as they usually make my week and they weren't themselves. :/ Oh well, there's always next week! -- Oh and that reminds me. Apparently Monday-Wednesday of next week are going to be crazy with scheduling. We'll see how it all affects me when I get my SLP.
Instead of 6th period, the students had their club meeting except for a few that were showing the parents their talents. I'm so grateful (mmm) that one of the teachers informed me about it and told me I could leave after. I was so excited to see my students doing what they love! I got to hear my friends in the brass band play, then watched the basketball team show their stuff and 5 male gymnasts. WOW! The kids are SO, SO talented! It was really amazing to watch. Seeing those gymnasts also reaffirmed my want to be more flexible and strong. I had been planning on going to the gym today and that just helped me to decide that I was DEFINITELY going. So, after that meeting I called Interac to make sure I could leave early (the demo was done at 15h00 and the rest of school was meeting with the parents) and they said ok go ahead and take off! So I walked out to the 4 (yay! I got to use Bruce's suggestion right away) and caught a bus back. The walk took 30 minutes and it was HOT out so I could feel my resolve to go work out lessening. So the minute I got home, I changed and took off to the gym. I biked there - a 25 minute ride to a location with which I wasn't familiar ... and found out that I needed to have special gym shoes for the gym. DAH! Japan you defeat me again! *sigh* It may have been a blessing in disguise. It was incredibly stressful for me to venture out and down roads I have never been down. New places are hard for me - especially when I feel far from home. (Eventually the route will become familiar and a part of my surroundings as the route to church has become for me.) I DO wonder what they thought when I walked in at the gym though - pouring sweat, wanting to sweat some more, and then couldn't so I went off the ride back and sweat some more! So, I got in a workout... I just didn't get to lift weights. I told them I would be back on Thursday and took off.
I've planned to work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays since I told the elders I would help with their English classes Wednesday evenings - I still haven't made it down there... things keep coming up. I am, however, determined to make it down there tomorrow. I'm trying to get my act together this week. Service (at least every other week) with the elders doing the English classes, lifting weights twice a week, and practicing guitar. So far, so good! (Feeling the heat today has made me quite glad that the sun goes down so early here! Hopefully it will be going down as I get home so it will be cooler to bike to the gym and then be down by the time I'm riding home to cool me off. (I, obviously, got there earlier today as I got home from school early.)
When I got home I made some dinner (I had, unfortunately made soup a couple nights back and a hot dinner when I was pouring sweat just wasn't appealing) and sat down and ate. Well, I let the food cool to lukewarm and then ate it. LOL I drank the rest of my purple carrot juice (picture below) and read a short story by Stephen King. After that, I sat down to fix my worksheet (done) and print this. Hope you're all having a wonderful day/evening! XOXO, A
These are from last night: (May 13th)
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| Happy hour begins! |
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| I love playing guitar! |
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| Fear the claws! |
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| Are you afraid yet!? |
 |
| Blinded by the white! |
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| proof of my good hair day! |
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| last but not least: purple carrot juice bottle! - the fruit and veggie juice from this brand is AWESOME! it's about 50/50 - I had one that was 70/30 veggies to fruit and it was WEIRD - it was like someone had flavored my regular V8 with a little apple juice - not good. |
Monday, May 13, 2013
Monday Monday!
(Funny moments included) I have no idea what's going on with today but I woke up super nauseous. I kept telling myself - it's going to go away. It's going to go away... Here's hoping for tomorrow!
In spite of that, I had a great day. The students were excited to see me (these are classes I haven't seen in a long time because we have had the last two Mondays off) and I was excited to see them! And one of the students finally made fun of me! It made me so happy! Lol - that us, they imitated me. With this one class I had forced them to be excited and to yell "Yes! Yes! Yes!" And today I had that same class makes sentences. When I checked that group, I said, "Yes! Great! That's a sentence!" Then as I started to walk off, one of the boys yelled and did the arm motion and everything! I don't know if he meant to embarrass me but I laughed happily and repeated after him. He seemed surprised at my reaction but as I said before, I've been waiting to see what my students would imitate and pick up. :) They're thinking about English when I'm not around -- that means I win! ;)
I gathered papers from two of my classes today and went through them and wrote on them. :) I hope the personal encouragement will make a difference. I also got to at least see more names - I can really match them to anyone yet but at least I will have heard them at least once.
One of the sentences today included a Japanese word as part of a club name. When I read it, the whole class laughed. I have no idea why. Could be the word, could be my pronunciation... *shrug* I said わかりません and shrugged and moved on.
Oh man -- I could have gotten of early today but the dang buses caught me! That is, just like with the Choukaku Shien - the buses come infrequently. Grrr! They said I could leave at 1500 but there's a bus at 1515 and then one at 1645. Ya... That's why I get home about quarter to 1800 every night. Well except for Friday! In any case they were like "You can go! ... Oh your bus is coming in 2 hours? ... You can stay here!" Very anticlimactic moment. LOL Oh well. It would have been nice! In the meantime I got caught up for tomorrow and had time to work on a game for Wednesday.
During the time I was working in the office, I was approached to do a favor for a teacher (make section headings and a simple summary of one section) I did so and was praised in how quickly I did it. (This is the second time I have done that for that teacher.) And then I was approached to make a new textbook - seriously. Whoa! They have a lot of faith in me -- and it's for my second grade class who hates English - hence why they want new texts to study to increase at least student interest. They have also added grading (at least correcting) to my duties which is fine - my workload just tripled in the space of one day! I decided to put off writing the new texts until tomorrow because it was overwhelming to think about doing it today. It also will appear on my SLP for next week so I should have time until then to write it.
Today it was colder, for which I am very grateful. This past week the weather went from 30-50 to 70s within the space of a day! It was alarming for me and quite muggy and it's only going to get hotter! So I am glad for an early reprieve. :)
I think that's it for today - hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! XOXO, A
In spite of that, I had a great day. The students were excited to see me (these are classes I haven't seen in a long time because we have had the last two Mondays off) and I was excited to see them! And one of the students finally made fun of me! It made me so happy! Lol - that us, they imitated me. With this one class I had forced them to be excited and to yell "Yes! Yes! Yes!" And today I had that same class makes sentences. When I checked that group, I said, "Yes! Great! That's a sentence!" Then as I started to walk off, one of the boys yelled and did the arm motion and everything! I don't know if he meant to embarrass me but I laughed happily and repeated after him. He seemed surprised at my reaction but as I said before, I've been waiting to see what my students would imitate and pick up. :) They're thinking about English when I'm not around -- that means I win! ;)
I gathered papers from two of my classes today and went through them and wrote on them. :) I hope the personal encouragement will make a difference. I also got to at least see more names - I can really match them to anyone yet but at least I will have heard them at least once.
One of the sentences today included a Japanese word as part of a club name. When I read it, the whole class laughed. I have no idea why. Could be the word, could be my pronunciation... *shrug* I said わかりません and shrugged and moved on.
Oh man -- I could have gotten of early today but the dang buses caught me! That is, just like with the Choukaku Shien - the buses come infrequently. Grrr! They said I could leave at 1500 but there's a bus at 1515 and then one at 1645. Ya... That's why I get home about quarter to 1800 every night. Well except for Friday! In any case they were like "You can go! ... Oh your bus is coming in 2 hours? ... You can stay here!" Very anticlimactic moment. LOL Oh well. It would have been nice! In the meantime I got caught up for tomorrow and had time to work on a game for Wednesday.
During the time I was working in the office, I was approached to do a favor for a teacher (make section headings and a simple summary of one section) I did so and was praised in how quickly I did it. (This is the second time I have done that for that teacher.) And then I was approached to make a new textbook - seriously. Whoa! They have a lot of faith in me -- and it's for my second grade class who hates English - hence why they want new texts to study to increase at least student interest. They have also added grading (at least correcting) to my duties which is fine - my workload just tripled in the space of one day! I decided to put off writing the new texts until tomorrow because it was overwhelming to think about doing it today. It also will appear on my SLP for next week so I should have time until then to write it.
Today it was colder, for which I am very grateful. This past week the weather went from 30-50 to 70s within the space of a day! It was alarming for me and quite muggy and it's only going to get hotter! So I am glad for an early reprieve. :)
I think that's it for today - hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! XOXO, A
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day again to all the moms! I got to skype my maman and see a bunch of family! :D The connection wasn't super great and kept freezing, but I'm so glad I got to talk to them. :)
I started out later than I wanted to this morning (I kept waking up because of nightmares I was having. One right after another - it felt like I woke up every few minutes!) but I still managed to be seated before church started. :) Fujimura Kyoudai (Brother Fujimura) said that I brought something to the class, to the ward, when I came. :) It was a very sweet thing to say and I really enjoyed church. I felt the Spirit very strongly though I didn't understand the talks. Elder Preston and another elder spoke as today they finished their missions (right after church they went to the mission home). It was emotional for them and it made me remember when it was my time to leave the mission. It was a bittersweet time.
The second hour we had a lesson on the priesthood and I got to participate! I answered in English and my friends translated for me. :) Friends in the ward! It's so nice to have friends in the ward that speak English - especially since Elder Preston is leaving and will no longer be able to act as my translator! I'm trying to pick up some Japanese and just don't really know how to go about it at this point. However I am noticing (at church) that I understand another few words! I have been in Japan for ... 51 days! That's just about 1/7th of a year (a little bit into tomorrow will make it official - 52.14 days)! I can't believe I've been here that long. It, as I continually say, feels like yesterday and simultaneously last year that I got here!
The bike ride from church was nice (though it's getting quite hot out!). I was emotional after church (my period did that "Yay! You're done! ... JUST KIDDING I'M BACK!" and made a mess... ick) and I made curry from my lunches and I made white stew for dinner (it's not racist - it's just called that) and now I'm writing this. (I got a little thinking time but I was upset earlier because it DOES feel like I didn't get a break. Luckily I love to teach so once I get in the classroom I expect that everything will go much better and I will be re-energized. Until then I feel tired but I'm looking forward to feeling better!
I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! XOXO, A
I started out later than I wanted to this morning (I kept waking up because of nightmares I was having. One right after another - it felt like I woke up every few minutes!) but I still managed to be seated before church started. :) Fujimura Kyoudai (Brother Fujimura) said that I brought something to the class, to the ward, when I came. :) It was a very sweet thing to say and I really enjoyed church. I felt the Spirit very strongly though I didn't understand the talks. Elder Preston and another elder spoke as today they finished their missions (right after church they went to the mission home). It was emotional for them and it made me remember when it was my time to leave the mission. It was a bittersweet time.
The second hour we had a lesson on the priesthood and I got to participate! I answered in English and my friends translated for me. :) Friends in the ward! It's so nice to have friends in the ward that speak English - especially since Elder Preston is leaving and will no longer be able to act as my translator! I'm trying to pick up some Japanese and just don't really know how to go about it at this point. However I am noticing (at church) that I understand another few words! I have been in Japan for ... 51 days! That's just about 1/7th of a year (a little bit into tomorrow will make it official - 52.14 days)! I can't believe I've been here that long. It, as I continually say, feels like yesterday and simultaneously last year that I got here!
The bike ride from church was nice (though it's getting quite hot out!). I was emotional after church (my period did that "Yay! You're done! ... JUST KIDDING I'M BACK!" and made a mess... ick) and I made curry from my lunches and I made white stew for dinner (it's not racist - it's just called that) and now I'm writing this. (I got a little thinking time but I was upset earlier because it DOES feel like I didn't get a break. Luckily I love to teach so once I get in the classroom I expect that everything will go much better and I will be re-energized. Until then I feel tired but I'm looking forward to feeling better!
I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! XOXO, A
Saturday, May 11, 2013
A no-day day
Today I had training. I have been trying really hard to be optimistic about it, but in the end it's feeling the way it is: no weekend for me! :/ Still, there were some good things.
Training itself was hard for me. It just doesn't cater to my learning style and I was in a group where three of the guys HAD to be right and argued with one another forever. In the meantime I was trying to get some ideas in and some work done. *sigh* I was told to prepare a 35-minute demo and I did so. I didn't get a chance to teach. Which is fine so long as they don't have me come back next week for that reason. Luckily (mmm) Limor and Tom were also in my group. Nathaniel presented and then Limor presented and then the guy who was observing us presented. ... Probably everything would have gone much better if today weren't Saturday and I still didn't feel icky from my period.
I am grateful I got to see Limor, Allie, Saz, and Tom though. :) (Sorry, I'm so tired, I have cramps, I have a migraine, and I just can't think straight. I'm crossing my fingers that all of this comes out coherently.) I'm hoping that I won't be called in next weekend. It's more than pride now. If I don't get a weekend soon, I will scream. It was so wonderful to see Jake and Limor last weekend. At the same time it feels like I didn't get a chance to de-stress. I just need to do nothing for a while (well, I need thinking time -- it feels like I never get to think anymore, as strange as that may sound).
I just was, as I have been the past few days, all out of sorts. I don't feel like myself at all and it's very disconcerting. It's like I'm being carried about in a stranger's skin and the pain I'm feeling is because their skin and bones and muscles don't fit me. :/ It's weirding me out!
There was a ward activity tonight (pizza party) and I was all excited and set on going, but I didn't get a chance to go. :/ That's probably part of what I'm feeling. I wasn't free until 18h30 and it takes 25-30 minutes to ride my bike to the church. I am, however, looking forward to going to church tomorrow. I think it will really make a huge improvement in my mood and outlook. I read scriptures everyday but in a lot of other ways I feel like I'm in a bit of a spiritual desert. :/ I didn't really notice the small number of members in Argentina as I was always proselyting anyway.
Sorry if this post was weird/depressing/disappointing. I will try again tomorrow and will do better! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! XOXO, A
Funny moment: I finally got a picture of it!:
Training itself was hard for me. It just doesn't cater to my learning style and I was in a group where three of the guys HAD to be right and argued with one another forever. In the meantime I was trying to get some ideas in and some work done. *sigh* I was told to prepare a 35-minute demo and I did so. I didn't get a chance to teach. Which is fine so long as they don't have me come back next week for that reason. Luckily (mmm) Limor and Tom were also in my group. Nathaniel presented and then Limor presented and then the guy who was observing us presented. ... Probably everything would have gone much better if today weren't Saturday and I still didn't feel icky from my period.
I am grateful I got to see Limor, Allie, Saz, and Tom though. :) (Sorry, I'm so tired, I have cramps, I have a migraine, and I just can't think straight. I'm crossing my fingers that all of this comes out coherently.) I'm hoping that I won't be called in next weekend. It's more than pride now. If I don't get a weekend soon, I will scream. It was so wonderful to see Jake and Limor last weekend. At the same time it feels like I didn't get a chance to de-stress. I just need to do nothing for a while (well, I need thinking time -- it feels like I never get to think anymore, as strange as that may sound).
I just was, as I have been the past few days, all out of sorts. I don't feel like myself at all and it's very disconcerting. It's like I'm being carried about in a stranger's skin and the pain I'm feeling is because their skin and bones and muscles don't fit me. :/ It's weirding me out!
There was a ward activity tonight (pizza party) and I was all excited and set on going, but I didn't get a chance to go. :/ That's probably part of what I'm feeling. I wasn't free until 18h30 and it takes 25-30 minutes to ride my bike to the church. I am, however, looking forward to going to church tomorrow. I think it will really make a huge improvement in my mood and outlook. I read scriptures everyday but in a lot of other ways I feel like I'm in a bit of a spiritual desert. :/ I didn't really notice the small number of members in Argentina as I was always proselyting anyway.
Sorry if this post was weird/depressing/disappointing. I will try again tomorrow and will do better! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! XOXO, A
Funny moment: I finally got a picture of it!:
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| The other ex-pats here call it the "Bistro de Crap" and when it's spelled that way, I can't argue! I haven't yet tried their crêpes, but with a spelling like that... I worry! |
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