By Grabthar's Hammer

T5B: 1) I got to talk to Jerod and Dre. 2) I got a ton done. 3) I watched some Cowboy Bebop. 4) I started a new book. 5) It's nice to have a clean apartment.

basal temp: 36.09

Morning:
- woke up (not enough sleep *sigh* - 79%)
- laid in bed for a little bit keeping warm and messaging Dre and Jerod
- got up and showered, started a load of laundry
- did dishes
- hung up my laundry
- left my place and went to the bank, the optometrist, and the grocery store
- got home and put away my groceries

Notes: My friend got her glasses for (essentially) $40. So I was hoping I'd be able to do that too and get a back up pair. NOPE. Glasses for me (because of my eyesight) would be $220. I noped outta there. :/ Oh well.

Afternoon:
- made some lunch
- watched some Cowboy Bebop
- read a little more
- messaged Jerod :)

Notes: --

Evening:
- read some more
- played some games on my phone
- messaged Jerod
- ate dinner
- felt sick (:C)
- shut off my water for the night (a common thing now unfortunately but the forecast says I shouldn't have to do this anymore soon!)

Notes: I've got a kind of funny story that I forgot to put up on Wednesday. Monday to Tuesday I slept like four hours. So Tuesday to Wednesday I was feeling very anxious about getting enough sleep. I thought it would help me get up in the morning if I set the heater to turn on shortly before I got out of bed (so at least it would be easier to leave the warmth of my blankets). So I set it at 6 and then crash. The heater turning on wakes me and I want to bawl my eyes out. I don't feel rested and now I have to wait awake to get warm. Finally I roll over and check my phone: 4 AM!! I guess the 6 meant 6 hours later. I then went from wanting to cry in despair to cry in relief. I went back to sleep for a couple more hours and though I didn't quite get enough sleep, at least I didn't want to cry when I woke up! Oh and something of note - today is the first day in almost a month that I haven't cried! I think it was a good idea stopping those lunabell pills. They made me feel like I was on an emotional roller coaster all the time. At first it was small moods swings but they kept escalating. Thank goodness for family who supports me when I say "This isn't working out!" (The cost outweighed the benefits.) Oh! One thing I forgot to mention above - I ran into my friend who works at the grocery store (the woman to whom I speak each week when I go shopping) and she wants to have lunch with me sometime. :) I thought that was very sweet. Of course Saturday is the only day I can do it with my work schedule and Sunday being the Sabbath... still. :) I thought that was very nice of her (though kind of stressful - I don't know her that well and Saturday is typically my only full day off from work all to myself). Anyway, XOXO, A

Angry face because my computer was being dumb!

The filters on my phone

Noir filter fun! :D

The comparison in temperatures from Sun-Thurs

Lazy Day

Tomorrow 22.8 minutes before midnight will make 5/6ths of a year here! (at 302.95) CRAZINESS!-- AND my birthday is in a month... INSANE. That reminds me - mom if you could just have everyone hand write me a letter that would be WONDERFUL and don't worry about sending a box. I would love some handwritten mail from home. Love you!

T5B: 1) I got another day off! 2) I got to talk to Jerod and Dre today. 3) I had a delicious burger for lunch. 4) I wasn't called in to work. 5) I finished my book.

basal temp: 36.02

Morning:
- read
- ate food
- thought about next week's lessons (TRIED to plan)
- talked to Jerod and Dre

Notes: --

Afternoon:
- lunch
- a girl stopped by selling something and would not take no for an answer (I ended up sort of closing the door in her face :/ I was having a bad morning and she wouldn't go away!)
- finished my book
- did some other reading
- got mostly caught up on my emails

Notes: --

Evening:
- dinner
- watched some Gintama and then started Cowboy Bebop
- ALMOST napped (dang it!)
- played some games on my phone
- organized my kitchen
- played some guitar

Notes: I had all kinds of plans for today and errands to run and paperwork to fill out... then I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. I feel like I am getting strep throat and have an ear infection. Thanks to lack of sleep I have had a migraine and something is causing a low grade fever. I needed the chance to relax and took it. I will run all my errands tomorrow. I hope that you all have a more productive day than I did! XOXO, A

Blast from the past: Because of my problems with sleeping, I used to regularly get sleep deprivation (once a month or every other month). It would get to the point that I would hallucinate and then I would sleep for 13 hours and the cycle would start all over again. Luckily I have not gotten THAT tired here ... yet. I have been headed that way a few times and I am now. I plan to sleep lots tonight though! Anyway... so one day I am EXHAUSTED while I was still attending Uni. I go to one of my ASL classes and those are the hardest classes in which to stay awake because they're entirely silent. As part of our lesson, our professor showed a clip of a prominent Deaf professor's lecture. As I start watching this clip, I hear a translation. Only the translation is REALLY loud and it's wrong. I was indignant and looking around incredulously. No one else was perturbed. And that's how I experienced my first and only auditory hallucination. Crazy stuff, and pretty funny I'm sure if you were watching me. LOL -- OH! One more story. So I was in my (3000-4000 level) History and Culture of Spain class (taught in Spanish). I was SO tired and the professor put on a documentary about Franco. It was very interesting but the fact that my brain had to work extra hard since it was in Spanish was too much for it and it gave up. I started nodding and not wanting to fall asleep, I got up and stood in the back of the room. Next thing I know, the lights are on and the guys in my class (I was one of two or three females) are crowded around me looking down. I fell asleep or passed out standing up. LOL Oops.

A new lesson triumphs

Happy birthday to my brother Nathanaël!!! Love you and hope it's awesome!

T5B: 1) I got to talk to Jerod and Dre! 2) My new lesson went well. 3) I managed to correct MOST of my worksheets (124 out of 167). 4) It's essentially the weekend for me (the office hasn't contacted me about coming in tomorrow so I think I'm free)!! 5) I had two tutoring sessions lined up for today and both cancelled - to my relief just because I'm so exhausted.

basal temp: 35.89

Morning:
- not enough sleep, but again better (it's nice to see improvement)
- had a huge stress taken off my mind/back (a letter for my family FINALLY arrived)
- shared a scripture from my morning reading with Jerod (I love that that's a thing we do now)
- prepared like a fiend for my classes (making copies and flashcards) when I got to school
1st - taught 1.5, went fairly well
2nd - taught a new lesson to 1.1, went well
3rd-4th - corrected worksheets, organized some materials

Notes: --

Afternoon:
- lunch was delicious (I had this GIANT apple)
5th - taught 2.1, went very well
6th - taught 2.2, went very well
- corrected worksheets as fast as I could, but only got through 2.1 (that's ok - My Monday morning is free ~ well other than making some materials)

Notes: Oikawa-s said that next week is probably my last week teaching 3.7. I feel very torn about that. I will miss them but it will also be one less lesson to prepare. -- I found out next Thursday there is a mock exam - YATTA! I have my busiest day off! Well, I'm still required to go to the school, but I don't have my four longer lessons to teach. :D Yahoo! -- 2.2 made me laugh. We were playing shiritori (you use the last letter of the word to make the next word) and one row went from "desk" to "table." I pointed to the K and then to the T and they were like, "AAAAH! Rookie mistake!" (at least I imagine that's what they were saying in Japanese) LOL Funny kids.

Evening:
- stopped at the bakery, too tired to make myself a grand dinner
- ate some food
- chatted with Jerod for a bit
- read a little

Notes: Man today was a long day! Glad it's over. Hope you all enjoy(ed) your Thursday! XOXO, Annik

Let's make a deal...

I've now been here 300 days! 0.o

T5B: 1) I got to read a little bit of a new book. 2) I fixed my worksheet for tomorrow (dang it I'm so nervous - new lessons are always a gamble - feels like). 3) I was able to convince the second grade teachers to use a lesson I have ready for next week (whew - less scrambling for me to do). 4) I made it halfway through the week! 5) I remembered to take my temperature this morning.

basal temp: 36.22

Morning:
- not enough sleep :/ BUT more than last night
- had a hard time getting ready because it was so cold! (-8 when I got up)
- caught my bus just fine, got to school
- made a teacher laugh in the copy room
1st - copied my worksheets
2nd - taught 1.3, went really well
3rd - taught 2.6, went well
4th - taught 1.2, went really well

Notes: In the copy room I saw it was snowing. I cried out in despair and this teacher looked at me. "Yuki wo furimasu!" (It's snowing!) And I pointed at the windows and made a sad sound again. That made her laugh. Then I started pointing to the sky and telling it to stop. I even pretended to pray. She didn't laugh and I thought I might have offended her so I finished up with telling her I would do a no-show dance. That made her laugh again and then I escaped. -- OH MAN! SOOO funny - so in 2.6, one boy was struggling writing his winter vacation summary. He had only one sentence written. I went over (Saki-sensei was chatting with him) and made a show of blocking her and saying, "Ok no more distractions! Four more sentences!" I held up four fingers. Then he starts bargaining with me, holding up one finger, "1 more?" I thought about it and 2 would put him at 3 out of 5 so I countered with and held up the same amount of fingers, "Two more!" THEN he holds up his hand, "Three more?" Me: "... (laughs) SOLD! Three more!" Then he gets this look on his face and glares at his hand like it betrayed him. Oh man, Saki-s and I had a great laugh about that. Thanks M! -- In 1.2 (which had energy today and that was a first and so awesome!), I stuck my head in and asked if they knew where Suzuki-s was. They didn't know and I hadn't found him at his desk so I started class without him. He showed up a few minutes later - he's so cute - he apologized and they clapped for him. (When I walked in a few students clapped :D -- also I told them Happy New Year in Japanese and they went wild for that!) Great class. :)

Afternoon:
- lunch was delicious and I was able to connect with Dre :)
5th-7th - I worked on future plans, talked to Saki-s about a plan for next week, tweaked my worksheet (finalized it)
- cleaning time
- thank goodness for heating on the bus!
- got some contact solution and a bus pass on the way home

Notes: --

Evening:
- got to talk to Jerod :)
- had a spaghetti dinner
- printed my worksheet and materials for tomorrow
- made more materials for tomorrow
- read a little bit (had to relax somehow!)
- played a little bit of guitar (YAY!)

Notes: Hope you all have a happy mid-week. I'm so glad I've made it more than halfway through! Now to conquer tomorrow! "Victory! Victory! Through Him that redeemed us!" ... First song that popped into my head. So glad things are falling back into place and that I'm mostly ready for next week (just one more lesson to make other than my CS lessons of which I have no information thus far). My love to you all, XOXO, Annik

Langue de chat!? THAT'S what I've been missing from back home! ;) lol (cat's tongue)

Now you know what Japanese cat's tongue looks like ;)

Back into the Fire

T5B: 1) I remembered my lunch and my shoes. 2) I got to talk to Jerod a little bit. 3) My classes all ended up being ok and my new lesson went pretty well. 4) Even though I got chills every now and then the teacher's room at the school averaged 7 degrees warmer than my apartment. It was really nice! (23-24°) 5) I counted and as it stands right now, (because of testing and things) I have only 34 teachings days left. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this! I only have to feel like I'm burning a candle at both ends for 2-17s! (34 days :D)

basal temp: completely forgot to take it :c

Morning:
- I slept less than five hours and woke up before my alarm (rough morning)
- got in extra scripture reading time (thought I would need it)
- got to my bus on time and found out my bus card had enough money to get to me and from school (luckily - I meant to bring money and forgot)
- I remembered my lunch and my shoes (big victory for me considering my braindeaded-ness)
1st - AWFUL morning at school, cried in the locker room and another teacher tried to comfort me when she found me (asked questions none of which I understood)
2nd - hauled buns to get my worksheets and materials ready for the next class
3rd - taught 2.5, went pretty well
4th - planned and created a new worksheet for Thursday (as much as I could do - missing some of the kanji :/)

Notes: I survived! And that's the way I was feeling when lunch came on - plus dread for my two toughest (on me) classes. -- I said went "pretty well" because everything was going great then at the end of class these boys starting mocking everything I was saying. It was definitely not fun for me. :/ I smiled but I feel like it was a tremulous smile. Still, I survived!

Afternoon:
- ate lunch, it was awesome - got to talk to Jerod a little bit
5th - taught 2.4, went fairly well
6th - taught 1.6, went ok
7th - worked on plans and scheduling and future lessons
- the bus was warm

Notes: 2.4 was just ... well a handful of the students are just belligerent. So the lesson went fairly well because most of the students actually did the worksheet rather than the 1/3rd or 1/2 I usually get. -- 1.6 is like a hurricane or a tornado or how I imagine one must be. It's just a disaster zone and you ride it out. I had one big success with a student who usually only writes his name on his worksheet actually completing most of it. I had to coach him a lot, but I hope that next time he will of his own accord just try. When I collected worksheets I found out that about half of them didn't do ANYTHING. A handful didn't even bother to write their names on their paper. :/ Still, it went ok. We all made it out alive. They were at least kinder than the other class. I'm just glad today is over.

Evening:
- had garlic rice for dinner
- read a little bit
- got to talk to Jerod
- EXHAUSTED

Notes: Today started crappy and ended much better. I'm still feeling trepidation for tomorrow because I'm so exhausted. Yeesh. Hope you're all getting sleep! It helps A LOT! XOXO, A

A student made me laugh today with their drawings!