A Work Day in the the Life
Not typical by any means, but I promised my bestie Sonia that I would write one of these, and today seems as good a day as any :) So here is my today...
6:35am
Woke up to my alarm and immediately looked out my sliding door to see if the weather was rainy or or not. Just clouds at that point, but looked like it could open up to rain any time. Usually I wake up at 6:50/7ish, but I woke up early today to look at the weather. And so I waited, why?
7:00am
Because I was waiting for my vice-principal (kyoto-sensei) at my visit school (the one I go to on Tues and Fridays) to see if the school's sports festival would still be held. Due to weird liability/travel expenses, I wouldn't be able to go to the school's sports day and would instead be sent to my regular school. But if it was raining, they would reschedule sports day and I would go to the visit school and teach my classes. But alas, it was simply cloudy, and the sweet kyoto-sensei informed me that I should just go to my regular school, and I wished her a wonderful day.
8:15am
I leave my apartment later than I meant to (despite having woke up earlier than normal, why does that always seem to happen). On my way out I stuffed a half loaf of bread and an Asian pear in my bag, made sure I had my umbrella, and locked my door before scampering down the 5 flights of stairs of my apartment complex. I turn the corner to see the masses of students from my school making the walk from the train station on a path that goes right next to my apartment building, and usually in the morning I do my best just to blend in as another pedestrian...although it is very possible that the students know by now that I live in the apartment complex right by school.
8:21am
I change into my indoor shoes and make my way to the teacher's room, slipping in the back door because the daily staff meeting had already started. Despite my efforts at slinking, my chair squeaks horribly and I have attracted the attention as usual. Oh well, the teachers were just surprised that I was there instead of at my other school since it is Friday anyway. I had to do a lot of explaining that I was in fact, told to go to my regular school today.
8:45am
The other teachers have gone to their homerooms and 1st periods, so I am sitting at my desk munching on a piece of bread because I never eat breakfast at home. I chase down the office girl so I can stamp my hanko in the attendance book for today and yesterday, because I tend to forget at least once a week. My teachery friend from across the aisle comes in (she can come late because she is part time), and I decide to ask her and another teachery friend if I can help them out with class today-- 2 classes booked and I'm excited :)in the meantime I turn on my computer and try to work on my thesis poster for the conference in October...and failing.
9:20am
With odd marching music coming from the track and field area and a group of third year students marching around in time with the music, I find myself being asked by a teacher to take a look at a chart in the textbook "Shark Attacks from 1580-2004" under which the U.S. (not including Hawaii) is listed first with 39 fatal shark attacks in that time (Hawaii by itself had 17 listed). She wanted to know if the chart was accurate (how would I know, but I said that shark attacks were definitely talked about on the news) and whether people are afraid of going to the beach and what the government was doing about it (I said people weren't really afraid because now they close beaches when they see sharks). And off to my volunteer class!
10:00am
My volunteer class is 2nd year class that uses a textbook called "New Access to English Writing" and there are corny little stories at the beginning of each lesson. Last time I visited their class I read one "The Influence of Video Games". This lesson I get to read "Haiku, Mom's Hobby" as well as give a short introduction about myself. Self-intros are a big deal in the classroom, every time I visit a new class the teacher has the students come up with questions to ask me. Nothing's really phased me by this point, and honestly it makes me laugh every time a couple of them are like mustering up the courage to ask me something they think is inappropriate...and they end up just asking if I have a boyfriend lol. After my self-intro the students have some sentences to write and we correct them, totally reminding me of francais avec m.fuller.
10:35am
As I'm walking down the stairs I run into a bunch of boys from my 3rd year class on their way to P.E., and as I'm waving, one of them slows down to talk to me:
Student: Hi!
Me: Hi!
Student: I'm good!
Me: I didn't ask you anything.
Student: Oh oh oh I'm sorry, start again....Hi. How are you?
Me: I'm good, how are you?
Student: I'm good now...now that I've met you! :l:ooks extremely proud of himself::
Me: Aww. Well thank you, that was very nice :)
11:10am
I was hungry again so I decided to have another piece of bread while eating outside. And lo and behold, it starts to rain...whoops I guess sports day at the other school wasn't going to happen after all. The third year girls in P.E. class pass by me on their way back inside and many of them wave and laugh at me, but it's all good. When I get back inside, I take a moment to look up the difference between like and as, knowing somehow in my gut there was a difference and glad that the internet confirmed my hunch. I report back to the other teacher and hope that I didn't confuse her too much.
11:45am
Next class and another self-intro. This class had already read the Haiku passage so the teacher decided to have an activity were they translate Japanese haikus into English, and then asked me to come up with a haiku for them to translate into Japanese. I thought the kids thought it was super corny, but after class we looked through the worksheets and they came up with a lot of good translations!
12:30pm
It's getting to the point where I walk around the school and a good amount of the kids have either had me in class or seen me visit them at club activities after school. Usually on my way to the cafeteria I find myself having the same conversation of "What are you going to eat? Do you have any recommendations (osusume)?" The 3rd year boys were eating at their same table on the far side of the cafeteria, and even though I was a little worried that they might think it was weird if I ate with them twice in one week, I figured that they probably didn't really care either way. And they provide amusingly inappropriate lunch entertainment. And I was right, those silly boys brighten up my day and make me laugh like a silly person. Lunch ended with the boys singing in Japanese and one of them attempting to teach me, and when I repeated back the words they got flustered because apparently they were teaching me to say bad words LOL.
1:15pm
I slyly walk around the staffroom because I am on the lookout for another teachery friend the home ec teacher...last time I visited her class I learned a bunch of Japanese sign language, which I thought was really awesome. And I was hoping to slip into her class again today. But no luck, she was already out of the staffroom, and so here I am at my desk typing away. I've got the gchat open, and this time is pretty convenient for talking to both the parentals and the buddies back in the states.
2:30pm
So no luck finding other classes to infiltrate for today, but that's okay because some of my ALT buddies are also online/on phone and figuring out plans for the weekend. It is Friday after all :) Anyway, today I'll be working a jellyfish costume I made out of an umbrella for an "Under the Sea" party. I'm super excited!
And so I'll end this post, because it's too long and too boring anyway, but at least if I look back a couple months I'll have a pretty good account of the day-that-could-have-been-sports-day-but-wasn't. Even though it was a totally un-normal day, it's pretty much has the same kinds of feelings and ups and downs...me looking for work, but avoiding work from home, talking with friends, making nice with teachers, and trying to get to know some students. Next time I'll actually go through a regular day, but with exams and such coming up...I have a feeling there won't be one of those for a while, and I'm okay with that...
6:35am
Woke up to my alarm and immediately looked out my sliding door to see if the weather was rainy or or not. Just clouds at that point, but looked like it could open up to rain any time. Usually I wake up at 6:50/7ish, but I woke up early today to look at the weather. And so I waited, why?
7:00am
Because I was waiting for my vice-principal (kyoto-sensei) at my visit school (the one I go to on Tues and Fridays) to see if the school's sports festival would still be held. Due to weird liability/travel expenses, I wouldn't be able to go to the school's sports day and would instead be sent to my regular school. But if it was raining, they would reschedule sports day and I would go to the visit school and teach my classes. But alas, it was simply cloudy, and the sweet kyoto-sensei informed me that I should just go to my regular school, and I wished her a wonderful day.
8:15am
I leave my apartment later than I meant to (despite having woke up earlier than normal, why does that always seem to happen). On my way out I stuffed a half loaf of bread and an Asian pear in my bag, made sure I had my umbrella, and locked my door before scampering down the 5 flights of stairs of my apartment complex. I turn the corner to see the masses of students from my school making the walk from the train station on a path that goes right next to my apartment building, and usually in the morning I do my best just to blend in as another pedestrian...although it is very possible that the students know by now that I live in the apartment complex right by school.
8:21am
I change into my indoor shoes and make my way to the teacher's room, slipping in the back door because the daily staff meeting had already started. Despite my efforts at slinking, my chair squeaks horribly and I have attracted the attention as usual. Oh well, the teachers were just surprised that I was there instead of at my other school since it is Friday anyway. I had to do a lot of explaining that I was in fact, told to go to my regular school today.
8:45am
The other teachers have gone to their homerooms and 1st periods, so I am sitting at my desk munching on a piece of bread because I never eat breakfast at home. I chase down the office girl so I can stamp my hanko in the attendance book for today and yesterday, because I tend to forget at least once a week. My teachery friend from across the aisle comes in (she can come late because she is part time), and I decide to ask her and another teachery friend if I can help them out with class today-- 2 classes booked and I'm excited :)in the meantime I turn on my computer and try to work on my thesis poster for the conference in October...and failing.
9:20am
With odd marching music coming from the track and field area and a group of third year students marching around in time with the music, I find myself being asked by a teacher to take a look at a chart in the textbook "Shark Attacks from 1580-2004" under which the U.S. (not including Hawaii) is listed first with 39 fatal shark attacks in that time (Hawaii by itself had 17 listed). She wanted to know if the chart was accurate (how would I know, but I said that shark attacks were definitely talked about on the news) and whether people are afraid of going to the beach and what the government was doing about it (I said people weren't really afraid because now they close beaches when they see sharks). And off to my volunteer class!
10:00am
My volunteer class is 2nd year class that uses a textbook called "New Access to English Writing" and there are corny little stories at the beginning of each lesson. Last time I visited their class I read one "The Influence of Video Games". This lesson I get to read "Haiku, Mom's Hobby" as well as give a short introduction about myself. Self-intros are a big deal in the classroom, every time I visit a new class the teacher has the students come up with questions to ask me. Nothing's really phased me by this point, and honestly it makes me laugh every time a couple of them are like mustering up the courage to ask me something they think is inappropriate...and they end up just asking if I have a boyfriend lol. After my self-intro the students have some sentences to write and we correct them, totally reminding me of francais avec m.fuller.
10:35am
As I'm walking down the stairs I run into a bunch of boys from my 3rd year class on their way to P.E., and as I'm waving, one of them slows down to talk to me:
Student: Hi!
Me: Hi!
Student: I'm good!
Me: I didn't ask you anything.
Student: Oh oh oh I'm sorry, start again....Hi. How are you?
Me: I'm good, how are you?
Student: I'm good now...now that I've met you! :l:ooks extremely proud of himself::
Me: Aww. Well thank you, that was very nice :)
11:10am
I was hungry again so I decided to have another piece of bread while eating outside. And lo and behold, it starts to rain...whoops I guess sports day at the other school wasn't going to happen after all. The third year girls in P.E. class pass by me on their way back inside and many of them wave and laugh at me, but it's all good. When I get back inside, I take a moment to look up the difference between like and as, knowing somehow in my gut there was a difference and glad that the internet confirmed my hunch. I report back to the other teacher and hope that I didn't confuse her too much.
11:45am
Next class and another self-intro. This class had already read the Haiku passage so the teacher decided to have an activity were they translate Japanese haikus into English, and then asked me to come up with a haiku for them to translate into Japanese. I thought the kids thought it was super corny, but after class we looked through the worksheets and they came up with a lot of good translations!
12:30pm
It's getting to the point where I walk around the school and a good amount of the kids have either had me in class or seen me visit them at club activities after school. Usually on my way to the cafeteria I find myself having the same conversation of "What are you going to eat? Do you have any recommendations (osusume)?" The 3rd year boys were eating at their same table on the far side of the cafeteria, and even though I was a little worried that they might think it was weird if I ate with them twice in one week, I figured that they probably didn't really care either way. And they provide amusingly inappropriate lunch entertainment. And I was right, those silly boys brighten up my day and make me laugh like a silly person. Lunch ended with the boys singing in Japanese and one of them attempting to teach me, and when I repeated back the words they got flustered because apparently they were teaching me to say bad words LOL.
1:15pm
I slyly walk around the staffroom because I am on the lookout for another teachery friend the home ec teacher...last time I visited her class I learned a bunch of Japanese sign language, which I thought was really awesome. And I was hoping to slip into her class again today. But no luck, she was already out of the staffroom, and so here I am at my desk typing away. I've got the gchat open, and this time is pretty convenient for talking to both the parentals and the buddies back in the states.
2:30pm
So no luck finding other classes to infiltrate for today, but that's okay because some of my ALT buddies are also online/on phone and figuring out plans for the weekend. It is Friday after all :) Anyway, today I'll be working a jellyfish costume I made out of an umbrella for an "Under the Sea" party. I'm super excited!
And so I'll end this post, because it's too long and too boring anyway, but at least if I look back a couple months I'll have a pretty good account of the day-that-could-have-been-sports-day-but-wasn't. Even though it was a totally un-normal day, it's pretty much has the same kinds of feelings and ups and downs...me looking for work, but avoiding work from home, talking with friends, making nice with teachers, and trying to get to know some students. Next time I'll actually go through a regular day, but with exams and such coming up...I have a feeling there won't be one of those for a while, and I'm okay with that...
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