First Days of Teaching

Teaching in the school has been a very enjoyable experience. It has been very strange in a way though. I don’t understand the children and I’m sure that they don’t understand me to a certain extent. In America, I know when I have taught enough for a lesson. There are a lot of clues that the children will give me: the get squirmy, they start talking, the start looking around, they ask when we are going to lunch... Here most (NOT all) of the children are so well behaved or so mesmerized by a new person in their classroom that they just stare at me. They don’t ask questions so I do not know when they do not understand (which I figure is more than they let on).

I also find myself doing these wild arm and hand gestures. It’s pretty funny. I’m sure they are wondering if all Americans do this, or is it is just me. I know that Mandy did it and I am sure Carla did it too. It’s just that I have to ask everything out in order for them to understand. It’s great though, I love it. It’s really preparing me for my Broadway debut upon arrival in the States next July (Caroline).

There are so many precious children. I want to rename them all though with names I can remember. The Japanese names are hard for me to remember. I don’t know if it is because I have so many to learn or is it is because the pronunciation is difficult. Probably both. There is always one…you know what I mean…that cute little thing who you fall in love with at first sight…and he/she turns out to be your BIGGEST challenge. I’ve got them at every school. If just goes to show you that children are children no matter where they are.

Yesterday I went to a large book store. Good news friends! They will sell the American Harry Potter on Sunday. I think I will order it from Amazon though because it will be close to $40. They store had a great English section. There were games, books, and magazines. I was so excited about the prospect of catching up on my Hollywood gossip. That was a bust. US weekly was a few weeks out of date and the price was about $15!!! I almost fell over. Cosmo was about $17. I looked to see how much some others were and Vogue was about $40…right up there with the new, hard back (I’m assuming), 800+ page Harry Potter book! I was shocked.

When I got home last night I crashed. I fell asleep about 6:30 and slept until 8:00 this morning. I was so tired. I am still getting used to my long days here and the long travel. I miss my car but I’m really excited about the exercise I’m getting.

I tried some interesting food today. It was tofu and tuna mixed together into little patties. It sounds disgusting but it was really good. I had some noodles that had sesame seeds on them. They were okay. The cook at Jyoto (my third school) had even made blueberry muffins. Delicious! I am still not eating well here yet. I eat lunch and that’s about it. I think it has to do with how tired I am. I sleep through dinner a lot and I might grab a granola bar for breakfast but that’s about it. I have HUNGRY days and not hungry days. I’m sure it will even out soon.

On Wednesdays I get finished at 1:00. I came home and read and then took a long nap. I feel much better now. Yoko just came by. She dropped off my bike key. I had a very unfortunate bicycle situation yesterday…it broke. Both tires were flat and the pedals did not want to turn and I couldn’t get the kickstand up. I was so mad. Instead of riding my bike home from the train station, I walked and pushed the bike. I called Yoko when I got home. She couldn’t believe that I walked home. She came at once to get the bike to take it to the repair shop. Turns out that the operator (me) just had the kickstand locked; that’s why it wouldn’t work well, but the tires were flat so they pumped them up or got new ones. I just got it back. Yea!

That’s all for today. I’m going to be in bed early tonight again. I have to ride the train for an hour tomorrow (both ways) to Hikari (pronounced Hick-ar-ee) Nursery School. I will work a LONG day so I want to be well rested.