So today was sports competition, which meant that all the kids involved with sports (more than half the school) would be competing against other schools in the region. This also meant that I had no idea what the hell was going on. All I knew was, I had better show up to some sports meet unless I wanted to be in big trouble for taking Saturday off. So I did what I thought was best, I woke up at 6AM and got to school at around 7:30 AM. I didn’t see any other students around and that worried me. Luckily, Kyoto Sensei and some other teachers were in the office, so they definitely spotted me coming to work (it’s all about appearance). I still had no idea what to do, so Kyoto Sensei offered me to go with him to the volleyball tournament. I wanted to see the baseball game, but since I had no f*ing idea where that was, what the heck, I joined him…and that’s when the fun began!
Lets Compare Blood Pressure!
September 30th, 2006Oh By The Way…
September 29th, 2006This is a phrase one needs to get used to when teaching in Japan. You see, a lot of the times, teachers forget that you DON’T speak Japanese and you’re NEW to the school, so they forget to tell you about events that are happening. It all started when I was teaching at my Heart Attack School (the very next day). It didn’t go so bad the second time around, really. I only had 3 classes to teach and they were all in the morning: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd periods. That means I had 4th, Lunch, 5th, and 6th periods off. Half the teachers were also gone that day, because half the school went on a field trip. I just sat at my desk in the teacher’s room, staring into space during 4th period and lunch, but then I got waaaaaaaay too bored (and hungry…still fasting, remember?) so I asked Kocho Sensei if I could leave to go teach at my base school. Yeah, it would have been smarter to just go home, but I’m not a jerk and I’m sure the students could use my help (whether they like it or not!!!). So, I walk on over to the JHS and find that most the students and teachers are in the Gym. I ask the English Teacher what’s up and she’s like,
“Oh, what’re you doing here?”
“I got off early, what’s going on here?”
“Ohhh! I forgot to tell you! By the way…”
My Heart Attack School
September 28th, 2006I call one of my elementary schools, that I teach at, the “Heart Attack School”, because I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack every time I go there. It’s always for a different reason though, this time was particulary special though. You see last week, I missed my train and came to school a little bit late. I wasn’t so late that I missed my first class or anything, but I did miss the morning meeting they always have and one teacher even commented, “we were worried you weren’t going to make it!” This was very bad. Punctuality is excruciatingly important in Japan and I had made a major mistake by showing up late. But today, I was going to make it up by finally handing out my Omiyage. Read the rest of this entry »
