Can I have some of your homemade bread?

I think it is extremely ironic that I never liked school and I was never even that good at it and somehow I ended up being a teacher where I spend every waking minute of my life in one. Hum, I don`t know what went wrong there. I guess I felt like I could reach out to those poor souls like myself that do not like sitting in a classroom all day and listening to people blab. I would just make them listen to ME blab and that would make it all that much better. Riiiight.

So here I am after my first week of teaching the cute, quiet, studious Japanese students. HA. Hardly. They exhibit NONE of those qualities. It's a damn shame too because I was really ready for some tame classes after last semester. Oh well, maybe it will build character...?

I will give the quick rundown: some classes are loud, some are shy, teachers arent too big on discipline, they have extremely low levels of English, they all wear uniforms, one of my schools has only 60 girls, they seem to enjoy looking at pictures of my life, they have no idea what I`m talking about, I have no idea what they are talking about, it is going to be a long year.

So there`s the rundown. So far I have just given them my introduction "I am Jes-si-ca, and I am from Co-lo-ra-do in Am-er-ic-a" *show beautifully drawn picture of me and a colorado flag with a lovely colored pencial drawing of a sunset and mountians* "I enjoy sw-im-imm-ing" *show terrible picture of me trying to swim*. And then I pass around pictures and they look at them and say things I am not sure I even want to know. Sometimes I think they are semi interested, but a lot of them could care less about English. It's times like these where I feel really bad for my Spanish teachers. I`m really sorry for constantly humming in the back of your class and making you paranoid, Mr. G. I am also sorry I feel asleep on a constant basis. And Mrs. Campbell, I am sorry I never stopped talking. Now I understand why I never could speak Spanish.

Luckily I have Japanese teachers in the classroom for translating and discipline although I have yet to see the latter. Usually they just hit them on the head lightly with a piece of paper and kind of laugh... Here are some things the students have managed to tell/ask me in broken English:-Nice-a to meet you
-Cute-a
-Ahh vewe beautiful
-Green? Pointing to my eyes and when I say yes a resounding `oooo!`
-`Do you a have a boyfriend?` Or my all time favorite `Are you married?` And when I said no, he told the other teacher in Japanese that it is ok that I am not married since I am still young. I was releaved, I am glad I got the ok from him.
-`Do you like-a prona-gra-fiee?` in which I should have responed `No, do you?` But I was in so much amazement he knew such a big word that I just shook my head and asked how he knew it. Apparently his English only conisisted of those four words so that is as far as our discussion got.
-And of course they are all amazed with my ear piercings.

I kind of feel like a celebrity but I dont know if I am a good one or a bad one because whenever I walk by students in the hall I hear nanni nanni (blah blah in Japanese) Jeshika nanni laugh nanni. So who knows what they are saying about me but I am the talk of the town apparently. I can say they are all very respectful when it comes to greetings. The Japanese way is to spend about two hours total in a day saying `good morning`, `hello`, I'm sorry, excuse me, please, excuse me for leaving before you, I`m sorry to disturb you, thank you, etc. No wonder they stay at school so late.

So at my all boys technical school they sell bread and other delicious pastry-like treats. I am a sucker for those kinds of things especially when I am hungry and its not lunch time. I am going to have to do something about that pronto. Like only bring enough money for the train. Or practice some self will power and limit myself one every two weeks. It`s going to be a struggle when I pass it everday. I will have to stick to my rice for now.

As it is Japanese tradition, I brought presents for all of my teachers to school this week. I think presents are a great thing, but I am awful at giving them so hopefully living here can make me better. They were all very pleased with their gifts and I think whatever I can do to make them happy (since I don`t speak Japanese) will be good! I plan on bringing something back after every trip I have gone on, so far I am two for two!

This week has gone by surprisingly fast, I think it is because I am acutally doing something during the day and not just falling asleep at my desk while trying to learn Katakana. Literally my head almost hit the desk because I fell asleep with my hand on my chin and it slipped. I think it will be much better now that I can do things. I need to start thinking of my next lesson to teach, so I am sure that will keep me plenty busy.

Tonight I am going to go buy some candy for the kids because if I learned anything in student teaching it is that you can never have enough candy. I also need to buy another pair of indoor shoes. These shoes are literally slip on sandles they wear over their socks. For some reason they walk really noisily in them and they are just plain stupid looking. I know they dont care because that is the way it is and everyone wears them, but if I had to be honest I think its quite silly that we have to take off our shoes before entering the school. Just one of those things that I will never understand. After I get my shoes I am going to do some things around the house, and when I say house I mean apartment, and when I say apartment I mean my room and my sink. Then I think I am going to meet Shanno at the gym so we can check it out and do something active. We shall see how that goes.

I have actually been good this week--I ran twice, did the pathetic excuse for weights in my room and on Monday I even got to swim! So I hope I can go again although I rather doubt it since the kids are swimming in there now. I will find something sooner or later. I hope I can keep something up like that.

Then tomorrow, I am going to go to school and then jump for joy like a little school girl because its Friday and I will be done for the week! Saturday we are going to water slides up North as well as another onsen. Sunday I will be going to a traditional dance festival thing in my town after having lunch with the ALTs that are coming over here to watch. And of course the time consuming task of laundry and cleaning my room/house will be in order. Someday. I swear there is a bug in my hair. This is really annoying. The bugs here are utterly disgusting and I am fascinated by them for some reason. When I pass a giant spider I have to stare at it in disgust as I walk away from it. I stand outside the apartment and look up at the overhang in horror because every night when it gets dark there is a spider festival. Instead of running into my house as fast as I can I just stand a watch them for a good couple of minutes. Then I make sure none are dropping on my head as I go inside. They tend to keep to themselves and since the giant beast attack of `08 I have not seen one in my house. KNOCK ON WOOD. Oh please knock on wood! My heart can`t take much more of those surprise attacks.

Another thing my heart wont be able to take much longer is the dreadful heat. I hate the humidity and I cant wait until it gets cooler so we can all live peacefully. I guess these people are about as peaceful as it gets, but I dont feel peaceful one bit. I feel rageful. Only until I am comfortable in the nice, cold air conditioning will I be at peace. And it turns out most people dont like keeping the AC at 16 degrees celcius. I guess that is just a tad bit chilly, but oh do I think its nice. Thanks for tuning into the weekly update at blogspot and join me next week for a riviting story of the happenings in town!

Cheers! Or I should say, Kampai!