Boredom at School

Yesterday was the beginning of the new school year in Japan. It started similarly to the first day of last fall’s semester. Last fall, there was a typhoon during the first week. Yesterday, we had a tropical storm that was typhoon-like. Both times, I went to school by bike and took a change of close with me. The difference was that I didn’t nearly fall into the toilet yesterday while changing clothes.

My new school is considerably smaller than the last school. The kids are friendly here, too. I am anxious to get into the classrooms and get to know them better.

The vice-principal from my previous school transferred to the school I am at now. It is very comforting to see a familiar face and to have someone looking out for me. If it wasn’t for him or the social studies teacher here, I think that I would be completely overlooked.

All of the teachers are very busy with the start of the new school year, but nobody has even mentioned what is going on or what is expected of me. My last school would usually put a memo on my desk (in unreadable kanji), but I could usually figure something out. This school has given me nothing. The women teachers are incredibly friendly though.

I am trying not to compare schools. I want to have a good experience here. I also want to be open to new views, methods, and styles of teaching and doing things. If I am constantly comparing, I think (for myself), that I will not get as much out of my time here. I feel extremely lucky to be where I am (although I wish that I could have stayed longer at my previous school). So far, it seems like this is a really good school. The former ALT had nothing bad to say about this school. Although the only thing that we could get out of him was that he was totally obsessed with his Japanese teacher of English (JTE). So I didn’t really get a balanced perspective.

I’m hoping that my life can get back into a routine. Or at least something close to it. Somehow during spring break, I managed to become so busy, that I usually didn’t get enough sleep. My sleep schedule was thrown off and to make matters worse, I didn’t sleep much the night before school started. Last night, I went to bed earlier than usual, but it was still not enough. I think that a few nights with an extra hour or two would be good, but I won’t be able to do that tonight or tomorrow. I REALLY just want to go to bed right now. I do think that part of this is allergy related. It doesn’t help that so many trees are in full bloom right now either. I crammed so much into my spring vacation that I need a vacation to recover! I went to Osaka and visited some former housemates. We went to Universal Studios Japan. It was crowded, but so much fun. We also had dinner and karaoke together. I got to stay with my friend and her family. They are so nice. The Takeuchis took me to Kobe Chinatown for Chinese food. We also went to an aquarium ( I love aquariums). After coming back from Kansai, I had one day of downtime. Unfortunately, I was sick. The next day, Angel and her coworkers came to visit. We had too much fun. We went did Hanami (watching cherry blossoms), we went to shops and a giant arcade in Odaiba, and somehow, the guys talked us into going to a maid café in Aki Habara. Of course, we stayed up late every night that they were here playing Wii. It was fun, but now I’m exhausted.

Anyway, I have a few challenges at work today. The first challenge is to stay awake. The second challenge is to keep busy enough to keep me from falling asleep. Another challenge is to use my computer without internet. I was very excited to find internet connections at my desk, only to find out that I need a code :+( I’d love to ask my predecessor about this, but I haven’t seen him in about 2 months. I don’t have his contact info and he hasn’t been to the last two or three ALT meetings. Oh well.

I went to our ALT meeting yesterday and it sounds like a lot of changes will take place. For example, we may change to having one meeting a month and it will be at one of 5 junior high schools. We will observe a lesson at that school and then meet afterwards. It sounds interesting. I like that we will have more of these opportunities, but I am also a little disappointed about not going to City Hall every week. I kind of looked forward to those visits.

Tonight, I have a conversation group. I am thinking about playing the “I Never” game. Since I don’t have internet access here (even though I have plenty of time to research more ideas), I will stick with that plan. I had hoped that I would have internet access at my desk, so that I might be able to plan my classes for the month. Wishful thinking on my part, I guess.

I rode my bike to work today. I am trying to figure out the best way to come to work. I really dislike my bike. The tires never hold much air, so I always feel like I am always riding on the rims. It’s faster than walking, but I’m not sure how much faster. I am thinking of walking tomorrow. I just wonder what time I would need to leave to get here on time. Hmmm…

Today’s observation: There are some very young looking teachers in our school. There is one teacher that I originally thought was a student. Oops! It’s a good thing I didn’t tell him that.

I guess it’s time to stop this blog. I am so sleepy, I feel like I will fall asleep while typing this. So, I’m just going to save it and post later.

Tootles!