Week of September 19th to 23rd

Monday

This week is a little bit retarded. Monday’s a public holiday, and so is Friday. So we only have a 3-day work week.

Tuesday

So I came into work after the long weekend, completely dreading the 5-classes day that was waiting for me, only to look at the schedule board and find out that there are only 2 periods of classes today! and it’s the first 2 in the morning, turned into period 5 and 6, so it means I only have ONE class! I’m so happy, I would do a little happy dance of joy! if I had any energy.

Ok, I am really not at my best today. Class with 3-1 was so-so and part of it was my fault cuz I had no energy. Even though Minami was REALLY into it, kids kept dicking about, the whole listening-to-the-story part went waaaay over their heads, and Seiya was doing his science homework and then getting out of his seat to dance or act up when I wasn’t looking and then looking not-so-guilty every time I caught him doing it. Kouki randomly blurted out “Vanessa’s eyes are so blue!” at one point while we were teaching new words, which lead to a 2 minute OT discussion about my eyes (she is wearing contacts… no she isn’t…) by their little posse. Then at one point I was trying to explain that there was a bit of French in the song, and Shigeki-sensei butted-in that he could speak a little French (yeah right…), and all the kids went “sugoii sensei!” and he’s prattling on about how he studied French in university, and that “J’ai” means “I”, which a) it doesn’t, it means “I have” and b) the French that was on the paper was wrong, cuz I printed it off some lyrics website without checking and just noticed for the first time. So I go “Oh, Shigeki-sensei, you can speak French? I speak French!” and then he goes, to the students “that’s right, Canada people can speak French too”, which was followed by more OT prattling about how it’s my first language, and then of course the kiddies were like “speak French!” but everybody was kinda talking at the same time, and I was a little annoyed, so I just launched into lots and lots of French until everybody stopped talking and was staring at me with big eyes. Then one of the kids went “was that English or French?” and before I can answer, Shigeki-sensei is like “Eigo datta” (it was English) and I just turned around with this “really?! dude, really?!!” look on my face and blurted out in Japanese “furansugo datta!!” (It was French!) and he laughed and was like “oooh, I made a mistake!” but seriously dude, if you’re gonna pretend you speak a language, shouldn’t you at least be able to tell when someone is speaking it? *sigh* I guess that gives you pretty much an idea of how good an English teacher he is……. :/  Yeah. Anyhow, we continued the class with Minami trying to coax me into singing but I wasn’t really feeling it. Then we finished like a minute early so Nichika made me put “GaraGara Go” (Big Bang song) on and then was like “they’re singing in Japanese. I want the Korean one” and I’m like “really, kid? really?!!”

Can I go back to bed now?

Wednesday

Um yeah, so there’s a typhoon? Classes are cancelled. No one told me this might happen although I guess I shoulda known. What I’m pissed about is that apparently everyone was told to bring a bento in case this would happen, and I wasn’t so I have no lunch and I’m stuck here. Might just fuck off at lunch time…

Aah, well, I didn’t. I actually couldn’t have even if I’d wanted to cuz the trains STOPPED. Now I’ve been in Japan for a while and usually they are always going “wah! wah! typhoon! wah! wah!” around this time of the year and all that happens is a bit of heavier-than-usual rain and no one’s the worst off for it. But this time it was actually pretty scary. I’m kinda glad I was at school because it’s a big giant concrete building so it was probably the safest place to be. The wind was blowing crazy hard, and the rain didn’t abate til late in the afternoon. I went out for lunch with some of the other teachers, and when we left it was just raining, but when we came back, the 5 seconds it took for us to get in and out of the car basically left us drenched! 5 seconds! and it only got crazier after that!

Since the trains had stopped, Yuka offered to drive me home after school, and it was kinda lucky for her cuz she got to leave early too. (says she usually leaves at 8pm or so…) It had stopped raining by the time I got home, but the wind was still blowing pretty strong all the way through the night.

Thursday

Well, today was sports day after all! (They had been debating wether or not it would happen all week, since it kept raining and there was the typhoon and all). There was no rain, and even a little bit of sun, but mostly crazy wind and it was really COOL. and by that I’m referring to the weather. Like the typhoon had blown away all the summer heat/humidity. You didn’t see me complain there.

Sports day itself was kind of a bore. After 3 years, this was the 4^th time, and I really don’t care anymore; it’s always the same thing. I spent most of the morning wandering the “cheering area” where the kids who weren’t competing were, snapping pictures and cheering for whatever team. I was wearing a school polo shirt, but it was white and so everyone was like “Vanessa, are you cheering for the white team? no, no! cheer for (insert whatever color here) team!!” there was also the traditional passing around of my sunglasses and snapping pics of the kiddies trying to look cool wearing them, and mostly, nothing that memorable comes to mind.

Oh, Kazuma did disappear at one point, which made me laugh, cuz seriously, that boy… It’s like he’s doing it on purpose just to put the teachers all in a huff. He would also walk over to go cheer for his friends who were in other teams, and got kinda scolded for that. Some of the kids who graduated last year and two years ago also showed up…. mostly yanki boys with bleached hair :p I saw Akito! XD a bit later I saw a few of them chilling with Kazuma… why am I not surprised?

The “cheering” competition started right away in the afternoon, and I was expecting dicking around with the setting up (so I stayed in the staffroom a bit longer after lunch), but there wasn’t any so I missed the first half of the yellow team’s performance, and I was kinda sad because that was Minami’s group and I know they put so much effort into it… from what I saw, they were the best because every other group sucked really bad, except maybe the purple team. Honestly, it’s like they weren’t trying at all. Last year’s performances were all REALLY good, so this year’s were a bit of a disappointment honestly.

I don’t know who won in the end cuz I sneaked off before the end. I didn’t care, and didn’t wanna get cornered about not going to the enkai. Actually, there was a fuck up and no one invited me. Then Mizushima-sensei asked me about it earlier and I told him and he was like “omg, really?!” and I had a feeling that he was gonna try and ask around so I could come (I’m sure nobody would mind), but I was actually pretty happy to not have to go, since I was REALLY tired at the end of the day, and it was an extra 40$ in my wallet. What I think happened is that Asai-sensei (he is the hot teacher who never talks to me) was in charge of asking me if I was coming. He asked me if I wanted the bento for the day, I said no, and he must’ve asked me about the enkai at the same time and I didn’t hear or understand, but he thought I meant no for the enkai as well. I mean, something was obviously lost in translation here, but I’m pretty sure the mistake was on his end cuz he was so fucking nervous about talking to me and getting it over with. meh. Whatever.

If you’re interested in pictures of the kiddies, let me know. also if we are friends on facebook, they weill be up there in an undetermined future.

Week of September 12th to 16th

Monday

1^st period was with 1-7. They cheered a bit when I walked in the class cuz I think they weren’t expecting me. Eitaro and that kid with the bouzu haircut who’s kind of a brat were being SUPER excited! and I was like “it’s Monday, you guys… what the fuck?” lol, but they were so cheerful and cute it really made me smile. Eitaro was like “are we playing a game today?” super expectantly and I’m like “yes” and he goes “yaaaaay!!”. *squeeeee!* class went alright. They’re not up to the grammar point of the game that I prepared (for Yuka’s class) so I half-assed some other game last minute, but they liked it, so ^_-

Then was sentaku with 3-3, first time since summer vacation so we did the Katy Perry song. It went well and some of the girls were trying to tell me that I looked like I lost weight at the beginning of the class, which made me super happy, eheh. I said I wanna lose more and they were like “gambatte! fight-o!” lol. Oh, and during the break before class, Dan and Kota from 3-2 were lurking in the doorway and trying to chat with me, and Kota asked which class I was going to, and I said 3, and he asked “don’t you have class with us today?” and I’m like “no…. are you sad?” and out of nowhere busts out Daisuke, huge token grin on his face, and he goes “no! very very happy!” and I’m laughing and say “cuz you don’t like me right?” and he goes “so!” while the other boys are trying to protest that it’s not true, they love Vanessa. lol. I left them to it cuz class was gonna start.

3^rd period was the same lesson with 3-6, first time again. Two more girls told me that there was “something different about me today” and asked if I lost weight. Now it’s either this outfit, or I really have lost enough weight to show! yay! Class went well too, I’m kinda surprised. Masamitsu was there (with dyed hair! shokku… it was only a tiny bit brown, but it is the seeds of a bad-boy, I’m telling you) and kept dicking around with Taisei, but surprisingly did the lesson work the whole time. Jumpei kept getting up trying to get stickers when he didn’t get a perfect score, and Taisei was like “aww… I think I’ll give me sticker to Jumpei, poor thing”. lol. (He didn’t) At the end of class, Mizushima-sensei told the kids they should check her videos on youtube, and I added (to try and entice them) that some of them were a little bit sexy so I couldn’t show them in class, and he translated that to the kids as being “chotto ecchi” :/   Only in Japan, man… only in Japan…

Tuesday

5 classes today… I will possibly die…

1^st period with 2-2 went well. Very sleepy. Ayaka asked me if I’d bought Alice Nine’s new cd yet… lol, and I had a conversation with the “twins” from 2-1, I told them they don’t look like twins anymore (cuz one of them cut her hair and stopped wearing glasses) and she was like “eeeh…! You’re telling me I looked like her?! You’re insulting me!” lol. that pair reminds me of a duo of stand-up comics… they’re hilarious!

In 2-1, they were especially well-behaved today… well except for Ayumu who kept pulling his (freakishly long) tongue at me, and his little friend Adachi next to him who couldn’t stand still… Ayumu had totally gelled up his hair this morning (it was standing up and was hard if I touched it) and when I asked him about it he was like “No! No gel! No wax!” yeah sure, bucko… At the end of the class, we were playing bingo and there was about 1 minute left but we’d finished all “5 chances” and Rei was like “lasto! one more!” and I was like “no, no…” and they kept asking and so I told them “maybe if you beg me…” and so the teacher translated “beg” and they were like “onegai! please!” and I’m like “no, no, you gotta get on your knees” and he went “eeeh!!” like he wasn’t gonna do it, and the whole class laughed. In the the end, Ayumu got up from his seat and came to kneel down in front of me to ask “please, one more!” and I just laughed and said ok. mwahaha…

On the way back to the staffroom, I ran into Daisuke who was like “oh no, we have sentaku later!” and his friends are like “why is he saying that?” (in Japanese) so I say it’s because Daisuke doesn’t like me and one of them goes “he crazy boy”. Then, Imari came up and (noticing my pigtails) went “Vanessa mata ime-change?” (you changed your image again?) and so I said “yes! everyday ime-change!” and he nodded thoughtfully and mumbled to his friend “I wonder what it’s gonna be like tomorrow..” lol!

2-3 went well, they went a bit crazy at the end of the game though, but in a good way. Basically they had to ask the same question to 11 people and then I would give a sticker to the first 10 people to finish… but! they had to have no mistakes on their paper… Now, every single person had at least ONE tiny little mistake so I’d make them go back to correct it, and it turned into a contest of who was gonna have a perfect paper and get the sticker. lol. Every time I would go “spelling mistake!” or “listened-ED!” or “it’s not basketbool” the whole class would just go up in a collective “oooh!” and cheer… lol.

4^th period was 3-2. They were really less than enthusiastic about the song, Dan and Kota were absent, and Daisuke spent the whole time making little disses at me. Then he was like “please give me sticker!” and I was like “no way! you keep saying bad things to me!” and he kept on “please please!” so I said “ok, you have to say “Vanessa, I love you!”” and he went “nooooo!!”. lol. Anyways, we carried on, and then later on, he waves me over and tries to explain that he CAN’T say that, can I please make him say something else. and by that point of course I’ve figured out that the girl sitting next to him (Ayano) is his girlfriend and so I asked “oh, you don’t love me… do you love her?” and he super confidently answered “YES!” while she went “no, no, no…” and he went “eeeeh?!” to her. Seriously. Cutest thing ever. He still didn’t get a sticker though.

6^th period was sentaku with 3-1, and mostly it was just Shigeki-sensei dicking around with the students. I figured it was completely pointless to try and stop him from translating everything I say (even though it’s a listening activity… :/ ) so I just let him prattle on… My usual little posse was genki as usual, but a bunch of kids were nodding off and Seiya was just being useless not doing anything and I went over a bunch of times to try and coax him to work but it didn’t really work. One time I was pointing at the song lyrics as they went to try and get him to follow, and he saw my nails and went “sugoi tsume!” and then he tried to get everyone near him to look at my nails and then giggled to himself “nanka, gyaru-teki na~” (it looks really gyaru) which gave me an inner giggle myself. At the end of class there were about 7 minutes left and Shigeki gave them “free time” and Minami used it to distribute some home-made (with tin foil) daggers for their cheering dance for the sports festival. “We are pirates!” she told me. So of course I stole one and started play-fighting with Kouki. :p I asked them who had designed their dance and they said Nichika and Minami, and then she added that they were also gonna do a dance performance at the chorus contest. Which lead to the next question “Vanessa, are you gonna sing this year?” I said I didn’t know, but I’m pretty sure I won’t since I haven’t been asked and it would be too last minute for now, I guess. The last two years, I sang (one time a whole song, and one time just a one line solo) but the kids basically go crazy when I do and treat me like a rock star for the next two weeks. Honestly, the attention-whore in me wishes I could, but it’s kind of a bother as well…

Wednesday

Aaah, I forgot to write today… everything went fine. Had 3 classes and a really busy afternoon planning my Lady Gaga lessons for tomorrow… The only funny bits were Imari popping in when I was getting coffee and going “mata ime-change?” with a cute little grin, and two little 1^st year girls going “oshare, Vanessa” as I walked out of school, putting my sunglasses on. Then they went “bye bye, oshare Vanessa!” waving me away. Cutest thing ever. (“oshare” means trendy or fashionable)

Thursday

Get ready for a looooong day! 5 classes! God, I hate this fucking constant A-week schedule!!!

1^st period with 3-5… yaaay! My Lady Gaga lesson went down really well! ^_^ Well, that’s to be expected, but with these kiddies, you never know… The funniest part was definitely Shigeki-sensei perving over the half-naked pictures of miss G. Now he is going on and on to the other English teacher about how it’s the best song he’s ever heard… lol.

3^rd period was 2-4 and Shigeki-sensei ran way over his time, so mostly I just stood at the back of the class discussing various pointless things with Masaya. He wasn’t being too much of a dick today. I told him him he had really big eyebrows, and then he launched into this speech about how his eyelashes were too long, and it really wasn’t cool for a boy to have long eyelashes… lol.

4^th period with 3-4 SUCKED. Mizushima-sensei spent the first 10 minutes of class trying to fix one of the fans (and failed) and I couldn’t start the lesson before he was done because of course all the kids were staring at him. They enjoyed the song, but most of them didn’t even try to follow the words, which pissed me off. Ryota was making a show of himself at the back of the class, dancing along to the music, which was both hilarious and infuriating. I told him that he should come and dance for us at the front of the class and he was like “no, no, no!” and stopped… for like 20 seconds.

5^th period was 1-5… these kids are really good and the vibe of the class is so nice… when I walked in, Akane and the girl in front of her where going “Vanessa kawaii! cute! cute! very cute!” and then they tried to get the boy in front, Mao, to say that I was very cute and he got super embarrassed which was so funny. Then, Aoshima-sensei walked into the class during the silent minute (mokuso) and there was this stray bits of hair that was standing straight on his head, and I tried to tell him before the kids opened their eyes, but then the bell rang and I couldn’t. of course, as soon as they opened their eyes, they all noticed it and started giggling, which means that of course I started giggling too and then couldn’t even look at him, I had to walk off a bit or I would burst into uncontrollable giggles. See, the thing that makes it even funnier is that he wears a toupet, so… lol. I think he must’ve heard one of the kids say what was wrong though because the next time I turned around, his hair was back in order. eheh…

Last period of the day was 2-6, my first time with them in ages. Went great of course, this kid Yuya kept stealing these shy glances at me and then smiling. He is too cute. The funny thing is that he used to be a BRAT in first year… now he apparently has a crush on me. He also used to wear glasses and now has contacts… coincidence? Another funny thing, although it’s not something that happened, but just something that noticed. This other boy (I forgot his name) used to have these big giant chubby cheeks, and now, he came back from summer vacation and they’re gone! His face completely smoothed out and he is starting to look like a young man! It’s hilarious because it’s hugely noticeable since I haven’t seen him in nearly 2 months… aaaah! My babies are growing up!!

Also, on my way out, I ran into the radio kids and Imari was like “bye bye Vanessa!” and I so I said bye and asked him “today, ime-change?” and he paused, looked me up and down and went “no ime-change”. lol!

Friday

First period and second period with 1-6 and 1-4 went fine but nothing too entertaining happened, and I was soooo sleepy.

During the break I ran into Daisuke on the stairs, and he stopped, waved me over and went “saigo no kyoku…. last song… high standard” and he’s gesturing with his hands above his head. “like, like!” and it was kinda confusing, but I basically understood that he was trying to tell me that he’d liked the last song we did in class together (Adele). I thought it was cute because at the end of the class, when I asked the kids if they liked the song, he went “no! Avril Lavigne only!” and I scolded him telling him he was looking at the world with blinders on and he was like “no! Looking only one way is ok!! Avril Lavigne only!!” lol. cutey pie.

Then, like 5 minutes before the end of the break, Mizushima-sensei came to ask me if it was okay to do one of the music lessons with 2-5 (it’s his homeroom class) and I said sure and prepped the Justin Bieber lesson since it’s the easiest. The English level mostly went way over their heads (as expected) but they’re a good class so they did well, and everybody liked the song. Well, except for Atsuya who was just kinda sitting there twiddling his pencil, looking like a deer in headlights whenever I said anything in English… lol.

Week of September 5th to 9th

Monday

Due to tests, I ended up having only one class today, 1^st period with 1-7. Nothing much happened except that Aoshima-sensei super randomly told me that I could leave the classroom after I was done playing my game… I mean, I think he doesn’t get the “assistant” part of ALT, so I was like “no, no, it’s fine” and kinda just wandered around watching the kids for the rest of the class. And it was as I was standing at the back of the class contemplating life, that I noticed this one kid, who sits at the back of his row, that Yuka told me about on the day of the volleyball game. This boy has been absent for most of the 1^st semester. She said he was being bullied. I wondered why cuz he’s really cute and doesn’t seem “challenged” in any way, and then she told me : “he thinks he’s a girl”. I was just kinda floored. You mean to tell me these teachers have this kind of information, and they basically do nothing about it? I’m surprised they even acknowledge it at all. Anyways, so I was staring at that boy, and that’s when I noticed… he was wearing a bra under his shirt. :/ I guess Yuka wasn’t pulling my leg. It just kinda blew my mind though. My heart goes out to him so much, and I really wish I could do something, to show him that I like him or I’m there for him or whatever, but I really have no idea…. deep thoughts for Monday morning, first period…

Tuesday

Busy day today!

First period with 2-2 went well. Nothing too much to report. Oh! But Ayaka (the girl who loves Nightmare) came up to me with a little plastic bag after class and went “present for you”. Inside the bag was an Alice Nine poster, and a book about Saga (A9 member)… it was so random and sweet and cute! I don’t like Saga (and the book is all in Japanese) but I was really touched!

Then I had class with 2-1 right after and all my brats were super loveable. Ayumu spent the whole class trying to make me crack up from across the room, Rei spent most of the class going “I speak English! I don’t speak Japanese! I no Japanese!” and I my kid who has LOTS of white hair dyed it black over the course of the summer vacation. Everybody was surprisingly fun and well behaved and it was so enjoyable.

Then I was supposed to have class with 2-3 but Mizushima-sensei said not to come, and I was really happy cuz it meant I could have a break.

4^th period was sentaku with 3-2 and it went so well, they are so awesome. I love them. I made them do the aisatsu 3 times though because when I went “hello!” they kept replying this super weak, wimpy “hello…” back to me… I think they enjoyed the song, but they also told me that Katy Perry was not cute, and confirmed to me that really, they didn’t like foreign girls unless they were blonde… *sigh* I actually said that “blonde hair good? black hair bad?” and they nodded. *shakes head* Dan and Kota were really funny and kept trying to ask me questions in English (most kids don’t bother and will just ask in Japanese) and Ayumi was being really silly and cute too. oh, and everyone loved my nails :p At the end of class, after aisatsu, I asked Daisuke “why are you guys so bad at aisatsu today?” and he looks at me with this huge grin and goes “it’s because we don’t like Vanessa!” and I went “eeeeh!!!” but kinda squealed it and some girls went “chou kawaiisou!” and of course I knew he was kidding and I went “but you guys are my favorite!” pretending tears, and he went “too bad! We very very don’t like Vanessa!” grinning like a fool. Brat.

Oh, and in the hallway, Ayumi was going around asking another teacher if he liked Evangelion, and then she just went bonkers when I said I could sing the Evangelion song. She went “omg! omg! you like Evangelion?! omg! xxx is so cool! omg! she likes evangelion! omg! omg!” (in Japanese) really, like so freakin hyper I couldn’t even get a word in. lol. tried to tell her that I saw the anime once, years ago, but it didn’t really register and she went off bouncing happily. LOL.

6^th period with 3-1 went awesome, which made me so happy, although – again – I was pretty much teaching just to the little posse of Nichika, Kouki, Minami… but they were so into it. Nichika must’ve eaten some sugar at lunch because he was SO freakin hyper… he even busted into a couple of body-builder muscle-showing moves completely randomly at one point, and the kids kept giggling because I was always laughing at him. Nao actually knew Katy Perry, finally! Oh and Minami as well… and they said she was cute, so I was happy. Also for pretty much the first time I had a positive reaction to the song, which made me happy too. Shigeki-sensei also enjoyed himself, he was totally perving over the pictures (which the kids totally teased him for) and told me he really enjoyed the song. haha.

Wednesday

1^st period with 1-1 went well. we played the quiz game again and they were much better at it than the other class (answering the questions really easily) and there was this one team where every time they picked the color for the question they would ask this one kid to say it, and everyone would just giggle cuz he would say “bu-buuu” instead of “blue” and “pi-n-kuuu” for pink, etc. it was super cute. Poor kid though. He’s one of those ones that still look like they’re in elementary school so they’re adorable.

On my way back to the staffroom I ran into Yuka and Nami (3-1) and they spent like 5 minutes explaining to me (using Japanese I didn’t understand) that they could see the tan lines from my socks on my legs… lol. I’m wearing a skirt today.

3^rd period was the same lesson with 1-3, and man, what a bunch of zombies! It took twice as long as any other class because it took them all ages to select a card color for their questions, and even longer to answer the damn questions! It was ridiculous. Even Aoshima-sensei told them in their “daily class comment” that they were much to slow and doing things today. lol.

4^th period was with 1-2, which went much better. They were so good and fast at answering the questions that they went through the whole deck of cards! They were all cracking up when the name “Hidetoshi” came up in one of the examples… the sentence was “My father’s name is Hidetoshi” an one kid went like “yeah, it’s a Showa name…” (Showa is the period of the emperor before the current one… everyone older than 23 was born in the showa period, so indeed, it would be a name their fathers would be likely to have) anyways, I thought it was such a random/smart comment that it cracked me up. Good kiddies!

Thursday

5 classes today!  がんばります！

1^st period was music lesson with 3-5. Again. This month, because of sports day, every week is A-week schedule, which means that I have sentaku every week. So I had to plan a new music lesson already. This time I’m doing “Rolling in the deep” by Adele. As far as I know, she isn’t even known at all in Japan, and thus my kids have no idea who she is. The style is also a bit different than usual, and I was worried that they wouldn’t dig it at all but I thought I should show a variety of styles too. Anyways, this class, which were right proper zombies when I did my Katy Perry lesson last week, really liked the song!! (wtf?!) A bunch of them were bobbing their heads along, even Shigeki-sensei was trying to sing along at one point (which cracked me up) and I was requested to play it a 3^rd time so they could try extra hard to find the missing words. I’ve never seen such enthusiasm from the class that my JTE just dubbed “the no reaction class”. lol.

3^rd period was 2-4 and Masaya showed me how much he had missed me by being his usual annoying self… also he grew a mullet over the summer :/ everyone participated in doing the activity well though, even the little group of too-cool-for-school kids who sit on the right side of the class, so I was happy.

4^th period with 3-4 was kinda blah. They definitely didn’t enjoy the song as much as 3-5, but whatever. I was kinda bummed that even Shiomi-kun was passed out on his desk,　cuz he’s usually the only one spouting answers at me. Oh well. I think they are being worked really hard for the stupid sports day, so I’ll forgive them…

During lunch break, Mamiko-sensei asked me to help her with the English in Shione’s diary. As I corrected it she commented on my nails being so cute. This is what I mean when I say people are kinda clueless here… I’ve had them on for 3 weeks and it’s the first time anyone’s said anything :p I know Hasegawa-sensei’s noticed them though cuz she’s given me “the eye” when I pointed stuff out to her on a paper, but as long as she doesn’t actually say anything out loud, then we’re good :p

5^th period was with 1-5 and they clapped and cheered when I entered the classroom… I think it’s cuz they thought they wouldn’t have a test (they still did, after my game :p) but still, how can you not feel loved? ;p They really got into the game, which made me really happy. One of my question cards was “this is my father, _____ name is Hidetoshi”, and Akane was in tears laughing because that’s actually her father’s name. :p At the end of class, two little girls came chasing me down the hall to have a look at my nails. lol.

6^th period was supposed to be class with 2-6, but Mizushima-sensei told me not to go again. I think he’s starting to take some serious liberties about when he says that, but at the same time, on a day like today where I am dead on my feet already, I really can’t complain about being given a free period. Oh well.

Friday

It’s Friday, yay! I have 3 morning classes today and if I can get through them it will be the weekend!

1^st period with 1-6 went well. We did the quiz game and they finished all the cards too. Then I went over to 1-4 for the next period and I saw Akira and Hideki dicking around by the water fountain. Hideki is the little one who always looks grumpy… he is tooooo cute! XD Anyways, they were like “oh it’s Vanessa today…” and said hello and then Hideki cocked his head at me and went “nanka, dekai!” (which is really vague and means “kinda big”) and his friend cracked up and I assumed he meant I was tall so I patted him on the head and went “nanka, chicchai” (kinda small) and his friend just pissed himself laughing. After more consideration, I think he may have been referring to my boobs… :/  Anyhow, we had the exact same lesson as the class before and it went well. There was this one team (team no.2) with this really shy kid called Tatsuki, and every time they had to answer a question, they made him answer and he would just take a deep breath and say it really seriously… cutest thing ever. :p

4^th period with 2-5 went well. They were such little troopers and didn’t cheat at all during the game. I commented on it to Mizushima-sensei and he said, “Oh? Which classes cheat?” and I said I couldn’t really remember but in Shigeki sensei’s class they tend to speak more Japanese cuz he’s way more relaxed, and he said “yeah, he’s an old man.. he’s too kind to the students…” lol!

And now… freedom!!

week of august 29th to September 2nd

Wednesday

Today is the first day back to school. There was the “opening ceremony” in the gym this morning, but it was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that Kazuma went “missing” again (i.e. he was ditching) and then there was an earthquake drill and then the kiddies went home while the teachers had meetings in the afternoon.

Thursday

Today is the first official day of school. On my way in, I heard a mysterious “good morning Vanessa!” and turned around and nobody was there. It was a bit weird, but since the entrance is right next the broadcast room, and that I think I recognized Imari’s voice, it just made me giggle and I replied “good morning!” to my invisible student :p

Oooooh man, first class with 3-5 bombed horribly. I thought they might be a little vedge after summer vacation, which is why I prepared a song by Katy Perry instead of some obscure Canadian band, and not only did they have no idea who she was, but the boys all told me they didn’t think she was hot. wtf?! You could hear flies buzzing the whole time, especially when I asked a question, and only Kiyo half-tried at anything, and I kept picking on Ryohei cuz he was right at the front, next to me. Oh yeah, and Kazuma slept from bell to bell :/ Actually, when I showed up to class, Hasegawa sensei was scolding him… eh. Hopefully next one will be better!

Ok, so 3-4 was actually much better, THANKGOD!! They were still clueless and I was still pretty much only teaching to Shiomi-kun (he’s the only one who has any idea what I’m saying at any time…) but at least they showed a bit more enthusiasm than 3-5, even if a few of them were falling asleep by the end of the song… I blame it on the return from the holiday and hopefully it’ll be better next week.

I couldn’t reach Aoshima-sensei today, or yesterday, so I just went to see him now, 10 minutes before class to ask him if he wanted me to come. He said he’d forgotten we had class together, so to please not come. Eheh, some things are still the same, I guess. It’s kinda funny tough cuz on my regular Thursday schedule, I’m supposed to be having 5 classes. I ended up having only 2… oh well!!

Friday!!

Ok, I’m in a super mood this Friday!

Showed up to school to an empty, airconed staffroom… mysterious, but I think it’s just the weekly meeting they usually have on Mondays that’s going on in the gym right now… not bothered enough to go check it out. Got only one class today cuz of post-vacation tests…

Aoooo.... apparently I don't have any classes today after all :( Mizushima-sensei said I didn’t need to come because he was just giving back test results… eh… I was kinda looking forward to seeing the 2nd year kiddies. Oh well.

Happy Friday!